TABLE OF CONTENTS

MAPS

POEM - SWEET BEULAH LAND

PROFILES

Allee, Dale
Armstrong, Jim
Clark, Frank D.
Conley, Mike and Linda (EMS Profile)
Donley, Leslie E.
Downey, Marshall
Evarts, Washington Irving
Even, Edward and Agatha
Even, Joseph
Flag and Mt. Nebo
Galbreath, Henry Thomas
Goodpasture Blacksmith Shop
Goodpasture Post Office
Hausman, Clement F.
Hoag Sr., Frank S.
Hoag Jr., Frank Stephen
Hooper, Betty Wheeler
Hughlitt, Francis Leroy
Hughlitt, Sylvester Smith
Hurd, Walter K.
Keating, Kay
Klipfel, August W.
Klipfel, Charles Herman
Klipfel, Willard M.
Koller, Edmund B.
Lorje, Elnora
Luzardo, Kathy (EMS profile)
Mace, Juan
Merchant, Walt
Merhing, Joe
Moulton, Bill and Anne (EMS profile)
Murray, Hal (EMS profile)
Myers, Orville
Neu, Shirleen
Outhier, Louis
Outhier, Norma
Outhier, Corky (EMS profile)
Pearson, John & Betty Lou
Quillian, Mrs. Asbury
Rawlings, John William
Robinson, Harold E.
Roper, Francis
Roper, Ray and Edna Simonson
Senger, M.D., William
Sharp, William
Simonson, Ruth and Roy
Smith, Mona and Harold
Stryker, Ward
Thompson, Mrs.
Townsend, Capt. Wood F.
Traeber's Store
Vaughn, Robert
Vidmar Jr., Jake Theodore
Vories Family Reunion
Walter, Mrs. Karl
Walters, The Family
Wantram, John
Youngren, Ray
Zents, Clyde and Burnice  

PICTURES  

Marshall Downey
Joseph Even
Flag on Mt. Nebo
Frank S. Hoag, Sr.
Jimmy & Betty Wheeler Hooper
J.F. Keating
Kay Keating
Elnora Lorje
Kathy Luzardo
Bill and Anne Moulton
Hal Murray  
Orville Myers
Corky Outhier
John & Betty Lou Pearson
Ray & Edna Roper
Francis Roper
W.F. Townsend
Ward Stryker
 
 

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DALE ALLEE  
by Gail Pitts
The Pueblo Chieftain 
 
    On warm, summer mornings, Dale and Ila Mae Allee like to have breakfast on the redwood deck off their kitchen, savoring the unobstructed view of Pikes to the north.  
    In the evening, they enjoy the sunset behind Greenhorn Mountain through the living room's picture window.   
    The Allee's 5,500 acre ranch on Waterbarrel Road - near Beulah- is strikingly green this late in June. The prairie paints a carpet in all directions from the ranch house.   
    Allee is one of Pueblo County's staunchest 4-H supporters and this year has been named to its Leader's Hall of Fame.   
    Born at North Avondale in 1929, when his father was working for the Thatcher family, he got his first taste of 4-H when he was nine or 10 years old.   
    "I always showed beef cattle, beef plus horses," he said.   
    Cattle always have been part of his life.   
    His dad moved from the Thatcher holdings to the Livesey ranch, 25,000 acres that "right now are the bottom of Lake Pueblo."   
    Allee spent eight years in a one-room school before attending the old Centennial High in Pueblo.   
    He tried a three-year stint at C.F. & I..   
    "Back in my time, every young guy went to work there," he said.   
    He was making $63 a week in 1957 and thought "I'd be a real success if I made $1,000 a month."   
    But he hated the mill. And he had some cattle of his own on the side.   
    "That graveyard shift was really torture," he recalled.   
    Still, when he quit he missed "the guys I worked with and I missed the paycheck."   
    He went to work for his dad.   
    The family moved to Westcliffe, but lived there only 11 months.   
    The elder Allee had the opportunity for an $87,500 profit on the Westcliffe ranch.   
    Meanwhile, a Texan had bought the Pat Ruddy ranch - once part of the Livesay - but "Hated it and wanted to go back to Texas."   
    That ranch is the Allee's home today.   
    "We have deeds back even before Charles Goodnight, before Gervacio Nolan."   
    Son Dennis and his family live down the road in the homestead house.
    Daughter Donna and her family also live on the ranch. Deana and her family live in Pueblo.   
    Like so many 4-Hers, Allee became "reinvolved" when the three children were young.   
    He was leader of the Beulah Wranglers for 17 years. It's the old Turtle Butte Club, named for the buttes south of the ranch.   
    "We used to show at the State Fair. That was kind of the ultimate."   
    The club covered all 4-H projects, except Home Ec., he said.   
    That's not one of his many talents.   
    "He can zap leftovers," Mrs Allee laughed and waved toward the microwave.   
    But 4-H leader is just the toe in the stirrup for Allee.   
    He's the pool buyer at the Pueblo County Fair livestock sale. The youngsters raise money, $5, $100, $500 at a time from local friends and businesses. The money is pooled. If one pig or steer or lamb doesn't bring a price above market at the auction, Allee jumps in and buys it with the pool money.   
    It guarantees that all the 4-H youngsters will receive a fair return on their animals.   
    "Sometimes you will see me buy a grand champion," he said. "That's not pool money. Somebody's come up to me and said they want to buy so-and-so's animal but they don't want to bid."   
    Allee and former youth agent Bob Clark put together the first County Sale at the State Fairgrounds.   
    "It was a wreck. We had everything except buyers," he said.   
    He recalls that a banker from Minnequa "bought most everything at $5 to $10 over market."   
    "The next year, we got parents and businesses and it was OK."   
    Today, he usually has about $6,000 in pool money for the County Sale.   
    Allee also recalls the first Colorado State Fair Junior Livestock Sale in the Ag Palace. "It rained; water just poured through the roof."   
    Allee has been superintendent of the State Fair Livestock Sale for at least 20 years and chairman of the sale committee.   
    But you won't see him "hanging around" during the sale. Instead, he's everywhere at once.   
    "The real important part of the committee is to take care of snafus. I've got a large committee of really good volunteers."   
    He's looking forward to this year's sale, to be held in the new Events Center. "It ought to add some pizzazz," he said.   
    "I've been hanging around at this thing so I can have one at the Events Center."   
    Allee runs about 200 mother cows on the ranch and worries, like all cowmen, about the price of cattle, down 30 percent from last year.   
    "That's the hard part of it. You have to take what they want to give you, not what you want to get."   
    But prices of the supplies for the ranch, such as 500 gallons of gas a month plus diesel, aren't negotiable.   
    He also still raises a few horses, but isn't anxious to sit astride those bucking colts.   
    He rides an unregistered, year-old quarter horse/paint cro named Izzy.   
    "That's for what is he (izzy)," he laughed.
    

  

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  JIM ARMSTRONG

Jim Armstrong is the epitome of a self-sufficient rancher. He was born in Vineland on January 13, 1918 to Charles Edgar and Edna Pearl Armstrong. Charles Armstrong moved from Michigan to Colorado and homesteaded in the Apache Creek area where he had a dairy route in Pueblo. In 1919 when Jim was only 1 1/2 years old his family moved to Beulah. They bought the North Creek home which was originally built by Steve Service in 1916-17. His father bought beef cattle and hay cutting machines, and they raised cattle and sold feed. Jim has been a bachelor all his life. His explanation is: "I thought I would get married some day, but it just never happened." Jim does all his own work on his cattle ranch and only occasionally hires help during the busy haying season.   
    Jim has always been active in the Beulah community service organizations. He was the first member and president of the Beulah Saddle Club, which started in 1949. He was a member of the Beulah Volunteer Fire Department since its conception. He has been involved in the Beulah EMT ambulance and is currently a member. He has also participated and acted in our Beulah Melodrama.   
    Jim says running his ranch keeps him very busy, but he does have one hobby he enjoys. He is a sportsman and enjoys hunting elk in the Fall.
 
This article was reprinted from the April 1, 1990, Issue 8 of The Beulah Banner.  

 

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REMEMBERING AN 'OLD TIMER'  
by Ron and Cathene Jones  
 
    Jim Armstrong was one of five children raised on the North Creek family ranch. He never married but dedicated his life to ranching, farming and our community. In 1949, the Beulah Valley Saddle Club was formed and Jim became the first president of the club. He remained active in the saddle Club for many years and was president several different times.   
    During the early '50's Jim was a Boy Scout Leader. He enjoyed taking the Scouts on overnight camping trips and packing with horses. One of Jim's most favorite activities was going elk hunting every Fall with his hunting group. Taking his horse to ride and pack and "roughing it" miles from civilization was a part of his life that he truly treasured. Jim was also one of the original cast members of the annual Beulah melodrama. He loved playing or acting the many different parts over several years. One he particularly enjoyed was the role of sheriff.   
    Almost everyone saw Jim at one time or another haying. Many young boys worked for Jim during haying season. Jim paid fair wages but expected a good day's work in return. The hay crews soon learned that the hay had to be stacked a certain way, and that was Jim's way.   
    Being a rancher and farmer very naturally took most of his time. He was a self-educated man and a voracious reader. He became very knowledgeable about grasses and weeds and an expert in our area. Jim ran a cow-calf operation and enjoyed raising baby calves and liked branding the old fashioned way. Several young men helped during every branding time and just like haying, it had to be done a certain way and that was Jim's way.   
    Jim was also an active EMT in Beulah for many years and still responded to calls up until about a year before he died. It has been nearly two years since Jim Armstrong passed away. With his slow drawl and sense of humor he was a very interesting person to visit with. Many Beulah residents remember this colorful character with deep appreciation and love. He gave so much of himself to our community through the years and left a nice little gift of money to Beulah Community Center and the Beulah Volunteer Fire Department.   
    The Beulah Community Center is planning a memorial dedicaton to him on Sunday, May 7, 1995. We will be drawing a lucky name to win a beautiful quilt that was made and donated by our Beulah Quilters. So everyone come and join in our celebration and Ice Cream Social.
 
Reprinted from the April, 1995 issue of the Beulah Valley Word.  

 

   

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Frank D. Clarke
The Man Who Was Scalped and Lived Here in Beulah
  
    Frank was the father of two sons, Raymond Clarke of Beulah and Fred Clarke of Kokomo, Colorado; two daughters, Mrs. Lillian Fauntleroy and Mrs. Lorena Adams of Beulah. He also had two step-sons, Henry and Fred Boggs. His grandchildren included, among others, Shirley McGee, Martha Benesch, Wanda and Radell, Norman and Darrell Clarke of Beulah.  
    Frank was orphaned at an early age and had no recollection of his parents. Actual facts concerning his first years are obscure. His parents are believed to have fallen victims to an Indian massacre in the days when the white man first ventured into Montana. His parents, according to information Clarke picked up in later years, were members of a wagon train party which was practically wiped out by an Indian attack.  
    Clarke's first recollections were of a life at Ft. Benton, Montana, an outpost on the northwest frontier in the days of early Indian wars, where he lived with an uncle, Jim Hughes, an Indian Scout under General Custer.  
    He experienced a story-book adventure with the Indians. He was sent out from the Montana fort with a mule team. He was attacked by a party of Indians and was wounded by a tomahawk blow on the head. Apparently, the Indians decided to spare his life when they discovered his tender age so he was taken to their camp where a squaw nursed him back to health.  
    How long he was held prisoner was not known even to Clarke, but he said, according to relatives, that it apparently was several weeks. One day, according to his own story, he just walked off and made his way back to Fort Benton.  
    A long scar from the tomahawk blow on top of his head remained with him all his life.  
    After a trip to Leadville, Clarke prospected and mined in various parts of Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. With the outbreak of the Indian Uprising in 1886, he became an Indian scout, serving with General George Crook and Nelson A. Miles in Arizona against Geronimo and Natchez until the Apaches were finally subdued.  
    He returned to Colorado engaging in various building activities and then turned to prospecting. The last 30 years he lived practically continuously at Beulah, where earlier he had spent considerable time.  
    An expert carpenter and cabinet maker, Clarke personally built several of the finest summer homes in the Beulah district. Despite his advanced years, his eyesight and ability remained keen so he could turn out cedar chests and cabinets. His cedar chests of native Colorado Cedar had been sent to many parts of the United States and several had been sent to England.  
    Although he never attended school, he interested himself in many studies. Another accomplishment was that of a violinist. He was fond of and adept at playing many of the old time tunes.  
    He numbered among his personal acquaintances such notorious figures of the old West as General George Armstrong Custer, Kit Carson, Buffalo Bill and Billy the Kid.  
    Death ended his career and he died in his sleep at the home of a daughter, Mrs. Lillian Fauntleroy.
 
 
    

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MIKE AND LINDA CONLEY  
EMS Profile by Rachael Thompson  
 
    Mike and Linda Conley have been with Beulah EMS for a year and a half. "It was something I always wanted to do. I read about the need for volunteers in  The Beulah Banner , so I called," Mike says strongly. When Linda found out that one more person was needed to hold the First Responder Class, She also joined. Both Mike and Linda work in Pueblo and have lived in Beulah for four years. Mike and Linda attended First Responder and EMT Basic classes at PCC. Their goal is to become IV Certified. "The classes are worthwhile, the instructors are good, and it is a excellent program," says Mike and Linda. "Volunteers are reimbursed and there are some scholarships available if needed." Beulah needs volunteers who are in Beulah during the daytime when other EMTs are at work out of Beulah. "There have been a couple of instances," Linda recalls, "that there was no one available to respond..." Residents of Beulah need to be able to count on help when they need it. This is a great need that only someone in our community can fill. Donations are always welcome and they are 100% tax deductible. Mike and Linda are a part of Beulah EMS because they want to give something back to the community. They don't want thanks or a pat on the back, just to let everyone know that to support Beulah EMS is a gift to every person in Beulah.   
    The Conleys have four daughters, one son, and five grandchildren. Their daughter and twin grandsons, Tyler and Cody, have recently moved to Beulah and will attend Beulah School in the fall. The Conleys are excited about their grandsons attending Beulah School and the benefits that only our community can provide.   
    Beulah EMS will have a booth at the Arts and Crafts fair. Bottled water, Gatorade, and bowls of fresh fruit will be sold as a fundraiser. You can get your blood pressure checked for free, meet some of the volunteers, and learn more about Beulah EMS. For anyone interested in becoming an EMT with Beulah EMS, this is your opportunity to take the first step or ask your first question. According to Mike Conley, the EMT Program is one that any person who tries can get through. "Besides," he declares, "I passed!"  
 
Reprinted from  The Beulah Banner   August, 2003 issue.

 

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LESLIE E. DONLEY  
 
    Leslie E. Donley, well-known dairyman of Pueblo, Pueblo County, Colorado, is owner and operator of the Hillside Dairy, which was established in 1919 by his father and has been in the family since that time. At present the firm, which deals in the retail sale of milk, has 450 registered Holstein cows. The herd is the largest privately owned Holstein herd in Pueblo. In the beginning the business had twenty-five cows, which were milked by hand. Now the complete production and processing operation is done by strictly modern methods, never touched by hand. The delivery in Puebo covers ten routes.   
    Leslie E. Donley was born February 13, 1914, in Pueblo, to Floyd and Lula Glasscoe Donley. His father, born in Beulah, Colorado, in 1888, now lives in Pueblo. His mother was born in Greenfield, Missouri, in 1894. The adobe house in which Leslie Donley's grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Donley lived, still stands on the Donley farm. The grandparents had moved there about 1899, engaging in ranching and dairying.   
    Leslie E. Donley married the former Velma Bartlett, daughter of Clyde and Nellie Andrus Barlett, in Pueblo Baptist Church May 20, 1934. Mr. Bartlett was born in Missouri and passed away in 1959. Mrs. Bartlett was born in Colorado Springs, married Mr. Bartlett in Pueblo November 7, 1912, and makes her home in Pueblo. Mr. and Mrs. Donley are the parents of two sons: David, who married the former Marion Mesojedic; and Richard.   
    Mr. Donley is past secretary of the Colorado Holstein Association and also a board member and a member of the board of directors of the Colorado Dairy Association. He is a member of the Colorado Holstein Association, the Rotary Club, and the Elks. He is a Mason, a member of the Blue Lodge Number 17, a member of the Southern Colorado Consistory and of Al Kaly Shrine. He is also a member of the Minnequa Club and a former board member. Mrs. Donley is chairman of the historical committee of the D.A.R., a member of Rotary Anns. of Eastern Star, and the ladies Consistory. He is a member of the admistrative committee of the Colorado Milk Marketing Order representing producer handler. Mr. Donley's hobbies are model train construction, water skiing and fishing. He is a member of Mesa Presbyterian Church. Mr. Donley is regarded in his community as a progressive businessman interested in efficient operation and the highest standards for his dairy.  
 
 
 

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MARSHALL DOWNEY
By Rachael Thompson
(Picture)
 
    "He's a good father, a good husband, and a good man, and a good son," Bessie Downey proudly stated about Marshall Downey, her husband of 63 years, "but don't tell him I said that." Marshall met Bessie when his mother was having a baby and Bessie came to work there to help out. "She baked me my 17th birthday cake," Marshall grinned. "And I guess you can tell by looking at me that she's a pretty good cook." They lived just 60 miles apart in southwesten Kansas before moving to Beulah, but neither one knew it. Marshall built their home here in Beulah from scratch after he retired in 1981. "We moved in on November second, my birthday, and Marshall worked me so hard that he didn't have to take me out to dinner," said Bessie, who was pleased that her husband, who had worked so many years at a desk, could build such a beautiful home.   
    Marshall Downey's grandparents came to Beulah in 1898 after homesteading in Kansas. His grandfather worked most of his life for his family and other people, and was buried here in the Beulah Cemetery. Marshall's dad attended Cedar Grove School, was a dry land farmer and a sharecropper. "We moved around a lot," Marshall remembers, "and in fourth grade I went to five different schools." Marshall also attended Mountain View School on Water Barrel Flats and believes his teacher was named Neeva Shipley in the one room schoolhouse. Marshall attended Pueblo Junior College and later Denver University where he received his BA in Business and then lived in Denver for 30 years. He has worked at C.F.I, and United Airlines, but most of his career was with the Public Service Company as an accountant and auditor before supervising their employee health insurance and later their credit union. Marshall served our country during WWII stationed in the Marshall Islands as an Aviation Metalsmith in the United States Navy.   
    "It took 30 days by covered wagon to get from Kansas to Beulah," remembers Marshall "and I made the trip back and forth twice between 1925 and 1929. Once I camped near the school yard in Lamar, Colorado and corralled my dad's horses on the fenced playground." Marshall has ridden horses from the time he was big enough to sit on one, and has ridden everywhere you can see from the back of the Hogbacks all the way to Pueblo Reservoir and beyond, plus all over the flats and hills east of Highway 78.
    Marshall's love and pride was apparent when speaking of his son, daughter, four grandchildren, five great grandchildren and one great great granddaughter.   
    On being a father, Marshall thought carefully and then said proudly, "I guess I've got a pretty good relationship with my children. They still come to see me for advice."  He then spoke of a time when he and his son were struck by lightening on August 23, 1976. "It was a pack trip back in the mountains north of Pagosa Springs. There were nine men and seventeen head of horses. One man and seven horses were killed. The saddle mule my son was riding was dead and laying on my son's legs. I thought my son was dead, too. When he was clear of the mule, I hit my son in the middle of his shoulder blades as hard as I could. I don't know why I hit him like that. Then he started gasping for air and I knew my son was alive. My son doesn't remember all of this, but I do." Marshall and his son Bill still go horseback riding together. Bill is now the County Commissioner in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Marshall Downey is a good father, a good husband and a good son. He is kind, caring, knowledgeable about his community, portrays high moral values, and enjoys living next to the school yard in Beulah. Happy Father's Day, Marshall!  
This article is reprinted from the June, 2002 issue of The Beulah Banner.

 

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WASHINGTON IRVING EVARTS  
 
    This interesting article was received from Roy E. Roper of Canon City. (Remember his Stairway to the Stars). He prepared this for his children and grandchildren and was kind enough to share with us.
  
A Man Named Washington Irving Evarts
 
    The writings of an early American author named Washington Irving must have had a rather favorable influence upon a family named Evarts in 1827. On May 7 of that year they named their newborn son W.I. Evarts - a boy who later became a leading citizen in the small community of Beulah.    
    The Evarts family, of English extraction, lived in Middlesex County, Connecticut. Washington Irving, the author, lived nearby in the New York state area and in 1819 had completed one of his most popular writings, "The Sketch Book", which contained the stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle". It seems likely folks liked the stories, or perhaps also the rhythm of the name Washington Irving.   
    At any rate the story of W.I. Evarts was one of self-reliance and determination to succeed. After education in the common schools of his state he apprenticed in the blacksmith trade at age 16. Born of poor parents, he probably did not have much choice as to a life's work. At age 22 he went to Ohio where he worked in his uncle's blacksmith shop for one year. Then he proceeded to Wisconsin where he assisted in putting together the iron work on the first bridge across the Wisconsin River. He resided there for 12 years, spending several winters in the pine woods where people would come for hundreds of miles for lumber; he often had as high as one hundred ox-teams to shoe in one season. His next home was in Fillmore County, Minnesota where he had a shop for three years. He was  then in Kansas for about 1 1/2 years and moved to Missouri and engaged in business for 11 years. His next move was to Colorado, locating in Beulah, and did blacksmithing for 8 years, having arrived here in 1876.   
    In 1861 he married Hannah Kidder, born in Maine but reared in New York state. It is not known how they came to know each other but one guess is that he had returned to Conn. for a visit after working for a time in Wisconsin and met her there or perhaps in New York. In the years following, Hannah gave birth to eight children, six prior to the move to Colorado and the last two who were born in Beulah.   
    In Beulah he settled on a ranch and set about improving it from the wild land he found. He experienced all the hardships and trials incident to pioneer life and had some adventures with the Indians. His homestead patent #2047 was granted to him in March 1889. The 160 acre homestead was located 1/2 mile west of Beulah on Middle Creek. According to a record left by William Roper he later moved the Evarts blacksmith building to Goodpasture in 1921.        Hannah deserves great credit for her part in improving the farm. She worked as a nurse in Pueblo to earn money to buy stock and pay for many improvements. She was a hard worker, an excellent woman, and highly esteemed by all who knew her.   
    Washington Irving Evarts died in Beulah in 1900 at the age of 72 years. His wife, Hannah, died at Oak Creek, Colorado in 1914. The are both buried in the family plot in the Beulah Cemetery, in the southwest corner. A rather tall square stone monument marks the plot, surrounded by graves of other family members. Many years ago someone planted a white lilac bush there that now dominates the graves. His last 23 years of life were spent in Beulah where their last two children were born.   
    Roy E. Roper is a great-great-grandson of Washington Irving Evarts and wrote this on December 6, 1996. Thank you, Roy.
 
 
 

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EDWARD AND AGATHA EVEN
by Louise Even

 

    I wish to share with the Historical members the story of my husband's grandparents, Edward and Agatha Even, as told to me by him and his brother, Robert. (I owe Robert much for the extra effort he put into this article).   
    The lineage of the Even family has been traced back to 1663 by family members residing in Hagen, Germany.  
    Edward W. Even immigrated to the United States from Schwelm, Germany arriving at Ellis Island on September 3, 1881. An older brother, Richard, and sister, Ida, were with him and they arrived in the Pueblo Area in 1882. Why they selected this area in Colorado is not readily known, however, it is believed it was due to ethnic acquaintances or perhaps employment opportunities at Pueblo smelters. During his early years in America, Edward worked at the Pueblo smelter. Later, with his brother, Richard, he farmed and raised cattle in the Belle Plain area, near the present day Pueblo Memorial Airport.   
    Agatha H. Borgman (Edward's bride to be) also came to the United States in 1881, landing July 4th with her mother, Mary Bernadina Borgman Elsing and half sisters, Caroline and Bernadine from Bochum, Germany. Fred Elsing, Agatha's step-father was killed in the Franco-Prussian war. Fred Elsing met the family in New York to bring them to Colorado and his girls didn't recognize him because of his beard.   
    Edward filed for a homestead in 1888 in the Couzzen Springs area northeast of Beulah and he and Agatha were married August 15, 1889 in St. Patricks church in Pueblo. He received his land patent in 1891 for his homestead.   
    The homestead house was a two story structure built of logs and prior to a staircase being built, access to the children's sleeping area was a ladder. Through the years, additions and renovations were made to the house. To this day, it is an inhabitable residence. Edward dug a well, by hand, in the canyon west of the house so water was nearby. They had an apple orchard and stored fruit and vegetables in a stone cellar they had built.   
    They harvested their first corn crop with an Indian hatchet. The corn was 18" tall. Oh, how different from our modern machinery of today. Agatha once related to a granddaughter that during the early years they observed Indians passing through the area, but they never encountered them.   
    I must mention that  Mr. Elsing was struck and killed by lightning while in a pasture north of the Even homestead in the summer of 1904. Agatha found his body.   
    Eleven of Edward and Agatha's twelve children were born at their homestead home. The family consisted of 8 boys and 4 girls: Albert, Anna, Paul, Ida, Helen, Joseph, Henry, Josephine, William, Richard, Bernard and Aloysius. William died in 1923. All others lived most of their lives in Pueblo County and are buried in the Pueblo area. You will remember one especially, Paul. He was the Beulah Rural mail carrier for 36 years, 1923-1959. Widows of sons, Henry (Vera Bussey) and Aloysius (Phyllis Bornshein) reside in Pueblo.   
    The children received minimum educaton due to the necessity of making a living. It was told when the three oldest children enrolled at the Couzzen Springs School they could not speak English.   
    The original Couzzen Springs School was on the Hall farm, adjacent to the Even property.
    The boys worked for board and room and the girls worked as servants for prominent Pueblo families or at the Colorado Laundry.   
    Agatha recalled her husband served on the first grand jury in Pueblo in 1920.   
    Among the memories held dear was the fact that Agatha always had a pot of coffee simmering on the back of the old wood stove just waiting for whomever might arrive. Also the Christmas celebrations were wonderful as all grandchildren were to recite school parts for all present, and there were popcorn strings and candles burned on the tree. Even during the leanest years, Agatha had Christmas gifts for her chidren, their spouses and her grandchildren. Herbert especially remembers the Easter Egg Hunts in the canyon when older children would help the younger ones.
    Agatha was widowed in 1926 and faced the challenge of raising her younger children alone and keeping the Even Ranch intact, which she did very adequately as her children rallied around her.   
    In 1949, she was named "Olders Pioneer Cowgirl of the year" by the Pueblo Saddle Club at their annual Saddle Club Ball in February.   
    The land holdings acquired by the Evens through the years are, to this day, retained in the Even family by the children of son, Joe.   
    Agatha died in 1960 at the age of 90. She was survived by 8 children, 21 grandchildren and 19 great grandchildren.  
 

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JOSEPH EVEN  
by Raechel Thompson

 

    Joseph Even's father, Edward W. Even came to America and settled in Pueblo in the early 1880's. He then homsteaded a place in the Couzzins Spring area where his family farmed and raised Herefords. Joseph Even was one of twelve children born to Edward and Agatha Even. Joseph was born March 14, 1900 and died August 14, 1977 after living seventy-seven years on his land. The Even farm was established October 5, 1888 and covered 1600 acres.
    Joseph and his brothers and sisters went to a one-room school, Couzzins Springs School, which was on a neighbor's property close by. He attended school here through seventh grade when Joseph's father needed him to work on the farm. Joseph quit school to help his father.   
    Joseph was the Pueblo County winner of the Century Farm Family Contest. George Scott, manager of the Colorado State Fair said of the Even family, "We are most pleased to be able to honor a family which has played a significant role in the agricultural process of Colorado for more than a century. Through the hard work of all families honored, Colorado was helped to become one of the major agricultural states in the nation."   
    During the Dust Bowl, times were hard for the Even family. Food and clothing were scarce and Joseph got a job on WPA where he did road work, sawed timber, and hauled dirt in a wheelbarrow for fill around bridges. Joseph worked hard for his family and for the land that would be his children's someday.   
    Joseph purchased his livestock brand in 1926. Other than ranching and farming, Joseph sometimes supplemented the family income working in the clay mines. Canaries were used to detect poisonous gases in the mine. Joseph had a strong work ethic that his children are proud of. They remember him almost never stopping to rest and that was when he was in his sixties.   
    Joseph married Josephine Hanratty in 1927. They had five children, three girls; Lillian, Vivian, and Theresa, and two boys, Everett and James. One child, James Frances, died from pneumonia at three months of age.   
    Everett Even remembers that his father, Joseph, was a water boy for a steam tractor that ran a threshing machine when he was twelve years old. He lovingly recalls that he and his father hauled coal from the Florence coal yards with a team and wagon. They slept in sheds and under bridges during the trips. "I've never known anyone who disliked my dad, and he never had a bad word to say about anyone, something we could all live by today. We loved him dearly."
  
This article was reprinted from the November, 2002 issue of The Beulah Banner.   

 

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The Flag and Mt. Nebo
(Now called by many "Flag Mountain")
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    The history of the "Flag" on Mt. Nebo began in the year 1934. It was that summer when the Frank Holloran family moved into their summer home next door to the George Broome family.  
    From the large summer porches of Broome's "Grand View" and Holloran's "Lone Pine" could be seen the peak of Mt. Nebo on the opposite side of Middle Creek Canyon. This peak was the challenge of three sons - Tom Broome (age 6), Fred Holloran (age 8), and Joe Holloran (age 10). To prove their scaling accomplishment, they took with them a stick to which had been nailed a sheet rag that they could wave to their families below and then jam into the crevice between the rocks at the peak to serve as a flag.  
    With the exception of one or two years, a new American Flag furnished by the Hollorans has flown atop Mt. Nebo, with this year's installation (approximately the 40th year) made by Pat and Stacy Holloran, the two youngest grandchildren.  
    Several Mt. Nebo climbs had to be made each summer as the winds would blow the flag down or other children in the valley would attempt to "Capture the flag" made of white sheet, Maggie's drawers, or whatever else was available.  
    About 1938, the boys began to use the genuine "Stars and Stripes" that was furnished by their parents. The game of "Capture the Flag" automatically stopped as the other kids in the Valley showed their respect for the American Flag.
    As each boy was called into Military Service, the remaining two, then one, took care of the flag. When they were gone, the school children of Beulah replaced the flag one year and the Boy Scouts of Beulah another year.  
    In 1946 after World War II, Tom Broome, Lila Ruth and Pauline Bland, and Fred and Joe Holloran carried cement up the mountain in 10 pound lard pails to cement-in an iron flag pole (actually an old plumbing turnkey that had been obtained from Tom Clarke, owner of the Village Blacksmith Shop). The initials of the concrete bearers can still be plainly seen in the concrete atop the mountain.  
    This flag pole sufficed until bent and broken in 1960, when Holloran grandchildren, Tom and Dick Holloran, then carried a new pole and cement to the top for a replacement.  
    With our 100th year celebration approaching, it is interesting to note that for several years the Broomes, Hollorans and Blands pooled their 4th of July fireworks and fired them from the peak. Their shows were completed with a sparkler parade down the trail. The dry years and concern of a forest fire brought the practice to a halt.  
    Visitors to the peak experience a breathtaking panoramic view of the lush green Beulah Valley below. From it's lofty, yet easily accessible height, one can see mountain homes up North Creek, Spring Creek, and South Pine Drive.
    It was probably the Valley view that inspired the early settlers to give the mountain its name after the true story of "Mt. Nebo in the Land of Moab" as recorded in Deut. 32:48-52 of the Holy Bible. Mt. Nebo truly overlooks a beautiful valley of promise, opportunity and love.  
    You haven't seen Beulah until you've visited the "Flag on Mt. Nebo". The trail starts right at the Middle Creek bridge near the "Mikado".  
    And as in the beginning, the Frank Hollorans still watch the flag from their front porch and the boys now with their families in their own summer homes.  
    (Orginally printed in the Beulah News Magazine on June 20, 1976, this article was copied and donated by Joe and Dorothy Holloran. Their grandchildren now enjoy hiking up the mountain when they come to visit and the Cernoia family who presently live in the Mikado help put up the flag now.)
    During a recent hike on April 20th, 1996, to the top of Mt. Nebo, affectionately called Flag Mountain, members of the Beulah Historical Society and local residents replaced the weather shredded flag with one donated by Kay Keating. Prior to the hike a reading of a certification stated that "the accompanying flag was flown over the United States Capitol on November 22, 1991, at the request of the Honorable Matthew G. Martinez, Member of Congress. This flag was flown for Captain Katherine Keating." The day of the hike was cool with an overcast sky but the attitudes of the hikers were jovial and friendly. While on top hikers took time to observe the beginning of the spring greening and a small fire on Pine Drive. Those in attendance were: John, Angela, Joe & Jonelle Murgel, Patti Genack, Peter Schuyler, Laura Amman, Joe & Fred Holloran, Amy Arnold, Linda Amman Gradisar, Marshall Downey, George Dwight, Claudia & Jimmy Fountain and Orville Myers.  
 
The above story appeared in the Beulah Valley Word, May, 1996.

 

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Henry Thomas Galbreath Builds 1st Cabin in Beulah  

 

    Mr. Galbreath was born in Andrain County, Missouri, December  31, 1842, where he resided until he was seventeen years of age. He attended such schools as the country afforded during his boyhood. In 1860 he came to Colorado. The following year he was engaged in teaming between the Missouri River and points west and hauling lumber from the forest to Denver. In January of 1862 Mr. Galbreath went to Omaha where he remained but a short time before he proceeded to Missouri. In July following he returned to the mountains but his stay was short as he went to Fort Wise (now Ft. Lyon) in the Arkansas Valley in August of the same year where he was engaged in hauling hay for the government for a season. Immediately afterward, he was employed on a ranch belonging to a Mr. Haynes until the spring of 1863. At this time he made his first purchase of cattle, which consisted of 10 head of yearling steers. The following few months he was engaged in freighting, having taken a load of government goods from Denver to Ft. Garland. He then proceeded to Ft. Lyon and again furnished hay for the government. After concluding his contract he went to Cherry Creek near Denver and remained until February when he returned to the Arkansas Valley and commenced herding cattle for William Innis. He moved the stock to Mace's Hole, remaining with them until November. During the summer he built the first cabin ever constructed in that place. He did not winter there, but drove his herd down the Arkansas Valley to a point east of Pueblo, where he remained until the spring of 1865 when he returned to Mace's Hole in the employ of N.W. Cresswell. In the following July he drove the herd to Ft. Sumner, New Mexico and sold them to the government to feed the Navajo Indians. From this point Mr. Galbreath walked to Denver where he took passage aboard a mule train for his old home in Missouri, from which he had been absent six years. In the spring of 1866 he bought 70 head of one and two year old cattle and brought them to the Arkansas Valley, west of Pueblo.
    He was also employed by C.D. Peck in herding cattle on a little creek that empties into the Arkansas river which is known as Tom's Creek having been named for one of Mr. Galbreath's given names. In February of 1868 he sold his cattle to L. Haden and returned to Missouri, remaining until May. Again he found his way to Colorado. On the road he purchased 124 head of cattle of Mr. S. M. Hayes of Council Grove, Kansas. The herd was in the Arkansas Valley where he kept them until the spring of 1869 when he traded them to Tom Patterson, a well known Texas drover, for a herd of steers and then went to Missouri. In June 1869 Mr. Galbreath was married to Miss Virginia Switzer. He now (1881) resides in Catlin, Bent County, Colorado, engaged in stock raising.  
 
From History of The Arkansas Valley. Published in 1881      Lib.#978.8      

 

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GOODPASTURE BLACKSMITH SHOP AND FORD MECHANICS
1914- 1938  

 

    Eddie and William were the sons of Francis and Adeline Roper, arriving in Beulah in 1885. Eddie was three years old and William just a baby at that time. Their father was a Methodist minister and teacher in and outside of the valley.
    At adulthood, Eddie moved to Rye and learned the blacksmith trade, met Louisa Hardin and married in 1904. He opened a blacksmith shop in Beulah in 1911, but the disastrous fire of 1912 burned several buildings and his was one of them.  His next move was to Goodpasture where he and his brother William opened another shop doing both blacksmithing and Ford auto mechanics from 1915-1938.  William's father-in-law, William Opp, became an associate with them also. He lived on the east wing of the building. Louisa died very early with pneumonia; they had no children. Ed married again late in life to Marie Boone who had three daughters. They lived at the Wales Canon area until retirement. William had two sons, Melvin and Roy, who are still owners of The Early Homesteads (1992).

 

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FIRST GOODPASTURE POST OFFICE - 1895
WALES CANON AREA  

 

    According to the National Archives, the first post office at Goodpasture, Pueblo County, was established in 1895, John H. Murphy appointed postmaster. William F. Goodpasture, postmaster in Beulah at that time, petitioned for this proposed office to be called Goodpasture. This new office was located six miles north-east of Beulah on the Siloam Road, referred to as the Wales Canon locality. Homesteaders settled on both sides of dry canon westwardly towards the ridges overlooking Beulah Valley. The old map somewhat designates some of the landmarks in relation to the post office there, which eventually burned in the early 1900's. (Recalled by Edna Simonson now deceased.) Lee R. Roper was the second and last postmaster appointed in 1899 at a new location, eventually becoming the Goodpasture Community Center. He held this appointment for 25 years until closing in 1924.  
 
    About 1900 a Post Office was authorized at Goodpasture with Lee Roper as Postmaster. Later his son Wilbur Roper served as Postmaster. The Goodpasture Post Office served the surrounding ranches, and also had a route to Couzzen Springs to the north, and another which went south to the 3-R Ranch and east to the Sitton Post Office near Burnt Mill. These routes were operated only a short time.   
    In 1922 Wilber Roper circulated a petition requesting a Rural Free Delivery Route to start at Goodpasture and go via Beulah, the 3 R-Ranch, Burnt Mill, Couzzen Springs and back to Goodpasture. This request was granted, but the starting place was soon changed to Beulah.   
    Andy Anderson was appointed temporary carrier until a Civil Service Examination was held and William Middleton received the appointment, but was soon relieved of his duties and Wilbur Roper was appointed temporary carrier. Paul Even received the next appointment and served from July 1, 1923 until retiring January 1, 1949. Ray Traeber was appointed next and is still serving.

"MACES HOLE"

 

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CLEMENT F. HAUSMAN  

 

    Clement F. Hausman, co-owner of Treasure Chest Homes, Inc., in partnership with Ralph Tack, and president of Treasure Chest Realty, Inc., is engaged in the real estate business, selling residential, commercial, farm, and ranch properties. Treasure Chest Homes has built 1500 houses in the Pueblo area of which 1200 are in the Highland Park section. The offices are at 255 West Abriendo Street in Pueblo, Pueblo County, Colorado. Mr. Hausman established Treasure Chest Realty, Inc., in 1949 and Treasure Chest Homes, Inc. in January 1952. He became a real estate salesman in 1947.   
    Clement F. Hausman was born to Mr. and Mrs. Edward Hausman at Trinidad, Colorado, on January 16, 1923. His father was a native of Cincinnati, Ohio. He was associated with the Hausman Drug Company in Trinidad, which was established in 1895. Clement F. Hausman's mother, Miss Mary Ellen Fenton before her marriage to Edward Hausman in Pueblo on April 29, 1919, was born in Lorenzo, Illinois. In 1895 the Hausmans established the Hausman Drugs in Pueblo. In 1935 Mr. Edward Hausman passed away. Clement F. Hausman was educated in Trinidad and Pueblo, Colorado. He was a member of the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II, serving for four and a half years in the Pacific as pilot on a B-24.   
    Mr. Hausman married Miss Marjorie Crews, of Pueblo, Colorado, daughter of Floyd H. and Jessie Ashmore Crews. Mr. and Mrs. Hausman have eleven children: Mary Marjorie, Jane Ann, Clement Michael, Barbara Louise, Patricia Jean, Elizabeth J., James F., Katherine C., Thomas E., Julie Ellen and Marie.   
    Mr. Hausman is on the advisory committee of the National Home Mortgage Credit Program. He is an honorary life member of the board of directors of the National Association of Home Builders. He is also on the executive committee of the national association and chairman of Senior Citizens Housing Committee. He was appointed to the President's 21-Man Senior Citizens Advisory Committee for a second time. This committee advises the President and Housing and Home Finance Agencies on all matters related to housing of the elderly members of our population. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club, Knife and Fork Club, national, state, and local Board of Realtors, Home Builders Association, and the Country Club. He is a Catholic. Mr. Hausman is eminently suited for a career in the real estate business and has been very successful in his chosen field and also as a civic figure and a developer of the area.

 

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  FRANK S. HOAG SR., 1918

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    Pueblo Star -Journal Publisher Frank Stephen Hoag, born in Minerva, Ohio, in 1871, moved to Colorado Springs with his wife, Louise, in 1901.  Doctors recommended Colorado's dry climate as a cure for her tuberculosis.   
    Hoag sold ads for a time for the Colorado Springs Gazette before taking a similar post with the Star-Journal some time in 1903.   
    He became general manager in 1904 under principal stockholder and general manager John Vail with the understanding that Hoag would be allowed to buy the newspaper as soon as he could raise the money.   
    That happened in 1918, the same year Hoag was appointed by the governor as manager of the State Board of Corrections. In that post, he was a strong voice for winning state funding for the Colorado State Hospital and prison projects in Southern Colorado.   
    In 1922, he and others convinced the state to expand the hospital  (then called an insane asylum) to include "farms" where patients and inmates could work, raising revenue for the hospital and offsetting costs to the state.
    Hoag bought  The Pueblo Chieftain in 1933 from former U.S. Senator Alva B. Adams.  
 
 

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FRANK STEPHEN HOAG, JR.  

 

    Frank Stephen Hoag, Jr., is publisher of the "Star-Journal" and "Chieftain" in Pueblo, and president of the Star Broadcasting Company whose station is KCSJ. Mr. Hoag's career has in common with the success story of a number of eminent newsmen the fact that he started as a reporter on the staff of the same paper which now he publishes.   
    His rise in the journalistic field has been rapid, for Mr. Hoag is a young man to hold a top-ranking post in newspublishing. He was born June 11, 1908, in Pueblo, son of Frank S. and Louise M. Hoag, his father being president of the Star-Journal Publishing Corporation. After completing his secondary education at Centennial High School, Frank Hoag, Jr., attended Colorado College from 1926 to 1928, and continued his advanced training at Princeton University, where he recieved his degree in Bachelor of Arts in 1931. He was made Washington correspondent and reporter for this paper and for the Pueblo "Chieftain" in 1934, filling this post for two years. He was assistant publisher of these two papers for a decade, beginning in 1937, and in 1947 was made their publisher. Since 1945, he has also been president of the Star Broadcasting company, Inc. This concern reaches a vast listening audience throughout the Intermountain area through the medium of station KCSJ in Pueblo.   
    Mr. Hoag is active in civic and fraternal affairs. He is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of the Pueblo Golf and Country Club and the Knife and Fork Club. He holds, or has held, official posts in several organizations, being past president of the Pueblo Rotary Club and of the Chamber of Commerce, Community Chest, and president of the Pueblo Junior College District Committee. He was vice president of the Colorado State Chamber of Commerce during 1947 and 1948, and is a member of the Colorado Publicity and Advertising committee. He and his wife are members of the Presbyterian Church.   
    In Washington D.C., June 13, 1935, Frank Hoag, Jr., married Le Vert Wiess, daughter of Charles Raymond and Edwina (Edens) Wiess.  

 

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Betty Wheeler Hooper
A Trip Down Nostalgia Lane
by Jo Anne King
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    It was my very great pleasure this week to interview a wonderful lady I first met in 1951 when I was a young teenager living with my family on Pine Drive across from the grocery store. Neither the store nor the house we lived in are there anymore, but Betty Wheeler Hooper still lives in the same charming house she did 'way back then'. Like many of the community's children I had made my trips to her house for first aid treatment and was very grateful for her compassion towards me.  
    Betty Hooper was born Betty Marie Richardson on December 18, 1919 in Silver Cliff, Colorado. When she was six years old she contracted rheumatic fever and was confined to bed for a year. She and her family then moved to Fowler hoping her health would improve, which it did. In 1938 she graduated from high school in Fowler, then studied nursing at Corwin Hospital in Pueblo, graduating from there in 1941. She says that initially she hoped to work on a newspaper, but all that changed when, as a senior in nursing school, she met Howard Wheeler, who was a pharmacist. In 1942 Betty and Howard were married by the Methodist Church minister in Howard's parents' home in Avondale.  
    Their son Bill was born in 1943. They then moved to Beulah to begin raising chinchillas. However, that was when the U.S. raised the embargo on Russia, so the bottom dropped out of the fur market. Howard then went to work in the Engineering Department of C.F. & I. In 1948 their daughter Martha was born. She is now the assistant Principal at Rye High School.  
    After 43 years of marriage Howard Wheeler died in 1983. Two years ago, after 16 years of living as a widow, Betty Wheeler married Jimmie Hooper, himself a widower of seven years. Jimmie had been married 52 years and has two children. Betty & Jimmie were married in the Beulah Methodist Church where Betty has been a member since moving to Beulah.  
    Betty's eyes glowed as she shared with me about the wonderful holidays she and her large extended family of kids, grandkids, and one great-grandchild have in the home in Beulah. Thanksgiving time is shared with about 40 relatives who bring in a delicious assortment of their favorite foods to load down the long tables that are brought in. On the fourth of July about 70 people show up and begin a day-long celebration. Traditionally, the shooting off of their homemade cannon that was built by Howard Wheeler's father signals the beginning and the ending of the festivities (and there might be a few times in between, too.) Sadly, Betty's mom will not be with them this year as she died last year at the age of 101.  
    Betty also remembers the fun everyone had at the old Gay Way dance hall which was in the back of what will soon be opening up as Flag Mountain Grill. Whole families went there on Saturday night for what was usually harmless fun, although often some had a little to much to drink and had to be taken home by friends. (Designated drivers were around then, too.)  
    Another of Betty's favorite memories is of her daughter Martha's third year in high school when they had an exchange student from Sweden. Inger became Martha's very good friend during the year she lived with them. She is still a very good friend of the family, and comes here every two years to visit them when she is able to get away from her dental research projects. When Betty's husband Howard died she went to Sweden to spend 9 days with Inger.
    When Betty's children were young she did a variety of sewing projects as a hobby, but now she spends a lot of time traveling with her new husband Jimmy, who openly adores her. They will be traveling to Arlington, Texas soon to attend the dedication ceremony of a park there that will be named for Jimmy and his late wife Mary in gratitude for so much community work they did there in years past.  
    Betty's glowing comments to me about how blessed she feels to have lived in Beulah, and how it is such a wonderful place to raise children, are a clear reflection of her positive attitude about life in general. In return, may I say that this community has been truly honored to have such a loving, giving precious lady in it all these years.
 
The above story appeared in June, 2000 issue of The Beulah Banner.  

 

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Francis Leroy Hughlitt  

 

    Although Francis L. Hughlitt, of Pueblo, cannot be called a pioneer of Colorado, he assuredly is a tried and trusted veteran of certain features of its life. He was born at Hannibal, Missouri, in August, 1871, and educated in his birthplace and county.  
    After engaging in general ranching until he became of age, Mr. Hughlitt went to the Cripple Creek section of Colorado, where he operated hoisting machinery in the mines, and was frequently a leader in community affairs at both Cripple Creek and Victor. There followed several years' service as under-sheriff and four years as water superintendent, and membership on the Victor town council. In 1921, he came to Pueblo where he accepted the position of chief engineer at the Colorado State Hospital, an institution where he had been employed as a boy and with the operations of which he was thoroughly familiar. He now is the oldest employee of the Hospital in point of identification with it. He has witnessed its growth to tremendous proportions and to that development has contributed in important ways. Few men are more highly respected or more sincerely beloved by all of the host of people who know him and have had pleasant contacts with him. At the age of three-quarters of a century he remains active, always on his job, ever showing a spirit that might well be acquired by much younger men.  
    Like many another man whose abilities and experience have been along mechanical lines, Mr. Hughlitt is exceptionally fond of horticulture and is widely known as an expert grower of peonies. According to Greek mythology, Apollo used this flower to cure the wounds of the Gods; Mr. Hughlitt believes that the growing of these favorite blooms of his can heal many a human ailment and prolong active lives. It is reputed that he breeds and raises more peonies than any other individual in Colorado. He likewise shares with his wife a keen interest in the annals of the state, more especially the records and tales of Pueblo. Mrs. Hughlitt has collected a large amount of note-worthy material on the history of Pueblo, particularly that associated with Beulah and the southwestern part of the county. Mr. Hughlitt is a member of the Pueblo Engineering Society, and is fraternally affiliated with Silver State Lodge, no. 95, Free and Accepted Masons; the chapter, Royal Arch Masons, and the commandery, Knights Templar of Cripple Creek; Southern Colorado Consistory, No. 3, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite at Pueblo, and Rose Croix. He attends the Methodist Episcopal Church of Beulah. Outdoor recreations include fishing and hunting.  
    Francis L. Hughlitt married Anna J. Burns of Pueblo, daughter of John J. and Amanda Burns, both natives of Kansas, and both now deceased, who were among the early pioneers of Beulah, Pueblo County. Mr. and Mrs. Hughlitt are the parents of two daughters: 1. Dorothy, who married George Bailey, and is the mother of two children: i, George, who served in the United States Navy, World War II., ii June, born in 1921. 2. Josephine, who married Charles Willour, and they have three children: Charlotte Beth, Barbara Ann, and Charles, Jr.  
 
 

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SYLVESTER SMITH HUGHLITT  

 

    In the animal industry of Pueblo County, Sylvester Smith Hughlitt plays a prominent part. From childhood he has grown up with the southwestern section of this country, learning ranching in its changing phases during the past forty years and going on to become an outstanding figure in his field of operations. He is a native of Argentine, Kansas, born June 12, 1880, son of Hannibal Tabor and Mary N. (Paul) Hughlitt. His paternal grandfather was one of the pioneer railroad contractors who constructed the Hannibal and St. Joe Railroad in Missouri, and it is related of him that he brought the first iron safe across the Great Plains to Beulah. On the maternal side, his mother, a native of Washington, D.C., came to Colorado when she was seventeen years old and grew up with the country, living to the age of ninety-one years, death coming in February, 1946, as the result of an accident.   
    The father of Sylvester Smith Hughlett engaged in the livery and freight business in Pueblo County and maintained a ranch near Beulah, where his son was brought as a child of three years. The elder man died before he reached the prime of life, and the boy early learned to work and do things about a ranch that were men's jobs. He rode the range until the United States entered the first World War, when he enlisted in the Armed Forces of our country and served with the 89th Division, holding the rank of first lieutenant from 1917 to 1919.   
    Upon his return to civilian life, Mr. Hughlitt ranched for a few years, but in 1922, went with the Colorado State Hospital in Pueblo as farm director. At that time this institution had a small acreage with less than half a hundred head of cattle and small production. Down through the years that have followed, he has systematically and scientifically developed the farm to the height where the hospital herd is one of the finest herds of registered Holsteins in the Intermountain West, some seven hundred head of which about a half are milked. He supervises the growing of some two hundred and fifty acres of truck crops, all of which are used in the hospital, and annually keeps a flock of ten thousand pullets and hens in addition to about a thousand swine. It is animal industry on a big scale. Although the hospital grows about a thousand tons of ensilage each year, this furnished about a part of the feed required by the hospital's animals and poultry. Something on the magnitude of his enterprise is indicated by the fact that while the hospital slaughters about three tons of hogs weekly, they supply but one meal to the inmates of the state hospital.   
    Following a lifelong policy of keeping in touch with men and organizations in his field of interest, Mr. Hughlitt is a member of several groups of colleagues, local, state and national. He exhibits his stock at various cattle shows, county and state, and is an active member of the Pueblo County Soil Conservation Committee. Incidentally he is an enthusiastic advocate of canning. He is in charge of the cannery on the Hospital Farm to take care of any vegetable surplus, and it is of note that the hospital maintains a mill where he is in charge of grinding grains and makes his own long tested feed mixtures.   
    Fraternally Mr. Hughlitt is affliated with Pueblo Lodge, No. 17, Free and Accepted Masons, and Pueblo Lodge, No. 90, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Keeping alive World War I memories, he is a member of the American Legion, a former commander of the Colorado State Society of the 89th Division. Fond of the out-of-doors, his favorite recreations are fishing and hunting.   
    On August 22, 1921, Sylvester Smith Hughlitt married Pearl Brammer, of Ohio, and they are the parents of a daughter, Joan Irma, born March 31, 1933.  
 
 

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WALTER K. HURD  

 

    Long recognized as one of southern Colorado's successful business men, Walter K. Hurd has distinguished himself in Pueblo as one of the state's outstanding citizens. For years his activities have been centered in automobile dealership, in which he has achieved sales records that it would be hard to surpass, let alone equal. His ingenuity has led him into many types of business enterprise, and often he has used adversity to produce greater progress.   
    Mr. Hurd was born March 23, 1882, in Adair County, Iowa, son of James S. and Annetta (Sears) Hurd, both of whom are now deceased. His father served for four years in the Union Army during the Civil War. His parents were married in 1866, at the close of the conflict.   
    Walter K. Hurd attended public schools in Adair County, Iowa, in the vicinity of his birthplace, and also studied in schools at Florence, Colorado. In Florence he went into the hardware business, in which he continued for some years. In 1906 he turned to the newly rising automobile business, becoming a dealer in Maxwell cars in Florence. In 1907 he took the Ford dealership there. Building up a fine business in that community, he sold more Fords at that time in Florence than were being sold in Denver. In 1912 he was offered, and accepted, the Pueblo Ford agency. When he took it over there were forty Ford automobiles in all Pueblo. In the first year in which he was in business he sold one hundred. In the period that followed he increased the business to such an extent that he was at length selling two hundred cars per month - a figure representing nearly sixty per cent of all the cars sold in the entire region.   
    In 1917 Mr. Hurd sold his Florence business, then disposed of the Pueblo Ford Agency in September, 1939. In May, 1940, he took over the Pontiac distributorship in southern Colorado and New Mexico, carrying on the work while at the same time he operated a retail establishment. When he took the Pontiac agency, it was obtaining three per cent of the business of the city. In his first year, 1941, he built up Pontiac sales to a point at which the agency was getting twenty-three percent of total Pueblo sales. Since he entered the industry, Mr. Hurd has been one of the outstanding men in it in Colorado. While World War II curtailed ordinary automobile sales, or practically eliminated them, Mr. Hurd converted a large portion of his shop into a huge roller skating rink, which was highly successful. In 1932 he organized the Sunrise Oil company, of which he became owner and president. This company acts as distributing agent for Socony-Vacuum products. In 1940 he added still another enterprise to his others, becoming dealer in this region for "Phillip 66" propane and butane products. He also is interested in the distribution of Sherwin-Williams Paint in southern Colorado.   
     From an early period Mr. Hurd has concerned himself with modern advertising and business techniques and has created many of his own and mastered those of others. In 1907 he sold the first car "on time," doing so against the advice of  contemporary sages of commerce and finance. He had no prepared forms for effecting such a transaction, so used the form nearest to hand - one already in use on steel ranges, which he had used in his hardware business. This form still is the one used by most large automobile finance companies in the region. In 1916 he was one of the men who organized the Commercial Investment Company in Denver, an enterprise that proved very profitable. In 1921 he started his own finance company. In Pueblo he founded in that year the Western Acceptance Corporation, which he operated successfully from that time onward. Soon afterward he sold the Commercial Investment Company to the Commercial Investment Trust Corporation of New York. For years he was a partner in the O'Meara Motor Company in Denver. He owns considerable real estate in Pueblo, as well as a beautiful summer home in Beulah, Colorado. On his estate he has deer, wild turkeys, blooded sheep and other livestock.   
    In addition to his other activities, Mr. Hurd is a past vice president and a director of the Rocky Mountain Automobile Trades' Association. He is vice president of Colorado Automobile Dealers, a member of the Pueblo Automobile Dealers' Association, the Pueblo Chamber of Commerce, the N.A.D.A., the Commerce Club, the Knife and Fork Club and other groups.   
    Walter K. Hurd married Evelyn Rive Bemen, of Pueblo, Colorado. They became the parents of three children; 1. Cora Ann. 2. Susan. 3. A son, Louis, who was killed on Okinawa on May 10, 1945
 
A CENTURY OF FORD  
reprinted from the Pueblo Chieftian, Aug. 5, 2003
 
    Interestingly enough, Pueblo has played host to a Ford dealership for nearly as long as the company has been in existance.   
    W.K. Hurd was the first to establish a Ford dealership in Steel City.  In 1910, Southern Colorado was introduced to the world of Fords when local entrepreneur Walter Kirk Hurd, a transplant from Iowa, began selling the vehicles out of a small hardware store in Florence.   
    In many ways, the work ethic and determinatio of Hurd mirrored that of Ford, who was so impressed with Hurd's salesmanship that he personally visited Southern Colorado to congratulate the young man for his contributions to the company.   
    According to Hurd's daughter, local real estate businesswoman Susan McCarthy, her father came to Colorado as a young man. Settling in Florence, Hurd married a local woman who happened to run a hardware store. Putting his business acumen to work, Hurd used the storefront to sell Fords, which at the time were taking the country by storm.
    Despite the lack of a traditional automotive dealership, Hurd "sold more Fords out of that little hardware store than any other place in the U.S.," McCarthy said. So impressed was Henry Ford that he ventured west to meet with Hurd at the Florence hardware shop.   
    Ford had so much faith in Hurd's salesmanship and business sense that he made an offer that was hard to refuse. "He told my father, 'I want to go in business with you. I will set you up anywhere in Colorado,'" McCarthy said.   
    At that time, it was expected that Pueblo was going to be the state's capital so Hurd selected Steel City as the base of his new dealership. So in 1912, the Arkansas Valley Motor Company - Pueblo's first actual Ford dealership - opened its doors at 7th and Court.   
    With more space and an actual showroom to display his wares, Hurd's business soared. As more and more customers sought out Fort automobiles, it soon became clear to Hurd that if finanicng was available, even more people would be able to drive his vehicles.   
    "At that time banks wouldn't finance cars because they were 'mobile,' " said McCarthy. "So my father decided to finance them himself."   
    Hurd did this be establishing the Western Acceptance Corporation. And once again, his golden business touch worked its magic as Hurd became the first man in the country to sell an automobile on time payments - now the most accepted method of purchasing a new or used car.   
    Before long, Hurd began financing automobiles for other dealers, including several in New Mexico. In the Land of Enchantment, Hurd became a pioneer of sorts by financing cars for those who lived on reservations.   
    While on a business run in New Mexico, Hurd discovered that many residents were using using propane to provide energy and heat. not one to miss out on an opportunity, Hurd brought the Flying Red Horse mobile propane distrbutor into Colorado and established the Sunrise Oil Company.   
    Despite his various auxiliary businesses, Hurd continued to run his Ford dealership and was actively involved in sales.   
    Sometime in the 1950's, though, Hurd and Henry Ford had a falling out of sorts, leading Hurd to abandon the Ford mantle and initiate a Pontiac dealership.   
    "I don't really recall what happened between the two," McCarthy said. "But I know my father agonized over that breakup. He always loved Fords."   
    Hurd remained in the automotive sales business until his death in 1970 at the age of 88.   
    As a memento of that ground-breaking dealership, McCarthy has in her family room a Model T grill with the letter "A" - the logo that served the Arkansas Valley Motor Company for years.  

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Kay Keating

Kay Keating Picture  --  J.F. Keating Picture  

 

    Kay Keating's grandfather, John Frances Keating, came to Pueblo in 1872, rode the stagecoach to Beulah, experienced the beauty, and believed it was as close to paradise as he could get. Kay's grandfather bought 15 acres here, built a house, and raised seven children. He was the superintendent of schools in Pueblo and after his death, Keating School was named for him which is now The Keating Learning Center for the learning disabled. Her father, Lawrence Keating, later built a house and married Cecil Jordan. Kay's parents were married just before WWI and both served their country when war broke out. Lawrence was a Coast Artillery Officer in France and Cecil drove an ambulance for the Red Cross in Washington. Speaking lovingly of her parents, Kay remembers, "I saw the world from sitting on his shoulders and looking over his head. I held on to his forehead to keep from falling off. And my mother was very short, barely five feet tall. She needed 2X4s and rubber bands attached to the floor pedals of the ambulance so that she could drive."  Their honor and commitment to serve God and Country, cherish freedom, nurture family, respect nature, and preserve beauty and life, is carried on by Kay Keating.  
    Kay was in her third year as a pharmacy student when WWII broke out. "Women weren't supposed to serve in the military," explained Kay, "but the girls had learned typing and could do it ten times faster than men. Two thousand women went to Hunter College in New York. Four hundred women were chosen to serve as radio operators." Kay was one of these women. Her group took care of all radio traffic for the Patrol Fleet within the West Coast and the Hawaiian Islands, and later all radio traffic in the Pacific. The women serving didn't know what was said in Morse Code. Everything was encrypted, and everything was important. Under law, all women were to be separated from service 180 days after cessation of hostilities. "The war seemed over for us," Kay said, "but then they discovered they couldn't get along without us!" Two months later Kay received a letter that requested her to return to Buckley Field in Denver for the National Guard and Naval Reserve. Kay said she would do it only if she could work nights and pursue her pharmacy degree. Kay received her degree, was commissioned as an officer, and her first assignment in the Medical Service Corp was at the Pharmacy Tech School in San Diego. At sea, Kay served on the hospital ship, the USS Haven and was deployed to Korea. "All the hospital ships had tender names, the USS Hope, USS Rescue and others." After the prisoner exchange and peace was signed, two ships went home. The USS Haven and another ship were diverted to Saigon and rescued the French Foreign Legion Troops in Dien Bien Phu, took troops to North Africa and then to Marseilles, France to let off French officers, and then towards home crossing through the Panama Canal. During her 30 years of service, Kay received the Meritorious Service Medal, was Chief of Pharmacy Services at the Naval Hospital in Great Lakes, Illinois, and was promoted from Commander to Captain to earn her four gold stripes. During the Viet Nam War Kay taught Japanese interns in military hospitals. "My plum before retirement was reviewing the new troops at the Recruit Training Center in Great Lakes, Illinois." She shared photographs and one young recruit was standing before Kay with his weapon. "I just know he was shaking in his boots." President Clinton  told Kay once at an awards ceremony that she was owed a debt. "Not me," said Kay. "It's the woman there, who was POW, one of thirty-seven military nurses imprisoned." The president asked the woman how she and the other nurses survived when so many men perished. The woman replied, "We lived because we had something to do. We kept as many men alive as we could. The men were in despair. They had nothing to do and we took care of them."  
    Kay hates the drought, stays home to keep watch over the KK Ranch and animals, and hopes for rain. She remembers being a child and bringing clear, clean, good-tasting water uphill from the creek in two buckets to stay balanced and try not to slop it out. Now she carries around heavy, five gallon containers of water, takes "Marine Baths," and misses the healing fragrance of lilacs that didn't bloom this spring. "In the 1930s, when Kansas blew into Colorado, I got a job herding turkeys. Their job was to eat the grasshoppers that ravaged the wheat fields in Beulah. My job was to carry a gunnysack tied to a broomstick  and keep the turkeys on task. I got fifteen cents a week and a chicken every Sunday." Kay remembers taking baths in a washtub on Saturday nights. "The cleanest kid got to go first. That was my sister. I was next and my brother got what was left."  
    For 10 years Kay Keating dressed as a hack driver with a moustache and drove for 102 weddings all over Colorado in an antique carriage. "The teenage boys who helped me on the ranch dressed as my footmen. I used the same team of white horses. Their names were Port and Starboard." Both horses have since died of cancer, but their pictures are displayed in Kay Keating's warm and welcome home.  
    "You know, I've had the privilege to serve all around the world, seen many places, and met many people. There is no place anywhere that is like Beulah. My grandfather said it right. It is as close to paradise as you can get."
The above article appeared in the September, 2002 issue of The Beulah Banner.  

 

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AUGUST W. KLIPFEL

 

    Among the very early settlers of Beulah was August W. Klipfel of Grant City, Missouri, a member of the 106 Ohio Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War. After the war, he encouraged a small group to come west with him in search of a home for his family.   
    He camped in the upper area of South Creek about 8 miles above Beulah. He was determined to find work so he could bring his wife, Leah Thomas and three children (Edward, Mabel and Charles T.) from Missouri to the Beulah area to reside. Two children, William J. and Mary Anne, were buried in Missouri.   
    In a short time, he did bring his family west in a covered wagon drawn by oxen.   
    Charles T. Klipfel, a young lad of 6, well remembers the night of their arrival in Pueblo in 1882. A horse thief was hung on Pueblo's "Hanging Tree"!   
    Later in 1882, they homesteaded on the Couzzen Springs Road on a location then known as the "Yuker Place". On this homestead the family suffered a frightening experience during corn planting season. Charles was helping his father when he was bitten on the heel by a rattlesnake. The closest doctor was in Beulah on Pine Drive at the present site of the W.K. Hurd home. A donkey was ridden to get help. While waiting for the doctor, Mrs. Klipfel caught chickens, split open their backs and wrapped them around the boy's ankle. Heat from their bodies drew out the poison. However, the scars remained with him always.   
    The "Slattery Place" on South Creek was their first home in Beulah Valley; it is now the Occhiato home. August raised cattle, farmed and operated a sawmill.   
    The family later moved farther down South Creek to the location now owned by Mrs. Beverly Klipfel. This home was destroyed by fire on a cold winter night. The children were ill with measles and had to be laid on blankets on the ground until they could be moved to their permanent home which was an old log schoolhouse moved from Pueblo Mountain Park from the Horseshoe Lodge Area. This was later known as "Uncle Francis' Cabin".   
    Four children were born in Beulah, Francis I, Mellie, Mildred Elizabeth and Valentine J. (Vollie). Two children died in Beulah, Mabel in 1892 and Edward in 1894. Both are buried in the Beulah Cemetery. Two sisters, Nellie (Klipfel) Dutcher and Mildred (Klipfel) Walters moved to Powell, Wyoming. The three brothers, Charles T., Francis I, and Valentine (Vollie) remained in Beulah.   
    August W. and Leah Thomas died in January, 1918; their deaths were only 16 days apart. Both are buried in Beulah Cemetery.   
     When Charles was 9 years old, he was hired by Cal Hurcules to build a rock wall. His pay for the summer's labor was a baby calf. He later purchased the farm from Mr. Hurcules; it became the home of his son, Wesley T. Klipfel. This rock wall still stands on the Kay Keating property today.   
    Charles T. Klipfel married Faye Altman in 1901, and to their union eight children were born. They built their first home "Nightingale", on Central Street. Later, they moved to their permanent home, "The Red Gables Ranch", and resided there until their deaths. Faye died in 1936 and Charles died in 1940.   
    Charles T. drove a freight wagon from the Beulah Marble Quarry to the Pueblo train depot; this marble was used in the capitol building in Denver.   
    He was a stagecoach driver in 1901 between Beulah and Pueblo. Many people travelled by stagecoach to Beulah to stay at the hotels and boardinghouses in the area. Among the passengers was a young woman suffering from Tuberculosis who came to Beulah on a stretcher to regain her health. She resided in a tent and on that property she later built the Pine Drive Store; she will be remembered by many as Mrs. Tom (Selma) Smith.   
    For many years, Charles was the Republican Chairman and his brother, Francis, was the Democratic Chairman. They looked forward to election days and were best of pals.   
     In 1921, Charles and sons, Herman, Beverly and Wesley contracted from the U.S. Forest Service to gravel North Creek Divide. This work was done with horses.   
    Charles and sons built the tank and helped dig by hand the pipeline for the Pine Drive Water System. They also hauled gravel with wagon teams and built some of the first swimming pools on Pine Drive when Beulah became a summer resort.   
    Two incidents are well remembered by the Klipfel Family. Mrs. Faye Klipfel, Charles' wife was walking near the present site of Gayway and saw a little arm floating in the irrigation ditch. The ditch carried a large amount of water at the time. She removed the body of her neighbor's little girl. Then on September 17, 1919, Emmet Klipfel was struck by lightening while standing under the school bell and writing on the blackboard. He was knocked unconscious and burned severely. His life was saved by the toes of his shoes which were sewn with copper wire. A new pair of shoes had been ordered from a mail order house and had not arrived.  

 

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CHARLES HERMAN KLIPFEL  

 

    As County Commissioner of Pueblo County, Mr. Klipfel has placed his unusual organizing ability at the service of the public and has made a remarkable contribution during the four years he has been in office.   
    Born in Pueblo, on April 19, 1903, Mr. Klipfel is a son of Charles T. and Faye (Altman) Klipfel, both now deceased. His father was a farmer and he remained on their farm helping his father until he was twenty-one, securing his education in the public schools of Beulah. After he came of age he was employed for a short time by the Platt Rogers Construction Company, but returned to farming and managed his own farm for several years. He suffered a serious injury to his back which caused paraysis and forced him to give up farming. After a year and a half, however, his health returned sufficiently so that he was able to take a position as watchman with the Nuckles Packing Company in Pueblo, and gradually he undertook more responsibility until he had charge of the night scales. While engaged in this work he invented a sweeping compound which was very successful and he has continued to manufacture it in a small way ever since. In 1942 he was elected County Commissioner of Pueblo County and has held this office for three years plus one year as city commissioner. When Mr. Klipfel came into office he found that the County owned large tracts of land which it had held for delinquent taxes, in some cases for as long as sixty-five years. He had a map made which showed clearly the exact location of all County lands and he then began an intensive campaign to sell these tracts with such success that to date over 50,000 parcels have been sold and the County is now collecting revenue from what had been practically waste land. His success in showing these lands has aroused wide interest so that public officials from all parts of the West have come to study his methods.   
    During his four years as commissioner Mr. Klipfel has been a profound advocate for reduction in taxes. Mr. Klipfel is also interested in the Mutual Machinery company in which he is a partner. Perhaps his chief title to fame, however, stems from his ability to barbecue. He uses methods of his own and has been most successful, having fed groups of anywhere from sixty to over seven thousand persons, and wherever an outdoor pit barbeque is needed he is the first one called upon to prepare it. Mr. Klipfel is a Republican in politics and is president of the G.O.P. Boosters Club and a member of the exective board of young Republican State Committee. He is a member of the First Presbyterian Church, and belongs to the Pueblo Chamber of Commerce and the Junior Chamber of Commerce, and the Saddle Club. He is greatly interested in fraternal organizations and belongs to the South Pueblo Lodge No. 31 of the Free and Accepted Masons, to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, to the Chapter and Royal and Select Master Council of the Royal Arcanum, to the Fraternal Order of Eagles, and to Woodmen of the World. His recreational interests are fishing and deer hunting. During the War he has assisted actively on all patriotic and welfare drives, the Red Cross, the March of Dimes, on which he was a committee member, and on the Community Chest drives he had charge of organizing the rural areas of Pueblo County. He is interested in welfare and community organizations and has served on the committees for Crippled Children and Cancer and the Goodwill Industries, and is a member of the boards of McClelland Orphanage and the United Services Organization.   
    On May 31, 1925, Mr. Klipfel married Edna Fay Lemmon of Illinois. They are the parents of four children: 1. Charlene, a graduate of Central high School and now attending Pueblo Junior College. 2. Ellen Joyce, attending Central high School. 3. Patricia Ann, also in high school. 4. Charles Herman, Jr., at present in grade school.  
 
 
 
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WILLARD M. KLIPFEL  

 

    Willard Klipfel, owner-operator of the Springfield Implement Company, located in Springfield, Baca County, Colorado is a dealer for the Minneapolis-Moline and New Holland farm equipment. He is also a dealer for Chrysler, Dodge and Plymouth cars. He offers sales and service to a territory consisting of the entire exterior of Baca County. Mr. Klipfel is a native Coloradoan. He came to Springfield in 1959 to establish this business on a small scale and has developed and expanded it to a $475,000.00 a year volume.   
    Willard M. Klipfel was born to Mr. and Mrs. Beverly Klipfel in Pueblo County, Colorado, on October 29, 1935. His mother, the former Miss Goldie Hankla married Beverly Klipfel in Pueblo in 1931. His father was water commissioner of Beulah and Rye, Colorado. Willard M. Klipfel acquired his early schooling at the public schools of Pueblo. When a young man, he worked as a service station attendant and later did construction work at Beulah, Colorado.   
    Mr. Klipfel married Miss Mary Elizabeth Green, a native of Pueblo, Colorado, and the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C.W. Green. Her mother was Miss Evelyn Connally prior to her marriage. Three chldren have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Klipfel: Morris C., James A, and Cynthia Ann.   
    Mr. Klipfel is a member of the Junior Chamber of Commerce of Springfield, Colorado. He is a man who accepts responsibility and is always reaching out for accomplishment and the development of business in his community.
 
 
 

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EDMUND B. KOLLER  

 

    Edward B. Koller, prominent Pueblo businessman, is president, general manager, and part owner of The Walters Brewing Company, Inc., in Pueblo, Pueblo County, Colorado. Mr. Koller came to this firm in 1935 when the business was reactivated following repeal of prohibition. In August 1963 Mr. Koller, with Andy and John Sackman, both Pueblo businessmen, acquired controlling interest in Walters Brewing Company. The company was founded in 1889 by four Walters brothers, immigrants from Germany, who came first to Wisconsin and then to Pueblo, where they bought the Pueblo Brewery, giving it their family name. At that time the business was a two-story cellar built into a hillside for natural insulation. The first refrigerated room was installed in 1890. The company has enjoyed steady growth through the years, and the product is now distributed in 15 states.   
    Edmund B. Koller was born April 8, 1915, in Pueblo, to Joseph and Catherine Koller. His parents were natives of Yugoslavia and Germany and were married in Pueblo. His father died in 1943; and his mother, in 1958. Edmund Koller attended St. Patrick High School in Pueblo and attended American Business College, a night school. He served with the U.S. Army from 1941 to 1946 in the South Pacific and rose from private to captain. Mr. Koller worked in his parents' grocery store from his childhood on while going to school. After graduation from high school, he worked for three years for Ridenour-Baker, wholesale grocers, and rose to assistant cashier there. In 1935 he joined the Walters Brewing Company.   
    Mr. Koller married the former Harriett Sinclair, adopted daughter of Arthur and Beatrice Sinclair, on June 25, 1941, in Pueblo. Mr. Sinclair, born in Kincade, Kansas, worked for the Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation for forty-nine years. Now Eighty-three, he makes his home in Beulah, Colorado, with his second wife, Margaret Babish Sinclair. Mrs. Beatrice Sinclair was born in Pueblo and died in 1939. Mrs. Edmund B. Koller was born in Leadville, Colorado. Mr. and Mrs. Koller are the parents of four daughters: Priscilla, Maryellen, Kathleen, and Elizabeth.   
    Edmund B. Koller is on the board of directors and a past president of the Chamber of Commerce, a member of the board of trustees of the state of  Colorado, a director and third vice-president of the Brewers Association of America, and a director of the Colorado Chamber of Commerce, District Number 7. He is a member of the Elks Lodge 90, the Kiwanis Club, the Knights of Columbus, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the American Legion. He holds memberships in the Minnequa Club and the Pueblo Country Club. He is a member of St. Therese's Catholic Church. Mr. Koller's hobbies are golf and fishing. Mr. Koller has contributed greatly to the economy of the Pueblo area through his business and enjoys a fine reputation among all who know him.
 
 

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ELNORA LORJE  
by Raechel Thompson
(Picture)
 
    "There was a time in Beulah I knew everybody from Rock Creek on in. Now I don't feel like I know anyone anymore." Elnora Lorje was born in Pueblo, but her family history has been a part of Beulah since 1872. "My grandfather worked for the Continental Oil Company and it took him two days to haul gas from Pueblo to Beulah using a horse drawn wagon. That's not propane or gasoline. It's white gas, Kerosene, what we used for our lamps hanging over the table to play cards. That's what we did at night. We didn't get electricity for two years after it first came to Beulah." Elnora spent all of her summers with her grandparents in Beulah, then moved from Pueblo to one of the family cabins when she was fifteen years old.   
    Elnora began square dancing in 1954 at The Gay Way, where the Flag Mountain Grill is located now, until the roof came down from heavy snow in 1957. She sang at the Beulah Jamboree and danced afterwards at the Gay Way where she had her first date with her husband, John, after cooking him a fried chicken dinner at home. "He mostly came out to play Canasta with my mother," explained Elnora. "I didn't get to dance that night because John sat in the booth and told jokes with friends." They first met at the hospital in Pueblo where her dad was getting a gall bladder operation and John was getting his appendix out. Two years later they were married and enjoyed 16 years of marriage and Ballroom Dancing before John was killed in a car accident at Coglazier corner.   
    Elnora remembers only three fulltime residents on the water line on South Pine Drive, but they did the 'Beulah Wave' everyday. "All of the houses had names. We didn't go by streets. Our house was named the 'Wee Blu Inn'." Elnora's spirit of community radiates. She acted in many melodramas in Beulah beginning in 1963, including "Deadwood Dick". Elnora preferred strong character parts like the sheriff, and especially remembers her role as La Paloma. Even now, some still call her "Polly."   
    Elnora's husband, Gene, boasts about her cooking and doesn't mind questions about John. "It doesn't bother me," he smiled, "half the time she calls me John." Gene remembers what she wore, what she said, and how her hair was fixed the first time he met Elnora. Elnora doesn't remember their first meeting at all, but does remember telling him after twelve years of marriage that he'd better start square dancing with her or else. Gene shook his head slowly, "I had no choice or she planned to show me the door." They now have a large family "scattered everywhere" and Elnora spoke of their "God only knows" how many great grandchildren they have. Clearly Gene did become her lifetime square dance partner and they currently lead many others in the "cheaper, healthier, entertainment" that is the official "Folk Dance of Colorado". "You don't need rhythm and if you can learn to square dance, you can do it everywhere." Elnora doesn't dance now because of her health, but the young at heart over nine years old are welcome to take classes, join the BVDs (Beulah Valley Dancers), or just come and stomp your boots at the Community Center, where Elnora sometimes calls the sets. "I love to dance," declares Elnora, "And I'll teach anybody."   
    Elnora Lorje played the organ at the Methodist Church for 30 years. She portrays noble principles and a charitable nature. Elnora knows what it means to have fun. She's way up there in the Order of The Eastern Star and the Square Dance Council. She's way up there in Beulah, too. You might not know all of us in Beulah, Elnora, but we know you.
 
Reprinted from The Beulah Banner - July,2002.       

 

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KATHY LUZARDO
EMS PROFILE  
by Raechel Thompson
(Picture)
 
    Kathy Luzardo is a Certified Mental Health Nurse who works at Parkview Hospital in Pueblo. She began with Beulah EMS 13 years ago and still works on call for our community around the clock when she is not working at the hospital.
    Kathy moved to Beulah in 1988 with her two sons, Chris and David. Chris is now eighteen and David is fifteen. They have three big dogs, two cats, and seven fish. They used to have four dogs, but one was small and was eaten by a bear.   
    Both of her sons learned quickly how to put their shoes on when they were half asleep and finish their slumber at the neighbors' house. Their mom was on call and they became used to sharing her. Kathy raised her sons well while working hard to help others. In the beginning she wanted to be trained as a paramedic for the Beulah Ambulance, but couldn't afford to be away from her family for twenty-four hour shifts.   
    In the last huge blizzard in Beulah, Kathy was called out at night for a death at home. There was no electricity, the roads were treacherous, and she slid off the road. The Beulah Volunteer Fire Department and all of the community pitched in that night to get rescue workers from one scene to the next. Kathy remembers a giant wall of waist-high snow and having to plow a path through it in the dark to get herself and equipment to the house. She gratefully accepted the thick dry socks handed to her once she made it through. She waited in the dark for the coroner, and then received another call for a woman having labor pains. The night and the blizzard passed. The baby was later born in Pueblo. Beulah came together to help and support each other.   
    Kathy drives Highway 78 regularly. She wants drivers to slow down, don't drink and drive, and wear your seat belt. She urges all of us not to drive tired. Kathy is often tired with the night shift she works and she wants us all to stay safe. She notices that volunteers are decreasing each year. We can't all be like Kathy Luzardo, but we can heed her words, "Anyone can volunteer. There are many different ways to help." Kathy encourages our community to call 911 when in doubt. "It could save your life."  
Reprinted from  December, 2002 issue of The Beulah Banner.  
 

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The Mysterious Juan Mace Haunts Beulah Valley History

 
    July 3, 1909 - More than forty-five years ago some pioneermen made their way into what is now known as Beulah Valley. Not far above the entrance to this valley and close by the creek stood a log hut already going to decay. Near by, a ditch wound around a strip of land that had evidently been under cultivation, but from all indications many years had passed since anyone had darkened the doorway of the hut. Long ago all had been abandoned to the solitude that had reigned before. Wild animals roamed over the spot and gazed inquiringly on the lone hut built there, none knows by whom.  
    When these adventurers first beheld the valley from the towering bluffs they believed that no eyes but theirs had ever looked upon the scene. It was, doubtless, more interesting because of this fact. For ages here lay a beautiful, fertile valley locked in the protecting arms of the Rockies and hid thus long from intruding man. Imagine their surprise when, after descending the rocky slope into the valley, they beheld the lonely hut! Dick Wooten, Indian trader and hunter, claimed to have seen Mace's Hole, now known as Beulah Valley, thirty years before these pioneersmen first looked upon it. He told that one Juan Mace, a Mexican horse thief and murderer, here concealed himself and the stolen horses from his pursuers. Other old timers say that Mace herded stock in the valley, but secured them from hunters, traders and freighters at the government post at Canon City to winter, for a certain consideration.  
    Still others have it that it was two young Mexicans named Mace who carried on this business.  
    The fact is that no one seems to be acquainted with any one who ever knew or had ever seen the aforesaid and oft discussed Juan Mace. It seems that no one can say positively whether or not he is a myth.  
    Some of the literary craft have utilized the "half-forgotten dream" as the foundation for the superstructure of a story with a decided romantic atmosphere to it. Not only one, but many. Mrs. Doctor Marshall wrote a serial in which Mace appeared as the daring Blue Beard of the mountains and plains.  
    A story appeared in the Youth's Companion a few years ago in which this supposed border ruffian figured as the hero. In his narrative the Three R Ranch, located six miles south of Beulah, is placed contemporary with Juan Mace. But long after Mace's time, the ranch was secured by Peter Dotson who built the stone corrals and fence that failed at times to prevent the irrepressible Juan from making a success of nocturnal raids on the domestic herds; so the story reads.  
    This is mentioned only to show that one may be led to false conclusions about historical facts when a portion of the facts is woven into a romance. 'Tis needless to say that one cannot depend on fictitious narrative of this kind to increase their knowledge of history. Yet many have read these stories in which Mace was the conspicuous character and believe that almost everything therein related is authentic.  
    If such a person existed it is reasonable to suppose that old and well known settlers would at least have a faint recollection of the fact.  
    Forty-nine years ago Daniel J. Hayden was postmaster and store keeper in Pueblo. He has left no record of Juan Mace. Two years later John B. Rice kept a hotel in the same place. The man and his history - if there was such a man - surely perished in the Pueblo massacre. The Beulah Breeze

 

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WALT MERCHANT

 
    Walter Garnett Merchant was born on a tobacco farm in beautiful Amelia County, Virginia. Walt was the eldest of 4 children. When he was 11 years old his mother died leaving him and his siblings to be raised by family members. His father later remarried and there were 5 children born to that union.   
    During the years Walt went to different churches, one was a Presbyterian church that his mother's family started. While living with one aunt he attended another church. When he was 10 years old he walked down the aisle following a revival. Because he was only 10 years old no one talked to him about the Lord. They did not believe that a child of that age could make a decision like that. However, when attending a Baptist church he was baptized at the age of 12.
     When Walt was 21 he left the farm and went to Richmond to work for a paint company until 1941 when he joined the U.S. Army Airforce as an aircraft mechanic. He went to Shepherd Field, Tx. for his schooling. Later he served at several airfields, including Pueblo Air Base.   
    While in Pueblo he said he met a pretty redhead, Jacquetta Carter from Boone. After making certain  he was not headed overseas they were married in July, 1944, in Pueblo. Jacquetta was a school teacher in Pueblo.   
    After his discharge from the Air Force in 1945, Walt went to school on the G.I. Bill (one of the first to do so) where he learned to be an electrician. Walt worked full time and went to school 2 nights a week for four years. Later he worked full time for a contractor.   
    It was in 1971 that the Merchants moved from Pueblo to Beulah into what is a very comfortable and charming home with a lovely view of the valley below. The home was decorated by Walt's beloved wife, Jacquetta, and he has not changed the house a bit.   
    Life has not been without heartache for Walt. In 1950, during the polio epidemic, his son was diagnosed as having polio. He had a very high fever that would not break. Finally they used heated wet blankets to break the high fever. With emotion Walt told of his great appreciation for the March of Dimes, as they paid all expenses, but he gives the glory to God for healing, not only his son, but also his daughter, who later on, had an uncontrolled case of eczema, and the illness and finally the death of his beloved wife 18 years ago.   
    While visiting with Walt we were shown pictures of his family and his birthplace in the rolling hills of Virginia. Family and memories of by-gone days are very precious to Walt.   
    Some of his reminiscing produced interesting tales of how, in an early time in Virginia, his father cut the hair of all the children in the area in exchange for one or two days of work.   
    Walt picked worms off tobacco plants for 30 cents a day when he was a youngster. The rate was one cent for each 100 worms he brought in.   
    How many of us have gone to church in a conveyance where the horsepower was not "under the hood" but in front pulling? Yes, that is the way that our friend Walt went to church. The wagon was parked under the window. The adults went inside, but the children stayed in the wagon and "listened" to what the minster had to say.   
    One phrase Walt repeated several times was that God has a way of humbling us. God tells us in 1 Peter 5:6 to "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time". (KJV)   
    Here is another one of God's family who enjoys working around his home and when he can he enjoys traveling to visit family members. Anyone for a game of Scrabble? Just contact Walt. He is an avid Scrabble and other board games player.   
    On March 5 Walt will be 87 years old. Happy Birthday, Walt.
Reprinted from the March, 2002 issue of The Beulah Banner.  
   

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PARISH HONORS PIONEER JOE MERHING

 
    Banners reading "Joe Merhing Night" greeted the fifty-six members and guests of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church last Tuesday night at the Beulah Inn honoring Mr. Joe Mehring, the oldest pioneer in Beulah Valley. Seated with the guest of honor at the head of the table were his daughter Rose and Bob Caple, his son George and his wife Lorraine from Divine, and his son Bill and wife from Vineland. Six grandchildren were gathered also, which completed his family with the exception of his daughter Helen Kress who lives in California.  
    Mr. Merhing was born in Helern, Germany in 1878 just two years after Colorado's statehood. As a young man he arrived in America in 1904. He practiced his trade as a tailor and after 10 years headed "out west" to Denver and Pueblo, and eventually Beulah where he brought his young bride to settle on a 240 acre farm on North Creek. This being before bridges and culverts, fourteen forgings of the creek were necessary to get to his farm and the farms of his neighbors who were the only settlers on North Creek at that time. Mrs. Catherine Thompson was one of the children of these three families, and she later taught all of the four Merhing children in the North Creek School. Mrs. Thompson was introduced at the dinner not only as a teacher and neighbor of the Merhing family but for her extraordinary influence on so many lives of so many families through her lifetime in Beulah Valley.  
    Other guests were Father John Bono and Father Jerry Ingenito from St. Francis Parish in Pueblo, and Father John Bulger of the Cathedral in Pueblo. Letters of congratulations to Mr. Merhing were received and read both from Bishop Charles Buswell and Monsignor A. J. Miller, who were unable to attend the dinner. Mrs. H.A. Amman was chairman of "Joe Merhing Night" assisted by Mrs. A.G. Sinclair and Mrs. Joe Sellers. We of Our Lady of Lourdes Church toast Mr. Merhing for his longevity in Beulah. Particularly do we honor him for his devotion to his adopted country, his God, his community.
The above article appeared in the November 12, 1967 issue of the Beulah Blip.    
 

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BILL AND ANNE MOULTON
EMS Profile
by Raechel Thompson
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    Bill and Anne Moulton have lived in Beulah for five years. They originally came from a small town similar to Beulah called Gilford in New Hampshire. They liked the small town atmosphere and that's probably why they ended up here. Bill and Anne lived in Boulder and then Pueblo where Anne was working at Sangre de Cristo Arts Center. They often brought their sons, Josh and Evan, hiking to the Pueblo Mountain Park before deciding that they wanted to make their home here. Bill is a real estate investor who taught school in the 1970s. The Moulton family wanted horses, but didn't want to board them in Pueblo. Already loving Beulah, it could be a place to keep horses, enjoy a mountain home and property, hike from their backyard, and enjoy the peace and tranquility of our town. Now Josh lives in Westcliffe, the Moultons have a granddaughter there, and Evan is in Los Angeles. Both Bill and Anne work in Pueblo, but like many other of our EMS volunteers, they are on call twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and three hundred and sixty five days a year. Anne does massage therapy now in both Pueblo and Beulah, and if she gets a call on her radio, Anne notifies her clients, "Here's a free half of a massage!"   
    Bill serves as Vice President, and Anne as Secretary of Beulah EMS. They started in Beulah as First Responders and have attended training classes together to learn more and become EMTs. The Moultons are proud to be a part of such a strong team and many supporters. There are fifteen members who are medically trained and a great support team of six. This doesn't include many supportive, caring, and hardworking people in our community devoted to Beulah EMS. There are also several components and areas of need to assure quality, safety,  confidentiality, required standards, maintenance, and training. There are financial considerations to keep Beulah EMS a safe and effective community service. The Moultons are grateful for the continued financial support and assistance with fundraisers from community members and businesses for the benefit of Beulah EMS.   
    "We get to work with good people. When a call comes at 3:00 in the morning, it is a good feeling to be greeted with smiles and willingness to do what is needed."   
    "There are two large areas of need for our community. Waterbarrel Road and 3R Road are areas that are growing and we have no one out there. The response time is longer in those areas." Anne and Bill ask if there is someone who wants to be trained, be part of a strong team, and has the desire to learn to please contact the Beulah EMS. Training expenses are paid and it's a way to help others, learn skills and become a part of our community in ways that makes a difference for others.
Reprinted from  The Beulah Banner, February, 2003 issue.  
 

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HAL MURRAY
EMS PROFILE
by Raechel Thompson
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    Hal Murray has been with Beulah EMS since it began in 1977. Hal speaks proudly of Beulah EMS, all past and present EMS supports, presidents, EMTs, first responders, volunteers, and many unsung heroes, yet stays quiet about his own achievements. "I think there were three people that were most responsible for getting our first ambulance in 1977. Dr. Charlie Hanson, Ray Youngren, and Bob Boyer did this with donations and grant money. We've always had a four wheel drive ambulance for obvious reasons and the first was replaced in 1993 with a grant written by EMT Lynne Greenberg. The old ambulance went to another rural area in need. In the beginning when we were Beulah Volunteer First Aid Service, we kept the ambulance at different houses, then many years in a building on Fox Lane which is now the Koncilja property. Presently as Beulah EMs, we park our ambulance in the garage at Beulah School. We use half of the garage and the school busses the other half." The original radios were donated to Beulah Ambulance by an anonymous donor and Sally Duncan received a grant to pay for the medical channel radios. With no tax base in Beulah for the ambulance service, operating capital is solely dependent on contributions and fundraising.   
    Hal Murray is a Professor of Biology and taught at the University of Southern Colorado for 27 years. Hal taught the first class in Beulah EMTs and has been teaching ever since. He enjoys rock climbing he has trained his EMTs in rough terrain uphill rescues in Devil's Canyon and rough terrain downhill rescues at Pueblo Mountain Park. In November 1995, Hal and his son, Galen Murray, responded to an accident in extremely rough terrain, 1 1/2 miles off of 12-mile to a place near Klipfel's Meadow, then a rough road and down a 1/2 mile steep slope carrying medical equipment in a Stokes rescue basket. The victim was located by yelling and found in an unexposed area. It would take too long to get the young man back up to the amublance. A MAST helicopter from Ft. Carson was called. On the first flyover it missed the rescue team. Radio information was relayed and the helicopter returned to the men wildly waving arms. The patient was lifted up into the helicopter in a sleeve-like stretcher called a SKED. The rescue was completed when the Blackhawk helicopter took the patient to a Pueblo hospital where he was later discharged.   
    Hal is young at heart and believes in exercise and maintaining good health. He walks or bikes regularly in our beautiful town and always carries his radio or pager in case there is a call for help. "Sometimes I'm in the bathtub when I get a call. I have to always be ready." Many of Beulah's EMS team work in Pueblo and can't be here regularly during the day. They go on calls as often as they possibly can when they're needed by the community. Beulah residents are fortunate to have these caring people as neighbors.   
    Hal speaks confidently of the AED (Automatic Expernal Defibrillator) in possession of Beulah EMS. This may save the life of a person having cardiac arrest. Community donors and The Prudential Helping Hearts Program helped make this possible. Beulah EMS celebrated their 20th anniversary on November 8, 1997.   
    "We are made up of different strenghts and weaknesses. This is Beulah. We don't get many calls. We need to keep up by our own initiative. Even calls that don't amount to much patient care enable us to continue being good at our job and to do patient checks regularly." He is clear about the importance of Beulah EMS. His dedication to his community is equally clear. he is concerned that there are many others who need to be recognized and written about instead of him. Hal doesn't want anyone forgotten, and wants all the many aspects of service to Beulah EMS recognized. It will be taken car of, Hal!    "I do this because I received satisfaction from helping people and it is my wish to contribute to my community. I think many of us feel this same way." Hal carefully thought of ways to describe the feeling of being a part of Beulah EMS. "It 's stressful. It's exciting. It's satisfying to help people." Then he stopped, smiled and declared, "And then there's the paperwork!"
Reprinted from  The Beulah Banner, February 2002 issue.  
 

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ORVILLE MYERS  
by Raechel Thompson
(Picture)  
 
    Orville Myers was born on October 6, 1927 in Olney, Illinois. Orville looked around the Canon City area in the 1940's, thought there was some pretty country, and moved to Pueblo. He first saw Beulah in 1951 when he passed through on a fishing trip. "I liked what I saw!"  Orville has been here ever since. Orville was married to Helen Joyce Fritchley from 1950 to 1955. Orville's son, Ronald Joseph Myers went to school in Beulah, has been with the Forest Service for 25 years, now lives in Santa Fe, and Orville gets to see him every few weeks. "I don't know how he gets so much time off work," Orville explained, "but I like seeing him, and now he's bought a house near the Catholic Church in Beulah." Orville has a grandson, William, who works at a radio station in Seattle, Washington.   
    Orville remembers back to dances at the Gay Way that he watched, "because I lived close by at the time." Orville explained, "but I didn't actually go". He laughed and shared what was going on outside the dances. "There was always a Sheriff present at the dances. There was this real old one. The boys would jack up his Sheriff's car so that the tires were just a little bit off the ground. When the Sheriff tried to chase them, he would just spin out and couldn't chase after the boys. I don't know how many times I saw that happen. It must have been the favorite pastime around here!"
     Orville embraces history. He studies it, does historical research on Colorado (especially around Beulah), graciously shares his knowledge with others, and enthusiastically enjoys doing research on his family. "I was in school as a boy," Orville remembers, "and saw this picture right at the front of my history book. It was a picture of a dog and it said, 'Beware the dog'. I always remembered that picture and you know, I saw it again. It was in old Pompeii when I was in the service. I saw the actual plaque. So I volunteered to study history while stationed there, and that got me out of KP duty." Orville also shared a story about Mary Hughlitt, who while making a trip to Colorado from Kansas in 1872 in a covered wagon, was almost ambushed by Indians. She was part of a 40-wagon caravan near Rocky Point, a spot on the trail, when word was received by the leader of the caravan that the wagon train a day ahead had been ambushed by Indians and the people massacred. mary Hughlitt hid her baby in a feather bed when a band of warriors appeared. They ended up bargaining for tobacco and nobody was hurt. The baby hidden in the feather bed was Francis L. Hughlitt, an early pioneer of Beulah who served on the Beulah Water Board in 1939.   
    Orville enlisted in the Army Air Force in 1945. He reached Europe in 1946 after the shooting ended, but remembers the terrible destruction that had taken place. "On the island of Capri I met the son and daughter of Mussolini. The son was playing the piano at a restaurant and the daughter was charging twenty-five cents to tour their home." Orville went on to spend a year in Tripoli, North Africa, then was discharged in 1948. From  1960 to 1973 Orville was a Cub Master, Scout Master, and Commissioner in Boy Scouts. In 1964 he organized a Rifle Club associated with the NRA.   
    Orville was in his first stage play, "The Whole Town Laughing" a farce,  not realizing that the theatre would turn into a lifetime hobby. Orville played Pong Ping, a Chinese character in the Beulah Melodrama, "Deadwood Dick" in 1962. He can still recite his lines. Orville then worked twenty-nine shows with fifteen as a director. In 1969 he was asked by the University of Southern Colorado to be the technical director for a show and Orville spent the next twenty-nine years working on shows, mainly for the Impossible Players. Orville was presented the Impy Award, which is the highest award that can be received by the Impossible Players. The award is for Continuing Enthusiasm for the Theatre. "When you work in the theatre, you meet people that you'd just never meet," he stated emphatically. Orville retired from the theatre in 1998.   
    Orville worked at Crews-Beggs (now Joslins) from 1955-1992. His hobbies are reading, fishing, and doing historical research. There is a spirit of happiness within Orville Myers. It shines out brilliantly and touches our community.  
This article was reprinted from The Beulah Banner,  August, 2002 issue.

 

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SHIRLEEN NEU  
by Joy Rundell  
 
    Watch Shirleen Neu in her Dance-A-Robix class and you'll see an energetic, graceful dancer; she is also patient and cheerful as she explains the steps to her students. Dancing is almost second nature to Shirleen having taken dance since age 4. For fourteen years she studied ballet, tap, and jazz with dance teacher Nelda Johnson.   
    Shirleen is a native Puebloan, but learned the joys of Beulah early. In 1935 her parents bought a house and property on Squirrel Creek Road. Every summer her family and friends would come to their Beulah house for picnics, hiking, and horseback riding. As a child, Shirleen appreciated the beauty and solitude of her summer home and enjoyed reading in the peaceful surroundings. Besides coming to Beulah, her family also enjoyed excursions to Westcliff and to Querida, a mining town near Rosita, where she listened to stories of when her grandfather worked in the Bassick Mine.   
    Shirleen attended Pueblo's Central High and after graduation she attended the University of Colorado in Boulder where she obtained a degree in Spanish. Shirleen met James Sheehan, a fellow student studying psychology at the university. After dating 3 years they married. James entered the Marines and they lived in California while James was stationed at Camp Pendleton. Shirleen taught high school English and Spanish in California at Vista High, and also taught at Central High in Pueblo. After his discharge, James worked as an editor for the Brighton Blade and then moved on to the Denver Post as sportswriter. However, tragedy struck when Shirleen's husband died of cancer. At the time she had two sons, Brett age 9 months, and Rourk 3 years old. In order to support her young family, Shirleen started her own dance school. "Shirleen's Dance Studio". It was three years later when she met her present husband, Bill Neu, at Parents Without Partners. They eventually married joining Bill's family of two children.   
    Shirleen speaks very proudly of her children and their accomplishments; all four have graduated from college. Larry is a CPA in Denver, Shelly an office manager for a steel company in Seattle. Rourk is a photojournalist and public relations representative in the Army (stationed in Germany), Brett is receiving his Masters in Asian Studies from University of Washington and has been accepted in a doctoral program at University of California at Berkeley.   
    In 1979 Shirleen created and began Dance-A-Robix, an exercise program she started here in Beulah. The principles of Dance-A-Robix are a combination of dance and exercise to elevate the heart rate to a working level and to keep that level for approximately 40 minutes. There are many benefits of Dance-A-Robix, including cardio-vascular fitness, improved muscle tone, enhanced energy, retards osteoporosis, and relieves stress! The program's choreographed dance routines are easy and fun for all ages. Besides her Beulah class, Shirleen has five classes in Pueblo, two in Colorado Springs, and one class in Rocky Ford. All her instructors are professionally trained and certified by Dance-A-Robix. The summer Beulah Class will start June 19, will be held Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8:30 a.m. at the Community Center. Shirleen's comments about her Dance-A-Robix classes: "Before Dance-A-Robix I never knew what it was like to be so physically fit and to face life with enthusiasm, and I recommend it to everyone!"
This article was originally printed in The Beulah Banner, June 1, 1990 - Issue 11 -Page 3.

 

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LOUIS OUTHIER  
by Joy Rundell  
 
    Louis Outhier's father and mother, W.A. and Bertha, migrated from Missouri in a covered wagon to Colorado in the late 1800's. The family homesteaded in the Camp Carson area. W.A. and Bertha had seven children, five girls and two boys. Louis was born May 25, 1906, and was four years old when his family moved to 3R Road and built the Cave Springs Ranch. Louis attended the Cedar Grove School and remembers Roy Simonson as one of his school chums. Louis' father was one of the original founders of the Cedar Grove Cheese Factory, which Bertha continued to run after W.A.'s death.   
    Norma Kennedy came to Beulah in 1936 with her brother, Benny, sister, Georgia, and her sister's husband, Burton Chase. They came out here to improve Burton's health, and started a chicken ranch. Norma was born in Camden, Missouri. In her school days, Norma was very active in sports and she lettered in basketball. She says that all the girls participated in the same sports as boys: track, broad jump, discus, and basketball. "We did it all!"   
    Louis remembers coming to Beulah for the 4th of July celebrations and dancing to the "Morgans" at the Gay Way, which is where he met Norma. When Louis met Norma, he was 29 and she was 19. Norma recalls not only dating Louis, but his brother, Bill, at the same time! They would go to a movie or a dance together, but it was Louis who won Norma's heart and they got married June 24, 1940. They wed in Kansas at the County Court House, as many young couples did during the time of the depression. "It was inexpensive and there was no waiting required - Quick and easy!" says Norma. They lived on the Outhier ranch for many years, working together with the cattle, and Norma sometimes cooking for as many as 30 hired hands. In 1972 they moved into their present house on Lake Avenue.   
    Louis and Norma have had 50 wonderful years, with ups, as well as downs. One down point was in 1974, when they were on vacation, they checked home with their children and were told that their house had burned down! They returned home and found they had not only lost their house, but most of their personal possessions, among which were paintings done by Louis' mother. They were able to save some furniture and knick-knacks, and they rebuilt the house.   
    The highlights in their marriage, Louis and Norma unanimously agree are their children: Corky, Ruth Ellen and Lois Jane. Lois (Tretter) lives in Louisanna, and has three children; Corky lives in Beulah and is married to Linda (Orr). They have four children. Ruth Ellen (Petrovich) lives in Washington, D.C. and has two boys.   
    The Outhiers have travelled extensively throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. Last Spring they travelled to Washington, D.C. and enjoyed all the historical monuments. Louis is an avid deer hunter and has hunted since he was 16. It was only last Fall when he quit hunting because his eye-sight "wasn't too good anymore". Norma has been involved with the Beulah Extension Club, and is a charter member of the Goodpasture Home Extension Club. For many years she has been a judge at the Colorado State Fair in the pastry division, judging pies. For the past 40 years Norma has been a volunteer voter registrar.   
    This June 24th the Outhier's are celebrating their 50th anniversary with a reception at the Beulah Community Center from 2 pm to 5 pm. Everyone is welcome to come and to help celebrate this special occasion! 
Reprinted from  the June 15, 1990 - Issue 11-Page 3 of The Beulah Banner.   

 

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I Remember When ------------
An interview with Norma Outhier by Elsa Frost  
 
    From time to time we will be interviewing senior citizens about their experiences and challenges 50 or more years ago in Beulah.  
    We begin with Norma Outhier. Norma came to Beulah in 1936 to assist with the care of an ailing relative. At that time there were numerous dairy ranches, a turkey farm at the top of Beulah Hill, a few permanent homes. She lived on a ranch adjoining the Outhier ranch on 3R road, just past the cheese factory.  
    Community life centered around the churches and schools and of course, the dances at Gayway (now the Wooden Nickel Restaurant). She married Louis Outhier in 1940. Together they ran the ranch.  
    During World War II, Home Demonstration clubs directed by the CSU Extension office helped women learn how to cope with the shortages. Norma was very active in one of the five clubs established in Beulah. Topics included canning and preserving food, cooking adapted to what was available, sewing, upholstering, etc.  
    The Outhier ranch abutted the St. Charles Canyon. All the children knew the best swimming hole was there. Many learned to swim by the "sink or swim" method!  
    Unlike our open winter we enjoyed so far this year, there were some memorable snows. In 1947 the melting snow caused flooding of the St. Charles River severe enough to change the course of the river from Squirrel Creek to the Host. Bridges were washed out. During that snow, Beulah was pretty well cut off from Pueblo. Jess Downey was diagnosed with appendicitis by Betty Wheeler and had to be taken by helicopter to the hospital.   
    Norma remembers another snow adventure. Louis was elk hunting and Norma was alone with Lois Jane, age 4 and Corky, 10 mths. She waded through hip deep snow to feed the cows, but was concerned about leaving the young children unattended, so she finally decided to leave the gates open and let the cattle free to feed. That was not to be her worst challenge. The baby developed a severe ear infection. Louis called to say the men were stranded in Canon City, learned of the problem and somehow made his way as far as Beulah Highway and 3 R Road (then Burnt Mill). He struggled through drifts taking a short cut through the canyon. Then they bundled the children up and took them out to the Highway on horseback where they were met by Ray Youngren's father and driven to town. Neighbors were truly life-lines in those days.  
    Norma's biggest challenge was yet to come. Thanks to the Salk and Sabin vaccines, it is a challenge few must meet today. In 1950, four children in Beulah were stricken with polio, two survived. There was a severe epidemic in Pueblo, but they probably were infected on the western slope all had recently visited. A lovely excursion to Pike's Peak turned into a crisis. Corky became extremely ill and was met at the hospital by his doctor. The halls were lined with respirators, the dreaded iron lungs. By now Corky could hardly breathe, but no respirators were available. The doctor was helpless. The whole family gathered at the hospital and prayed all night. The next morning Corky's lungs were clear! Then the heart-wrenching treatments began. Towels were put in boiling water, put through a wringer, then laid on Corky's back and covered with plastic. Corky screamed, Norma and her sister cried, but they persisted. The packs were left on for 15 minutes and the whole procedure had to be repeated every hour, day and night. This phase lasted from August until October. Then came months of physical therapy as Corky had to learn to walk again. Once again family, faith and community provided the strength.  
    The Cheese Factory was started by five ranchers; one was Louis' father. After his death, his mother ran the operation, becoming the first female cheese maker in the State of Colorado.  
    Pine Drive Store was then called Park View Store. There was a small restaurant at the east end. Every Sunday Mrs. Smith would go to the Outhier Ranch to get live chickens. Then she would serve a Sunday chicken dinner. The rest of the week the restaurant was closed. The original Pine Drive Store was built in 1901, owned and operated by Mr. and Mrs. Tom Smith. Mrs. Smith is Mrs. John Simonson.  
    There were five one-room schools, two are now the Baptist Church at the corner of Pennsylvania and Grand. The children would often ride donkeys to school.  
    The Community Center was originally built by the Methodist Church. When the church decided they no longer wanted to keep it, $25 bonds were bought by almost everyone in the community to purchase it, so it truly is a community center.  
    Beulah has been characterized by that kind of spirit, pulling together to meet a goal. It is difficult in these days when so many things pull us in so many directions to maintain that spirit, but we must. It is our strength. It is our heritage.  
This article ran in the Beulah Banner March, 1999 issue.
 
 

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CORKY OUTHIER
Beulah EMS Profile  
by Raechel Thompson
(Picture)
 
    Louis (Corky) Outhier was raised here in Beulah. He attended the one room Cedar Grove Schoolhouse in first and second grade, the Good Pasture School in third grade before attending Beulah Elementary School. Corky believes in the goodness of Beulah and appreciates kind deeds and caring neighbors.  Corky is one of our caring neighbors and serves our community in his role as an EMT for Beulah EMS. "I've always worked for the railroad." Corky explained. "And my schedule allows me time at home during the day and time for Beulah EMS. I'm a switchman, a brakeman, and a conductor for the Union Pacific Railroad, which was once the Denver Rio Grande Railroad."   
    Corky wasn't sure how long he's been volunteering for Beulah EMS and when he figured it was close to thirty years, Corky said, "I didn't know I was that old!" Beulah needs EMTs in Beulah during the day when many of the volunteers go to work in Pueblo. "You don't want to get hurt during the day," cautioned Corky. "but we'll take care of you and keep you alive until advanced life support gets here."   
    Corky remembers joining Beulah EMS about a year after Hal Murray did. "Going to classes in the winter seemed like something interesting to do" admitted Corky. "but I didn't know I'd still be doing it. There were good people back then and there's a lot of good people now." He is grateful for the community support of Beulah EMS and especially grateful for those who have given their time, energy, knowledge, business sense, and heart to Beulah EMS over the years.
     Corky Outhier is not a man who wants to talk about himself. To interview him for an EMS Profile was a challenge. He is seen around Beulah and at the school tending to the needs of those injured. This writer considered having an injury while keeping notebook and pencil handy, but it isn't ethical and could take Corky away from someone who really needs medical assistance. Corky generously made time in his busy schedule to be interviewed. He is a family man and a shy person, but not shy when it comes to helping someone. His spirit of giving is what helps to make Beulah a special place to live.  
This article was reprinted from the October, 2002 issue of The Beulah Banner  
 
 

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JOHN & BETTY LOU PEARSON
by Raechel Thompson
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    "We met at Gayway Park in Beulah; she was somebody who might could dance," says John. Betty Lou lived in Pueblo, but came up with high school girlfriends to enjoy Beulah and attend the dance. There were cabins to rent above the Beulah Inn.
    "Our grandmas were our chaperones and they were good ones, too," remembers Betty Lou. Dancing is what people did back then. "My dad danced up till the night he died." There was a dance hall in Beulah, Good Pasture, and Burnt Mill. Families loaded up in wagons and went to dances. It was the way to enjoy life and be with friends. At midnight the kids who woke up could eat homemade cake. John made a date with Betty Lou that night, but he later stood her up.
    We had a date that next Monday. I (John) went to the air base looking for a job. There was a bunch of machines. The guy who hired me asked me which one of these machines I could run? I answered, "which one do you want me to run?" I was hired right then. I was staying with my grandma at Goodpasture. Goodpasture included Cedar Grove School, the Dance Hall, Goodpasture Methodist Church, a blacksmith shop where I worked, and the General Store. Next to the General Store was an Ice Cream Parlor where my grandparents lived. I found Betty Lou again.
    John and Betty Lou were married in 1943 and have been married for 60 years. They have two sons, Rusty and Marty, five grandchildren, and eight great grandchildren ranging in age from 4 months to seventeen years. The Pearsons owned "The Host" restaurant located at the crossroads of Pine Drive and Central Avenue for ten years. They sold it in 1994. "It was a dinner restaurant. Our grandkids did the dishes, our son Marty was the cook, and our daughter-in-law, Veena, was the hostess. John did the books."
    John Pearson was born on Cedar Grove Ranch. He and Betty Lou lived there on 160 acres with breathtaking views. The original homestead included the site of Cedar Grove School. John and Betty Lou lived in Pueblo while their boys were in school to support their son's athletic participation in school. They came back to Beulah thirty years ago.
    Betty Lou's family came from Vermont to Canon City at first, then realized that Pueblo was where they wanted to settle their family. Betty Lou got a job at the Minnequa Bank. "Ladies had to run the bank since the men were called away to war." Betty Lou was making $65 a month and John was making $135 a month at the Army Depot. "We felt like we were rich and we bought a house for $6,000." Later when her sons were grown, Betty Lou began working at the Colorado State Fair where she worked for 28 years. She found the job at a bridge game where she asked if the State Fair ever hired anyone. Betty Lou was asked if she could type. Betty Lou answered yes, and then quickly rented a typewriter to brush up on her skills not used since high school. She became the Entry Superintendent for the Colorado  State Fair, began to travel, and established the Creative Arts Building. "I did all the departments except Horses and Cattle. I was scared of pigs though. One jumped over a fence at me where I was clerking and I jumped out!"
    John Pearson's grandpa, mother and aunt were all teachers. His family is from Sunrise, Nebraska. His dad and grandpa went to Canada for a while and came here in 1911. John's grandpa fought in the Civil War. John Pearson was fourteen when he worked as a Soda Jerk at Whitman's Drug Store in Pueblo. At sixteen years old John worked at the railroad as a messenger. John worked nights, seven days a week, at twenty-four cents an hour. John asked his supervisor, "Don't you run the railroad in the daytime?"
    "Sure we do," his supervisor replied. "In thirty years you just might be up for a daytime job." John went to Business School at Colorado University in Denver. He was a Soda Jerk there, too. "You don't learn a lot being a Soda Jerk, but you sure have a good time!" John worked at the Pueblo Army Depot until after the war. Then he worked for CFI. John worked at Minnequa Bank, and for the next thirty years he worked for Betty Lou's dad at Twombley's Store in Pueblo.
    John and Betty Lou Pearson are active in church and community. They enjoy cruises, traveling, and each other. Family is important to John and Betty Lou. "We were lucky to have our family around when we were growing up," remembers Betty Lou. "Sometimes that isn't possible for children nowadays." The Pearsons are young at heart and close in heart. They enjoy life in Beulah to the fullest. John and Betty Lou are an inspiration to our community.

 

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LETTER OF MRS. ASBURY QUILLIAN TO HER SISTER IN GEORGIA, 1872  

 

    This letter was written to her sister, "Back Home" near Macon, Georgia.
 
My Dear Sister:   
    Forgive the seeming neglect if you can, and ask my friends to do the same. Imagine your sister is not very brisk with her five children to care for, their clothes to make, and mend, and wash, and iron, the preacher to straighten out and everything of that sort that a woman should do. Add to that the district school - more thana mile from home. We had quite a pleasant Christmas, took dinner with a select party at Mrs. Atherton's and had everything good from roast turkey to strawberries and cream. I have not taught over two months, apparently to the entire satisfaction of my patrons, pupils and the school superintendent. I love to teach and must boast of my pupils; they are bright and good generally, sixteen is my highest number. Last week was stormy so I lost a lot of time. I get $50.00 per month.   
    You just ought to see my nice No. 8 Mayflower cooking stove. It is a very good one and bakes cornbread like an oven. It cost $32.00.  Mr. Quillian has four regular appointments, one at Mace's Hole (Beulah) where we expect to move as soon as my school is out, one at Hardscrabble, sixteen miles from there, one at the church, twenty miles from there and one at the Arkansas River, fifty-five miles from ours. You can see he will have traveling enough to do. That is the trouble with preaching in this country; the distances are so great. Wish you could come to Colorado. Patterson brings out a colony in the spring. We are sad when we think you are two thousand miles away, but we cannot complain for God has given us so many dear friends among strangers."

 

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JOHN WILLIAM RAWLINGS  

 
    Urban communities and a large section of the southeastern Colorado agricultural region have been encouraged and aided in the phenomenal growth of recent years by such men as John William Rawlings. As a banker he has frequently exercised his opportunity to promote progress among agricultural men, merchants and factory owners. Mr. Rawlings is president of the First National Bank of Las Animas and is a leader in the Colorado Bankers Association.   
    He was born in Shelby County, Illinois, on March 27, 1893, the son of Edwin M. and Effie D. (Reed) Rawlings. His father, also a native of Shelby County, was a farmer who came to Colorado in 1908 for his health and who died in 1935. His mother, another native of Illinois, makes her home in Monte Vista.   
    Brought to Colorado when he was fifteen years old, John W. Rawlings completed his education here. After he was graduated from the Monte Vista High School, he became a student at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, where he majored in business and banking. In 1917 he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts.   
    The United States having entered World War 1, Mr. Rawlings enlisted in the army. He soon rose to first Lieutenant with the 341st Field Artillery in the 89th Division. Discharged in 1919, he returned to his home in Monte Vista, where he launched himself upon his career as a banker by becoming an employee of the Monte Vista Bank and Trust Company of Monte Vista. On January 3, 1921, he accepted election as vice president of the First National Bank of Las Animas and discharged the duties of this position with such distinction and value to the community that in 1941 he was elevated to the presidency. Some measure of the prestige he has developed in the banking world may be obtained from the fact that he has been president of the Southeastern Colorado Clearing House Association and is now an influential member of the agriculture committee of the Colorado Bankers Association.   
    Mr. Rawlings is also active in the communal affairs of Las Animas. He is a former president of both the Lions Club and the Chamber of Commerce and is past commander of the Monte Vista Post of the American Legion and is a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. He is also an elder in the Presbyterian church and, in addition, is an alumnus trustee of his alma mater, the Colorado College. He is also a member of King Solomon Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Las Animas; of the Southern Colorado Consistory, No. 3, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Al Kaly Temple at Pueblo, and of his college fraternity, Phi Gamma Delta.   
    Mr. Rawlings married Dorothy Hoag, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank S. Hoag of Pueblo, on April 14, 1920. They are the parents of three children: 1. John William, Jr., graduate of New Mexico's Roswell Military Academy and of the United States Military Academy at West Point, who served in the United States Army Air Forces in World War II, being a member of the first group of B-29 fliers to take off from Saipan and who later was stationed in Germany, and who married Anne Bartholf. 2. Robert Hoag, who served as an ensign in the United States Navy in World War II, later completing his education at Colorado College, and is now married to Mary Alexander Graham. 3. Dorothy Louise Rawlings, graduate of Las Animas High School, now attending Colorado College.

 

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Harold E. Robinson  

 
    Harold E. Robinson, well known in Pueblo, Pueblo County, Colorado, as realtor and insurance man, is the owner of Mesa Realty, located at 206 West Abriendo Avenue in Pueblo. He owns this building, which offers several office rentals. Mr. Robinson deals in motels, houses, ranches, community locations, rentals, and the management of property, house financing, and business investments. He handles all types of insurance. Mr. Robinson is also a notary public. At the back of his office building, Mr. Robinson has constructed a strictly modern apartment house. His area of operations is the whole southern portion of Colorado. Mr. Robinson became the owner of his present business in 1955 when he came to Pueblo. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson have a home in Beulah, Colorado, where they spend much of their time. Mr. Robinson likes Colorado and plans to live here permanently.  
    Harold E. Robinson was born to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Robinson on December 28, 1907, in Luray, Kansas. His father was born in a locality near St. Joseph, Missouri. His mother, the former Miss Jesse Parker, was an Iowan. They were married in Luray on March 23, 1906. Harold E. Robinson's paternal grandfather, Samuel Robinson, homesteaded in Osborne County, Kansas, in 1878. Harold E. Robinson attended school in Osborne and Russell Counties, Kansas, and Gem City Business College in Quincy, Illinois. He was reared on a Kansas farm, spent several years in the employ of Woolworth Company in Chicago; then returned to Kansas and became the owner and operator of extensive farming and ranching interests in Osborne County, buying, feeding, and selling cattle. For a time he worked in a veterinary clinic in Osborne. In 1952 he established a real estate and insurance office in Osborne, Kansas, and operated it for three years before coming to Colorado and starting his present business.   
    Mr. Robinson married Miss Ruth Fleming, of Stillwater, Oklahoma. Mrs. Robinson is the daughter of Arch I. and Zella Johnson Fleming. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson have two children: Peggy Ann, a student of nursing; and William Roberts.  
    Mr. Robinson was formerly county treasurer of Osborne County, Kansas. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Board of Appraisers, and the Elks Lodge Number 90. His hobby is his workshop. Mr. Robinson is concentrating his efforts on furthering the real estate and insurance expansion in Pueblo County.

 

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FRANCIS ROPER
GOODPASTURE, COLORADO
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Francis was the oldest of the three Roper brothers to settle in the Goodpasture area during the 1880's. He was the father of Eddie and William. Francis was an ordained Southern Methodist minister and teacher. He did both in Beulah Valley and the surrounding area of Goodpasture. Also, he homesteaded along the North St. Charles River. This land is still under the ownership of his great-grandsons, Melvin and Roy Roper.  (1993)  
 

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RAY AND EDNA SIMONSON ROPER

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    Ray, son of Lee and Jessie Roper, married Edna Simonson, daughter of John and Kristina Simonson, 1913 in Goodpasture, Colorado. Her parents came from Sweden in 1887, ranched close to Denver until they moved to the 3-R Ranch when Edna was five years old. She attended the Sitton and Cedar Grove Schools, graduating from the eighth grade. After Ray and Edna were married, they did live in the original parsonage house for a short period of time before eventually moving to Pueblo. Ray was employed by the Nuckolls Packing Company for twelve years and retired from the Pueblo Ordnance Depot. They had no children but did enjoy numerous nieces and nephews. The Roper children loved them very much and felt indebted to them for a lot of the preservation of family history.   
    Edna's brother, Roy Simonson, and family have been prominent ranchers in Beulah Valley for many years and still remain in their home today (1992).  

 

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WILLIAM SENGER, M.D.  

 
    It so happened in the life of the distinguished surgeon, Dr. William Senger, of Pueblo, that in the year he completed his internship, he joined Richard Warren Corwin, M.D., in the organization of a hospital inaugurated by the older man, on a new plan and introducing the most modern practices established at that time. One of the proofs of the qualities of the founder was his ability to select sound men to be associated with him, and to retain their loyalty through good periods and bad. One of these close associates was Dr. Senger, who ultimately gave up his general practice to devote full time to what is now the Corwin Hospital of Pueblo, succeeding to the post of chief surgeon.   
    Dr. Senger is a native of New york, born at Port Jervis, June 8, 1874, son of Louis C. and Florence Amelia (Corwin) Senger, both of whom are now deceased. The father came originally from the Tyrol, in the Austrian Alps region, while his wife was a member of a long established family of note in Binghamton and Broome County, New York. The future doctor prepared for higher academic education in the high school of his birthplace, and matriculated at Williams College in Massachusetts, where he was graduated a Bachelor of Arts, class of 1895. For his technical education he went to the Medical College of Yale University, Connecticut, where he became a Doctor of Medicine in 1901. To a large extent he had worked his way to a profession by various occupations and probably was the better for the fact that he climbed a road strewn with obstacles, to ultimate success. He was an intern in the famous Presbyterian Hospital of New York City (1901-1902), and the Minnequa Hospital, in the Pueblo section of Colorado. His post-graduate studies were carried on in the Philadelphia Polytechnic Hospital, and in England and Germany.   
    In 1903, Dr. Senger initiated a general practice of his profession in Pueblo, but was a specialist in internal medicine from graduation to the year 1909. Since that time his activities have been for the most part surgical, in which he has earned an exceptional reputation. From the record it would appear that his inclination and work was in the direction of surgery well before the above date, but also from the record is the fact that in 1910, he devoted his attention to surgery and several years later accepted appointment as Assistant Chief Surgeon of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, with headquarters in the Minnequa (Corwin) Hospital, of which he later was named head. Upon the death of Dr. Richard Warren Corwin in 1929, (q.v.) he was chosen Chief Surgeon of this remarkable institution, a spot he filled most capably to his retirement in 1943.   
    Since the above year, Dr. William Senger has carried on a limited private practice. He has been surgeon of the Missouri Pacific & C.& W. Railroad since 1914; attending surgeon of the Colorado Insane Asylum since 1918; and also of the Woodcroft Sanatorium, since 1923. For keeping in contact with colleagues and the latest developments in surgery and medicine, Dr. Senger is a member of the Pueblo County Medical Society, the Colorado State Medical Society, American Medical Association, Western Surgical Association, the American Association of Industrial Physicians and Surgeons, and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. His contributions to the literature of his profession include numerous articles published in medical and scientific magazines. He is a former president of the Pueblo County Medical Society, and the Colorado State Medical Society. Fraternally Dr. Senger is affiliated with the Masonic Order. He is a Republican in party connections but more interested in good candates and progressive measures than in political association. For a decade he was a member of the School Board, District No. 20, and has been at all times to the fore in the promotion of education and cultural affairs in Pueblo. Socially inclined, his clubs include the Minnequa, Pueblo Golf, Beulah, and the Kiwanis. He and his family attend the Protestant Episcopal Church, and are liberal in the support of religious and charitable works. As regards recreation, Dr. Senger enjoys almost anything that enables him to get out-of-doors. He long has fished and hunted, and is no mean expert at gardening, whether ornamental or practical.   
    On March 28, 1919, Dr. William Senger married Mary Edith Knott, of Los Angeles, California, and they are the parents of a daughter Elizabeth, a graduate of San Luis School in Colorado Springs, and Colorado College. She married Frank C. Moore, of Dallas, Texas, who served as a captain in the 32nd Infantry Division, United States Army, World War II.

 

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WILLIAM SHARP  
by Ruth Carter  
 
    Because the Beulah Art Show will soon be upon us, and, realizing that Bill Sharp was the instigator of this annual event, I thought it would be of interest to reprint an article from "The Beulah Bugle" (Nov. 30, 1951) recognizing his talents before we even had an art show in Beulah.
SHARP FOCUS
 
    Beulah Valley was in the spot-light last month when one of it's well known citizens, Mr. William Sharp, was honored by the showing of his paintings at the Pueblo Junior College. The show was sponsored by the Pueblo Arts Group.   
    We are all interested in knowing a little about the artist and his family.   
     Mr. Sharp was born in Pueblo, January 21, 1924. His interests were recognized and encouraged by his art teacher, Miss Joysa Gains, while he was in high school. It was under her guidance that his water colors were sent and shown in Boulder, New York and South America. That was the beginning of his climb to fame.
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    In 1946, his picture, "Sulky Race" was awarded first prize at the Colorado State Fair.   
    The junior college has purchased his picture "City Scene" and Mr. Adolf Dane has his "Self Portrait".   
    He and his brunette wife, daughter Joanne, and son Thomas moved to the valley in 1950 and are now residing on Pine Drive.   
    His wife has artistic and literary interests. She attended the University of Illinois and is now a secretary at the C.F. & I. On interviewing Mrs. Sharp, the following is indicative of her devotion to her artist husband:   
    "Only once or twice in a century does the world produce a man who is dedicated, heart and soul, to fulfilling his mission in life. Such a man is William Sharp of Beulah. His mission is to grow, and to record that growth on canvas, panels, and lithograph paper. The singleness of his purpose is reflected unerringly in the almost brutal honesty of some of his oils. Life itself lurks in his paintings with the haunting melancholy of a soul in purgatory--record of the Pilgrim's Progress.   
    Works by Mr. Sharp are, therefore, of necessity, never "after" another artist. He is an individualist. He is unique. He seeks to portray his own soul, above all and in so doing he unconsciously portrays the soul of all mankind.   
    What matter the details? The jobs as cartoonist and designer? The three years in submarine service in World War Two. The nine months in the hospital? The schooling at the Fine Arts Center in Colorado Springs under Boardman Robinson? The exhibits of his lithographs at the Philadelphia Print Club, Carnegie Institute and the Library of Congress? The patronage of Adolph Dehn? The one man shows at Colorado Springs and Pueblo? Those, I repeat, are details; only background.
    For William Sharp was born to be a great artist, and, come what may, he is fulling his destiny. (Who should know better than I? I married him!)"   
     Mr. Paul Ihrig, head of the art department at the Junior College, with other art instructors from the Denver and Colorado Universities and several other artists (Mr. Sharp among them) are filming a colored picture on Visual Education to attempt to bring art and the approach to art to the general public. Mr. Sharp's work has been filmed, in color, along with environmental pictures of the artist and Beulah. The film should be ready for public viewing in the spring.    
Submitted by,   
Linda Amman Gradisar
 
 

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RUTH AND ROY SIMONSON  

 
    In 1928 Ruth Asher was 16 and still in high school. Roy Simonson was twenty-one and working on his family's ranch. Their first meeting was brief while visiting Edna, Roy's sister. Little did they know that their future would hold 54 years together as husband and wife.   
    Later their paths would cross at the various dances they attended. Dances were one of the major social events held at that time. Whether it was at the Burnt Mill, Goodpasture, or Gay Way Dance Halls, Roy and Ruth could dance to the foxtrot, waltz, or square dance. By 1935 their relationship had become more serious and in 1936 Roy and Ruth were married on the same day that the circus came to Pueblo. They had a simple wedding at Ruth's parents house, George and Carrie Asher, officiated by Reverend L.W. Gunby.   
    John Simonson, Roy's father, immigrated from Sweden to Colorado in 1887. In 1894, he and his wife Christina moved to the Beulah area where they leased the Three R Ranch for a short time before homesteading their own property to the north.   
    Ruth came to Colorado when she was three. She and her mother came by train and her father followed up on the emigrant car with four head of horses, furniture and a wagon. Ruth's family raised large flocks of turkeys on Water Barrel Flats.   
    Roy and Ruth have always worked hard on their ranch, often 7 days a week, 16 hours a day. They raised two daughters, Ilona and Janet. They have four grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. They talk positively and fondly of their 54 years together. Their relationship is strong and Ruth says: "You can always work things out even if things get kind of rough."   
    All of us in Beulah Valley wish the Simonson's a very special and happy Valentine's Day!  
This article was reprinted from The Beulah Banner, February 14, 1990 - Issue 5.  
 

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MONA & HAROLD SMITH  
by Joy Rundell  
 
    If two people were destined to be together, it is surely Mona and Harold "Smitty" Smith, but it has been a long and winding road before they became the loving couple that they now are. Mona Lee Dameron and Harold Smith have known each other since third grade, and even in high school they briefly went steady, but after high school their paths took very different directions.   
    Mona Lee Dameron, the oldest of two girls, is a native Puebloan who has enjoyed the charms and beauty of Beulah since she was a child. Her father and mother, Claire and Ann Dameron, spent 30 years as summer residents in Beulah. The bought their first house on North Creek in 1939. Mona's father was Pueblo's Deputy U.S. Marshall for 26 years. As a child Mona particularly enjoyed horseback riding, and recalled a Fourth of July Celebration in Beulah where she square danced on horseback! Another horse event during the celebration was balancing an egg in a spoon while riding horseback and passing it along to your partner, also on horseback. Mona and Tom Stavely won first place.   
    While in high school Mona had a summer job working along with Rose Caple and Jo Donley at Mrs. Stroman's house, who had luncheons for the high society ladies of Beulah and dinner for guests from Pueblo. One year out of high school Mona Lee  married Jack Hite, and the young couple settled in Seattle, where Mona was to live for the next 37 years. Mona had three children; Carole, married to Rusty Ludwig, both are psychologists, and together they have four children. Mona's second child, Steve, was born in Seattle, graduated from University of Washington, and is continuing his father's real estate business. Nancy, Mona's third child, lives in Mill Creek, Washington, is a divorced mother of two children and owns "Nancy's Noah's Ark Pre-school". Mona was an active mother who participated in P.T.A., church activities, and worked part-time as a medical secretary. She got divorced in 1968, and began a new life as a single woman.   
    Harold "Smitty" Smith was born in Texas, but came to Pueblo when he was six years old with his widowed mother, his two brothers, and three sisters. Smitty's interest in being a doctor began at the early age of six, when he was in the hospital for surgery on his hand. He decided then that he wanted to be a doctor and would work toward that goal. After high school he attended Pueblo Junior College, pre-med for two years. He entered the Army in 1946; after his discharge he attended University of Colorado, graduated in 1953, and interned at St. Luke's. During his first year in medical school he met Claire Marie, also a medical student. They married and had four children, the eldest being Harold Smith, II, who lives in Englewood and has two children and Jeni Leigh McGee, who is living in New Mexico. His third child, Candi Smith, was killed in a drunk driver accident in 1980. His fourth child, Kent Smith, operates a recording business in Florida.   
    In 1969 Smitty was divorced, met and married Janet Pacheco. They were married for seven years. Always a close family friend to the Damerons, Smitty called Mona in 1979 to inform her about her father's ill health. Between Thanksgiving of 1979 and May 1980, Smitty and Mona had only seven dates, yet fate had finally brought them together. Smitty mailed Mona a poem asking her to marry him. They lived in Pueblo until six years ago when they bought their present home on Cascade. The house is over 100 years old  and has been a school, stage coach stop, and an orphanage.   
    In 1976 Smitty received Pueblo Doctor of the Year Award, and he was President of Pueblo County Medical Society from 1986-87. After 35 years in the medical practice, Smitty retired in 1988. Since his retirement Smitty loves to work around the house, golf, hide, and "watch the fish". He promised Mona, "From now on if you do the cooking, I'll do the dishes." A promise Mona says he is keeping! Their home is lovingly cared for with an oasis-like atmosphere. Mona is currently taking a painting class in tole art, enjoys gardening, reading, and "just spending time with Smitty". Mona is planning a family reunion for the Dameron's July 6, 7 and 8. She expects guests and relatives from Denver, Pueblo, Rye, Phoenix and Seattle.
Taken from the July 1, 1990, Issue 12, The Beulah Banner, Page 3.  

 

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WARD STRYKER  
by Raechel Thompson
(with special thanks to Willis Goettel for writing and research)
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    Ward and Pat Stryker settled in Beulah into a log house with large, beautiful trees around it. There are still a couple of these apple trees that date back to the period in Beulah when the valley supported several apple orchards. Ward remembers when you could pick a bushel of apples for $1.00. There was also a cider press for sparkling apple cider.   
    The Strykers didn't live long in the valley before Ward Stryker was instrumental in forming the Chamber of Commerce with a dozen or so members. The group was active in helping to fight fires. There was once a fire in one of the cabins near what is now the Flag Mountain Grill. Ward and some of the others wheeled the fire equipment over. It consisted of a two wheel fire hose that was pulled around by hand.  When this hose was hooked up to the hydrant and pointed at the fire, only a dribble of the much-needed water came out. The hose was leaking in many places. This incident prompted the Chamber of Commerce to see that two fire trucks were purchased, one of which is still used at times.   
    Fires in the Beulah Valley have always been a concern, and Ward tells of one that happened north of Beulah spotted by an airline pilot who reported it to the Pueblo airport. Mrs. Traeber, at the General Store, was notified and she organized two semi loads of volunteers from Pueblo ready to come out and help fight the fire. Ward Stryker and Johnny Hadwigger went out to the site and discovered that the fire would soon burn itself out since it was located up against a rock wall. The volunteers from Pueblo arrived at the wrong location and spent the night on the mountain.   
    It was the Chamber of Commerce that put the Star of the East into operation. The star was first put on the hill just to the north of the highway as one leaves the valley. It was moved to the present location after eight or nine years because of difficulty in getting proper wiring across to its location. When in the original location, the star could be seen all the way to Pueblo.   
    In 1919, seven year old Ward Stryker was taken to a grassy fieldside of Arkansas by his father to see war surplus planes that he bought for $250 per plane. Several of them were WWI Jennies and De Havilands to rent or sell to "barnstormers" who traveled the country using barns for theatres, performing death-defying stunts, and providing towns informal exhibitions for profit. Charles Lindbergh did a lot of barnstorming around the country before he made his famous flight. Ward Stryker met Charles Lindbergh once at an airport outside of Wichita, Kansas. Charles Lindbergh asked Ward if he would fuel up his plane and see that it got placed in a hangar overnight. Ward and his dad flew with Walter Beech back in 1919. Beech later became the founder of Beech Aircraft Company. This began Ward's lifelong passionate interest in aviation. His home contains many models he has purchased or constructed. Some of these are actual models of planes that he worked on at Swallow, Vega, or Lockheed Aviation. Ward is the only living employee of Swallow Aviation which built many Bi-wing planes used by WWII fledglings.   
    Ward began working on airplane parts at fifteen, and was part of the industry that in wartime turned out the best planes in the world. One plane that Ward worked on was the Hudson Bomber which became the nemesis of German submarine commanders.   
    Ward Stryker shared fifty-one years of a wonderful marriage with his wife, Pat. One of Ward's most precious keepsakes is a tape of Pat playing "Flight of the Bumble Bee" on the organ. Pat was highly accomplished on the Hammond and sometimes demonstrated the instrument for the Hammond Organ Company.   
    The family legacy of Ward Stryker goes back to the time of Peter Stuyvesant, the last governor of New Netherlands from 1642-1664. The Dutch governor gave two Stryker brothers who came over to the new world with him one lot in Manhattan and the whole of Brooklyn.   
    Ward Stryker turned 91 years old in February. Happy Birthday, Ward!  
This article was reprinted from the March, 2003 issue of The Beulah Banner.  

 

WARD STRYKER (part 2)  
Written by Peter Roper
Reprinted from The Pueblo Chieftain - Thursday, Aug. 7, 3003  
 
From biplanes to jets, Beulah man smitten by aviation
WING NUT  
 
    Call it love at first flight. Ward Stryker was just 7 when his father, a bank president in Arkansas city, Kan., took him for a drive one afternoon that ended at a windy open field where a dozen Curtiss Jenny biplanes were parked.   
    "You wanta go for a ride in one of those?" Stryker's father teased the excited boy, who was thrilled at the idea of soaring into the blue Kansas sky, even though a Jenny was a fragile craft made of wood, fabric and wire.   
    "That was when I fell in love with airplanes, riding in my dad's lap in the Curtis Jenny," the 91-year -old Stryker recalled with a deep laugh in his Beulah home. "What my dad didn't tell me at first was that he'd bought all 12 of those Jenneys because he was an entrepreneur who figured there was money to be made in airplanes and flying."   
    Stryker put the date for that first flight of his sometime in 1919, which would have been just 16 years after Orville and Wilbur Wright coaxed the first airplane up and off the sand at Kitty Hawk, N.C. Man had barely begun to fly in those days, and to millions of men and women, there were few things more glamorous than swooping through the sky in an open-cockpit airplane that might do 100 mph with the throttle wide open.   
    "I meant to learn to fly, but I never did," Stryker lamented, surrounded by dozens of airplane models he's built in recent years. He didn't need to fly, however, to have a career in aviation. Starting with his first job as a teen-ager helping to hand-build Swallow biplanes to his years as a Lockheed Corp. plant manager, Stryker was there as the U.S. aircraft industry transitioned from biplanes to jet-powered fighters.   
    Stryker likes to visit the Pueblo Weisbrod Aircraft Museum and one reason is because it houses an F-80, the first U.S. jet fighter - and built by Lockheed. During World War II, Stryker was a manager in a Lockheed plant in Burbank, Calif., helping build the legendary B-17 bomber (in partnership with Boeing) and the still-secret F-80 Shooting Star.   
    We'd actually been working on the F-80 since 1943, but the aircraft would always be completely covered when it was shipped in and out of our plant because it was top-secret," Stryker explained.   
    To understand the impact of jet engines, the propeller-driven P-38 was among the fastest warplanes during War World II because it could top 400 mph in a dive with its two big engines. By comparison, the jet-powered F-80 could cruise along at 430 mph in level flight and rocket to 600 mph in a dive.   
    "That F-80 could take off and almost go straight up in the sky," Stryker recalled.   
    Of course, American aviation was full of men and women like Stryker in those years - people who had gravitated toward flying and airplanes and found new careers. While his father's fleet of Curtis Jennys never made much money barnstorming, one of Stryker's first jobs was a wing-maker for the little Swallow aircraft company near Wichita, Kan.   
    "That was in 1927, right after Charles Lindbergh's (solo) flight to Paris," Stryker said. "That started a fire in me, so I begged a job at the Swallow factory."   
    Swallow built trim little biplanes that were used by the U.S. Post Office. One of the company's test pilots was a man named Walter Beech. A local Wichita-area farmer who also became entranced with airplanes was Clyde Cessna. Another area man was named Lloyd Stearman. All three eventually built renowned aircraft coprporations bearing their own names - Beechcraft, Cessna and Stearman.   
    "It's no wonder Wichita became the airplane-building capital of the United States," Stryker emphasized.   
    In 1929, Stryker left Swallow for a better-paying job building airplanes for Cessna and then, in 1931, the Great Depression caught up with him. "Nobody seemed to be working that year," he said.   
    Until World War II began, Stryker worked - and didn't work - at a number of jobs in the Kansas oil fields and refineries. He married his wife, Pat, in 1939 and they headed for California, where Stryker was hired to work in a Lockheed Plant.   
    "World War II was about to begin and the British were desperate for an airplane that could chase and kill German U-boats," Stryker said. The Royal Air Force liked the Lockheed Ventura design, and Stryker said that Lockheed engineers devised a sub-chasing model in just 24 hours in order to seal the deal with the RAF.   
    It didn't take long for Stryker to become a manager at Lockheed's A2 plant in Burbank and that's where he spent the war, building and installing parts as well as painting and stripping aircraft.   
    "We used to paint B-17s olive drab until we realized that added about 400 pounds of weight to the aircraft," he said. "After that, we left the aluminum skin unpainted."   
    After the war, Stryker and his wife moved to Colorado, where he worked for a paint manufacturer. The problem was, the couple moved into Pat Stryker's grandparent's home in Beulah. The little old house is one of the oldest in the mountain community.   
    "We loved it up there, but my job was in Denver," Stryker related. As Stryker spent more and more time commuting between the mountain town and Denver, it became obvious that situation couldn't continue forever.   
    "My wife loved it in Beulah and it was clear to me that if I kept my Denver job, I wouldn't have a wife too much longer," he laughed.   
    So Stryker decided to drop out of the career race and see if he could make a living in Beulah as a home builder, carpenter, mechanic, gardener, swimming-pool man, property manager - you name it. To his suprise, he could do it and 56 years later, he's still doing it - although alone. Pat died 10 years ago.   
    "My wife was an artist and a wonderful musician," Stryker said. "She always thought this is the most wonderful place to live and I do, too."   
    The phone has rung on occasion with an offer of another salary and title, but always somewhere away from Beulah.
    "I was in Houston once when this Convair vice president told me he wanted me to come there and run some project," Stryker said with a laugh. "He didn't think anyone could turn down a big salary, but I asked him how many ball games he'd watched in the past year and he said none. Well, I counted off all the baseball and football games that I'd watched in person and told him I liked it that way."

 

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"YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE"  

The following was sent ot me via e-mail by a friend in the Valley. She asked me to pass it on. I hope you have the same reaction I did, with a few tears in my eyes.  

     There is a story many years ago of an elementary teacher. Her name was Mrs. Thompson, and as she stood in front of her 5th grade class on the very first day of school, she told the children a lie. Like most teachers, she looked at her students and said that she loved them all the same.   
    But that was impossible, because there in the front row, slumped in his seat, was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard. Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed that he didn't play well with the other children, that his clothes were messy and that he constantly needed a bath. And, Teddy could be unpleasant.   
    It got to the point where Mrs. Thompson would actually take delight in marking his papers with a broad red pen, making bold X's and then putting a big "F" at the top of his papers.   
    At the school where Mrs. Thompson taught, she was required to review each child's past records and she put Teddy's off until the last. However, when she reviewed his file, she was in for a surprise.   
    Teddy's first grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is a bright child with a ready laugh. He does his work neatly and has good manners...he is a joy to be around".   
    His second grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is an excellent student, well liked by his classmates, but he is troubled because his mother has a terminal illness and life at home must be a struggle."   
    His third grade teacher wrote, "His mother's death had been hard on him. He tries to do his best, but his father doesn't show much interest and his home life will soon affect him if some steps aren't taken."   
     His fourth grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is withdrawn and doesn't show much interest in school. He doesn't have many friends and he sometimes sleeps in class."   
    By now, Mrs. Thompson realized the problem and she was ashamed of herself. She felt even worse when her students brought her Christmas presents, wrapped in beautiful ribbons and bright paper, except for Teddy's. His present was clumsily wrapped in the heavy, brown paper that he got from a grocery bag.   
    Mrs. Thompson took pains to open it in the middle of other presents. Some of the children began to laugh when she found a rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing, and a bottle that was one quarter full of perfume.   
    But she stifled the children's laughter when she exclaimed how pretty the bracelet was, putting it on, and dabbing some of the perfume on her wrist.   
    Teddy Stoddard stayed after school that day just long enough to say, " Mrs. Thompson, today you smelled just like my mom used to."   
    After the children left she cried for at least an hour. On that very day, she quit teaching reading, and writing, and arithmetic. Instead, she began to teach children.   
    Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy. As she worked with him, his mind seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded.   
    By the end of the year, Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the class and, despite her lie that she would love all the children the same, Teddy became one of her "teacher's pets".   
    A year later she found a note under her door from Teddy telling her that she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life. Six years went by before she got another note from Teddy.   
    He then wrote he had finished high school, third in his class, and she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life.   
    Four years after that, she got another letter, saying that while things had been tough at times; he'd stayed in school, had stuck with it, and would soon graduate from college with the highest honors. He assured Mrs. Thompson that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had in his whole life.   
    Then four more years passed and yet another letter came. This time he explained that after he got his Bachelor's Degree, he decided to go a little further. The letter explained that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had. But now his name was a little longer - the letter was signed, Theodore F. Stoddard, M.D..   
    The story doesn't end there. You see, there was yet another letter that spring. Teddy said he'd met this girl and was going to be married. He explained that his father had died a couple of years ago and he was wondering if Mrs. Thompson might agree to sit in the place at the wedding that was usually reserved for the mother of the groom. Of course, Mrs. Thompson did. And guess what? She wore that bracelet, the one with several rhinestones missing. And she made sure she was wearing the perfume that Teddy remembered his mother wearing on their last Christmas together.   
They hugged each other, and Dr. Stoddard whispered in Mrs. Thompson's ear, "Thank you, Mrs. Thompson for believing in me. Thank you so much for making me feel important and showing me that I could make a difference."   
    Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes, whispered back. She said, "Teddy, you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught me that I could make a difference. I didn't know how to teach until I met you."   
    Please remember that wherever you go, and whatever you do, you will have the opportunity to touch and/or change a person's outlook and even his life. Please try to do it in a positive way.   
    Warm someone's heart today...pass this along.  
This was reprinted from The Beulah Banner,  October, 2002 issue.
 

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CAPT. WOOD F. TOWNSEND
(platted the town of Beulah Springs. Owned the Antlers Hotel in Beulah)
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    It does not require many years for a man of enterprise and merit to become established in the "growing West." Although Capt. Townsend has lived in Colorado not quite three years, yet he is prominently known, and has become indentified with many of the important interests of South Pueblo. He was born in New York City, May 3, 1841. When five years of age, his parents moved to Pennsylvania, and settled at Minequa Springs, where he was raised and educated. He enlisted in the Federal army when nineteen years of age, and served through the late war. He was in many of the famous battles in Virginia, was wounded  at Antietam, and afterward detailed upon Gen. Schenck's staff. He was also for a time Enrolling Clerk for Gen. Wallace. He was mustered out of the service in 1864, but entered the army again in a few months, having organized a company, of which he became Captain in the One Hundred and Ninety-sixth Ohio. After the war, Capt. Townsend continued his law studies, in which he had already made some progress, and was admitted to the bar on his birthday in 1866. Soon afterward, he located at Danville, ILL., and then began the practice of law, living at that place continuously for about twelve years. In 1878, his health failing, Capt. Townsend decided to come West, and in November of that year he located in Pueblo. In May following, he began the practice of law which he has since continued with eminent success. He assisted in organizing the South Pueblo Water Company, and is now the company's Superintendent. He was one of the incorporators of the Pueblo Street Railway, and is now a member of the Board of Directors and Attorney for the company. He is City Attorney for South Pueblo, and is also Local Attorney for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. Capt. Townsend has been twice married. He was unfortunate in losing his first wife and children by death in Illinois, and was married to his present wife in November, 1878.
From the HIstory of the Arkansas Valley Colorado - 978.8 H  1881  
 
 

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TRAEBER'S STORE CLOSING TO END AN ERA IN BEULAH  
by Don Donato - August 29, 1972  
 
    Traeber's Store at Beulah will be open for the last time Saturday.   
    Ray Traeber said he had mixed feelings about selling the last of the goods on the shelves.   
    He said the 53-year-old business recently has bitten into his free time, left over from his occupation with the U.S. Postal Service. However, he felt a little strange about closing the landmark business.   
    "It was opened in 1919 by my parents - George and Alice Traeber. That building burned and this one was built in 1923. My parents were sort of pioneers in Beulah Valley. They used to come up here long before they founded the store."   
    "Most of that time it's been a seven-day-a-week job. We've been open all day Monday through Saturday and half a day Sunday for a long time."   
    "Closing the store will give us more free time."   
    Traeber's mother was the Beulah postmaster for years and operated the store-based post office until a new one was built a few years ago.   
    Traeber said the family hadn't decided what would be done with the store. "My mother's home is attached to the store, you see, and she hasn't decided what she wants to do."   
    George Traeber died four years ago, and Ray indicated that any decision would be based upon what his mother wanted done.   
    "In the older days," Traeber said, "the store was really sort of the hangout of Beulah. Everybody gathered here to get the mail and hear the news. The kids used to come in and get that good old penny candy."   
    Ray Traeber was born in Beulah and now has a 21-year-old son. He commented that "you get older and don't need as much money; you don't feel like going out."   
    "We'll have more free time and we'll be enjoying it more."   
    Traeber said the need to hire help in the store (when his wife, Patricia, was working her part-time job with the Postal Service caused some inconveniences).   
    "We've had some great help at the store, but you can't expect them to take the same interest the family does," he said.     
    Perhaps the main thing he'll miss, Traeber said, "is the people. The people here have been real nice and we've appreciated their business."   
    "I liked talking to them," he chuckled, "even if there were times you'd like to kick 'em in the shins". "I'm going to miss the friends who come in here to buy something expecting to be treated in the special way they like to be treated."  

 

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NO ORDINARY COLORADAN
by: Gerry Emery  
 
    Beulah, Colorado . . .  one of the most unique places I've ever had the opportunity to see. Beulah is unique because of its numerous colorful residents.   
    I say unique, because as a writer, sometimes inspiration has to hit you over the head with a crowbar to get your attention.   
    After a writing hiatus of several years; dealing with the heartache of a lost love, divorce, and all the grief that goes with it, that inspiration found its mark at an obscure country bar in the form of Robert J. Vaughn.   
    "Bob" is no ordinary Coloradan, much less an ordinary person. He's as unique as the setting in which he lives.   
    By appearance, Bob could be a ghost from Colorado's historic past. He'd fit right in in Cripple Creek, Black Hawk, or Central City. Just add a mule, shovel, pickaxe and gold pan and you'd swear he had just walked through a time warp into the present.   
    But no, Bob is right at home here in Beulah.   
    He may look like an old prospector -- boots, cowboy hat, suspenders, etc., but in reality Bob is a salty (and a tad-bit spicy) old "sea-dog". He's definitely not for the faint-of-heart.   
    A 14-year veteran of the U.S. Navy, trade the cowboy hat for a sea captain's cap, and you might begin to get the picture.   
    Bob tells of submarine adventures from Hawaii to Vladivostok Harbor; from Haiphong Harbor to gunboats on the Mekong River.   
    Approaching retirement, the Rocky Mountain sailor, still a merchant marine, can tell tales that will keep any listener spellbound, provided they've got the patience for a little repetition between sips of his favorite sundry alcoholic beverages.   
    To elaborate any further about old Bob would be anti-climactic. But when he gets to know you, if he likes you, he'll present you with his business card. Printed some 30 years ago, it's still applicable to Bob today.   
    To give you, the inquisitive reader, a sample of what Bob has to offer, I present excerpts of his business card.  
ROBERT J. VAUGHN
"Singer of songs and ballads; Defender of orphans; Soldier of fortune; Casual hero; World traveler; All-around good guy; Entrepreneur extraordinere; Part-time Scholar & sportsman; Specializing in the tasting of sundry alcoholic beverages; The difficult done immediately, the impossible takes a little longer. Miracles by appointment. Wars fought; Revolutions started; Governments run; (Look out Hillary, your nemesis has arrived!) Bars emptied; Tigers tamed."   
    The remainder has been censored for the benefit of our prudent readership.   
    The only way you can learn more about this colorful local legend is to stop in at Beulah's only watering hole, the Beulah Inn. And if you're lucky, you just might walk away with his business card!
 
 

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Jake Theodore Vidmar, Jr.  

 
    Jake Theodore Vidmar, Jr., a partner of the Vidmar-Mathis Appliance Company and the Vidmar-Mathis Motor Company in Pueblo has made his mark in the business circles of this community, with which he has been identified his entire life. He takes a leading part in its varied affairs and is affiliated with several of its more important business, fraternal and social groups.  
    Mr. Vidmar was born in Pueblo, October 16, 1909, the son of Jake Theodore Vidmar, Sr., and the former Antoinette Blatnik, both of whom were born in Vienna, Austria, and are now deceased. The father came to the United States at the age of 14 years and located in Pueblo, where he eventually engaged in the grocery business and was active in it for many years. He took a leading part in the Knights of Columbus and church work. Jake Theodore Vidmar, Jr. received his education in St. Patrick's Parochial High School and then entered the business field.  
    He began working for the Miller Motor Company and remained with that concern from July, 1930, to July of 1932 at which time he became associated with W.K. Hurd, then a Ford dealer. This association was a fine experience for a young man as Mr. Hurd is one of the outstanding men in this industry. In 1938, three young men, Jake T. Vidmar, Jr., Lou Mathis (q.v.) and Samuel T. Jones, Jr., (q.v.) organized the Vidmar-Mathis Appliance Company at 514 North Main Street to sell at retail electrical appliances, gas appliances, radios, records, record-players and pianos. The partners have successfully operated the business during the ensuing years and it has grown steadily until it now employs 18 persons. In 1945, the showrooms were completely remodeled with an entire glass front, making them some of the finest display rooms in the entire city. In October of 1944 the same partners organized the Vidmar-Mathis Motor Company and located it at 607 West Santa Fe. They acquired the Oldsmobile Agency and in the spring of 1946 acquired the property at 119 West Sixth Street, which they have remodeled into a modern automobile showroom and service department, which is completely equipped. The Vidmar-Mathis Motor Company employs 20 persons in the operation of its business.  
    Mr. Vidmar is affliated with the following prominent organizations: the national Automobile Dealers Association, the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association, the Pueblo Automobile Dealers, and the Pueblo Electric League, the Pueblo Golf and Country Club, the 30 Club, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks Lodge No. 90 and the Chamber of Commerce. He is an independent voter and is an adherent of St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church. Golf and hunting are his favorite hobbies, and he indulges in these recreations whenever the opportunity presents itself.  
    Jake Theodore Vidmar, Jr., married in June of 1935 Lolita Hudson Stockton,  born in Canon City, and they are the parents of the following children:  1.  Jake T. III. 2. Richard Stockton. 3. William Irvin.  

 

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VORIES FAMILY REUNION  

 
    The descendants of Harry P. Vories, a prominent Pueblo lawyer from 1888 to 1948, will hold a family reunion June 15 to 18 at the Kay Keating Ranch. The Vories family spent many pleasant summer days in their rustic cabin on Squirrel Creek Road. Mr. Vories was born in Carrollton, Kentucky on September 2, 1862. He was educated in public schools in Carroll County, and received a Bachelor of Science degree from Emory and Henry College of Virginia. Mr. Vories trained as a law clerk from 1884 to 1888, and then had a law practice in Pueblo from 1888 to 1948. On January 2, 1890 he married Elizabeth (Betsy) George; to this union were born three daughters; Mrs. Ruth Heck, Mrs. Edwina Unfug, and Mrs. Katharine Smith. Legend has it that Mrs Vories, while driving a horse drawn buggy from Pueblo to Beulah, was accosted by would be bandits, but she beat them off with a buggy whip. Friends of the Vories family are invited to meet with the family at 1:00 pm on Saturday, June 16, at the Kay Keating Ranch.  

 

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MRS. KARL J. WALTER  
by Helen Trent
Pueblo Chieftain, July 6, 1952  
 
    To write a comprehensive story about Mrs. Karl J. Walter, her background, activities, and home life, would fill a book. To pick out the highlights, and they are numerous because she has a zest for living, is an easier task.   
    Her father, the late E.I. Crockett, was professor of Latin and Greek at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. when sent to Colorado in 1890 for his health. He dealt in real estate in Pueblo until his death in 1943 and remained a scholar and world traveler to the end.   
    Mrs. Walter (Catharine) as the youngest of the Crockett's five children was the last of the three brothers and a sister to follow in their father's path and received a Phi Beta Kappa key for outstanding work at college.   
    During Catharine's high school days at Centennial she met Karl Walter, who at the time was a "North sider" at Central and the two had little in common. She went on to attend Colorado College and then to her father's university for three years to major in romance languages and in her last year to study law. By the time she had been graduated from Vanderbilt she had become engaged to Karl Walter.
    That first year following graduation from Vanderbilt she went to Europe with two aunts as chaperones to study at the Sor Bonne in Paris, and when not studying, toured the continent and the British Isles. She completed work on her thesis at Sor Bonne, written in French on the four Gospels, but never submitted it since she wasn't particularly interested in a degree and wanted to return to the states to get married.   
    After she was married in 1927 she worked for a short time on The Pueblo Chieftain writing news and advertising copy. During one summer between terms at Colorado College she worked for the Star-Journal reporting society news.
    A son, Karl, was born in the second year of her marriage and a few years later a daughter was born and named Catharine, the fifth Catharine in as many generations in the family.   
    In 1937 she had spent a month in Mexico with her parents and had returned to Pueblo alone while the Crocketts continued on to Tennessee. It was while enroute to Tennessee from Mexico that her mother was killed in an automobile accident.    
    As her children grew up she became active in girl and boy scout work, the PTA, and every civic or community "cause" that asked for her help. She and her sister belonged to a sorority group called Beta Tau Delta (now known as the Service League). This group of some 35 women started a day nursery program for Pueblo, at first meeting in small houses and putting on raffles and sales to raise money to support the program of caring for children - this was in the WPA days. Mrs. Walter's mother was the first to contribute money towards a permanent building fund to house the Pueblo Day Nursery. Mrs. Walters served  as chairman of the Service League's follies in 1928 and is now a life member.   
    Her father long had been a supporter of the YMCA and its summer camp near Rye. "Camp Crockett," was named for him. Carrying on her father's work with the youth of Pueblo, Catharine and her husband were on the committee to pick a site for the girl scout camp. It was while tramping the country around Beulah valley to choose the camp location she discovered and fell in love with a lovely spot nestled in the mountains where today her own two-story streamlined ranch home is located.   
    She served on this girl scout camp committee while its "Lazy Acres" was under construction and later served on the board of directors for several years.    
    During the past war, Red Cross work was practically a 24 hour a day job. For more than four years  she served as chairman of the volunteer special service and during this time she also made four trips a year to Washington to help direct Red Cross volunteer services on the national level where she became acquainted and worked with wives of well-known political figures such as Averell Harriman and Paul Hoffman, and textile designer Dorothy Liebes. She served until recently on the area council and as chairman of the Pueblo County Red Cross and is now on the board of directors.   
    Within a year after finding the site for their ranch (Karl-a-Kate), their home was started and when in its final stages of completion five years ago the family moved to Beulah. Husband and children commuted to school and business in Pueblo while Mrs. Walter took to her ranch life with all-out enthusiasm and became active in community affairs.   
    Her current "project" is working with the women of the Beulah home demonstration club to move a building to be used as a much needed community hall. Two years ago, after the community women had won a national contest, she invited the staff writers and photographers of a national magazine to stay at the ranch while they documented the story of the women of Beulah.   
    Guests at the beautiful Karl-a-Kate ranch have numbered into the thousands and have included celebrities and well-known personalities from all over the country. Her "biggest" party was last summer which left her momentarily a little "breathless" when 500 guests from over the state were being fed and entertained in the spacious living rooms and on the terrace. Her son recently brought his polo coach and members of the Stanford team for a brief stay at the ranch while en route to a game.   
    Her life-long hobby has been collecting foreign-made dolls and she has more than 200 which she has shown at hobby shows and before different groups. Another, acquired along with her ranch life, is to buy "pond" Indian jewelry of silver and turquoise. ("Pond" jewelry are the pieces made of the best material and workmanship by the Indians for their own adornment and "ponded" to a money lender.)   
     Catharine (the fifth) more often called "Sis" was graduated from Central, where she served as president of the National Honor Society, colonel of the ROTC sponsors and participated in all school groups. After attending Stephens college for girls at Columbia, Mo., last year she has switched to Stanford University and has been accepted for the fall term.   
    Karl J. attended Centennial and on June 15 was graduated from the business administration school at Stanford University and immediately was commissioned as lieutenant in the Air Force. He is home for the summer and plans to attend graduate school at Stanford in the fall if not called for active Air Force duty. One of his chief "majors" at Stanford was polo and he traveled 16,000 miles to play with the school's team. The team voted him its most valuable member and presented him with a trophy.   
    Mrs. Walter, with her husband and daughter, attended her son's graduation from Stanford, and the day also marked their 25th wedding anniversary. With both children in school in the West, the Walter's pleasure trips two or three times each year probably will be in that direction instead of East as in the past.   
    Mrs. Walter is a member of the Wednesday Morning Club and secretary of the Beulah Home Demonstration Club.    Walter is part owner and manager of the Steel Center in Pueblo and operates his ranch at Beulah.   
    At the Colorado State Fair in 1950 his 11 cows and two bulls entered in various classes took a total of 13 ribbons and one grand championship. He is a member of Beulah and Pueblo Saddle  

 

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THE WALTERS FAMILY  

 
    The Walters family has always had a reputation in Pueblo of being responsible businessmen and for always having the good interests of the community at heart. Since 1898 they have operated an important brewery under their own name in this city and, because of generations of expert brewing experience, have put out products which have been very successful.   
    Matthew and Amelia (Kipp) Walters, of Germany, and now both deceased, were the parents of five boys all born in Germany. After the boys grew up, the eldest came to America and, as he earned the fare, each of the other brothers followed him here. They all went into the Pabst Brewery in Milwaukee where they all learned the trade and then established their own breweries.   
    The founder of the Pueblo branch of the Walters family is Martin Walters, Sr., one of these five brothers. He was born in 1862. Martin and his brother, Chris, went into business together in Wisconsin, calling their firm the Walters Brothers Brewing Company. After some years they decided that they needed a branch in the west and Martin came to Pueblo in 1898 and bought out a business that has been established for some years. It had been started by A.L. Mosher and a Mr. Wilkinson from whom Mr. Walters bought it. This plant was located at Hickory and LaCrosse Streets, where it has remained ever since. After Mr. Walters modernized the plant and began making his own formulas, his product proved to be popular with the people of the locality and the business prospered. One of the problems which had to be solved before the business could be operated on a large scale was the distance to the lands which raised the proper malt. This was remedied by maintaining an interest in the Walters Brothers Brewery in Wisconsin, where a large Malt house is operated. Mr. Walters' new product was known as Walters Gold Label Beer and it became well-known all over the Rocky Mountain region.   
    In 1918, when prohibition closed all the breweries, he and his sons went into the real estate business, and they acquired considerable property in and around Pueblo. He owned the Grand Opera Theater Building and many other business properties. Naturally a home-loving man, he was also one who did much good in the community. He was willing to give to any cause for bettering Pueblo. It was said that there was not a church in the region, regardless of creed, which did not benefit by his generosity.   
    After his death in 1922, his sons carried on the business. They had come into the business at an early age and learned it from the ground up. In 1933, when prohibition was ended, they modernized the plant and again began manufacturing the quality product which their father had always insisted upon. In 1940, the name was changed to Walters Gold Label Pilsener, by which name it is still known. In 1943, they bought the Snyder Brewery in Trinidad, which they also operate at the present time. They employ about one hundred sixty people and have a fleet of twenty trucks of the finest make. The plant is one of the show places of the region. Martin, Jr. is the president and treasurer of the company and Karl is vice president and secretary.   
    Martin Walters, Sr. was a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks, the Rotary Club and the Chamber of Commerce. He worshipped at the Lutheran church.   
    In 1884, he married Christine Britton, of Appleton, Wisconsin, and they became the parents of nine children: 1. Martin, Jr., born in Appleton, Wisconsin in 1886. He attended local schools and learned the trade as a boy. After his schooling he came right into the business and has been associated with it ever since. In addition he owns much real estate and owns the Clyne Theatre in Bessemer. Besides this he takes an active interest in community affairs, belonging to the Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary club, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Columbus, and Pueblo Golf and Country Club, and being active in the various bond drives.   
    In 1909, he married Louise Donovan, of Pueblo, and they are the parents of two children: Cecilia May, a graduate of the Pueblo schools and St. Mary's College, who married William Mowry, of Pueblo; and Martin III, a graduate of the local high school and the Brewery Academy in Chicago. He is brewmaster of the plant now. During the war he served in the United States Army as a technical sergeant in the Air Corps at Puerto Rico in charge of the Link Trainer Station. He married Agxa Fillipe of Puerto Rico, and they have one child, Cecelia. 2. Marie, married Cecil A. Lee of Pueblo. 3. Christine, married Dr. D.C. O'Connell, of Montana. 4. Amelia, married O.O. Stanchfield, of Pasadena, California. 5. Elizabeth, who married Andrew McGovern of Pueblo. 6. Eleanor, married Herbert Sheldon, of Pueblo. 7.  Karl, born in Pueblo in 1903. He was educated in the local schools and in the University of Colorado. At that time he went into the gasoline business in which he remained until 1933 when he helped to organize the present brewing business, and he has been associated with it ever since. He is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Pueblo Golf and Country club. He married Kathryn Crockett, of Pueblo, and they are the parents of two children, Karl Edward and Kathryn, both are in high school. 8. H.J., lives in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, married Dorothy Root, of Uxbridge. 9. Harry, died in infancy.  
 

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JOHN WANTRAM  

 
    Mr. John E. Korber, of Pueblo, sent us a very interesting article from the Pueblo Star Journal, dated April 28, 1903. We thank him for it and if any member knows what happened to this Mr. Wantram and where he is buried, please let us know.     
   John Wantram, part Indian and part Irishman, who lives alone, by himself, in the mountains of Beulah, and makes his living no one knows how, was in Pueblo today for the first time in 25 years. He came down from his home to find out if there is still a bounty on coyotes. It was removed years ago but Wantram had never discovered that fact and came to find out, for himself, whether the friend he had sent down with some coyote scalps a week ago had been telling him the truth when he said the bounty had been cut off, or if he had collected the money and spent it.   
    Wantram scarcely knew how to act on the streets. His clothes are made mostly of leather, his hair is long and he usually wears no hat. Upon this occasion, however, he had to do so. Though he has been so much separated from his kind, Wantram is quite willing to talk and seems to thoroughly enjoy being where things are moving and people are scrambling for a living. His father, he says, came from Ireland in 1830 and with a large part of emigrants started for the west. He was a single man and proposed to make a fortune in the west. Fate, however, had marked out an entirely different career, for the party was one day surprised and captured by a party of Indians, who spared the Irishman's life but took him into captivity.  So closely watched that he finally gave up all hope of trying to escape, and becoming accustomed to the life of the Indians, he finally married the daughter of the chief.  
 
This article was reprinted from an early issue of the Beulah Historical Society Newsleter.  

 

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Ray Youngren
by Raechel Thompson  
 
    If you ever shook his hand, you were friends forever. Ray Youngren, cowboy, rancher, pilot, postmaster, respected friend, loving husband, father, and grandfather was "a gentleman and a gentle man." Yvonne, his wife of forty-six years misses her best friend yet still feels his love and protection surrounding her. "Ray has always looked out for his family; he tried  to look out for everybody. That's what he's about." His honesty, integrity, sincerity, and genuine concern for others are clearly carried on in his children and grandchildren.  
    Yvonne and Ray met at the Gay Way, Beulah's Hot Spot, once located where the Flag Mountain Grill is today. Gail Caple, a friend of Yvonne's told her, "There is someone you just have to meet. He just got out of the service. He's tall. He's handsome, and he's a good dancer!" Ray and Yvonne met each other, danced, and began a bond that would last a lifetime and beyond. Many couples from around here frequented the Gay Way. They turned chairs, moved benches, and laid down coats to make a safe place for babies to lay down near the dance floor. "Just give them a bottle, change their diapers, and swing out onto the dance floor!" Ray and Yvonne enjoyed many dances at the Gay Way listening to Buddy Johnson and Jim Ed Brown, who was stationed at Ft. Carson and played in Beulah before he got started in country music. Ray and Yvonne were married a year later in 1956. The Youngrens had three children, Julie, Jay, and Justin. Julie is in Colorado Springs, Jay is married to Lori with four children, and Justin is married to Pam in Beulah. Ray always made time for his grandchildren. They would jump out of the car, run to him yelling, "Papa! Papa!" and plead, "Can we go and feed the cows?" Ray would stop what he was doing, put the grandchildren in the truck and tell them, "You can help Papa feed the cows."  
    Ray Youngren rode a horse to Cedar Grove School from the time he was in Kindergarten. At seven years old Ray was helping plow the fields for his family. He was tied to a draft horse for his own safety and Ray learned to work hard for the rest of his life. His strong work ethic and sincere interest in the welfare of others still touches all who have had the opportunity to know and remember him. Yvonne received a call a few years ago and neighbors announced to her, "We found out who's doing this! Someone has been plowing our driveway, and we have tracked it to Ray." On his way to begin his day of work, Ray stopped and plowed the driveways of Bernie Elliot and Steve Douglas. "Ray did it, that's the kind of man he was."  
    As a cowboy, Ray received lots of belt buckles and trophies. He also had a gift for remembering people. No matter where he went or whom he met, Ray would exchange business cards. At first he kept them in his billfold. When his billfold began to bulge, Ray put them in a box in his desk. His collection numbers well over 2000 cards. Yvonne wasn't allowed to throw any away when straightening his desk. Ray believed that each name might be needed someday. "Ray remembered all those people and where he met them. I know because I asked him and he always remembered." Ray and Yvonne were at a rodeo once in Las Cruces, New Mexico. They attended a dance afterwards and met a member of a small band. The sat and visited awhile. Many years later Ray declared he should have gotten that young man's autograph. It was Glen Campbell.  
    Ray read a lot in his recliner with his glasses slipped down on his nose. "Listen to this," he'd say, and then he'd read from the newspaper to Yvonne and they would hash it out. Ray would call people up to make sure they had read what he felt they needed to know. Ray Youngren felt that it was "people's right" to know what was going on in the county. "There wasn't an inch of this county that Ray hadn't been over, looked at, and knew things about." He believed in zoning, but not as a way to overburden people and make it harder for them to do what they needed to do. Ray did not support frivolous regulations. He worried that people needed to pay more attention to what was going on. He would call people up to let them know of issues that would affect their lives, their children's lives, and the lives of his grandchildren. Ray was there at all meetings and if something needed to be done he would do it. "If I don't do this, who will?" Ray Youngren was not easily intimidated. The telephone would ring and Ray would share knowledge and insight. Once Yvonne asked him, "How do you know all this?" Ray answered, "I don't know, I just do."  
    There are many thoughts and memories of Ray Youngren. He was born on January 6, 1933 and died on January 19, 2002. His family misses him and his community misses him. He always looked out for everyone.  
This article appeared in the January, 2003 issue of The Beulah Banner.

 

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CLYDE AND BURNICE ZENTS  
by Joy Rundell
 
    Burnice Bland was just 15 when she met Clyde Zents. Clyde, who owned a Model A Roadster, would drive up from Pueblo every Wednesday and weekends to see Burnice; they would attend dances at the Gay Way, and enjoyed going on hikes. They dated five years before marrying in 1940. In fact, August 31 of this year marks their 50th anniversary.
    Burnice is a native Coloradan, born in Lamar, and was the eldest of three girls, Pauline and Lila Ruth. Burnice's father, John Wesley Bland, was a bounty beekeeper in Lamar. In 1931, due to a grasshopper plague which destroyed all the alfalfa in the area, he had to feed the bees jelly for two years. Eventually, all the bees smothered in a dust storm, thus enabling the Blands to take their first summer vacation together. While traveling to Rye to visit cousins, the Blands stopped in Beulah, rented a house on North Creek, and never returned to Lamar. Burnice recalls the Beulah School when it was across the street from the Methodist Church. Her favorite teachers were Arthur and Iola Thomas. As a child she enjoyed hiking, swimming and playing games such as Monopoly. Some of her childhood friends were Faye Hadwiger, the Donley girls, Marshall Downey, and Jimmy Armstrong, who she remembers as a "big tease". When Burnice was 17 she worked as the assistant cook at the Beulah School and at one time she also had a summer job at the Beulah Forestry Office as office manager.   
    Clyde Zents was born in Tionesta, Pennsylvania in 1915. His family moved to Pueblo on a doctor's recommendation that the Colorado climate would help his mother's arthritis. Clyde attended Central High School, and after graduation had various jobs, including the bellhop at the Vail Hotel and working in his family's automobile business. After getting a position with the CAA (the predecessor of the  Federal Aviation Administration), Clyde attended Communications Education School in Kansas City. In 1952 he received a transfer to Denver where he held the position of Air Traffic Control Supervisor and Military Liaison. He retired in 1970.   
    Clyde and Burnice have traveled extensively, enjoying such places as Mexico, Hawaii, Canada, Alaska, Novia Scotia, and traveling around the United States in their RV. Clyde's hobbies are Amateur Radio, Photography, and remote control vehicles. Burnice has many hobbies, playing the organ and she enjoys all types of painting: watercolors, oils, acrylics, and currently is taking a country folk art class. She has also done ceramics and pottery. Both spent ten years associated with the Denver Sports Car Club, and the Sports Car Club of America.   
    The Zent's have raised three boys, Richard, Ronald and Jerry, who lives in Beulah. Burnice and Clyde have many wonderful memories of their childhood, courtship, family and travel together. They live comfortably in their house they moved into as a shell and have finished themselves. Their outlook on life is zestful and adventurous and they look forward to many more trips in the RV, yet also enjoy their beautiful home here in Beulah.
    
This article was reprinted from The Beulah Banner, May 15,  1990 - Issue 10 - Page 3  

 

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