History From Farm to Wetland
Joseph Panzner, 1940’s.	History In 1909 the threat of war brought Joseph Panzner and his family from the Banat area of Austria-Hungary to the United States of America. Joseph was sixteen when the Panzner family settled in the Akron area. Five years later he married Elizabeth Rose Tasch and worked	Joseph Steve Panzner, 1940’s
at Goodrich with his wife. Joseph would later build fishing reels at Pfluegers, work as a butcher, open a bar, and build houses in the Akron area before buying 16 acres of property on Wright Road. So, by 1922, Joseph, Elizabeth, and their two children, Teresa Elizabeth and Joseph Steve joined the ranks of the almost 30 family farms that made up the "Little Farms" district in the Copley Swamp. After clearing the land with a couple of axes and handsaws, the Panzners set to farming. The cycle continued for years, clearing land during winter, the off-season, and farming the rest of the year. What began with a horse named Benny and a hand plow grew into a 135.5 acre truck farm by the year 1953. By this point, Joseph Steve had three children of his own, Janet Elizabeth, Joseph Lawrence and Steve Charles. Jerry, the youngest of the boys, was born four years later. Steve and Jerry would eventually take over the family farm, purchase the final 15 acres of property which brought the acreage up to its current count at 150.5, and later incorporate the farm under Panzner & Sons, Inc., in 1988.		Panzner & Sons Logo, 1988
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