The large 12-room house on the Sommerer farm of Cole Co. is located at 5240 Tanner Bridge Road. One of the most renowned residents of the estate and by marriage the starter of the Sommerer ownership was author and poet Simon Kerl (born 9/10/1829) who bought the estate in 1854. During the Civil War, Kerl served as a secretary to President Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C.

After President Lincoln was killed, Kerl came home, married Katherina Sommerer and the farm has been in the Sommerer family ever since. Kerl wrote several books here, mainly children's school texts as well as "The Secession of Virginia." The contents of the house, for the most part, date back to the late 1800's.

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On May 8th, 1999 the Hoelscher farm, located in Cole County, had been in the Hoelscher family for 100 years. The present owners, Leonard and Delbert Hoelscher are the Great-grandsons of Joseph who purchased the farm for $2,300.00 in 1899. The farm consists of hay fields and hills with mostly oak and walnut trees with a meandering spring fed creek. The farm lies very close to the Osage River but does not access the river. Standing in the middle of the hay fields, all alone, is an old maple tree. It has a girth of over 13 feet, measured about 3 feet from the base, and was used as a resting-place for lunch for many generations of family and neighbors working in the fields.

Through the early years the land was used for raising crops such as oats, wheat, corn, hay, and sorghum. Some of the crops were fed to the livestock and some sold for a profit. Horses were used for plowing and harvesting the crops. Thrashing, saw milling, molasses making, and butchering were the many activities shared by all family members. Since 1996, Leonard and Delbert, who now own the farm, made the farm into a strictly moneymaking hay and cattle farm. Alfalfa, timothy, and fescue hay are being raised and many top quality alfalfa bails have been sold to horse farmers. They have also experimented with different types of beef cattle to find the right combination to produce good quality steers and heifers. Some of those steers have been selected, raised, and shown as 4-H steers at the Cole County Fair. The farm has a herd of between 90-100 cows, heifers, and steers. The brothers continue to improve the land for hay production and have had two major sites of erosion cleaned up with the help of the Soil and Water Commission and a new terrace draining system. Other changes have also been made, such as new buildings, new equipment, and electric fences where the old woven wire fences once stood.

Quentin V. and Elizabeth A. Wade: This 200-acre farm has been in the family now for three generations. One hundred and thirty nine acres was purchased from John H. Gibler and wife on November 2, 1903 by Emmet Wade, Quentin’s grandfather. Emmet put together a much larger farm that he used for beef production. Vernon Wade, Quentin’s father, later added additional acreage to the farm and had a Grade A Dairy operation from 1941 to 1964. Quentin and his wife obtained the farm in the 1980’s and today it contains 200 acres, 139 acres of that are part of the 200 acres purchased by his grandfather in 1903. This farm was a part of a larger farm that was declared a Century Farm in 1976 by Quentin’s father and mother, Vernon and Gladys Wade. The size at that time was 804 acres.

Quentin and Elizabeth use their farm for beef and hay production. At the present time they have approximately 30 mix breed cows and produce enough hay for them and their calves. In 2003 they built a new brick home on the farm because there had not been a house on the property for many years.

LeRoy and Martin Engelbrecht, Martin and Patricia Engelbrecht & LeRoy and Doris Engelbrecht: The original dwelling on this farm was a two-story, four-roomed log house, probably built in the 1840’s. Local folklore holds that the house was the residence of a grandfather and one dozen of his grandchildren during the Civil War. The house was replaced in 1916-1917 by the current farmhouse, built when Julius and Barbara (Sommerer) Engelbrecht took over the farm. The new six-room house was built using a blueprint obtained from Montgomery Ward. It was framed with lumber sawed at a local sawmill from trees harvested off of the farm. The home possessed such modern features as an interior bathroom, though without plumbing for many years. The house has been in constant use since it was built, though it has undergone several renovations, including installing REA electricity (Three Rivers Electric Cooperative) in 1947 and plumbing in the bathroom and kitchen. It has been the home of Martin and Patricia (Elliott) Engelbrecht since 1960. The old log house became “storage” but it was declared a fire hazard and razed in 1948; much of the lumber was reused.

Records show that a schoolhouse was located on the farm in 1866. A second schoolhouse replaced the first; it was subsequently torn down and a third built in 1916. The third school house commonly referred to as the “Ambrose Schoolhouse”, still stands today on the eastern edge of the current farm, behind the residence of Leroy and Doris Engelbrecht. The lumber and tin salvaged from the second schoolhouse building were used on the farm to construct a 20’ x 20’ poultry house and a machine shed, both of which are still in use.

The farm has also seen innovations and renovations throughout the years. In 1925 or 1926 personnel from the University of Missouri College of Agriculture terraced a 12- acre field on the farm adjacent to Tanner Bridge Road for demonstration purposes of advance farming. Still in use, these terraces are possibly the oldest in Cole County. The University of Missouri College Of Agriculture also fenced another 6-acre plot on the farm to demonstrate crop rotation, which it maintained until it closed the project out in the early 1930’s.

In the early years, under the ownership of the Engelbrecht family, the farm’s primary livestock operation was the breeding of horses and mules. The Engelbrecht family had a blacksmithing shop located nearby, just outside Brazito. Near the farmhouse, a barn was designed and built specifically for horse stalls only. The barn was renovated in 1921 to add a 12 x 30 cow shed, which in turn became a milking parlor in the 1940’s. The barn, with its limestone foundation and pegged wooden beams, still serves as the hay and livestock barn for the current beef cattle operation, with a tractor belt-driven hammer mill for grinding grain into livestock feed in the place of the old milking parlor.

The operation of the farm has evolved with the times. The high demand for flour during the First World War prompted the family to begin a crop rotation of wheat, red clover and corn. These crops were grown alongside fields of red top and timothy hay needed for the livestock. The horses and mules were replaced by registered horned Hereford cattle and spotted Poland hogs. As a result of the Great Depression, the registered Hereford operation was wiped out, to be replaced by milk cows. The severe droughts of the1930’s eliminated the growing of red clover as a crop. In its place, Korean lespedeza was grown as a legume in the 1930’s and 1940’s. The milking operation ended with the retirement of Julius and Barbara, but an egg and poultry operation helped sustain the farm as Martin and Patricia reintroduced horned Hereford beef cattle when they took over.

Currently the farm supports a modest herd of mixed breed beef cows and calves, fescue hay and grain crops such as corn and milo grown for cattle feed. Much of the property still remains wooded and native trees are harvested for use on the farm. The Engelbrecht farm has been forced to become more self-sufficient as the adjoining neighborhood farms are steadily subdivided into housing developments. Their encroachment will be one of the most difficult obstacles to operating the farm for a second hundred years.

* Roger A. and Dinah L. Hagner: This farm has been used as a hay, crop and dairy farm in the past. Today the family still grows beans, corn, wheat and hay. Also they have a beef herd and hogs.

Of note, the spelling of the last name was changed along the Turn of the Century, 1900, by Roger’s grandparents to make it simpler from Hagener to Hagner. Roger still has relatives that have the extra “e” living in this area.

* Raymond J. and Irma A. Leigers Kleffner: On September 11, 1876 the original 40 acres of this farm was purchased by Lambert Leigers. Lambert passed the property to his son, B. H. (Henry) Leigers. Henry in turn passed the property to his son, John Leigers. Upon John’s death in 1963, William Leigers purchased the farm from his father’s (John) estate. William died in 1995 and willed the farm to his surviving siblings. Raymond and Irma Leigers Kleffner purchased the farm from Irma’s brother (William) estate.

Ray and Irma resided on the farm for a brief time with her father, John, immediately after their marriage in 1948. On their wedding day, May 29, 1948, a wedding breakfast was held at the farm following the ceremony with one of John Leigers’ country cured hams being a featured menu item.

The farm has always been the sole source of income for all owners, from Lambert through William, from livestock and crops.

Upon acquiring the property from William’s estate, Ray and Irma have leased the land to local cattle producers. Additionally, upon acquiring the land, Ray and Irma have replaced all fence lines, added new ponds and a lake. They have also replaced many of the original buildings that were in such disrepair they were long past saving.

The farm through the years grew to more than 220 acres. At the current time the farm consists of about 190 acres, most of which is grazing land.

Ray and Irma’s daughter, Linda, currently lives on the farm in the brick rancher home built by William Leigers in 1968, thus this farm has always been occupied, since 1876, by five generations of direct descendants of Lambert Leigers.

Freddie O. and Betty Mae Jacobs: Johann Hirschman and his family came by boat to the United States from Germany. They had a son, George, who was 3 years old at the time. John’s wife died on the journey from the boat to Missouri.

He and his second wife, Margaret, purchased a farm in Cole County in April 1854. In the late 1800’s or early 1900’s Johann built the barn. It sits on a rock foundation and is put together with wooden plugs. The track and fork, to put loose hay in the barn, is still there and working. He then built a 2-room house with a kitchen downstairs and a bedroom upstairs out of logs and mortar. They cut a hole in the upstairs floor to let the heat go up. Later on they built 2 more rooms downstairs and 2 more upstairs. Both the barn and house are still standing and the barn is still in use.

John and his wife Margaret purchased 43.6 acres in Cole County on April 11, 1854 by the provisions of the “Act of Congress of the 24th of April 1820, to sell Public lands” by the President Franklin Pierce.

November 1, 1859 Grant – “Whereas, in pursuance of the Addition Certain Acts Granting Bounty Land to Certain Officers and Soldiers who have been engaged in the Military service of the United States” there was deposited in the General Land Office of 160 acres in favor of Catharine Y. Benson, widow of John B. Benson, Private in Captain Thornton’s Company of Virginia Militia in the War of 1812, was returned to the General Land Office and sold to Benjamin C. Flannigan (consisting of 160 acres with other property) the President was James Buchanan.

On July 17, 1866 Peter Myers, Collector of Cole County, presented a delinquent list of lands and town lots for which the taxes were due and unpaid for the year of 1865. They would be sold to satisfy the taxes. The real estate assessed to B. Flannigan for the sum of $6.70, taxes and interest for the year of 1865, were due and unpaid, so on October 2, 1866 at the County Court House door, John Hirschman bought the 160 acres for $6.70.

In January 1884, George Hirschman purchased 7 acres from William Beck and wife Mary, south of the road passing through known as the Springfield and Jefferson City road (now know as Tanner Bridge Road).

John Hirschman sold to George Hirschman (his son) 200 acres more or less. The original deed was signed in German script handwriting as “Johann Hirschman” but was recorded as John Hirschman, March 15, 1882.

George Hirschman died March 16, 1935, passing his farm on to his wife and 8 children. One of his daughters was Ollie Hirschman Jacobs, who was married to E.C. Jacobs. They had 2 children, Helen Jacobs Fischer and Freddie Jacobs.

Freddie and his wife Betty purchased the farm from the last Hirschman heir, Matthew, on March 6, 1974 and built a new house on it.

Freddie and Betty Jacobs have six children, three of whom bought ground and built homes on it.

The land has always been used to grow crops and raises cattle and Freddie still raises cattle on the farm.

Elizabeth and Junior in front of home built on farm.

Joseph Brondel with horses in front of barn which is still standing.