This picture of a "sod busting" plow was taken a couple years ago while visiting the Homestead National Monument near Beatrice, NE. (I rested my walking cane on the bench while taking the picture). This afternoon, Carolyn and Ben brought up one just like it to our Patio area that we have been the custodians of for the past 20+ years. It belonged to Elaine's Grandfather Charles H. Koch who brought it along when they moved from Rhineland, MO to Germantown, NE in 1905. We have little history of the Koch family but Charles' Father, August and other family members migrated to Missouri some time prior to Charles being born in 1855 in St. Louis. He apparently had reason to break sod and also used his team of Mules to operate a "dray" service. He took his mules and wagon along when he enlisted on September 13, 1862, to fight in the Civil War. One of the mules was killed by artillery and he was mustered out on August 21, 1865, in Columbus, GA. "He died of a stoke while sitting on a rail fence discussing the farming operation with his son Charles on April 29, 1886, at age 61". Charles continued farming at various locations before moving to Seward County in 1905 where they bought 160 acres near Seward. During WW I, pressure was put on many of those of German ancestry to buy War Bonds. The story is that it led to their loss of the farm and they lived out their years in Seward. The plow has deterioriated considerably during the time it set under our Fir tree, but all the basic parts are still there. Hopefully the wood parts can be replaced and it put in the Seward County Historical Museum in Goehner, NE.
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