JOHNSTOWN - The plain yellow envelope arrived anonymously, with no proper street address. Inside, it carried a conscience.

"HAY'S MERCANTILE JOHNSTOWN COLORADO," read the scrawl on the outside of the envelope. Atop the letter were two old stamps and a Greeley postmark.

When Chet Hays opened the envelope, he found $600 in cash, alongside a note. The message was spelled out in wobbly block letters.

"A DET WITH INTERST MANY MANY YEARS OLD," it read.

"During hard times, the store was like the second national bank," said Sandra Hays, as she looked at the envelope. "They kept people alive and kept them going."

Inside her home, she flipped through decades of black-and-white photos and letters from folks thanking the owners of Hays Market and the family that ran it for generations, often giving groceries and credit to farmers - debts that sometimes went delinquent.

Then she picked up the letter her husband received so long ago and wondered about the person who finally decided to repay the debt.

"It's an old-time ethic. I don't think most people would even worry about it anymore," she said.

"The family really helped a lot of people. And they remember."

Chester T. "Chet" Hays died Aug. 3. He was 85.

In the 60-year-old photo above the meat department at Hays Market in downtown Johnstown, a handsome man in a bow tie smiles from the check stand as he rings up boxes of Post Toasties and something called Cornfetti - one of the many items that no longer exist inside the store that refused to disappear.

"Mr. And Mrs. Thurman Hays and son Chet Hays," the caption reads.

These days, alongside the newfangled cash registers, is the company logo: a stalk of wheat and the company slogan: "Family owned and operated for 4 generations."

When the Hays family arrived in Johnstown from Indiana in 1928, it looked like the kind of place that could have been named after a guy named John: a simple, quiet farming community. Today, Johnstown is one of the fastest-growing areas of the state, studded with vast beige swaths of tract homes.

The family opened Hays Mercantile in 1929, and Chet and his two sisters grew up in the store - he would tell stories of falling asleep on the shelves and driving the delivery truck at 14 years old, when he was barely able to see over the steering wheel. Other than his time serving in the Army during World War II, Chet Hays continued to grow up in the store.

He learned to see the customers as neighbors from his mother, Louisa, who was the soul of the shop, establishing lines of credit that stretched through the beet fields. After Chet took over, his wife, Phyllis, soon became the store's grinning public face as he worked at the meat counter.

"I don't know what any of us would have done if the Hays weren't here to help the people," said 83-year-old Ramona Montano, who said she raised eight children "with the help of the market.

"Nobody had good money, but we survived because of the Hays," she said. "We survived because of the Hays."

As Chet Hays ran the store with his parents and later managed it himself, he continued the tradition, giving food to the poor and donating time and money to a slew of community organizations. He helped found a church, the volunteer fire department and Johnstown's post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

All the while, he was a fixture behind the meat counter, mixing up his famous Hays Original Ham Loaf (a mixture of ground pork, ham and beef that still draws customers from as far as Wyoming) and recognizing faces and matching them with orders before a word was said.

"Worry about the customers you have," he told his son, Rick, "not the ones you don't have."

Mr. Hays' three children also grew up in the store, and Rick Hays took over when health problems forced his father to retire.

Phyllis Hays died in 1972. In 1974, Chet Hays married Sandra Busch, who survives, along with his son; daughters Candi and Debra; and sisters Ronolda Neilson and Gloria Jean Williams.

The market - which has expanded and now includes a store in Berthoud - is run by Mr. Hays' grandsons, who started at the store as boys. They say a fifth generation may not be far behind.

In his retirement, Mr. Hays continued to devote much of his time to the town, most recently sitting on a committee that authored a "home rule" provision on the upcoming ballot. He often patrolled the streets in his little pickup and a fuzzy white cap, stopping for coffee with anyone who had a minute.

"He was in the store one day (recently) having coffee, and they called for a carryout. He walked over and offered to help," Rick Hays said. "The woman came back and said 'There's some little man trying to carry out my groceries.' They said 'That's all right. He's the owner.'"

Mr. Hays never did find out who sent that anonymous letter with the $600 "DET . . . MANY MANY YEARS OLD." He said he didn't need to.

"Maybe that's one reason he had such a legacy because he carried so many people for so many years: He always knew he'd be paid off eventually," said Johnstown Mayor Troy Mellon. "He just knew that, eventually, people will pay the bill."

sheelerj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2561

Back to Top