HONORING AN Heirloom

Family history captured Josiah Wriedt’s attention at the tender age of 10, when he completed a 4-H project about unique experiences and world events connected to his grandparents and great-grandparents.

Now, at age 17, Josiah has resurrected a New Century cultivator his great-grandfather once used on the family’s Nebraska farm. His restoration process included researching company history, locating photos to help assess what parts of the cultivator were missing and digging deep to identify original colors and striping design.

Rescued by his father, Jim, some 15 years ago, the cultivator has been tucked away on the Wriedts’ Norfolk, Nebraska, farm until spring 2019. “We have two of these cultivators,” Josiah says. “My great-great-grandfather had one, too. We took parts of Great-Great-Grandpa’s to help restore the other one.”

Josiah’s earliest recollection of seeing the cultivators on his family’s property goes back