The Life Story of Richard Sears Brown

(As related by Ethel Darline (Osthoff) Brown)

[…and transcribed and occasionally noted

by Wayne Steven Brown, son to Ethel and Richard.]

 

 

July 3, 1991

 

“On this day I will try to begin to write as much as I can of the life and times of Richard Sears Brown.  I will use the first name of all members.  (E.B.)

 

William Sears Brown and Myrtle Bell Fahl were dating a little about 1906.  Actually, from what Myrtle told us thru the years, she had not decided to settle on any young man.  She had too much fun dating several.

 

She and her sisters, Mabel [from research, the name was actually spelled ‘Maybelle’, and is recorded thus in the records in Huntington.], Mary, and Emma, formed a quartet and for several years traveled throughout Indiana, singing at churches, political rallies, etc.  Myrtle was born in Huntington (on a farm or near) – [from Myrtle’s own writing, she was born in Huntington and moved to a farm in the country – ‘We lived in town on High Street where I was born.  When I was 9 months old, dad Fahl moved his wife and family of three girls to the country 2 miles east on Union Township Center Road.’] – Indiana, one of 12 children, six boys and six girls.  They had great fun on the farm.  She was just a bit of a ‘Tom Boy’, and a very independent one.

 

Will was born in or near Marion, Ind., and of course the towns were not far apart.  Marion was a much smaller town than Huntington.  His father was John Jacob Brown, his mother Alice Sears Brown [Alice Jeanette Sears].

 

About 1903, Will got a letter from a friend, Earl Gill, who had found a job as a carpenter in Colo. Springs, working on the Broadmoor Hotel.  He told Will he could probably get work there too, so Will left home to go to Colo. Springs.  He had worked with his father on many building jobs, and was a ‘finish carpenter’.

 

His father and mother (and sister Ethel, ten years younger) had moved to Alabama for a special building job about 1900.  He [Will] evidently lived alone and batched for a while.  No one ever said much about dates and times.  We he got to Colo., he and Earl probably lived in a rooming house and took meals there most of the time.  It must have been a lot of fun as well as hard work.  We understand he and Myrtle corresponded some.  After two or three years his job was done and he went back home to Indiana.

 

Myrtle had been ‘playing the field’, as she told us.  Will found some kind of work and often rode a bike to see his girl friends.  In a time of horses and buggies, a bike was a little unusual.

 

Finally Myrtle settled in on Will for a steady, and on July 9, 1909, they were married [see reference to the wedding and festivities in Myrtle’s writings.]  Earl Gill and Mabel Fahl Allman stood up for them.  We don’t know whether they had a honeymoon, but soon they were on their way to Colo. Springs, as more work had started on the hotel.

 

We understand that Will rented a sort of primitive cabin at first, but he had no transportation to work, so a friend would stop by for him.  One night he was working late, so Myrtle left his supper warming and went in to rest.  Soon she heard someone come in and, thinking it was Will, put on her robe and hurried to the kitchen.  A complete stranger was sitting at the table eating Will’s supper.  I think she yelled and the man, who was not too steady on his feet, escaped out the back door.  Not long thereafter Will came home, and she told him what had happened.  She was really a little frightened, but later they would laugh about it.

 

Soon they found a better place to live, and for almost three years had no children.  Robert Fahl was born April 8, 1912.  He was born in the Methodist Bethel Hospital.  Not long after this, Will and Myrtle bought a little house at 1027 Hancock.  A house with this number still stands on Hancock, but it is so changed no one knows whether it is the same house.

 

Twenty months later, Richard Sears arrived.  Same hospital.  Myrtle was quite unhappy to have two in diapers.  Washing machines were not efficient, and lots of work.  Sometimes it was simpler just to get out the old washboard.

 

Myrtle like to tell of the time she rubbed Bob’s nose in a wet spot he’d made on the floor.  When Will came home she joked about it, but he said ‘don’t rub a baby’s nose in it – he’s not a dog’.  She could laugh about it later.  Dick was a fatter baby than Bob.  Both of them were healthy and happy.  Dick says he won first prize in a Baby Show when he was about a year old.  He was a chubby, blonde, curly-haired baby.

 

We don’t know just when the family moved to Hancock, but we have pictures of Bob as a baby in front of 1027, so we presume it was before he was born.

 

All four of ‘first family’ were born while they lived here.  All were born in the hospital.  John came next, 20 months later, and Billy almost exactly two years after John.  Will doted on his namesake.

 

Sometime in 1918 Will began a course in I.C.S. in Forestry.  It was a fairly new concept, as there were few forest reserves out there then.  He got his graduation certificate and his very first assignment in 1920, at Radium, Mt. Holy Cross area.

 

The Brown’s had gained many friends in the growing city.  Will had become a good friend of the Broadmoor builder, Penrose, and often used his car when necessary.

 

Dick tells of a time when Will was to go out and see that everything was all right at P’s dairy.  Dick and Bob were with him, and when Will went to get something from the running board tool box of the car (a big one, Dick says) there was a big rattle snake in the box.  Will dispatched it at once, but it seemed to give Dick a creepy feeling about snakes.  He was probably only four or five.

 

There are many pictures of friends and relatives in Aunt Emma’s photo book – some unidentified.  [I have seen the ‘photo book – it is in the files somewhere, and MANY of the photo’s are unidentified or only partially identified…  wsb.]

 

I think they moved in early spring of 1916 [had to be ’19].  All of their goods went by rail and was hauled by wagon from Radium (hauled by Unghren).  [Radium is on the Colorado River, about 20 or so miles southwest of Kremmling, CO, on the western end of the Gore Canyon.  Dad and I visited there in 2001 while looking for his first home at a Ranger Station.] 

 

Not many people had cars and the roads were not good at all.  The Ranger Station and Home was a sturdy log cabin.  Dick thinks it had two rooms.  It was not considered bad for children to sleep together in those days.  They had a regular bed for the older boys and Billy had a crib.

 

There was a small store in Radium then and some rancher would drive to Radium and get groceries for several families.  There must have been some late snow that year as several pictures show.

 

(Dick remembers riding on a horse with Bob to go to school here at Radium.  It was a tiny school in Radium.  [The school was actually not in Radium, but about five or so miles out of town, closer to the Ranger Station.]  There was a PO and several families.  The school was open all summer as the weather was too bad to have it in winter.

 

In 1940 we took our two boys up there.  The cabin was still there but we didn’t try to go in.  (Both boys had new shoes and new blisters.  Dick carried them quite a ways.)  The well was well covered with boards.  I found a little white arrowhead near by.  The cabin was on a hill in the woods.  We had to walk through a wheat field to get there.  There was still a rutted lane going to it. 

 

Sometime during the war years or just after, the cabin was moved down to a field, and in the ‘70s was still someone’s home.  The picture of the four boys [Bob, Dick, John, and Billy] playing in the snow was taken at this cabin – as far as we know was Billy’s last picture.)

 

Toward fall in 1919, Myrtle became very homesick, so about mid-September the Browns took a vacation.  They took the train to Indiana, and it was a long, hard trip.  Dick remembers sleeping in the upper berth.  How beautiful the mountains of Colorado must have been – mostly unspoiled then.

 

Will stayed just a week in Indiana (Huntington) then went back to work.  Myrtle put Bob and Dick in school.  Bob was 8, Dick 6, John 4, and Billy 2.  [This was 1919, so Bob would have been 7, Dick 5, John 4, and Billy about 1 ½.]  The joyous times they had, with sisters and brothers mostly near and lots of cousins to get acquainted with.  There must be pictures someplace of their parties and reunions.

 

I think they stayed mostly at Mabel Allman’s (John) – they had a nice big house and the Brown’s needed an H.Q.  Myrtle thought that they would go home for Christmas, but as soon as the boys got in school, they started bringing home diseases.  Both kinds of measles, bad colds.  Dick thinks Will came about Christmas time to take everyone home – he was so lonely and far away.  The doctor thought it would be foolish to try to take the boys home.  Indiana is very damp and winters are bad, and the boys weren’t used to the low altitude.  Will went back alone. 

 

After Christmas, whooping cough started the rounds.  Don’t know who had it first, but by Feb. Billy caught it.  Mabel was pregnant with her Bob, so she (Myrtle) moved to _________ with her boys. 

 

Billy was just too run down, with so much sickness.  He had whooping cough so bad.  Soon it was pneumonia and Myrtle and Bessie nursed him day and night.  February 21, 1920, he died.  Dick remembers knowing their baby was gone.  [In speaking with dad in recent years, he says he remembers coming our of his room one night and seeing everyone milling around.  He was promptly told to go back to bed – Billy had died.]  The doctor said they must ‘get the boys back to the mountains or she would lose them all’.  Will came for the funeral but couldn’t stay.  So in a few weeks they were ready to go home – a sad family.  A day or two before departure, Bob broke out with chicken pox.  Myrtle decided to try to go anyway.  At the depot she boarded the train, explained to the conductor, and he hustled them to a Pullman car.  [Dad has explained recently that a relative of Myrtle’s – Fred Plasterer, married to Bessie – worked for the railroad and was able to get them on the train.  They were told that if they ever once left the sleeping car, they would be put off of the train at the next stop to fend for themselves.]  Dick says he was so sick he never got up on the trip.  He and Bob shared an upper, Myrtle and John a lower berth.  When they got to Colo. Springs, Will met them and took them to Gail’s, a second cousin.

 

(In the early fall of 1988, Dick, Jr. and Mitzi were visiting Wallis’ {Mitzi’s parents in Pueblo}.  Someone had told them of a family style restaurant west of Colorado Springs.  It was a nice drive across country, and they were so pleased with the meal and the general atmosphere that when they came to Greeley a few days later, they brought a brochure and menu to show us.  It was a story of how the restaurant started, gave names of owners, and explained that it was part of a big ranch of that area – the Parker Ranch. 

 

At once Dick knew that Parker had been Gail’s maiden name, and Mr. Parker a cousin of Will’s.  Dick Jr. wrote to them and explained, and in ’89 when we had a Lions convention in Colo. Springs, he called and made a dinner date.  When we got there, everyone was so nice, and after we ate, two of Gail’s daughters came and sat with us – Evelyn and Ethel.  They are in their ‘80s.  They remembered Dick and brothers coming in sick.  After we ate we went up to Ethel’s home and Dick talked to them of his parents.  No one could ever discover what the Brown-Parker relationship is.)

 

When Will got home after Christmas, he was informed he was to be moved to Eagle.  He packed and made ready alone and was moved to a house in town in winter.

 

At Gail’s the boys recovered.  They must have stayed a month.  There were older children there and I wonder if they got sick (See note above.)

 

Dick says they obviously had to stay and get well, as no other train crew would take them on and they would have to change here.  It mist have been a difficult time for all.

 

The house they went to in Eagle is still there, but remodeled.  The boys are sure of where it was.

 

When spring came, two wagons took them to Yeoman Park.  The last part of the road was pretty rough, and they had to ford [East] Brush creek to get to the log cabin, which would be their home for several years.  This beautiful valley is the one Dick remembers best, of course, as it would be the Brown habitat for the next ten years.

 

(The log cabin the Ranger and family used had been a logging cabin and saw mill.  We can still see traces of sawdust where the sawmill was long ago.  The cabin is gone.  Nearby is a spring that Dick says ‘was always’ there.  In that same valley, there is now a beautiful campground, west of where the sawmill stood.  There is also a spring on the west end of the campground, and once when we were there in the ‘70s there was a neat sign: “Bill Brown Spring – Potable water”.

 

The next time we were there, a year later, the sign was gone.  We found out later that every sign they (the Forest Service) put up was soon stolen.)

 

Ranger Brown was in charge of a large territory, seeing trails made and maintained, marking trees for lumber crews, watching for poachers.  One time there was a dispute about sheep’s grazing areas, and he had to testify in court.  Several times the family was given sheep pelts, and they could send them to Denver to be made into lovely wool blankets.

 

(When our first son, Dick, Jr., was born, Myrtle gave us a beautiful pair of blankets which she had cut in a large and small size – one for us and one for ‘Dickie’.  Years later we used the large one in a comforter, and just simply wore out the smaller one.  It must have lasted forty years!)

 

Dick likes to tell about the time that his dad went to help an ill man, who had what they thought was pneumonia.  It was a dread disease in those days – no sulfa or penicillin.  Will cut up a dozen onions, cooked them in a skillet, and tied the whole mess in a cloth.  When he thought the temperatures was right, he put the bag of onions on the man’s chest, covering it all with cloths and blankets to keep the heat in.  In a few hours the ill old man began coughing and got his temperature down.  When he got rid of the phlegm, he got well.

 

Another time, Will had noticed that someone was hunting deer out of season.  He had, at different times, found remains of animals when he was out on trails.  There was an old man who raised cattle who lived in the hills.

 

Ethel interjected [the following in the telling of the story started above…  It was for a class she was taking called ‘Living My Life’.

 

 

 

 

 

The Missing Venison

 

My father-in-law, Will Brown, was a forest ranger, and many a time he found himself in a difficult position.  He tried to be fair, and never favored friends, when truth or honesty was involved.

It was about 1924, and the family had moved to summer quarters – a three-room cabin about 20 miles SE of Eagle, CO.  Of all the jobs Will really disliked, probably the worst was trying to keep people from hunting out of season.  At one time, he had found remains of a deer, and suspected of poaching an old rancher who lived alone.

On a fine, warm, early summer day, he saddled up his horse and set off on the trail to the rancher’s house.  An hour or so later, he arrived, tied his horse, and ‘hello-ed’ the house.  No answer came – he knocked on the door.  Was that a feeble call he heard?  He tried the latch – it was unlocked.  Calling, he went in, looked around, and entered a tiny bedroom.

There in bed, looking almost ill and uncomfortable, lay Pete, the covers pulled up close around his face.

‘Hi, Will.  What’s going on?’

‘Hi, Pete.  Just happened to pass by.’  They both knew that the ranch was completely out of the way of most travelers.

‘What’s wrong, Pete?  Got a fever?’

‘Yeah, I guess so.  Been in bed all day.’

‘You look warm.  Too many covers?’

‘No – can’t risk pneumonia, you know.’

‘Yeah, but if you get too warm, it will be worse.  Look, Pete.  Why don’t you admit you killed that deer?’

‘What deer, Will?  You know I wouldn’t do that – you know I obey the law.’

Will got up, walked to the bed, and threw the covers back.  In the bed with Pete was a half of a small deer; the ranger had won again!

If Will had thought the man was in need of food, he would have done nothing, but the rancher wasn’t even ill, had plenty to love on, and his own meat nearby.

 

One day, on his way home to the cabin, Will was coming down Hat Creek Trail when he saw a large Brown Bear.  Fearing for the safety of his family Will shot the bear, then rode down and called the boys to come.  He sent Bob and Dick up the hill to look for something.  They were so excited when they saw a bear so close to home.  Will took a packhorse.  Later they got the skin and head stuffed.  The claws were very long and sharp, too, and the teeth were in good shape.

 

(The bearskin, with the head and claws, was cured and cleaned – probably in Glenwood Springs.  It was always displayed and bragged about in the Brown family.  When both Will and Myrtle were gone, son John opted to adopt the bearskin and took it home to California with them, where it had a place of honor in John’s den for a few years.

 

When John draped it on a big chair, with the head in front of the floor, Mary had trouble one day when cleaning and fell, wrenching her back and ankle.  So John cut the head off.  Before long, they discovered that the skin wasn’t holding up well in the warm climate – moths, etc. – so they got rid of it.)

 

[It has been related that Will had shot and killed the bear with a pistol – probably an old .44.  He had tried to call to the family from the top of the hill, but no one could understand him, so he rode down and told them in person then went back up the hill to get the bear.  Dad (Dick) has said recently that he was out fishing and didn’t hear Will, thereby missing most of the excitement.]

 

Every spring they took milk cows, ranger horses, and chickens up to Yeoman.  And in the fall, back to town again.  They found a large house to rent over near the river (Eagle) and had two barns, one for hay and grain, one for mining equipment [owned by the lady who rented the house to them].

 

About 1924 [it was probably several years earlier, for dad has mentioned that they only lived there – in the old log cabin – for about two years], Will was sent over to Vail to take down a small house to bring to Yeoman Park for a Ranger Station.  Don’t know how long it took, but he tore down the whole house, board by board, named and numbered them, and had wagons take them to Eagle and up the Brush to the Park, where he started to build it back up again.  We have my pictures of it, and I painted an oil of it in the ‘70s.  It had just a kitchen and bedroom.  In one corner of the bedroom was a makeshift desk for Will to work at.  He also had added on a sleeping porch for the boys on the south, and a utility porch on the north.

 

(The old Ranger Station was left for years, after the Browns moved to Boulder.  Then one year, about ’46 or ’47, it was gone, and we heard it was up in Fulford.  We went to Fulford (on the awful old road) and finally found it without a porch, being used by a group of road workers.

 

Years later, again in Fulford, we couldn’t find it.  Then, going down ‘Main Street, I saw it, now with a closed-in porch on the West side.  Got a picture of it then.)

 

[There was a small spring up the gentle hill, about 25 feet above the Ranger Station.  Will put a pipe in the spring that led down to the kitchen area of the house.  They had running water whenever needed.  The spring is still there (as of May, 2002), although it was just barely a trickle of water in this drought year.]

 

Meanwhile, Myrtle had produced Max (1922), a big happy boy, and a blonde – as Billy had been.  After the family moved to the new station, Wayne was on the way.  Myrtle started to miscarry at six months.  She was taken to friends in Salida and spent most of three months in bed.  The doctor there was very hopeful of saving the baby.  Finally, June 24, 1924, she was taken to the hospital and Wayne was born.  He was a big 10 pounds, but right from the first her milk didn’t agree with him.  They finally turned to Eagle brand, as many doctors did at that time.  Wayne’s first year was difficult, but finally he improved and was normal size and health at one year.

 

At one time, Will had bought a horse in or near Vail (no town then, but several ranches).  Will and family took Dick to the ranch to get the horse.  He followed the family to Avon, then went on his own up a trail and over the mountain past Fulford and down to home station.  He remembers that so well.

 

Dick likes to tell about ‘Jim-dog’, an Airedale, who never knew when he was licked.  He would fight any dog that came near, nearly always getting beat.  But he fought that same dog again whenever they met.  Lots of people had dogs, but they were nearly always outdoor dogs.

 

Myrtle liked to talk about the fun they had in their early days.  Several times each summer dances were held in mountain schoolhouses.  Everyone came, and the Browns’ got clothes and food ready, loaded two or three horses, and rode for hours to get there.  A good dress was rolled in tissue paper and put in a big bag.  Will took one or two boys (the baby, if there was one) and Myrtle took the others.  Usually the dance was already going when they arrived.  Young children found friends; babies were wrapped in blankets and laid in a corner.  There was always supper by nine, then more dancing.  Nursing mothers fed babies.  Some men sneaked out for stronger drinks.  When children got sleepy, they could pile down on a bench or the floor.  Dances lasted all night, and by morning everyone was ready for breakfast and a slow, tired ride back home.  Myrtle told of riding ten miles once, over the mountain to Avon?  Also during those years, there was a schoolhouse seven or eight miles from the Ranger Station down the road we use today. 

 

[When dad and I visited that area last May (2002), the old schoolhouse was a business called the ‘Old School House’.  I don’t remember now what the business was, because shortly after we saw it, we made note of a sign posted that let everyone know that there was going to be a golf course built in that valley – south of Eagle.  I was so upset, that I forgot about writing down the information about the school.]

 

When Bob was 15 ½ and Dick 14, they were working on trails and roads.  There was an old grader like the one at Radium that they used.  Later, even before they were 16, they worked with _________ __________, who was sort of a lazy, easy-going man who did odd jobs.  They had to put hours in on his paycheck, because they were too young.

 

(Good old _______________ didn’t seem to mind the Brown boys using his paycheck hours.  He was just a little simple, but worked for Will for years.  Myrtle said he made improper advances t her a time or two, but we’ve all seen her being a little careless about tight skirts, and spreading her legs to sit down – and no panties.  In later years I heard Max ask her to ‘pull down’ her skirt or sit differently.)

 

The work was hard – muscles got lots of exercise.  They made lots of mistakes, but they learned.  As Bob got into High School, he was very good at math and studied hard, so that he got a full scholarship to the University of Colorado when he graduated.  More about that later.

 

Several summers, the boys worked in a lettuce garden near the East Brush-West Brush forks.  By then, John helped too.  They could weed and hoe and then harvest.  Crops like lettuce, potatoes, and some flowers loved the cool nights and the red soil (minerals?).

 

A woman whose family they got to know well (Mrs. got to by Worthy Grand Matron of Eastern Star in the ‘50s.)  She raised sweet peas, gathered them several times a week, and sent them by train to Denver for florists.  I had never seen such big sweet peas!  The vines were at least nine feet tall, with long stemmed, big flowers.  They were so sweetly scented.

 

The incident of Will’s riding asleep occurred about [there was no text for this story from mother – the writing just stopped here, as if she meant to come back to it.  I shall relate the story as best I can remember. 

 

Will and family were living at the Radium station, and he had gone to a ranch some distance away to buy a horse.  On the way home, he fell asleep and fell off the horse.  The next thing he remembered was he and the horse riding up to the Ranger Station.  He didn’t remember how he got back on the horse nor how the horse could have found its way to a place it had never been after traveling so many miles.]

 

Will was a singularly quiet man, letting Myrtle carry the conversation on most occasions.  She was very talkative, interesting, and generally quite knowledgeable.  All their married life – which was from July 1909 to January 1959 – we always said that the reason he didn’t talk much was that she did.  That was not always true.  He talked with friends, especially about forest service problems, hunting, fishing, etc.  Mother Osthoff (Daisy) could get him to talking easily.  Dick is now the same way about talking.  Max is more like Myrtle.

 

After Billy died in Indiana, there were no more babies until 1922 when Max arrived.  Will was really hopeful for a girl, but even the old cow produced a bull.  I cannot in any way make this seem like an adventure.  My thoughts and ideas come from different knowledge.  Max’s memories are different, too, and Dick says ‘maybe exaggerated’.

 

After Wayne came in 1924, the family was complete.  The younger boys never had to work as hard as the older ones, as in September 1930 when the clan moved to the city – Boulder.  Myrtle and Will decided she could rent a house and board the boys for as much as Bob would spend on room and board.  His scholarship to C.U. covered only tuition, books, labs, etc.

 

[The narrative ends here.  Many other stories and comments about lifestyle in Boulder are contained in other writings by Ethel and others.  I shall leave this one as it is…]