Re: O/T History and price of the family farm

Posted by Ron in Nebr on January 01, 2011 at 16:56:59 from (66.252.113.148):

In Reply to: O/T History and price of the family farm posted by 37 Chief on January 01, 2011 at 14:17:53:

Well, since we're telling history here, here's the story of our ranch and how it came to be...

My great-great grandad ran a trading post in the late 1850's in Ponca NE and traded with the Pawnee indians there. He became friends with them and went with them when they'd go on their annual spring hunts to western NE....it was on one of these hunts when he rode through the area of the Nebraska Sandhills where our ranch is currently located....

Several years later, he owned cattle near Fremont NE and decided to find a place out west to raise them, and he rode a train to the end of the railroad(Valentine, NE at that time) and rented a mule and rode south until he found what he was looking for where our home place is....he had his cattle shipped here, had more driven up from Texas, and had a man stay to care for them... but due to hard winter losses decided he'd move here himself to care for them himself, which happened in the late 1870's....while here, he built a store building and along with a cousin they started the town of Brownlee, Nebraska. The town was 30-some miles between railroads and the store did a thriving business as homesteaders moved into the area...one year they sold more mowing machines than any other dealer in the state...

Anyways, these homesteaders soon found out they couldn't make a living farming on land allowed by the government. This area's good for cattle, not for farming. He always sold on credit at his store, and as the homesteaders starved out and quit their claims, as often as not they'd give great-great grandad the deed to their land instead of paying their debt.

In 1900, my great-grandad got married, and his dad gave him our original home place along with other acquired property surrounding it. Great-great grandad then moved on to Washington state. My Great-Grandad then continued to build and improve on the ranch. He was named a "Master Farmer" by the Nebraska Farmer magazine in 1927. My grandad, born in 1912, took over a portion of the ranch where our home place is when he married in the late 30's....he had 7 brothers and sisters and great-grandad divided his property up equally between them all...only 4 siblings stayed in the area and most of the land went back to the ones who stayed....

I'm the 5th generation on the place now, at the same location homesteaded by my great-great grandfather.

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