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.

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