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Hardy - The Small Town With a Big Heart
By Dawn Thompson Fort Dodge Messenger, June 24, 2002.
The people of Hardy are the first to admit their town that is nestled in the rolling farm fields of northeastern Humboldt County is small.
"Don't bat your eyes or you'll miss it," said town historian Beth Swan. "We've always had a joke about that."
With a population count of just under 60 residents, longtime resident Larry Myers said with three rounds of counting fingers and toes, every one of the town's citizens can be accounted for.
But don't let that fool you, he said. What it may lack in size, it makes up for in heart.
"Everyone here is friendly," Myers said. "We all know each other and wave to each other as we pass by on the street."
Kyle Ballenger, proprietor of Booney's Grill, agreed.
"I can't say a bad thing about anyone,'' he said. ''Everybody is overly friendly. It can be kind of scary, you know. You wonder why they are being so nice.''
Ballenger said he had mentioned he would like to start a garden, and while he was out of town, a group of women tilled up ground for two gardens and then made signs to go with them.
''Everybody just helps everybody,'' he said. ''It's pretty amazing here. It's makes you feel that these people really care, and that makes you want to give back as much as you get from them.''
Ballenger moved to Hardy from Nashville, Tenn. He made the move to be closer to his son who lives in Algona, but after the noisy congestion of the city, he said he was relieved to be wrapped in the solitude of a small town.
''It's just so quiet out here,'' he said. ''I don't know if the people here know how quiet and peaceful it is, they're so used to it.''
The only noise audible in the town is generally the hum from the workings of the elevator, Ballenger said. Although sometimes you can hear the shouts and laughter of children playing in the city park.
''We're a sleepy little berg with not much happening,'' Myers said, ''but I like that. If I wanted a big city, I'd go to a big city. Hardy is just right.''
Myers has lived in the Hardy area for 36 years, and while it has gotten smaller over the decades, he said it's still the only place he wants to be. He has roots there. He lives a mile north of town and serves as the branch manager for the co-op. His parents live in
town with his mother serving as the postmaster.
Though the town has shrunk in size, it has left an endearing mark not only on its residents' hearts, but on the county's history as well.
The Methodist Church was founded in 1865 with the church building being constructed in town in 1881. Over the years, membership dwindled until it reached a level six years ago that prompted officials to decide to give the building to the Humboldt County Historical Society.
The structure held significance for the past-preserving group because it was the oldest structure in the area to have been consistently used as a church building. Its purpose never faltered during its 131 years in existence.
Money to cover the cost of moving the church building was raised by the congregation, and a year after the building was given to the society, it was relocated to the Humboldt County Historical Park near Dakota City.
''Hardy is rural America,'' Ballenger said. ''It's generation after generation of farmers and farm families. I think that's just how it's always been.''
While it's true descendants of the core families who settled the town still reside there, and that it continues to rely upon being an agricultural center to remain viable, not everyone in its history was a farmer.
According to stories told by residents for the town's centennial, a German spy may have moved among the people in Hardy prior to World War I. The man in question went missing when he was suppose to have returned home to his wife. When the matter was investigated by his family, they were allegedly told he had been ''picked up,'' but were told nothing else.
''That's our unsolved mystery,'' Swan said, ''our intrigue. We still haven't been able to settle what happened to him.''
In the 1930s, crime hit the town. Three suspects allegedly robbed the town's bank by forcing a customer, the clerk and the bank president into the vault. The robbers made away with the cash, but were caught later that winter. Most of the money was found hidden in a haystack in Minnesota.
Hardy has also had its share of tragedy. The town was named for a railroad engineer who died after the boiler on the train he was running blew up. The fatal accident had been caused by a cow that got caught under the train's cow catcher and derailed the first four cars.
Despite the tragedy and intrigue of the past, residents said the town is a place of simple living. It may be small, but they said there is no other community that beats with as strong of heart as Hardy.
Permission to use the article was given by the Fort Dodge Messenger editor.
This page was last updated 09/18/10
