MEMBER FEATURE
Building a Legacy
Hassard Elevator celebrates 100 years in business
By Joann Pipkin
North of the capital city, Highway
54 leads us through rural Missouri’s
heartland. From fertile bottoms to gently
rolling hills, the dust flies on this early
summer day as farmers work the fields.
The road winds east from Mexico
before our journey heads to the northeast
corner of the state, past Mark Twain
Lake. Along the way, hogs, cattle,
sheep and even horses gently fill in the
landscape around well-kept homesteads.
Here, hard work and determination
stand tall alongside a century-old
tradition that makes Hassard Elevator
thrive amid the very hands that put it on
the map.
For generations, the Benson family
has carried a legacy built in 1918 by
Harvey Benson and seven other farmers
in the unincorporated community of
Hassard, just east of Monroe City on
Highway J, in Ralls County.
Through every depression, drought,
flood and war since, Hassard Elevator has
persevered lending more than service to
their farmer-customers. Today, Harvey
Benson’s descendants cultivate the
business he first helped establish. Son
Don Sr. “Rink” along with grandsons
Donnie and Danny and great-grandson
Aaron are humble servants to a
community bound together by a hundred
years worth of tradition.