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Showing 41 - 60 of 122 , query time: 0.02s
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She was born in Anthon, Iowa. She moved to Mesa County, Colorado in 1902, when she was five years old. Her family farmed land in Fruitvale. She was considered an “invalid child” and often felt ill. She graduated from Fruitvale High School in 1916 and soon after, went to Missouri to receive her degree in medicine. She met her husband while in school to become a medical doctor, and they soon moved back to Colorado. With her husband, she practiced...
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He was born in Nebraska to Joseph H. Ormsbee and Edith (Hockett) Ormsbee. His father was a farmer and his mother was a homemaker. US Census records show that the family was living in the Allen area of Mesa County by at least 1910, when Ervin was twelve (the Allen area was between D and E Roads near the current 29 ½ Road, in what is now considered Fruitvale). There the family farmed fruit. Ervin worked on the family farm. He married Esther Brown on...
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He and his wife Cora Nichols moved their family from Philadelphia to Mesa County in 1909, and established a fruit farm on Orchard Avenue near the Fruitvale area. He also owned and operated the New Method Laundry and the Armory Building, which were side-by-side on Rood Avenue. For a time, he operated the L&M Fruit Packing Company. He sometimes sprayed crops for the Goodwin-Latimer Company.
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Pearl Fern (Smith) Ross moved with her family to Grand Junction in 1896. She went to school in the Congregational Church at 5th Street and Rood Avenue. She also attended school at the Mercy Chapel, then known as the African Methodist Church in 2nd Street and White Avenue. She was later a member of the First United Methodist Church. Her family owned lived on the Viola Ranch in the Fruitvale area. With her husband, Robert Ross, she later owned a...
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Voice Recording
Neil Straayer describes his immigrant journey from the Netherlands to Grand Junction, Colorado in 1911, and his struggle to learn English upon arrival. He also discusses apple farming and peach farming in Appleton, Fruitvale, and other areas of the Grand Valley. 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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Helen Wilson talks about the life of her father, Robert “Bob” Ross, co-founder of the Ross Business College, important educator in Fruitvale, Colorado, and an early settler of that area. 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. *Photograph from 1936 Grand Junction High School yearbook.
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She was born in Ireland in 1851 and immigrated to the United States in 1873. She married Thomas C. “Tom” Charles sometime before 1880 and they are shown living together in Nebraska by the 1880 census. The 1900 census shows them living with their family in Georgetown, Colorado, with Tom working as a quartz miner (as he had in Georgetown previously). They moved to the Fruitvale area of Mesa County in 1905. They settled near the present location...
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According to Edith (Burns) Strain, the church was founded as the Methodist Episcopal Church at Clifton (of which Strain was a member). The church was organized in 1906 and the first church building was constructed at 4th Street and Grand Avenue in Clifton in 1907. The church was dedicated by Methodist preacher and governor Henry A. Buchtel. Because the foundation of the original church building was sinking, a new building was constructed and dedicated...
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In this recording, Alta Nolan reads the memoirs of Cordelia Files. Files talks about the history of her parents and maternal grandparents who homesteaded in the Fruita, Colorado area in the 1890’s. She describes the fruit growing operation on the homestead. She recounts seeing the Ute people and Chipeta when they came in the fall to dry fruit from the orchard. She remembers early Fruita, with its dirt streets and plank sidewalks. She speaks about...
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He was born to a German farming family in Vidak, Russia, the youngest sibling of five children. Henry left Russia to avoid serving in the army before the Russian Revolution, and moved to Lincoln, Nebraska to live with his sister in 1913, when he was 18 years old. There, they lived in a community of Germans from Russia. His parents, Pete Spomer and Mary Margaret (Georg) Spomer, refused to move and lived in Russia until their death. In Lincoln, Henry...
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She was born to William and Mary Brandon in Tennessee. US Census records from 1900 to 1920 show that her father was a farmer, a clergyman in a Baptist Church, and then a lusterer. Her mother was a homemaker. The family had moved from Tennessee to Oklahoma by the time Mabel was 11, and was shown living in Missouri by the census in 1920, when Mabel was 21. She apparently went to college, where oral history interviewee Helen (Young) Johnson contends...
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He was born in Ohio. Military pension records indicate that he was a Civil War veteran who served in the 191st Ohio Infantry. US Census records show Thomas living in Georgetown, Colorado with his brother James by 1870, when Thomas was 28. He married Mary Catherine Kavanaugh sometime before 1880 and they are shown living together in Nebraska by the 1880 census. He was listed by the census as a quartz miner. The US Census record shows the family living...
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A schoolteacher born in Ridgeway, Colorado. She moved to Glade Park with her family in the decade of the 1900's. Her father, who had been a miner in Ridgeway, tried his hand at dry farming in Glade Park but did not have success. The family moved several times during Eva's youth, and she attended school in several locations before graduating from Fruitvale High School in 1917. Immediately, she began teaching school in Glade Park and was charged...
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A then-Colorado artist who created public art installations. She received a Covisions grant to create a series of tile murals with Wingate Elementary School students in 1996. She also served as the Fruitvale Elementary School artist-in-residence, and was a teacher at the Western Colorado Center for the Arts (now known as the Art Center of Western Colorado). In 1997, she offered a course on tile making to any parent, teacher or education professional...
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He was born in Michigan and received a BS Degree from Michigan Agricultural College (now Michigan State University) in 1918. He spent the years of 1913-14 running cattle on the Grand Mesa with Clarence Nichols, then returned to Michigan for school. After graduation, he briefly joined the army during World War One, but contracted Tuberculosis and was released. Due to health reasons, doctors advised him to move to a drier climate. He took the train...
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He is the former mayor of Grand Junction. The Theobold family has lived on the Western Slope for over four generations, with Joseph and Ella Theobold first arriving in Delta County. His parents, Clyde and Alma Theobold, purchased the Loma General Store on August 1, 1970 and moved to Fruitvale in order to run it. In 1975, Reford took over the store at the age of twenty. He began a career in broadcasting when a senior in high school in 1972, working...
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Ruth Smith and Isabella Cunningham, former reporters for The Daily Sentinel, recall their careers at the newspaper during the 1920’s through 1940’s. Cunningham talks about covering railroad news and events, including the institution of a sixteen-hour-day law for workers. They remember two young children that were killed when playing with dynamite in Fruitvale. They describe the annual Christmas party for needy children that was put on each year...
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A rancher in the Garfield County area. He was born to George and Annie Ferguson in Stillwell, Oklahoma. His father was a farmer and his mother was a homemaker. US Census records from 1900 and 1910 show the family living in Indian Territory, and list the race of family members as Indian. George’s father was white. The 1909 US Eastern Cherokee Indian Rolls include George with his family, and show that he was nine years old in 1906. He enlisted...
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She was born to George W. Gooding and Emma (Campbell) Gooding in Sedgwick County, Colorado. The 1900 US Census record indicates that the family had moved to Boulder County, where her father was a farmer and her mother was a homemaker. Her father died in 1903, when Alice was 10. The 1910 and 1920 US Census shows the family living in Boulder County and Emma Gooding listed as unemployed, but with her “own income.” Alice attended the Pleasant View...
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He was born to Thomas J. Charles and Catherine (Kavanaugh) Charles in Georgetown, Colorado. His father was a quartz miner. His mother was an Irish immigrant and housewife. His parents moved to the Fruitvale area of Mesa County in 1905 and sent for Tom to join them in 1907. They settled near the present location of the Memorial Gardens cemetery, where they grew apples, pears and peaches on forty acres. His father died in 1908. 1910 US Census records...