I was so involved with Mancos Days and family that I completely forgot about doing a history column last week.

I thought I would look at the lives of a couple of families this time around. Mae Lemmon McGalliard was well known in Mancos. She was born in 1876 and came to Mancos with her parents in 1903. Her father, David Lemmon, owned the first hotel in Mancos. It was located right at the south end of Main Street. David married his sweetheart Annie in February 1896. He was operated on for appendicitis but died three days later in August 1898.

Mae married Elliott McGalliard in September 1906. She played in Durango where she worked for some time as a pianist in dance halls. She later served as pianist for the Methodist Church for 50 years. She was admonished for playing with so much spirit at funerals but replied, "I'd rather send them to heaven with a joyful tune than an old solemn one." Mae always wore a big picture hat in church and her favorite hymn was "When the roll is called up yonder." It was played at her funeral in March 1966. Mae McGalliard was the town clerk from 1926 to 1951. Mae also played the organ at the silent films held upstairs in the Opera House. I had to have been too young but nonetheless I can still feel her playing 'Oh when the Saints, Oh when the Saints come marching in.'

Joseph Sparks Sheek came to Mancos in 1879 and bought a ranch in the lower Mancos Valley. He was born in November 1826 in North Carolina. He served as captain of a regiment during the Civil War. He moved to Kansas City in 1872 and was in New York City with 10,000 steers when the financial panic of 1873 struck. Not much later he moved to Denver and then on to Parrott City in 1876 where he managed a small mercantile business. He married Sarah Phelps.

John Westley Sheek was born in March 1832. His father was Adam Goodnight Sheek. John Westley Sheek was Charles Goodnight's stepbrother, who was his first partner during the Goodnight cattle driving years. Veryl Goodnight, a local but internationally known sculptor, is thus related to the Sheeks in Mancos including Clyde and Irene Sheek and their son Wes.

John Westley Sheek married Mary Pate in December 1877. They had 13 children, 10 of whom survived John and Mary. Their son Faye was in the army at Camp Travis, Texas, where he developed pneumonia. He died in December 1918. His body was shipped back to Mancos.

Wiley Sheek was born in December 1900 and died of a heart attack at the age of 56. When he was three years old he came to Mancos with his family by covered wagon in 1904. Four of his sisters lived in Mancos. They included Ada Gibbs, Janet Phillips and Florence Roberts. Their son, James Wesley Sheek, died at the age of two when he fell into a large container of water at his home far down the Mancos River Canyon.

That's a few of the Sheeks who have resided in the Mancos Valley.

Darrel Ellis is a longtime historian of the Mancos Valley. Email him at [email protected].