Andy Seaburg Ranch / Feather Ridge Farm

Russell Dahlberg

When the 1894 Castle Rock Journal wrote that Andy Seaburg had started a ranch in South Eastern Douglas County and that he was ready to start housekeeping, they were very right. Mr. Seaburg lived here for a large part of his life. In 1894 he was thirty-two years old and it wasn’t until twenty-six years later that his nephew, Melville, came to the County and helped with the running of the ranch that Mr. Seaburg had built up in the town of Case. Eventually nephew Melville Dahlberg married and he and wife Rose had their own ranch, in Case. Melville’s son Russell married and in 1948 he lived on Andy Seaburg’s Ranch known as the Feather Ridge Farm. It has been in the family to this day and is celebrated as a centennial farm.

Starting as Rock Ridge in the 1880s, the name of the town was changed to Case, until 1913 when the name of the town was again changed, this time to Irving. The Irving and Case name changes were in honor of local citizens. The U.S. Federal Census listed Andrew B. Seaburg as living in Case, this shown from 1900 through the 1930 census that was checked for this story. These tiny towns, by any name, no longer exist and have been absorbed into the Larkspur area.

Mr. Seaburg was known as a jovial rancher and was quite a citizen of the county. As a rancher he grew potatoes, grain, oats, hay and bran. In 1897 he purchased 1200 pounds of barbed wire, possibly to keep his dairy cattle, pigs or horses in their place. He took the milk from those dairy cattle to the local creamery. Then in 1898 he had a well dug on his property and eleven years later (1909) he bought and moved the Clint Whittier home to his property, Mr. Whittier was also a citizen of Case. Seaburg had a granary built in 1911. He was a carpenter and worked as a mason, working on his property as well as his neighbors.

As a citizen of the county he was a member of the Red Men Lodge, served as justice of the peace running under the Republican ticket. He also worked for the Red Cross in 1918 and was a County commissioner in 1921.

The Red Men Lodge traces its roots back to 1765 where it started as the Sons of Liberty; pledging to keep the brotherhood which helped to form our free nation. The Society of Red Men came to life after the war of 1812; patterned after the Iroquois Nation and its democratic form of government. By the mid 1920s, 46 states participated in this fraternal organization.

This ranch is a centennial ranch.

Thanks to the Colorado Historic Newspaper Collection.