At Marshall’s Heritage Farm, we are committed to producing sustainably grown, healthy agricultural products—specialty greens, vegetables, grain, and flowers—for restaurants, food businesses, and consumers in western Pennsylvania. Our mission as an independent farm is to support the health of family and community with high-quality foods while restoring biological diversity and vitality to the land.
It is in this spirit that all Marshall's Heritage Farm products will be naturally grown by 2026. Our 70 fertile acres, on which corn and soybeans are now grown conventionally, will be fully converted over the next 10 years using sustainable practices.
We also believe in educating the community about sustainability. Beginning in 2017, MHF intends to offer community workshops on mushroom cultivation, cover cropping, soil health, and ecology as part of our diversification and forestry management program. We will develop educational programs with local schools to teach students and community members about the value of sustainable agriculture.
Tom and Pete Marshall: 1937
First Tractor: 1937
Marshall's Heritage Farm: 1967
Marshall’s Heritage Farm is called “heritage” because it is the continuation of a family tradition that, for more than 100 years, has been tied to fertile acres of land in Indiana County, Pennsylvania. It speaks of a deep love for the land that has spanned six generations of my bloodline.
Madeline Wells moved from Punxsutawney, PA. to a small, dirt-floor farmhouse on the Mabon Farm, just down the road from what is now the Marshall property. In 1925, my great-great-uncle Merle “Pete” Marshall married Madeline Wells and bought property from the Wells family, which they had owned since the mid-1800s.
My grandfather, Clark “Tom” Marshall, was born to John and Lauretta Wells Marshall just over the hill in Dayton, PA. As a young boy, Grandfather Tom kept running away and turning up at his uncle and aunt’s farmhouse. He simply loved life on the farm and helped Pete and Madeline to cultivate the land and raise cattle, pigs, chickens, grains and vegetables. When his parents moved to State College, PA., Tom stayed behind on the farm.
Tom married my grandmother, Ruth Raraigh, from Dayton, PA. Ruth moved into the farmhouse with her new husband and Pete and Madeline, and they all farmed the land together. Until 1958, the two couples farmed the land. When Pete passed away in 1958, my grandfather took over the farming while Ruth and Madeline managed the homestead.
In 2010, my gram passed and then my pap in 2014. They left the farm to my father and his siblings. In 2015, Randy and Shirley Marshall, my parents, along with Lynne Pavlic Marshall and I, completed purchase of the farm to keep it in the family. My brother, Eric Marshall, will be assisting with day to day operations as we make this a family affair. Marshall’s Heritage Farm will now continue the long family tradition of working this land.
