Author: jeff

Editor’s note: This article is part of a series featuring women members of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation.

CLINTONVILLE, Wis. – One could say Kellie Zahn juggles a lot of balls. She works full-time as an agriculture agent for the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, a Mohican Indian tribe in Bowler, Wisconsin. She’s the agronomist for her family’s 1,000-acre farm near Clintonville. And she’s been a board member of the Shawano County Farm Bureau for the past four years. But her educational background, participation in the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation’s Leadership Institute and a willingness to step outside her comfort zone help her juggle those daily challenges.

Zahn, nee Behnke, was raised on the Clintonville-area dairy farm owned by her parents, Doug and Mary Behnke. As a youngster she fed calves, cleaned pens and did other chores, she said. Those jobs helped her learn about taking responsibility.

After graduating from high school she attended the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. She earned in 2011 a bachelor’s degree in agricultural business with an animal-science minor. She then worked for about five years as an agronomist. But demanding seasonal-work schedules and time spent on the road as an agronomist conflicted with her work on the family farm, she said.

An opportunity appeared in fall 2016 she couldn’t refuse. It involved building from the beginning a program at the Stockbridge-Munsee Community. As an agriculture agent she would be managing gardens as well as teaching classes about practices such as composting, starting plants, alternative weed control and more.

Since joining the community she has helped establish a Community Supported Agriculture operation, and has expanded a demonstration farm from 1 to 3 acres. She and the community plan to rotationally graze chickens. She works with a few-part time employees and a summer intern.

“We grow about 30 different types of vegetables,” she said. “This is…

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HUDSON — The Hudson Area Library and the Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History present “The Mohicans’ Incorporation into the Iroquois League, 1671-1675” by Evan Haefeli 6-7:30 p.m. June 24. This talk derives from one of Dr. Haefeli’s current research projects on the history of the Iroquois Confederacy’s relations with its Indigenous neighbors to the east and south, especially the people of the Hudson Valley. The incorporation of the Mohicans into the Iroquois League has remained obscured to history but was pivotal to the history of the colonial northeast. It explains why the Mohicans and the Munsee neighbors did not join in King Philip’s War and so prevented that conflict from spilling over into the Hudson Valley. It also clarifies the nature of Indigenous politics in the region in the era of Jacob Leisler.

The Jacob Leisler Library Lectures are made partially possible through the generous support of the Van Dyke Family Association.

An historian of colonial North America and the Atlantic world at Texas A&M University, Evan Haefeli has a particular interest in the political, religious, Indigenous, and imperial history of the colonial northeast. Born and raised on eastern Long Island, New York, he previously taught at Princeton University, where he received his PhD, as well as Tufts, Columbia University, and the London School of Economics. He has held a variety of fellowships, most recently from the NEH. His published books relating to colonial American and early New York history include New Netherland and the Dutch Origins of American Religious Liberty, Accidental Pluralism: America and the Religious Politics of English Expansion, and (with Kevin Sweeney), Captors and Captives: The 1704 French and Indian Raid on Deerfield.

The Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History is an independent, not-for-profit study and research center devoted…

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Above: Justin Adkins, co-proprietor of Wild Soul River, which opened on Cole Street this month; photo by Mei Craig.

Herbalists, Rebecca Guanzon and Justin Adkins, bring the powers and energies of spirituality, herbal medicines, crystals, tinctures, and tarot cards to their new retail shop, Wild Soul River, in Williamstown, Massachusetts. 

Wild Soul River is an apothecary shop with a distinctly witchy vibe that specializes in herbal medicine and energy healing. The shop offers herbalism workshops, tarot readings, crystal books for people to read, as well as coffee and herbal teas to drink from. There isn’t another business-like Wild Soul River in Williamstown, which makes the shop stand out and adds more diversity and charisma to the shopping scene downtown.

Wild Soul River opened for business in May 2021 on 248 Cole Avenue. Before shop owners, Rebecca Guanzon and Justin Adkins, started their business in Williamstown, they met at Alleghany College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. With a shared love of plants and energy healing, the pair decided to open an apothecary store and relocate to Williamstown, where Justin used to live and work.

“I worked at Williams from 2007 to 2016 and then I moved away to Pennsylvania where I worked at Alleghany College and met my partner Rebecca, and we were trying to figure out what the next phase of our life was going to be and I loved this building and neighborhood and we have a friend base here, so we decided to go for it” says Justin.

The other owner of the store, Rebecca is a trained herbalist with over 20 years of experience and is a practitioner of multiple energetic healing modalities. She has used her herbal skills to help survivors of trauma and incorporate trauma informed care practices.

A herbalist is someone who uses plants for healing….

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