The Wheat King

The Benkelman Post always has a section with news stories from years gone past called "In Years Gone By", compiled by Glenda Bartholomew.

This week under the "100 Years Ago" heading is the following:

The News-Chronicle
Vol. 14,No. 33 - Jan. 18, 1907

Dundy County's Wheat King

In the days now past, Dundy County was known as the home of real cattle barons, but few were its renowned in the line of agriculture. Today puts a different phase on its appearance, and on the divide land known as the "flats" south of Haigler lives a German of about the age of 40 years who this year, with but the assistance of one man during part of the seading season, harvested 16,000 bushels of wheat of the first-class variety. The name of this particular person is Charley Zuege. He owns 1,200 acres of the best land on the flats, 700 acres of which were used in the production of this enormous wheat crop. He finds a ready market for it at top prices and will engage in the same line of farming to a much greater extent this year. While this is somewhat out of the ordinary for one man yet there are hundreds of instances in Dundy County where the same good judgment and industry are making rapid strides in the race of dollars and it is only a matter of a very few years until they will be more common.
-- The Benkelman Post & News-Chronicle - January 10, 2007, p. 4

The reason I wanted to share this bit of news with you is because I grew up on the "Charley Zuege" place. My dad bought the "home place" section from Charley's wife, Bertha, in 1941 after she decided to sell, sometime after Charley's death. She actually lived with my folks for awhile after they moved there.

It was probably in 1907 - maybe before or after a year or two - that the house we lived in was built. I loved that house! Wish I had one just like it today! Here is a picture of it taken many years later.
PS: This house was dismantled in the 1970s and no longer exists. Steve and Tammy Workman now live on the "place" southeast of Haigler.
-- Sherri Gregory