Joseph Lee Wertz moved from Kansas to McClave, Colorado in 1919 then purchased the family farm. On it, he proceeded to cultivate milo, alfalfa, sugar beets, wheat, corn and cattle on roughly 150 acres. A beet dump and corrals existed on the southeast corner of the plot next to a train right of way. Six children were raised on the farm by J.L. Wertz and his wife, Rhoda. The family donated land in 1933 to establish the Dunkard Brethren Church on a corner of their land. The farm was passed down through cousins and eventually to W. Brent Wertz, the current owner. His father, Ivon, worked on the farm as a child during an extraordinary harvest, yielding 120 bushels of corn per acre by hand.