Walsenburg
1881: Governor Pitkin refused to raise the reward offered for the murderer of Huerfano County Sheriff J.D. Esquibel even after a request from Senator Barela but says the state will pay for the return of the murderer to Walsenburg for trial.
1886: Jose Ramos Medina and Miss Eduvigen Archuleta, both of Walsenburg, were married, the first license issued in nearly a month in Huerfano County.
1891: Mr. Osgood and other officials of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Co., came through town in their special railroad car on their way to inspect local mines.
1896: The horse race from La Veta to the Robinson mine was postponed due to the heavy snow.
1901: Died, Mrs. C.D. Hendren, 54, at her home on Seventh Street. She leaves eight children, Silvano, Cornelius, Mrs. F.X. Rickelmann, Virginia, Fred, Cyrus, Constance and Mrs. John Lowenbruck.
1906: District Judge Henry Hunter was given a farewell banquet and reception before moving with his family to Trinidad.
1911: Captain Tommy Tannus will organize a group of American Boy Scouts at 4 p.m. Tuesday in the Roof and Dick building. Boys under 12 years are not eligible.
1916: Fall Bearing Strawberries, Plants $2.50 per 100, at Mead’s.
1921: Red columbines are already blooming. Remarkable, but oldtimers remember when cottonwoods used to show green by the first of April.
1926: A Maytag branch store will open at 110 East Sixth Street under Frank E. Finley.
1931: Fred Sobon of Service Drug here had an exciting experience in Denver when two men held him up and took $1.26. Sobon then shot six times at one of his assailants and severely pummeled the other, recovering the $1.26.
1936: Mr. and Mrs. Tom McGeechan of Pictou have been trying to contact relatives in Pennsylvania where the recent flood claimed so many lives around Johnstown.
1941: Dr. G.R. Mallett was elected mayor and Steve Glinsky treasurer of Walsenburg, and Tom Wilson was re-elected clerk. Councilmen are, Ward I, Dr. C.A. Brunelli and W.S. Young: Ward II, Alex Shosky and A.J. Dissler: Ward III, Art Benine and Louis Romero: and Ward IV, Conrad Cordova and Joe Habib.
1946: Bill Boyer and Tommy Rivera of Walsenburg won their bouts in the AAU Golden Gloves tourney in Trinidad last night in front of 2,000 spectators.
1951: Lions Club members last night toured Frontier Power Company’s plant at Walsen Camp after having dinner in the Klein Cafe.
1956: The Oasis Tavern on Main Street was broken into and cash taken from the cigarette machine and juke box, and a Luger pistol was stolen.
1961: St. Mary Glee Club, under the direction of Sister Suzanne, will present “Sunbonnet Sue”, a two act musical comedy, on April 7.
1966: The Southern Colorado Community Action Committee has approved a two-month summer Head Start Child Development Program for 110 children in Huerfano County, with a budget of $23,165.
1971: Nola Geiser’s Rambler Restaurant will serve an all you can eat smorgasbord Easter Sunday for $1.85 (plus drinks).
1976: Cheerleaders for St. Mary School the past year have been seventh and eighth graders Phyllis Bechaver, Gabby Rice, LaVerne Maes and Yvonne Sedillo.
1981: Walsenburg Weather: In March, 21 inches of snow fell for total of 2.31 inches of precipitation. The high temperature was 72, low 16.
1986: The six-month old Silver Eagle band has been playing weekly gigs all over Huerfano and Pueblo counties, as well as La Junta. They will play for dances this Friday and Saturday nights in the Marlboro.
1991: Walsenburg street crews placed a “Welcome Home Desert Storm Troops” sign in Triangle Park for the 19 Huerfanos who served in that conflict.
La Veta
1880: Members of the Baptist church voted to pay a preacher $200 a year, and then discussed ways to earn money to pay him.
1885: J.C. Goss was paid $10 for digging the ditch along that section of Francisco Street across the river to keep the creek water from running down Front Street (at that time, Front meant Ryus Avenue).
1890: Cupid came to La Veta for in the past two weeks, Hervey M. Hills and Mrs. Kate Willis, Charles E. Sharp and May Edmisten, and Corin F. Davis and Mattie Kimsey, all of La Veta, have exchanged wedding vows.
1895: C.L. Martin will move his grocery stock into the building where his brother Frank has a meat market and combine the two businesses.
1900: J.G. Bombard and J.O. Francisco are at last making improvements at Sulphur Springs for summer tourists, including repairing the bath house and cottages. They plan to build more.
1905: F.L. Martin is building a “varanda” on to his new home that formerly belonged to his son C.L. in Martin Addition.
1910: We learn M.T. Hills, 82, dropped dead on a street in San Diego. He came to this area in 1880 when he was very ill and homesteaded on the upper Cuchara. He later moved to La Veta where he was postmaster and still owns a house here. He leaves his sons Victor of Denver and Hervey of Cripple Creek and nieces Mrs. James Nuttall and Mrs. J.B. Wright.
1915: Easter is approaching and the weather conditions will have to improve if the rabbits are to lay any eggs.
1920: April Fool’s Day was one of the coldest days we have had this winter.
1925: The junior high school gave its Spring Carnival in the Stock Barn Friday night to raise money to purchase new books. They cleared $32.30 which will buy many.
1930: J. Oscar Smith, president of the Huerfano County Dairy Herd Improvement Association, was named a director of the Colorado State Dairy Association organized in Colorado Springs Saturday.
1935: Another sandstorm on Monday tested the good nature of housewives who had just dug out from a previous wind. Sheds were unroofed and a portion of the baseball park fence blown down, but at that we got off easy in comparison with other places in southern Colorado.
1940: Virgil Ottinger of La Veta was named Grand Champion showman at the Little International Livestock Show at Colorado Agricultural College in Fort Collins.
1945: The snow course at Blue Lake was measured April 1 and found to be 29.8 inches of snow with 9.1 inches of water content. Last year on the same date it was measured at 22.5 inches with 6.2 in water content, or just about the five year average on that course.
1950: The La Veta baseball team’s game against Sopris was postponed after the backstop at Sopris was blown away.
1955: While a black dust storm raged through most of southeastern Colorado, La Veta received a sharp thunderstorm followed by six inches of snow.
1960: Tres Valles Ranch’s bull brought the top price of $730 at the annual spring bull sale in the La Veta Sales Barn. About 50 bulls were consigned to the event.
1965: The school election will be May 4 to elect two directors. District A is composed of all land north of the D&RG railroad in School District Re-2, and B is all land south of the railroad and east of Main Street.
1970: Representing La Veta school in the county spelling contest will be Tammy Smith, Nancy Johnson, Nancie Aguirre, David Magnino, Rhonda Maes, Jane Sanchez, Anthony Padilla, Donetta Smith and Robert Spalding.
1975: Rotary Club will again sponsor an Easter Egg Hunt with two age categories, from ages 3-7 and from 8-10, in Town Park.
1980: After temperatures in the 60s on Friday, another foot of snow fell Saturday and Sunday.
1985: Twenty-seven members of the La Veta High School band and their sponsors just returned from a bus trip to Lake Tahoe, Squaw Valley and San Francisco where they presented a concert, and home by way of Salt Lake City.
