Our farm started with 2 families, Nicholas & Margaret Kretzinger and Owen & Martha Callahan. Both moved to Bates County Missouri in the late 1800s.

Nicholas Kretzinger moved to Spruce Missouri with his family in 1867 and shortly after purchased 140 acres. Nicholas passed away in 1872, and his family eventually sold the property a piece at a time over the years. Our family has rented and still farms most of the property for many years and in 2017 30 acres of this original farm was purchased back into the family. Nicholas’s son I M Kretzinger purchased the property just north of his parents consisting of 193 acres in approximately 1899 there with his wife Ona he raised 2 children Madge and Dorothy. This property is still the center of our farm today.

Owen Callahan moved with 6 of his children including his son George Washington Callahan Sr to Johnstown Missouri in the 1870s. In 1875 George owned 160 acres near Johnstown and Owen owned 60 acres in Johnstown. Most of Georges land never left the family and is still owned by the family today. His son Joseph continued to farm his father’s land along with being an auctioneer. Joseph then passed down the farm to his children and most of it remains in the family to this day. Owens 60 acres was sold somewhere along the way but in 2006 approximately 20 acres of it was purchased by his great great grandson and his great great great grandson as part of a larger tract of ground.

In October of 1941 George Washington Sr’s grandson George William Callahan married Dorothy May Kretzinger and before long the two farms became one. The family has purchased more land along the way to add to the original tracts purchased by George and I M but for more than 125 years our family has farmed the same land in Bates County MO. There has been several other professions along the way besides just the farm ranging from an auctioneer, trucking companies, nurse, banker and veterinarian but still today it is operated by George and Dorothys son and wife, their son and his wife and their children.

Corn to Whiskey