August 2023 MBR The Wisconsin Shelf

The Wisconsin Shelf

The Wisconsin Farm They Built: Tales of Family & Fortitude
Corey A. Geiger
The History Press
c/o Arcadia Publishing
420 Wando Park Blvd., Mount Pleasant, SC 29464
www.arcadiapublishing.com
9781467152747, $23.99, PB, 240pp

https://www.amazon.com/Wisconsin-Farm-They-Built-Fortitude/dp/1467152749

Synopsis: Corey Geiger is an international agricultural journalist and pairs his rural roots and lively storytelling talents to capture six generations of life in America's Dairyland in "The Wisconsin Farm They Built: Tales of Family & Fortitude".

After his mother Anna was killed by a train, Elmer Pritzl was thrown into adulthood at the tender age of sixteen. A clever and crafty fellow, Elmer quickly found work at the local foundry. Promoted to foreman by age eighteen, he began supervising men double and even triple his age during the depths of the Great Depression.

However, that professional career track ended abruptly five years later when Elmer fell in love with a farmer's daughter, Julia Burich. Six months after their wedding, Julia's father passed away, and with no living male relatives left in her life, Julia's mother, Anna Burich, asked, "Elmer, will you run my farm?" So, Elmer, born a city boy, transformed his life and began a love affair with a Wisconsin family farm.

Critique: A quintessential memorial tribute to the Wisconsin family farm, "Wisconsin Farm They Built, The: Tales of Family & Fortitude" features an informative Forward by Wisconsin historian and storyteller Jerry Apps, a two page listing of 'A Basic Family Tree of Those Mentioned in the Book', and a six page Bibliography. Fascinating, informative, inspiring, "Wisconsin Farm They Built, The: Tales of Family & Fortitude" is the extraordinary, unique, exceptional, and informative history of a family farm -- as well as an unreservedly recommended pick for personal, community, college, and university library Wisconsin History and Mid-West American Agricultural History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: Corey Geiger (www.coreygeiger.com) is also the author of "On a Wisconsin Family Farm: Historic Tales of Character, Community and Culture" . In 1995, this University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate joined the Hoard's Dairyman editorial team. In 2013, Geiger was tapped as the publication's fifth lead editor. Geiger was elected the sixty-fifth president of Holstein Association USA and serves on the board of directors for the World Dairy Expo. He remains true to his farming roots, managing and owning a portion of his six-generation family farm that serves as the epicenter for "The Wisconsin Farm They Built: Tales of Family & Fortitude".

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