Published by Hayseed Press, “A Boy on the Farm,” the memoir of the late Narigon, chronicles the time in Iowa history when family farms shaped the land, culture, and traditions.

Narigon was the director of the Webster County Extension Service.

As he notes in the memoir, his grandmother Genevieve Brown (1879-1969) witnessed the most dramatic changes in the development of the world. She was born in a sod house in Iowa with no electricity, heating, plumbing, or windows and lived to watch on television as a man walked on the Moon.

Narigon was born on the family farm in rural Adams County on March 27, 1929, just before the Great Depression swept across America.

-Submitted photo
“A Boy on the Farm” by Joseph E. Narigon is available in paperback and e-book through Amazon, Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and on the Hayseed Press website.

Originally self-published in 2003, “A Boy on the Farm” offers a snapshot of that time when Iowa farm families survived, and thrived, with no electricity, running water, or motor vehicles.

Meet the pets, the horses, the livestock, the family members, and the neighbors that helped keep the farm running. Witness the introduction of modern technologies and how innovation and can-do attitude cultivated the American landscape.

Narigon, a veteran of the U.S. Army and a graduate of Iowa State University in Ames, worked as a farm manager of the Walnut Grove Research Farm in Atlantic, before spending his career as director of the Webster County Extension Service in Fort Dodge and later director of the Warren County Extension Service in Indianola, where he retired in 1994.

Narigon died at age 93 on March 1, 2023, at CedarStone Senior Living in Cedar Falls.

In May 2025, his grandsons Aaron and Nick Narigon, founders of Hayseed Press based in Cedar Falls, edited and published their Grandpa Joe’s memoir posthumously to share his legacy, and to also share this important time in American history with future generations.

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From left are Effie Lee (Narigon) Boggess, Virgil Narigon, Flossie Narigon, and Joseph Narigon, circa1929.

“A Boy on the Farm” by Joseph E. Narigon is available in paperback and e-book through Amazon, Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and on the Hayseed Press website.

-Submitted photo