Minnesota Farm Economy Oral History Project: Interview with Gloria Tepfer

Titles: Minnesota Farm Economy Oral History Project: Interview with Gloria Tepfer (Supplied title)

Description: BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: Gloria Tepfer spent her childhood years in Appleton, Minnesota. Her family moved to Danube, when she was a senior in high school, and she was graduated from there. She married Wayne Tepfer in l955. Following her husband's two year tour of duty in the armed services in l958, they moved to a farm near Danube and started a dairy/farming operation. Gloria Tepfer has been a full time partner with her husband, sharing both the physical and financial responsibilities for their business. She has been involved in school, 4 H, and community affairs, and during the farm crisis, played an active role in the Groundswell organization, the Renville County Farm Bureau, and political rallies and protests in support of the farmers. Since l985, following economic reversals in their dairy business as a result of the rural crisis, she has been employed outside the farm. The Tepfer farm is now owned and operated by Wendy and Ron Kluver, their daughter and son in law. Wayne Tepfer works for the local sugarbeet co operative, and the Tepfers now live in Renville. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Information on family life and a family dairy farm operation, farm management and record keeping; farm loans, foreclosure and auction sales; negotiations with the Farm Home Administration, the Federal Land Bank, and American State Bank; mediation procedures; the Groundswell organization, Renville County Farm Bureau, and the Renville County extension program; farm protest activities; reaction to the farm crisis by the media, the Twin Cities area, and small town businesses; the future of family farming in America; environmental issues including groundwater contamination and herbicides; the status of women in farming; corporate farming and the farm activist movement. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: Wendy Tepfer Kluver participates in the video interview.

Dates

• 04/11/1989 - 06/1989 (Audio interview conducted 4/11/1989 and video interview 6//1989.) (Creation)

Creation

• interviewee: Tepfer, Gloria
• interviewer: Robertson, Margaret A.

Identifiers

• Library Call Number: OH 76
• Accession Number: AV1988.167.7
• Accession Number: AV1999.261.5

Holding Type: Oral History - Interview

Project

• Oral History - Project, MHS Collection, project: 'Minnesota Farm Economy Oral History Project' <OH 76>

Quantity: 2 hours sound cassette 23 pages transcript 1.66 hours videocassette

Format

• Content Category: sound recordings
• Content Category: moving images
• Content Category: text

Measurements

• 90 minutes length

Subjects

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