For a full quarter of a century this progressive and successful business man has been a resident of Colorado, and during the whole of that time he has been prominent in business and devoted in thought and serviceable activity to the progress and development of the state. He is a native of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, born on September 3, 1857. His parents were Jacob and Anna Hasley, natives of Switzerland who came to this country in early life and settled in Pennsylvania, where the father became prominent as a successful manufacturer of soap and speculator in oil. Later in life he turned his attention to butchering and in 1894 retired from active pursuits. He is now living at Allegheny and with his wife enjoying the fruits of his long and useful labors. They are the parents of six children: John, a resident of Denver, Colorado; Margaret, the wife of Charles Frazier, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; Henry, the subject of this writing; Anna, the wife of Charles Neiss, of Pittsburg; Rose, the wife of Charles Walters, of the same city; and Katharine, the wife of William Fetter, of Washington, D.C. At the age of fifteen Henry Hasley was apprenticed to a butcher at Allegheny City, in his native state, and received for his work eight dollars a month and his board, the money compensation being increased to twenty-five dollars a month by the end of his three years’ service. In 1879 he came to Colorado and took up his residence at Leadville. Here he engaged in mining and prospecting for a short time, then became associated with Reef & Nuckolls, wholesale butchers, as the foreman of their slaughter house. He passed five years in their employ, and at the end of that period he formed a partnership with a Mr. Mulock under the style of Mulock & Hasley, for carrying on the same line of trade. In 1889 Mr. Reef purchased Mr. Mulock’s interest in the business, and during the next two years the firm name was Hasley & Company, then a consolidation of the three large firms engaged in the butchering business was made and the name of the new firm was Hasley, Pierce & Company. After this Mr. Hasley was also associated with Mr. Reef in a similar enterprise at Ogden, Utah, which continued for a year with only moderate success. Having severed his connection with the Utah house, Mr. Hasley returned to Leadville and became the leading man in the Leadville Live Stock Company, with which he continued his connection ten years, owning a one-half interest in the concern. He also owned and operated mining properties of value. He and Mr. Reef still own the land on which the live stock company operated principally, and have leased it to Tucker & Company. Mr. Hasley now conducts a wholesale meat business in Grand Valley and runs a ranch of two hundred acres at Silt, between Rifle and Newcastle, which he bought in 1899. His land is well supplied with water rights and is all capable of easy cultivation. It yields large crops of hay, grain, vegetables and fruit. His potatoes are of particularly fine quality and took the first prize at the state fair. He also raises cattle extensively and finds the business profitable. In the local affairs of the county he is active and influential, in politics he is a Republican on national questions, and in citzenship he is faithful, upright, enterprising and progressive. On November 8, 1888, he united in marriage with Miss Zona McCurdy, a native of Ohio, who was reared at Muscatine, Iowa, where her parents settled early in their married life, and remained until the end of their days, which came some years ago. Her father was a prosperous grain merchant there. Mrs. Hasley died on November 13, 1898, and in May, 1902, Mrs. Hasley married a second wife, Mrs. Berdette Gutchel, a native of New York state and a widow with two children, Mildred and Leslie Gutchel.
Source: Bowen, A. W. Progressive Men of Western Colorado. Chicago: A. W. Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1905.