Rasche family gravesite
In the back portion of Hermann Farm, there is a tiny graveyard for the Rasche family, who lived here in the 19th century and had an extensive orchard — they even had an apple variety named after them. The apple, at least as far as I know, has been lost to history, but we plan to revive the family’s legacy by planting apples, and maybe pears, to be used to make spirits at Black Shire Distillery.
While I was digging around for information on the Rasche family, I found information about this graveyard online, so I knew it was on the farm somewhere. As I was walking the farm with Gregg Lamb, a local agriculture consultant who has offered to help me determine what can be planted where on the farm, there it was, siting on top of a hill overlooking the distillery.
When the Dierbergs purchased the property in the early aughts, the graveyard was in horrible shape, with all but the metal gravestone for Dorothea Rasche toppled over and cracked. The team here at the farm has restored the site and erected a fence to protect the gravestones. Susan Nichols, who leads most of our tours, has said that she has a pretty extensive written history that she can share with me that details the Rasche family story. Once I get my hands on that, I’ll post some of the details.