https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/31661c3342eff8a926ca8c17e00a1bab.pdf 6964129a9280581ff9c52734453aefbd PDF Text Text ERVIN AND ADDIE (Rutherford) GILBERT "The first time I ran away from home, I was just 13 years old, but I knew how to work. There was plenty of work in the farm country around Leon, Oklahoma, in the Red River Valley on the Texas line in the 1920's, but the wages were poor. One farmer paid me $12.50 per month working 7 days a week with a half day off on Sunday. People in those days would just about make a slave out of you for nothing." "I was the sixth child of W.J. and Ada Gilbert. When I was 5 months old, my mother died. During the next few months the neighbors helped take care of me until my Dad married Amanda Baxter. She was a brave lady to marry a man with six kids ranging from 1 to 11 years old. However, my Dad had a lot to offer. He owned his own freight line, using teams and wagons to haul goods to and from the rail heads at St. Joe and Marietta. Sometimes he went all the way to Wichita Falls. That took a week round trip. Amanda was good to us, but she was Pennsylvania Dutch and pretty stern." ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) .J .) _) __) ,.J ..) ._) ...J ,.J ...J ..) ._) J J J .J .J "I quit school after 6th grade and left home several times doing all kinds of jobs. I cut bois d'arc (bodark) posts for a while. During harvest season I worked as 'chaffer' on thrashing crews. That was hot, itchy work, but it paid $3.50 -$4.00 per day. I earned about the same amount as a teaming contractor digging slush pits and salt water ponds in the east Texas oil fields." "When the depression hit, wheat went from $1 .25 a bushel to $.25 per bushel to nothing. During the worst times people couldn't sell anything. One year the farmers around Me Kinney, Texas, raised a bumper crop of onions. The market went down and down until on one could buy or sell any more onions. The farmers just dumped them along the road. For ten miles the bar ditches were full of onions. They rotted and smelled for years." "In 1935, I got a notice to join the Civilian Conservation Crops, but almost missed my chance. When the notice came, I was away job hunting and barely made it back in time to get to Marietta. We were trucked to Ardmore where we boarded a train for Colorado. There must have been over 200 of us in the group. All of us were just rough Okie farm boys. Our first major stop was Joplin, Missouri. As the train sat parked in the station, we began to notice a real self-important looking man marching up and down the platform alongslde the train. Back and forth he went. We didn't know he was an armed railroad 'bull'. Some of the boys on the train got bored and decided to play a trick. They got a bucket full of cold water and a bucket full of hot water and the next time he marched by they let him have it with the cold one and then with the hot one. By the time he recovered himself, spluttering and blowing, he was mad and had his gun drawn. It's a good thing no head was showing in a window, because he was a pompous man and almost mad enough to shoot. Our next stop was Kansas City, but the detective decided our behavior wasn't fit for a big city and ordered the train to change to a route across Southern Kansas and that's where we went." "The trip was comfortable enough. Each of us had our own bunks and best of all they gave every one of us $11.00 for snacks and drinks and pocket expenses along the way. I still remember one stop at a small town in Southern Kansas. Captain Percival told us we had 15 minutes to shop and look around and when the whistle blew to get back 65 �immediately. We were having a great time in the bakeries and candy shops. Some of us were holding sacks of goodies we hadn't even paid for when unknown to us a different engine pulled into the yard and made a few toots. The 15 minutes wasn't nearly up, but everyone panicked. There was a stampede and the whole town got roused up wondering what was going on. At Alamosa we switched lo the narrow gauge. When we arrived at the Durango Depot, trucks were wailing to take us lo our assigned camp site on the La Plata River near Breen. There was nothing there but a sage brush field when we arrived. However, within a few weeks, we had a neat camp laid out and a 5 acre garden planted in the river bottom. Our group was assigned lo the Division of Grazing and built roads, trails, fences and ponds. Rookies earned $30.00 per month, assistant leaders earned $35.00 per month and leaders earned $40.00. All but $5.00 was sent home to your family. We got a $5.00 ticket lo spend at the PX. My job was to drive a '34 Ford VB flatbed truck back and forth between the camp and Salt Lake City, Utah, hauling supplies to the various camps along the way." "In October, 1935 I went to a dance at Breen and met Addie Rutherford. We dated for several months and were married at Aztec in 1936." Addie Rutherford was born at Lewis, Colorado, which was named for her grandfather Lewis, who started the first post office there. When Addie was born, her father Paul Rutherford was a honey farmer. The family later moved to Telluride for 8 years, then to Silverton for 8 years where Paul was a miner. Later they moved to Durango where Addie finished high school and got a job in the telephone office. Ervin could have signed up for another hitch in the CCC, but even though jobs were still hard to find, he decided he would rather make his own way. To earn a living, the Gilberts had to make a lot of moves the first few years of their marriage. They lived at various places in southwest Colorado. Ervin did some mining, some truck driving and some farming, and whatever was available because times were still hard. "In 1947 we decided things might be a little better in Oklahoma, so we moved back to Leon for 2 years where we very nearly went broke. We saved our money until we could come back to Colorado. In 1949 we settled in Bayfield where I worked for the forest service for 15 years." In 1957 Ervin got a contract to quarry the rock for the new buildings at Ft. Lewis College. Over the next several years Ervin provided 80-85% of the rock used in the new construction at the college. He and Dan Black, one of the administrators at Fl. Lewis, found the 'bacon rind' sandstone up on the Ewing place south of Durango, which was used in most of the college buildings. No mechanical gimmicks were used in the quarrying. It was all done using spalling hammers and loaded by hand. Ervin was paid by the ton. Some of the buildings required 700 tons of rock. The Gilberts had 10 children. Clark, the oldest, lives at Pleasant Hill, Missouri, near Kansas City; Millard lives in Bakersfield, California; Gene died when he was 33; Judy Beuten lives in Farmington; Sally Powell lives at Spring Creek; Salina Church is living at Star, Idaho; Paul is at Wellington, Colorado; Patsy died at the age of 3; and Albert and Terry are both living in Denver. 66 �'l 'l ~ i i i ' ' In the fall of 1978 the Gilberts moved to an apartment at the Senior Center north of Ignacio where they still live. Addie is an excellent seamstress and does sewing of all kinds. Ervin grows his garden, goes fishing whenever he takes a notion (like most of the Irish folk) and has a lot of fun. Best wishes to both of them. ~ Shelby Smith - May 1981 ) ) ) ) 1 ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) J ) .J ...) _) _) _) ...) _) J ...) ...) ...) ...) ...) ...) ...) 67 � 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 Ervin Gilbert and Addie (Rutherford) Gilbert Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1981-05 Subject The topic of the resource Gilbert, Ervin; Gilbert, Addie (Rutherford); Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Ervin Gilbert and Addie (Rutherford) Gilbert based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith in May, 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 Gilbert, Ervin; Gilbert, Addie (Rutherford) 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