In 1921, Henry George Wagner moved his family from New Jersey and established a German Boarding House and a small dairy farm in the town of Athens. In 1952, the boarding house and farm was transferred to his son, Henry John. 

For a short time, Henry and his wife Carol ran the dairy farm as well as the boarding house. In 1955 the dairy farm was closed down. The boarding house continued until 1970 when they sold the boarding house, retained the farm land and built a house up the road.

Beginning in the early 1960’s, Henry’s son, John expressed interest in farming. So, off they went to a local sale barn and returned with a couple of Hereford heifers.

It was a slow start and with limited resources, the family through the 60’s and 70’s maintained a small beef herd.

After returning from college in 1975, the farm began to slowly grow into its presence size of approximately 200 acres of owned and leased land.

The commercial Herefords were slowly transitioned to a registered seedstock operation. The transition was completed in 1993. 

The following article appeared in N-News Volume 33 Number 2 Spring / April-May-June 2018 and tells the story of the Ford 8-N tractor that the Wagners meticulously restored. This article is copyrighted and is posted with permission from Robert Rinaldi Jr of N-News.com