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My grandfather John Cukjati borrowed $5,000 from a
fellow Austrian and bought the present Cukjati Farm in 1912. He and several of
his fellow Austrian friends built the present barns. The farm grew to over a
thousand acres under the ownership of my Grandfather and his boys, My father
and Uncle Louie. It was the biggest farm in the county at one time. It was a
very diverse farm with six or eight draft horses, two hundred head of cows,
over one hundred head of pigs, over five hundred chickens and other animals
like geese, guineas, milk cows mules.
The two story twelve room farm
house housed my Grandfather and Grand- mother, My Dad and Mother, My Aunt and
Uncle and my Great Uncle. A Hungarian immigrant slept in the horse barn but ate
his meals in the big house. There were always four to six people working on the
farm doing the things associated with plowing, discing, planting, harvesting
and managing the livestock. It was a big evergoing production. I was in the
middle of it all as a young boy, riding the backs of the draft horses, helping
with milking and taking care of all kinds of chores.
This well built home features
several renovations since it was built. When I bought it from my brothers in
1998, we had new doors installed, a Pella double door installed to the patio,
new water heaters, new electrical wiring, new electrical switch box, new garage
door openers, new dishwasher, attic insulated, pull down stairs in two car
garage accessing large storage area in attic, new kitchen sink and fixtures,
finished out the basement( basement has beautiful fireplace with insert,
carpeted den, solid cherry wood book cases, a small kitchen area with room for
table and chairs, refrigerator, three small bedrooms carpeted, one bedroom has
a shower and cedar closets, dropped ceiling throughout basement, a large
storage room with a cedar closet, a mechanical room with cedar closet and mop
tub, a jacuzzi room with jacuzzi bath-shower, sink also, basement stairs is
solid pecan) Upstairs, the house has been recently painted inside, new utility
room and kitchen floors installed- bedroom carpets are five years old and
almost unused, ceiling fans in all bedrooms, cable access, dish access, city
water and sewer- a functioning alarm system.
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