Al Haar Reflects on the Changes in Farming and Business
(Excerpts from Tim Waltner’s interview with Alfred Haar that appeared in a special Freeman centennial edition of the Freeman Courier: May 30, 1979.)
Freeman celebrates its 100th anniversary in 1979, a historic event to be sure. But a business in freeman will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 1982. That business, still in the same family as it was started, is the Fred Haar Company.
Alfred Haar is the grandson of Fred Haar, the founder. He visited with the Courier about the changes he has seen from his perspective as a businessman, dealing directly with the farming community, the basic economic influence of the Freeman community.
Al Haar was no stranger to the implement business, growing up around the family operation. “I used to play on those big old steam engines back in the junk pile. They used to sell a lot of binders. I’d set up one of the wheel assemblies and somebody else would set up something else … 20 or 30 binders a year … that was when I was in high school.
“When I was in high school they were converting from horses to tractors. I can recall a lineup of tractors in the shed from one end to the other and at the same time, and they had 65 head of horses out at the Albert Haar farm that they had traded in on tractors.
“I started working for my dad when I got back from the service in 1946 … I needed a job and I liked what I did. I worked up front with him and started working with parts. At that time they had the model A and B which were two and three plow tractors, not ever thinking we’d get any bigger than the model A three plow tractor. They were, of course, all two cylinder tractors at that time.
“When they made the conversion from the two to the four and six cylinder tractors, I thought John Deere was really off the beam. I thought it was the end of the world. They introduced the four and six cylinder tractor in 1960.
“The two cylinder tractors had reached their peak as far as horsepower. To increase, they had to make the change. The change was timely, there’s no question about it.
“From 1946 to 1960, there wasn’t a lot of change. But I would say that in the ‘60s, the changes were very rapid. I think we’re going to see it continue. Bigger equipment, but sad to say, less farmers.”
For many years, Fred Haar Company was located on the corner of Main and Fifth, the spot where Wiens Auto Mart (now Gary’s Garage) is presently located. On December 14, 1972, the operation left downtown for Highway 81, just north of Freeman, moving into a new, much larger building.
“It was one of the best things we ever did. I felt we had to do it. It took me three or four years of planning … we didn’t do it overnight. Now that I look back: if we wouldn’t have made these changes, I don’t think we’d be in operation today. We made the change at the right time.
“With the facilities downtown, we couldn’t have taken any recent model tractor into our shop. The doors and ceiling weren’t high enough.” With the move into their new building in 1972, a new piece of equipment became part of their office, a computer which linked the Freeman operation with John Deere Company headquarters. That is indicative of the changes the Freeman business community has been faced with in the rapidly changing technology of these last two decades.