Herres families and Farm & Home Supply–serving Garfield County for 77+ years

By Naomi Scoggin, Charlotte Baker and Loyal Baker

POMEROY––For over 70 years, Farm & Home Supply, Inc., has been one of Pomeroy's and Garfield County's steady and reliable sources for everything for the farm and home–from bolts, washers and nuts to sales and service of heavy-duty farm machinery and implements.

Over the decades and through the ebb and flow of the economic tide of the agricultural economy, Farm & Home Supply has persevered by keeping its farming friends and neighbors satisfied with quality equipment and service, even as other equipment dealers have come and gone.

Founded by the late Ferd Herres on April 1, 1946, Farm & Home Supply began as a hardware and agriculture supply store at the building he built across the street, now occupied by Flynn's Apartments. You name it, Herres sold it: hardware, appliances, lawn and garden and more.

The Case IH line was added in 1953, and in 1959, Herres moved to the Parlet Building at 643 Main Street, where the store still resides. In 1960, Ferd Herres opened a Chevrolet dealership there.

Ferd Herres's nephew Tom Herres became a mechanic and service employee at Farm & Home Supply in 1971, after studying mechanization and farm economics and working on armored vehicles during his military service. He acquired Farm & Home Supply in 1999, and currently owns and operates the store with his son, Reed. Other employees at the store are Vickie Damron, Jodene Womack, Christopher Steiner, Dustin Brown, Chris Ankeny and part-time employee Alan Gipson.

Ferd Herres's tenure ended in 1999, when health matters prompted retirement. His brother Herbert James "Jim" Herres was a business partner with Ferd for 38 years until retiring in 1996.

Farm & Home Supply's home, the Parlet Building, is in Pomeroy's National Historic District. It was erected in 1915 by ranchers F.I. and Ella Parlet, who built it as investment property. The upper story was designed for professional offices and later converted to apartments; the street-level space was commercial garage space. It was home to J.M. Felthouse and Hadley Ford garage in the early years, and Butler Motor Co. from 1923 to 1948. William Koller and Herman Koller continued the Butler Motor Co., and the Parlet family eventually sold the building to Ferd Herres in 1959.

The Herres family has been farmers in Garfield County for many decades. Tom's grandfather and grandmother, Michael Peter "M.P." and Maria Magdalene (Kucklick) Herres homesteaded in the Peola area, about 12 miles southeast of Pomeroy, in the Blue Mountain foothills.

In the early 1940s, as the United States was embroiled in World War II, M.P. and Maria Herres retired from farming and moved to Walla Walla, according to Tom's cousin Jerry Herres, one of Ferd and Audrey Herres's three children. "The five youngest children were still in school and finished at Walla Walla," Jerry noted. "Tom's dad, Herman, became the farmer of M.P. Herres & Sons properties. He was joined by his brother John at the conclusion of John's WWII tour of duty.

"Uncle Mike found a farm to buy in Pilot Rock, Ore., Leonard (Swede) was rolling in Pomeroy, Herman and John farmed together (with expansion), my dad Ferd started Farm & Home Supply, and the younger siblings moved to Walla Walla where they finished schooling and carved their future."

Swede Herres owned the Pomeroy Warehouse and Feed Co., and Herres Seed Co., operating for 56 years up to the time of his death in January, 1994.

Farm & Home Supply was a Chevrolet dealer from 1960-2010, and currently sells and provides service to Case IH, Kioti, Great Plains, and Schulte farm equipment, as well as maintenance and parts for general vehicles. Recently the business added tires sale and service to its offerings.

The Herres family was among several German families who immigrated to the Pomeroy area prior to statehood. Historically, German families moved to neighboring European countries to farm the land, populating various regions until political tensions or regimes changed their "accepted" status.

Michael P. Herres was born in a part of Germany that was in Luxembourg at the time, in 1877. At age five, according to Jerry Herres, the family came to the United States, settling in the Peola area.

Micheal P. Herres's mother was Lucia "Lucy" (Flerchinger) (Herres) Flerchinger, who was a widow with Michael and three other children. She was born in Besch, Germany, in 1851, and passed away at age 71 in Lewiston in 1922. Her first husband, Nicolaus Herres, died in Germany of knife wounds after a fight at age 34, according to family lore provided by Jerry Herres. She homesteaded near Peola, eventually marrying her cousin, Nicholas (Doc) Flerchinger.

Michael P. Herres's wife, Maria M. (Kucklick) Herres, was born in 1890 in Koeningsberg, Germany, in an area called East Prussia near the Lithuanian border, Jerry Herres recounted, another region populated by German families who farmed. German families experienced discrimination from the native inhabitants for their culture and language use, plus German sons were eligible for military service, Jerry Herres said, so the Kucklick clan, sponsored by the Feider family already in Garfield County, struck out for the New World.

It was the pervasive and historical threat of conflict in European countries and kingdoms over the centuries, and specifically, in the late 1800s, that prompted many German families like the Herreses to pull up stakes and sail to America, to save their sons from being conscripted into service in a foreign country.

The union of Michael and Maria produced 10 children: Michael A. (1912-2003); Leonard N. "Swede" 1914-1994; John P. (1916-1990); Herman A. (1918-1999); Ferdinand J. (1921-2010); Hubert F. (1924-1994); Mary Ann (1927-2012); Joseph A. (1929-2012); Herbert J. "Jim" (1931-2012); and Richard J., 88, of Pomeroy.

Tom Herres's parents were Herman A. and Betty J. Herres. Herman died at age 80 in 1999 and Betty passed in 2007, age 84. Herman and Betty were married for 53 years and the parents of nine: Thomas, William, Catherine, Steven, Frances, Eileen, Marian, Christopher and Laura.

"All my brothers and sisters were involved in the family farm at one time or another," Tom Herres commented. Herres Brothers divided into two entities in 1993, the John Herres pieces being located in Columbia County and the Herman Herres ground in Garfield County, Tom said.

This brief synopsis of the lives and local connections of Tom's brothers and sisters is representative of the many variations the sons and daughters of Tom Herres's aunts and uncles experienced in their lives-too numerous to detail singularly here.

William operated Bill's Plumbing in Pomeroy and died at age 46 in 1993. Catherine is a retired registered nurse and is married to Rex King. One of Steven's three sons, Nick, owns Nick Herres Construction in Pomeroy. Frances and Rod Norland live in Pomeroy and daughter BJ Cannon teaches at Pomeroy School District. Retired R.N. Eileen and husband Frank Scoggin live in Alaska. Marian "Corky" Slaybaugh is a resident of Pomeroy with husband Rich. Chris and wife Mary, an R.N. at the nursing home, leads Herres Land Co. Laura Kelly's husband Kevin recently passed away and she lives in Newman Lake.

"My parents were the farmers in the family," Tom Herres said. The Herreses farmed land in Garfield and Columbia counties, on Robinette Mountain, Starbuck and, in Garfield County, in the Tumalum area.

Another enterprise, Herres Land, has some 3,000 acres of pasture, Tom noted, and his brother Chris and siblings are involved.

"The Starbuck and Robinette Mountain places have been split off and sold," Tom Herres explained, so the total acreage is down to about 4,000 acres, all in Garfield County, except for the Tumalum pasture, which is in Columbia County."

Like many of the pioneering Garfield County farming families, the Herres's roots go deep into the county's rich soil and reflect a lasting legacy.