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Making the most of his opportunity
Tammara Green/Post-Register
Ike Needens
Quincy resident Ike Needens came to Quincy via Sheridan, Wyo. in 1962.
Needens grew up on a farm that his father rented in Sheridan, and he and his brothers and sisters walked three miles to school until a neighbor with a dude ranch donated his horses so they could ride them during the winter months. On the 160-acre farm, the family grew hay and barley, and had a small herd of milk cows. Needens eventually graduated from Sheridan High School in 1943 and helped his father on the farm until he joined the service. He was part of the Army’s 155 Howitzer artillery.
“We trained on WWI Howitzers until the new ones came in. They had a longer barrel,” said Needens.
The Howitzer is classified as an artillery piece with a short barrel used to launch projectiles at high trajectories with a steep angle of descent. After boot camp and training, Needens was sent into Germany in 1944.
“We ended up in Camp Lucky Strike in Germany. The war was almost over, so we were sent to guard the Belgium/German border and make sure the German soldiers did not escape out of the country,” said Needens.
Finally, he left the service in 1947, and the military funded his education at Nice University in Southern France. “It was beautiful there. It was like a resort, and I spent six months there studying farm management and horticulture,” said Needens.
He spent the next few years working at many different jobs, such as coal mining, working as a strip mine truck driver and in a sugar factory and farming. At the time, he met his wife, Wanda, and when the family moved away, he decided to take matters into his own hands and he married her. They lived on Eaton’s Dude Ranch for over 10 years before they made the move to Quincy.
“The opportunity came up to buy 160 acres near George, so we moved out here,” said Needens. He grew wheat, alfalfa, beans and sugar beets on his new property. The beets were white beets, which were grown to be processed into sugar. According to Needens, the sugar companies found the processing of sugar beets too costly and they went out of business. Eventually, he gave up farming in 1992 and moved into town.
Needens now concentrates on spending time with family. He has eight great-grandchildren and three grandchildren who all live within six miles of him. He recently caught the travel bug and went on a 2,300-mile round trip. He stopped in Dillon, Mont. to visit his 89-year-old brother, George, and continued on to Sheridan, Wyo. where his 85-year-old sister lives. The highlight of his trip was visiting with his nieces in Buffalo, Wyo. and Rapid City, S.D. Needens had the opportunity to see Mt. Rushmore and go boating on Lake DeSmet.
He found, however that he was glad to be home. “Quincy is the greatest place for an opportunity to have something of your own,” Needens said.
