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Lulu Kennon describes life growing up in near De Beque, Colorado, and her career as a teacher in country schools near De Beque. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries, the Museums of Western Colorado and the Mesa County Historical Society.
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Anna McGinley talks about teaching at the Hunter School in early day Mesa County. She and her sister Mae Plunkett also talk about their school days and about the lives of their parents John and Theresa McGinley, who were immigrants and Mesa County pioneers. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries, the Museums of Western Colorado and the Mesa County Historical Society.
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Elizabeth McCullah talks about her life in education, including her years spent teaching children with disabilities at the Grand Junction Regional Center (then the Colorado State Home) in Grand Junction, Colorado. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries, the Museums of Western Colorado and the Mesa County Historical Society.
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Dr. Addie Russell Maynard discusses her family life, her schooling during youth, and experiences as an osteopathic doctor and schoolteacher in Mesa County, Colorado. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries, the Museums of Western Colorado and the Mesa County Historical Society.
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Dora McPheters talks about being orphaned at an early age in Illinois, at a time when people looked down on orphans. She discusses the orphanage and various homes where she and her brother grew up. She also talks about her career as a teacher in Illinois, and in rural schools around Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries, the Museums of Western Colorado...
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Paul and Wanda Breckler talk about the annual tours of Colorado that they conducted for teachers for many years during the 1970’s and 80’s. They speak in depth about their tour of the Colorado National Monument and working with local historian Al Look. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
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Gertrude Rader talks about the profession and lives of teachers, who were primarily women, in Western Colorado during the early Twentieth century. She discusses how, in small communities, women were expected to be much more than teachers including: Doctors’ assistants in a pinch, de facto members of the families that they boarded with in cases of illness or maternity, and moral pillars of the community. She includes many anecdotes from her own teaching...
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Rufus Hirons talks about his education in Grand Junction schools, and about teachers and school district employees (including his father, Walter Hirons). He also touches on the Fruita to Grand Junction Interurban line, sheep ranching with his grandfather, and local Italian Americans. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries, the Museums of Western Colorado and the Mesa County Historical...
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To mark the centennial celebration of the town of Grand Junction, Colorado in 1981, the Mesa County Oral History Project wrote and recorded several radio plays about local history. Beginning on September 26, 1981, local radio stations KSTR, KREX-AM, KREX-FM, and KMSA broadcast the plays. Authors of the plays used interviews recorded by the Mesa County Oral History Project as inspiration. This archival recording contains the play Early Day Schools...
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Jo (O’Quinn) Ferguson talks about making meals for ranch hands and other aspects of ranching with her husband George Gibson Ferguson in Garfield County. She speaks about churches, clubs, and the social and community life of the area. She describes her education in Louisiana and Colorado and her long teaching career, with an emphasis on her work with Central High School students at the end of her career. She talks about the history of the Roan Creek...
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Josephine “Jo” Ferguson describes her life as a teacher in Rifle, Colorado, Las Vegas, Nevada, and at Central High School in Mesa County. She talks about running a dairy and cattle ranches with her husband in Garfield County in the 1920’s and 30’s. She speaks about the boarding school in Louisiana that she attended as a child, and about experiencing the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic in Louisiana. Josephine describes social activities she enjoyed,...
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Charlotte (Jackson) Claar describes growing up on a homestead in Cheyenne County, Colorado, where the family witched for water, built an adobe house, and held jack rabbit drives. She speaks about moving to Grand Valley, Colorado (now Parachute) in 1920. She talks about her 37-year career as a teacher and then principal in Grand Valley, at the Clifton School, and at the Fruitvale School. She discusses her father and husband’s careers on the railroad....
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Essie Aspinall talks about her arrival in Palisade in 1910, her childhood there, and life in town. She speaks about growing up on a fruit farm and attending school at Mt. Lincoln, where she met her future husbands Frank Best and Wayne Aspinall. She describes teaching in a one-room school house in Sedgewick, Colorado. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western...
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Alice Clinton recalls her life on a fruit farm and in her husband’s insurance business in Palisade, Colorado during the early Twentieth century. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
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Della Crider talks about her life on a farm in the Fruita, Colorado area, and teaching at the Rhone School. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries, the Museums of Western Colorado and the Mesa County Historical Society.
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Early Grand Junction resident Ruth Larson describes her life as a teacher and principal in Mesa County schools. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries, the Museums of Western Colorado and the Mesa County Historical Society.
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Eva Wood Leslie discusses her family’s farm life on Pinon Mesa, Colorado, sheep farming, chores done around the home, and school teaching in Mesa County. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries, the Museums of Western Colorado and the Mesa County Historical Society.
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Dorothy Green talks about growing up as the child of a Congregational minister and a kindergarten teacher in Wisconsin, about her own teaching career, and about life as the wife of a Congregational minister. She also talks about working as a substitute teacher and tutor for Mesa County Valley School District 51, and about her husband’s career as a principal and teacher for Mesa County schools. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral...
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Vern Wood discusses his life as an early Mesa County resident, homesteader in Pinon Mesa, and cattle rancher on Glade Park. Wood and his wife Bernice also discuss the building of the Serpent’s Trail on the Colorado National Monument, life at local schools, country dances on Glade Park, transportation methods, and murder scandals that occurred around Glade Park. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration...
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Early settler Gladys Carnahan describes her life growing up in Grand Junction, Colorado, including horse and buggy excursions with her father, school and social activities with friends, and attending the Mesa County Fair. She talks about her early involvement in the First United Methodist Church. She also discusses becoming ill during the Spanish Flu pandemic, furnishings in her family’s home, and being forced to support her family on a teacher’s...