https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/b02b3dba5655b00897e9077887c65544.pdf efdc11ea59a09b1fa865f340a7e04d96 PDF Text Text 'I 'l 'l 'l '") ~ J J LAURA (Hartley) HILL "Folks in my parent's day always had the idea the grass was greener on the other side of the mountain. That's what brought my father, James Hartley, and his parents out of ) ) ) ) J Tennessee and what brought my mother, Sally Teter and her family out of Missouri. Both families arrived at Flora Vista, New Mexico, about the same time. When mother and dad married, my mother already had three daughters from a previous marriage. . Her first husband had died. My half-sisters were Belle, Dora and Hazel. The year before my parent's marriage, dad had taken a ranch on the La Plata River northwest of Farmington, N.M. That's where I and my little brother Teddy, were born. Dad called his place "The Greenhorn Ranch" because he said all the settlers in that part of the valley, including himself, were greenhorns." ) ') ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) _) j j ..J "We had dry land about two and a half miles east of the river. The men decided to build an irrigation ditch. The contour of the land required a ditch 7 miles long which the men dug by hand with picks and-shovels. With no one to survey it, they had to eyeball and estimate the grade the best they could. They had problems with it, but it worked when they had enough water. While we were there, Teddy died of the whooping cough when he was only two years old.'' "Dad raised corn and alfalfa and a big garden. Mother canned all the food she could. I suppose we would have starved without the garden. I learned to milk the cow and feed the pigs and chickens. It was fun to milk. When I first learned, I took a 5 pound lard can, milked it full and thought I had done enough. Mother soon explained, if I started, I had to finish or I would ru in the cow. My folks were very poor, but that wasn't unusual. There were many poor people then. We drove a team and wagon to Farmington, which was about 3 blocks long or to Aztec, the county seat, which wasn't much bigger. When dad finally could buy a buggy, we thought we had something. We were so thrilled." ..At Christmas time my parents didn't have much money to spend, but I always got at least one nice toy and something to wear. You could buy a beautiful doll for a dollar. I attended the Williams School until the 10th grade. My dad served as school director with Joe Glaister and John Smith for years and years. He helped raise the money to buy materials and build the school. Frequently, we had dances to earn money for school expenses. The old school is still there. It's now used as a fire station for the community." ._) ..J ..J J J J "In 1911 every bridge was washed off the La Plata River. One or two persons drowned . Somebody a few years ago built a house close to the mouth of the river near Farmington. I don't wish them any harm, but someday that house is going to be washed away." ..._) "World War I came and went while we were still on the farm. We didn't know a lot about the time he came home from the war except what we read in the Aztec paper. It seemed very far away. I met William Hill about the time he came home from the war. He had a farm on the La Plata about 10 miles north of dad's place. We were married in July of 1926. I had one daughter, Frances, from an earlier marriage. Frances learned to love William and he loved her. We farmed the place on the La Plata and did well. Both of us loved to go. I'm still a gadfly. We traveled every year to Arizona, or California or Oregon. ..._) 83 ..._) J ..._) ..._) ..._) �We saw all the sights. William liked to gamble. Sometimes we would stop at Reno. He got good at those games. If he started to lose, he'd walk away for a day or so. If he started to win, he stuck with it and sometimes made a lot of money. Of course ii didn't cost much to travel then. Gas was about 15 cents a gallon. When we were first married, we had a Model T Roadster. We got to Portland, Oregon, just as they were having a gas war. We filled up with 10 cent gas and took off down the street. A little further down the road we saw a place offering 9 cent gas. William said, 'I have a notion to go to the edge of town and dump this and fill up with 9 cent gas,' but he didn't." "William and I had no children of our own, but we had a wonderful life on the farm and on our trips. By 1950 William was not able to work any more. He suffered from emphysema caused by the poison gas he breathed during the war. The next 16 years he was in and out of the veteran's hospital until he died in 1966." "I moved to Ignacio to be near by daughter and son-in-law Frances and Dick Baird, and their children. Three of my grandchildren also live in Ignacio, Janneth King, and her brothers Clifford and Dale. Richard Baird lives in Arizona and Bill is in California." "Things in this country have changed a lot in the last 50 years. When I was a little girl, the road over the hills between the La Plata River and Aztec was hardly a road, but I loved to go on that rough trail then just as I love to go now when travel is easy.' Shelby Smith -- Taken in June of 1979. 84 � 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 Laura (Hartley) Hill Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1979-06 Subject The topic of the resource Hill, Laura (Hartley); Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Laura (Hartley) Hill based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith. Originally included in the June, 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 Hill, Laura (Hartley) 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