It Happened in Crawford County: Melissa Pope is all about family and farming

Melissa Pope is a daughter of Bob and Diane Kapp. Melissa, along with her brothers, Joe and Todd, grew up in Ottawa County.

She went to Genoa Area Local Schools, ran cross country and was very active in the Ottawa County Fair. She was in 4-H. Her projects included dairy beef feeders, steers and pigs as well as sheep, which she showed every year of 4-H. Melissa said sheep are not very intelligent animals, but she enjoyed them so kept with it. She also did baking projects, saying 4-H is a great organization to be a part of.

Melissa was president of the Genoa FFA, where she learned parliamentary procedure, participated in soil and livestock judging, as well as speaking contests, and loved the chapters annual Sausage Day, where they ground up whole hog sausage. Melissa loved agriculture classes. She graduated in 1999.

Following high school, Melissa went to Owen’s Community College in Toledo, starting in business but switching her major right away to AG business. She stayed there three years and transferred to The Ohio State University main campus as a senior, studying agriculture education.

Moving to the big city - six girls one bathroom

She was nervous to move to a big city as she was more of a homebody, but she made the move to a house with five other girls, several who were longtime friends from Ottawa County. They actually survived six girls sharing one bathroom.

Melissa did her student teaching at Otsego High School. She is thankful for the friends she made who helped show her the ropes and find her way in a big college. Before graduating from OSU, Melissa was recognized as a Top 20 student in agriculture, which was uncommon for a transfer student to achieve.

Melissa’s first job was teaching agriculture at Anthony Wayne High School, a suburb of Toledo. She met her future husband, Brad Pope, when she was a student at OSU. Brad is a son of Larry, from Lykens, and Laura (Guttenberg), who was from New Washington. Brad’s family were dairy farmers. He has three brothers, Bryan, Tyler and Travis. Laura is a daughter of Larry and the late Margie Guttenberg.

Brad and Melissa married in 2005 and settled in Lykens Township. She tried to commute back and forth between Anthony Wayne and Lykens, but the it wasn’t feasible. She spent the next 18 years subbing in various schools for kids of all ages. She jokingly said she stayed in elementary school because she was taller than most of the kids ? she being only 5 feet tall. She said she enjoyed subbing and meeting people from all over the area.

Now, she is teaching at Wynford Elementary as the intervention specialist for third grade. Intervention teachers help students with social, behavioral and educational needs.

Brad and Melissa live on a Century Farm in the Lykens area. Brad bought the Pope farmstead that was owned by Brad’s great-great-grandfather, Theodore Franklin Pope. Before Brad and Melissa were married, Brad gutted the old farmhouse, taking it down to the 2-by-4 studs. Some of his friends helped him with the restoration. He kept the original woodwork, the old china cabinet and oak open stairway.

While it looks great now, Brad sometimes remarks, “I wish I had torn it down and started from scratch,” but it’s the original and that’s important.

A busy bunch: Sports, 4-H, FFA raising dairy calves

The Pope children are active in FFA and 4-H, and they just brought home three dairy calves to raise. The oldest son, Seth, has three sows and one farrowed last week with a litter of nine. This is his FFA project, and he’s been raising them for the past several years. They also raise beef calves ? around 70 per year. They get the calves at about 500 pounds, feed them to finish around 1,500 pounds and send them to market. They started with Holsteins and switched to cross-bred beef.

Melissa serves the Wynford Athletic Boosters as secretary and is a 4-H adviser for Lykens Country Crew.

Seth is 17, a junior at Wynford, runs cross country, golfs, plays basketball and baseball, and is a member of FFA, where he is the secretary and farm manager.

Drew, a sophomore, will be 16, is a member of FFA, runs cross country, and plays basketball and baseball.

Kyle is 13 and in seventh grade, runs cross country and plays basketball and baseball.

Aubrey is 11, a fifth grader, runs cross country, plays basketball, volleyball and softball.

All four are active in 4-H as well as youth group at church.

Melissa says she likes where she is at right now. She loves being a busy mom. She runs half marathons, staying in shape by getting up early and running with friends. The family attends Good Hope Lutheran Church in Bucyrus.

The kids say, “We are always late because of mom.” She sees life as being on the go, always changing, rolling with the punches and seeing what God has planned.

Go online for more of Mary Fox’s stories and photos on bucyrustelegraphforum.com. If you are interested in sharing a story, write Mary Fox, 931 Marion Road, Bucyrus, OH 44820 or email [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Melissa and Brad Pope carry on family farm tradition in Lykens area