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About Us
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The story of the farm
As crops grew from its soil, the story of the land upon which Pride & Country Village is located grows out of the migration of Bavarian peasant farmers to the Saginaw Valley in the 1840’s.
The Heinrich Rank family was one of the 22 families chosen in Bavaria, Germany by Pastor Wilhelm Leohe to populate a Lutheran settlement in America. In 1845, the settlers left Germany accompanied by Pastor August Craemer to establish Frankentrost about 7 miles north of Frankenmuth. The land was purchased from the federal government for .77 cents an acre. A few years later Heinrich’s brother Peter also migrated to Frankentrost.
In 1869 Michael Riedel, after the birth of his second youngest daughter, Katherine, purchased the farm upon which Pride & Country Village is now located. This corner crossroad became a stage stop and Michael opened a saloon in the front of his house to serve as rest stop for travelers along what was then known as Saginaw-Vassar Rd. When Michael grew old and blind, he sold the farm to Henry Rank, Peter Rank’s son, for $2500. Henry’s brother Benhardt married Katherine Riedel so in a sense the farm stayed “in the family”.
Henry Rank built the current house in 1904 and worked the land. He also had milking cows, pigs, chickens and rabbits. The farm’s out-buildings consisted of a barn with attached pig shed and pen, a silo, a windmill used to pump water from a deep well for the stock, a milk house, corn crib, chicken coop and machine shed. When Henry died in 1945 the farm passed to his nephew, John E. Rank, son of Bernhardt and Katherine.
John first share-cropped the land with Ted Daenzer and later with Wesley Reinbold. John reserved the southeast corner of the property, where the saloon once stood, for he and his wife, Violet, to garden. John always considered this “hallowed ground” because his mother had walked on it. As Violet worked the garden, she found many old coins which had been dropped by patrons of the saloon many years earlier. After the death of John and Violet in 1989, the farm was sold to Rudolph Reinbold. In 1992 Barb and Tom Schian purchased the property.
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The dream comes true
The Pride & Country “roots” took hold in 1989, when Barb followed her dream and opened Pride & Country in her basement. There she made all of the craft items she sold, and the “heart” of Pride & Country was established; the Wood Shop.
The Wood Shop continues to be the heart of the business. The “old” homestead located on “that” corner, where you traveled to on plank roads, is now the sight of Pride & Country Village! The Main Store, Out House, Home for the Holidays, Design Center, Mother Hubbard’s, School House Candle Shoppe, Tumbleweed Farms, P&C Express Train/Depot, the Mill, and the Deli are a delight to the thousands of guests that visit each year.
The dream will continue as plans unfold for a Caboose, Country Inn, Church, General Store, Cider Mill, Log Cabins, Antique Mall and lots of other unique shops true to the Village concept.
LIFE IS GOOD AT PRIDE & COUNTRY VILLAGE.
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