Heritage farms recognition event set for Sunday

Published 11:47 am Tuesday, July 28, 2026

MENDON, Ill. — The Adams County Bicentennial Commission will continue to recognize the county’s rich agricultural heritage.

A heritage farms recognition event, slated for 5 p.m. Sunday in the Bicentennial Heritage Farms Pavilion on the Adams County Fairgrounds near Mendon, will celebrate important milestones in the continued preservation of the county’s agricultural history.

The commission will honor two more heritage farms, established in 1876, two new legacy sponsors of the pavilion and announce the Moorman Foundation as the sustaining sponsor of the recognition program.

“Moorman’s deep roots in Adams County and its commitment to carrying the heritage farms program forward make this partnership a natural fit,” commission member Mark Peter said. “It’s kind of a testament to how connected an ag community we have here, and how far back the roots in it go, that this is happening.”

The commission honored 85 heritage farms, owned and operated by the same family for 150 years or more, in September with plaques in the pavilion and recognized the pavilion’s 20 legacy sponsors along with 10 partners whose support funded the new structure available for a variety of uses on the fairgrounds.

Moving forward, additional heritage farms will be recognized every five years, starting in 2030.

“To have somebody step forward to sustain it means a lot,” commission member Dave Bockhold said. “There’s a lot more farms out there in the future that will be getting to their 150th year. There will be one or two most years for quite a while.”

Peter said Sunday’s event, which is open to the public, marks the culmination of work to launch the heritage farms program and build the pavilion with “tremendous support” from the ag community.

“We’re very happy to be able to continue this and finish up the building in the fashion we hoped to,” Peter said.

Key was support from the foundation.

“Moorman’s Manufacturing is hand-in-glove with the long-standing farms here in the county. Probably more than half of those 150-year farms fed Moorman feed over the course of time,” Peter said. “That warrants another celebration, at least another recognition, of what Moorman’s meant not only to the farming community but the city of Quincy and the jobs they created for over a century.”