“I liked being outside and around the animals,” Partsch said, ticking off the positives. “I loved baling hay — one of the best things was the smell of fresh mowed hay.”

Partsch admits to being a tomboy and said she liked working on the farm with her dad.

“It was a great way to grow up,” she added.

When her parents decided to step back from farming, Partsch Family Farm became Cecilia’s dream come true.

The Partsch Family Farm is seen in Conemaugh Township, where it has been farmed by the family since the 1920s. Mirror photo by Walt Frank

“In 2003, I took over ownership of the farm from my parents,” she said. “I desperately wanted to be back here living on the farm. I have four brothers but none of them had any interest. This is where I always wanted to live.”

Today, Cecilia, a construction project manager with PennDOT, and her husband, John Priselac, who retired from Glenn O Hawbaker Inc., raise 23 beef cattle and grow hay on 35 acres.

Because of its longevity within the family, the Partsch Family Farm is now recognized as a Century Farm, one of seven in the state added to the rolls during Ag Progress Days in August. An eighth farm was named a Bicentennial Farm at the same time.

“We are honored and thrilled, it recognizes the hard work of our family, my parents and grandparents,” Cecilia Partsch said. “It is an accomplishment, they worked very hard over the years to keep this going.”

Partsch said when her aunt gave her the deed to the property, it said 1824, so she knew the farm qualified as a century farm.

Cecilia Partsch and her husband, John Priselac stand with the sign designating their farm as a Pennsylvania Century Farm. Mirror photo by Walt Frank

To receive century or bicentennial farm status, the same family must own the same farm for at least 100 or 200 years and must live on the farm. The farm also needs to have at least 10 acres of the original holding or gross more than $1,000 annually from selling farm products.

Before the farm was named a Century Farm, Partsch said she saw signs around the area recognizing other farms.

When their turn came this year, “it was a great honor to be given the sign,” she said.

Her father, Harold, who is 89, was on hand for the ceremony, which added to the day’s events, she said.

“He worked up until about two years ago,” she said of her father. “He still supervises.”

“It’s just such a wonderful thing to be with families that have been on their own journeys of 100 years or 200 years,” State Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said at the ceremony. “And just a note of appreciation to every member of the family who’s here. I’m also mindful that there are folks who were part of that journey who are not here.”

Partsch Family Farm history

Frank Partsch, Cecilia’s grandfather, purchased 72 acres of land in Conemaugh Township from Frank W. Emerick in 1924.

“There were previous owners dating back to the 1850s,” Cecilia Partsch said.

The Partsch Family Farm includes the original barn — still in use — that was built in 1891.

To get to where she is today, Cecilia took a circuitous route.

After graduating from Conemaugh Valley High School in 1986, she went to Penn State to study agricultural engineering, receiving a bachelor’s degree in 1990 and master’s degree in 1992.

She got her first job in West Virginia as an agriculture engineer for the soil conservation service and was there until 1997. She then went to work for a construction contractor before moving back to Pennsylvania to work for PennDOT in Clearfield.

Today she works as a construction project manager out of Hollidaysburg.

Her husband, John, is retired from Glenn O. Hawbaker Inc. where he worked as a paving equipment operator.

The two run the farm together.

“We raise beef cattle and have some goats,” Cecilia said. “People can order from us.”

In addition to farm-raised beef, they offer a small amount of Christmas trees, sell feeder cattle to buyers and sell

custom-ordered beef primarily to local residents.

“It is a small beef cattle operation,” she said, noting her dad added Christmas trees and sold them to local people, though that is one aspect of the farm that they are moving away from.

As their future on the farm unfolds, Cecilia said their biggest concern is the farm’s continuity.

“That is the scary part, we have no children,” she said. The couple are hoping a cousin or grandchild will be interested in taking it over some day and continuing the family’s legacy.

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture created the Century Farm Program in 1977 and the Bicentennial Farm Program in 2004. More than 2,340 century and bicentennial farms and two tricentennial farms have been recognized.

Mirror Staff Writer Walt Frank is at 814-946-7467.