It wouldn't have bought much of a farm.....
Maybe acreage???
In ‘89 it was $10,000.
Bought the Farm.
In the early days of aviation, plane were less reliable and would often go down. The pilots would usually land on farms and would have to pay the farmer for any crops destroyed. If the crash was very bad the pilot would “Buy the whole farm”; which was changed to “Bought the farm” if the pilot died.
When I was in flight school we understood that if you crashed your plane (whether you lived or died) it would always, always land on top of the prize pig, experimental and very valuable hybrid corn or something expensive along these lines.
Thus, you “bought the farm” which was the same fate if you died doing it.