Frontier and pioneer life -- Colorado
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Lilly Lawson recalls her life in the Glade Park area of Mesa County, Colorado. She talks about her father, who was a Methodist minister and homesteader. She describes people and places in the Glade Park area. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Format:
Voice Recording
George Knowles talks about the history of his father’s carpentry and construction business in Fruita, about fighting as a soldier in World War I, and aspects of early Mesa County life. Esther Knowles discusses her family and early Twentieth century life in Plateau Valley. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Format:
Voice Recording
Daisy Green talks about pioneer life in Parachute, Colorado, touching on sheep and cattle wars, early churches and schools, and oil shale mining. 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.
Format:
Voice Recording
Cleaola Ernst talks about moving to Colorado from Kansas on a narrow-gauge train in 1897, when she was five years old. She speaks about her nursing education and working as a nurse. She remembers her family’s life in Hotchkiss, Colorado, and the general store that her parents ran. She tells the story of an eagle that purportedly picked up a small girl near Norwood, and how her family came to be in possession of the eagle after it was shot. She remembers...
Format:
Voice Recording
John Collier explains his childhood growing up as a homesteader in Pinon Mesa and the Glade Park area, and living in a tent until a cabin could be built. He talks about how his father made money in real estate, farming hay, selling horses, selling lumber for corrals, raising sheep and cattle, and skating on the frozen Redlands Canal. He mentions important landmarks and buildings in and around Grand Junction, Colorado. The interview was conducted by...
Format:
Voice Recording
Dudley W. Mitchell discusses his family history, early Colorado mining days, and his various jobs working for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad over fifty years. 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.
Format:
Voice Recording
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...
Format:
Compound
Oscar Jaynes discusses childhood memories of Clifton, Colorado, including life on his family’s homestead, a time he climbed inside a giant tire and rolled down a desert hill, and a boxing match at school with future Colorado Supreme Court justice Jim Groves. He then relates tales of traveling the country on freight cars trying to find work during the Great Depression. Oscar also talks a great deal about the fruit business, specifically the peach...
Format:
Voice Recording
James Brouse discusses moving and going to school in Glade Park, Colorado as a young boy in 1915. He tells tales of cowpunching in the canyons near Westwater, homesteading, the difficulties of dry farming, and the methods and difficulties of transportation into town from up on Glade Park. He also talks about local murders, sheep and cattlemen wars, and the history of different schools in the area. His wife Ellen (Morse) Brouse, longtime Mesa County...
Format:
Compound
Cordelia Files talks about the history of her family as early homesteaders in Mesa County, Colorado. She remembers life in Fruita in the early Twentieth century. She recalls working on a ranch near De Beque for her first job at the age of fifteen. She speaks about her life as a teacher instructing all eight grades in a one-room school house, about different episodes from her career in education (including the time a cat came to school), and about...
Format:
Compound
Will Watts talks about coming to Colorado in a covered wagon in the 1890’s, growing up in Delta and Telluride, and running away from home at the age of thirteen to work various labor jobs in the Olathe area. Edith Watts speaks about growing up on a homestead north of Olathe, encounters with Ute Indians, her schooling at the Number 8 School on Ash Mesa, and her work caring for children, sewing, and tailoring. She and Will remember life in Telluride,...
Format:
Compound
Anna E. Craig discusses her upbringing in Mesa, Colorado, including her social experiences, her father’s life as one of the few doctors in the area, the Mesa County Fair, her holiday rituals, methods of preserving food, and what it was like to own a hotel in Mesa. She also talks about an instance in the 1890’s when hundreds of sheep were driven over a cliff by cattle ranchers on the Grand Mesa, and other strife between cattle and sheep ranchers....
Format:
Compound
Ann Stokes talks about homesteading on East Orchard Mesa after her family moved to Mesa County, Colorado in 1904. She remembers her father working on the “fancy” masonry for the Grand Junction train station. She recalls living in a one-room log cabin and sharing that cabin with a horse for an evening. She speaks about the development of irrigation on East Orchard Mesa and her father’s peach orchard. She describes walking with her siblings four...
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Compound
Dorothy Tindall talks about the early days of Whitewater, Colorado as a rail center for cattle and stock. She speaks about the administrative organization of schools prior to the consolidation of Mesa County School District 51, her development of Mesa County’s first school hot lunch program at the Star School, games kids played at recess, about her work educating the children of migrant laborers who lived in La Colonia, and her role in the development...
Format:
Compound
Eda Musser talks about life in Delta, Colorado after moving there in 1908, when she was thirteen. She discusses landmarks such as the LeVeta Park School, the Anna-Dora Opera House, and the Delta House Hotel. She describes her involvement in the Spoon Club and other aspects of social life. She speaks about her family’s move west from Illinois using an immigrant car. She talks about meeting and marrying rancher Kelso Musser and their move to Cedar...
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Voice Recording
Mary talks about her early childhood in Kansas as one of nine children and her family's move to Colorado upon the death of her father. Mary details the train and its passengers during the move, including Russian immigrants coming to work the beet fields, and her mother's outreach. She mentions her mothers career training riding horses as a way to support the family. She talks about her relationships, children, and the struggle she faced trying to...
Format:
Voice Recording
Vesta Fitzpatrick talks about growing up in Buena Vista, New Castle, and De Beque, Colorado. She remembers the family’s homestead and life in De Beque, and her role as a homemaker from an early age due to her mother’s illness. She speaks about country school life. She details the dances that took place, including costume, masquerade, and “hard time” dances. She recalls living in Uravan during World War II, where her grandchildren played in...
Format:
Compound
Julia Harris discusses her family’s pioneer history and its move westward, including the journey of her grandfather, who was a member of the 1st Colorado Cavalry Regiment before homesteading in Western Colorado. She talks about early life in De Beque, Colorado, including social life and various places they lived, the railroad, sheep trails, De Beque businesses and landmarks, and her work in the local Republican Party. The interview was conducted...
Format:
Voice Recording
Mabel Cowden discusses her pioneer father, who owned a stagecoach line in Meeker and Rifle, Colorado, and her pioneer mother, who was active in the community and Methodist church affairs of Rifle. She goes into her education as a teacher and her teaching position in Harvey Gap. She talks about meeting her fiance, his service during World War I, and about the service of her brother, sons and grandsons in other wars. She also talks about raising a family...
Format:
Compound
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...
