Traidan Hier, 18, a 2024 graduate of Wethersfield High School and this year’s Knee High by the Fourth of July Girl, measures the corn on her father Dan’s farm, just south of Kewanee, at 5’ 8.” [Photo by Dave Clarke]

You can take the girl away from the farm, but you can never take the farm completely away from the girl.

Traidan Hier, 18, will begin her studies at Augusta College in Rock Island next month, saying goodbye to the home where she grew up on a secluded farmstead just south of Kewanee. Hidden from the highway with a long, winding lane which leads back to a tree-lined pond just outside of the kitchen window and is home to an assortment of chickens, rabbits, cats, a dog, a pony (which belongs to her sister, Daci), and, at one time, goats that liked to nibble on her hair.

One of her summer tasks before leaving to become a weekend visitor from college, was to meet with The Kewanee Voice for the annual measurement of the height of this year’s corn crop on or near the traditional July 4 date. That’s when, many years ago, corn was considered to be doing well if it was “knee high by the Fourth of July.”

This year, Traidan’s parents, Dan and Traci Hier, picked out a field just west of the farm buildings which was planted May 11. The 112-day Pioneer P1278Q, measured 5’ 8” tall on Sunday, June 30, almost eye-to-eye with the 5’ 7” 2024 Knee High by the Fourth Girl.

Dan said the corn looks good in this area this year where scattered showers and a few good soakers have replenished the subsoil moisture. Historically, most “Knee High” measurements here have been in the 5-to-6-foot range. The tallest corn in the 45 years “Knee High” measurements have been taken was 9’ 3” taped by cousins

Natalie and Rachel Fargher on Mark Fargher’s farm on Midland Road. The shortest was 36” measured by Allison Pratt, daughter of Terry Pratt, of rural Neponset, in 1990, following an exceptionally wet spring. Last year, Brooklyn Schiltz, daughter of Ron Schiltz, measured one of her dad’s fields on the east edge of Kewanee at 6’ 1.”

Traidan will soon be trading her tractor-driving days on the family farm for classes at Augustana College in Rock Island where she will major in pre-law and minor in political science. [Photo by Dave Clarke]

Traidan Hier: A girl with goals for high school and beyond

When this year’s Knee High Girl entered Wethersfield High School as a freshman four years ago, her mother was just recovering from a bout with cancer. Thankfully, Traci has been cancer free for four years, but because of the financial burden the ordeal placed on the Hier family, Traidan set out to do what she could to lighten the load by hitting the books.

Her hard work paid off, resulting in a tidy sum of scholarship money she will put to use at Augusta College in Rock Island where she will major in pre-law and minor in political science.

The cost of her first two years of college was eliminated when she graduated summa cum laude (4.0 GPA) in May from Black Hawk College East through the dual credit program. It means she will enter Augie as a transferred junior, putting her even with her sister Daci, a 2022 Wethersfield graduate, who will also be a junior this year double majoring in accounting and psychology and minoring in environmental studies.

Two days after graduating with her associate’s degree from Black Hawk, Traidan graduated as the valedictorian of the Class of 2024 at Wethersfield, capping her four-year academic effort at the top of her class. She was also named an Illinois State Scholar, which recognizes the top 10 percent of graduating seniors in the state each year.

Another inspiration through her high school years was sister Daci and it would be hard to miss the similarities in their high school resumes.

Both were valedictorians and both were inducted into the National Honor Society. Both served as president of the Wethersfield FFA Chapter, as well as other offices. Daci was Homecoming Queen her senior year while Traidan was FFA Sweetheart her sophomore year. Both were cheerleaders and played softball. To top it off, Daci was Knee High Girl in 2021. Traidan explains it as unintentional coincidences and not an effort to imitate her big sister.

Dressed as The Grinch, she has also greeted guests each year at the Student Council’s annual “Holly Jolly Christmas” event.

Traidan also credits her success to her involvement in FFA where she was chapter president her junior year and co-president her senior year with classmate Annalise Evans. That arrangement helped her learn how to settle disagreements and build consensus in decision making.

Working with the FFA petting zoo she was able to teach others how to treat, rather than mistreat animals, when she came to the rescue of a Llama named “Diamond,” and public speaking which gave her the confidence to overcome the butterflies when she had to stand at the podium and deliver the valedictory address at graduation.

Dan said his daughter, the aspiring attorney, would like to come back to Henry County and practice ag law, specifically as it relates to wind and solar farms.

If she is ever involved in a case in the courtroom of the judicial wing of the Henry County Courthouse in Cambridge, someone may be watching proudly “from above.” Traidan and Daci’s grandfather, the late Wayne Hier, was a member of the Henry County Board when the judicial wing and jail complex were built in 1999.