Five Sisters Continue Family’s Legacy

In 1890, August Gerkins purchased his first 160 acres of farmland in Pierce County for about $1,100 or about $30,000 in today's dollars.

He bought the land as part of the federal "land grant university" initiative which aimed to fund state universities nationwide.

The federal government and State of Nebraska mostly sold and leased unclaimed land in the northeastern part of the state. Two acts in the early 1860s prompted the sale of 134,596 acres and funded programs in agriculture, mechanics, and military tactics.

August Gerkins' granddaughter, Cheryl Gerkins, said the farm has stayed almost the same for 131 years.

In a phone interview, Cheryl Gerkins, described the land as peaceful and beautiful.

"When you are by the house and you have a wonderful view to the west, the northside is a grove of trees. And my mom had a big flower garden to the south of the house," Gerkins said.

All in all, it's a classic small family farm; and the land's four co-owning sisters want to keep it that way.

Gerkins grew up on the family's 160 acres of land with four sisters and one brother. They played and "chored" together amongst old iron machinery and dilapidated buildings.

After their parents' deaths, four of the children inherited the farmland- all of its crop fields, livestock pastures, and buildings- as many generations had before. The first family landowner was Cheryl's great-grandfather, August Gerkins.

August Gerkins and his wife raised seven children together, eventually passing down the farm to their son Ferd Gerkins. Ferd then passed down the land to his son- and Cheryl's father- Merle Gerkins.

Merle and his wife, Jean, raised their kids on firm schedules and consistent chores. One of their daughters, Lori Gerkins, said that dinner was always served at noon on the dot.

The couple found fun in going out to wedding dances almost every Saturday night. Lori said the two met during a dance in Pierce County.

Cheryl also said that her parents raised all of the daughters to be independent women, an unusual occurrence for the time. All of the children rode horses, milked the cows twice a day, and baled hay.

"But you know most of us never knew how to ride other than like farmgirl riding," Gerkins said. "We weren't doing correct riding… We just would get on the horse and ride."

Yet the kids enjoyed lots of free time to "run wild." Cheryl described playing softball in the yard, building forts in the trees, and riding horses through the countryside during the summers.

"We had a little volleyball court up in the hayloft up in the barn. When we were milking cows we'd go up and play volleyball," Cheryl said. "And in the winter we had a little slide up in the barn and we'd take our sleds and do that and have snowball fights."

The eldest four children, Cheryl, Dal, Lori, and Dawn, participated in 4-H as well. Cheryl remembered winning a livestock judging and bread baking event at the county level and eventually displaying her work at state.

"My brother… his lamb used to win grand champion at the local fair and the county fair. And one year I finally beat him and I was really excited," Cheryl said. "He didn't really care."

Despite the joy she found in beating her brother, she remembered being nervous about presenting in front of so many people. After all, she said she was just an introverted small time farm girl.

Other than weekly trips to the nearby town of Randolph for Saturday grocery trips and Sunday church service, the family was too busy with farm work to leave the land often.

So when Cheryl left to attend the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, she experienced what she could only describe as culture shock.

"My roommate was from North Omaha and so I hung out with her friends. And even though they used to call me a nickname, farmer or something, they were very accepting," Gerkins said.

Gerkins said it was from those experiences that she was introduced to different cultures.

Looking back, Gerkins said she believes the university widened her horizons.

"I learned when you're in a little town, everyone knows you," she said. "At that point in time, if you didn't conform to how they wanted you to be, you were kind of outcast."

Gerkins said living in Lincoln allowed her to experience more anonymity and be accepted without conforming.

Nowadays, the eldest Gerkins daughter is retired and living in Lincoln. Although she's traveled the world from Peru to Europe to Jordan, she still enjoys the benefits of Nebraska life like sparse traffic and room for her own backyard garden.

She and her sisters also visit the farm at least a few times a year to clean out their deceased parents' belongings and help tend to the aging buildings. Their neighbor currently farms and grazes cattle on their land along with his own.

Gerkins' sister and co-owner of the farm, Lori Gothier, still finds it hard to visit her childhood home without her father's presence.

"It's just different walking in, especially walking into dad's shop," Gothier said. "It can be hard because everything is still there from when he died."

Even after he stopped farming, he continued to work and follow a daily routine, she said.

"Dad was always puttering," Gothier said. "He still got up at the same time, ate the same thing. It was always poached egg and toast. Sometimes he'd get a wild hair and we'd fry an egg."

The five co-owning daughters plan to keep the farm's 160 acres together and under the care of their neighbor for the foreseeable future. Cheryl also said they want to work with the neighbors to conserve natural resources and be good stewards of the land wherever possible.

After all these years, she still finds the land a peaceful place to spend time listening to visiting birds and relaxing. And Lori's children have always seen their family's land as a home away from home.

Both sisters hope the family and its descendants will enjoy the farmstead for years to come.