The Bohlender Family farm was purchased in 1919 by Jacon Bohlender from his uncle, Fred. In 1920 a horse barn and house were built on the NW corner of the farm, and over the next several years additional buildings such as a dairy barn, chicken house and cattle sheds were constructed. During the depression the dairy couldn’t support the family so Jacobworked in nearby coal mines and his wife, Martha, raised chickens and sold eggs. Through the 1950s the primary source of income was the dairy, with most of the crops used to feed the dairy cows.

George and Anna Bernhardt, Germans from Frank, Russia came to the United States in 1907. They first lived in Globeville, near Denver. He worked two jobs at the packing plant and for the smelter hauling ashes. He decided that Denver was not the place to raise a family. On March 18, 1920, he purchased what is now known as the Home Farm near Milliken. George and Anna had seven children and they lived in a two room house on the farm until they built the Farmhouse in 1928. Their youngest son Reuben started milking cows when he was eight years old.

In 1917, James "Jim" Elder bought a 240-acre farm five miles north-west of Wellington. Trees were planted, a barn and outbuildings were erected. In 1924, a new modem house with a Delco System to provide electricity was built. James fed sheep and raised cattle. He raised sugar beets, com, hay and grain and farming was done with horses until 1940. Jim belonged to the Larimer County Pioneers and served as a director on the North Poudre Irrigation Board.

Andrew and Elizabeth Barkley and their three children, Edwin, Freda, and William, moved from Gravity, Iowa to Fleming, Colorado in the year 1919 and on approximately May 5, 1919 purchased the 160 acres listed above. The property is located two miles West of Fleming, Colorado and lies on the South side of highway 6. When the property was purchased it had on it a small house and about three out-buildings.

Swiss-born Gottfriend Weyermann immigrated to the United States in 1883 and married Carolena Fischer. Two years later they homesteaded southeast of Idalia, Colorado. They received a patent in 1900 and a homestead certificate in 1909. They built a sod house, barn, and chicken house, and had six children: Ida, Anna Marie, Herman, Arnold Henry, Frederick John, and Lena. Corolena died in 1905, and Gottfried was remarried in 1909 to Eliza.

Mary Elizabeth (Lizzie) DeBus was born in 1888 in Geddes, South Dakota and moved with her family to Prowers County, Colorado in 1901. After watching her older brother Vincent homestead south of Holly, Lizzie proceeded to do just the same in 1914. Her father William helped her improve the acreage by building a dwelling and relatives were hired to plow and cultivate 40 acres to grow crops.  Lizzie was granted her homestead deed in 1919. She also owned and ran the Holly Millinery Shop.

William Hagan started the Schmittel Ranch in the early 1900s with 160 acres in Saguache, Colorado. He purchased the brand in 1906, and the water rights were filed in 1909. The nearby Anderson Place as well as other land was purchased over the years, leading to 3,360 total acres of land owned and 2,240 state-leased. Sheep, cattle, horses, and native grass hay are farmed on the land. The homestead was patented in 1920. Kenneth and Mary Schmittel (daughter of William and Jenny Hagan) started managing the ranch after moving onto it in 1942.

Pete & Anna Ulrich immigrated to the US from Russia.  They spent a few years farming for others in Kansas before moving on to Greeley and LaSalle, eventually purchasing the farm that their grandson Rod and his wife June own today.  Pete had a small dairy ranch and raised corn and hay to feed his dairy cattle. The farm slowly transitioned from a dairy to today’s farm and feedlot.

In 1916, Gottfried Kugler received a homestead patent for 340 acres of ranch land in north-eastern Colorado. Gottfried and his two sons, Karl and Jacob, built a homestead at the location. The family purchased subsequent patents over the years (some under President Woodrow Wilson). Karl and Jacob became co-owners in 1934 and Jacob became sole owner in 1945. By the time Argil Renzelman (Jacob’s nephew) became the owner of the ranch in 1967, the ranch was comprised of 1,300 acres.

In 1919 George and Luva Reed purchased 160 acres of ranch land from the original owners. They added holdings whenever possible, and the ranch now amounts to more than 4,000 acres. Their daughter Faye married Harry Raven in 1933. Harry and Faye lived in the back of the Purcell post office/gas station, later moving into a small home next-door. They had two daughters, Beverly and Judy.  A new house was finished west of the gas station just after the Blizzard of 1949. The ranch ran cattle operations and registered Quarter Horses.