Walsenburg
1893: About 40 Hollanders and their families in wagons from the Alamosa colony passed through Walsenburg on Wednesday on their way back to their old homes in Iowa.
1898: F.E. Cowing’s grocery business is so increasing he will cut an archway between it and the vacant room just beyond and will move his groceries and sell them in both rooms.
1903: The comedy “Two Married Women” will be presented by the traveling troupe Handler’s Comedians Wednesday, December 23 in the Opera House.
1909: A young women’s athletic association was organized in “Gym Hall” Thursday evening with Carolyn Farr, president, Marie Patchen, vice president, May Hill, secretary and Vernie Unfug, treasurer.
1913: Most of the boys at the Walsen mine ended their pay day in the guard house after scrapping with the militia. Some strikers from the tent colony on East Fifth Street have asked for protection should they return to work.
1918: The county board of health has lifted the “flu” ban and schools, church services, theater performances and other public gatherings will again be permitted. It is expected all schools will open January 6 except La Veta and Clover where the illness is still raging.
1923: Died, Dr. Albert Luther Trout, specialist in eye, ear, nose and throat ailments, who was born in 1861. He has been working as a physician for the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company since 1908 in several local camps.
1928: Died, Marcellina Valdez, 72, at Gordon. She came here in 1860 with her parents the Romeros and settled in North Veta. They are said to be the earliest settlers there. She leaves her sons Don, Sam, Abe, Mose and her stepson J.H.
1933: After much discussion and long deliberation by Judges Paul Krier, Eloy Montez and S.M. Andrews, Vernon Christianson was declared winner of the Kirkpatrick C-C Bottling Works slogan writing contest. In the contest for Rainbo bread, George W. Race of Farr won $5 with “After everything is said, nothing beats good Rainbo bread”. Mrs. Alvin Myers and Ann Catherine Tressler shared the prize for second.
1938: Juvenile crime dropped 25 percent in 1938.
1943: The first shipment of turkeys is being loaded today at Walsenburg Mercantile Company, with a total of 26,000 to 28,000 pound to be included. To assist, between 30 and 40 seventh and eighth graders are helping with turkey picking at the old Loma Park
Dairy.
1948: Local coal mine operators blame the mild weather so far this winter for the current slump in orders and production. Our regional coal mines have had slack time recently and some pits are open only two or three days a week.
1953: The engagement of Miss Ruth Kathleen Henry of Dodge City, Kansas and Charles S. Sporleder, “Sig”, has been announced by Miss Henry’s parents. She is the art teacher in the Walsenburg elementary schools. The couple plans their wedding over the Christmas holidays in Dodge City.
1958: Mary Margaret Crump was elected president of the Wahatoya Wranglers 4-H Club, Ellene Shepard, vice president, Pat Noga, secretary and Dinah Hudran, treasurer.
1963: The first baby to be born in the Huerfano Memorial Hospital since it was opened last December and accommodations for maternity patients completed was Ronald Eugene on Sunday, December 14 to Mr. and Mrs. John O’Donnell of Walsenburg, their seventh child. For the distinction, they were given a $25 credit on their bill.
1968: Leonard Joiner, secretary of the Huerfano County Chamber of Commerce, said the economic picture in the county had improved sharply during the third quarter when a 5.8 percent increase in sales taxes were collected .
1973: Rancher and sculptor Mackie McAlpine, Redwing, was notified his bronze entitled “Jesse James” had been accepted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame.
1978: A temperature of minus 19 was registered December 7 in Walsenburg. The all-time record was minus 36 on January 12, 1963.
1983: County assessor Virginia Aragon received notice from the state she must re-evaluate all commercial properties and agricultural land this year.
1988: The county commissioners received confirmation that the county had been awarded a half a million dollars in energy impact funds to build a veterans’ home.
1993: The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations gave the new 120-bed Veterans Home in Walsenburg high praise.
La Veta
1882: La Veta’s first brick house, of four rooms, is under construction by Mr. Bird in the south part of town.
1892: B.L. Underwood of Conway Springs, Kansas, joined the Baptist Church previous to her marriage to Brother Charles Boyd.
1897: Forty-three children are enrolled in the intermediate department where average daily attendance is 38. Their teacher is Miss Tillie McGinnis, and Miss Lucy Lester has 63 enrolled in the primary department. Average attendance there is 53.
1902: Ciscero Cordova has moved on to the C.L. Martin ranch at the north end of town where Mr. Martin is building a home.
1907: At the Oakdale mine up the canon between 150 and 200 tons of coal are now being shipped daily. The pit cars have arrived and so have more miners and now all that is needed is housing for them.
1912: Leave your orders with A.N. Erwin for Indian Creek coal, $4 per ton delivered for lump, $3 for nut.
1917: As the government is urging the storage of more natural ice to save coal in the manufacture of the artificial kind, there is a good prospect for the renewal of the ice business here.
1922: The stock show will be on the northeast corner of Main and Ryus and will include the Kincaid corral, Colorado and Fuel and Iron warehouse, Tom Wheeler’s barn, the railroad stockyards and all the land adjoining, which will be fenced off. The admission is 25 and 50 cents, depending on age.
1927: A cold wave swept out of the north Tuesday and sent the thermometer tumbling to 14 degrees below zero, and the town plumber has been kept busy fixing frozen water pipes ever since.
1932: Felix Mestas and his wife have decided to live in Walsenburg after he assumes duties of county assessor but the rest of his family will remain on the ranch north of town near Silver Mountain.
1937: “Wee Willie Winkie” with Shirley Temple in her greatest role and supported by a superb cast will be the special feature shown at the Rialto December 24, 25, and 26.
1942: La Veta will join other Colorado towns and cities in the practice black-out one evening this month which will last from 9 to 9:15 p.m. starting with the warning of a long blast from the fire siren.
1947: Some businessmen and other volunteers put up the Christmas lighting along Main Street this week and the town has taken on a festive air.
1952: Santa Claus will visit the children of La Veta next Monday at 1 p.m. on Main Street in front of the Spur Theater, followed by a free movie sponsored by the merchants. The adult film to be shown that evening will be “Untamed Frontier” starring Joseph Cotten and Shelley Winters, plus a popular Willie and Joe short entitled “Back at the Front”.
1957: The fauna room of La Veta’s new Francisco Museum is expected to be complete by December 2, the birthday of John Elley, the donor of most of the animals to be displayed there. An open house or reception will take place at that time.
1962: La Veta’s’ manual telephone system, as well as Gardner’s, will be converted to a dial system at midnight Saturday, December 14.
1967: Thirty-four members and guests attended the annual Spanish Peaks Grange Christmas dinner and entertainment where Suzanne Rickards recited a holiday poem and Mark Erwin sang “Jingle Bells”.
1972: The street Christmas decorations went up Monday which was a rare sunny and not too windy day for this season.
1977: Boxwell’s Gifts and Flowers, Main at Francisco, is having a close-out sale of all Turquoise and Sterling Silver Jewelry, selling it at one-half price.
1982: Spanish Peaks Inn above Cuchara is having a close-out on all of its Skidoo clothing.
1987: The Cuchara Valley Race Team, aka the Junior Ski Team, began its training December 12 and the first competition will be January 23 when they will host a race.
1992: The beginning and advanced school bands will give a Christmas concert in the new gym with featured soloists Beth Shrout, vocalist, and Veronica Kimbrel playing the piccolo.
