Schenk Family Farm
Washington County
In 1907, after immigrating from Kutter, Russia, an 18-year-old John Schenk found himself in Galveston, Texas. He traveled around for work, first laboring on his uncle's’ farm in Timken, Kansas, then on the railroad in Coffeeville, and finally at a sugar plant in Swink, Colorado.
John, Katherine and Robert (age 9) in a rye field north of the house.
In 1912 when John heard about homesteading in Colorado, he took claim of 240 acres south of Akron where he built a house, drilled a well, planted trees, and broke sod with a walking plow. While visiting family in Red Oak, Iowa, in 1915, he met Katherine Schmidt. The two married and had five children: Mable, Esther, John Jr., George and Robert.
Aerial view of the Schenk Family Farm in 1958.
Following the death of his father in 1949, Robert took over the farm and continued to work and expand the operation. In 1950 he married Dorothy Reimenschneider and together raised four children: Kenneth, Rosalie, John, and Roger. Robert and Dorothy worked side by side every day to tend the farm; they cared for the livestock, raised their family, and expanded the farm to 4000 acres. After Robert died in 2011 and Dorothy moved to Wiggins, son Roger took over management of the Schenk Family Farm, where he grows wheat and millet on the dryland acres and wheat, corn, and soybean in rotation on the irrigated circles.