A terrible misfortune turned out to be a blessing for a Mahoning Valley farmer who had served in World War II.

Soon after the late Russell Cunfer bought his 88-acre farm and added 400 baby chicks, someone stole the poultry and burned down the coop, said his daughter Phyllis Davidson, Franklin Township.

The devastating act caught the attention of a branch of the United States Department of Agriculture, and soon after, a miracle happened.

The government sent teams to transform Cunfer’s barren land into a working food-producing farm. Hundreds of volunteers, many of them ex-servicemen, pitched in to plow, fertilize and plant — and complete 10 years’ worth of work in just two days.

Davidson was a baby in May 1947 when the family farm was transformed. The only memories she has are contained in a scrapbook of newspaper clippings compiled by her late mother, Olive Cunfer.

Davidson recently leafed through the scrapbook to read about what newspapers of the day called the “Cunfer Miracle Farm.”

“It was a big event,” Davidson said. “Hundreds of people were at the farm.”

The farm’s face-lift was meant to demonstrate how folks, including war vets like Cunfer, could farm with conservation in mind.

According to articles from The Call-Chronicle of Allentown published in 1947, the USDA’s Agricultural Conservation Association had completed a similar “agricultural conservation” demonstration at a farm in western Pennsylvania the year before.

The association sought a farm in eastern Pennsylvania to share the conservation practices with those from the area and beyond.

“Russell Cunfer and his farm were the answer,” a newspaper article states about the selection. “Here was a young veteran, a product of the soil. His acres lie in a normally fertile Mahoning Valley. Russell has everything to succeed; sound judgment, ambition and the incentive.”

Despite the “normally fertile” soil near Lehighton, residents at the time had a different opinion of the land the Cunfer had purchased for $8,484 through the Farmers Home Administration and the GI Bill of Rights not long after his 1945 discharge from the Navy.

“Neighbors were frank in their appraisal of the land,” the Call-Chronicle reported. “They said it was one of the poorest farms in Pennsylvania. Looking at its weather beaten fields and stripped woodland, they shook their heads and said it probably was the poorest farm in the valley.”

It was yet another reason the Cunfer farm was selected for the “Miracle of Conservation” demonstration.

“Today and tomorrow, agricultural experts will stage a conservation demonstration which will transform the rundown, barren farm into a modern, food-growing acreage, accomplishing in two days what would take the 39 year-old World War II veteran 10 years of hard labor to achieve,” the newspaper reported.

Several hundred men and boys, seasoned farmers, war vets, school kids and 4H groups gathered on the farm to use machinery — including 30 plows — on loan by national and local manufacturers.

They followed a diagram prepared by the USDA to establish contour strips, construct diversion ditches and other erosion control measures. They also fertilized and planted the land, built a dam, drilled a well and painted the farmhouse.

“This was a big deal, apparently,” Davidson said. “They had a big banquet the night before. There were two senators there. They picked a (Miss Agriculture) queen. They brought the fertilizer, they brought the oats and everything.”

Work was finished in two days as expected.

And just over a year later, the newspaper ran an update on the farm.

Cunfer was growing wheat, oat and clover, and raising steer, pigs and chicken.

Davidson noted that the farm is no longer there. Her father passed away when she was 11, and soon after, the family moved to Lehighton.

Years later, a barn on the property burned down, she recalled.

The land was near where the Mahoning Township Municipal building and Crystal Springs Tree Farm is, Davidson noted.