Country life
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Gertrude Rader talks about the profession and lives of teachers, who were primarily women, in Western Colorado during the early Twentieth century. She discusses how, in small communities, women were expected to be much more than teachers including: Doctors’ assistants in a pinch, de facto members of the families that they boarded with in cases of illness or maternity, and moral pillars of the community. She includes many anecdotes from her own teaching...
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Voice Recording
Al Look talks about driving a team of mules for a laundry wagon, playing hooky from school and stealing watermelons in Stockton, Kansas. He discusses duck hunting and teaching his son gun safety. He speaks about working and then selling his homestead in Dove Creek, and about his experiences in the Four Corners area. He talks about playing high school football on a championship team, and attending the University of Nebraska. He relates working as an...
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Voice Recording
To mark the centennial celebration of the town of Grand Junction, Colorado in 1981, the Mesa County Oral History Project wrote and recorded several radio plays about local history. Beginning on September 26, 1981, local radio stations KSTR, KREX-AM, KREX-FM, and KMSA broadcast the plays. Authors of the plays used interviews recorded by the Mesa County Oral History Project as inspiration. This archival recording contains the play Early Day Schools...
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Voice Recording
Jo (O’Quinn) Ferguson talks about making meals for ranch hands and other aspects of ranching with her husband George Gibson Ferguson in Garfield County. She speaks about churches, clubs, and the social and community life of the area. She describes her education in Louisiana and Colorado and her long teaching career, with an emphasis on her work with Central High School students at the end of her career. She talks about the history of the Roan Creek...
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Voice Recording
Essie Aspinall talks about her arrival in Palisade in 1910, her childhood there, and life in town. She speaks about growing up on a fruit farm and attending school at Mt. Lincoln, where she met her future husbands Frank Best and Wayne Aspinall. She describes teaching in a one-room school house in Sedgewick, Colorado. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western...
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Voice Recording
Dwain Jackson talks about his family history and their arrival in Delta County in the 1880’s. He remembers taking the Grand Junction streetcar line and automobile rides in the 1920’s and 30’s. He speaks about living north of Cedaredge as a child and time spent fishing on the Grand Mesa. He talks about the reluctance of Delta County residents to adhere to new fish and game management laws in the early 1900’s, and tells the story of William...
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Voice Recording
Vesta Fitzpatrick talks about growing up in Buena Vista, New Castle, and De Beque, Colorado. She remembers the family’s homestead and life in De Beque, and her role as a homemaker from an early age due to her mother’s illness. She speaks about country school life. She details the dances that took place, including costume, masquerade, and “hard time” dances. She recalls living in Uravan during World War II, where her grandchildren played in...
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Voice Recording
Lois Long describes the homestead she grew up on near Loma. She remembers living in a tent and then a pre-cut house, and drinking ditch water. She recalls her father and uncle moving the Valley View School to north of the Colorado River in the 1920’s, and the school bus that was sometimes a horse-drawn cart. Leland Buniger talks about his childhood in Grand Junction, Fruita and Loma. He describes farming potatoes, beans and hay. He speaks about...
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Voice Recording
Ruth Goss talks about her early days in Fruita and Loma, Colorado, and about life on a farm. She remembers teaching at the Valley View School and Loma School for several years. She speaks about her husband’s job as a ditch rider on the Grand Valley Canal and the Independent Ranchman’s Ditch. She talks about dances that took place at the Loma Community Hall. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of...
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Voice Recording
John Brach, the son of Italian immigrants, talks about his family moving from Aguilar, Colorado to Loma so that they could work in agriculture instead of the coal mines. He speaks about relying on ditch water for drinking water, using carbide lights, and a coal stove. He remembers people who came to Loma as part of a Federal resettlement program during the Dust Bowl, including the De Kruger, Bittle and Beede families. He recalls other residents and...
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Voice Recording
Jessie Brisbin talks about her early life in Kansas, living in a sod house, working on the farm, attending school, dancing, and making clothes from flour sacks. She speaks about country life and community there. She describes her marriage at the age of eighteen, moving to Nebraska in 1907, and moving again to Colorado by covered wagon in 1913. She recalls her life in Collbran and her husband’s job in a coal mine. She remembers living on various...
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Voice Recording
Verne Judson talks about his early life in the Pomona area of Mesa County, Colorado, and the family’s subsequent move to Loma. He speaks about his long career as a farmer prior to retiring in 1965. He remembers some of the people and places of Loma. He talks about his father Orin Judson’s career as a farmer and rancher, and about his death from Tuberculosis in 1923. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration...
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Voice Recording
Bill Rump talks about his father Charlie Rump and his roll in developing the Redlands in Mesa County, Colorado as a member of the Redlands Company and the Redlands Water and Power Company. He recounts the efforts of those companies in creating orchards and other agricultural enterprises on the Redlands. He speaks about the Redlands School, roads, sports, youth activities, and other aspects of life on the Redlands and in Grand Junction. He remembers...
