Kochis Farms
Elbert County
Andrew and Lucy Kochis were immigrants from Czechoslovakia, which was under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time. The two were married in July of 1902, and Andrew left for Ellis Island that October.
Kochis Farms red brick silo, built in 1917.
Andrew worked in the coal mines of Pennsylvania, sending wages back to his wife and son in Czechoslovakia. In 1904, Lucy and their son John sailed to the United States to meet Andrew. After having three more children, the family moved to Matheson, Colorado in 1908. In the same year, the family was allotted 160 acres of land 55 miles east of Colorado Springs, in Elbert County. On their first homestead the family started out with a team of horses, one bull, one cow, and calf, five pigs, and a dozen chickens. In 1916 the family sold their first homestead and moved to a 320 acre plot of land. In 1940 Andrew Jr. married Mildred Evelyn Cirbo and the two purchased a 640 acre plot of land close to Kochis Farms. Their plot of land was eventually added as part of Kochis farms. Andy Jr. and Mildred’s two sons Virgil and Robert took over the farm operation in the 1980’s. Virgil, Kathleen and Michael Kochis now operate the farm. Their major crops now include winter wheat, corn, millet, millet feed, milo, and beef cattle.
