Person:Alta Palmer (1)

MY HOMESTEAD DAYS IN EASTERN COLORADO By Alta Palmer Murray (age 17 in 1907, age 68 when written)

Note: The town Alta refers to, as being the closest to her homestead wasArriba. It is in eastern Colorado about twenty-five miles east of Limonon Interstate 70 and presently has a population of approximately 200hardy souls.

The reason that we ever happened to start out on such a thing was that mysister was sick and the doctor told her husband that he would have to gether to a drier climate, but before the first year passed, I doubted thatit had been the wise thing to do. I think that was her husband's way ofgetting a "Homestead" which he wanted without going through the hardshipof getting it himself. He came to Mamma (Mary) and me to see if we wouldgo out and stay with her as he wanted to go back to Iowa to his railroadjob. We told him that we would. My father had been dead for years, so mysister's husband went to Colorado and filed on a homestead, came back andgot us passes on the Rock Island Railroad and we started out on one ofthe longest train rides I had over taken.

We had to ride on a local passenger train, as passes were no good on fasttrains. We left Esterville, Iowa and rode two nights and two days to getwhere we were going. We stopped at every station, no matter how small. Igot so car sick that I thought I would never see sunny Colorado. The carwe were in was full of immigrants like ourselves. When we thought finallythat we would surely get there before too much longer, the conductor madeus get off at Goodland, Kansas and wait two hours for another train.Well, we got to Arriba, Colorado at 5:30 a.m. in the first week inDecember 1907. When it was daylight so that I could see the town, Iunderstood why the first train wouldn't stop there. There was one littlehotel!

There was a homesteader there to meet us. My brother-in-law had spoken tohim when he went out to file and we were to stay with his family untilthey got our shack ready to live in. We went to the hotel for breakfast.I have never seen a more beautiful morning. It was still dark, and thesky was loaded with stars, and the air was so light that you justcouldn't get enough of it. I think it is still the purest air in theworld (unless there is a dust storm).

When we got to the hotel, there wasn't room to step, as the floor wascovered with men sleeping. People were coming in so fast for thatgovernment land that there was no place for them. We got our breakfastand started for the country - - a ten mile ride behind a large work teamthat walked every step of the way. I don't remember how or where we sleptat that place we stayed.

It only took a few days to put up a tarpaper-covered shack, twelve byfourteen feet, and we moved in. A neighbor and my brother-in-law starteddigging a well. They got a very good well and we were thankful, as theywere hard to get. Folks hauled water from that well for miles around.They would come with barrels in a wagon and fill them pumping all thewater by hand. The well never went dry as long as I knew anything aboutit. Lots of those homesteads never did get water.

As soon as the well was dug, Frank, the brother-in-law went back to Iowa.Our homestead was eight miles from town. We had no way to get to town andI wanted the mail so badly that one day I decided to walk to Arriba afterit. As there were no fences anyplace, all I had to do was start the rightdirection and keep going. I was only 17 years old or I would have hadmore sense, but I wanted the mail. I made the trip fine, but I won't sayI wasn't a wee bit tired. We had a dozen or more letters and I got a fewthings we needed at the store and walked back home. I hadn't been homemore than ten minutes, when a man with a nice team and buggy drove up. Hehad come out from town to see if I would get Christmas dinner for theHotel. Christmas was about two days away, and he said the cook wasleaving and his wife wouldn't be back home for a. week.

Mamma said I could not go alone for she had no idea what shape I would bein the next day after that walk, so my sister went with me. That evening,his wife came home, but he said he couldn't take us home until afterChristmas. My sister and I slept on the floor that night. I feel muchbetter at 68 years old than I did that morning trying to get up off thatfloor. My sister asked if I could walk home. I said "yes". I was thinkingof our good soddie at home. Even if we did sleep three in the bed, it wasa wonderful place to be. We ate breakfast and started for home. We gotalong very well until we were about one and a half miles from home. Wecame to an empty shack and I said, "Let's sit down and rest awhile." Wedid, and when we started to get up to go home, I could not get up - noteven with Jeannie's help! So she told me to stay there and she would gohome and get Mamma to help get me home. When they got back and got me onmy feet, with one of them helping on each side of me, I made it home. Icouldn't pick my feet up, I just slid them. They heated water and gave mea hot bath and rubbed me two or three times during the night. Mamma mademe get up in the morning and I kept trying to walk. I sure did hurt! Ittook me a week to get over that.

An old neighbor had a white cow pony that he said I could ride to townafter the mail after that, so I did, to my sorrow. I had never ridden ahorse. I was much more used to walking as we had to pick up "cow-chips"for fuel, and I walked miles doing that. The time I rode the pony, I gotto town and home again, but it wasn't feet and legs that hurt me thattime.

That first winter, we never had a flake of snow and very few cold days.Then when spring came, Mamma put out a big garden. How that ever grewwithout water, I will never know, but every morning at 4 o'clock, Mammawould get up and hoe that whole garden. What little rain we got, and thework she put into it, gave us a wonderful garden. I think it was the onlyone in the country. The land men commenced to bring their men that werelooking for land out there to show them her garden. She said shesometimes felt like telling them all the work she put in to get it, butthe land men never mentioned that. He let them think you put the seed inthe ground and that is what you got.

We had some neighbors a mile and a half from us that came to our well toget water and one evening when they were there, Mrs. Collins told me thatthey were going to town in the morning and if I was up there by 8o'clock, I could go with them. I was there. I got the mail and a fewgroceries and we got back to the Collins's about dusk. The wind wasblowing terrible, but in those days, it didn't blow dust for there wereno plowed fields. When I started home, I put my mail and things in myskirt and held it up like a sack. I could see the light in our window forthey had a lamp setting right in the window on the side facing Collins's.I walked and walked again that wind with my head down - one could hardlyface it.

When I looked up, I couldn't see that light and, by that time, it wasreal dark and the coyotes were howlin. I heard someone shoot and heardthe whizz of the bullet. They all used long range guns. I suppose someonewas shooting to scare the coyotes. Whether it did or not, I don't know,but it sure as the world scared me. I turned may back to the wind andcalled just as loud as I could and I soon saw a light so started to go toit, but didn't know who I might find there. When I got close enough so Icould see, it was Mamma and Jeannie with the door open. I had gone southof our house and way beyond it. There were no windows in that side of thehouse, so I was really lost but when I got past the shack and turnedaround and called the wind carried my voice back so they heard me.

There were lots of herds of Texas cattle on the plains. The old settlerssaid it wasn't safe even for a man to get off of his horse when you werenear them. There were many rattlesnakes - you never walked far withoutseeing one. I was afraid of them so I just got out of their way, but mysister killed every one she saw and got the rattles.

A neighbor lady died and they came for me to set up that night. Anotherneighbor and I sat up. It was the first time I had ever done a thing likethat and it was the longest night that I ever put in. The mice were sothick in that house, you really had to keep awake. The next morning, Istarted home over those plains. It was about two miles. I got about halfway home when I saw a bunch of cattle coming. I expect they were going towater, but when they saw me they started running toward me. I wascarrying a parasol. I ran as far as I could, and when I couldn't runanymore, I put up the parasol and sat down. There wasn't anything I coulddo - there was no fence to get under, and they were getting pretty close,hut when I opened my parasol and sat down, they all turned and ran. I gotup and went home. It was funny when I told it afterwards, but believe youme, it wasn't at the time.

The next fall, my brother-in-law sent a pass for my sister to go back toIowa to stay with him. That left Mamma and me alone. He would come out inthe summer for a few weeks to have what work done that had to be done toprove up on the claim. The second summer we were out there, Mamma filedon a half-section two miles south of my sister's on the Republican River.The neighbors got together and helped us build a sod house. We had tworooms. The walls were plastered. It was very nice. I want to tell youthat even if our house was a homestead house on the outside, it was veryneat, clean and homey on the inside, That second winter, we had lots ofsnow and it was a good thing for we had to melt snow for our water. Thatmade it fine for water, BUT then we had to kick the cow chips out fromunder the snow to have anything for fuel.

By that time, my sister had an old horse and buggy. They used to bringhorses down from Denver that were too old to work on milk wagons and suchand sell them cheap, but let me tell you, we loved old Maud and had lotsof good laughs about her. She was so afraid that someone would say "Whoa"and she wouldn't hear it. Whenever Mamma would yawn, she would end it bysaying "oh-oh-hum", and every time, old Maud would stop. I don't wantthis to sound like we thought we were having hard times for we didn?t. Wehad good times together through it all. There was a family moved out from Iowa our second winter there. Beforethey got their shack finished, the wife came down with pneumonia. I wentand sat up with her a couple of nights - we neighbors took turns. Thedoctor didn't have much of a chance in those days, but neither did thepatient. He had to drive. He had to drive with a horse and buggy tenmiles and nothing to work with then when he got there. They had twolittle boys. The men could hardly speak Eng1ish, but I don't know whatnationality he was. I never heard the poor wife talk. She died one nightwhen I wasn't there. If you could have seen that shack!

By that time, my uncle and aunt had come out from Omaha to homestead.They lived a few miles from us. Uncle Obb came after Mamma to help laythis lady out and Mamma had one of her sick headaches, so I knew sheshouldn't go, so I went. They had gotten Mrs. Collins, an older woman tohelp me, but when I got there, she said, "I have never done a thing likethis, so I will let you go ahead!" When I pulled the sheet back off ofher, she had a cross and her rosary clutched in her hands. We will neverknow whet that poor soul suffered. I did the best I could. I guess it wasall right. There was no undertakers there in those days. A man in townsold caskets. They were put in a pickup and taken to the cemetery. When Igot in the buggy with Uncle Obb to go home, the horse shied and I startedto shake and I couldn't stop - even my teeth chattered. When I got home,Mamma wanted to know what the trouble was. I couldn't tell her. She askedmy uncle if I had to lay that lady out, and when he said, "Yes." Mammasaid, "That is the first time she ever saw a corpse." I had never evenbeen to a funeral. I sat up one night with a corpse, but I didn't see it.There was a. man sat up with me, and he changes the cloths on her face.Mamma got me to bed and gave me hot coffee and got me calmed down. Thefunny part of it was that I didn't even know I was nervous until thathorse shied.

I went to work in Arriba for the railroad agent's wife. She was sick andhad a two-year-old boy and a baby six months old. It wasn't hard to seewhat was the matter with both of them. She nursed the baby. She was highstrung and nervous and the milk wasn't good for the baby. I fixed up aformula - don't know what kind of a one now, bit it worked. The babyslept in my room, so I would get up with him when he needed anything. Themother got her rest and she was soon fine.

Things were working so nicely that way that is the way she left them. Iwas there over a year. My wages were $2.25 a. week. By that time, I wasdoing all the housework, baking the bread, a lady in the country did thewashing, but I did the ironing. She used to go to Denver for two or threedays at a time, but she said she knew things were doing just as well asif she was home. That would please me for I think everyone should get alittle praise, bit now I think she was just working me, and I was softenough to let her. I really liked her a lot - poor soul wasn't used tobeing tied down with a couple of babies in a little town for I think shewas a city girl. Her husband got tired of her being gone so much, so oneday, he said to me, "I think I know how to stop her running around if youwill help me." "The next time she speaks of going to Denver, encourageher, tell her you think it will do her good." So I did, and when sheasked him, he said, 'Fine, how long are you going to stay?" When she saidjust a couple of days, he asked her why she didn"t stay a week.

It was only a hundred miles to Denver, and she left the next morning.There was one train back from there at 10 p.m. That night her husbandsaid, "I guess I will go down (they lived over the depot) and meet theMrs. and sure enough, she got off the train. She looked so foolish whenshe got upstairs and started to cry. She said, "Why did you want me tostay?" He said, "I didn't." At least it did keep her home more. Oneevening I was getting supper and she came out in the kitchen to make sometea. She picked up the teapot and I hadn't washed it after dinner. Shesaid something about it that didn't set right with me and I took off myapron and walked out. I went up to the post office to see if there wasany-one there from home, but before I got away, she sent her husband upto hire me back and even raised my wages to $2.50 per week, so I wentback. I don't remember how long I stayed after that but during my year intown, I got to know all the young folks around there and the country wasfull of them by that time, all homesteaders. We had lots of good times. Iloved to dance and we had one nearly and we had dances and parties nearlyevery week.

There were some of those old settlers that thought if a girl would dance,she would do anything. I told Mamma that some of them were talking aboutus girls because we danced and she said a clean dance never hurt anyone.My blessed little mother was one of the best. She had lots of trouble inher life, bit I never heard her complain.

There was a cattle man down the river a few miles from Mamma's claim thathad a large family. Mamma used to help them so she bought a cow and didtheir washings to pay for it. A nice big black cow, who gave lots ofmilk. When this neighbor came down on the river bottom to put up hay, hehired us to get dinner for him and his crew. Whenever they came, theybrought a load of hay just to be good. By the time they were throughhaying, we had enough feed for the cow for the winter. The pasture wasgood all winter unless it was covered with snow. We had a little barnbuilt for her.

One morning, Mr. and Mrs. Tom (the cattleman) drove up in a buggy andcelled to ask if we wanted a hen. After they had started to town, theyfound a hen on a nest under the buggy seat, so they gave us the hen andthe egg she had layed and went on to town. I suppose you think we ateher, bit we didn't. We made a little A-house for her and one day shewanted to set, so we went down to Tom's to buy a setting of eggs, whichthey gave to us. Every egg hatched, and we were sure proud of thosechickens.

By this time, I was old enough to take a claim, so I filed on ahalf-section on the flat that was five miles south of Mamma's. I didn'thave to live on it for six months, so I stayed with Mamma. through thatwinter -- and such a winter!! That was a record breaker for Colorado andstill is. That fall before my sister went east for the winter, she boughta hundred pounds of yellow-shelled corn and wanted us to keep "Old Maud."We had hay and a barn. I don'?t remember what month the terrible blizzardcame, but from that time on, more and more snow would come until therewere drifts five and six feet high. We didn't have enough fuel to keepwarm, so when we didn't have work to do outside, we would go to bed.

We saved what few cow chips we had to cook what little we had to cook.Our food supply was getting lower and lower. No one went to town -- theycouldn't get through the drifts. One morning when we went to the barn,old Maud dead, but that was what saved our lives. Mamma took some of thatcorn we were going to feed Maud and made some very good hominy, so forweeks, we lived on hominy and milk. We had no coffee or tea. We had alittle wheat for the chickens. We would wash and brown it. Then pound itor grind it, and would drink coffee made from that once in awhile. We settraps where the snow would be blown away from the prairie dog holes andin a little, we would have a "cotton-tail" (rabbit). Another blizzardwould come, lasting two or three days and the wind was so strong that itraised the roof a little so the snow could blow in on our bed. Throughthat blizzard we were in bed most of the time. We would put my parasol upand put the handle down between us and it kept our heads dry. Theywouldn't have been wet in any event, because it was too cold in the housefor the snow to melt. Mamma said, "God is good to us, for he sure lets ussleep a lot."

One morning when we opened our eyes, the sun was shining. Mamma got up toopen the door. I can still see her tracks in the snow on the floor. Whenshe opened the door, there was snow drifted clear to the top. We alwaysbrought the axe and shovel in the house at night in the winter. She gotup on a chair and we could push the snow down for about 18 inches. Idressed in some old clothes my brother left there when he joined theNavy. Then we piled things on the chair so I could crawl out into thesnow and drag the shovel with me. I drank some hot milk and ate somehominy before. I went out. The drift was against the whole side of thehouse and back 15 or more feet. We hadn't seen a living soul for weeks. Istarted digging my way back to the house. It took hours. Manna would callto ask if I was all right. I would holler, "fine, but getting hungry.What will we have to eat when I get in?" She would say that she thoughthominy and milk would be nice for a change. It sure looked good to mewhen I got that path to the door and I felt like I had moved tons ofsnow. I bet you that I have never had a Thanksgiving dinner that testedbetter than hominy and milk did to me that day.

The sun was so bright that we could leave the door open and. clean thehouse up good and not freeze doing it. We were very happy. Soon afterthat, one morning, we could see a black spot on the snow up on the flatand it was moving our way. When it got there it was two men that lived onthe flat. They had families. They had gotten together and made a sledwith a box on it and were going to try to get to town. There were goingto get a few things for as many as they could. I know that they weregoing to get us a 10 pound sack of flour and some side pork. The men hadto walk the whole way. It must have been 18 miles from their place totown as it was ten miles from Mamma's. They said not to look for themuntil they got back.

About ten or eleven o'clock that night, they rapped on our door. Theywere nearly frozen and hungry. One of their horses was down in asnowdrift about a half-mile back where they crossed the river. Theybrought our flour and side pork and asked if we could get them somethingto eat -- said they couldn't go any further that night. While they weregetting their horse out of the snow (they put them in our barn and fedthem), I made some biscuits and Mamma fried side pork and made gravy andhominy. When they came in, we ate with them. Boy, I can taste that yet.We all ate like we were starved. We gave them our nice warm bed, theydeserved it and we had a. single cot we put up and Mamma and I laid downon that with our clothes on and rested until morning. They got up before daylight and went out to take care of their hoses andwe got breakfast. They had brought a pound of coffee too. It wasn't toolong after that 'til the roads were opened up again. Enough people got togoing to town in the same track to open it. Everyone were good neighbors.No one ever went to town without stopping to ask others if they couldbring things for then.

A few years ago, when my husband and I were out in Colorado visiting, weheard that one of those two men and his wife lived in town and that hewas blind and ill and in his eighties, so we went to see him. My husbandhad never met him. We had a long visit about old homestead days and agood laugh about that night. We promised that whenever we came back, wewould come and see them. He died soon after that but his wife still livesthere, and I always stop to see her. Back to the homestead.

After I filed my claim, as I said, I stayed with Mamma that winter. Wehad a blizzard that winter that I will always remember. My youngestbrother was home for a short stay. Homesteading was too rough for him tostay around long, but we really showed him how rough it could get. We didhave food -- even had a few sacks of coal. We had baked a. batch of breadthe morning the blizzard started. As I said, in those days, a blizzardlasted three days. The roof of Mamma's soddy had gone through so manystorms like that. In the middle of the afternoon of the third day, mybrother said that the roof had raised more. You see, the roof was ourceiling. It was called a box-car roof. We had nails in the rafters wherewe hung our clothes. Mamma said, "We had better get some things down intothe cave." She had a good cave. I don't mean by that, that it wascemented for it wasn't, but that dirt floor was just as hard as cement,and clean. She spread an old quilt on the floor. Then we carried themattress off our bed down and the bedding and made up a nice warm bed. Itwas only a few steps from the house, but how we ever got things downthere in that blinding blizzard, I will never know. We took a table and alamp, our can of brand -- by that time, we didn't dare take time to takemuch more. Then we went down there and hoped there would be no cattledrift over there and get on the cave or we would have had company in thecave. The way they bunch up in a storm, if they had ever got on the cavesthey would have gone through.

We all three got in bed. My brother told stories about some of his wildtrips. When we got hungry, we sat up in bed and took a loaf of bread andpulled hunks off of it, and Mamma had some apple butter in the cave,which we had canned that summer. We thought we were getting along fineuntil about 7 o'clock, we heard an extra loud bang and Mamma. said,"There it goes!" My brother got out and stuck his head out the door andsure enough, the roof was gone. There wasn't a thing we could do, so wewent to sleep. In the morning, when we went up out of the cave, it wasbeautiful. You couldn't see a black spot anywhere. The sun was shining,the wind all gone. It was so bright one could hardly keep their eyesopen. You should have seen the inside of our cozy little house. Snow a.foot or two high on everything. The clothes that were hanging on therafters were all gone. I remember we had a picture of a white dove. Itwas a memorial for my father. It had been fastened up there somewhere. Itwas gone too.

Nearly everyone had field glasses and the neighbors could see thatsomething was wrong, and they commenced coming up to help us move to mysister's house. We soon put up a 14 x 14 foot frame house, bit it wasn'tas nice as our soddy.

That spring, I got a shack put up on my claim and a neighbor broke upland that I was required to have plowed for the first crop. We had himplow an acre or so near the house and Mamma and I planted sweet corn andMexican beans. We would hoe them but I didn't know much about suchthings, bit I would take care of them the way Mamma told me to. When thesweet corn was ready, we dried corn and I mean we dried corn. We wouldpick a wash boiler full after it was all husked and the silks taken off.Then we would scald it. I forgot to tell you that we struck a spring onmy claim when they were digging a post hole and put a half barrel in itso we had water but had to carry it up a hill. Mamma stayed up with mewhile we were taking care of the corn. When we had it all dried, we hadtwo 48 pound flour sacks full of dried corn. It is the best ever. ThenMamma went back to her place.

I was such a coward, how I suffered staying there alone at night -- itwas bad enough in the daytime. Mamma made me promise I would never startdown to her place unless I started early enough to get there before dark-- it was five miles. It was just getting disk one evening when I thoughtI couldn't stay alone another night, but I knew I didn't dare start thatlate, hut I went outdoors and Mamma walked around the corner of my house.I was so happy that I cried. How I slept that night. With her beside me,I wasn't afraid of anything.

My oldest brother's wife was sick in Iowa. He was a conductor on therailroad back there. The doctors said that she had tuberculosis, so hemoved his family out to Colorado and took a claim. They had four childrenand were very short of money so the beans and dried corn came very handy.

One day, I went down to Mamma's and told her the beans were all dead andfelt pretty bad to think of all the work we had put into them. She saidshe would go home with me and look at them. She put a blanket on theground and said, "Come on now, lets go pull some." When I asked what for,she said just to show me how dead they were. So we pulled beans and piledthem up on the blanket and walked back and forth over them and evenpounded them with boards. Then we took the vines off, and you should haveseen the nice beans. They had been ready to harvest, they weren't dead. Ihadn't put much force in the work until I saw some results. Then how Idid work! I don't remember how long it took us but we harvested the wholecrop of beans and got three flour sacks full. That was good eating thatwinter. We took a sack full of dried corn arid a sack of beans to mybrother, and gave away lots more corn and beans that winter.

Hugo, Colorado was our county sent. My oldest brother and I had to goover there. It was eighteen or twenty miles. He had business there andhad to be there. The weather didn?t look too good as we had to go in anopen buggy, one horse. I think her name was "Queen." If it wasn't, itshould have been -- or something even nicer. We got through with ourbusiness about noon. By that time, it had started to snow. We hadeighteen miles to go so ate our dinner at the hotel. When we hadfinished, we were having a blizzard. The people at the hotel said itwasn't safe for us to start home, but my brother said he had to go asthere were chores to do and his wife wasn't able to look after things. Isaid that if he went, I was going.

I had on a long wool knit scarf, which we cut in two. The folks at thehotel helped us get bundled up to start for home. How we over got home, Idon't know. That blessed horse just took us there. There were iciclesfrozen on her nose. I was so cold, my brother would ask real often if myfeet were cold. Once when he asked, I said they didn't feel cold anylonger. He drove behind a deserted shack out of the wind and said we hadto get out. I didn't want to for I had just gotten warm, but he said thatwas why I had to. He helped me out and when my feet touched the ground, Ifell down. There was no feeling whatever in them. We stomped our feetuntil they began to hurt. They had started to freeze.

Mamma had gone up to stay with my sister-in-law while we were gone. Thatwas a mile and a half from her place so when we got to Mamma's, there wasno fire. We tried to build one, but we were both shaking so from coldthat we couldn't get the lifter in the hole to take the lids off thestove, so we just clawed them off, got a fire started and made some hotcoffee. Then my brother told me to go to bed and he went on home. Mammagot home. Whether or not he brought her or she walked, I have forgotten,but I have never forgotten that trip.

The rest of the story: Alta Palmer Murray sold her acreage to an adjoining homesteader aftersettling her claim then went back east. She married Glenn Murray in Iowa.After living there a few years, they, with their two little girls, movedback to Eastern Colorado not far from where she had homesteaded. Therethey raised a family of four daughters and a son. This was during thedepression and dust bowl years. There was not much money, but the familyenjoyed a good life.

1. ↑ Jeannie Mullin.
2. ↑ Obituary of Grace Murray Inman.
3. ↑ Jeannie Mullin.
4. ↑ Obituary of Glenn Aura Murray.
5. ↑ 1920 U.S. Census, Colorado, Lincoln County, Arriba Town, T625_167, Page 2B.
6. ↑ 1930 U.S. Census, Colorado, Lincoln County, Arriba, District 8, T626_246, Page 2A.
7. ↑ Obituary of Glenn Aura Murray.
8. ↑ Obituary of Glenn Albert Murray.