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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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Frances Felicia Mendicelli describes her immigration to the United States from Italy, settling in Grand Junction, Colorado, her early education in both Italy and Mesa County, and learning English. She also talks about Christmas, food and tradition in her Italian American family, and about her father’s job as a railroad section foreman and life in a railroad family. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration...
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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...
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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....
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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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Emma Nagel, whose family came to the Highpoint area north of Fruita in 1894, talks about agricultural life on her family’s homestead, about badgers, wolves, and wildlife they encountered, and about the Highpoint community’s Christmas celebrations. 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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Winifred Bull recalls the childhood of her father, Dr. Herman Bull Sr., and his life as one of the original doctors in Mesa County, Colorado. She talks about the prevalence of Typhoid fever and waterborne illnesses in Grand Junction, known among doctors as “Belly Ache Flats” before the advent of modern water treatment facilities. She discusses her father’s medical practice, his love of horse racing, and how he rode his horses to house calls....