Henry Hartstine

HENRY HARTSTINE has been identified with the border country of Kansas and Colorado for thirty years or more, and his interests as a business man and citizen have made him particularly well known in and around Kanorado in Sherman County, where he is proprietor of a large general store and is still active in the business he has built up.

Mr. Hartstine was born at Mishawaka, Indiana, November 13, 1862. His father, George Hartstine, was a native of Wurtemberg, Germany, born in 1831. When a young man he left Wurtemberg and, coming to America, settled at Mishawaka, which is a twin city to South Bend, Indiana. He owned a farm there and lived in that vicinity until he died in 1903. He was an independent voter and before coming to America had served his regular time in the German army. He married Josephine Beiter, who was born in Germany in 1833, and died at Mishawaka, Indiana, in 1901. A brief record of their six children is given herewith: Timothy, who is connected with the Studebaker manufacturing interests at South Bend, Indiana; Henry is the second in age; William, long associated as a partner with his brother Henry in the implement and hardware business at Kanorado; Mary, living at Moberly, Missouri, is the widow of Fred Gutekunst, who was a farmer at Mishawaka, Indiana, and later at Moberly; David, a merchant at Mishawka; and Fred, a farmer there.

Henry Hartstine received his early advantages in the rural schools of St. Joseph County, Indiana, and lived on his father's farm to the age of twenty-one. In 1885 he went west to Holdridge, Nebraska, and four months later, in June, crossed the Kansas line and arrived at Bird City in Cheyenne County. Near there he homesteaded a quarter section, and after living on it the required time commuted by the payment of $1.25 an acre. Later he sold this farm and in 1887 removed to Carlisle, Colorado, where he took a pre-emption of 160 acres. He proved up that, sold out five years afterward, and in 1888 identified himself with the community of Kanorado.

During these years Mr. Hartstine was a partner with his brother William, and they conducted a livery barn until 1892 and also farmed their homesteads. For several subsequent years Henry Hartstine conducted the Commercial Hotel, which had been built by his wife and her mother at Kanorado. He gave to his duties as landlord only part of his time, and for four seasons he also continued farming. He then established a hardware store in Kanorado, but four years later traded it for a farm of 320 acres, which farm he sold in 1916. In 1911 he opened his general stock of merchandise, which has been added to until it now constitutes the leading store in that part of Sherman County. The stock of goods occupies three rooms, two of them 48x25 feet, and the third 18x50 feet. His mercantile patrons come to his store from a radius of twenty-five miles and he runs the local cream station. He owns his store building and also a good modern home which he built in 1905.

He has not neglected a public spirited participation in local affairs, and for four years was a commissioner of Sherman County, was a member of the School Board six years, and was clerk of State Line Township three years. He is independent in politics. He is a past grand of Kanorado Lodge of Odd Fellows.

In 1891, at Denver, Mr. Hartstine married Mrs. Nettie Hollingshead Dake. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Hollingshead, are both deceased. Her father was a pioneer settler in Sherman County in the year 1886. Mr. and Mrs. Hartstine are rearing a nephew, John Hollingshead, born December 31, 1907, now a student in the public schools.

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