IOWA WOMEN’S ARCHIVES
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA LIBRARIES
IOWA CITY, IOWA
SALLY PUTTMANN (1936- )
NORTHN
PAPERS, 1994-1998
2 linear inches
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ACQUISITION: |
The papers (donor no. 565) were
donated by Sally Puttmann in
1998. |
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ACCESS: |
The papers are open for research. |
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COPYRIGHT: |
Copyright to portions of the collection has been transferred to the University of Iowa Libraries. |
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PROCESSED BY: |
Doris Malkmus, 1999. [WORD 7
PuttmannSally.doc] |
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Biography
Farm
woman Sally Puttmann was born and raised on a farm near Kingsley in western
Iowa, graduating from Kingsley High School in 1952. She met Dwight Puttmann while she was in high school and married
him after his graduation from Iowa State University in 1954. They moved to a farm in Plymouth County
where they raised two daughters and had a successful, mixed livestock and row
crop farm. In 1995, the Puttmanns had
850 acres in crops and marketed 2,500 hogs annually.
Both
Dwight and Sally Puttmann were active in the Woodbury County Farm Bureau from
1976. In 1979, neighboring farmers
asked her to run for vice president of the Woodbury County Farm Bureau board of
directors with the expectation that she would run for county president the
following term. With the encouragement
of her husband, she agreed, and, in 1981, she progressed from that position to
become the first woman president of a county Farm Bureau board. From 1983 to 1986 she served as the voting
delegate to the Iowa Farm Bureau board for Plymouth County. She chaired the Iowa Farm Bureau
Environmental Resource Committee and the Women’s Involvement Task Force that
studied integrating the Iowa Farm Bureau Women’s Committee into the main
organization.
In
1985, Iowa Governor Terry Branstad appointed Puttmann to the State Soil
Conservation Commission where she served eight years. She was appointed to the advisory board of the Leopold Center at
Iowa State University in 1995. In 1996,
she became the first woman on the Iowa Farm Bureau board of directors as a
district representative. During this
period, she was also active in her church and synod, filling requests to preach
and serving as president of her congregation.
Since
neither of the Puttmanns’ two daughters chose to farm, Dwight and Sally
Puttmann became advocates for farm succession plans by which retiring farmers
help young farmers enter their operation.
They developed a plan to turn over their farming operation to a young
farmer, Joe Hlas. Dwight and Sally
Puttmann spoke at numerous conferences designed to draw attention to and
overcome the difficulty young farmers had in entering farming. When Dwight Puttmann died in 1995, Sally
assumed responsibilities for the farm oversight, conference appearances, and
other church and community activities.
Scope and Content Note
The
Sally Puttmann papers date from 1994 to 1999 and measure two linear inches. The
majority of the collection relates to her advocacy for succession plans that
help young farmers get started. Her
personal papers consist of correspondence and biographical information. The published pieces about her include
newspaper and magazine articles, as well as a typescript of a chapter from the
book Farmers for the Future, by Dan
Looker. Material concerning
conferences
at which Sally Puttmann spoke include programs, brochures, newsletter accounts,
speaker biographies, and transcripts.
Box no. Description
**PRESS <control n> to indent each level.**
Box
1 Awards and Biographies,
1995-1998
Correspondence, 1994-1998
and undated
Speech,
1996
Conferences
Farmers for the Next
Century, 1994, 1995, 1997
National Conference on Farm
Succession Plans, 1996
Publications
Newspaper and magazine
articles, 1990-1996 and undated
Farmers for the Future, 1996