[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 8]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 11557]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                           HONORING EMMA BUCK

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JERRY F. COSTELLO

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 27, 1999

  Mr. COSTELLO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask my colleagues to join 
me in honoring Emma Buck, who recently celebrated her 95th birthday at 
her farm in my congressional district.
  To visit Miss Buck's farm and the stories that it bears, is also a 
visit to a quiet memory of the early American experience. This farm, a 
virtual self-contained world, is both the foundation and legacy of a 
woman for whom complete self-sufficiency is essential to survival.
  Her family's story begins as many American families do. It starts 
with her great-grandparents, young and hopeful pioneers, who left their 
Native Germany aboard a ship with hundreds of other immigrants to 
America. Across the Mississippi River her maternal grandparents, the 
Henkes, and her paternal great-grandparents, the Bucks, both settled in 
neighboring communities in rural, southern Illinois.
  Rather than fading to lore, as the heritage of many families do, Emma 
Buck embraced and sustained the life that her great-grandparents began 
in Monroe County. She still lives in the log cabin that her grandfather 
built. She still works in the farm that has provided so much for her 
family's sustenance for so long. This is not a farm transformed by the 
power of modern technology; rather it is one that honors the 
rudimentary tools of the past.
  Miss Buck remains the sole curator of this farm, which was named a 
national landmark of our nation. As she has for over 90 years, in 
accordance with the methodical teaching of her father and grandfather, 
Emma rises each morning to the tasks at hand. She fixes the split-rail 
fences, she weeds the gardens, she prunes the trees. Farming has since 
been left to interested neighbors, but the fields, the tools, and the 
dedication of her ancestors remain in the Buck Farm's name.
  As the 20th Century ends and the beginning of the new millennium 
approaches, Emma Buck reminds us of our nation's heritage. The advances 
in technology made each day continue to fortify our nation's 
capabilities, but it is the individual life stories of simplicity and 
complete fulfillment, in which our future generations may find 
inspiration.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring Emma Buck, 
and in doing so honoring our nation's history.

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