HARCOURT — Three generations of ownership, one stately farmhouse, and decades of hard work on the land come together to make this lush farmstead a place to call home for the Roger and Jane Hade family.

Built in the late 1800s, this house north of Harcourt on U.S. Highway 169 first came into the Hade family in the early 20th century when it was purchased by Roger’s grandparents, Martin and Hilda Hade. It was the beginning of a long story of family life in these four walls.

“My dad was born in this house,” said Roger Hade.

His father, Reynold Hade, would spend much of his life on the farm and, along with his wife, Betty, oversee several transformations for the farmhouse. Like the farm itself, the house always seemed to be growing and changing.

-Messenger photo by Lori Berglund
Roger and Jane Hade are pictured by the fireplace of their Harcourt area farmhouse.

One of the major transformations came in 1966 when Reynold and Betty added on space for a family room and larger kitchen. A towering feature of the family room is a rock wall fireplace that came right from the farm itself.

“My brother and I picked up all those rocks,” Roger Hade recalled.

They probably didn’t look like anything special on those hot, dusty days in the field, but as an architectural feature that pays respect to the farm’s history, they are a treasured part of the home today. The fireplace is wood-burning, with a gas starter, but the family doesn’t use it quite as much as they used to. Wood, for its lovely scent and charm, also has a few drawbacks when the cold air comes in down the chimney at night.

Reynold Hade had the idea for the addition, but it was his son who put pen to paper to really plan it out. Roger Hade, who was in his early 20s at the time, drew the plans for that addition himself, exhibiting remarkable skill and vision for creating a seamless transition between the original home and new addition.

Reynold and Betty also added a main level bedroom and bath. Despite all the work to the main level, the upstairs has remained mostly unchanged.

-Submitted photo
Roger Hade’s grandparents, Martin and Hilda Hade, stand near the home as it looked in the 1950s.

Roger and Jane started out their married life near Dayton before moving on to the Harcourt farm almost 40 years ago. And, like family members before them, put their own stamp on the place with another addition.

The couple added a large sun porch in 1988. This comfy living space gets heavy use during much of the year.

“That’s where we spend half of our time,” Roger Hade said.

The sun porch flows into the rest of the house and makes for a welcoming feel. One can almost smell the Thanksgiving turkey on the nearby table or see the lights sparkle on a Christmas tree soon to come.

“Christmas is my favorite memory here,” said Jane Hade. “We would have a white elephant gift, and it was always so much fun.”

The couple has three grown children, scattered as close as Ames and as far away as Minnesota and Colorado. While it’s harder to get together, the family still does its best to reunite at home whenever possible.

“Our kids and grandkids love to come here,” Jane Hade said. “We have eight grandchildren; we lost a grandson a year ago. He was a teacher in Salt Lake City.”

The pain of such a loss is never far away, but happy memories are the home’s most enduring feature.

But the place may look a little different the next time some of the farther-flung family members return home. The derecho and tornado on Dec. 15, 2021, left its mark on the Hade farmstead. While the house itself received relatively minor damage, several outbuildings and trees were not as fortunate.

“We had a huge machine shed and three grain bins that blew down,” Jane Hade said.

The couple was in the basement at the time of the storm, and didn’t know quite what to expect when they came up and checked outside.

“I could hear the wind blowing, and it didn’t take all that long,” Jane Hade said. “I could hear things falling, but I wasn’t that nervous until we came upstairs. It was pitch black. You could see trees down, but you couldn’t see a lot. We did find metal wrapped around trees and lots of metal out in the fields.”

As is often the case with farm families, it didn’t take long the next morning for friends and neighbors to realize that the couple had been hit hard in the storm.

Soon the farmstead was filled with people helping out and making quick work of the clean-up efforts.

“The neighbors were all wonderful,” she said. “So many people came to help. They just came right over and started scooping up stuff.”

The couple is now retired from farming and said they are likely to be the last generation on the farm, as younger family members have chosen different career paths.

Still, it’s clear that when Roger Hade’s grandparents bought this farmstead so long ago, it was a decision that gave future generations a solid footing in the world and a place that, no matter how far they roam, would always feel like home.