100 years and counting

Three farm families were recognized at the Cheyenne County Fair this week for long time farm ownership within the county.

The family farms, Easterly Family Farm, Narjes Land and Livestock, LLC, and Rasmussen & Sons, LLC, received the 2016 Nebraska Pioneer Farm Award during the fair rodeo.

The Pioneer Award, presented by the AKSARBEN Foundation, along with Nebraska Farm Bureau and the Nebraska Association of Fair Managers, is given to farm families who have consecutively held ownership of land in the same family for at least 100 years.

According to its AKSARBEN application, Easterly Family Farm originated when Glenn Easterly, who had helped his uncle farm before serving in the Great War, returned from France in 1919 to continue working for his uncle.

He married Viola Raisty in Iowa, then the newlyweds moved to southwest Cheyenne County in January 1921. Along with his brother, J and Nettie Easterly, the couple bought the northwest quarter and east half of Section 7 from their Uncle James.

They had to sell the east half back to their uncle two years later, but continued to rent other farm land and eventually moved in 1931 to where the Easterly farmstead is today. Glenn and J sold the northwest quarter to their mother Anna in 1934, but Glenn bought it back in 1935. In 1960, Glenn and Viola gave their two children, Marian and Jack, each an undivided half interest in the parcel.

Jack farmed and grew the operation until his death in 2006. As part of that growth, Jack and his wife Janice put the farm into a family corporation, Easterly Farms. Marian (Easterly) Hiett's half interest in Section 7 was purchased by Easterly Farms in 1991.

Jack and Janice's son, Scott, and his wife Jane bought the land from Easterly farms in 2010 and put it in Easterly Acres, LLC, the current owner.

Scott grew up on the farm with his father and grandfather and went to UNL for his degree in agriculture. He brought his wife Jane to Cheyenne County in 1980 to farm and ranch and in 2010, their son Nicholas took over the cattle operation, while their other son, Dwight, continues the farm operation with Scott.

Narjes Land and Livestock, LLC, began in 1916 when J.A. Bently sold a half section of land to William Nienhueser, the father of Emma (Neinhueser) Narjes. The land, on Cheyenne County 5-12-49, remains the current location of Narjes Land and Livestock, LLC, business operation.

Emma received the property in 1946, when Willaim passed and willed it to her. In 1950, Emma and her husband Gus Narjes transferred the farm property to their son Paul and wife Evelyn. Through the 1950s Paul and Evelyn developed the acreage to include a house, barn and quonset.

Over the following decades the family added a feed lot, hog confinement building, a pivot irrigation system and a storage building.

The farm home was sold to Paul and Evelyn's son Gerhardt (Gary) and his wife Susan in November 1989, with the remainder of the farm transferred after Paul's death. Gary and Susan's son Tyson purchased the home and three acres in 2013, while the remaining property is owned by Narjes Land and Livestock and Gary and Susan. The Narjes' other son, Ryan, and his wife Laura live a quarter mile west on other property previously held by the family.

Throughout most of the 20th century the farm focused heavily on crop production with additional involvement in the animal industry. As markets fluctuated, family has diversified and made adjustments to its operation.

Rassmussen & Sons, LLC began June of 1916, when William and Catherine Mohatt purchased land in the Sidney Draw area for $35 an acre.

The family moved its belongings west on a train in immigrant cars. They came with eight horses, a milk cow and a Jersey heifer. Family members arrived in a 1917 Buick on March 3, 1917.

Everett Mohatt took over the farm when his father was severely hurt in a thrashing accident in 1923. Ten children inherited the farm when Everett passed away in 1986. Current owner, Theresa (Mohatt) Rassmussen , one of ten children, purchased part of the farm in 2014.

Since the inception of the AKSARBEN awards, nearly 9,000 families have received the Pioneer Award. Another award, for family farms in ownership 150 years or more, has been given to 32 farm families.

"AKSARBEN Foundation is proud to recognize the long-standing dedication these farm families have to agriculture and their commitment to Nebraska," Kevin Kock, executive director of agricultural initiative said.

Honorees received an engraved plaque and gatepost marker as permanent recognition of the milestone.