Jul
21
Written by:
ngreditor
7/21/2010 10:11 AM
“They’ll always need a place”: M & M Farm Supply
Kenneth Purscell
(Part of an occasional series on Newman Grove businesses, sponsored by the Community Foundation)
Some people go into business so they can enjoy some control over their lives. Some have a business fall into their laps. Still others—yes, even in small towns—enjoy the reputation and glamour that comes with it.
I’m visiting with Merle Nelsen, of M & M Farm Supply, who seems to fit none of these categories. He saw a niche and saw that someone needed to fill it, however ordinary it might be.
“I let other people deal with the fancy parts,” he says. “But people need a place to buy bolts. They always need a place to buy chain.”
Merle started M & M in July of 1967, but the building had had other farm related businesses before then.
“There was a feed store— Newman Grove Grain—here before that,” he says. “And before that there was an implement dealer here, Wobig Implement.”
But Merle didn’t start out in that building. “I started selling Behlen bins in 1957, L & M Steel. I was doing that out of my house.”
Then in 1963 the Grain Company wanted to sell and Merle bought the building. For awhile he sold what he calls “a short line of machinery.”
“After the John Deere dealership closed, there wasn’t any place to buy bolts or other necessities,” he recalls. That’s when Merle and a parts man at the Deere store, Darwin Mc- Williams, opened up the current business.
“Darwin was the other M in the M & M name,” says Merle. “He stayed here three or four years, and then he left and I bought his shares.
“I’ve stayed here ever since.”
The area around Newman Grove has changed somewhat in the last 43 years. Farms are larger; farmers are fewer. I asked if M & M had also changed.
“Not very much,” he says. “M & M has been pretty steady. We never really got much bigger. We haven’t had any real surprises.
“We’ve seen some of our older people retire,” Merle continues. “The younger ones have been taking over. We have a good clientele.
“We’re just mostly a smaller farm supply dealership. We don’t have a lot of pricey equipment. When you come in here, you’re less overwhelmed than at the big places.
His son Mark came in 1979; he is now the other M in the business name.
Does Merle have some advice to offer to people wanting to enter the business world? (“Don’t go into trucking,” offers his secretary, and we laugh.)
“There’s nothing fancy,” Merle replies. “Just timely, hard work. You have to be here every day, like with cows, like with the cafe.”
Merle Nelsen has lived in the area all of his 77 years. “I was born two miles south; I’ve lived two miles west of here. But I guess I was too poor to get out of town.”
He and LoJean, his wife of 57 years, have lived in a house on the north edge of town since 1953. They have another daughter who lives in Omaha; one son was lost to cancer. They also have four grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren.
“Newman Grove is a nice place to live,” Merle says, smiling. “There are a lot of friendly people in the community. I’ve been happy living here all my life.”
And day by day, he and his son bring basic supplies to a friendly community. Who could need anything more glamorous than that?
Copyright ©2010 Newman Grove Reporter