Wisconsin Farm They Built : Tales of Family & Fortitude

The Next Generation Indie Book Awards Winner 2024

Corey Geiger, international agricultural journalist and author of On a Wisconsin Family Farm, pairs his rural roots and lively storytelling talents to capture six generations of life in America’s Dairyland.

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.

Corey Geiger is the author of the award-winning 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.