E.C. Lenzmeier
by Marilyn Brinkman
and important Stearns County
agricultural extension agent and
social entrepreneur. Extension
is the application of scientific
research and new knowledge to
agricultural practices through
farmer education. It encompasses a
wide range of communication and
learning activities organized for rural
people by educators from different
disciplines, including agriculture,
agricultural marketing, health, and
business studies. It is the historic
linkage of agricultural research by
land grant universities to farmers.
Anniversary photo of E.C. and Rose Lenzmeier in 1968
The Morrill Land-Grant Act was
first proposed in 1857 and was
passed by Congress in 1859. It was
subsequently vetoed by President
James Buchanan. The Act provided
states with the means to establish
colleges that taught mechanical arts
and agriculture. In 1861, Justin
Smith Morrill resubmitted the
act with the amendment that the
proposed institutions would teach
military tactics as well. Aided by the
secession of many states that did not
support the plan, the reconfigured
Morrill Act was signed into law
by President Abraham Lincoln on
July 2, 1862.
The Morrill Act granted each
state 30,000 acres of land for each
member it had in Congress. Ninety
percent of the gross proceeds were
to be used for the endowment
and maintenance of colleges and
universities teaching agricultural and
mechanical arts and other subjects.
Two supplementary acts in 1890 and
1907 made direct financial grants
to assist the land-grant colleges
and universities. (The University
of Minnesota is a Land Grant
University.)
Over a period of 35 years as Stearns
County Extension Agent, Ed
Lenzmeier worked diligently through
the Great Depression, Prohibition,
drought, grasshopper plagues, cattle
tuberculosis, and other challenges to
help bring about the evolution from
subsistence farming to the business
of agriculture in Stearns County.
As written in a University of
Minnesota Extension Service
publication, “In 2014, we celebrate
the 100th anniversary of the
Smith-Lever Act. This federal
act established the Cooperative
Extension Service, a partnership
between the U.S. Department
of Agriculture and land-grant
universities to extend researchbased knowledge through outreach
education.”
E.C. (Ed) Lenzmeier is probably
best known as an influential
E.C. Lenzmeier at his office
Stearns History Museum • 320-253-8424 • 1-866-253-8424 7
Wedding of George & Adelaide (Lenzmeier) Ledford. Newman Center, St. Cloud State College, St. Cloud, MN, 1974.
Back Row, L-R: John & Renee Paul, George & Adelaide Ledford, Rodney Lenzmeier, Mickey & Carol Lenzmeier
Front Row, L-R: Leigh Lenzmeier, Rose & E.C. Lenzmeier
Born November 26, 1901, in
Shakopee, Scott County, Ed
graduated from Iowa State
University in 1924 with a major
in Animal Science and a minor in
Education. He taught Vocational
Agriculture and coached football and
basketball at Renville High School
from 1924 to 1926; he was the
Brown County Extension Agent in
Sleepy Eye from 1926 to 1929; and
he was a livestock farmer in Chaska,
Carver County, from 1929 to 1932.
Ed began as Stearns County
Extension Agent on March 10,
1932, at a time when County
Extension Agents were hired by
the local Farm Bureau, which had
offices with the County Attorney.
By working together, Farm Bureau’s
8
membership increased and Ed was
able to implement ideas that were
important to him. Ed saw farming
as an industry and individual farms
operated as businesses. The concept
guided his career.
He played a significant role in the
development of four infrastructures
in Stearns County:
physical, financial, technological,
and intellectual.
Physical:
• Rural electricity – Ed was
fundamental in bringing electricity
into the rural areas of Stearns
County. As stated in Current
and Kilowatts: A Partnership of
50 Years at Stearns Cooperative
Electric Association, “The first
organizational meeting was held at
Richmond, Minnesota, on January
27, 1936. Ed Lenzmeier opened
the meeting and outlined the
purpose of the meeting, attended
by interested, forward-looking
farmers.” He was First Chair
pro-tem, then Secretary, and a
premier organizer and promoter
of rural electricity when it was
still in its infancy. Stearns Electric
remains a member-owned electric
cooperative that has provided
electricity and related products
and services to Central Minnesota
since 1937. Today, Stearns County
Electric serves nearly 25,000
members in six Central Minnesota
counties including Stearns, Todd,
Morrison, Kandiyohi, Pope, and
Douglas.
www.stearns-museum.org • Stearns History Museum
• Stearns County DHIA –The
Dairy Herd Improvement
Association is an organization with
programs and objectives intended
to improve the production and
profitability of dairy farming,
including record keeping. It began
in 1968 when farmers started
testing milk samples to improve
dairy operations. Ed promoted
and encouraged participation
in DHIA. The organization has
expanded to include feed, forage,
manure analysis, certified water
testing, and more.
• Stearns County Soil and Water
Conservation District – SWCDs
are local units of government
that manage and direct natural
resource management programs
at the local level. Districts work
in both urban and rural settings,
with landowners and with other
units of government, to carry out a
program for the conservation, use,
and development of soil, water,
and related resources. Legislation
authorizing the formation of
SWCDs was approved in response
to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.
Area farmers respected Ed. They
listened to him when he suggested
crop rotation, planting corn one
year followed by soybeans or alfalfa
the next, and soil conservation.
He encouraged tiered farming
methods as means of preventing
soil erosion. Today, districts
continue to work with landowners
to carry out conservation practices
and the development of soil, water,
and related resources.
• Farm Show – The St. Cloud Area
Chamber of Commerce Annual
Farm Show recently completed
its 47th annual show. Early on,
Ed built a working relationship
with the St. Cloud Chamber
of Commerce director, Glenn
Carlson. They worked together
promoting June as Dairy Month
and started the Lake George Dairy
Days, when 4-H members could
bring their best animals to town.
It brought the country to the city,
benefitting both, economically
and socially.
• Country roads – By the 1960s,
the post-WWII economic boom
had been building for 15 years
or more and was continuing full
force. More and more dollars
were needed to improve and
expand county, state, and federal
highways. Stearns County was no
longer just farm fields, woods, and
open areas. Ed encouraged using
County Federal Revenue Sharing
monies to improve the county’s
infrastructure.
• Marketing – Working with area
businessmen and women, one
of Ed’s goals was to improve
marketing of farm products.
Ed planted the idea of road
improvements to facilitate getting
milk from the farms to distant
markets. The country road rightof-ways he urged were 100 feet
wide instead of the usual 66 feet,
an improvement ahead of its time.
• Telephone and Rural Mail –
Ed worked for better telephone
and rural mail services for
rural residents.
Financial:
Ed recognized early on that
farming practices were evolving
from subsistence farming to the
business of agriculture; he matched
local capital to local operators
and vice versa; he helped organize
required support of agribusiness
through cooperatives; he promoted
the concept of farmer/manager
and financial/business plans; and,
most importantly, he helped and
encouraged farmers to think of
themselves as business people.
Through DHIA he promoted
record keeping.
Technological:
The roots of Extension began in
the Lincoln Administration with
the creation of the land grant
schools, delivering “the lab” to
the land. Ed connected research
laboratories at the land grant
universities to the farm—the mission
of Extension. He encouraged and
assisted in developing new strains
of corn, soil testing, and managing
corn borer and other insect
problems, and plant diseases.
Intellectual:
Ed recognized that the business of
agriculture needed better-trained
people and sought to meet that
need in the short and long term.
In the short term, he organized
seminars, workshops, and individual
farm visits for current operators.
In the long term, through 4-H
and personal contact, he promoted
the need for advanced education
among youth to meet the evolving
requirements of agribusiness. He
encouraged rural school districts to
offer farm management disciplines
as vocational courses. (Melrose,
Holdingford, and Sauk Centre high
schools still offer those courses.)
He used media relations skills to
Stearns History Museum • 320-253-8424 • 1-866-253-8424 9
connect the farmyard to Main Street
via a weekly Albany, Minnesota,
KASM radio show on ag-related
topics from 1952 to retirement.
Personal
Recollections:
Francis Januschka followed in Ed’s
footsteps as Extension Agent in
Stearns County. Januschka said Ed
never asked for a raise and that he
really knew farmers. A typical day
for Ed was to check in at the office,
return calls, and then go from farm
to farm. His best friend was Ed
McCamus of Kandiyohi County.
After retirement, Januschka said,
Ed started a securities career.
Mary Jean Stobb’s first job out
of college in 1955 was working
for Ed. The 20-year-old woman
with a brand new degree from the
University of Manitoba recollected,
“I came to Stearns County to work
as ‘Home Agent.’ 4-Hers could be
up to 21 years of age in those days,
so you know that I did not tell
any of them my age. I was earning
$3,800 per year.” She said Ed was
known as E.C. in the county but
that one of the local radio stations
had a disc jockey who referred to
him as “Easy Ed.” She thought that
had more to do with his name than
his manner.
Mary Jean went on to say that his
image was important to Ed. “I
think that was the reason that he
bought and operated a farm at the
same time as working full time as
an Agricultural Agent. It gave him
credibility with farmers. They valued
his words more so because he was
one of them. It was also the reason
that, if I was late coming into the
10
Ed Lenzmeier on a farm, 1950
office (usually after a late-night 4-H
meeting the night before), he would
tell a caller that I had just stepped
down the hall. He would never tell
a caller that anyone had not come
to work yet. District meetings were
in Fergus Falls. When we were on
our way back from these meetings,
he would sometimes stop at West
Union at a bar to have a beer before
we got into the county.”
played town-league football (like
present-day Stearns County beerleague baseball), and once attended a
football coaching clinic held by Pop
Warner. Along with son Mickey he
helped start the St. Cloud Technical
High School wrestling program
in 1948. As a sports nut—season
ticket holder to Gopher football—he
attended the 1960 and 1961 Rose
Bowls (Minnesota played in both).”
Jim Neeser, Interim county agent
following Ed’s retirement in 1967,
said, “He not only talked the talk,
he walked the walk. That’s why he
had a lot of respect from farmers in
the county.” Neeser said Ed had a
definite knack for knowing how far
he could push farmers.
“He developed, grew, and marketed
his own brand (Missauk) of hybrid
seed corn under the name R. M.
Lenzmeier, his wife Rose Mary’s
name. He realized that because of
weather conditions—short growing
seasons—in central Minnesota,
corn often did not reach maturity.
He worked with the University of
Minnesota to develop a type of corn
that would mature in fewer than
120 days. After thirteen tries, 95
day-to-maturity corn seed was
developed.” (Giving us “Minnesota
13” moonshine.)
While Ed promoted and sold their
Family recollections:
On a personal level, son Leigh
Lenzmeier said, “Dad was born in
Shakopee, Minnesota, graduated
from Iowa State, taught and coached
at Renville High School, was a
collegiate and professional wrestler,
www.stearns-museum.org • Stearns History Museum
seed corn out-state, Rose Mary
handled local operations. She
oversaw the business at home where
the corn was dried, binned, bagged,
and stored.
Daughter Renee Paul said the corn
was weighed on an old farm scale
still in the family. On nights when
the belt-driven oil-fired forced-air
drier was in operation, Ed and Rose
Mary took turns, often staying up all
night monitoring the dryer.
Another story Renee tells is that in
winter they tested the germination
rate of the corn by “planting” it in
wet dishtowels.
Leigh said when Rose Mary
delivered corn to area farmers, she
had to drive many side roads. She
complained to Ed about the poor
road conditions in rural areas; thus,
Ed began advocating for county
road improvements.
Renee said Rose Mary, in her
own right, was also active in the
community and church functions.
She started the St. Marcellus Mission
Group. Leigh added that his parents
had opposite personalities—she
was a dreamer, he a planner and
organizer.
Leigh: “He owned and operated
farms, the first is now the St. Cloud
Country Club, the last is still in the
family and is located across from the
Travel Lodge Motel on County Road
75 in south St. Cloud.
“He spoke fluent German. He
worked in Frankfurt, Germany
(USDA via the U.S. State
Department) in the 1950s screening
Hungarian refugees of German
descent (those who had been
invited to settle in Hungary in the
1700s), for possible employment
in U.S. agriculture. He weeded out
nonfarmers who were willing to
do anything to get to the U.S. and
were, in fact, fleeing as a result of the
construction of the Iron Curtain.”
More:
A 4-H scholarship is still awarded
each year in Ed’s name in Stearns
County. Another is awarded at the
University of Minnesota School of
Agriculture, founded by another
Extension Agent and longtime
friend, Frank Swavoda. Swavoda
named it after Ed.
E.C. received numerous awards
and accolades. After retiring in
1967 as a full professor at the
University of Minnesota, he received
the Regents Certificate of Merit.
He served on the St. Cloud Area
Chamber of Commerce Board from
1963 to 1966, and received the
Distinguished Civic Service Award
from the Chamber in 1966.
Ed’s colorful personality came out,
Mary Jean Stobb said, when “Eino
Siira was the Agricultural Agent in
Benton County. When he would put
something in the paper or cover a
topic on a radio program, Ed would
often get follow-up calls from people.
This irritated him to no end. I think
this was because he never knew what
Mr. Siira was going to cover next
and also because Ed was doing Eino’s
work for him. Of course, the calls
came from people who would have
to call long distance to talk to Eino
Siira in Foley and it was a local call
for them to speak to Ed.
“At one point in my three years
in Stearns County, Ed lost a lot of
weight. He never shortened his belt,
but wrapped it around his waist,
tucking it through each of the belt
loops along the way. He was very
proud of that accomplishment and
relished pulling the belt out to show
people how much smaller he was
now. It was truly a great success!”
Ed and his wife Rose Mary, who
grew up in Searles, Minnesota,
raised five children, three boys and
two girls—Rodney, Mickey, Renee,
Adalaide (Ann), and Leigh. Leigh
said, “I grew up in a single-parent
household, but only after dark.” His
dad was generally gone to evening
meetings.
Ed died March 13, 1977 and
Rose Mary on June 20, 1995.
Information for the article
generously contributed
by Leigh Lenzmeier, son
of E.C., Stearns County
Commissioner, Fourth
District, 2014
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