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The baptismal certificate for Chris Hardie’s father, Robert Hardie, is dated Jan. 23, 1938.

Chris Hardie/For Agri-View

A stock certificate from Maine-based King Resources, a 1970s oil- and gas-exploration firm is no longer of much value. The company went through bankruptcy and reorganization.

Chris Hardie/For Agri-View

A 1937 document from the town of Franklin, Wisconsin, describes a proposed town road that would reach the Hardie-family farm.

Chris Hardie/For Agri-View

Silver Bowl Inc. of Idaho is out of business. It was a mining company that had ownership and management disputes in the late 1960s.

Chris Hardie/For Agri-View

The original U.S.-based Sunshine Consolidated operations are now owned and managed by a privately held company. Its stock has no value.

Chris Hardie/For Agri-View

A copy of the warranty deed from 1939 reflects when Chris Hardie’s great-grandparents bought 160 acres of land from a neighbor for $700.

Chris Hardie/For Agri-View

Chris Hardie For Agri-View

I carried the metal box into a small room at the bank and removed documents – some of which had been stored for more than 50 years. The box was rented by my parents, who checked on its contents about a month before Dad died in 2020, according to the registration card. I kept paying the annual rental fee after taking over Mom’s finances.

Chris Hardie and his wife, Sherry, live on his great-grandparents’ Jackson County farm. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2001, he is a former member of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council and past president of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association. His book “Back Home: Country Tales by the Seasons” is available through Amazon.