OWENSVILLE — Members of the Gasconade County Farm Bureau, their families and two Missouri politicians met at the St. James Charlotte Church on Oct. 1 to celebrate the company’s 75th anniversary.

Verna Hilkerbaumer was honored at the meeting. She is the last remaining charter member from the bureau’s inception in 1951. The family’s farm in Rosebud is now being managed by the sixth generation of Hilkerbaumers.

Several members of the Owensville and Hermann chapters of the Future Farmers of America (FFA) were in attendance. The farm bureau announced donations of $1,000 to both groups. Each chapter gave a short speech highlighting what they had done over the year and thanking the bureau for their support.

Rep. Bob Onder of Missouri’s Third Congressional District and Bruce Sassmann of the Missouri House of Representatives 61st District attended the meeting and gave congratulatory speeches. A member of Sen. Josh Hawley’s staff also congratulated the bureau on behalf of the senator.

Onder took the time to go over the measures on the Nov. 3 ballot and the work he is doing in Washington D.C. to help Missouri farmers, like the farm bill that passed the House but had expired in the Senate just one night before the bureau meeting. That bill will now have to wait for the next legislative period, after the November elections.

On one side of the hall was a display of items from the bureau’s 75 years of history. It included old newspaper clippings, signage, photos and hand-written meeting notes collected over the years, among other artifacts.

During the meeting, Kayden Guymon, director of Regulatory Affairs & Policy Counsel for the Missouri Farm Bureau, gave a speech on county fence laws and how property owners can mark their property lines and work with their neighbors to create lasting agreements regarding fencing.

The bureau also held a round of elections for its board.