Roberta Depp

BY ROBERTA DEPP
PRESIDENT, BROOMFIELD HISTORICAL SOCIETY

The dust was flying in furious bursts as two vehicles raced down the dirt lane. At the helm of each was a fiercely determined redheaded woman. No shrinking violets these. Amelia Kozisek again hadn’t turned the ditch’s water wheel to divert required water into the Brunner’s neighboring fields, and Elizabeth Brunner was on her way to get it done. The two women were racing to be first at the water gate. 

Water was essential for farm operations, and this competition could have resulted in hostilities, but the two women were actually close friends who shared common circumstances and respected each other’s strength and fortitude. Both had lost their husbands and were managing family farms on their own with four children each. Elizabeth had the help of four sons, while Amelia had to manage with one son and three daughters. 

Amelia’s husband James had come into the house one day and asked his then 18-year-old son Bob if he thought he could run the farm on his own. Bob answered yes. His father then lay down for a rest and never got up again. 

Both families had originally settled in Kansas but moved to Broomfield at similar times: the Koziseks in 1915, and the Brunners in 1919. James Kozisek was the descendant of Bohemian or Czechoslovakian immigrants, while Albert Brunner was the son of Swiss immigrants. Albert and his wife Lizzie wished to get away from the Kansas tornadoes. A tornado had killed the entire family of one of Lizzie’s brothers. Her other brother, Fred Berges, had a farm in Broomfield and offered it to them after his wife had died. One of the Brunner sons, Les, married Elizabeth Shaw in 1925, and this is the Elizabeth of the ditch race story above. 

James and Amelia moved to Broomfield with their three daughters, Adelaide, Marcella and Jessie. Their son Bob was later born in Broomfield. James had meant to retire here because of his health, but he never managed that. The 40-acre Kranbeck Farm he first purchased eventually grew to 400 acres. The farm was located along the east side of Main Street from what is now 10th Street south to 2nd Street, the area known as The Field Open Space and the Outlook Neighborhood. They raised wheat, corn, alfalfa and white-faced Hereford cattle. Milk from their dairy cows was made into cheese by local cheesemakers, and James brought cream to the railway station to send to Denver. The Kozisek farm was known for its distinctive hip-shaped barn. The barn was a “Gordon Van Tine”¹ precut building that was shipped in segments via rail cars. It became a familiar Broomfield landmark.

The 100-acre farm Albert and Lizzie purchased from her brother was on the northwest corner of 120th Avenue and Sheridan, where the Broomfield Town Centre shopping plaza is now located (King Soopers, Home Depot and other shops). All four sons—Gilbert, Clyde, Dale and Les—were born in Broomfield. The Brunners grew corn, alfalfa, barley, oats and even broomcorn and raised milk cows, chickens and hogs. Les and Elizabeth worked on the farm and purchased it after Albert retired in 1946. Their attractive farmhouse, originally built by Fred Burges, was moved to The Field Open Space along Midway after the property was sold in 1998.

So, what about those two redheads? As well as managing farms on their own and raising children, they became community builders and leaders along with other strong Broomfield women of that era. Amelia and Elizabeth, or “Lib” as her friends called her, belonged to the Methodist Church’s Women’s Society of Christian Service where they and the other women held various fundraisers to raise money for church construction. They were both members of the long enduring women’s Merry Mix club, whose motto was “Pleasure and Relaxation,” and the Grange. The Grange was an important center of community activity and entertainment. Music performances, dances, and potlucks were often held there. Elizabeth had first met Les at one of the dances. After all that hard work on their farms, enjoyment was in order. 

Amelia was a co-founder of the Broomfield Garden Club, of which Lib was also a member. Both women loved flowers. When the family moved from Kansas to Broomfield, Amelia brought with her the offshoot of a favored white rose carefully packed in a barrel. She often named her flowers after the friends who gave them to her and loved exchanging flowers with them. Her daughter Jessie said of her mother that Amelia would say she was going “to visit with my friends,” meaning she would be tending to her flower garden. Elizabeth’s home was also surrounded by huge trees and lots of flowers, making for an especially welcoming scene. Her favorite flowers were Jonquils. Elizabeth enjoyed bowling and her bridge groups, and she later worked in her son Clyde’s veterinary clinic. She like animals, especially dogs, and enjoyed meeting all the people who came to the clinic. 

The local newspaper included a column by Amelia called the “Broomfield Brushings.” It often covered gardening topics. She was also a correspondent for the Broomfield Star Builder and wrote for the Lafayette Leader. Somehow, with all this community and cultural activity, she was still a formidable farm woman. Amelia fed huge meals to the combine crews who came to help harvest on the farm. She got up early to pick chickens, kill them, take all the feathers off, and cook them for the crew. Added to the buffet was fresh bread, cooked vegetables and salad—after which she insisted that they take a twenty-minute nap. The crew members would all be spread out on the grass by the lake, taking their naps as ordered! Her granddaughter, Renee, tells of an incident when the cows got into the alfalfa field and were becoming dangerously ill from bloating. Amelia rushed out with a knife and stuck it between the ribs of each cow to release the gas. Of the five cows, three were saved. Another time everyone was in the farmhouse having breakfast when a shot ran out. It was Amelia. She had shot a skunk that was trying to get into the chicken coop. 

In later years, these two formidable women were fondly called “Grandma Kozy” and “Grandma Brunner” by family, friends and acquaintances. Amelia passed away in1967 and Elizabeth in 1985. They helped build the foundation of present-day Broomfield and have gifted us a legacy of resilience, creativity and community.

1. The Gordon-Van Tine Company was incorporated in 1907 as a subsidiary of the U.N. Roberts Lumber Company in Davenport, Iowa. They supplied kit houses and buildings until they closed in 1947. ↩︎

Sources

Broomfield History Collections. “Grandma Brunner,” 1986. https://hub.catalogit.app/broomfield-history-collections/folder/archives/entry/113d19e0-cfc9-11ed-badb-2d219ffa)d18?query=Brunner.

German, Bill. Brunner Farmhouse. Colorado Chapter, Post Marak Collector’s Club, n.d. [pamphlet].

Gordon-Van Tine Company. https://kithouses.org/topic/gordon-van-tine.

Sereff, Renee. Interview. Broomfield, Colorado, November 3, 2025.

Spitler, Laura and Lou Walther. Gem of the Mountain Valley, Boulder: Broomfield Centennial – Bicentennial Commission, 1975.

Turner, Carol. Legendary Locals of Broomfield, Colorado. Charlestown, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2014.

Turner, Kathy. Brunner History, 1979. https://hub.catalogit.app/broomfield-history-collections/folder/photographs/entry/c33e8f30-15f2-11ee-9fb9-5172ef2dc7bd?query=brunner