Lauitzen Farm Recognized for Nebraska Pioneer Farm Status

The Lauritzen Farm was recognized by the Knights of Aksarben for Pioneer Farm status. This award is given to farms in Nebraska who have been owned by the same family for 100 years or more.

The photo below was at the presentation at the Cass County Fair on August 6, 2008. The present owners of the farm are siblings Alice, Doris, Evelyn and Kenneth (David Lauritzen great grandson of Lars {Peter Olsen, was not present for the photo).

The brief history of the farm is below. If you have more information to add, please e. mail me, or comment. Everyone in the family will definetly have alot of memories associated with the farm!

Lars Peter Olsen (an immigrant of Denmark to the United States in 1893) purchased the farm on the west side of Hwy 50 north of the Weeping Water spur in 1908.

The farm was the original site of Weeping Water in the middle 19th century. A post office, a greenhouse as well as a couple other buildings were originally on the site where the farm is now.

Current family members who own the farm, include Lars Peter Olsen’s grandchildren, Doris D, Evelyn R, Kenneth L (who actively farms the land as third generation), Alice S and great grandson David L (son of Richard L).

(Lars) Peter Olsen moved to Weeping Water in 1918, but continued to farm and went to the farm every day until he passed away in 1955. (Another interesting part of the areas history is the house that (Lars) Peter Olsen moved into in Weeping Water, has been in the family for over 90 years and is now occupied by Doris Duff. Parents Dagmar and Rasmus were married in this house in Weeping Water.).

(Lars) Peter Olsen raised oats, wheat and corn. He built a state of the art corn crib in 1916, on the farm.

Daughter Dagmar Olsen Lauritzen and husband Rasmus (who had immigrated to the United States from Denmark in 1920) farmed the land starting in 1937.
Son Kenneth had been involved in farming the family farm and took over the farming operation after graduating from the University of Nebraska in the 1960’s.

Brother Richard Lauritzen (David Lauritzen’s father/now deceased) was a talented machinist and kept things in running order. He made whirlwind terraces (an early form of terracing) in 1950.

The present house on the farm was built by Rasmus and Dagmar Lauritzen in 1959. Dagmar operated a self serve egg and cream business out of the garage of the then new house for 15 years. 200 laying hens supplied eggs. Many locals will remember driving out to the farm to purchase eggs and cream from the self service in the garage. A refrigerator in the garage held the eggs and cream and a muffin tin sat on a shelf with the change for honest customers to help themselves.
After retiring from farming in 1968, Rasmus continued to help on the farm until his death in 1976. He helped with the several milk cows and the chickens after retiring.


Kenneth and his wife Alice, continue to farm the family farm and contiguous land, for a total of 1000 acres. Besides row crops, alfalfa and hay, Kenneth and Dagmar had a cow calf herd. Kenneth was one of the first to be involved in breeding Semintal cattle. Kenneth was one of the first farmers in Cass County to use no-till planting to preserve the top soil and conserve moisture for crop growth. Large stands of woods and fence rows remain in abundance to provide wildlife habitat and natural beauty.