Miami County family wins 2024 John Arnold Award for Rural Preservation
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The Jordan family of Miami County will receive the 2024 John Arnold Award for Rural Preservation from Indiana Landmarks and Indiana Farm Bureau on Thursday at the Indiana State Fair, honoring the family’s stewardship of “Old Fashioned Garden,” a historic farmstead southeast of Peru.
The annual award is named in memory of John Arnold, a Rush County farmer, who committed his life to preserving Indiana’s rural heritage, Indiana Landmarks said.
Larry and Susan Jordan purchased the 217-acre farm in 1973 and work with their son A.J. to grow soybeans and corn, as well as farming an additional 800 acres on nearby farms. The Jordans live in the historic farmstead that was originally built as a log structure in the mid-1800s.
They raise livestock in the historic dairy barn, a landmark that in addition to serving various agricultural purposes over the years also hosted trapeze artists from Peru’s amateur circus practicing aerobatics in the hayloft in the 1960s, Indiana Landmarks said.
“The Jordan family’s commitment to maintaining the heritage of this intriguing Miami County farm and making it part of their farming operations illustrates the spirit of the Arnold Award,” Indiana Landmarks Western Regional Office Director Tommy Kleckner said in a news release.
Today, the space is used to store hay and straw for the Jordan’s small herd of Hereford and Simmental cattle, sheep and a donkey named Barkley. On the lower level, the barn holds livestock pens, farming equipment, tools, and houses the Jordan’s flock of chickens and many barn cats.
“My husband and I grew up on farms and I think it’s ingrained in us who do farming that you are stewards and keepers of the land. That view moves into how we see our property as well. We were always taught that you maintain what you have, make it better, and leave it better for future generations,” Susan said. “When you walk into the barn and see the rafters and the kind of labor that went into making that barn back in 1910, it’s kind of awesome. We want to preserve it for people who might never have thought of how something was put together at that time.”
Porter’s step-grandmother, Bessie Cole, lived at the farm until her death in 1944, according to Indiana Landmarks. The large flower garden she planted on the farmstead is believed to have inspired Porter’s first commercially successful song, “Old Fashioned Garden,” in 1919 and gives the farm its name today.
Susan Jordan maintains the old-fashioned garden, planting flowers made popular by Cole Porter’s hit song—phlox, hollyhocks, violets, eglantines, columbines, and marigolds—and sharing the garden and song’s origins and the farm’s history with tourists during Peru’s annual Cole Porter Festival.
The Jordans are also caretakers and lessees of Butler Township School 11, known as Iddings School, built in 1894 on the farm as one of several one-room schools in the township. The school was closed in 1915 due to consolidation, but was later enlarged to become a home.