By Jennifer Dorsett
Field Editor
Farmers are among a unique, tightly woven community that know how to lend a hand and a combine.
Local residents in Coryell County did just that, bringing in harvest equipment to help one of their neighbors, Barbara Dyer.
This harvest season was difficult for Barbara, who lost her son, Bill Jr., and her husband, Bill, within two months of each other.
She was left with a wheat crop in the field and no one to harvest it.
That’s when a group of farmers in the community stepped in to help.
“She had a pretty tough 2020. She buried her only child Feb. 28 and then her husband of 55 years on April 29,” Larry Pruitt, Barbara’s brother, said. “But it was proven this year that farmers take care of their own.”
Bill and the Dyers’ neighbor, Don Bales, used to team up at harvest, running their combines together, Pruitt said. But with the recent deaths in the Dyer family, Bales and other area farmers knew
Barbara would need extra help.
“They called me and said, ‘We’re going to go cut that grain.’ No one asked anyone anything, they just went and started doing,” Pruitt said.
Coryell County Farm Bureau (CFB) members Paul Humes, Troy Latham, Joe Foote, Doug Young and Josh Young offered the use of their combines.
Overall, more than two dozen farmers helped harvest the wheat, Klayton Latham, who is also a Coryell CFB member, said.
“Some of the land is about 10-15 miles away near Coryell City, and some of it’s across the county at White Hall,” Latham said. “So Jimmy Dale Gartman started at one end of the county and some of us started at the other end, and we just worked our way toward the middle.”
Pruitt estimated harvest began May 25. There were some days lost to moisture, but he said they were working nearly around the clock, finishing the harvest on June 5.
“That day was a Friday. The crews met in the middle of the county that morning, and we put all five combines together,” he said. “It started at noon and we were done by 9 p.m. They harvested 550 acres in one day.”
Pruitt noted the farmers in the community couldn’t have done it without the assistance of Charlie Bottlinger, the owner of Bottlinger Grain. With grain elevators in full swing in Hamilton and Turnersville, it was a busy time of year. But Pruitt said Bottlinger went out of his way to help Barbara, and the family will always be thankful.
“Charlie kept trucks on the crews at all times,” he said. “He made sure every crew had a truck, so they could keep cutting and never stop.”
The harvest crew from the community helped the Dyer family through a tough struggle.
“This was just a huge worry lifted off our shoulders,” Pruitt said. “We were concerned about how we were going to handle getting all the harvesting done this one last time, but those men and their families really stepped up and showed us how much they care. We are so thankful to have neighbors and friends like these.”
To everything there is a season, Latham said. Tthat includes passing on the knowledge from one generation to the next, and stepping up to help when that generation is gone.
“I know Mrs. Dyer was really worried about getting that wheat in on top of everything else she had going on,” he said. “My father was great friends with Billy Dyer for close to 40 years, and they’ve always been like another family to us. Josh Young and I always looked up to the old farmers, especially Billy Dyer. He’s kind of the one who got us started farming. We both take a lot of pride in what we learned from Billy. There aren’t enough words or deeds to thank him. Helping out Barbara is just a small way to sort of repay some of the kindness he always showed us.”