Members of the Bennett Farm & Ranch at the Colorado State Fair.

Centennial Farms & Ranches

Bennett Farm and Ranch

Otero County

In 1910 Ruth and William Bennett came from Kansas to Colorado, where they homesteaded near Rocky Ford in Otero County.  Two years later, they were granted their homestead patent.

Historic photo showing a girl sitting on a cow.

Girl sitting on a cow.

Photo courtesy of Bennett Farm and Ranch.

William Sr. was a doctor who raised on the land three children -- Gertrude, William Patrick Jr., and Seth Edward.  The farm had one of the first telephones in the area.  Over the next decade, the family augmented the property with nearby land that contained the current 1922 adobe and frame farmhouse.

Historic wood frame building on the Bennett Farm and Ranch.

Historic wood frame building on the Bennett Farm and Ranch.

Photo courtesy of the Bennett Farm and Ranch.

By the 1930s, the property had a barn, chicken house, milk house, and corrals.  William Jr. and Seth began growing corn and alfalfa and raising cattle under the name the “Bennett Brothers.” Seth and his wife Edna had four children -- Louise, Daniel, Edward, and Freda -- but after Seth’s death in 1962, William Jr., nephews Edward and Daniel, and niece Louise took over farming under the new name of “Bennett and Boling.”

Historic image showing a wagon load of hay outside a barn.

Historic photo from the Bennett Farm and Ranch.

Photo courtesy of the Bennett Farm and Ranch.

Since 1999, Daniel and his wife Patricia have owned and farmed the 1,000 acres with their son Michael, who unfortunately died recently at the age of 51.  Many of the original horse-drawn machinery still survives along with the 1920s farmhouse, garage, chicken house, and barn and 1930s granaries.