WILBURN — When Billy Brewster brought his young bride, Susan, to Arkansas from Arizona in 1975, he said he had “no idea” how they would live or what they would do.
“I just felt the Lord wanted me to be here,” Billy said, as he sat in a church pew at Baptist of the Wildwood, a church he established in 2008 in Wilburn. “My dad had bought land here (in Wilburn) in 1970 and retired here in 1976 or ’77, so we moved here before my parents did.
“We started farming and have now lived here 42 years,” said Billy, who is also a master electrician and licensed contractor and owns his own business, Brewster Construction and Electrical.
The Brewsters are the 2017 Cleburne County Farm Family of the Year.
They raise 50 head of registered Angus cattle, seven head of dairy cattle and 20 head of Nubian dairy goats on their 320-acre farm, which they call the Triangle Anchor Ranch. They also have quarter horses, chickens, a few rabbits and dogs.
“Diversity is a key to agriculture,” Billy said, smiling.
When asked about the name of their farm/ranch —Triangle Anchor Ranch — Susan explained: The triangle represents the Trinity, representing God, and the anchor represents “the anchor of our soul.”
“Billy’s dad, Dean Brewster, had a friend in New Mexico,
Gonzalo Gonzalos, who owned a large ranch in northern New Mexico that was given to his family by a Spanish land grant,” Susan said. “Supposedly at one time, his family owned one-sixth of New Mexico. His brand was a triangle anchor.
“He gave Dean the original branding iron, which we still have,” she said. “We modified it for our ranch in that the top of the anchor extends to make a cross on the bottom of the triangle where the two join. The one given to Dean simply has the anchor attached to the bottom of the triangle.”
Billy, 60, and Susan, 62, have three adult children.
Their son, Isaac Brewster, 41, and his wife, Shirley, have five children — Anna, 14, Nathanael, 12, Leah, 11, Moriah, 9, and Deborah Joy, 7.
Isaac and his family live on the family farm in Wilburn. Isaac followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming an electrician and contractor, and now manages Brewster Construction and Electrical.
Isaac and Shirley are beekeepers. They also have a small herd of cattle. Their children are all involved in the Pioneer 4-H Club and help out on the farm. Shirley works at Taylor Hearing in Heber Springs, where she is the patient-care coordinator.
“This is home,” Isaac said. “I can’t imagine living anyplace else. Unless the Lord moves me, I plan on staying right here.”
Billy and Susan’s older daughter, Holly Bowling, 39, and her husband, Caleb Bowling, live in Monroe, Tennessee, where they pastor a church. The couple also have five children — Corban, 12, Harmony, 9, Haven, 6, Hazel, 4, and Canaan, 1. Holly was involved in 4-H activities when she was growing up in Wilburn. The couple’s older children help the Brewsters on the farm when they visit.
Billy and Susan’s younger daughter, Carrie Brewster, 32, is not married and lives on the family farm. Carrie manages the dairy animals, milking them. She makes a variety of cheeses. She also works the garden and weighs calves when they are born. She raises chickens, registered bloodhounds, pocket beagles and registered quarter horses.
Carrie manages her own website and makes advertising materials to market the farm’s cattle.
“She is our main public-relations person on the farm,” Billy said. Their motto for the farm/ranch is “Breeding for quality, not quantity.”
Carrie is also the 4-H leader for the Pioneer 4-H Club in Wilburn. She has helped with the Cleburne County Fair, including the rodeo queen contest; she was Miss Cleburne County Rodeo Queen in 2006.
Billy’s mother, Eunabelle Brewster, also lives on the farm. She is the widow of Dean Udell Brewster, who died in 2011.
Billy said now that Isaac has pretty much taken over the construction and electrical business, “I do the farming and preaching.
“Susan teaches at the church in our home-school program,” Billy said. “Our grandchildren go there.”
Susan also home-schooled her own children.
Billy said one of his goals as a farmer and rancher is “to encourage young people to embrace the agricultural way of life as a viable, sustainable, rewarding profession.
“I do not believe a person should have to be rich to be in agriculture production,” he said.
“We are able to raise grass-fed cattle, finished on grass, no grains, only mineral supplements,” he said, adding, “no shots, no wormers at anytime in their life.”
He said the family sells “all we can produce,” including cheeses, raw milk and produce, he said.
“Ranching and farming have been in our family for generations,” Billy said. “From my dad, Dean Brewster, farming in Iowa, to my wife’s family, farming in Ohio and Kentucky.
“My parents had a restaurant in Sedona, Arizona. The bread man, Leroy Cothern, who had been a principal at Pangburn, always talked about Heber Springs and the property here.
“My parents bought 270 acres from Doc Johnson and 50 acres from Eula Brown,” Billy said. “My dad always loved the farm and wanted to retire on a farm. He always shared with me things about farming, saving seeds and plowing with horses. I learned a lot in FFA in high school about managing animals, showing cattle and such. I even won awards in showing cattle and record-keeping, as well as state awards in entomology.”
Billy said he and Susan came to the farm in 1975, just a few months after they were married.
“We have been farming for 42 years, and what we’ve learned and how we’ve used the correct tools in production and management have been proven true. We continue to learn.
“Like my wife’s grandmother, Clementine, always told her, and she lived to be 103 years old, ‘You’ll never get rich on a farm, but you sure will eat good.’”
Billy said his personal goal as a farmer is to operate “a sustainable agricultural system that provides the highest quality of food — food that is free from chemicals or genetic modification.”
“My children and grandchildren live on the farm, and I want the food they all eat to be the best quality,” he said.
Billy is on the board of directors of the Wilburn Volunteer Fire Department and served as president for one year. He was a youth leader at Wilburn General Baptist Church for five years and a youth leader at Cleburne County Baptist Church in Heber Springs for 27 years. He was also outreach and mission director for two years at Cleburne County Baptist Church.
Billy is a member of the Arkansas Cattlemen’s Association. He also serves as chairman of the board of directors for the Heber Springs Electrical Apprenticeship program at Arkansas State University-Heber Springs.
Susan was a substitute teacher in the Wilburn School District, where she taught kindergarten, special education and remedial classes. She also taught at Cleburne County Christian schools for several years.
At one time, Susan had a rabbitry of 100 New Zealand white does. She participated in the Cleburne County Fair, showing livestock, canned goods, vegetables and baked items. She helps with 4-H meetings and projects.