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Early Appleton pioneer and founder of COPECO, a large fruit growing operation. The 1910 US Census lists him as the proprietor of a department store and he was the owner, along with William J. Moyer, of the Fair Store. The land on his farm was used as a picnic ground for the store's employees. He built a lavish house for his family on the property. He died in 1917. Census records show that by 1920 his widow, Lois Craven, had moved to Grand Junction....
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Person
A California inmate in San Quentin Prison who was paroled by his mother into the supervision of Charles Lumley in Mesa County. With the help of two fellow parolees, Tommy Humotoff and Otis Slane, he started the COPECO dance hall in the 1920s, in an old barn and packing shed owned by his mother. The facility had been used previously by Elmer Craven for his COPECO fruit growing business in the Hunter District (According to D.A. Brockett, Sadler ran...
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Voice Recording
Richard Williams talks about his family’s arrival in Grand Junction, Colorado in 1908. He speaks about his father’s purchase of the Independent Abstract Company and about his own involvement with several abstract and title companies in town. He discusses the formation of the Grand Junction Lions Club, the Grand Junction Lions Club Carnival, and the club’s fundraising for Grand Junction Junior College and other local causes. He speaks about his...
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Event
In December 1938, J.W. “Big Kid” Eames, who ran a gambling establishment called the Biltmore in the Reed Building at 3rd and Main Streets, was shot and killed by three masked robbers: Fern “Bubbles” Sadler, who ran the Copeco dance hall, and his friends and business partners Tommy Humotoff and Otis Slane (According to D.A. Brockett, Sadler ran the Mile-Away Dance Hall, but Grand Junction police officer Fritz Becker, who was an assisting officer...
6) M.A. Glascoe
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Person
According to oral history interviewee Richard Williams, Glascoe was an early resident of Mesa County and a part owner of the COPECO fruit growing operation, which he bought into after its sale by the original owners Elmer Craven and William Moyer. He worked as a dealer for the Conoco Oil Company and later as a realtor.
According to local historian Bill Nelson, Glascoe, who apparently belonged to the nascent First Baptist Church in Grand Junction,...
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Person
He was born in Ohio to Richard and Rebecca (Ervin) Tope. US Census records show him living in Harrison, Ohio and teaching by the time he was 24, in 1900. He married Elizabeth Jones in 1903, and together they moved to Grand Junction, Colorado, where Richard served as the principal of Grand Junction High School from 1911 to 1918.
In 1918, he became the superintendent of schools for Grand Junction School District 1, a position he kept until 1938....
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Person
He was born in New York to Rachel (Hotaling) Williams and David Williams. His father was a farmer and his mother a homemaker. He grew up in Guthrie Center, Iowa. He attended High Park College and later worked in a bank in Guthrie Center. He married Edna Bonebreak in 1905. They moved to Grand Junction, Colorado at the behest of the Guthrie Center bank’s owner, who wanted him to look after people from Guthrie Center who had moved to the Western Slope.
They...
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Person
William J. Moyer was the Vice President of Grand Valley National Bank and the owner, along with Elmer Craven until his death, of the Fair Store in Grand Junction, Colorado. According to David Sundal, Moyer first settled in the town of Socorro, New Mexico and opened a Fair Store there before abandoning the store and town for Grand Junction. There, his store went from a small hole in the wall to a large enterprise.
He walked to the Fair Store from...
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Voice Recording
Ervin Ormsbee talks about the history of cherry growing in the Grand Valley. Dick Williams speaks about the history of fruit growing, canneries, and agribusiness in Mesa County. 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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Voice Recording
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 On the Road to Grand...
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Compound
Elberta Francis and David Sundal hold a conversation about former Grand Junction resident and Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. Francis speaks about knowing Trumbo through family connections and as a child of similar age. During his conversation with Francis and in a separate interview with Evelyn Kyle, Sundal talks about interviewing Trumbo and his impressions of him. Together, Francis and Sundal paint a picture of Trumbo and his...
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Voice Recording
David Sundal discusses in great detail the life of famous author Dalton Trumbo of Grand Junction, Colorado, based in large part on Sundal’s conversations with the author. Sundal describes the local community’s relationships with Trumbo, reactions to Trumbo’s book Eclipse, portrayals of prominent businessman William Moyer and Daily Sentinel editor Walter Walker in the book, and Trumbo’s life and career after leaving Mesa County. He talks about...
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Compound
Rose and Morgan Goss discuss the early settlement of Grand Junction and Fruita, Colorado, and agricultural life in the Appleton area. 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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Voice Recording
Carl Forsman, the son of Swedish immigrants, talks about early life in the town of Mesa, 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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Compound
Robert Gustafson talks about the Wisemen’s Club, a Mesa County social and charitable organization to which he belonged in the 1930’s and 1940’s. He remembers the local dance halls and the big bands that played them. He describes growing up in a Swedish portion of the Globeville neighborhood in Denver, his educational background, and how he began working at the Public Service Company at the age of fourteen. He discusses his subsequent career...
Format:
Voice Recording
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 Aces and Eights, which...
Format:
Voice Recording
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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Compound
Glenn McFall discusses downtown businesses and business owners in Grand Junction, Colorado, as well as the shoe store he worked at for nine years, McConnell-Lowes. Glenn also talks about the involvement of the Ku Klux Klan in the Grand Valley area, the Mesa County Pest House and Smallpox outbreaks, the social scene and where people went to go dancing, the Mesa County Fair, horse racing and gambling, bailing rowdy cowboys out of the local jail, Eddie...
