Jefferson progress report

[Lee Gustafson]

Jeff,

The house, the fence the complete scene is perfect. Add the people, the model T and post and B&W photo and test us to pick the model and the real thing. Great work. As an aside the fence and the roof on the bay window portion of the house are works of skill and art. Thanks for sharing.

Lee Gustafson

[Keith Hayes]

MORE PICKET FENCE!

(and what Lee said.)

[John Greenly]

Oh give me land, lots of land, under starry skies above
Don't fence me in
Let me ride through the wide open country that I love
Don't fence me in
Let me be by myself in the evening breeze
Listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees
Send me off forever but I ask you please
Don't fence me in....

I guess the Lilleys weren't cowpokes.  But then, neither was Cole Porter who wrote that song.

Was that family related to Clara Lilley who ran the Garos store?

Absolutely wonderful, Jeff!!

Cheers,
John

[Paul R.]

Excellent work Jeff
Paul R.

[Jeff Young]

John Greenly wrote

Was that family related to Clara Lilley who ran the Garos store?

Presumably.  William and Flora:



owned a ranch between Jefferson and Kenosha Pass:



They had at least two children, Frank:



and King (on the horse):



Was Clara a daughter, or did she marry Frank, King or another son?



Presumably the house in Jefferson was also a son, and the two on the far left bear some resemblance to William and Flora (and are the right age for the picture), but I have no evidence.



One of the Almgrens also made it to Garos....



(he's the one with the accordian).

All pictures Park County Archives.

[John Greenly]

Hi Jeff,

those are great photos, thanks for posting them.  I was obviously wrong.  Looks like the Lilleys, if not cowboys, at least had the right hats, and clearly loved their horses.  The one of the two-year-old or so King on a foal that couldn't have been more than a few months old is priceless.  

Ah yes, I remember now.  I think Clara was a Turner, of the Garos Store family.  I did some searching about this several years ago because of this photo at a mill in Dumont that Jeff Ramsey posted. This just makes me smile- that girl's smile is infectious!



She reminded me of somebody... and then I remembered that photo of Clara Lilley at the Garos store:



Could the girl be Clara??    So I did some searching.  Found nothing to connect the girl with Clara, but did find record of a Clara Turner marrying, I think I remember, a Harry Lilley.  Apparently the marriage didn't last, and she managed the store for a long time.  I ran across one other photograph, of the Turner family at Garos much later:  



I think that's Clara second from left.  I wish I knew her, she looks like a happy person!

Well, didn't mean to hijack your great Jefferson thread, but this is fun.

Cheers,
John

[John Greenly]

And then there's this:

Frank Turner’s two sisters, Clara and Ann, would eventually help run the Garo Store. Old William Turner was tending the store when this next story occurred in the recollection of Wilbur Lewis: “Walt Merritt was telling me this. He went in to buy a rope and there was a lariat rope hanging from the ceiling (of the Garo Store)—about 25-feet, enough to make a lariat. “So Mr. Turner I’d like to buy that rope. My lariat is about shot.” Turner says: “That’s the last I got left. Somebody may want to come in and buy that.” And he wouldn’t sell it to him. That’s the way the old man was.” Wilbur continuing: “And the girls (probably referring to Clara and Ann), this is the interesting part about Garo. One of the girls married a fella by the name of Lilley. I think he was a cowboy. But one never married. And they run that old store. And when you’d go in that store it would it would probably take you thirty minutes to get what you needed because they talked so slow.”

This is from a piece about Garo in an oral history page in the Park County Archives.  Scroll down near the bottom of this page:

http://www.parkcoarchives.org/online-resources/oral-history/voices-from-park-countys-past/


So, I guess the Lilleys really were cowboys.  And probably Frank didn't like being "fenced in" by marriage....
This whole story needs musical accompaniment-  maybe an accordion?

Cheers,
John

[South Park]

  The car above is a 1956 Buick Special.  It looks to be fairly new in that photo.
I note the insulators set on the top rail of the fence.  When I first began cruising
around SW Colorado, in search of insulators and all things old and cool, I found
many such fences adorned with the colorful glass baubles of the wire.  The high
country is fairly arid and it was amazing to see the physical plants still in service
that were long gone in most places around the country.  The oldtimers of Colorado
that we met in the 1970's were super friendly and amused that kids our age were
so interested in history and all the stuff they considered "old junk".  That photo so
reminds me of those early trips to "Mecca".   👍

[Jeff Young]

Ha!  I didn't even notice all the insulators on the fence. ;)

[John Greenly]

That's great, S.P.!   I missed the insulators too.  I bet Clara (1886-1962) would have had a lot of great stories to tell....

John

[John Greenly]

Jeff,

in case you are feeling deprived of fence-making, here's another handsome one:



Turner's ranch near Garo.  (also from Park County Archives)

I guess the fence is to keep the animals out, not the people in!

John

[South Park]

  That car is a 41-48 Cadillac, so the date of that photo is wrong.

[Jeff Young]

Curious:



Frank Turner, Ann Turner, Merle Turner, Bobbie Sherman, Alfred S. Turner, Mary Turner, Alfred Sherman, Fred Turner, Clara Sherman.

Was Alfred Clara's second husband?  Only she looks younger in this picture than the other....

[John Greenly]

Well, well, the plot thickens!  Our amateur genealogical society may be out of its depth on this one.  

I can add a couple of observations.  First, in this photo Alfred Sherman is a boy, not yet in long pants.  Clara (I'll bet it is our same Clara) is a fairly young adult.  I found a record in the Park County Archives of marriage in 1903 at Garo between Louis Sylvester Sherman and Clara Ellen Turner.   Clara's dates, given in the Como Cemetery records page, were 1886-1962.  That would mean she was only 16 or 17 when she married Louis Sherman.  My guess is that Alfred Sherman and the smaller girl Bobbie Sherman in the photograph were Clara's children from that marriage.  If Alfred in that photo is maybe 12-14 years old and was born when Clara was 18, that would make her around 30-32 then, looks reasonable, and that would date the photo to about 1916 - 1918.  So where's Louis?  He may be the cowboy who ran out on her-- or maybe a WW I casualty?  There were a lot of those.  Maybe she and her children were living with her family, hence this photo.   There is no Cemetery record for any Sherman in the Park County Archive lists.  

Alfred Sherman is also identified as the tall, skinny young guy on the left in your earlier photo of the small Lilley child riding the foal.  I bet he got work on the Lilley ranch as he grew up.  That would make that photo maybe around 1920?  Clara must have remarried  to a Lilley, her second husband, whose name she carried from then on.  But I can find no Park County marriage record.  Clara Lilley was buried in the Como Cemetery, where many of her Turner family were.  There was also one Lilley buried there, named Harry C Lilley, 1881-1923.  Clara was buried next to him, if I'm reading the record correctly.  I guess he was her second husband, and they didn't have much time together.  

That's all I found.  Looks like our Clara had some tough times as a young woman.  Good that she had her family there in Garo.

John    

[Jeff Young]

[tonyk375]

looking fabulous!

[tonyk375]

I sure like it better than the current color scheme.  Was through on Friday.

 

[Gerard]

Jeff wonderful looking scene.

Been a long time since I was here.

Jerry

[Jeff Young]

[South Park]

  Just curious, ...  but during what years did Jefferson have a giant jar with
a giant spoon in it, and a giant pair of safety goggles on the edge of town ?