her father had bested those who would not buy from niggers and those who would not sell to them ; he had bought land a little smidge at a time so as not to alarm those who were worried about `` those black bastards over columbus way '' ; he had been the first man in polk county to try crop rotation ; the first man to try chemical fertilizer ; and in march of 1902 gary sites had come to the house to tell john freemantle that he had been voted into the grange .