Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Bill and Joyce (née Neuharth) Starke celebrated 70 years of marriage this past week. This couple's contributions to the community, as well as to their marriage, family and farm, have left a lasting legacy on New Rockford.
Bill, whose given name is William, has spent all but one of his 93 years of life right here in Eddy County. His grandfather, also William, homesteaded in Superior Township in Eddy County in 1883, the very same year that Eddy County, the City of New Rockford and the City of Sheyenne were established. Bill's father Horton passed on the farm to him. Now Bill's grandson Josh is a fifth-generation occupant of that farmstead, and the only remaining resident of Superior Township bearing the Starke name after 137 years.
Bill and Joyce's story begins on that Superior Township farm. Bill was born in 1927, the elder of Horton and Alpha Starke's two children. Bill's sister Carol, who lives in the Atlanta, Ga. area, was born on Christmas Day two years later. The two attended Superior School #1, driving a Shetland pony and cart 3 miles to school each day.
Farming during Bill's childhood was a challenge, particularly throughout the 1930s. Drought, wheat rust and grasshoppers were among the perils they faced. Horton and Alpha moved back to the farm in 1933, and it wasn't until the 1940s that things started to turn around.
"In 1941, we got 40 bushel wheat, the first time we'd ever had anything like that." Bill recalls. "From then on it got a little bit better."
Also in 1941, Bill's father Horton purchased a half-section of land (320 acres) for $1,200. He was able to pay for it in one year by growing 40 acres of flax. Now it costs more than $1,200 to purchase one acre of productive land, and it takes some farmers many years to pay off the debt.
Horton was one of the original members of the Community Credit Union, the owner of "Passbook 3".
Bill received eight years of education from the country school, then earned his diploma from New Rockford High School in 1945, just as World War II was ending and many were coming home. He went on to study agriculture at NDSU for one year. Higher education was not to be, however, as a tragic accident brought him back to New Rockford in 1946. His father got run over by a team of horses, so Bill came home to run the family farm.
In June 1947, a teenage girl moved to New Rockford with her family. Joyce Neuharth was entering her junior year at New Rockford High School. The daughter of Bill and Lenore Neuharth, Joyce was born in Anamoose, N.D., and then resided in the Washburn area before her family moved to New Rockford.
A resident of New Rockford Township, new girl Joyce attended a school party that fall. Her friend Betty took interest in a friend of Bill's, so the four mingled at the party.
"Of course I didn't know anybody, because I had only been here a few months," Joyce recalls. Then on Sunday afternoon, Bill knocked on the Neuharths' door and asked Joyce to go riding with him.
"I couldn't remember his name," Joyce recalls. She said she had to ask her friend Betty his name, as she was too embarrassed to admit to him that she didn't know.
Bill and Joyce courted while she finished school, graduating as a member of the "49ers", the class of 1949. She then pursued her teaching certificate, a three month long process at the time.
Joyce taught school for one year at Rocky Mountain School #2 of Sheyenne. She had five students in her class, a first grader, third grader, two fifth graders and a seventh grader.
"Then Bill sort of got in the way," Joyce jokes in regards to her short-lived teaching career. She didn't really want to teach anyway, she said, so she was happy to join him in marriage that fall, on Sept. 3, 1950.
They built a little house on the Starke homestead and settled into their lives as an Eddy County farming family. The Starkes grew wheat, barley, flax, soybeans and corn and tended to cattle and sheep. The couple also raised two children, Clinton and Deborah, or Debbie.
Debbie, who graduated in 1969 and now resides in the Twin Cities, has fond memories of her childhood.
"New Rockford was so much fun as a kid," she remembers. "It was alive every Saturday night." Debbie recalls the live entertainment, sidewalk sales and other community festivals that made New Rockford come alive in the 1960s.
Just as their parents and grandparents did, Bill and Joyce actively served the New Rockford community. Bill served four terms in the North Dakota House of Representatives, a Democrat representing District 12 from 1984 to 1993.
Bill and Joyce were active members of the New Rockford Area Chamber of Commerce, Celebrations Inc., the New Rockford Lions Club and Eddy County Soil Conservation District. Bill served on the credit committee at Community Credit Union for many years and also sat on the State Credit Union Board.
The Starke family have also been pillars of the First Congregational Church in New Rockford. Joyce's family joined the congregational church when they moved to New Rockford.
"I just assumed he would go to my church when we got married," Joyce says, and she was right. Joyce was a regular on the platform of the church for 71 years, playing the organ for 41 years before she officially retired in March 2020. The Starkes celebrated their milestone anniversary at the church, renewing their vows and enjoying a reception of cake and coffee after church on Sunday, Sept. 6.
A girl who loves to sing, Joyce vividly remembers her first performance. She sang "Silent Night" in German at the age of 5, wearing a blue velvet dress that is forever etched in her memory.
Joyce has lent her musical talents to the community in other ways over the years. The Starkes treasure the Saturday night variety shows that were held in New Rockford in the 1950s and 1960s. Warren Adams organized a show of "cascading organs" at the former New Rockford High School gymnasium, which was torn down after the current gymnasium was built in 1965.
One year Joyce had the pleasure of directing the big show, and she organized a mock Miss America pageant featuring area men. Gary Laber, known as "Miss Dundas", won the hilarious pageant of men dressed as women.
"Bill always supported it," Joyce says of her many pursuits that took time away from the farm, her home and family. "I don't know if he liked it all the time, but he was always there to help." Among the organizations Joyce actively participated were the Congregational Church Women's Fellowship, Minerva Club, Red Hats, Superior Homemakers and Carrington-New Rockford Area Music Club.
Joyce was a 4-H member from age 10 to 18, ending on a high note by serving as the state vice president. As a teenager in Eddy County, she was a member of the Rockford Rangers 4-H Club.
Bill was a leader of the Superior 4-H Club for 10 years, while Clint was a member. Joyce started the Blue Belles 4-H Club, of which daughter Debbie was a member. Other 4-H moms in Joyce's club were Bev Bjornson and Mary Ellen Turcotte.
As the couple aged, Joyce took a more active role in farming alongside Bill. First she was a plier holder and wrench turner, then she "graduated" into more intense roles. When Bill said, "You're as good as a hired man," she knew that he was pleased with her evolution.
The Starkes put in their last crop in 2000, and they lease their land to area farmers. Bill and Joyce started wintering in New Rockford in 2017, and the summer of 2020 marks the first time they didn't return to the farmstead.
Bill was also quite a talented carpenter. He built many custom pieces after he retired from farming. His specialty was the crèche, or frame for a nativity scene. He is shown in the photo at right with several crèches he built.
"He just built anything that anybody wanted," Debbie says.
The Starke's legacy is not only alive in the land and farmstead in rural Superior Township, but permeates through this entire community in a way that will long outlast their 70 years as a couple.