The second Averill farm in this series is located in Pierce County, between Hadar and the County Seat; Pierce. This farm, as far as I can tell, was never farmed by any Averills It was purchased later and then passed down through time. According to historygeo, the farm was homesteaded in 1870 by Martin Raasch. In 2019, the land is farmed for the Averills by Robert Seegebarth. You can also see nearby parcels homesteaded by Seegebarth's Great Grandfather, Ferdinand Seegebarth .
Ferdinand is buried in Hadar, as are his wife, children, and grandchildren.
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| Original Pierce County Homesteads |
By 1920, many of the original owners had either passed away or sold their farms to move elsewhere, though a significant fraction remained; even through their descendants to the present day. Since Raasch isn't buried in Nebraska, I can only guess that perhaps he moved on north to Wisconsin. In 1920, the farm was owned by Klaus Winter. There is a
good story about his tenure, along with his son Herbert, to be found on findagrave. Klaus is
buried in nearby Pierce (the story is there), as is his wife, Emma. His son, Herbert, is
buried in Norfolk, which is a bit further south down the highway.
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| Averill Farm (Circled) Around 1920 - Klaus Winter Farmed it at that Time |
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| Click for Larger Image |
Sometime after Klaus gave up the farm, Bruce and Hazel Emley acquired the farm. I don't know if they bought it directly, or inherited it from Bruce's mother, Anna Waldo Emley (Averill), who was the daughter of Charles Henry Averill and Maria Louise. In any event, Anna outlived her younger son, and Bruce was childless. To make a long story short, Bruce passed away in 1960 and his wife, Hazel inherited the farm as shown in 1961 below. Hazel, when she passed in 1979 with no children, left the farm to Eleanor Averill, her cousin. Eleanor never married nor had children either, but she outlived Hazel by ten years.
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| Hazel Emley Owned the Averill (Circled) Pierce County Farm in 1961 |
Eleanor also outlived all of her own cousins.
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| Eleanor Averill Owned the Farm from 1979 to 1989 |
When Eleanor died, in 1989, she left it to Robert and Eddie Averill. Eddie was a cousin's son and Robert was another cousin's son. A third cousin's son passed away before Eleanor. Accordingly, in 1990, the farm became "Eddie Averill et al." Apparently she felt it appropriate to split the farm evenly between Edward Averill Jr's eldest son and Arthur Averill's eldest son. In any event, that's how things worked out.
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| Eleanor Averill Left the Farm to Eddie and Robert Averill in 1979 |
Steve purchased Eddie's share so half wouldn't get sold off outside the family, as had happened in Cuming County, and it became divided into a portion owned by Robert and another owned by Steve. Robert wanted the old homestead, though there was little left of it other than the trees that once surrounded the farmhouse and barn. As you can also see, the Seegebarth family picked up other land in between 1990 and 2009, which is shown below. The land on the other side of the highway from the Averill farm was part of Ferdinand's original homestead, and some of the nearby Mittelstad pieces have been owned by that family since they were homesteaded. Compare with the original homesteads.
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| Averill Pierce County Farm in 2009 |
As you can see from the last photo, the farm is still around. Nancy is talking corn talk with farm managers Marlin Krohn and Sam Zach. Steve would be in the photo, but someone had to hold the camera!
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| Nancy holding Corn for Inspection by Marlin Krohn and Sam Zach |
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Part 1 - Sheridan County
Part 3 - Cuming County
