The Abbott family has been in the ranching business in the Nebraska Sandhills for well over a century, starting with a young Arthur Abbott (2nd Generation) in the mid-1880’s who hired on as a cowboy trailing cattle from Texas to South Dakota. During this time, the Sandhills of Nebraska were considered a “no mans land,” and would eventually be the last place to actually be settled on American soil. The only human life that existed were tribes of Native Americans before the U.S. government relocated the Native Americans to live on reservation land.

Longing to relocate in the Sandhills from his father’s Kansas ranch, Arthur loaded the wagon with his family’s life belongings and pointed their small herd of Hereford cattle north to the small and upcoming village of Hyannis. The Abbott’s settled several miles northeast of Hyannis in a valley which would later on become the southern part of Cherry County. At that time, cattle grazed on open range along with other early settlers cattle, so the brand became an important factor in identifying whose cattle were whose. This is when the two bars, also known as the “Britchin” brand was formed.

Currently, the sixth generation of Abbott’s is ranching in the Sandhills of Nebraska.