https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/37a16810cb700f497eff333570cb5c76.pdf 75a8b48393539201a928b6633c84192d PDF Text Text ......, ......, 'l } 'l } } } 'l ) ' ' ' ) } GEORGE RICHMOND & AMY (Cope) HAMS Twelve year old George Hams and his friend Lee Canfield stood beside the road staring intently into the distance. Even though the machine they were watching was still far down the road, the boys could hear its rhythmic pop-pop-popping as it approached. A lone figure in the auto sat very straight, holding stiffly to the steering bar. The boys were excited because they were encountering their first automobile. They would have been more excited had they known they were about to see their first auto wreck. The driver, approaching at a fast clip, was unaware of a stretch of deep sand in the road. The hard front wheels sank into the sand and the steering bar jerked from the driver's hands. As the boys stared in fascination, the auto promptly capsized, Hastings, a town of about 4,000 in southern Michigan, was a good place to live in 1898. Located mid-way between the cities of Chicago and Detroit, it was an especially good place for a curious teen-age boy to observe the mechanization and scientific revolution occurring in America, ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) __) ) .J _j __) ..J ..J ..J ..J J ..J J J J J J J The town was surrounded by rolling , forested hills with many clear streams running through the country-side. A person could hardly trave l a mile in any direction without finding a pond or lake. George was born there on October 22, 1896, the son of Martha and William Hams. William was a carpenter, then started a grocery and bakery and did well with these businesses. "We always had plenty to eat," George remembers, "because many of the farmers who traded with the store didn't have any cash and would pay for their supplies with meat or fruit or other garden produce. Our meat house was always full of hams and turkeys. The Hams bought a summer cabin on Gunn Lake near Hastings. George, his brother William, and their mother spent the summers at the lake. It was a grand life for a boy. The long summer days were occupied with fishing, swimming, boating and playing with friends. On weekends Mr. Hams would travel out to the lake in an open buggy with an umbrella top. As fall approached, the family moved back to town for school enrollment. William bought wood and set the boys to splitting it, "We mainly used maple, oak and beech for firewood. Even after we installed a coal furnace, mother used wood in the cook stove." Every fall the Hams gathered walnuts, butternuts and hazelnuts. George liked some fun with his nut gathering. Mer a freeze he liked to climb carefully into the branches of a nut tree overhanging a path or lane and wait for someone to come along. At the strategic moment he would Jump vigorously up and down on the branches and bomb the daylights out of his victims . As it is today, winter was a marvelous time for kids, "We would sharpen our skates like razors and race up and down the river or around the ponds near town. If we wanted to ski, we usually tied barrel staves to our feet; or if we wanted something better, we took elm wood to the engineer at the furniture factory. He steamed and shaped the wood. Then we tacked old shoes to the boards and had a pretty fair set of skies." 71 �Each fall Mr. Hams traded supplies to one of the farmers for ten gallons of wine which he kept in a barrel in the cellar. What boy could resist sampling it? George surely didn't. One day he and Lee Canfield sneaked into the cellar and sampled and sampled and sampled. "We got sick," George remembers. George has good memories of school days. He was an honor student most of the time. He admits to getting into mischief (some of which he won't tell about), but does admit to playing "Penny on a Board" with greenhorns who moved into Hastings. To play "Penny on a Board" George would bring out a pile of sand on a shingle, push a penny into the pile and set it on the ground. Several youngsters, including the greenhorn, lined up a ways from the pile and on the count of three raced lo see who could get the penny. Actually the innocent-looking sand pile was more than sand. It was a pile of very fresh cow dung or other manure covered with sand. As you can guess, the greenhorn was allowed to win and wound up with more than he could handle. In 1905 George's father sold out in Michigan and moved to Lake Arthur, New Mexico, south of Roswell where he bought a hardware and lumber business. Since George had only one year of high school left to finish, he was allowed to remain in Hastings. After high school George was apprenticed to a pharmacist in Grand Rapids. He rented a small apartment nearby and began his training. George dated a pretty little girl named Amy Belle Cope who came into the drugstore occasionally. Amy worked at the Fox Typewriter Co. in Grand Rapids. On dates George and Amy attended silent movies, burlesque shows and the circus (Amy especially liked the side shows). Vaudeville shows were $.35 in the evening and $.15 in the afternoon. They made frequent visits to ice cream parlors, rarely to restaurants. George and Amy were married in 1910. In 1911 Viola was born. She was their only child. The Hams made occasional trips to visit his parents in New Mexico. Cars had become quite common, but good roads were rare. They have vivid memories of trips across the plains. While crossing Oklahoma on one trip the Hams came to a region which had been soaked with heavy rain. When they got bogged at the bottom of a hill, Amy agreed to get out and push. Once the car got going, George couldn't stop. Not only was Amy splattered with mud from head to foot, she also had to walk all the way up the hill through deep mud to reach the car. Another time the Hams had completely bogged down in a mud hole and were feeling hopeless until four young men on motorcycles appeared. The cyclists got off their machines, walked over to the car (one to each fender) picked the car up with the Hams still inside, set it on firm ground, and left. In 1920 when Viola was about 9, Amy contracted tuberculosis. The doctors recommended that she go to a dry climate like New Mexico for treatment. She did so and year later she was pronounced cured. If 10 year old Viola hadn't asked for an ice cream cone as they passed through Hagerman, N.M., on their way back home lo Grand Rapids, the Hams family might still be in Michigan. George stopped, went into the drug store for the ice cream and discovered the store was for sale. He bought it on the spot. 72 �Life in Hagerman on the legendary Pecos River was quite different from life in Grand Rapids. The Hams bought a place near the Russell Ranch and became good friends of the Russell family, who proved to be invaluable help when most any problem arose. George bought a few cows. When it came time for one of the calves to be weaned from its mother, Amy had trouble. Mrs. Russell, who weighted about 200 pounds, came over to help. She stepped a stride the shoulders of the calf, grasped its head and ears and forced its head into the bucket. "If it gets balky again, just do that," Mrs. Russell advised. The next day Amy decided to try to force feed the calf. It had not occurred to her that a difference in weight of 110 pounds would matter. Amy, who weighed only 90 pounds got astride the calf and got the ride of her life. Fortunately, Amy had as good a sense of humor about this as about the mud. George operated the drug store in Hagerman from 1921-1946. Though he preferred not to be, he was considered a counter doctor by many of the residents of the area. George and Amy sewed up more people than they like to remember. "One man had such a large knife wound, we could see his heart beating." As in all parts of the country during the great depression, many transients came through Hagerman. "We never refused anyone a prescription, money or no money. One family passing through asked for medicine for a sick baby. Years later we received a letter from them with money for the prescription." ) ) ) Viola moved to Ignacio in the 1940's. When the Hams came to visit, the green trees and flowing streams brought back memories of Michigan. They had always missed the green countryside while living on the dry plains. In 1946 George and Amy bought 40 acres north of Ignacio, remodeled the house and spent many happy years here. Amy died in 1970. George is now 88 years old. He's had a good life with much happiness and filled with good memories. We are happy you moved here Mr. Hams and wish you many more happy years. J December, 1974 - Shelby Smith ) _) J _J ..) ..) ..) J J -.J J J J J J J J 73 � 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 George Richmond Hams and Amy (Cope) Hams Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1974-12 Subject The topic of the resource Hams, George Richmond; Hams, Amy (Cope); Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of George Richmond Hams and Amy (Cope) Hams based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith. Originally included in the December, 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 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