Freddie's grandfather was one of the first homesteaders in Moffat County in 1902. Freddie speaks about her mother's and her own life in the Craig area. Freddie was born in 1912. She talks about: play, work, sports, puberty, music (piano and singing), and dating. Members of her family played instruments and they played and sang together. She studied music at the University of Colorado and Chicago Conservatory of Music. After living in Hollywood for two years, she returned home and married her high school boyfriend, Tom Blevins, at twenty-six and lived on the family ranch in Brown's Park with their two children. She taught in rural schools for twenty years, earning a teaching certificate in the summers. Freddie died in 2006.
June was born in Leadville, Colorado in 1904. She graduated from Colorado State College of Education in Greeley and accepted a job in Maybell in 1925(?). She lived in the motel and met a local cowboy, Henry Sweeney, who became her husband. They lived on the land his father had homesteaded in 1896. She tells stories about her trip to Maybell, and her year of teaching. She talks about her marriage, honeymoon, and new home seven miles south of Lay. June talks about: her pregnancies, riding a horse, teaching in rural schools, teaching in Craig, serving as the Moffat County School Superintendent. Her husband did the housework when she was too busy. June relates stories of her mother-in-law, who came from Ireland. She was a maid in Meeker when she met Pat Sweeney and they homesteaded in Lay. She talks the illness of one adult son. June died in 1987.
Jayne was born at home in Sunbeam, Colorado in 1918. Her grandmother, Sarah Farrell, came to the Sunbeam area to homestead as a single woman in 1887 from Ohio. She came at age thirty-two because she hadn't married and was considered a failure. She married a cowboy in 1890. Sarah was a practical nurse and delivered many babies in this remote area. Jayne tells stories of her grandmother and mother living on the homestead: home remedies, dances, food, outside work, and isolation in the winter. Jayne talks about her own childhood as a "tomboy." When she started school she went to a rural school and then moved to Denver to live with her grandparents. She returned to the Maybell area in 1944 at age twenty-six with one son and divorced. She married again to Carl E. "Mike" Hoth, and lived on ranches where her husband worked. Jayne cooked for the ranch hands and also worked outside with her husband. They had three children. Jayne talks about: ranch life, hobbies, and clubs. Jayne died in 1989.
Hilda's parents homesteaded in Dry Lake, fifteen miles south of Maybell in 1916. They lived in a rented house, a tent, and a dugout before they built the homestead. They also homesteaded a second time on Wolf Mountain, further south on Price Creek. Hilda talks about: grubbing sage brush, building the school, homeschooling, description of the dugout, and hauling water. She describes the 1918 flu, death, and burial. She talks about the outside work she did as the oldest girl: building fence, herding cows, breaking horses, plowing fields, mowing and pitching hay. She also describes: types of clothing, transportation, play, dances in Maybell, doctors, pregnancy, births, medical issues, and home remedies. She worked as a maternity helper from age fifteen to eighteen, and then worked at St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction until she married at age twenty. They went to California to work on a fruit farm until the depression and then returned to Price Creek to buy a ranch. She talks about difficult years with lack of water, loss of animals, and Home Demonstration clubs. They had one child. Hilda enjoyed painting with oils. Hilda died in 2001.
Rosamay was born in 1898 on a ranch near Juniper Springs. Her mother, Bell, lived as a young woman in Maybell and the town may have been named after her and her sister, May. Rosamay's father was the foreman on the K-Diamond Ranch and there were no nearby neighbors. She and her sister rode horses and played with dolls. After her father died, they moved to Maybell where her mother owned a drugstore. She describes visiting an Indian camp at Cross Mountain. Rosamay also talks about: clothing for school, riding, home remedies, and dances. Her education ended after one year in high school for financial reasons. She later went to business college and worked for three years before marrying. Her husband, George Savage, was the chief of police in Boulder, Colorado. When he retired they bought a ranch near Rangely and she joined the Home Demonstration Club. She had no children. She enjoyed textile painting and quilting. Rosamay died in 1993.
