JOSEPH HASMAN 

Joseph Hasman was born March 19, 1950, in Bohemia, son of Joseph and Kate (Ulch) Hasman, both natives of Bohemia. The family emigrated to the United States in 1854, locating in Tama County, Iowa, in 1858. The old gentleman followed farming till his death, which occurred in 1865. The widow is still living, and makes her home most of the time in Belle Plain, that State. There were four daughters and two sons, as follows: Blazek, Mrs. Mary Weaver, Joseph, Mrs. Kate Kilberger, Mrs. Josie Kilberger, Mrs. Anna Ulch. All but the subject of this sketch reside in Iowa. Joseph remained with his parents until he was about eighteen years of age. At the age of twelve years he commenced to learn the harness-making trade, at which he worked about seven years; he then abandoned that and went into the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad shops in order to learn the machinist’s trade. While working for this company, he met with a seriocomical accident. Undertaking to wheel loose rocks and dirt out upon a plank track and dumping the material into a whirlpool where the Iowa River sinks to pass under a bluff, he did not think to notice that the further end of the last plank was unsupported, and both he and his load went down into the raging waters; and it was by the hardest swimming that he saved his life, which he accomplished with the loss of hat and wheelbarrow! During the total eclipse of the sun August 7, 1869, he was thrown thirty feet by a locomotive and knocked senseless, but not seriously injured. In 1870 he was employed as a brakeman on the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, and while thus engaged was caught in a railroad accident east of Des Moines, when the engine struck a bridge, telescoping some cars and killing one man and mashing Mr. Hasman’s fingers. The next year he was obliged to obtain other work. Hoeing broom-corn one hot Fourth of July, three miles south of St. Joseph, he suffered sunstroke. After recovery he was next employed by the St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Railroad Company, as an apprentice in the machine shops. After the expiration of his time, he began as fireman for the company on a locomotive, and while serving in that capacity his engine fled the track upon an embankment, precipitating him into a pond of water, near Marysville, Missouri. For eighteen months he was under the doctor’s care. He had been promoted engineer. In 1874 he was employed in the shops of the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Railroad Company. After a time he resigned, and January 19, 1876, he went with a party to the Black Hills, having a very tedious time getting through the snow. After prospecting in that region for a while, amid many difficulties and privations, having a fight with the Indians and losing a man, he at length reached Cheyenne; and he came thence to Nevada, and at Reno and other points in that State he had various responsible positions in engineering, superintending large mechanical jobs, etc. In October 1884, he came to California, and bought out the harness shop of J.A. Lowe, at Elk Grove, this county, where he is now doing a profitable business. He is a member of Rebekah Lodge, No. 136, I.O.O.F. at Elk Grove, and No. 274 of the subordinate lodge at the same place. He was married in St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1872, to Mary Nowork, a native of Bohemia, and brought up in this country. They have three children – Joseph Louis, Charles Joseph and George Joseph.