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LEFT: Joel Alsdorf (right) shakes hands with Doug Hering while Alsdorf’s wife, Margaret, looks on. The Alsdorfs were inducted into the Crawford County Agricultural Hall of Fame on Sunday. RIGHT: Robert Brown addresses the audience at the award ceremony. Brown and his twin brother, Ronald (standing behind him), both were inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Robert Brown (at microphone) addresses the audience at the Crawford County Agricultural Hall of Fame award ceremony. Brown and his twin brother, Ronald (standing behind him), both were inducted into the Hall of Fame on Sunday.

Past and present members of the Crawford County Fair Dairy Committee react to a crowd comment. The committee was honored with the Crawford County Ag Industry Award on Sunday.

LEFT: Joel Alsdorf (right) shakes hands with Doug Hering while Alsdorf’s wife, Margaret, looks on. The Alsdorfs were inducted into the Crawford County Agricultural Hall of Fame on Sunday. RIGHT: Robert Brown addresses the audience at the award ceremony. Brown and his twin brother, Ronald (standing behind him), both were inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Robert Brown (at microphone) addresses the audience at the Crawford County Agricultural Hall of Fame award ceremony. Brown and his twin brother, Ronald (standing behind him), both were inducted into the Hall of Fame on Sunday.

Past and present members of the Crawford County Fair Dairy Committee react to a crowd comment. The committee was honored with the Crawford County Ag Industry Award on Sunday.

WEST MEAD TOWNSHIP — The four newest members of the Crawford County Agricultural Hall of Fame were honored Sunday not only for their commitment to agriculture, but for helping others.

Joel and Margaret Alsdorf of Spartansburg and twin brothers Robert and Ronald Brown of Saegertown were honored by the county’s various agricultural organizations while the Crawford County Fair Dairy Committee was recognized with the Ag Industry Award for 2022. Each awardee also was recognized with a citation from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and the state Senate as well.

More than 125 turned out Sunday afternoon for the ceremony held at New Beginnings Church of God just outside of Meadville. The awards began in 1981 by the Crawford County Council of Ag Organizations and now is administered by Crawford County Pomona Grange.

Both the Alsdorfs and the Brown brothers have had decades of devotion to agriculture and service to others.

The Alsdorfs married in 1966 in right after graduating from college that year — Joel from Cornell University with a bachelor’s degree in dairy husbandry and Margaret from Taylor University in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with a bachelor’s degree in education.

Upon their marriage, they joined the family partnership and farmed on A-Jay Farm in Spartansburg until the dairy herd was sold in 2019.

“Their commitment to serve others — and the words faith, family and friends, and farm — come to mind,” Doug Hering, co-chairman of the Crawford County Fair Dairy Department, said in presenting the award to the Alsdorfs. “Those are the things that define Joel and Margaret their entire lives.”

Both have always has been thankful and giving to others while having been committed to their farm as caregivers of the land, Hering said.

Joel was active in the Spartansburg area, serving as a preacher at their local church, the Gideons. He served as president of the Corry Area School District’s school board. He also was a member of the Spartansburg Community Fair Board and the Crawford County Holstein Club, and on the board of the Pennsylvania Farm Association, the predecessor to the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau.

Margaret was a homemaker and stay-at-home mother to the couple’s five children, but she also worked on the farm as needed.

Hering pointed out the nomination letter submitted by one of the Alsdorfs’ children summed it up well — noting the family farm became a way to both serve and connect with people.

“Agriculture runs through their veins — generations deep,” Hering read. “They used that passion for service. ... To them it mean connection, connection to our ancestry, connection to our land, their children, their future generations, their neighbors — every person along the way.”

The Alsdorfs were humbled by the award.

“I just like to say ‘thank you’ for everything you said,” Joel said in accepting the award with Margaret. “I just really appreciate it, thank you.”

Twin brothers Robert and Ronald Brown of the Saegertown area are sheep ranchers and always working together.

“They are a team — when you get one, you get the other one,” Ray Kennerknect, a retired Crawford County Extension Service agent, said prior to presenting the award.

The brothers grew up in Hayfield Township with beef cattle and ponies. They joined Saegertown Sheep & Swine 4-H Club at age 10, each having a market lamb. They subsequently developed an interest in raising sheep after their older sister had a flock of them. At age 13 they attended a shearing school, learning how to shear the wool from their animals. By their third year of shearing school, they were helping to instruct. In 1975, they established their farm, Clay-Nob.

The siblings have been active with 4-H in the county, serving on the Crawford County 4-H Advisory Board and as 4-H Livestock Resource leaders. They’ve served as chairs of the Crawford County Fair 4-H and Open Sheep departments. They’ve each also judged sheep and wool at multiple fairs and 4-H roundups across the region.

“It may seem one is stepping into the limelight more (at times), but the other is there (too), making sure everything is just right,” Kennerknect said.

The brothers told the crowd that they were honored to be inducted into the county’s agricultural hall of fame, appreciating everyone’s support and friendship over the decades.

“Just to be included with our names on that list is unbelievable to me,” Robert said.

“I just want to say thank you and what an honor,” Ronald added.

Crawford County Fair Dairy Committee

Formed in the early 1970s, the Crawford County Fair Dairy Committee promotes dairy through the sale of ice cream as well as exhibitors’ milk with the proceeds used to improve the department.

The committee is best known for its iconic ice cream stand at the fair. Ice cream sales at the fair began in 1973 with one machine and was sold from a small trailer. In 1978, a custom-built trailer was purchased to sell the ice cream. The ice cream stand was built in 1986 and remains in use. Upgraded over the years, it houses two ice cream machines and two milkshake machines.

In 1989, the Dairy Committee built a small addition to the Youth Show Arena for a kitchen to allow dairy exhibitors and the public to get quality food at reasonable prices.

The decades of sales of ice cream and food and exhibitors’ milk has allowed the committee to invest nearly $1 million on improvements in the Dairy Department. Those improvements include a new Dairy Complex built in 2008, 4-H Dairy Barn renovations, new milk house, milking equipment upgrades, a concrete floor now in the Dairy Complex, plus improvements to ice cream stand and kitchen equipment.

Keith Gushard can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at kgushard@meadvilletribune.com.

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