George W. Hazard, born in 1868, was the second child of James Glann and Mary L. Hazard and the only one of their children to survive childhood. The family first lived in Broome County, New York, near Great Bend, Pennsylvania, then moved to Denver in 1874 in hopes that the drier climate would improve his mother’s tuberculosis, but returned to New York the same year when her health failed and she died. George came back to Colorado in 1876 with his father and brother, reached Saguache on April 1, and spent the first night in a cabin about a mile west of town. After attending public school through the fourth grade, he helped his father work the ten-acre farm they had purchased from Nathan Russell. When he married Clara Jenner in 1886, he received the original family ten acres that had been bought in trust for him. Clara, born in 1867 to Nicholas and Eliza Jenner, completed her schooling at Saguache and then taught for several years in schools in the lower Saguache Creek districts. George and Clara had eight children: Cora May, twins George Herbert and James Henry, Claude, Ernest Perry, Millie, Edwin James, and Frank Nicholas; Cora, Herbert, Ernest Perry, and Edwin James reached adulthood, while Frank Nicholas died at age 12 in a hunting accident. George became an important part of Saguache’s economic development through farming, ranching, and business. He operated a freighting business for several years from the same establishment used by George Redmond and William Iden, mainly between Villa Grove and Saguache and also to Bonanza, and in winter he cut ice at the Saguache Reservoir for local businesses. Around 1900 he began acquiring more land, including Dr. Heimberger’s Ranch in 1899, the San Juan Ranch north of Biedell in 1913, and the Flying “M” Ranch on Cochetopa Creek in 1917, and he entered the sheep business. With five bands of sheep, he became one of the largest sheep ranchers in the county and worked to build the sheep industry in Saguache County by assisting others with financial help and encouragement. He also played an important role in the 1927 merger of the Saguache County Bank and the First National Bank into the Saguache County National Bank, a notably strong institution that was among the few in the area to survive the Depression after the stock market crash of 1929. Although still owning the Flying “M,” George and Clara had moved into the Gordon Gotthelf house, built in 1913 and purchased in Clara’s name in 1927. Because of heart trouble, Clara spent the last months of her life at lower altitude in Coronado, California, and died in 1928. George married Marie Justine Schwaiger in 1930. Marie, born in 1902 to Joseph and Mary Schwaiger, had come to Saguache in 1926 and was teaching fourth grade in the public school. George and Marie had one child, Georgie Marie. After George’s death in 1938, Marie resumed teaching at Saguache until 1947, then worked in the county welfare department and later served for ten years as an education director for the U.S. Army in Korea. She returned to Saguache in 1971 and lived in the house until her death.