Where it all began.

Friedrich Herman Wach was born on December 30, 1831 in Germany. In 1885, Friedrich, his wife, and nine children arrived in America to homestead in Nebraska. One year later he filed for a homestead claim in Hayes County. He took his three oldest children with him and left his wife and six younger children in Sutton, NE until he could provide a home for them. Once a sod house was built on his homestead, he went to Sutton to bring the rest of the family. They started back to Hayes County with a covered wagon, a plain wagon, a team of horses, a team of oxen, and a milk cow. As the family grew and prospered, they built a house from cement blocks making only six blocks at a time (this house is still standing today). They had a big garden and raised wheat, corn, livestock, oats and barley. The children went to school in a sod house, High Ridge District No. 24.

To this day, we still raise wheat on the ground that Friedrich homesteaded on. The picture above was taken from the top of a hill on what we call High Ridge. That house Friedrich built is at the bottom of the hill. Every time we stand here, we imagine what this view must have looked like for Friedrich. To see the vast plain out before him and the dreams that he had. Would he have ever imagined three John Deere combines harvesting that same field he grew wheat on? That his family would be there over 130 years later still raising crops and cattle?