Bent County, Autobiography by: Mary Paralee Allen - 1984 Transcribed and contributed by Marilyn Allen Kelch PUCOE@aol.com Jun 19, 2001 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Now it was the winter of 1918. The men were away to war and the women helped with the stock and work. the flu epidemic came along killing lots of people. Laughing Joe Smith knew there was a couple of new families who lived in a half dugout. He rode over one morning to see if they were all right. He saw stock in the corrals with cows bawling so he went to the house. This couple had four small children and a brother and his wife who lived there also had four small children. Laughing Joe Smith asked the children where their parents were and they said, "They are asleep and we can't wake them up." So Joe went in and they were all dead. He got his neighbor, Johnny McArthur and they dug a hole in the yard. The now was deep and the ground was frozen. They wrapped them in blankets and buried them. They were sad that it was all they could do. Laughing Joe took the children home with him and cared for them until snow got melted off and he could notify the parents of the dead ones in Oklahoma. They came and got the children. There were several deaths from the flu. All one older man had for medicine was this Mountain Sage Tea he had dried by hanging it up in the fall. He fixed food and this tea and stayed in bed and drank tea and ate his food and came thru all right. One older man in Mustang Canyon was found dead in bed and the rats had chewed off his ears. So you see we managed somehow to pull most of them thru. Of course some of them could not. The government sent a doctor out to care for people isolated by flu and snow. He came to see me and the Bent Kings, I know. The Fletch Wagners lived west of Charley's claim. (Charley Allen) It was 1914 I believe when they moved there to live on their claim. This was a sheep camp for winter and this house was built in the hillside at the back and of rocks in the front. It was used by sheep herders. Opal and Guy Wagner were small and Walter was crawling. One day, Mrs. Wagner had washed laundry and had softened the water with lye and Walter got it and got some in his mouth and swallowed a small amount and how bad that hurt. He was rushed to Las Animas to the doctor and came thru ok. Fletch sold the place to Mrs. Mary Barkley who with her two sisters had come from Texas. Dick and Annie Gentry filed on claims. Dick joined the Wagner place and Annie filed on Butte Creek. The Wagners moved to town where Kirk and Jack were born and still live. Also Opal Wagner lives there. The Red Kygars and Bill Davis claims were south of the Wagner place. My sister Pearl Minnie Allen Johnston and her husband filed on 320 acres joining Wagners and Charley Allen's place and east of Charley's claim was Uncle Johnny Jones and his nephew, John Jones. Uncle Johnny's daughter, Lula Pendergrass had claims joining Charley Allen's and all were from Texas. The Bromleys were from Texas and came out with the Gentrys. The Bromleys bought the old Bob Clark place. The Fred Mackey claim was also located near and next was Hattie Tulliver's clailm and the Waldrop homestead joined the Payne brothers, Edgar and Walter. Their mother lived with them and was getting old and became ill and Doctor Hardy was sent for by my brother Charley Allen. He came and said a couple of hours was the most she could live. She died and my brother Charley and myself and my younger brother Melvin's wife, Dawn Zumbrunnen Allen, and Mrs. Brink, whose claim was located near them sat up all night with the corpse with only an old kerosene lamp very dimly lit. The next morning Seward Andrews took Edgar Payne in for aq casket. It was in September (probably 1929) and she was held a day and two nights. She was buried by Aunt Beda Campbell's church and this was my first and only contact with death. The men had the grave dug and she was lowered in but there was no minister to preach.. They all looked at me and all I knew to do was say, "Let's all sing God Be With You, Till We Meet Again", and repeated the Lord's Prayer." So that was our funeral and my husband, Glen, made a tombstone from a rock, chipping here name and date and she still lies at this spot along with lots of other graves. Now Mamma Walhammer and daughter Betty filed along with here brother and located joining claims. Seward Andrews and Holland Andrews as they were coming out to file on claims, had hired a livery rig after coming from Colorado Springs and they were all dressed up in fancy clothes like those living in the city. Seward had on a derby hat and everyone he me laughed and looked back and laughed again. Seward said, " It's this ----hat and took it off and put it under the seat. They lived a long time on their claims and Mame later moved her homestead house to a spot near the Judge Bailey homestead and moved the post office there and she was Post Mistress. She had a store and sold quite a few groceries. Jack and Merc McAfee's land joined Ninaview,Mame's post office and store. Lou Peterson and Lisa Rodel filed their claims and they built a house on a line between their claims and they could prove up the claims while both living together. Otto Holland's homesteads joined theirs and Roy Gaunt, brother to the MacAfee wives, and the Sandy and John and Dan Craig homesteads and Mrs. Wrights claim joined the Waldrops. Harry and Ralph Martin joined the Waldrops claim near the older Waldrop's claim. The Clarence Waldrops place was where the first school was out there in that neighborhood. They later built the Dry Creek School on north of this one. The Mackeys had a claim near there and the Brinks located near Mame Walhamere and Mame later married my brother Charley Allen. The Judge Bailey place was north of Ninaview and the Glovers claim and Fred Stough was nearby. The Campbell brothers lived north of the Charley Allen claim and thier sister Beda Campbelll, known as Aunt Beda Campbell, somehow got a church built. She was a sweet little lady and her brothers were broom makers and the museum in Las Animas hold their old broom making machine now. A Mr. and Mrs. Johnson filed on a claim. His wife was a sister to Harry and Ralph Martin. The Babcocks, Hollands, Freys, Ards and Jim, Willie and Harry Campbell were located near the Round Mound Hill. The Devils Rocking Chair and Eagle Cliff were all near these claims. These people would get together at branding time and help one another until all the stock they had was branded, exchanging work. Of course the ladies came along helping each other with the chore of preparing food for all the folks and after they were thru branding, the ladies came out to see the rodeo the men and boys put on, competing in riding bucking horses and steers. It was a time for boys and gals to meet and get together. Many romances started here and land was sold to each other and they bought grade bulls to better their herds and cattle interests. Parties were planned and a good time was enjoyed by all and the work was done too. The Swagers filed and built homes and gave dances later on. There were Pearl, Reece, Oliver and their parents. Bill Setchfield's parents filed north of the dam along with the Mr. and Mrs. Burchett, who owned the place where John Himdman . The Lareau's and Quackenbushes filed on land north of Carry Dam. The Lareau's had two sons, James and Doyle. Our daughter later married James and he died in 1947 of polio. The Lareaus lived there until a couple of years ago. They sold out and moved to Las Animas. The school north of Ninaview held lots of dances and fun for all. There was the Pioneer School located by Lareau's. When it rained, the roads were terrible and sometimes impassable for weeks. But finally the people got a hard surface road which made the mail carriers very happy as well as the people who lived out there. The Hugh Bantas lived where Carol Etchart now lives. I've missed lots of others, but can't recall all of them now. People came to Colorado from different states and if they could not find claims to file on, bought out people who became discouraged. Those who came and liked it, wrote their relatives about what a wonderful country it was and they came too. Mrs. Fletch Wagner's parents, the Shannons came and their place was west of the Wagner place. Andy Shannon was a young fellow at this time and was a cowboy of course. They fit into the Texas group as they came from Texas also. He later on married Anna Wills. They now live in Las Animas. We each had to make a living and prove up on our claims and you would think it was a chance to get land free but before you proved it up you paid a good price not only in money, but in hardships of all kinds. Lots of old timers stuck it out and got big prices later on for land and stock. But to fight the blizzards, the dry weather, no grass or crops cost a lot. It was grazing country, and not farming land. The suitcase farmers later on plowed and ruined the country. Dust bowl days came and it was a good fight. Some own, some did not. The government helped stockmen with loans in 1930. Some of the people over on Butte Creek were really needing these government loans and the government came out and looked the stock over and granted a man a loan, after reporting to the head office. So some of the ranchers took all their stock over to the neighbors ranch and threw them all together and got larger loans and then in turn took their stock over to the others place and he got a sizable loan. Some were paid and some were not but they were hounded for years until they did. This land should have never been plowed. It is a dry land and rains often failed, as the dust bowl days proved. These were heartbreaking years, yet so many hung on. Charley Allen did and years later came out ahead. But we have seen so many changes of land the country has larger ranches. They now have trains, the R.E.A. for electricity, better roads and a mail route daily from Las Animas around by Ninaview and over to Deora and back by Toonerville. At the Dry Creek School house dances were held and the Winburn brothers came to the dance being held there. (1929) They were drinking when they came and after dancing awhile, they began to act unmanly with some of the older ladies and were asked to leave. When they got outside, they were sursing and yelling and Merc MacAfee stepped outside and was stabbed in the leg by one of them. He stepped back inside with blood running into his shoe. The yelling kept up and they tried to come in so all the men rushed out to stop them and Millard Martin was stabbed in the back and killed. Red Kygar was stabbed and Melvin Allen was stabbed in the side, cutting a rib in two. The Winburn men fled. The men went and got Charley Allen, who was deputy sheriff and they hunted for days and were unable to find them. Several years later one was caught in Oregon. He had bragged about killing a man in Colorado and this fellow told the sheriff who phoned Colorado and found it to be true and caught him. He was brought back for trial in Trinidad and was sent to the pen. Mame Walhamer ran the Nanview Store and she let men pile posts on her land and she would sell them for them. She slept upstairs and one night some men tried to rob her and having the Post Office that she ran, made it a federal offense to rob it. She had just gotten to sleep and they woke her up and she went to the window and yelled at them. They ran away but it scared her so bad that she ran to the Jack MacAfee place and got hiim and Charley and all the men searched for days and couldn't find them. Later they were caught and sent to the pen. Frank Brink drowned in Carey Dam and several other people had troubles there. People began to sell places to larger ranchers and leave and now there were not so many small places. There were mostly big ranchers who came from Texas and elsewhere buying out smaller places to add to their holdings. The Clay Ranch owned so many of the homesteads but I can go to all these places right now where each house stood. I was asked to write this and I have tried to get in all I can remember. So many years have gone by as have so many of the older ones passed on. Their children are here but no one knows where the first school was and since I am one of the older ones, knew where the first Rule Creek School was and so this is as I remember it in our yesterdays. World War 1 ended. Glen Hurd and I moved back to our homestead and started again. Times were hard and we thought prices were high, but we did all right. Buying more land and raising crops and garden and cattle kept us busy. Drought and snows came as usual. The Hurd brothers lost lots of stock in the blizzard of 1920 as did lots of other people. There was still J.J.stock in the Hills and Tom Tate had some cattle there and offered a $10.00 reward to anyone who could get the old steer branded 1L. On it's jaw was the date he was turned loose. When it was caught by Carl Wills, he was seventeen years old. Tate got the horns and Carl Wills got the $10.00. About twenty head of J.J. cattle were still in the hills. Bent and Jesse King, Glen and Harry Hurd and Dutch Dumbaugh gathered all they could. Some were so wild they had to be shot. Thus ended the J.J.Ranch Cattle Company. We had a sale later and sold my chickens for $17.00 a dozen. When you got up in the morning you never knew who you would cook dinner for. If you were gone riding after stock, they would come in a cook a meal and the code was that you had to wash up the dishes and leave the wood box full of wood. Sometimes there was a note of thanks for dinner or somehow you realized someone had been there. Sometimes they stayed several days hunting stray stock and you would do the same at their house. Before we left for Oregon, we bought the rock house at Red Rocks south of Las Animas. *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. 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