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Jimmie Lee Hasart was born in his grand mother Adolfs home north of Bethune, Colorado on November 10, 1929. Jacob Hasart Jr and Nettie Adolf Hasart are his parents. Jim grew up in the farm that was purchased by his grandfather, Jacob Hasart Sr. in 1917. Jim and his sister, Virginia spent their early years helping on the farm and attending Union school where he graduated from the 8th grade. He walked the three miles to school the first year and the next summer his small pony was bought and he rode "Tippy" to school those first several years. Jim was baptized and confirmed at Immanuel Lutheran Church by Rev. Woebler. Jim loved the outdoors and spent summers herding the milk cows and bringing in the work horses first thing in the mornings. In the winter he set traps to catch skunks and coyotes. Some days he was late for school and the teacher didn't appreciate the aroma that was on his clothes. He remembers standing on the edge of the stock tank to climb on the horse and his foot broke through the ice filling his boot with water and upon arriving at school his boot was frozen on so he sat by the stove to thaw the ice. His teacher liked to trade her "store bought" cookies for his homemade ones as he thought her cookies were a special treat. One day while th! teacher was ringing the bell he ran by her ana the bell came down and struck him on the forehead and he still has the scar. The boys played games and some times bucked their horses out of the barn. Those were rough and tough times. Jim bought his first heifer calf when he was in the 8th grade. Jim stayed at home helping his parents on the farm. They raised castle and dry land crops of milo, feed for the livestock and corn., The first tractor that ne purchased was an M & M tractor on propane. His first car was the 1926 Model T that his grandad Hasart gave him. On June 6,1954 Jim married Marlyn Vera Magee of Burlington, Colorado. They were married at Immanuel Lutheran Church during a terrible dust storm. Marlyn remembers riding in the car with the doors open so they could determine where the edge of the road was. Some people didn't make it because of the storm. Jim always said that when he got married he'd have a big "blow out" and there was! Marlyn is the last daughter of Clarence (Jack) Magee and Vera Harbison Magee Reeve. She was born in Burlington and grew up and attended school at the Burlington Public School. In 1950 her father died. In 1952 she moved with her mother to Denver where she lived and worked for her room and board with Dr. and Mrs. Hicks. There she attended and finished her sophmore year at East High school. That summer she went to live with her aunt and Uncle Howard and Evelyn Kite of Auburn, Nebraska attending her Jr. year at Auburn High. She returned to Burlington the summer of 1953 and finished her Sr. year in Burlington. Jim and Marlyn moved on the farm as his parents moved to Burlington. That first year was terribly dry and very little crop was raided. The 1950's were very dry with 1954 being the dryest year on record for this area. Jim baled up thistles and anything else that he could find. They sold some cattle and bought feed and determined that this was a loosing game. Jim fixed up his tractor with a homemade heat houser and went out that winter to chisel up the fields that were blowing and finally using a lister to keep the ground from blowing. In 1955 they put in their first irrigation well to raise feed for the cattle. They watered some wheat and they sold all they raised for seed for $2.00 a bushel that fall. Jerold Garvin Hasart was born on December 18, 1955 in Burlington. He was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church by Pastor A.F. Boese. Those first years were spent farming and milking 6 or 7 cows and raising chickens (which was a new experience for Marlyn coming from a town) selling eggs and cream to pay for their groceries. Jim always enjoyed hunting so they enjoyed pheasant and duck to eat when in season. They loved to go fishing and went to Bonny Reservoir when there was only barren pasture along the shore line. On March 30, 1958 Lester Jacob Hasart was born. He was baptized by Pastor Boese at Immanuel Lutheran Church. Living on the farm raising livestock and crops one is always concerned about the weather. In 1959 we had a terrible blizzards in the spring. It snowed for 3 days and 3 nights. The cattle had drifted south and Jim found dead cattle everywhere. We lost 25 head, mostly cows. They had smothered. We lost one fourth of our cattle herd. Two more irrigation wells, one in 1961 and the other in 1968 were developed. AU the irrigation was done by ditch and siphon tubes those first years. It was a family affair when it was time to change water usually twice a day and sometimes more often. Later Irrigation pipe was purchased and now 4 sprinklers have been installed. At first Jim raised cane for silage and milo for grain. Later sugar beets, alfalfa, and corn were raised. Wheat, both dry land and irrigated, corn, alfalfa, cane for silage, and millet for feed are raised now. Jerry and Lester attended school in Stratton and graduated from High School in 1974 and 1976. They joined in the operation of the farm and are full partners in its operation. Jim's father retired from farming in the mid 1960's but continued to come to the farm and help put out a large garden with the help of the boys and Marlyn. Some years it all was destroyed from hail so Jake built screens to cover the plants. The family participated in the Kit Carson County fair when the boys were old enough to join 4-H. Jim and Marlyn were leaders of Country 4-H Club for several years. Jim participated in the Opel Class Crops division while the boys exhibited in the Jr. Gardens and Crops departments. They also had sheep and hog projects. Marlyn was Open Class Baking champion in 1974. In the early 1970's Marlyn learned how to do oil painting and has been pursuing this hobby since. Jim had always made his toys as a child so he tried his hand at wood carving and has many beautiful carvings of waterfowl, game birds, and characters of people. In 1984 he completed carving a miniture "carousel". Jim does the carving and Marlyn puts the finishing painting on them. Improvements added over the years have been the metal shop and machine building erected in thel960's along with several grain storage bins had new corrals. The windbreak planted in the 60's provides us with exceuant protection from winds and shelter for the livestock and wild animals. The new home was built in 1975 replacing the small house that Jim's grandfather had built in 1935. In 1977 we had a terrible storm with 90 mile per hour winds which caused dirt to blow as in the fifties. Two weeks later we were victims of the worst blizzard that can be remembered with winds of 100 miles per hour blowing snow so hard that the trees were buried in the windbreak and the corrals were filled level with snow and the cattle walked out of corrals on the snow drifts. The boys built fences on top of the drifts to keep that cattle from walking out. In 1981 a devastating hail storm (golf hall sized and larger hail stones) swept through the farm breaking windows in the house, pickups, and tractors destroying our entire corn crop. The leaves on the trees and bushes were completely stripped from the limbs. It looked like late October because everything died. Some golf hall sized hail fell destroying the shingles and rain gutters around the house. We found hail stones and debris from the trees in the living, dining and bedrooms on the main floor and the basement had 5 -,vindows broken with the screens destroyed. Jim and Marlyn were in the process of turning off the irrigation wells when the storm hit and they will never forget the sound of being pounded by those hail stones while creeping home as visibility was only about as far as a vehicle length. In May of 1982 another hail storm pounded us. |