5 10 81 https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/916af43c187df0eaf773b6952c3f636b.pdf 7f3432fb882b67ba845f5c344e8c03c9 PDF Text Text (MARY) ADA (Russell) RABBITT KENT Ada Russell was born in a tepee at Breen, Colorado, in 1893. Her father, John Russell, was a member of the Moache Band of Utes. Her mother, Mary (Ada is not certain of her name), died when Ada was very young. Ada had five brothers and one sister, her identical twin. After their mother died, the family began selling the land at Breen. In the legal transactions the names of the twins were reversed. Ada originally was named Mary, but in the documents was called Ada and Ada was called Mary. Rather than disrupt the legality of the land documents, the family decided to continue calling Mary, Ada, and Ada, Mary. A short time later the original Ada died. So the original Mary, now called Ada, has preserved her sister's name for 84 years. Ada came to the Indian School at Ignacio, which she attended for 2-3 years. On a trip back to Breen, when Ada was about 10, she fell from a horse, striking her head on a rock. Shortly afterward she began to lose her vision. She was sent away to several hospitals during the next 2 years. When she was home, one of the medicine men, a sun-dance chief named Cumada, treated her. She credits him more than the hospitals for bringing a full recovery of her sight. John Russell sold the remainder of his land at Breen and moved to a farm just north of the present cluster homes north of Ignacio. Edna Russell and Sarah Pinnecoose are Ada's half sisters from her dad's 2nd marriage. Ada lived in Dulce for 5 years. She enjoyed the train rides between Lumberton and Breen. In 1911 Ada married Graves Stone Kent. His land was several miles east of Ignacio, where the Kents still live. The Kents raised cattle, chickens and horses. They gathered and dried wild herbs and wild potatoes for winter. The government supplied dried rice and beans. Winters were much worse in those days. Snow would pile halfway up the windows. The winter Isabel was born, Ada says, "You couldn't even see the fencepost." During the early years the mortality rate among all people was high. Many of Ada's relatives died of whooping cough and pneumonia. The Kent children who survived to adulthood are Bonny, Katy Seal, Ida, and Isabel. Four of the others died of the flu in 1918. Some died without names because it was not the custom to give official names to the little ones until they were enrolled in the tribe. Shortly after Ada and Graves were married, they started on a trip to Breen. Before they got far, a man came running up to them carrying a tiny, crying baby which he had found deserted in the woods. Ada could tell the little girl was no more than 1 or 2 days old and starving. She took the baby and began thinking how to feed her. The solution was rather ingenious. They returned home, caught a nanny goat and having no bottle or nipple, washed the teats of the goat and let the baby suckle it. She drank greedily. They took their live milk machine with them in the wagon to Breen and got along just fine. Ada soon figured out the baby was the illegitimate child of one of her grandfather's relatives. She raised little Annie (Ada doesn't tell her last name) until she was old enough to go to boarding school. "I went from the goat to the bottle with my own children," Ada says. "I raised my own, part of my grandchildren and never asked any pay because I love children." 92 �,..., ,..., 'l ~ 'J ,..., "My father and grandparents always taught me never to argue or fight with my husband and not to talk about him behind his back. I did what they said and we were happy. That is why it was so hard to lose him when he died." ) J ) ") ) ) ") Ada remembers how people were never alone with their work in the old days. They helped one another plant, plow and harvest. They traded and shared their food so that no one was without the necessities. Ada conceded that life today, though it is very different, is nice because it is a lot easier. She is very grateful to have lived long enough to see her grandchildren and her greatgrandchildren. J She added, "I've never been in jail and never been drunk in my life." We believe her! Ada has been a responsible, good person all her life, the kind of person who helps build up a community and leaves good memories of themselves. ) By Shelby Smith, Translated by Phoebe Cloud in December, 1977 ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) . ) _) J ..J J -.J ,.J ,.J -.J ...) J -.J J J -.J J ...J ..) 93 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Shelby Smith Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource https://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-NC/1.0/?language=en Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1973-1980 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of biographies, predominantly of residents from the Ignacio Senior Center, based on interviews conducted by Shelby Smith from approximately 1973 to 1980. The abridged interviews were originally published as individual entries in The Thoughtful Years newsletter, published by the Ignacio Senior Center, beginning in 1973. They were later published as a whole in Smith's book: Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley, from which the original scans in this collection have been derived. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ada Rabbit (Russell) Kent Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1977-12 Subject The topic of the resource Kent, Ada Rabbitt (Russell); Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Ada Rabbitt (Russell) Kent based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith on December, 1977. Included in the book "Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley" by Shelby Smith. Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kent, Ada Rabbitt (Russell) Extent The size or duration of the resource. 2 pages Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby; Cloud, Phoebe https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/b74e1b1f4fde1f62a6f80c6260742410.pdf 8290a7f9dbc592b8e9ffeffc88c3e4c5 PDF Text Text BONNIE and ESSIE (Richards) KENT Essie Burch Richards, the daughter of Sarah Burch and Bob Richards, was born at Bayfield August 5, 1916. "We lived in a little adobe house still standing on the place next to Jack Frost's farm. I don't remember my mother. She died when I was very young, so my grandparents largely raised me. My grandfather, Robert Burch had all kinds of animals, turkeys, sheep, cattle and chickens. The apple trees he planted are still there, but the strawberry patch has died out." Essie started school at the Allen Day School, then went to the Bayfield school for grades 4-7. She finished high school at the Indian School in Albuquerque. "The Albuquerque School was mostly a vocational school to learn farming, home economics, etc. One thing I liked was the military training. We wore uniforms and every morning we had drills. Then on Sundays a lot of people from town came out to watch our dress parades." - Essie was one of six students chosen to be sent to Pennsylvania for special nurses training, but about the time she was ready to go her grandfather needed her help at home. So she never got to go. Essie had, of course, ridden horses all her life. So no one thought it was particularly unusual for her uncle to ask her help to break and train his horses. Essie was doing just that when she met her future husband. Bonnie Kent was hired to help break the horses, also. The two of them took an immediate liking for one another and were married in 1937. Bonnie Kent was born near Ignacio in 1918. His parents were Graves Stone Kent and Ada Rabbit Kent. They had a home near the Oxford Tract. When Bonnie was very small, the house was struck by lightning and everything was lost. Graves continued raising sheep and cattle on the open range until he got a land allotment east of Ignacio where Ada still lives. There were a few automobiles around when Bonnie was a child, but most people still used horses and wagons or buggies. "The best I can remember," Bonnie says, "a new buggy cost $300-$400. A real nice one cost about $500. There were buggy repair shops just like there are auto repair shops today. You could buy new parts or the blacksmiths could rebuild the rims and spokes and other parts that wore out." Work on the farms was hard in those days, but Bonnie and Essie both remember that life with good feeling. "In the haying time we loaded the cut hay on slips (sled-like platforms pulled by a team) and hauled it to the barn. If it was a grain field, we hired a man with a binder to cut and bind the grain into shocks. Then someone brought a thrashing machine to the field. We threw the shocks into the machine and it separated the grain from the straw. The men held cloth sacks under the spout to catch the grain. Others stood by to sew the sacks 94 �closed. Life was better on the farm then. It was hard work, but we enjoyed it. Everybody kept busy and helped one another." , } ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) After they were married, Bonnie and Essie stayed with Bonnie's parents for a while. Bonnie worked at irrigating in the summer. He was a line rider over in the Piedra country and then worked on the farm at the Ignacio Indian School. About 1946 the Kents got a farm east of Ignacio where they built the home in which they still live. Bonnie was elected to the Tribal Council for three terms. He also was appointed to the Tribal Activities Board which was responsible for planning and organizing rodeos. The old rodeo grounds were next to the Ute Park where the ball park is now. This involvement with the rodeo got Bonnie interested in raising stock again, not for the meat market, but for rodeo stock. Before long he had quite a few head of bucking horses and some Brahma bulls. "We really enjoyed the rodeo business. We rented the animals to rodeo promoters around the 4-corners area at Farmington, Cortez, Pagosa, Dulce, Durango and Ignacio. Once in a while a dealer would take a few of our animals clear to Texas or Oklahoma for the rodeo finals. Most people think rodeo animals are really mean, but they're not. On their home pasture most of them are as gentle as pets. It's only in the ring they turn into a different animal." The Kents kept their rodeo stock until Richard, their oldest child moved away from Ignacio. They have four children. Richard now lives in. Oregon. Eunice died at the age of 17. Phoebe still lives at Ignacio. Their 4th child, Beulah, was chosen to be Miss Southern Ute, the Four-Corner's Indian Princess and was a runner-up to Miss Indian America at Sheridan, Wyoming. Beulah represented Miss Indian America at many events in this country and once in Europe. ) _) J _) Bonnie and Essie have gone to the Bear Dances and the Sun Dances for many years. "It's still done about the same as always, but in the old days they were a little stricter. No food or drink near the ceremony and no intoxicated people allowed. It was more religious and less social. We liked the old way a little better." .J June, 1976 - Shelby Smith _) ._) .J .J ..._) .._) ._) ._) J J .J ..._) ...J 95 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Shelby Smith Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource https://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-NC/1.0/?language=en Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1973-1980 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of biographies, predominantly of residents from the Ignacio Senior Center, based on interviews conducted by Shelby Smith from approximately 1973 to 1980. The abridged interviews were originally published as individual entries in The Thoughtful Years newsletter, published by the Ignacio Senior Center, beginning in 1973. They were later published as a whole in Smith's book: Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley, from which the original scans in this collection have been derived. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bonnie Kent and Essie (Richards) Kent Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1976-06 Subject The topic of the resource Kent, Bonnie; Kent, Essie (Richards) Description An account of the resource Biography of Bonnie Kent and Essie (Richards) Kent based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith. Originally included in the June, 1976 issue of "The Thoughtful Years" newsletter published by the Ignacio Senior Center. Later included in the book "Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley" by Shelby Smith. Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kent, Bonnie; Kent, Essie (Richards) Extent The size or duration of the resource. 2 pages Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/ed5286b388de290956668b526fe7c024.pdf 5a1a8ebdd0915762077f447f01040aaa PDF Text Text JANNIE ELIZABETH (Terry) KING Janie King was born at Wheeler, Texas, on the wide plains of the West in 1911. Her father, Thomas Ethridge Terry was born at Chickasha, Oklahoma Territory in 1887 and her mother, Lenore Estelle (Bailey) Terry was born at Fayettevi1 le, Arkansas. The instinc! to go west lured the Terrys just as it has thousands of others. "In 1916," Jannie says, "my father sold his farm at Wheeler, put all he could carry in two covered wagons and started west. Though I was only five at the time, I have several clear memories of the trip. One night we camped beside a lake near Groom, Texas. With water so scarce on the plains, mother did not lose the chance to do the family washing. Except for some of our cattle dying of blackleg, the only unpleasant incident of the trip was an encounter with a Gypsy woman who picked my father's pocket. My parents were young, totally unfamiliar with the habits of Gypsies and therefore, an easy prey. This was not our last experience with Gypsies." "We settled at Porter, New Mexico, where I went to school all 12 years. All the farming was dry land. Dad raised broom corn, maize and hay. We cultivated big gardens and raised chickens, pigs and cows. For sweetening we grew sugar cane. When it was mature, we cut and peeled it and took it to my uncle, who could make the best sorghum molasses you ever tasted. He had a press powered by horses to squeeze the Juice out of the cane. The juice flowed into a gently sloping metal trough under which a fire was built. As the Juice slowly flowed back and forth down the channels of the trough, it boiled until it was thickened to the right degree. We ground our own corn with a hand mill. It made delicious bread. Life was good in New Mexico until the dry years came." "When I finished school in 1929, I married Weaver King. We did OK on the farm until the drought of the 30's when the bottom dropped out of prices. II got so bad we were selling eggs for 5 cants a dozen and ten gallon cans of cream for $2.50. We got rid of our caWe and bought sheep, thinking they could find something to eat even if the cows couldn't. In those dry summers we got the most terrific electric storms, but little or no rain. The winds would raise clouds of dust as black as night. After the wind passed, the dust stood 2 inches deep on the fence posts.' "Our son, Tommy, was born in 1935. Until then we and a lot of other folks had hung on thinking the dry years would surely end and things would get back to normal, but it kept right on. We began hearing talk of moving on. Some had done it. One of our neighbors had gone to Western Colorado to look things over. He came back excited and told us, 'That's the Rock Candy Mountain out there. Apples hang from the trees, gardens are full of everything you want to eat. Rivers are full of fish and the woods full of game. All you have to buy is coal oil, salt and baking powder. The rest is for the taking.' Weaver and I got excited too. We asked a lot of questions and finally said, 'Tell us some of the bad things', but he answered, 'No, I can tell you're coming anyway. You'll find out the bad things when you gel there.' 'Well, he was right. We sold out and came to La Plata County, Colorado in 1936. 96 �") .,,.., ") ") ~ 'l ) i ) ) 7 , ) ) .) ) ) ) Weaver sold all his sheep and got 8 horses. He and a friend made one trip to Oxford just to bring the horses. They drove to Albuquerque and up through Cuba. It was the last of September before he was ready to take Tommy and me. One of our neighbors loaded our Pinto riding horse and its colt and all our possessions into his truck and headed west. Fearing the unpaved roads north of Albuquerque if it rained, he drove straight to Gallup, up to Shiprock and then to Aztec. It was a beautiful trip. As we got to the Colorado line just below Bondad, all I could see were great bluffs and rocky hillsides. I asked 'Is it all like this?' They assured me it was not. We settled into a place southeast of the old Hood School east of Durango and later rented places near Oxford." "As soon as we got here the drawbacks showed up. On the first Sunday it snowed. The whole winter it snowed and snowed until I thought it would never quit and in the spring I thought it would never melt. That was one drawback. The other was mud. Oxford mud ought to be world famous, because it's really mud. It was unbelievable. At first we couldn't cope with it. Weaver tried to feed the stock out of the wagon. Chunks of mud the size of me fell off the wheels. He soon learned not to even try it. unless the ground was frozen. The snow could be just as rough. I've seen horses get so tired trying to pull the wagon through it, they just lie down in the snow. After we got a car, we often had to leave it parked at the Oxford Store and walk home on the railroad tracks." } ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) .J J .J ...J ...J "That first winter little Tommy (15 months old) and I were snowbound many weeks. But we didn't mind. He loved to play in the snow and I'll have to admit I did, too. We had plenty of firewood and a barrel of canned goods, so we made it through the winter just fine. During the war years we milked 14 cows. Prices began to rise. For a while it looked as if the price of cream would go to a dollar a pound, but it reached 99 cents and that's as far as it got. We bought our farm north of Oxford with cream checks. Weaver was the ditch rider, did odd jobs and worked the farm to make a living. The highlight of his year was the elk season." The King's two children still live in the area. Tommy married Janie Baird and lives in Ignacio. Beth married Jim Sower and lives in Bayfield. Weaver died in 1965. Jannie stayed on the farm for 3 years, then moved to Ignacio. When we asked whether she ever had second thoughts about moving to Colorado, Jannie says, "You see we didn't leave. I've been here 42 years and it all adds up pretty well." Shelby Smith - November, 1978 _) ...J ...J ...J ...) ...) J J J J J 97 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Shelby Smith Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource https://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-NC/1.0/?language=en Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1973-1980 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of biographies, predominantly of residents from the Ignacio Senior Center, based on interviews conducted by Shelby Smith from approximately 1973 to 1980. The abridged interviews were originally published as individual entries in The Thoughtful Years newsletter, published by the Ignacio Senior Center, beginning in 1973. They were later published as a whole in Smith's book: Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley, from which the original scans in this collection have been derived. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Jannie Elizabeth (Terry) King Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1978-11 Subject The topic of the resource King, Jannie Elizabeth (Terry); Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Jannie Elizabeth (Terry) King based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith. Originally included in the November, 1978 issue of "The Thoughtful Years" newsletter published by the Ignacio Senior Center. Later included in the book "Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley" by Shelby Smith. Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource King, Jannie Elizabeth (Terry) Extent The size or duration of the resource. 2 pages Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/65bd79844e2a3d779679d7dbf381177b.pdf c6a443a79cb59b5f712fe23c5f1dfcbb PDF Text Text THELMA(Pena)KUEBLER "My mother, Mary Spencer Baker was an intelligent young lady, one of the first graduates of the Chilocco Indian School in Northern Oklahoma. When she returned home, she worked actively with the employees of the Ute Agency on the Pine River. Because of her language skill and mastery of English, she often served as interpreter at the Agency. On one memorable trip, she accompanied a Ute delegation to a meeting in Washington, D.C. None of this work caused her to lose her interest in the common affairs of life on the reservation. Back home she was one of the best cooks. Everything we ate was home-grown or hunted out of the wilds. She dried and canned our food for the winter. I can still remember washing all those old Kerr jars." "My dad, Juan Pena, a Tewa Indian from Nambe Pueblo, came into the San Juan country to work in the fields when he was just a teenager. Mother met him when he was herding sheep for one of my great uncles, 'Talion' Spencer. After my parents were married, they settled up in the Redondo Valley west of Cat Creek above Pagosa Junclion where my mother had an allotment of land. Dad built us a log house chinked with mud. He was a good farmer, raising crops of grain and hay and managing our flock of sheep. My parents conversed in English and Spanish at first, since neither one knew the other's Indian language. Dad soon learned Ute, since he was around so many Utes." "When my older sister Gennevive and I started to school, Dad moved us to a house in Pagosa Junction. Mrs. Zabriskie taught all 8 grades. I attended only two years in Pagosa Junction. The next year my sister and I and Curtis Cutthair and several others were sent to the Indian School at Santa Fe. The trip was by narrow-gauge railroad with an overnight stop in Antonito. Since I was only 6 or 7 years old, you can imagine how scared I was. I was deathly afraid of being sent away and never coming back. Personnel from the school met us at the Santa Fe depot with a stage coach pulled by mules. Everything about the Indian School was OK except it was just too far from home. My mother died while I was away at school. From then on I helped lake care of my little brother every summer. Vacation time at Pagosa Junction was a delightful break from school. We fished and swam in the San Juan and hiked in the woods. About the only time we ever went to Ignacio was at ration time. That was an all day ride in a wagon and then a long wait in line. We were issued fresh meat, coffee, flour, sugar, etc." "After finishing 10th grade at Santa Fe, I stayed in the dorm north of town and attended grades 11 and 12 in Ignacio. In 19361 finished high school and started working in the accounting office at the B.I.A. with a lady named Rae Mills. She began to teach me the bookkeeping I used for so many years. Before 1936 almost all business and money for the tribe was handled by the B.I.A. This began to change in 1936. That year we began to credit income lo our own accounts, but we still did not write our own checks. About this same time I married Ramius Kuebler. Ramius was a bus driver for the B.1.A. and I continued my work. We had three children, John, Theda and Lawrence. We got our present house in town in 1954. The next year Ramius became very ill and died. I quit 98 �'l "1 ) 'l 'l '} ) l J l ) work to take care of him during the last months. In 1956 the Tribe asked me to come back to work with the books. My years with the Tribe from 1936-1972 were mostly spent in the finance department, but I also worked part of the time on the Tribal Census with Millie Daniels, in Property and Supply with Harold Turner and in the irrigation department doing typing. In 1974 I got a job as secretary at the SUARC Program and only recently retired from there. " "Now that I'm home, I spend my time taking care of my grandchildren, Michele, Kathy and Cedric and I read my books. I love to read. I have read all of Louis L'Amour's books and many other books of different kinds." ) J ) ) J "My father, Juan Pena, will celebrate his 99th birthday in May. I am thankful to still have my father." "I want everyone to know I enjoyed all the years I worked for the Tribe and now that I have extra time, I will be glad to serve the Tribe in any way that I can." Shelby Smith, April 1981 ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) _) ..J J ...) _) _) _) .__) ...) ....J ..J .__) ...J ..J ~ ....J ....) 99 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Shelby Smith Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource https://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-NC/1.0/?language=en Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1973-1980 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of biographies, predominantly of residents from the Ignacio Senior Center, based on interviews conducted by Shelby Smith from approximately 1973 to 1980. The abridged interviews were originally published as individual entries in The Thoughtful Years newsletter, published by the Ignacio Senior Center, beginning in 1973. They were later published as a whole in Smith's book: Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley, from which the original scans in this collection have been derived. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Thelma (Pena) Kuebler Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1981-04 Subject The topic of the resource Kuebler, Thelma (Pena); Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Thelma (Pena) Kuebler based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith in April, 1981. Included in the book "Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley" by Shelby Smith. Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kuebler, Thelma (Pena) Extent The size or duration of the resource. 2 pages Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/89af2b9cc2be99b37a7ae6049633fe26.pdf cb0a9de06325d959b2c5f8f5ec1737a0 PDF Text Text MILDRED (Parrott) LEONARD Mildred's maternal grandparents, John and Mary Porterfield, met and were married in Nevada. Mary Dexter was a member of the Washoe Indian Tribe, a people who have lived along the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and nearby desert areas for countless generations. Their child Lillian Porterfield was only 14 years old when Mary died. John sent Lillian to the Indian school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, to get a quality education. Lillian excelled at needlework and soon became an expert seamstress. She look a job at the Modoc Indian Agency in northeast California to teach sewing. George Parrott, Mildred's grandfather, was born on a farm in south central Ohio near the small village of South Salem. He learned all the traditional farming skills of the late 1800's at home. George and Lillian's lives intersected when he was hired to teach agriculture at the same Modoc Agency in California. After George and Lillian were married, they moved back to Ohio where Mildred, their only child, was born. Soon enough they were enticed back into teaching at the Indian Agencies. Mildred says, "I think Dad liked to move and experience different parts of the country. We spent a couple of years at Santa Fe with the Pueblo people, next at the Shawnee Agency in Oklahoma, then at Busby, Montana, with the Crow people, and then at Ft. Bidwell, California, with the Modocs. Finally, Dad was sent to Colorado to work with the Southern Ute people. We stayed in Ignacio until 1930 when Dad retired." Mildred attended high school here in Ignacio. She loved playing basketball. The kids had to use the American Legion Hall (localed south of the new library) since the school had no gym. In those days Ignacio had a movie theater, two or three grocery stores, two gas stations and a drug store. These businesses were essential as most people could not go to Durango often. Mildred met and dated Jack Leonard, Virginia Lunsford's brother. They were married when she was very young. The Leonards were an old family in Ignacio. Jack's dad had operated a meat market here for a long time. His mom Edna Leonard taught first grade in Ignacio for many years. Mildred and Jack had three sons, Ted, Bob and Jack. Mildred never worked outside of home. She considered raising three boys a big enough job. When Mildred's husband enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War II, he did not expect the assignment he got. Jack had grown up at Fruitland, N. M., where most of his friends were Navajo kids. When the army learned he could speak Navajo well, they assigned him to work with the legendary Code Talkers. What he was doing in the South Pacific was a secret - so much so that Mildred did not know anything about it until some time after the war was ended. Mildred has traveled a lot. One memorable trip happened during World War II when she and Virginia Lunsford, her sister in law, rode the train all the way to Providence, Rhode Island. "We took the narrow gauge train to Alamosa, then changed to the wide gauge. It was a long trip, but enjoyable. Virginia's husband Paul was a Sea Bee, stationed there in Rhode Island. When he got some time off, Paul took us to New York City to see the Statue of Liberty, Staten Island, the Empire State Building and a 100 �"l ~ 'l ,,, ,,, 'l 'l ) l l ) ) J ) -) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) performance at Radio City Music Hall. Before his time in New England, Paul had been in Hawaii helping rebuild Pearl Harbor." After the war ended Mildred moved to Farmington where she lived for 45 years. In 1978 when she and her dad learned about the opening of the second phase of the Southern Ute Senior Apartments, they applied for a two bedroom unit and moved back to Ignacio. She and her dad had a good two years at the senior center before he died. Both of them liked to play cards. The rest of their crowd included Louisa Hartig, Beulah Miller, Gertrude Dunn, Willie Bledsoe and Twila Bright. Mildred recalls, "When Dad got a notion to play cards, he'd say, 'Do you suppose the old biddies will want to come over?' Usually, they did." Mildred has had wonderful trips to Hawaii as well as to Germany and Switzerland to visit her sons who were stationed there. She has traveled to all but six states in the U.S. In 1980 she attended a family reunion at her old home town in Ohio, where she met most of her 18 cousins and many other relatives. Six of them remain today. Two of Mildred's sons have died: Bob in 1993 and Jack in October of 2010. Ted, a retired Army Colonel, and his wife live in Las Vegas, Nevada. "I don't think a person is supposed to outlive their children. It's very hard to lose them, but I have 6 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren to enjoy today. I'll be 94 years old on July 22nd. So far I don't need any medicine except a daily baby aspirin. My friends Jean Patrick, Jean McClanahan and several others still come over to play Liverpool Rummy. We enjoy it a lot." ) March, 2010- Shelby Smith ) ) ) _) _J _J _) J .J __J J _) _) .J J _; ..J ..J ..J ..J 101 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Shelby Smith Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource https://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-NC/1.0/?language=en Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1973-1980 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of biographies, predominantly of residents from the Ignacio Senior Center, based on interviews conducted by Shelby Smith from approximately 1973 to 1980. The abridged interviews were originally published as individual entries in The Thoughtful Years newsletter, published by the Ignacio Senior Center, beginning in 1973. They were later published as a whole in Smith's book: Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley, from which the original scans in this collection have been derived. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mildred (Parrott) Leonard Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2010-03 Subject The topic of the resource Leonard, Mildred (Parrott); Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Mildred (Parrott) Leonard based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith in March, 2010. Included in the book "Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley" by Shelby Smith. Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Leonard, Mildred (Parrott) Extent The size or duration of the resource. 2 pages Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/3c7d93139e662f40913542b3845c7077.pdf 067d4145536a23a5c3c251d4b1898f82 PDF Text Text MAX AND ELLEN (House) WATTS Max Smith Watts was born in a teepee camped in the pine Valley near La Boca, Colorado, in 1894, the son of Andrew and Cecilia Watts. Max says, "My father's band, the capote Band, traveled a lot in those days. Some of them were farmers, but most of them moved around to find better hunting. Teepees were just right for people on the move. There were very few white men around in those days. We hunted for deer and rabbits and herded our sheep and goats. Our games were made to give us skill. We would throw round targets into the air and shoot them before they came down. I made my own fishing pole from a willow, some string and a needle bent into a hook. We all had horses and depended on them for all of our moving around. My grandfather told me of a lime when he was young that there were few horses. He knew of some of our people trading a child for a horse. They were valued so much when they were scarce. The Utes always liked horse racing. Since the road across the river was so long and straight, we had our races over there." "My people were not surprised when the white man brought the train. One of the old men had seen it in a dream. He told his people that one day white men would come in a thing of smoke and fire. I never rode the train until I was nearly grown. I was scared of it. When it came up the valley, it looked like it was coming straight at me. I would run." My parents put me in the BIA Boarding School for a few years; but when I got old enough to herd the goats, they needed me at home. We had some land over on the Piedra River and moved back and forth to it. We played many games - some for fun and some for gambling. One was played with big nails and a pile of dirt. The nails which had numbers painted on them were pushed out of sight into a pile of soft earth. The players look turns poking a stick into the pile to expose a nail. They got points according to the numbers painted on them. The women watching the game would sing and dance around the pile lo try to make the earth fall. Blankets, horses and money were gambled in this game. We also had a game like the white man's horse shoes only we used flat rocks to try to throw near or into holes dug into the ground." By the time he was 16, Max was on his own. He worked with the crews which dug the irrigation ditches. His pay was $1.50 per day. Euterpe Taylor's father John Taylor was his boss. A few years later he went to Buckskin, Arizona, to work in the cornfields. Before the corn was ripe, Max was put on guard to shoot the blackbirds out in the fields. In harvest time he harnessed the horses every morning and helped with the picking. "I always came back lo Ignacio when a job ended. After a few years I got a job working at the Agency. Until I met Ellen House, I had not thought of marrying any one. Why get married with no money in my pocket?" Ellen remembers, "Max started sending me boxes of chocolate. Sometimes there would be money in the boxes. We were married in 1925 at the courthouse in Durango. I was born in 1907. My mother Fannie House died in the flu epidemic in 1918 when I was 11 years old. Daisy Eagle is my half sister and I had a brother, Danny, and a sister named July. Both of them died in accidents on horses. Max and I lived in a house near the agency until 1934 when we moved to the farm near La Boca. We lived on the farm 172 �~ "' 'I 'I 'J 'I J 'J ' J l ) ' ) J ) ) where Rose Watts is now. At that time there was an old house on the farm built of posts. Later we bought the land on the hill where we still live. It's good ground up there with a spring nearby." Afte r Max quit the agency, he worked for the D. & R. G . W. Railroad with the crews that cleared the tracks of snow in winter. Since Max was a cook's helper, his job was not too hard. The others had to use their shovels if the snow plow could not remove the drifts. The crews had lots to do at Red Cliff and at Soldier's Summit in Utah. The crews slept in the cars. It was very cold. "In 1955," Ellen says, "we built a new house on our farm. When we were strong, we raised sheep, horses, grain, hay and all of our vegetables. I still have a big garden. In the 1930's many hoboes came up from the railroad tracks and asked for something to eat. I always gave them something. So many people were traveling around then. I think a farm is the best place to live because even when there are not jobs, farmers have work. We sold potatoes to the BIA School and horses to the Navajos. We never liked cows, but we kept goats and made cheese from their milk. We're still on our farm and don't ever want to live anyplace else." ) ) ) The Watts had seven children in all: Colleen, Ed, Lula, Ellenetta, Crystal, Jerry and Eunice. Only Colleen, Crystal and Lula are still living. September, 1977 - Shelby Smith ) ) } ) ) ) ) J j ._) J ..J ..J J J ..J J J -.) ..J J ...) ...) 173 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Shelby Smith Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource https://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-NC/1.0/?language=en Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1973-1980 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of biographies, predominantly of residents from the Ignacio Senior Center, based on interviews conducted by Shelby Smith from approximately 1973 to 1980. The abridged interviews were originally published as individual entries in The Thoughtful Years newsletter, published by the Ignacio Senior Center, beginning in 1973. They were later published as a whole in Smith's book: Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley, from which the original scans in this collection have been derived. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Max Watts and Ellen (House) Watts Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1977-09 Subject The topic of the resource Watts, Max; Watts, Ellen (House) Description An account of the resource Biography of Max Watts and Ellen (House) Watts based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith. Originally included in the September, 1977 issue of "The Thoughtful Years" newsletter published by the Ignacio Senior Center. Later included in the book "Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley" by Shelby Smith. Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Watts, Max; Watts, Ellen (House) Extent The size or duration of the resource. 2 pages Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/5905a8e97ec948c1807b3d97c08b5f3a.pdf e70a8cc976e78a1c828b74292a3c9509 PDF Text Text JOE and SUSANA (Martinez) LUCERO Joe Lucero was born July 17, 1908 at the family homestead on the Pine River near Blanco, New Mexico. He is the oldest son of Silvano and Tomasita Lucero. There were five other children, two sisters, Josephina and Macedonia, and three brothers, Silvano, Rubel and Benito. Joe, being the oldest son, helped his father on their 640 acre ranch. They had dry land on the mesa and a section on the river bottom. Part was used for crops and part for running cattle and sheep. Most of the time Joe was needed on the farm at home. Occasionally, he hired out to Walter Key for hoeing beans and doing other farm jobs up near Allison. Joe decided before he got too old, he better get himself a wife. There was a girl back home in Martin Plaza, N.M. whom he had known when he was a boy. Joe and Susana Martinez were neighbors. When Joe went home Susana was 14. They courted for two years, then decided when Susana was 16 it was time to get married. Joe wanted a young wife, not an old one. They married in Los Martinez, N.M. and stayed at his father's ranch. Four of their seven children were born there: Irene, Fred, Mary Delice and Raymond. Joe and Susana brought their four children by horse and wagon to Homer, Colorado, located south of Allison and leased 80 acres. While there Mary Lou, Benstina and Susie were born. Six of the children are still alive. Five are in the Ignacio area and one in Chicago. Raymond was in the Air Force and died in Denver in 1957. Joe worked his own ranch and hired out to others in the area. He worked for Joe Shank for three summers, for Barney Lonne for 9 summers. The family did most of its shopping in Rosa. Joe's last years of ranching were with Vernon Young, then with Mike Faverino. When Susana died in 1967, they had been married 41 years. Joe and his daughter Susie took a trip to Chicago to visit his daughter Mary Lou. They spent about a month sight-seeing. On Dec. 12, 1974, Joe suffered a heart attack and spent 27 days in the hospital. In March 1975 Joe bought a trailer and moved it to Ignacio where he could be closer to his children. Joe's father is still living, a spry 90 years of age. He was still farming up to five years ago when he sold an 80 acre ranch at Oxford. Silvano now lives with his daughter Josephina in Gem Village. Joe at 68 is still helping his neighbors farm. He's over at Tom Gallegos today separating cows. By CLAUDETTE GILBERT, November, 1976 102 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Shelby Smith Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource https://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-NC/1.0/?language=en Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1973-1980 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of biographies, predominantly of residents from the Ignacio Senior Center, based on interviews conducted by Shelby Smith from approximately 1973 to 1980. The abridged interviews were originally published as individual entries in The Thoughtful Years newsletter, published by the Ignacio Senior Center, beginning in 1973. They were later published as a whole in Smith's book: Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley, from which the original scans in this collection have been derived. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Joe Lucero and Susana (Martinez) Lucero Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1976-11 Subject The topic of the resource Lucero, Joe; Lucero, Susana (Martinez); Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Joe Lucero and Susana (Martinez) Lucero based on an interview conducted by Claudette Gilbert. Originally included in the November, 1976 issue of "The Thoughtful Years" newsletter published by the Ignacio Senior Center. Later included in the book "Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley" by Shelby Smith. Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Lucero, Joe; Lucero, Susana (Martinez) Extent The size or duration of the resource. 1 page Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby; Gilbert, Claudette https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/680d19a12af3ecf98a0c25412403813b.pdf e08ff19b054f52b74ced25e7130d77ff PDF Text Text LOYD & ALICE (Frahm) LUNSFORD Loyd Lunsford was born in a sod house on his parent's homestead in the Cimarron Valley of Northwest Oklahoma on April 12, 1907. His parents, Homer and Junie Lunsford staked their claim near the town of Fai,view in 1894, one year after this section of Oklahoma, known as the Cherokee Strip, was opened for settlement. Homer raised cotton and peanuts and other crops. He left the farm in 1912 to operate a cream station across the river in Cleo Springs. Then they moved far west onto the great rolling plains of the panhandle. "We settled in a little town called Sunset right in the middle of nowhere. It was 30 rough miles in one direction to Beaver City and 40 rough miles in the other direction to Shattuck, the nearest rail depot. Dad hired out to do farm work and ran the cream station. Mother operated a two room hotel for the drummers (salesmen) who came through town. When I was eight years old, I got a job doing chores for a farmer. He soon learned I could handle horses and sent me to the field harrowing with a team of four. At the age of ten they had me discing. My wages were board and room and $10.00 per month. It took all my wages, all my brother Okla's wages, and all my mother and father earned to live. I'll always remember the wind which never stopped on those plains," "When we moved to Rogers, Arkansas in 1919, we felt we had returned to civilization. There was work for all of us in the orchards and berry farms of Northwest Arkansas. Our family got along better. I was able to finish 8th grade at Rogers. During the next several years I worked various jobs: the wheat ha,vest on the plains, farm work in the San Luis Valley and ranch work in Wyoming." In 1928 Loyd rode the D. & R.G.W. train to Ignacio to visit his brother, Okla. He soon got a job driving a truck for Ignacio Transfer. The company used a one ton Model T Ford Truck and a ton and a half Dodge Truck to haul everything imaginable. Of course it was not all work in Ignacio. One night the Lunsford boys went to a dance. Okla was dancing with a gin named Alice Frahm when he asked her if she would like to meet his little brother. She said sure. That's how Loyd became acquainted with his Mure bride. Alice and Loyd had good times over the next two years. They saw the silent movies in Durango, went swimming at Tremble Springs and attended rodeos. There were frequent dances at Akers Hall in Bayfield, and at the Odd Fellows Hall in Ignacio. The music was provided mostly by local individuals who played the piano, the fiddle or the guitar. One of the best was the newspaper editor {editor of the Bayfield Blade) named Raymond Eggar. His instrument was the saxophone. He not only played at dances, but also provided mood music at the silent movies. Alice and Loyd were married in January of 1930, Alice's father, Pe1er Frahm, was born in Koblenz, Germany, and came to America when he was about 20 years old. Her mother, Ellen Meagher, was born of Irish parents either on the boat or in Canada, their first stop on this side of the world. Peter and Ellen met 103 �near Gunnison where Peter was working in the mines. Ellen's mother was cooking for the miners. After Peter and Ellen were married. they migrated into the Durango area. They traveled by horse and buggy to Silverton, where they sold their rig and rode the train on to Durango. Peter worked at the Durango Smelter for a while, then started farming. Alice was born September 9, 1907, on the farm above Fall Creek. She attended Columbus School north of Bay1ield until third grade, then went to the Bay1ield Schools through grade 12. Alice's father died in 1924 of Miner's Consumption. Alice continued milking 6-8 cows during the remainder of high school to help her mother keep the farm. After high school Alice got an opportunity which came to very few young ladies in her time. She sub-contracted the Star Route from Bay1ield to Dike and back and ii paid $105.00 per month, a mighty good wage in that time. Three days each week Alice cranked up her Model T and headed east. Sometimes she hauled passengers at $1.00 per trip, and picked up cans of cream as well as carrying the mail. The first 8 miles out of Bay1ield were graveled. The remainder was just dirt road. Alice says she was never threatened by outlaws or other unsavory types, but the trip was frightening at limes because of slick roads and steep drop offs. She got along fine with her Model T. Later she ordered a new 1929 Model A. Loyd and Alice's wedding was set for the 13th of January, 1930. There was 4-5 feet of snow on the ground and Alice had to run the mail route before the wedding. She and her mother arrived in Dike and were preparing for the return trip when the wind began lo rise. The road was well plowed, but the blizzard began to blow it full of snow again. About 6 miles west of Dike they could go no further. Alice drained the radiator and led her mother along a fence until they found a ranch house. Back in Bay1ield Alice's brother, Fred, began to get worried. He roused out the snowplow crew, who fired up their big Coleman Truck and headed east. When they found the mail car, ii didn't take long lo conclude that Alice and her mother were in the nearby ranch house. The ladies, who had been well fed and put in a warm bed by the ranch wife, were none too willing to go back out into the night and follow the snow plow back to Bay1ield. The next day Alice and Loyd were married by the Rev. Schumaker at the Presbyterian Manse in Durango. Shortly after they were married Loyd began running the mail route from Bayfield to Ignacio round trip twice each day six days a week. At the same time Alice worked in the Bayfield telephone office. In 1935 the Lunsfords moved to Dike for a year and a half working on a ranch for Earl Osborn. Next they worked for C.F. Cornelius, a millionaire, who was developing a dude ranch at Granite Peaks on the Pine River above the present day reservoir. That first summer they lived in a tent and more than once violent thunderstorms sent water flooding through their tent. Later Loyd was transferred to the ranch owned by Anne Oliver (Cornelius' ex-wife) 3 miles north of Bay1ield where ~e served as ranch foreman for eight years. In 1944 Loyd and Alice moved back to Ignacio. Loyd went lo work for his brother, Okla, and continued this job for 24 years. He butchered, drove the truck, look care of the Quarter horses and did whatever else was needed. 104 �'l ~ "") ,, 'l 'l '' J l The Lunsfords are very proud of their son, Ron, and his wife and family. For several years Ron was an alcohol and drug abuse counselor at Tooele Army Depot in Utah. Ron is still working there in the personnel department. Today both Alice and Loyd are in remarkably good health. They are grateful for long happy lives and for good health and independence. They have a comfortable home with a great view of the Pine Valley, which they obviously love. Best wishes to both of them for many more years and much happiness. ) February, 1981 Shelby Smith i 1 ' 1 ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) _) _J ...) _) ...) ...J _) ...) ...) ...) ...) .J ...) ...) ...) ..) ...) 105 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Shelby Smith Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource https://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-NC/1.0/?language=en Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1973-1980 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of biographies, predominantly of residents from the Ignacio Senior Center, based on interviews conducted by Shelby Smith from approximately 1973 to 1980. The abridged interviews were originally published as individual entries in The Thoughtful Years newsletter, published by the Ignacio Senior Center, beginning in 1973. They were later published as a whole in Smith's book: Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley, from which the original scans in this collection have been derived. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Loyd Lunsford and Alice (Frahm) Lunsford Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1981-02 Subject The topic of the resource Lunsford, Loyd; Lunsford, Alice (Frahm); Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Loyd Lunsford and Alice (Frahm) Lunsford based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith in February, 1981. Included in the book "Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley" by Shelby Smith. Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Lunsford, Loyd; Lunsford, Alice (Frahm) Extent The size or duration of the resource. 3 pages Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/0dc8afd160dffc52b9f06aaea4c55faa.pdf 2ea2d30c4a13d884c0044fe3e9132a71 PDF Text Text NELSON & ENOLA (Hansen) MACKEY Ten year old Nelson and his family had bedded down for the night. Their covered wagon was parked beside the trail, its huge wheels braced with rocks on the sloping meadow. The hobbled team was silent. Soft snores came from the tents. Unknown to the family, large flakes of snow had begun to fall. Suddenly, the silence of night was broken by the drumming of hoofs and the clatter of wagon wheels on the rocky mountain trail. A voice out of the night shouted, "Wake up! Wake up! It'll all fall at once. Get off the pass!" The family came alive. By the time cooking utensils and camping gear were thrown into the wagon and the team hitched, several inches of snow had settled on the ground. Though the crest of the pass was only a few hundred yards up the trail, the snow was slick on the rocks and the high altitude made the horses heave for breath. Desperate slow progress was made until one of the young boys, leaning over the right front side of the wagon seat, lost his balance and fell to the ground in front of the wagon wheel, forcing the wagon to stop. Once stopped, Mr. Mackey never moved it again. The sharp crest of the pass was only 40 yards away, but the horses were winded and could do no more. Nelson's father unhitched one of the horses and rode off into the night. Mrs. Mackey and the children gathered rocks as a base for a fire in the wagon and closed the flaps. By mid-morning of the next day, Mr. Mackey and some loggers he found down the mountainside, returned with two teams with bob-sleds. The family unloaded all they could and traveled 30 miles down the pass to the small town of Crooked River, Oregon, where they spent the rest of the winter. Nelson Hamilton Mackey was born in Texas on August 7, 1898. Most Americans have a desire to see new horizons, but Nelson's father had it strong. "He never spent more than one winter in any one place until he was too old to travel anymore," Nelson recalls. Because of the travel Nelson never spent much time in grammar school, but he learned a good deal from his travels. Besides he's been to college, "I went in the front door of one and out the back one day. That was enough for me." When the Mackeys did settle down, they chose the Animas Valley two and a half miles north of Aztec. Nelson went to work for the Pointer and Baldwin Cattle Co. as a cow puncher. Grazing land for the herd was the reservation land in the region of Charcoal Canyon (Chaco Canyon) 70 miles south of Farmington. Before long Nelson was foreman of the outfit and took pride in the rough and ready way of life of the range. One Christmas, Mr. Pointer, Nelson and several other hands went to Farmington for the holidays. Early Christmas morning Nelson's group was pretty well bored and decided to rouse up the town. Their plan included a race down main street with pistols firing, a circle of the Post Office and the Bank and a grand escape across the Bloomfield Bridge into the country. According to Nelson, "it was working fine. We ripped down main, shooting up the town, circled the Post Office and Bank and were off. Every man, woman and child was out in the streets yelling that the Post Office had been robbed." As Nelson went galloping around a corned behind several of the other hands, his horse slipped and threw him. "I slid on one side of my face clear to the other side of the street. Before I could pull myself up Charlie Lewis, the Marshall, had me by the back of the neck and was saying, 'I've got one of em anyway.' Just then, Mr. Pointer came galloping up from another direction and yelled, 'Turn him loose, we just about had them till he fell.' The other hands rode like heck for the river and hid out. The Marshall swallowed our tale. If he had ever found out about our part in it he'd have killed us.'' 106 �When World War I started all of Nelson's cowpunchers were drafted in one day. Nelson was exempted to manage the herd. He was left almost alone with a large herd in an empty land. Mr. Pointer finally brought 12 Navajo boys 10-14 years of age to help him move the cattle. "We managed," Nelson said, "but I told Baldwin if we ever have another war, they aren't going to exempt me. I'd rather go to war." In 1923 an argument among Nelson and some of his buddies resulted In an unexpected and wonderful trip. One of his friends was reading Zane Gray's novel The Riders of the Purple Sage. In it Zane tells about a Mormon settlement in the Grand Canyon and described the geography and unusual features of that area. Nelson and his buddies got into a hot argument about whether the setting of the story was real or not. The dispute got so heated that the whole bunch packed their bed rolls and cooking. gear and set out for the Grand Canyon to see for themselves. Except for the time Nelson and his horse fell down a bluff into the San Juan River and lost all his gear, the trip was a great adventure. "We found everything we went to see" Nelson said. ) ) J ) J _) J J _) _J J _) ._J J ._J ._J .J ...J .J ...) In the summer of 1923 when Nelson was 25, his father told him about a pretty little longhaired girl living on the next place. "He knew I was shy, but I went up to my Dad's place soon after that and my sisters made me acquainted with Enola Hansen. She was 17 years old and pretty. Her hair was all pinned up. I wanted to see how long it was so I pulled a few pins out and took it down. Then I decided I'd kiss her once before she went home. I was shy before that, but I got over it when I met that girl. When her folks heard she had been over here with a wild cowboy, they put a quick stop to that." From then on, Enola and Nelson had to take what chances they could to see each other. The next summer when Enola was 18 Nelson told Mr. Hansen he'd like to marry Enola. Mr. Hansen thought about it a minute and replied, "I don't know what good it would do you kids to get married." One of Enola's sisters replied, "What good did it do you and mama to get married?" He didn't have any answer to that, so Nelson and Enola took the chance, went to Aztec and got married. Shortly afterwards they moved to Arizona for a year. One character they met there, they'll never forget. Coming home one day they found an outlaw in their house. His name was Cotton James (the Cotton came from his pale blond hair). Mr. James said, "I reckon I'll stay here a while." Nelson replied, "I don't see why we can't get along together." The reason Cotton wanted to stay was simple. He had a severe gunshot wound in his upper chest and was treating himself. His unorthodox method of treatment included pouring hot vinegar into the wound and drinking vinegar with sugar. "He cured himself, too," Enola recalls. Nelson never expected to be put in jail for marrying Enola, but it very nearly happened a short time after Cotton came to live with them. Apparently, since Enola was very small and could have passed for younger than her 18 years, someone started the rumor that Nelson was living unmarried with a 12 year old girl. The marshal! pounded on the door1 accused Nelson of living with a minor and was proceeding to arrest him. Cotton stuck a shotgun out a window in the Marshall's face and told him, "I'm sending Mrs. Mackey out with her marriage license. You read it and read it good and then get yourself off this place quick.'' The Marshall did as he was told and appeared very happy to leave . When the Mackeys moved back to the San Juan Valley, autos were beginning to appear in the area. There probably weren't more than 2-3 cars In Aztec at the time, but the town marshal! had put up a 15 mph speed limit sign at each end of town. Nelson was driving his team with a wagon the first time he saw the sign. Immediately he 10 7 �whipped his horses up and whipped them all the way through town, scattering people right and left. The marshal! on his little motorcycle came put-putting after him and stopped Nelson at the other edge of town. After a good cussing, the he asked what was the big idea of racing through town. Nelson replied that he had seen the new speed limit posted and was just trying to make it. The first cussing he got was nothing compared to the one he got then. The Mackeys lived on Yellow Jacket Hill a while, them moved to Spring Creek, then settled on Middle Mesa south of Allison. It was wild country down there in 1935. No road existed. Nelson cut his own road up the mesa. They ran cattle, made hay and raised a little grain on dry land. There was one poor road to Tiffany. Most of their shopping was done with Frank Leonard in Ignacio or with Morris Levy at the store in Tiffany. Occasionally, Nelson and Enola would catch the train at Tiffany for some shopping in Durango. Five children were born to the Mackeys. Allis Enola, 1925, Rose V. 1929; Nelson Pinkie, 1932; Janie Pearl, 1934 (Janie is now deceased); and Jack Melvin, 1937. Living in so isolated a place as Middle Mesa was in those days made the children very shy. "Whenever anyone would ride up, which happened only rarely, the kids would run for the hill above the house and stay there until the strangers were gone." The kids were put to work clearing the land with a grubbing hoe. Nelson followed with the team and chains for the larger shrubs and trees. As each child reached 18, Nelson offered them 40 acres or $40.00. They always took the 40 acres. In 1949 Drummond Proctor, a car salesman, told Nelson it was time for him to trade for a car. Drummond knew that Nelson had never driven a car in his life, but he said "You take your buggy on home and send Pinkie over in a few days. I'll teach him how to drive and he can bring the car home and teach you". The deal was made. Pinkie got his lessons and headed home. The only problem was the road. It was suitable for buggy wheels. The car high centered on a rock. The pan was knocked off and the engine burned up before the car ever got home. Nelson worked for the Trask Lumber Company for five years. The good income was very attractive, but once Middle Mesa became home neither Enola nor Nelson could stay away from it very long. June 21, 1974 was the Mackey's 50th Wedding Anniversary. It is apparent their long years together have not dimmed their affection for one another. "Mister has always liked to kiss the girls, but I never get jealous," Enola says with a smile. What she clearly knows is that no other "girl" will ever catch his eye quite like the little long-haired girl he met at Riverside in the summer of '23; May they both have all the happiness and good memories which 50 years of loyalty and child rearing and hard work can bring. June, 1974 - Shelby Smith 108 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Shelby Smith Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource https://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-NC/1.0/?language=en Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1973-1980 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of biographies, predominantly of residents from the Ignacio Senior Center, based on interviews conducted by Shelby Smith from approximately 1973 to 1980. The abridged interviews were originally published as individual entries in The Thoughtful Years newsletter, published by the Ignacio Senior Center, beginning in 1973. They were later published as a whole in Smith's book: Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley, from which the original scans in this collection have been derived. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Nelson Mackey and Enola (Hansen) Mackey Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1974-06 Subject The topic of the resource Mackey, Nelson; Mackey, Enola (Hansen) Description An account of the resource Biography of Nelson Mackey and Enola (Hansen) Mackey based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith. Originally included in the June, 1974 issue of "The Thoughtful Years" newsletter published by the Ignacio Senior Center. Later included in the book "Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley" by Shelby Smith. Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mackey, Nelson; Mackey, Enola (Hansen) Extent The size or duration of the resource. 3 pages Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/8c12ba868f7dd8d5201d25b6aada0856.pdf 3317a755c903cba58f7146eb47e79fd3 PDF Text Text '"'I '"'I .., .., 'l 'l 'l ' ' ' ' ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) CANDELARIA (Casias) MARQUEZ Candelaria Casias is one of Jose Roque Casias' eleven children. She is the fifth and last child of Jose and his first wife, Camilla. "I cannot remember my mother, Candelaria says, "she died when I was very young. I was raised by my oldest sister, Elena, until my Dad married Manuel ita Martinez." "All of us older children, Elena, Felix, Gregorita, Delfin and myself were born near Conejos, Colorado just north of Antonito, where my dad was a sheep herder. When dad married Manuelita, he moved the family to Ignacio near some of my step-mother's relatives. It took a week by horse and wagon to come the hundred miles. We camped in the tent every night. Dad homesteaded in an area called Las Lagunitas west of Ignacio near the Jacques farm. We continued to camp in the tents until dad finished a one room house built stockade style, which the Spanish people call 'jacal'. After the logs were set in the earth side by side for the walls, they were plastered inside and out with adobe mud. In those years there was enough rain for gardens and crops on the dry lands. Since he brought no livestock with him, dad started his flock from nothing by herding sheep on shares and by herding others for pay." "We attended the Harvey School when we could. Some of my half brothers and sisters attended for several years and learned English well. There were six of them (Crestino, Pedro, Faustine, Camilla, Gregorita and Andrea). I only went to school two winters which was not enough to learn English very well." ) ) ) J ) ) _) _) _) "There were no running streams in that country, but there were springs and we could dig a hole in the sandy bottom of an arroyo and it would soon fill with water. Between carrying water, herding sheep and the many other jobs to be done, we were needed at home. I can remember helping my dad make an 'era' (a threshing floor). We wet down the soil in an area near the house and ran the goats in a circle around and around on the wet earth. Their sharp hooves packed the soil very hard. When it dried, it was almost as hard as pottery. Then we piled shocks of wheat or the dry bushes of Pinto beans on the 'era' and again ran the goats over it. After removing the coarse straw and stems, we winnowed the remaining grain or beans in the wind to remove the fine leaves and chaff." ..J ..J "We did not spin the sheep's wool into yarn, but 1can remember washing and shaping and folding it into layers for stuffing pillows and mattresses." _) "Ignacio was a young town in those days and it had a neighbor, a small village just west of town in the valley below th~ slaughter house. The place was called El Arroyo. There were many stories of rough behavior coming out of El Arroyo. Flavian Martinez1s bar was there and some people remember the night Brownie Shannon shot Flavian's wife in the knee. He did not mean to. He was trying to shoot another man in the leg, but missed and got Flavian's wife instead." ..J ..J ..J ..J ..J ..J "I remember the flood in 1911. When the water first came up, a lot of the men and boys were pulling good boards and other useful materials out of the water. They stacked ..J ..J 109 J J �them up on higher ground. The next day when the men went out they found the water had risen so much higher that all of their salvaged lumber was washed away again." "After I grew up, my step-mother, Manuelita, died and dad moved back to Antonito. I stayed in Ignacio with my sister, Feliz, and soon afterwards met Luis Marquez. Luis was originally from the San Luis Valley, but had been working in the mines at Telluride. I wanted to have our wedding in Antonito. I went there first on the train and Luis followed a few days later. Very few people could attend our wedding and we were not allowed to have a reception because that was the year of the great flu epidemic. Many people were quarantined and others were afraid to go into a crowd." "Luis and I lived in Telluride for several years while he continued working in the mine, then we came back to Ignacio. We never had any children of our own, but we raised one of Luis' nieces, Louisa. Luis died after we were married only 14 years. I earned my living by doing housework for Mrs. Crigler and Mrs. Aspaas and Nell Marker." This next September 12, Mrs. Marquez will be 85 years old. We hope she has many more years of good health to enjoy. May, 1979 - Shelby Smith 110 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Shelby Smith Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource https://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-NC/1.0/?language=en Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1973-1980 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of biographies, predominantly of residents from the Ignacio Senior Center, based on interviews conducted by Shelby Smith from approximately 1973 to 1980. The abridged interviews were originally published as individual entries in The Thoughtful Years newsletter, published by the Ignacio Senior Center, beginning in 1973. They were later published as a whole in Smith's book: Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley, from which the original scans in this collection have been derived. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Candelaria (Casias) Marquez Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1979-05 Subject The topic of the resource Marquez, Candelaria (Casias); Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Candelaria (Casias) Marquez based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith. Originally included in the May, 1979 issue of "The Thoughtful Years" newsletter published by the Ignacio Senior Center. Later included in the book "Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley" by Shelby Smith. Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Marquez, Candelaria (Casias) Extent The size or duration of the resource. 2 pages Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby