31/03/2025
Walter J. Michael began Pickwick Farms in 1950. Although his love for horses started long before he started this farm. Walter bred thousands of Standardbreds and owned multiple world famous stallions. Pickwick consisted of two farms. The main farm being Pickwick Farms on Remlinger Road and the North Pickwick Farms about a mile north of bucyrus on route 4. These two farms totaled 1,000 acres of land. Walter’s dream was to create a good standbred racing horse that the average man could afford. I went through tons of articles and pictures that Walter kept over the years of owning this farm. There were tons of articles and pictures about famous stallions that were at Pickwick and also multiple articles about all of there offspring. Walter truly loved every single horse that he had at this farm enough to keep the records and articles on every horse. One of the many famous stallions here was named Gene Abbe and in his prime his stud fee was 2,000 US dollars. In todays money that is about 17,000 US dollars. If that tells you anything about the horses that Walter raced and raised. In 1976 Pickwick Farms was the fourth largest standardbred breeding farm in the US. Many people would go on tours of the farm just to see it because it was so popular in the newspapers. Walter J. Michael passed away in 1977 he was 77 years old. Walter is the reason that this farm was once so famous and world known. The mare and foal barn burned down in 1989. In 1993 my grandpa Paul Pfeifer bought this farm and we raised and raced Standardbreds for five years until the racing market went down and now we raise and sell Angus cattle. I now board horses in the old stud barn where all of the stallions once stood when Walter J Michael started Pickwick Farms. The north Pickwick Farms is now called the Pickwick Place which is a farmers market. My grandpa still owns the hay field by the three buildings where the North Pickwick Farms once was and now it is a beautiful market/event center. The history of our farm is beautiful and I hope you enjoy seeing the pictures as much as I do.