We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
Joe Havlovick is pictured sitting in a high chair near his family's barn on a homestead on the Big Flat. Between Joe and the barn is the stone boat and barrel the family used to haul water from a well about 600 yards from the house. The small hill (see arrow) was used as a landmark to help Joe's adult children finally find the family's original homestead. The Havlovick family left the Phillips County farm in 1933 when Joe was four years old.
It took about 40 years and two sets of current descendants to make the wish of a "homestead baby" come true. Joe Havlovick's grandfather, Anton, and Joe's father, Paul, homesteaded on two contiguous 320 acre tracts "north of Dodson" on the Big Flat in 1917. Anton Havlovick's great grandchildren believe the two homesteaders were drawn to America by the prospect of "free land" touted in the newspaper ads they likely saw back home in Czechoslovakia. Like many prairie homesteaders, Anton and Paul failed in the 1930's. Four years old at the time, Joe's family resettled in Ronan where he finished hi...
