Harry Hart and his brother, John Hart, emigrated to Manitoba, Canada from England in 1882. Two years later they moved to Montana and by 1886 the Hart brothers owned a horse ranch near Big Timber, The Eureka Horse Ranch. In 1909, Harry Hart married Anna Beckwith Smith of Geneva, New York. Anna, or "Nan," was a teacher at the Carnegie School for women and the granddaughter of Hamilton L. Smith, a Yale graduate and professor at Hobart College. Harry and Anna had their first and only child, Harry Robert Hart in 1910. Harry Hart, now the sole owner of the ranch, began to run cattle and extend the ranch holdings. In 1924, the Harts took in their first customers as the Dot Lazy S Dot Dude Ranch (The Dot S Dot). Harry Robert Hart, or "Bob," married in the 1940s. He and his wife, Barbara, had hoped to add to the family's assets further with the purchase of the American Fork Ranch in 1945. This project failed with Bob Hart's accidental death in 1947. Bob and Barbara had three children, Harry Dean Hart, Marjorie and Nancy Lee. With Barbara's help the Harts continued running the Dot S Dot until Anna Hart's death in 1964. Harry Robert Hart died in 1958.
From the guide to the Hart Family Papers, 1835-1965, (Montana State University-Bozeman Library, Merrill G Burlingame Special Collections)
