<saxo:ch value="226 128 152"/>Our Pioneer History<saxo:ch value="226 128 153"/>

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Thursday, March 31, 2011 6:01 AM

eres a story you gotta hear:

My first wife was Granddad Johnsons daughter Nettie. Granddad didnt like for his children to marry. Nettie and I were planning to have a double wedding with Ollie Nash and Jim Lavender. A man drove up to Johnsons and told Granddad I was going to take his daughter away. So when I came, Granddad met me with a shot gun and said:

Hold on there! Hold! I stopped. Whats the matter? I asked. Enough the matter, he answered. I want you to turn around and drive away from here. This is a post office here, a government office, I replied. Mr. Rohre, he said to the clerk, see if Als got any mail. Mr. Nunn, I dont believe you have any mail here, Rohre replied. Its not mail Im after; its female, I answered him.

Nettie climbed into the spring wagon beside Nunn, and they drove off to the wedding. The date was Feb. 16, 1880.

The story of a pioneer who tried to stop a wedding with a shotgun is described in Volume 3 of Great Sage Plain To Timberline: Our Pioneer History.

Based on a 1934 interview with Elbert Nunn, the story goes on to describe, among other things, how Dove Creek got its name. Its one of many accounts the Montezuma County Historical Society collected in the book to preserve this regions heritage.

Volume 3 of Great Sage Plain To Timberline continues the tradition the historical society established with the publication of Volumes 1 and 2. The third volume describes the experiences of pioneers and their families before and after they settled here.

I think they offer readers the chance to find out what the pioneers had to go through when they first came to the Montezuma Valley, and this is the story of some of their tales and some of the things that occurred before 1900 and then after 1900 also, said June Head, a historian with the Montezuma County Historical Society. I feel its just bringing back history to the descendents of the early pioneers.

Volume 1 was published in November 2009, and Volume 2 was published in April 2010. Volume 3 came out this month. At 200 pages per volume, the historical society has published 600 pages chronicling the regions past.

The reason we started to begin with is because Ive been collecting history for 30 years and I decided if I didnt tell this stuff or put it in publication, people might not know about it, Head said.

Head wasnt the only person collecting local history, so the historical society had a large foundation on which to build Great Sage Plain To Timberline.

The group also took another approach to gathering stories for the book. Area residents wrote the different histories described in the pages.

We encouraged people to contact us if they had accurate information, and we wanted to give them credit if they had information. This is one reason youll find so many family stories in there is because people wanted to help, Head said.

The result is history told not through the voice of historians but through the voice of the pioneers, settlers and founders of this region either directly or through the recollections of their descendants.

Reading the accounts, told in the unique voices of so many different people, is kind of like sitting down with those people and listening to their stories. Heres an example, circa winter 1910, about the new DistrictNo. 9 schoolhouse, located about six miles north of Arriola, as described by Sonora Lewis Porter:

FIRE! FIRE! shouted the Brown brothers, Royce and Bobbie, as they burst through the door in a cloud of snow. The big boys were always pulling pranks. A fire drill on a day like this wasnt any fun. Turn, rise, and march, children. Take your coats and overshoes with you as you pass out. Miss Stevies voice had an overtone of hurried urgency as she looked up at the flue. There it was, smoke and flames licking at the flimsy boards of the ceiling. It was all over too soon. Books, desks, the wall map, and even the lunch pails gone. The children in stunned bewilderment crowded around Miss Stevie.

Although the book lists names on the Memorial Board erected on Main Street, Cortez, to honor World War II veterans, Great Sage Plain To Timberline largely describes earlier events, Head said.

We had pretty much decided that anything could go in the book if it was of historical value and happened before World War II, she said. We had to have a cutoff date.

Funds from the sale of Great Sage Plain To Timberline will go to the Montezuma County Historical Societys Museum and Learning Center Fund, Head said.

We really would like to get a museum, she said. We probably have enough stuff around the county that we could house a good museum.

The historical society is working on Volume 4, and there could even be a Volume 5, Head said.

If its interesting and its history, were probably going to try to get it in a volume, she said.

To purchase Volume 1, 2 or 3 of Great Sage Plain To Timberline or to learn how to submit accounts of your familys history for an upcoming volume, contact Virginia Graham at 565-7767 or June Head at 565-3880.

The book also is available starting Friday at the following locations: Let It Grow Nursery, 90 Mildred Road, Cortez, 565-3099; Books, 124 Pinon Drive, Cortez, 565-2503; and the Ponderosa Restaurant, 108 S. Eighth St., Dolores, 882-7910.

Reach Russell Smyth at [email protected].

Great Sage Plain To Timberline sample of stories

Portions of stories told in Volume 3 of Great Sage Plain To Timberline: Our Pioneer History, published by the Montezuma County Historical Society, follow. Each storys title is followed by a portion of the story.
Mickie Cummings Baker of Montezuma County:
When I was a small child my dad told me many stories about coming to Cortez and what it was like at that time. When he arrived just about all that existed on Main Street was the Wilson Building. The town wanted to develop, so advertised city blocks for $25 (a whole city block for $25!!!). One of his aunts back in Missouri was quite up on investments in that day, especially for a woman, and she sent him $100 to buy four city blocks. However, my Dad thought he needed a team of mules instead, so went the $100. He regretted it later but still felt they needed the mules as they were clearing that land of heavy timber and sagebrush with a pitchfork and grubbing hoe. Being from the east gave his relatives quite a few laughs at his expense ... he called timber sticks, thus the nickname Stix which followed him for life.
Life in the 1930s near Ackmen, Colorado: Bessie Hollen White:
I started to school in 1936 at Ackmen walking three miles. My Gramo and Granddad lived in Ackmen where they had some cabins. Truck drivers would stay at night with them because the roads in the winter were so bad they had to stop there or get stuck down the road. My Gramo would fix meals for them. Ackmen had a post office. Farmers Telephone established service in 1920. Ogg Weinmann operated a store with groceries, some clothing, used furniture, hardware for several years. Calvin Denton had a grocery store. My Granddad, Charles Hollen, had a store for a few years after 1932. Clarence Wooten had a garage to fix what few cars and a gas station. They had the school with two teachers.
Early Days at Goodman Point: The Cooke-Fulkes Family Saga:
The land grew excellent crops even without water. Corn, squash, beans, potatoes and wheat all flourished. Fruit trees were planted and produced apricots, apples, peaches, plums and pears. Gooseberries, raspberries, and other small berry producing bushes were added to the garden.
Having young children, a school was very important to the family. A small building was built in 1913 for that purpose. This was also used as a church, for dancing, and a general meeting place for the community. Malcolm Conoley was the first teacher.
Most families only went to Cortez twice a year for necessary supplies, such as baking powder, sugar, salt, flour, and gingham, going by sleigh in the winter and wagon in the summer. They would take butter, cream, fruit and garden produce to sell or trade. Trott told of riding his cow to Arriola, where, embarrassed by riding a cow, he left it at Mrs. Gardners and got what he needed from the small Arriola store and walked back to her house, where he rode his cow back to his homestead, a considerable distance.
Francis Herman Wagner and his grandson, John Francis:
The farm was located in Weber Canyon. The road at that time went around the hill west of the cemetery. Two children were born to Albert and Ruth; John Francis was born on August 31, 1906. George Herman was born September 11, 1915. When John was young he thought it was great fun to feed the hogs hot potatoes and fermented grain, and he got in trouble for the squealing drunk pigs.