More Story to Tell
Just like any other company with a website, we have an “About Us” page. It’s not different from anyone else’s in terms of content or purpose, but it doesn’t exactly tell the full story — and it’s a story worth telling.
How our family migrated by faith from Oklahoma to Kansas and then to Arkansas is not a story about how we accepted new jobs or seized new opportunities, but how we, as a family — my parents Wirt and Jeanie especially — took a leap of faith when they felt God urging them to move.
Our Family’s Faith-Driven Journey to ArkansasA Leap of Faith
I can’t even begin to pretend that I know the full story because I wasn’t alive for most of it, so I will tell you what I know.
Being born in 1988, I obviously wasn’t alive for the interest rate crisis of the mid-’80s, nor do I have the mental reference point to understand what that did to thousands of families and businesses throughout the country. What I do know is that my dad had a net worth of nearly $250,000 in the early 1980s, and after a couple of rough seasons farming and soaring interest rates, he was essentially bankrupt a few years later.
Assets drained, and being fortunate enough that the banks just took their collateral and spared Mom and Dad from filing bankruptcy, the first move was made — from Covington, Oklahoma to Emporia, Kansas. My mom’s Uncle Jim was a pastor at a church there, and Mom was able to secure a job working in the church office. Dad started working at a farm and ranch store called Bluestem — which is still around, by the way.
It was here that Dad entered ministry training to become a pastor. Working both at Bluestem and attending classes at the church Uncle Jim had founded, he eventually landed a job as the pastor at New York Valley Church of God in Yates Center, Kansas, shortly before I was born.
The Country Church
New York Valley was the definition of a country church. Located seven miles outside city limits, down four miles of dirt road, and surrounded by cornfields on all four sides, it had roughly fifteen members when we arrived.
Shortly after I was born, my parents moved our family of five and we suddenly became part of the church growth campaign, as we were now 25% of the congregation. A full-time role as a pastor, however, doesn’t always mean a full-time wage. Dad drove a school bus throughout most of my childhood. Quite often, I was on the bus with him when his route started in the morning and rode the whole route with him after school as well.
We spent nearly fourteen years in Yates Center. Aside from a nine-month sabbatical — the year I started kindergarten — it was where I spent the entirety of my childhood. Both my siblings graduated from high school there, and as far as we knew, that’s where we would be for the rest of our lives. Something happened, though, in the late ’90s that started a chain of events that would change the trajectory of all our lives.
New Friends and New Places
That country church in Kansas grew quite a bit over the years. Eventually, so much that a new church was built just outside the city limits. The old country church was so old at that time that once the new building was ready, the old one was loaded onto the back of a semi-truck and hauled into town to become the county museum. I remember standing on the side of the road in the new church parking lot watching the old building roll by.
It was in that new building that my parents met Rodney and Julie Wagner. Our families became close friends over the course of a couple of years. When they moved to Arkansas to be closer to Julie’s sister and her family, we stayed in touch.
We vacationed in Mountain Home, Arkansas, for the first time in the summer of 1999, staying with both the Wagners and their family, Kerry and Arvil Bass, at what is now Stone Creek Ranch. Norfork Lake was the place to be, and we spent a lot of time during those summers across the lake from Quarry Marina, climbing and jumping off the same bluffs over and over again.
Mountain Home became not only an escape for our family but also a place where Mom and Dad would host church retreats. We were able to introduce many people from our church to Mountain Home for the first time.
Then, God came knocking once again.
Following God’s Call
In the winter of 2001, my mom took a women’s group to Mountain Home. A few months later, my parents made a couple of trips together that spring. Little did I know those trips weren’t exactly just a weekend getaway.
I’ve heard my dad say the same thing a thousand times since we’ve been here:
“We just felt like God wanted us to be in Mountain Home.”
And that settled it. We were moving to Arkansas
In May of that year, it was announced that Dad would be stepping down as pastor of New York Valley after nearly fifteen years. When I tell you that it was a move led by faith, I can’t honestly give any other explanation for it. We sold our house in Kansas, bought a house in Arkansas, and moved. There was no job to go to, no opportunities lined up, and certainly not the kind of capital on hand to start something of any real value, but there we were.
Closing Thought
Every family business has a story about how they came to be, and this is ours. It’s not just about how we got here — it’s about why we continue to operate a business built on and around our faith.
Next week, in Part 2 of “More Than About Us,” we’ll share how those early years in Mountain Home became the foundation for what would eventually grow into Mountain Milling Co. — and how faith, family, and hard work built something far bigger than lumber.
Cody its great to see the family legacy unfold.
Great memories and many more to come.
Its funny to think about where we would be and what we would be doing if not for your family.