Five generations of the Spady Family have called Kiowa County, Colorado home. Conrad Spady and his wife Wilhelmina and their six children came to Haswell in 1914. Conrad traded a cow for a house and had it moved by 8 teams of horses and two wagons to its present location. The couple added three more children to their family and the roof of the house was raised to add two bedrooms. A homestead patent was granted in 1920.

Charles Dake left Polk County Nebraska in 1907 and came to Colorado, settling in the Keota area where he built a sod home. His daughter Henrietta followed in 1909, obtaining a relinquishment homestead on an adjoining parcel. She worked hard as a single woman to maintain the homestead. Henrietta married Ed Cassady, a cowboy who rode into the area looking for work, in September of 1921. Henrietta and Ed survived the Great Depression by raising chickens and selling eggs to the hospital in Greeley.

Charles Martin Shook was granted a homestead of 160 acres fifteen miles north of Flagler Colorado, in February of 1913. Charles Marion Kyle married Charles Martin Shook's granddaughter Rachel Harwood in 1926 and the couple raised seven children on the farm. Their children, Marion Alexander Kyle, June Kyle Shideler, Theresa Kyle Copley, Vada Kyle Carey, Marylin Kyle Grimes, Glenn Kyle and Meredith Kyle Hase. Charles Marion Kyle built the house where Marion Alexander Kyle was born in 1927. He lived there until his death in 2008.

Homesteaded in 1893 by Myron P. Thompson, Sunfire Ranch has been home to six generations of Thompsons/Sewells. Situated in the shadow of the majestic 12,963' Mount Sopris, Sunfire sits on the eastern edge of the Thompson Divide and is bisected by Thompson Creek - both namesakes of our ancestors. Over the years our 1,240-acre slice of heaven has yielded countless train cars of potatoes, more sheep and cattle than we can count, a cornucopia of produce, and cohorts of stewards of the land.

Frank Michal came out on a train to eastern Colorado in 1919 with a land agent and several other men. They looked at ground near Flagler and Yuma, Colorado. Frank chose to buy some land near Flagler because it was cheaper. On January 15, 2020, Frank signed a contract to buy the east half of 29-6S-51W, Kit Carson County from Victor Lebiedzek. Frank and Ida NIchal moved with baby, Helen, and a foster son, Jack, from Pawnee City, Nebraska to Colorado in 1920.

The Lebsacks are blessed to have the family farm receive the centennial honor this year. It all began with Mary Lou's grandparents, Ed and Maggie Dirks, and their four children, Floyd, Lewis, Ruby, and Irene. The young family moved from Dalton, Nebraska to the current farm  site, 6.75 miles north of Holyoke, on March 1, 1920. The house that stands there currently did not exist, so the family of 6 lived in a grainery until their basement house was dug.

Vern's grandfather, George Kammerzell, Sr., purchased this farm in 1920 and it has been continuously farmed by the Kammerzell family for five generations. Born in 1884 in Frank, Russia, George came to America with his wife, Anna Margaret and their 2 sons in 1912, settling in Denver in the Globeville area, working in the packing plant. They worked in the beet fields in the summer. He lived in a log house with his wife and 7 children until a brick home was built in 1930, where George's great-grandson and family now live.

Claus A. Johnson, Swedish immigrant, came to the Eaton, Colorado area, by way of Minnesota and then the silver mines West of Denver.  Finding family life difficult in the mining culture, he quickly took the opportunity when he learned of farm work in Northern Colorado.

German immigrants Henry Heermann and Anna Kumm were married in 1899 and lived in Stanton County Nebraska. The Heermann’s were parents to six sons and one daughter: Albert, Rudolph, Emil, Ella, Arthur, Lawrence and Ervin.  Henry and Anna Heermann were farming in Stranton, Nebraska when Henry decided to look for land to buy in Colorado where there weren’t so many hills to farm. On February 16, 1920 he bought land east of Holyoke.

The Carper family farm began August 15th, 1916 when Henry and Annie Stauffer purchased the NW1/4 23-9-47 parcel of land. They built the original home to raise their family of nine children that still stands and is the current residence of Tim & Arlene (Wiebers) Carper. Henry died in 1933, leaving Annie a widow with a debt to the farm.