Near the mailbox at the driveway entrance to the Grey Barn is a marker and again on the side of one of the outbuildings is a small plaque denoting the date of the first established home of my great-great-grandparents, John Bessner and Mary Beringer, on Fir Island, WA. John and Mary were born in the 1830s in Luxembourg and found their way to the Skagit Valley where they farmed three homesteads still in existence today. Their son, Matthew Bessner, born in Minnesota in 1867, came west with his parents and married a Skagitonian, Annie Summer. They had a son, Dee, and two daughters, Mildred O’Brien and Mabel Reedy. Their progeny are still invested in the family farm.
The farm has grown many varying crops, raised hogs, chickens, horses and dairy cows over the last hundred years plus. The leased land crops rotate between potatoes and differing vegetables. While the farming has changed, the core elements remain— good soil, hard work, honest dealings, family and faith.
My husband, Shaun Miller, and I are totally invested in bringing the 1905 farmhouse (where we now live) "back to life” with a total renovation of even the smallest of details in the farmhouse as well as several of the out-buildings. My parents, Pat and Lynda O’Brien, who live in Edmonds, continue to be wonderful stewards of the Bessner farm and brought me; my sister, Kathy; and brother, Mike, to “The Farm” throughout our childhood. Now that I am living on the Bessner Farm, I am looking forward to continuing the strong farming tradition of our family and extending our bounty to yet another new crop…flowers!