Walsenburg
1881: The county jail burned down last Wednesday but the three men confined within were saved. The iron cells may be sound enough to re-use when it is rebuilt. 1893: Reverend Bissell gave the services to dedicate the new Presbyterian Church in Rouse. His first services there were given in August 1891 when the members were meeting in the old Rouse school. 1898: Emilio Garcia and Louisa Rasco, both of Crestones, were married January 12 by Justice Benjamin A. Arnold. 1903: A wagon load of skaters drove out to Martin Lake Tuesday evening and enjoyed the fine ice. 1908: Tercio, the $1,000,000 coal camp in Las Animas County owned by Colorado Fuel and Iron, was abandoned last Friday and 400 miners are leaving. The company spent $500,000 for coke ovens and the same for houses and buildings. Too much slack in the coal made it unprofitable to work. 1913: If the scarlet fever situation continues to clear up, school will resume January 27. 1920: We are promised that South Main Street is to be straightened and a concrete bridge will be built over the Cucharas. 1925: A new dance pavilion, the Spanish-American Arcadia, will be opened shortly in Joseph’s Hall on lower Main by D.L. Cohen. 1929: The Pueblo Salvation Army industrial unit will open a relief store next Tuesday at 333 West Seventh Street in Walsenburg. 1934: Hope Guerrero, a recent graduate of St. Joseph’s hospital in Denver, is now employed as a nurse in the Lamme Hospital. She is a daughter of Alex Guerrero, former Huerfano County Assessor. 1939: Just as modern merchandising methods are giving the public a five cent loaf of bread, so is the World Independent offering a five cent a week newspaper. Cost is $2.50 per year or three cents for a single issue. 1944: A special unit of air force men and women performed last night, including a 12 piece band, ventriloquist, singers, dancers and comedians, before a capacity crowd in the Huerfano County High School auditorium. 1949: Forty Walsenburg Lions and 110 others were present Friday night to witness the presentation of the charter for the new Civic Club. 1955: August Chatin will conduct an adult education class in mineral prospecting and all uranium hunters are invited to enroll. 1961: Over the weekend, the St. Mary Crusaders defeated Aguilar 57-39 and Hoehne, 77-58. In the Aguilar game, Phil Vigil scored 21 points and against Hoehne, 39, which set a school record. Wayne Toller got 23 rebounds in the Aguilar contest. 1966: City Council appointed Angelo Mosco as city attorney, replacing E.U. Sandoval, and rehired Mike Rampa chief of police. It also changed meetings from Monday to the first and third Tuesdays of each month so the reporter from the Huerfano World could attend. 1971: Virgil Ladurini, who began work for the Santi Oil Company just after his graduation from high school in 1936 and has been owner since 1969, announced the firm will now be known as the Ladurini Oil Company. 1976: Michael Angelo Albert Baudino, born January 8 to Robert and Beverly Baudino of Aguilar, was the first baby of 1976 born in Huerfano Memorial Hospital. 1981: With the payment of $110,000 in delinquent taxes of the Rio Cucharas subdivision, the financial picture of School District Re-1 looks a little brighter. 1986: Zitta A. Hughes died on her 82nd birthday. A daughter of Charles and Effie Wolf of Gardner, she married Clay Hughes in 1942. She was a teacher for the Sharpsdale and Butte Valley schools and a bookkeeper for the World Independent 14 years. Survivors include her children Virginia Edmundson, Clay J. and Virgil Hulsey.
La Veta
1877: Town Marshal William M. McOmber was paid $13.50 for his labor in building the new calaboose. He was ordered to purchase four pairs of blankets not to exceed $3.00 per pair and also to get a half ton of coal for the same. 1882: A man named McDonald got the Staplin and Stranger leads on the west Spanish Peak January 1 when the title had just expired. He had already staked them when they arrived at daybreak. 1894: Two shifts are working the Grayback mine and the owners are hopeful. 1899: The editor is not adept at engineering a sleigh ride – we tried it and succeeded in dumping our family into a barb wire fence near the Petrie residence on the Wahatoya. 1904: Town Board issued a notice reminding residents and businessmen not to throw or sweep trash, ashes, paper, slops, tin cans, etc., into the streets and alleys. 1909: Grover Crum has been delivering milk on horseback to his customers in Oakview because with the roads blocked with snow he cannot get through with his team. 1914: Ed Martin has purchased a half interest in D.S. Stewart’s New Meat Market, opposite the post office on the east side of Main Street. 1919: Reverend and Mrs. D.I. Slipher enjoyed a surprise when 30 or 40 of their church members and friends visited the parsonage Friday evening for a social gathering. 1924: Our pioneer resident D.D. Ryus writes from California that he vividly recalls back when there was a regular arrival of a six-horse stage coach at Francisco Plaza. 1930: The state has appropriated $100,000 to complete the highway between La Veta Pass and Walsenburg with work to start this summer. The new road is to go across the mesa and cut off La Veta entirely. 1935: T.C. Murdock is celebrating his 40th year of living in La Veta. His wife was a daughter of Colonel Jack Coffey who founded the town of Coffeyville, Kansas. 1941: With the new semester, the school paper is now edited by Joy Utt, and class editors, from senior class to freshmen, are Violet Zember, Catherine Wolgram, Jimmee Howard and Agnes Baker. 1946: La Veta Redskins defeated Primero, 31-21 and Sopris, 31-18 to take first place in the Las Animas County League. 1952: It was a double victory for the Washington junior high Wildcat cagers and a sad day for the Redskins Friday when the former came to town and the Walsenburg lightweights eked out a close 13-12 win and the heavyweights a 36-22 victory. 1958: Virginia Shrout has been selected this year’s winner of the Daughters of the American Revolution’s award for La Veta High School. 1963: An Arctic cold front last week sent the temperature tumbling to 36 degrees below zero and brought in a snowfall of several inches. 1968: The traditional ground hog supper February 1 in the Methodist Church will include chile, chicken and noodles and homemade pies. 1973: Elected officers of the Community Service Club were Mary Bay, president, Daisy Nauerth, vice president, Pearl Kitchen, secretary and Edna Thomas, treasurer. 1978: Died, John Bailey, 81. Born in 1896 in Kansas, he served in World War I and came to La Veta in 1937 when he bought a ranch on Middle Creek. He leaves his children Marjorie Keeling, Freeman and Jack of La Veta, Maurice and Richard both of Walsenburg, and Dr. James. 1984: Marriage licenses have been issued to Joseph Alan Kratochvil and Shannon Luanne Jameson, and to John Caudill and Sarah Bodwell.
