The Last American Farmer

The Last American Farmer By W. R. Stivers Rooted in the fertile hills of Switzerland County, Indiana, The Last American Farmer is a heartfelt tribute to a vanishing way of life - and to the man who embodied it. Through the eyes of his grandson, author W. R. Stivers, we meet Ora Scudder, a quiet, steadfast farmer whose story bridges the rustic past and the uncertain modern age. Drawing from family records, oral history, and vivid personal memory, Stivers brings to life a lineage that reaches from 15th-century England to the rolling fields of the Ohio River Valley. With reverence and gentle humor, Stivers weaves together genealogy, local history, and deeply human storytelling to capture the rhythms of farm life - the faith, labor, and grit that defined generations of Scudders. Along the way, he invites readers to reflect on what has been lost - and what still endures - in the heart of rural America. Richly illustrated and meticulously researched, The Last American Farmer is more than a family chronicle. It is a love letter to small-town values, enduring faith, and the quiet heroes who worked the land not for glory, but for legacy.