George O. Ehmann

George Oliver Ehmann was born on November 8th, 1932 to George Julius and Margaret Esta (Lowell) Ehmann. It is interesting to note that this is the day that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected for the first time. This did not influence George’s political leaning because he was a lifelong republican. After a couple of jaunts to California for work opportunities and three years at a grocery store in Agate, George’s parents settled in their home in Elbert, Colorado. George’s two sisters, Delores and Bertha were born there. In 1945 the family moved to Deer Trail. George went to high school and graduated in 1950. After graduation he worked at various jobs including truck driving, construction, and others. He married Joyce Griffith on December 2nd, 1950 at the Friends Church. Revered L C Platt was the Pastor. This was the beginning of 71 years of loving, caring, and sharing. We moved to Eastlake, Colorado where he worked for a construction company building the Rocky Mountain Arsenal. We were there for about a year. On September 16th, 1951 we welcomed our first daughter, Linda. Then it was back to Deer Trail. George again worked in construction, this time for about a year at Deer Trail School adding lockers, making a larger lunchroom, and maybe some more things! In 1953, it was back to the farm where we raised wheat, beans, and cow feed. George worked for Jim Proudfood, a neighboring sheep rancher. We also had about 10 milk cows. In his spare time, he, Jim, and Ben Eldringhoff pitched horseshoes. Our second daughter, Judy joined us August 24th, 1953 and daughter number 3, Joyce Gale on September 11th, 1956. After five years, we thought a change would be nice so we bought a grocery store in Byers. Our daughter, Holly joined us on September 20th, 1959. In 1965, a devastating flood wiped out the grocery store so George said “Oh well, we’ll take a vacation”. We packed up the kids and headed for Disneyland and other California scenes. Then back to Byers to start over. We built, remodeled, and opened our new store in December 1966. George always liked to be busy, so in addition to the store, he started a new cattle herd. He rented Kendra Barnes’ farm, bought his herd of Hereford cows. We ran the store and the farm for about 20 years. Then one day, Jim Brown walked into the store and said “you wanna sell this place?” George said “Sure, you wanna buy it?”. Our daughters were grown, so we bought more land, remodeled an old ranchhouse and started raising cows. First he bred the original Herefords to Red Angus then crossed them with Gelbvieh. That to his mind was the perfect cow – big, beautiful red, they had to be red, gentle cows. He did this until health forced him to retire – about 40 years. Then in 2018, we moved to Strasburg. His health was rapidly failing, but he didn’t complain. He leaves to mourn his passing his wife, Joyce. His daughters, Linda Ludwig (Harry), Judy Smith (Randy), Gale Bell (Randy) and Holly Hoover (Casey). 6 grandsons, 6 granddaughters, 27 great grandchildren, 2 sisters Delores Kroh (Carl) and Bertha Rector, 3 nieces and 1 nephew.