Collecting is a hobby for Neil Breshears. Initially it didn’t seem to matter what he collected guns, knives or pocket watches. He can tell you with lots of pride when and where he acquired each piece. Neil is very sentimental and almost everything is symbolic of a piece of his past. Walking on his farm he will tell you that this came from his dairy farm, or that his dad had a tractor just like that one. The memories they give him are important to Neil.
Neil also fishes but a sign in his shop says “fishers of men.” Neil became a pastor sometime in 1979 or 1980. He is a strong man of faith and everything else pales in comparison to his love for his evangelizing and music ministry that he and his family were involved in.
Things happened that changed his life and opened up some leisure time for the first time in his life. Neil was able to have a hobby like collecting tractors. To say that Neil retired is a misnomer. Even though he quit his day job and retired from his full time ministry work as far as being a Pastor at a church, he still has a 120-acre farm that has lots of pasture for his 25 head of Black Angus. He also has several rental properties that he and his wife, Frances, oversee. They do most of the maintenance and upkeep themselves, they like to keep busy and for them that’s not work. He still does preaching here and there on occasion, not exactly retired.
Neil always loved tractors. Neil prides himself in the fact that every tractor that he has is fully operational. He said you could hook up to any one of them and use them for whatever you want and in fact he does on various occasions.
Neil and Frances had both lost their first partners within about a year of each other. Frances and her husband had followed Neil in his evangelistic ministry. They enjoyed listening to his messages and the family music ministry.
After their losses “fate” intervened and brought them in contact it was obvious to them that God destined them to be together. They didn’t date long, much to the dismay of their children, and were married 30 days later. They’ve been married now for nine years and couldn’t be happier. They met at the same time that Neil was ready to retire so he sold his herd and farm and moved to Cedar County. He was without a farm for less than 24 hours. He sold his farm in Henry County one afternoon and by the following morning at 9 a.m., had purchased the farm in Cedar County. Neil is a man who knows what he wants and doesn’t waste time getting it.
Neil has been in farming all his life. He was raised on a farm in Fristoe, Mo. He spent the first 30 years of his life as a dairy farmer until he finally quit. He had a 60 head dairy in Fristoe for 25 years and moved it to Windsor. He ran the dairy for another five years there before he finally just sold it all and stopped being in the dairy business. When asked why he replies “I got tired of it.” He went on to discuss the constantly being tied down and day in day out work that was just never ending. He didn’t get out of cattle though, he moved to commercial cows. He’s raised Black Angus ever since then.
He then had a “day job” working at the Farm and Home store in Warrensburg, Mo. He worked there for nine years until his wife died. At that time he left the store to just do his farming. However, keep in mind that he was still a Pastor at a church all the while.
When asked about his regrets, his biggest regret was selling his herd when he moved to Cedar County. He said he had a great gentle herd that was easy to work with and he has yet to get that good of a group of cattle since then.
