Cooperative Living July 2019 - 39

Co-opPeople | Story and photo by Lynn Coffey, Contributing Writer
Milford Hartman Centenarian Continues to Lead an Active Life
M
ilford Hartman is still living in
his own home and doing quite
well. He gets around without
the use of a walker or cane and doesn't
frequent the doctor unless he's sick,
which he says is hardly ever. He drives
to church, the post office and grocery
store near his Stuarts Draft home and
takes a spin over to Staunton when he
needs something from the Farm Bureau.
His memory is intact and his conversation
is peppered with much good humor. At
100 years old, he is an active, amazing man.
Milford was born Dec. 21, 1918, the
first of five children of Wilber Carl and
Elizabeth Showalter Hartman, who lived on
a farm sandwiched between Waynesboro
and Stuarts Draft, Virginia. In the early
1920s Milford's father, Carl, kept a herd of
Guernsey, Jersey and Holstein cows and
began the " Early Dawn Dairy, " servicing
both locations with a horse-and-buggy
operation. In 1925, Carl's brother Walter
became a partner. They purchased trucks,
making the deliveries faster and more
efficient. By the 1930s several other area
dairy farmers merged into what became
the Early Dawn Co-Operative Dairy and
the whole operation moved to a location
in Waynesboro.
As a farm family, the Hartmans made hay
and grew grain for their animals, and had
a large vegetable garden for fresh food,
canning the rest for the winter months.
Milford remembers the men known as
hobos, who rode the
trains during the
Great Depression, coming to the house
asking to do a bit of work in exchange
for a meal.
The Hartman family believed in a
strong work ethic and all the children
had everyday chores. But the parents
made sure there was plenty of time for
play, as well. Milford learned to swim
in the South River, which ran to the rear
of the farm, and rode his pony in the
fields. He attended the elementary
grades at Hall School, a Mennonite
school near his home, and graduated
from Stuarts Draft High School in 1936.
His first car was a 1934 Ford convertible.
With a laugh, he says, " Yes, I was a big
dog back then! " He used a pipe wrench
to loosen the muffler on his 1924 Model
T and commented, " You could hear it
coming a mile away. It sounded so good! "
Milford met his future wife Ellen
Coyner in high school. They dated for
several years before marrying on Dec.
27, 1938. The couple started out in a
little house near the river on the family
farm. Their daughter, Barbara, was
born in 1940 and their son, Roger,
came in 1942.
In 1944 Milford was drafted into the
military and became a ground crewman
for an aircraft unit at a naval air station
in Seattle, Washington. From there he
was shipped to Alaska and later to the
Aleutian Islands. He served two years
before coming home in January of 1946.
After he returned, Milford worked in
a textile plant in Emporia and later
found work at the Celanese Plant in
Verona. Closer to home, he worked at
Wayne Manufacturing and finally retired
from the General Electric plant in
Waynesboro in 1981.
The Hartmans were married for 74
years before Ellen passed away in 2014
and Milford misses her to this day. In
addition to his two children, he has five
grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren
and one great-great grandson, Jackson,
in his immediate family.
Milford's secret to living such a long
and fruitful life? " I've always tried to live
by the Golden Rule. " 
At 100 years old, Milford Hartman is an active man. He still lives in his own home, gets
around without assistance, rarely visits the doctor and still drives. His memory is intact
and has a wonderful sense of humor.
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July 2019 | Cooperative Living | 37

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Cooperative Living July 2019

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