Cattle Co. controlled 38 Nuckolls Co. sections

With the death of Marty Pohlman last Wednesday morning, The Express lost a valued staff member of more than 13 years. As we were cleaning out his desk, we found the following story about the Superior Cattle Company, an important business in the early years of the community.

It is appropriate to publish this week as a story in last week’s paper about a Civilian Conservation Corps dam being rebuilt on the former ranch property brought inquires to The Express about the cattle company. Reviewing the story Marty was writing raised questions about when the cattle company ceased operations and the bank’s name that C. E. Adams headed at the time. Adams served as president of Superior Cattle Company and was president of two Superior banks. The cattle company’s failure is sometimes associated with the failure of his First National Bank. He had also served as president of the Superior National Bank. The banks were located at Fourth and Central. One on the northwest corner and one on the southwest corner of the intersection.

By Marty Pohlman

Corn and soybeans dominate the economic agricultural landscape in Nuckolls County today. At the end of the 19th and early 20th century this was not the case. Cattle was the leading source of revenue and the king of the cattle trade was the Superior Cattle Company. Headquartered on the ‘El Rancho Capitan,’ located in Beaver Township, the company dominated the local beef market for more than 20 years.

The company was founded in 1885. Claredon Edwin “Cap” or Claire Adams, along with nine other men, incorporated the company. Adams was president of the Superior National Bank. His partners were mostly members of the bank board of directors, officers or employees. Adams was a colorful figure in the early days of Nuckolls County. He was an unabashed promoter of the area and himself.

The Superior Cattle Company was one of the early corporate farms as it was incorporated on Feb. 20, 1885. Adams and David Bosserman had acquired possession of Section Eight in Beaver Township from the Superior bank which just happened to have Adams as its president.

The company was not content with one section of land. At its zenith, the ranch was compromised of 34 sections, either owned outright by the company, leased or under contract. This amounted to more than 21,700 acres of land.

The company was involved in different facets of business. Its purpose was segmented into six parts: conducting business, selling, leasing and mortgaging real estate, pursuing a general livestock and commission business, selling, feeding, grazing and shipping breeding cattle and horses, farming as well as buying and selling grains of all types.

The company operated a feeding station in Superior in the southwest part of the community near the Mid-Am plant. The cattle were shipped by railroad from Superior.

John Bosserman served as the overseer of the company. David Butler served in the capacity of ranch foreman. He and his family resided on the ranch. It was his responsibility to provide board for the ranch hands.

The ranch was known for its fine horses. Arabian stallions were bred with Hambletonian trotting mares to produce well-regarded, high-strung and spirited offspring of pleasure class equines.

There was a rudimentary house built at the ranch site before 1885. It consisted of a brick basement which contained the kitchen and dining room. A small wooden structure, with the living and sleeping quarters was constructed above the basement. A spring was located near the kitchen door. It provided a year-round source of cool water. It never ran dry or froze. It was also the only source of water on the ranch grounds. A cooling box was constructed in the spring. Milk, butter and other perishables were kept there.

When the ranch was well established, it served as a popular vacation destination for county residents. Two lakes on the property were stocked with German carp and trout. The lakes also afforded visitors the opportunity for fishing and boating. Day visitors used the ranch as a picnic site.

The ranch encountered financial difficulties in 1906. A depressed cattle market and a national economic depression sealed its fate.

The land owned by the corporation was put up for sale. Section 8, the original land to make up the ranch was purchased by Michael Woerner.

Mike Woerner was born in Baden Germany in 1854. He came to the United States, along with his family, when he was 16 years old. The family settled in Arenzville, Illinois. Mike had learned the butcher trade at a packing plant in Chicago. He owned and operated a butcher shop in Arenzville. He served as the mayor of the town. He was also a farmer and livestock buyer and shipper.

Woerner married Alice Campbell in 1879. She bore the couple three children, all whom died in infancy. Alice died in 1882.

Woerner married Mary “Mollie” Morath in 1883. Mollie and Mike would become parents of six children: Albert, Lilly, Robert Ben, Harry, Ernest and Florence.

Woerner moved his family to Superior in 1898. The ranch house of ‘El Rancho Capitan” was included along with the acreage of Section 8. Woerner built an addition to the front of the house. The family resided upstairs while the ranch hands utilized the basement. The cooling box at the spring was later replaced with a large ice house and refrigerator. The ice was harvested from the lake on the north side of the section. The ice was sawed and then hauled to the ice house. It was packed in straw and lasted through the summer. There was no shortage of cold drinks or ice cream at the Woerner house.

Woerner constructed three silos and continued to raise cattle on the land. He owned and leased three sections of land. He grew corn to feed his growing cattle business. As many as 15 corn pickers with teams and wagons were required to harvest the crop.

Woerner sold the ranch to a loan company in 1916. He acquired a ranch at Woodlake in trade for his ranch. He ranched there for one year. He then bought a farm near Homer in 1918. He and his family resided there until his death from pneumonia in 1928. He was buried in the Omaha Valley Cemetery south of Homer. Mollie died in 1952, at Homer, and is buried next to Mike.

Robert Ben Woerner, one of Mike’s sons, purchased Section 8 in 1946. He operated the ranch in partnership with his son, Robert B. Jr. Father and son operated the ranch until Robert B. Sr.’s death in 1968. Robert B. Jr. and his mother, Carmitia, ran the operation until her death in 1976.

The ranch has been home to five generations of the Woerner family.