| Harold L. (Hal) Mansfield, Ph.D. | |
| 7366 North County Road 27, Loveland, CO 80538 | |
| Phone: 970.667.3878 | E-mail: hal.mansfield3@gmail.com |
One of the problems with doing family history research is that the task is never done. There is always one more person to find (dead or alive), one more photo to add to a growing collection, or one more fact to seek out.
Since the job is never done, the decision to sit down and put some, or all, of the available material into print form becomes arbitrary. Still, it must be done. The research must be set aside in favor of organizing, writing and putting it all into print, especially as the writer ages and as the amount of material, including names, dates, old photographs, and many other types of documentation grows towards the overwhelming.
As with most people, I turned to family history research too late in life. By the time I became genuinely interested, many of the people who would have been the best sources of information of all of the types mentioned above were dead. Others were too far along the road to forgetfulness to be of help. Still others were too far removed in motivation or distance, or both, to help.
What would have been a difficult task, at best, became a nearly impossible job. Perversely, in my case, the greater challenge became an element of the motivation for me to take up the task of finding out about my ancestors, many of the long-dead and living relatives, many of them only distantly related. The small amount of information available to me when I started doing family history research strengthened my resolve. So did some of the intriguing facts that became available early in the process. So did some of the people I met in person or through correspondence. This latter aspect of family history research has been one of the most satisfying experiences.
Let me explain. My immediate family was poor. My father, John Martin Mansfield, entered the livery stable business when the automobile was becoming the chief means of transportation. He stayed with the business as his family grew and as business declined. Finally, he abandoned the almost extinct business to take up farming.
He became a farmer with the help of his father, Elton Mansfield, at a time when prices for farms and farm produce were at or near all-time highs. They bought a farm with a modest old house on it and built a second house. They bought some livestock, including pigs, and went to work.
The pigs died from hog cholera and farm produce prices crashed. The debts could not be paid. There was no money to meet daily family expenses. The farm was lost, along with all of the equity and hard work that went into it. As the Great Depression deepened, so did my father's resolve never again to take on major debts. He became a day laborer. He did hard, physical work the rest of his working life. And, except for a few clothes and tools, he owned almost nothing for the rest of his long life.
Through all of the years of financial hardship, my mother, Addie May McClure Mansfield, was a housewife. Mom and Dad had ten children. Their second child, Mary Jane, died when she was about seven years old. Some of the older children left home at about the time I was born and before my younger brother was born. However, even though there never were ten children in the house, times were hard and food was scarce. Our cupboards and closets were never completely bare. But, at times, they were nearly so.
After he and Dad lost the farm, Grandpa Elton was poor. Dad's only surviving sister, Ollie Secrest, was poor. Mom's sisters and brothers - the ones that I knew about - were somewhat better off than we were, at times, but they were poor.
So, while I was growing up, family history research held an unpromising prospect. I did not want to spend time and effort looking into the lives of impoverished people or even into the lives of people who were somewhat better off than we were. I was too young and inexperienced to know that the lives of the poor can be as rich and revealing of the depth and breadth of human spirit, enterprise and interest as the lives of the rich and famous; more so, as often as not. The failure to realize that information treasures lay almost at my fingertips and was available, often, just for the asking, was not the least of my youthful follies, however.
Probably because both Mom and Dad worked endless hours and probably because the family's interests were those of just getting by on a day-to-day basis, either discussions of the wider family did not occur while I was growing up, or, if such discussions did occur, I was too preoccupied with other things to pay attention to them.
I was unaware of just how large and complex the wider family was, even though I did know some of my aunts, uncles and cousins; some, but not enough of them. I knew some of them, but not those relatives who could have provided vital information about some of the more intriguing aspects of the family history and information about some of the successful family members from the past.
My sister, Phyllis Mansfield Chance, was interested in family history. She developed the interest and gathered some information long before she was able to enlist my support in her efforts. Through those many years, I was busy with growing older, getting an education, establishing a family, developing a career and enjoying numerous hobbies and other interests. I openly rejected several attempts to get involved in family history research, preferring the 'present' to the 'past.'
Then, Phyllis invited Wesley Payne, a somewhat distant cousin, to one of our family picnics. I was in my fifties by then. Wes brought a book to the picnic. It was a family history book that he had put together. The title was "The Paynes of Pennsylvania." Wes had spent years researching the Payne family and many, many of family lines connected to the Paynes. I bought a copy of the book. Artimitia Jane Payne married my great grandfather, William Martin Mansfield.
Very few members of my family were included in the book. Some of the information about those few that were in the book was patently wrong. There was just enough information to convince me that I wanted to know more about my direct family and about the various branches of the family, past and present, including some members of the extensive Payne family. Full, active research did not become an immediate part of my life. But, I did have some talks and correspondence with my sister, Phyllis, and - a bit later - with Wes Payne.
The search began, sometimes with compelling and consuming force, sometimes with less intensity, in 1989. Family history research became one of my hobbies. It is now one of my very few hobbies. It is, by far, the most interesting and rewarding of my late-life hobbies. 'Woulda, coulda and shoulda' sometimes occupy my thoughts. However, that is true of almost any aspect of my life. The key is not what 'might have been.' The important thing is 'what can be done now.' And, what already has been accomplished.
After my sister, Phyllis, and Wes Payne, several other people should be mentioned. Some are relatives, some not. A number of the key people who helped me gather family history information did so out of the shear belief that family history research is important. These people volunteered time and effort to help me, just as they helped innumerable other family history researchers.
Among my relatives, Beverly Knowles Metzger was a great help. Before she died, Beverly wrote several books and made many family history trips. Ruth Seely of Laramie, Wyoming, provided information, a great family Bible, and a treasured photo album. Several years before she died, Ruth Seely also took me out to the Mansfield ranch, west of Laramie, where only a few rocks mark the spot where Oliver Mansfield, her grandfather, had his ranch house.
The late Virginia Carman sent detailed information on her family and photocopies of some excellent family photos. Her brother, David Mansfield Carman, sent a photo album and provided information. David, legally blind for many years, has been a 'telephone friend' for many years.
Mary Hall Desmond, Webster City, Iowa, and her brother, John Hall, provided photographs and valuable information, before their deaths. Kathleen Powers, a cousin in Kingman, Arizona, let me plough through her family history information and make photocopies.
The remarkable Herman Davis sent information about his family and he and I talked about the family when I visited him (in person or by phone and e-mail). Herman lived to be 97. His son, John Davis, shared copies of his extensive family history work.
Montana McClure Sullivan, Fountain Valley, California, was helpful. Mary Lou Clark of O'Neill, Nebraska provided information on and contacts to parts of the family I never dreamed existed. Loren and Robert Taber did research into their family history and Robert organized the information into a booklet.
Among non-relatives - as far as I now know, she is not a relative - there is Sarah Finnicum of Carrollton, Carroll County, Ohio, whose dedication and fact-finding proved invaluable, especially in the early stages of my research. Sarah won local honors for her dedication to family history research and to the family history center and museum in Carroll County, Ohio. Also, Vivian Kalton of Webster City, Iowa deserves to be mentioned. She put me in touch with some valuable relatives, such as John Hall and Mary Hall Desmond. In addition to that, she sent me valuable information, including some pictures.
There are many branches of the family that will not be detailed in this book. Some will not even be mentioned. As I write this, there are over 3,000 names in my direct database. I have access to several thousand more names that are not in my family history computer files. For example, I will not include any of the lines of Edward and Catherine Mansfield's children, other than their son, John Mansfield, who was my great, great grandfather.
The Mansfield and Related Family Histories story begins with very little information for the early generations and it ends with living relatives about whom little is known except their names. The first ancestor in this history is Edward Mansfield, who was born about 1770. Edward was my great, great, great grandfather. He married a woman named Catherine in about 1795. Catherine's maiden name is not known. They had ten children of record.
Edward's father also may have been an Edward Mansfield. But no definite information on that is presently available. A brother, or cousin, it is uncertain which, was the Thomas Mansfield who moved to the Steubenville, Ohio area in about 1795 and who established a well-documented Mansfield family dynasty there.
Edward, the younger, died in Carroll County on May 16, 1841. He is buried in the Harmony Cemetery, Rose Township, Carroll County, Ohio. Exactly when and where he was born remains a mystery in spite of extensive efforts by Beverly Knowles Metzger, late of Manly, Iowa, and Elmer Anderson (deceased) of Walla Walla, Washington. Maryland is listed as the younger Edward's place of birth. That information, apparently, came from census records, but which census records the information came from is not known.
Catherine, who was born on January 17, 1778, in Delaware, lived until January 30, 1863. She lived the last years of her life with her third-youngest child, John Mansfield. She is buried in Harmony Cemetery, near her husband's grave. The place where Edward and Catherine are buried points up one of the frustrations of family history research: namely, misinformation. The first information I received about them listed the wrong cemetery (Heights Cemetery). It was Beverly Knowles Metzger who provided the correct burial information. She visited the burial plots and included a picture of Edward's gravestone in one of her books.
I know nothing else about Edward or Catherine. Since children were the 'old age insurance' of the time, it was natural for Catherine to live the final years of her life with one of her children. In John, she had a son who was a substantial member of the Rose Township community - and perhaps of the wider Carroll and Stark County communities in Ohio as well.
My great, great grandfather, John Mansfield - there is no middle name or initial of record - was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, on November 11, 1811. He was the eighth child, of record, of Edward and Catherine Mansfield. When and how he migrated to Carroll County, Ohio, is not known. He married Elizabeth Woy. Elizabeth was born on January 13, 1814, in Stoystown, Somerset County, Pennsylvania. When and where the couple met, courted and married is not known. The couple had ten children of record.
Elizabeth's parents were John George Woy and Catherine Friedline. Both families were "old-line" Somerset County families. The Friedline family, in particular, was a large family, about which much family history information exists in various forms and in diverse places, but little of which I have in my family history files. There are many phone book listings of families with surnames of both Woy and Friedline in Somerset County to this day.
Elizabeth died on March 11, 1875. When John died there was a very brief obituary in one of the local papers. In that obituary, the writer mentioned that John was one of the "leading characters in Carroll County." However, "advancing age and ill-health" had reduced his participation in the years before his death. It also mentioned that he was a member of the M & E Church and that he was a Democrat, strong in faith.
There were two errors in the obituary. One was that he left landed estates. Actually, he divided his estate between his oldest daughter and youngest son not too long before he died. Secondly, the obituary said that he died at a great age. He was only 71! That was not a great age, even then. However, in the photograph that I have of him - because of his mien and whiskers - he does look as if he was "of a great age" even when the photo was taken. The photograph was probably taken several years before he died.
The first child born to John and Elizabeth was Catherine Ann. She was born on October 4, 1835 and she died on May 8, 1923. Catherine married John A. May on October 1, 1857. The couple had two children, Ira Stanton May and John M. May. Catherine's husband died April 10, 1865. The cause of his death is not in the family history records. He died in the same year that the youngest child was born, but since we have only the year - not the exact dates - of the younger John's birth, it is not known whether he was born before or after his father died.
Catherine lived in Rose Township until 1890, at which time she moved to Canton, Stark County, Ohio, to live with her son, Ira. For 70 years, Catherine was a member of the M. E. Church. In 1883, shortly before her father's death, Catherine and her youngest brother, Lancaster Woy Mansfield, inherited their father's estate, even though there were four other living siblings.
Perhaps part of the explanation, as far as Catherine is concerned, lay in the fact that she still lived in Rose Township, near or with her father, and the fact that she was widowed with two small boys so early in her married life. One brother was in Iowa; two were in Wyoming. When I first wrote this, it was not known where the surviving sister and that sister's husband were living at the time of the father's death. Later, I found out that they were living in Boulder, Colorado. That is where both are buried. We may never know the story behind John Mansfield's decision to leave his "landed estates" and other aspects of his estate to only two of his surviving children. Perhaps it is better than we do not know this particular story.
Ira Stanton May was born on February 03, 1861 in Webster City, Iowa. He died on August 15, 1937 in Canton, Stark County, Ohio. He was the first child born to the union of Catherine Ann Mansfield and John D. May.
The fact that he was born in Webster City, Iowa, but lived most of his life in the vicinity of Rose Township, raises an interesting point: There were strong relationships between these two areas over a period of years. Yet, how that relationship came into being and what initially established it, is not known.
He moved from Carroll County to Canton about 1890. For a time, he was superintendent of streets in Canton. He worked for Warwick-Spelman Coal Company and for Republic Steel. He was president of the J. E. Maughiman Undertaking Company from 1915 to his death. He was a member of the Simpson Methodist Church for 45 years and served on its official board for 20 years. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Mary Alvina Creighton was born on January 01, 1864. She was the daughter of Samuel Creighton and Susan Gibler. Mary's parents were early settlers in the New Harrisburg area. Mary was active in the Simpson Methodist Church and the Women's Christian Temperance Union. She was buried in the Magnolia Cemetery. She died of myocarditis, but had many other medical problems at the time of her death including hypertension and diabetes millitus.
Vera Iola May was born on November 09, 1885 in Rose Township, Carroll County, Ohio. She died on February 05, 1954. She is buried in the Magnolia Cemetery in the Stark County, near the Carroll County line. Vera was the only child of record of Ira Stanton May and Mary Alvina Creighton May.
Vera's father, Ira, died before her mother, Mary. When the mother died, Vera was her sole heir. The mother left Vera a modest estate. Before Vera's death, a few years later, she had tripled the value of the estate. In her will, Vera left her estate to four first cousins; they divided the estate equally. She worked for the Ohio Power Company in Canton.
John M. May was born in 1865. He died in 1937. He married Jeanette on May 16, 1887 in Carroll County, Ohio. John was the second child of record born to John. D. May and Catherine Ann Mansfield May.
Jeanette was born on August 15, 1866 in Carroll County. She died on September 04, 1946 in Dellroy, Ohio. Jeanette's parents were Adam Hoobler and Rebecca Little Hoobler. She is buried in the Magnolia Cemetery in Stark County, Ohio.
My great grandfather, William Martin Mansfield, was the second child born to John Mansfield and Elizabeth Woy Mansfield. He was born in Athens County, Ohio, on June 22, 1838. He died in Salt Lake City, Utah, on April 9, 1925. His gravestone indicates that he was born in 1840. This difference has not been accounted for.
Anecdotal information provided by his granddaughter, Ollie Nora Mansfield, suggests that he suffered from respiratory problems, which first took him to Webster City, Iowa. There, he met and married Artimitia Jane Payne, the daughter of Jacob W. Payne and Rebecca North Earnest. Arty, as she was known and as her name is inscribed on her gravestone, was born in Greene County, Tennessee, in 1841. She died in Salt Lake City on May 26, 1923.
The couple had five children of record: John, Elton, Dora, Alvin and Jesse. Only Elton, Dora and Jesse lived into adulthood. There may have been a sixth child with the name of Alton; but this is by no means certain.
William and Arty lived in Carroll County, Ohio, for an undetermined period of time, probably from sometime after 1864 to around 1872; these dates are speculative. While in Carroll County, apparently, Alvin and John, were born, died and were buried. Their graves are in Harmony Cemetery.
However, Elton was born in Hamilton County, Iowa, in 1864; Dora was born in Rose Township, Carroll County, in 1867, and Jesse was born February 11, 1873, in Webster City, Webster County, Iowa. (Webster County was split from Hamilton County.) So, the couple moved to Carroll County at least once; then, back to what was by then Webster County.
In about 1874, the couple moved to Boulder, Colorado. This may have been for William's health. They were in business there. Sometime after that, probably in 1876, they moved to the Laramie River country, where they ranched and engaged in business until 1899, at which time they retired to Salt Lake City. Their ranching and other business enterprises were moderately successful.
For several years, they owned the Grace Creek ranch, on the Big Laramie River, near the Colorado/Wyoming border. Both in Carroll County and at the Grace Creek ranch, William was a "livestock speculator." In that capacity, at least while the couple lived in Wyoming, William probably sold horses to the United States cavalry. In addition to the livestock enterprise, the couple sold ranch products in the town of Laramie, according to Ollie Mansfield's record (that she wrote under the pen name of "Nora Field").
They sold the ranch to Nathanial Boswell, a famous sheriff of Albany County and Laramie, Wyoming, and Boswell's nephew, William H. Hill, who married Dora Mansfield, the couple's only daughter of record.
When William and Arty retired to Salt Lake City, they built a house near the downtown area, where they lived out the last years of their long, productive lives. Sometime, perhaps later, their daughter, Dora, and her three children lived with them. By that time, at least, and maybe much earlier, William Hill had disappeared, whether through foul play or of his own volition is not known by me. Dora was left to support herself and her three small children, a task that she accepted with more than a small degree of success. Her grandson, David Mansfield Carman, said that Dora was a financial success. Real estate may have played a role in that success.
Elton Lewis Mansfield, as mentioned above, was born in Hamilton County, Iowa. The date was July 28, 1864. He died in Laramie, Albany County, Wyoming, on December 18, 1945. William Martin Mansfield and Artimitia Jane (Arty) Payne Mansfield were his parents. He married Hannah Lorraine Sullivan in 1886, either in Laramie, Wyoming or in North Park, Colorado.
The couple homesteaded near Cowdrey, Jackson County, Colorado. Cowdrey is near Walden; both are in North Park. Elton and some of his friends built a log cabin on the ranch. Brief accounts of their life on the ranch can be found in local history book, "North Park" by Hazel Gresham (with help and encouragement from her husband, John Gresham). As I edit this account, in 2006, I have a copy of that book.
Hannah Lorraine Sullivan was born in Tomah, Monroe County, Wisconsin, on September 4, 1861. She died July 25, 1938, and is buried in Laramie, Wyoming, in Greenhill Cemetery. She was the daughter of Matthew Sullivan and Catherine "Maggie" Lynch Sullivan. Matthew and Maggie most probably were born in Cork County, Ireland, Matthew in about 1825 and Maggie about 1827. The date for Matthew's birth is highly speculative.
The Sullivan family name was likely O'Sullivan in Ireland. When we were growing up, we were told that Grandmother Hannah was related to the great heavyweight boxer, John L. Sullivan. No proof for that family "legend" has ever surfaced. Given the fact that Hannah was born in Wisconsin and that John L. grew up and lived elsewhere, it seems a "long stretch."
Elton and Hannah's three children of record were born on the North Park ranch: John Martin Mansfield, on July 8, 1888; Arty Jane Mansfield, on January 29, 1890; and Ollie Nora Mansfield, on February 23, 1893. Sometime after 1893, the couple moved to a ranch on the Big Laramie River. The town of Jelm, Wyoming, was on the ranch for many years; the town was relocated downstream, a few miles from the old site, in recent times. The present town, which is quite near Wood's Landing, technically, should be known as "New Jelm," I think.
Elton was interested in hunting, fishing and gardening. He was also very interested in finding gold. He hunted for gold, as an amateur, most of his long life. He was also a builder. He helped build the cabin near Cowdrey that his three children were born in, as mentioned above.
He also built, and remodeled, through the years, a number of buildings on the Laramie River ranch, including the main ranch house. He built a house in Walden, in later years, that still stands. He built a house, on Overland Trail, in Fort Collins, (on the northwest corner of Overland Trail and Vine Street). That house has been remodeled through the years, and is now much larger than it originally was. That, and another house on the back of the property are the houses that he and Dad lost when they lost the farm "to the Great Depression."
In his declining years - after Hannah died - Elton spent part of several years in Kingman, Arizona. Why Kingman? I have never learned the answer to that "riddle." Kingman does not seem, to me, to be the ideal wintering place. My cousin, the late Vida Lorraine Sharp Stayner lived there for many years. Her daughter, Kathleen Sharp Powers, lives there with her family, as I write this.
My father, John Martin Mansfield, was born on July 08, 1888. He was the first child of record of Elton Lewis Mansfield and Hannah Lorraine Sullivan Mansfield. John lived the life of a typical ranch boy, in his early years. He learned to ride bucking broncos and to drive a stagecoach. He worked as a teamster for a copper mine, according to one census report. He also excelled as a hunter and a trapper in the late 19th and the early years of the 20th century. He was a cowboy, in some of his ideals and ideas, all of his life. Perhaps, he was born "50 years too late," as the saying goes. Like his father, Elton, the son, John Martin Mansfield, was an accomplished fisherman.
John Martin Mansfield married Addie May McClure, on October 16, 1912, in Laramie, Wyoming. Addie was the tenth child of record of the eleven children born to George Lewis McClure and Sirena (Cyrena, in some of the records) Norris McClure. Except for the names of her father, mother and twelve siblings (and, in some cases, the names of the spouses and children of her siblings), not much was known about Sirena's family, in spite of diligent efforts to discover such information when I first wrote this account. The two spellings of Sirena's name, plus "suspect" spellings of some of the names of her siblings, suggest that Sirena came from a family with limited education (literacy), not at all uncommon in that time.
In recent months, information from such sources as RootsWeb.com, on the Internet, has yielded information - if reliable - back to England for Sirena's family. Much more checking needs to be done on the reliability of the Norris family history information.
Sirena died when Addie was 18 years old. The family lived near Hoxie, Kansas at that time. Sometime after her mother's death, Addie moved to Glen Ayre, Colorado, to live with her older sister, Bessie McClure Burns. That was when Addie met John Mansfield and their courtship began. Glen Ayre was a small town near the Colorado/Wyoming border, not too far from the Mansfield ranch at Jelm. Glen Ayre no longer exists.
John and Addie had ten children of record. The three oldest children were born in Laramie, Wyoming. The younger ones were born in La Porte and Fort Collins, Colorado. For several years, John owned and ran the last livery barn in Fort Collins. After that, John and his father, Elton, bought a farm near what was then the Fort Collins airport (Chrisman Field) on the corner of what are now Overland Trail and Vine Avenue. Fort Collins has since grown and what was the farm is now covered with houses and commercial establishments. The area has been annexed into the city of Fort Collins.
The farm was bought when farm prices (and, therefore, land prices) were high. That soon changed. The Great Depression meant that farm produce prices plummeted. In addition, the hogs on the farm may have caught hog cholera and either died or had to be killed. The farm was lost. The growing family had to leave the farm and begin a life of living in rented housing. Addie remained a housewife; John became a day laborer for the rest of his working life.
By the time my memory for such things begins, Dad had established a work pattern that he was to follow for a number of years. In the spring, he would work for a ditch company in and around Fort Collins and for ditch companies in the mountains near Chambers Lake, west of Fort Collins about 75 miles.
In the summer, he worked in the hay fields around Fort Collins and in North Park. He was a 'gifted' hay stacker, a skill much in demand in those times and one that, really, could seldom be taught. Stacking hay correctly required an understanding hay and of the purpose of the stack (to keep as much of the hay dry, as possible, and to keep the hay from blowing off the stack).
At other times, he would cut timber in the mountains west of Fort Collins (either up the Buckhorn Canyon, west of Fort Collins, or near Chambers Lake) for small timber companies. Dad could still cut and move large logs (mine props and logs destined for sawmills in the Fort Collins area) until the time he retired at age 62. Though he stood only about five feet ten inches tall and weighed only about 165 pounds, he was an extremely strong man for his size and, especially in later years, for his age. His last timber cutting was near Red Feather Lakes.
Addie was a housewife from the time of her marriage until she went into a nursing home when she was in her seventies. In the early years, she cooked all of the family meals, packed lunches for Dad when he was working near home, baked all of the family bread and other baked goods, washed the family's cloths (on a washboard, using large copper or galvanized metal tubs in the early years), cleaned the house, and did all of the other wife and mother chores, including tending a kitchen garden during summers. Her house and children were clean. Her grocery budget was modest, but she did the best she could to put nutritious food on the table. She was a hard-working woman who was dedicated to her family as two following essays attest:
By Phyllis Mansfield Chance
When we lived on Cherry Street, in Fort Collins, Colorado, I remember Dad had a livery stable. I don't remember ever being at the livery barn, but I remember that it was down along the Poudre River. It could not have been far from the house, since Dad used to walk home for lunch.
One time, when he came home from lunch, he said that he had a friend watching the stable since the gypsies were in town and they would steal anything they could get their hands on. He told Mother that he traded some horses with them, but a person had to know their horses or any person who did not know horses and the gypsies would get cheated. Dad told all of us children to stay inside when the gypsies were in town, since gypsies would steal little children and sell them. That made us afraid of the gypsies.
When we lived there on Cherry Street, Dad went to Laramie and brought back a milk cow from his father's ranch on the Big Laramie River. It took Dad two days to make the round trip to Laramie and back to Fort Collins. He said he stayed all night at the old Forks Hotel. It must have been quite a trip. He road a horse and led the milk cow all the way, which must have been about 140 miles round trip.
One day, he came home with a 1919 Ford. I suppose it was what we would call a pickup, these days. It had an open cab and a box behind. One day, he loaded all of us in the old Ford so we could all go visit our Aunt Bessie in La Porte, Colorado. Bessie and our mother were sisters. Dad cranked and cranked and cranked on that old Ford. One time, as he was cranking, the old Ford "kicked" and hurt Dad's arm. The air turned "blue" from the words Dad used, cussing out that old Ford. Of course, Mother told him not to use that kind of language around the children. Finally, as Dad cranked and Mother worked the spark, the old Ford started and away we went, all of several miles to see Aunt Bessie.
He must have sold the livery stable around 1926. I don't remember moving to the farm west of Fort Collins, on what is now Overland Trail, but, suddenly, we were there. I started school at Cache La Poudre School, in La Porte, Colorado.
By the time my memories of my mother, Addie May McClure Mansfield, begin she was 44 years old. My earliest memory of my mother comes from the time my sister and I had the measles. That was the summer I turned three years old. Mom put us in a darkened room and gave us warm tea. She was there to meet our every need, and to listen to our complaints; we felt miserable, but she nursed us through the ordeal.
She married John Martin Mansfield when she was about 22 years old. They had ten children. The children, in birth order, were Ruby, Mary Jane, Erma, John Jr., Phyllis, Robert, Eugene, Ruth, Harold, and Gerald.
For our family, the depression was in full swing when I was born. We were dreadfully poor - almost the poorest of the poor. Dad worked hard when he could find work and he worked hard to find work when he did not have a job. The jobs were few and far between, even for a man, like my father, who had a good reputation, a reputation for working hard and for being honest. All of his jobs were those of the common laborer. These were jobs that required long hours of backbreaking labor. Many of them required that he live away from home since they were in the mountains west of Fort Collins. He dug ditches with a pick and shovel, stacked hay with a pitchfork, and cut timber with a crosscut saw.
My oldest sister, Ruby, was married. She and her husband, Ervine Stewart, lived in the same town, always a few blocks from where we lived. My oldest brother, Johnnie, who could seldom get along with authority figures, had left home. He roamed around the United States, working in carnivals and as a cook in "greasy spoon" cafes. My younger brother, Jerry, who was to be the last of ten children, came along in 1935.
That meant that seven of us were at home, since my second-oldest sister, Mary Jane, died several years before I was born. So, we were nine people in a series of small houses, houses with never enough bedrooms or beds, with outside toilets sometimes, and often without central heating or pre-heated hot water from a tank.
Mom did what she could to keep us fed. We had vegetable gardens during the summer and fall months. She canned fruits and vegetables for the winters. The food that she bought was simple and inexpensive. All of the food we ate was home prepared, including the home-canned food and the home-baked bread. I believe Mom baked several loaves of bread most days in those early years.
Mom also worked hard to entertain each of us when we were young. Later, we were expected to play outside. Unless the weather was really bad, playing outside was just what we wanted. We were robust (some might even say hyper-active, using the modern idiom) kids, full of energy even when we did not always have as much food as we might have liked.
Evenings, we played outside until it grew dark. Then, we would play family games of the simplest types, or read, or (later, from about 1937 on) listen to the radio. The radio was an inexpensive Montgomery Ward console that my sister, Erma, bought for the family. Last I knew of it, my younger brother still had that old radio. That radio provided years of entertainment and education.
Mother enjoyed listening to the radio while she worked in the house during the day and she also listened to it in the evening with the family gathered around. Almost all of the family enjoyed the radio. For example, while listening to it, I learned about classical music and - more importantly - to appreciate many different kinds of music, from western, through modern and jazz, to the full range to be found in the classical repertory.
Throughout all of these years, I never came to know - or to appreciate - my Mom. Since Dad was away working much of the time, Mom had to fill the role of both parents, and do it all on a poor, working man's wages. Fortunately, Dad was never much of drinker, so he gave most of his wages to Mom, such as they were.
We moved often in the early years. In part this was because we were in rental housing and each of the houses - in succession and for a variety of reasons - was no longer available to us. In part, we moved from "better" to more marginal houses as Dad's work either did or did not bring money in for rent, groceries, and the other household expenses. A couple of the houses were quite nice; several were not so nice.
Mom worked hard, all day every day. She cooked and baked. She kept a clean house, even though some of the houses were marginal places in which to live. She washed clothes - using a washboard in the early years - and a series of 'ringer washers' in later years. She cared for each of us as she could. Some of the care given to the younger children was provided by their older sisters; that is, until the older sisters left home.
There was never enough money to meet even the most basic needs for food, clothing, fuel for the wood and coal stoves, rent and the other needs of the family. Fortunately, most of us were healthy most of the time. When one of us did get very sick, the doctor came to the house. This was also true when we were born. All of the 10 children were born at home, unthinkable just a few years later.
Mom and Dad got along most of the time, as far as I know. I suspect part of that was because Dad worked long hours when he was working where he could spend the nights at home and because frequently, particularly from about 1940 on, he worked away from home a good deal. For example, when he worked on the mountain ditches, he was away in the spring. When he worked in the timber, he spent nearly the entire year in the mountains west of Fort Collins, coming home only for occasional weekends. Later, sometimes, Mom would join him for a day or two at one of the various cabins he lived in as part of his timber job "benefits." When he stacked hay, his work was usually in the Laramie, Wyoming area or in North Park.
For a time, he worked in Laramie on the construction of the huge cement plant that still stands south of Laramie and west of the Laramie/Fort Collins highway. On that job, for several months (maybe more than a year?), he wheeled wheelbarrows full of cement up long, steep ramps. The plant was built one wheelbarrow load of heavy, wet cement at a time. Not many men lasted very long on that job. Dad stuck it out until the construction was finished.
The thing that I never knew much of anything about was my Mom's family. It is true that her sister, Bessie, lived in Fort Collins and we saw her from time-to-time. Mom's only other sister, Carrie, lived in Fort Collins, usually briefly, on a couple of occasions. She lived in Denver most of her later adult life. Since we were poor, we seldom got to see Carrie, except during her brief residencies in Fort Collins. That was when I first remember meeting Carrie's daughter, Wilma Dean, and her son, Tom. Carrie's husband died in the early 1940s. I have no memory of him.
Mom's brother, Moody, lived in Denver. He would come up for brief visits, but only on very rare occasions. He and Dad did not get along. In fact, one of the reasons I knew so little about Mom's family was because of Dad's negative attitudes about her family. That was unfortunate. Aunt Carrie, for example, was a wonderful, kind, and considerate woman. She was deeply religious and a humanitarian in the best, modest sense of that word.
Another of Mom's brothers, Sellie, lived in Cleveland. He came out a couple of times when I was in about junior high and high school age. He was very short and a bit rotund. He had a lively mind and a pleasant personality. He gave us small presents and otherwise "endeared" himself to us.
Mom's mother died when Mom was eighteen. Mom was still living on the family farm near Hoxie, Kansas. A few years after her mother died, Mom came to Colorado to be with her married sister, Bessie. That is when she met Dad. It was probably in 1910 when she came to Colorado. They married in 1912. At that time, Mom was helping her sister with the work of a farm housewife. Dad was a hunter, trapper, stage driver and broncobuster, and he probably also helped his Dad on the Mansfield ranch at Jelm, Wyoming.
Mom was the tenth of eleven children born to Sirena (sometimes spelled Cyrena) Norris and George Lewis McClure. Sirena was the thirteenth of fourteen children born to Samuel Norris and Rebecca Maddux. Some of the Norris family, including the parents, Samuel and Rebecca, moved from Ohio to Iowa around 1866. In Iowa, Sirena met and married George. George was the older of two children born to Charles McClure and Rebecca Lusk. George and his sister, Mary, were born in or near Oquawka, Illinois and grew up there.
According to some family oral history, George was a sometimes farmer and sometimes itinerant 'preacher.' He apparently spent a great deal of time away from his wife and the farmstead. But, obviously, with eleven children born into the marriage, he managed to spend time at the farmstead and in the marriage bed.
The eleven McClure children, in order of birth, were Frank, Charles, James, Moody, Andrew, Bessie, Carrie, Sellie, Frederick, Addie, and Eugene. There is almost no information on Charles, James, or Andrew. Frank was a barber in the Allison, Nebraska area until his death in 1931. Bessie, Carrie, and Eugene married and had children. Moody and Sellie were bachelors. Frederick married but died without children. The life histories of Charles, James and Andrew are almost totally obscure.
It was the sorrows that Mom suffered, mostly because of the early death of two of her brothers and because she did not know what course the lives of three of her brothers was taking, that I knew nothing about when I was growing up. In fact, most of the details of the lives of five of her brothers were unknown to me until I began to do family history research in the 1980s. Two of her brothers, Frank and Frederick, died before my memories begin. Charles and Andrew seem to have "just disappeared" from the family records. James, after many years of wondering, was found, quite by accident, by his sister, Carrie; she and her oldest son, Herman Davis, looked after James until his death.
Mom suffered these tragedies, sorrows, and uncertainties in silence, at least in so far as I was concerned. The older children tell about the same story. Here she was: burdened by the trials of poverty, by the housework a large family demanded, and by a husband who did not value her family. Through all of this, she cared for her husband, her children, her household, and herself. She maintained an external demeanor that was cheerful and pleasant. She generally had a good sense of humor. So, in all of this, she was the "Mother I Never Knew" - not really, not fully, and not empathetically!
Ruby Hannah Mansfield was the first child born to John and Addie Mansfield. She was born on April 1, 1914, in Laramie, Albany County, Wyoming. On January 10, 1932, she married Ervine Wilbert Stewart, of Fort Collins. By then, the Mansfield family had moved from Laramie, Wyoming, to La Porte, Colorado, and on to the farm on Overland Trail, just west of Fort Collins. Ruby and Stew, as he was known, had three children: Dwayne Ervine, Joyce Kay and Dwight Donovan.
Ruby was a homemaker. She was an excellent cook and housekeeper. She was also a fine, amateur barber. Far many years - especially during the hard years of the depression - she cut hair for most of the family. When we did not have the twenty-five cents for a commercial haircut, she could always be relied on. Ruby also did bookkeeping and collecting for the hay business and acted as telephone secretary, too. Ruby had excellent taste in clothing and accessories. She was also very concerned with her appearance. When she and Ervine went out, they were both "dressed to the nines," as the old saying goes.
Ervine was an excellent automobile mechanic. By the time my memories begin, he worked for the Chevrolet garage in Fort Collins. In the 1940s, he went into the hay business with his father, Warren D. Stewart. Still later, Ervine's brother-in-law, George Mauk, was part of the business. Finally, when W. D. retired and George Mauk went into the real estate business, Ervine renamed the business; it became E. W. Stewart and Sons. It was a successful, small business in the Fort Collins area for many years. Among many customers, was the University of Wyoming, where Stew sold both native hay and alfalfa for a number of years.
For four years, following the ninth through the twelfth grades, I worked on a hay baler for Ervine. It was hot, hard, and dusty work that required a lot of strength and stamina, but I stuck with it for those four summers. Ervine was a good man to work for; and, the job paid well, considering my age and other circumstances.
Ruby and Ervine liked to dance, bowl and go to the movies. Both liked to fish, though-to be honest-the really avid (rabid) fisherman was Stew. On a combination fishing trip and family picnic up the Poudre Canyon, my brother, Eugene, fell off a rock and broke his arm. We finally got Stew away from the river. He began to drive the car, loaded with the family, back to town. Eugene was sitting in the back seat with an obviously broken arm. In spite of that, Ervine stopped twice on the way down the canyon to fish in two of his favorite fishing holes. It was evening before we finally got Eugene to the hospital, where his broken arm was put in a cast.
Dwayne Ervine Stewart was born on December 11, 1935, in Fort Collins, the first child born to the union of Ruby Hannah Mansfield Stewart and Ervine Wilbert Stewart. Dwayne was a performing musician in the Fort Collins area for a number of years. He had his own band, wrote songs and performed throughout the area, but mainly in and around Fort Collins. His main career was with the Fort Collins Fire Department. He joined the department as a young man and worked there until a series of injuries forced him into early retirement. He sustained burns while fighting a weed fire on one occasion.
Dwayne married Darlene Ann Lockman on November 14, 1954. They had three children. Cindy Marie was born on May 29, 1955; Ginger Lee, on May 5, 1957; Randall Dwayne, on June 21, 1959. Dwayne and Darlene were divorced, briefly; they remarried on July 18, 1956. They later divorced for a second time.
Cindy Marie married John Henry Miller on September 23, 1972. The couple had one child, Jennie Kaye, who was born on January 08, 1973. The couple later divorced.
Jennie Kaye was born on January 08, 1973.
Ginger Lee was born on May 05, 1957. There is no marriage of record in my files for Ginger Lee and no record of children for Ginger.
Randall Dwayne was the third child of record born to Dwayne Ervine Stewart and Darlene Ann Lockman. Randall married Judith Lynne Nieder on December 27, 1991. Randy and Judith have one child at the time this is being written.
Kylie Morgan Stewart was the first child born to the union of Randall Dwayne Stewart and Judith Lynne Nieder. Kylie was born on June 06, 2000.
From April 21, 1961 to November 24, 1964, Dwayne was married to Verna White. They had no children.
Dwayne married Charlotte (Charla) Ann Nash on September 2, 1967. They had one child, Erin Elizabeth Stewart, who was born on July 5, 1973.
Erin Elizabeth Stewart's parents were Dwayne Ervine Stewart and Charlotte Ann Nash. Erin was born in Fort Collins, Larimer County, Colorado on July 5, 1973. Erin is a remarkable young woman. As I write this, she is a college graduate and the mother of two children. She has a 'winning' personality and is, thus, a delight to be around.
I do not have a birthday or place for Christopher.
The first child born to the union of Erin Elizabeth Stewart and Christopher Branchflower was Caden Rhode Branchflower. Caden was born on December 20, 2003.
The second child born to Erin Elizabeth Stewart and Christopher Branchflower was Ridge Stewart Branchflower. He was born August 04, 2005.
Joyce Kay Stewart was born on September 23, 1937, in Fort Collins. She was the second child born to the union of Ruby Hannah Mansfield Stewart and Ervine Wilbert Stewart. She married Rodger Leroy Peter on February 11, 1955. The couple had two children. Rodney Dean was born on January 16, 1956. Keith Alan, on July 5, 1958. Rodger was a Fort Collins fireman for many years. He also farmed a small property the couple owned near the cement factory north of Fort Collins. Rodger collected coins and old automobiles, among other hobbies.
Joyce was a homemaker most of the time. However, she held a series of part-time jobs, especially in later years. Her favorite word, I think, when she was young was "why?" She asked a lot of questions, the sign of an inquisitive mind. Joyce died of cancer in February of 2004.
Rodney Dean Peter was born on February 11, 1955. Rodney Dean Peter was the first child born to the union of Joyce Kay Stewart Peter and Rodger Leroy Peter. Rodney grew tall and fast as a teenager. This rapid physical growth may have caused some chemical imbalance in his brain. Whatever the cause or causes, Rodney developed some psychological problems. In spite of a poor prognosis for recovery, Rodney made a lot of progress and, in later years, was able to hold a job, buy a house, and otherwise lead a productive life.
Rodney married Linda Winchell on March 1, 1974. It was a brief, stormy marriage, one that probably was "doomed" to failure before it took place. Rodney and Linda divorced in 1976.
Deanna Lou Peter was born on October 28, 1974. Deanna Lou is the only child of record born to the union of Rodney Dean Peter and Linda Winchell.
Rodney married Brenda Kay Hamilton in 1979. They divorced in 1984. There are no children of record from this union.
Keith Alan Peter was born on July 05, 1958. He was the second child born to Joyce Kay Stewart Peter and Rodger Leroy Peter. Keith Alan married Karen Franklin on March 25, 1978. The couple had three children, Keith Adam, born July 13, 1980; Tabatha Chrystal, born April 12, 1984; and Nathanial Bryan, born May 11, 1989. Keith was interested in trucks from an early age. He became a truck driver. The couple moved to rural Larimer County, near Wellington, so their children would have the benefits of country living and of going to small schools.
Keith Alan Peter was born on July 13, 1980, the oldest child born to Keith Alan Peter and Karen Franklin Peter. After graduating from high school, Brian was accepted by and attended college in California.
Tabatha Crystal Peter, the second child born to Keith Alan Peter and Karen Franklin Peter, was born on April 12, 1984.
Nathanial Brian was born on May 11, 1989. He was the third child born to Keith Alan Peter and Karen Franklin Peter.
Dwight Donovan Stewart was born on January 27, 1943, in Fort Collins, Larimer County, Colorado. Dwight was the third child born to the union of Ruby Hannah Mansfield Stewart and Ervine Wilbert Stewart. He married Karen Doreanne Jaques on November 3, 1963. The couple had two children, Danette Dawn Stewart, who was born on July 16, 1966, and Douglas Dwight Stewart, born on May 14, 1969.
Dwight was interested in trucks from the time he could walk and talk. In part, this interest was spurred by the fact that his father was in the hay business, which meant that trucks and truck drivers were around the Stewart house constantly. In part, Dwight's interest in trucks was encouraged by the toys Ruby and Ervine bought for him from the time he was quite young.
Dwight drove trucks for his father as soon as he could. Later, he became a long, haul driver. Still later, he owned a series of 18-wheeler trucks, one at a time. He drove all over the United States from the time he was a young man to the time this is being written. Driving for long hours and over long distances is a difficult life, at best. But it seems to have suited Dwight "to a tee."
Danette was born on July 16, 1966 in Fort Collins. She was the first child born to the union of Dwight Donovan Stewart and Karen Doreanne Jaques Stewart. Danette married Thomas Scott Washburn on November 14, 1987 in Fort Collins. For many years, Danette worked for the Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association.
Thomas Scott Washburn was born July 10, 1962 in Rome, Oneida County, New York.
Tyler Scott Washburn was born on May 12, 1988. He was the first child born to the union of Danette Dawn Stewart Washburn and Thomas Scott Washburn.
Karissa was born on May 27, 1991. She was the second child born to the union of Danette Dawn Stewart Washburn and Thomas Scott Washburn.
Douglas Dwight Stewart was born on May 14, 1969.Douglas was the second child born to the union of Dwight Donovan Stewart and Karen Doreanne Jaques Stewart.
Doug won a state body building championship when he was 19 and again when he was 32. He came close to winning a third championship when he was 33.
He married Wendy Jeannine Aragon on May 20, 1989 at the Bethel Baptist Church in Fort Collins, Colorado. They were divorced. Later, he married Judith Hannah. There are no children of record for Doug.
Doug gave a remarkable, moving eulogy for his grandmother, Ruby Mansfield Stewart, at her funeral service. As far as I could tell, it was impromptu - without notes - and was 'straight from his heart' to all who were at the service.
Mary Jane Mansfield was born on September 20, 1915 in Laramie, Albany County, Wyoming. She died on September 01, 1922 in Fort Collins, Larimer County, Colorado. She died of scarlet fever. She is buried in Grandview Cemetery in Fort Collins. For years, our family had a large picture of Mary Jane. It is assumed that it was taken not too long before she died. It was tinted and was similar to a picture that we had of Nancy Jane Mansfield Gooding, who died in 1903. So, that particular format must have been a popular one for a number of years.
Erma Lucille Mansfield was born in Laramie, Albany County, Wyoming on May 8, 1917. Her schooling was in the La Port and Fort Collins schools. She did not graduate from high school because the family circumstances required her to go to work, I think, after she finished 9th grade. With some of early earnings, she bought the family a Montgomery Ward console radio. This was in the late 1930s. The last I knew, my brother, Jerry, still had that radio.
When I was five, she worked as a teacher's aide at Laurel grade school. She and my sister Phyllis taught me to read. Then, they took me over to the school and I read in front of one of the classes, possibly the third graders. She also worked for Mrs. Van Sickle on Mountain Avenue.
She married Robert Humphries Montgomery, in Fort Collins, on February 01, 1941. The couple had two children, Erma Rae, who was born on July 04, 1944 and Robert Quinten, who was born on Christmas Day, 1947. The couple later divorced.
Erma was a typical middle-class housewife until the divorce. After that, she held some part time and temporary jobs, none of which I have specific information about. For several years, she lived in a small mobile home on La Porte Avenue, in Fort Collins, not too far from the Forney Industry complex. Later, she had the mobile home moved to Fowler, Colorado, so she could be near her daughter, Erma Rae, and her grandchildren, John and Louise Farnham.
After several years in Fowler, she moved back to Fort Collins and had the mobile home set up in a small mobile home park north and east of Fort Collins. That is where she lived until she entered a care facility in Fort Collins.
Robert Humphries Montgomery was the son of long-time Fort Collins mayor, Frank Montgomery, and Ruth Humphries, originally of Lyons, Colorado. Robert took some engineering courses at what was then Colorado A & M College, in Fort Collins. He also joined the Colorado National Guard and served in the Fort Collins contingent for several years. He earned a private pilot's license.
After his father's death, Bob - along with his mother - operated the Farmer's Elevator in Fort Collins. This was a grain, feed, hay and flour business. Bob expanded the business to include coal and firewood sales and deliveries. Typically, his mother handled the retail sales and the office work and Bob, plus one employee, picked up the stock in Denver or unloaded off of railroad cars (a train track was right there at the building) and made local deliveries.
I worked for Bob, off and on, during my junior high years. This was during World War II. Bob had an exemption because of the business. I helped with all of the unloading, loading and delivery work. Also, I help saw slabs for domestic firewood and shovel coal.
Always a pragmatic man, Bob arranged deals with the two, major Fort Collins junk dealers. He would load and haul junk to the Denver junk terminals (mostly for war material needs) and haul feed and flour back. I accompanied him on many of these trips, as well as on trips to coal mines south of Fort Collins.
Bob used to take myself and many other kids for Sunday airplane rides. There were in Luscombe Silvair, two-seaters. He was quite good at aerobatics, which sometimes meant the Erma's nice, Sunday morning breakfasts were broadcast across the fields around Fort Collins. The rolls, tailspins and other aerobatics maneuvers were simply more than my stomach could take.
One of my most salient memories is that of the time Bob and I overhauled the business's pickup. It was a rather "well-used" Chevrolet. We did this on the driveway of the family home. The pickup ran for many years after that.
Bob and his mother sold the business. Bob and a partner, Dewey Rice, built a home on a lot that Bob's family owned in Estes Park. They sold the house after completing it. Then, they built a roller skating rink north of Fort Collins, near Lindenmeyer and Richards Lake. That business did not succeed. Bob applied for and we hired by the United States Bureau of Reclamation. His new job took the family to Grand Junction. And, later (perhaps after the divorce) to Yuma, Arizona. Bob's father died relatively young. His mother and one of his aunts died from strokes. Perhaps it is not surprising that Bob died at age 55 of a massive heart attack.
Erma Rae was born on December 25, 1942 in Fort Collins. Erma Rae was the first child born to the union of Erma Lucille Mansfield Montgomery and Robert Humphries Montgomery. She married Bryant Topliff (Toppy) Farnham and they had two children. Toppy Farnham died on March 19, 1985. Toppy was a ranchman. This meant that the couple spent most of their married lives living and working on ranches in rural areas. During those years, Erma Rae, as far as I have been able to discern was a housewife.
John was born on July 23, 1962 in Alamosa, Colorado. John was the first child born to the union of Erma Rae Montgomery Farnham and Bryant "Toppy" Farnham. John died on July 14, 1994 in Fowler, Colorado. He was buried in Crestone, Colorado. I attended his service in Fowler and it was evident that among those present, John was a valued young man, especially in the church he attended.
Elinor Louise was born on December 10, 1964. Elinor was the second child born to the union of Erma Rae Montgomery Farnham and Bryant "Toppy" Farnham. Her first husband was Sydney Hodgs. They had two children, Kathleen Marie and Nickolus Alan.
Kathleen Marie was born on January 22, 1989. Kathleen was the first child born to the union of Elinor Louise Farnham Hodgs and Sydney Hodgs.
Nickolus Alan was born on June 27, 1990. Nickolus was the second child born to the union of Elinor Louise Farnham Hodgs and Sydney Hodgs.
Robert Dean Nuttle was born on December 19, 1960. The children by his first wife are: Matthew Corless Nuttle, who was born on November 24, 1984; Jesse Eugene Nuttle, who was born on February 10, 1986; and, Dustin Alan Nuttle, who was born on November 20, 1988.
Erma Rae Montgomery Farnham and Lewis Clayton "L. C." Thompson were married on March 21, 1994 in Colby, Kansas. The couple lived at two different locations. The second place was a working farm. They had livestock and crops, plus gardens. L. C. died a few years after the marriage. After he died, Erma Rae moved to Kansas to be near her daughter.
Robert Quinten Montgomery was born on July 05, 1946 in Fort Collins. He was the second child born to Erma Lucile Mansfield Montgomery and Robert Humphries Montgomery. The following essay was written by Robert Quinten Montgomery:
I was born to Robert Humphries Montgomery and Erma Lucille Mansfield Montgomery on July 5, 1946 at Larimer County Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado. My mother was a housewife and my father - along with my grandmother, Ruth Humphries Montgomery - operated the Farmer's Elevator in Fort Collins. It was a grain, feed, hay, and flour business.
At that time my mother supplemented the family income by selling fireworks at a shoe repair shop in downtown Fort Collins. She used to say that I was born on the 5th of July because she had to sell fireworks on the 4th. Since I was born on the fifth she gave me the middle name of Quinten which means fifth.
While residing at 1009 La Porte Avenue in Fort Collins, I attended La Porte Avenue Elementary School (It was demolished some years ago.) until third grade.
A few years after my birth, my father took a job working as a surveyor for the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation. My father's job with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation was surveying water control projects. As a result, the family had to move to where the projects were. So, in the summer of 1955, the family moved to a government housing project near Mesa, Washington, where my sister and I rode a school bus 12 miles each way to a school in Connell, Washington (near Pasco). That is where I attend the 4th grade.
The family moved back to Fort Collins about a year later, in 1956. We moved in with my grandmother Ruth Montgomery in her house at 819 La Porte. I was then in the 5th grade. About a year later, we moved to 1535 Elm Ave., Grand Junction, Colorado. It was a small, 3-year-old 3-bedroom ranch in a small, ideal, quiet, "small-town America" neighborhood. In Grand Junction, I began attending 6th grade at the Orchard Avenue Elementary School. I continued my education there through junior high and, finally, to the 11th grade at Grand Junction High School.
While in Grand Junction I became fascinated with mechanical things. I built several go-carts, 3-Cushman motor scooters, and finally became obsessed with cars. I spent most of my spare time during my high school years working on them. My final project was putting a 1952 Oldsmobile V-8 engine into a 1952 Henry J Kaiser.
During the Grand Junction years I held a number of part-time jobs: delivering papers, working in a television repair shop, and working in a motorcycle sales and repair shop. While we were living in Grand Junction my sister, Erma Rae, got married and moved to southern Colorado. Also while in Grand Junction, my parents divorced. That was on May 31, 1963, after my junior year at high school. Immediately following the divorce, my father and I moved to Yuma Arizona.
During the summer before school started I worked driving a tractor picking up the cantaloupes from the fields. The following fall I attended my senior year at Yuma Union High School and graduated in 1964. During the remainder of the summer I continued to work in the cantaloupe and watermelon harvests.
At that time all I wanted to do was work on cars. So, in the fall after graduation I moved to Denver, Colorado and began attending Denver Automotive Institute. I lived in a boarding house while in school and paid for my expenses by working part-time at a local upstart business called McDonald's for 85 cents and hour. (Sure couldn't do that today!) That was the most fun job I have ever had.
After auto mechanic's school, I returned to live with my father in Yuma, Arizona and began working full-time as a mechanic at a local Pontiac-Buick dealership. But this was not to last long because in October, 1965, since I no longer had a school exemption, I received a notice from the U. S. Selective Service that I was being reclassified as 1-Y. With the Viet-Nam War in full swing, it was well known that a 1-Y classification quickly would be followed by a draft notice. So, along with few of my friends in the same situation, I immediately enlisted in the Navy.
With my friends, I boarded a bus for San Diego, California on October 18, 1970 for enlistment processing. Before the day was over, we were in the U.S. Navy and bedded down in a boot-camp barracks. The initial tour of duty was to be four years but during boot camp I enlisted for two more years in order to go to nuclear power school.
After boot camp, I was assigned to Treasure Island near San Francisco, California for 36 weeks of communication electronics training, starting January 17, 1966. Following electronics school I was assigned to the Nuclear Power School on Mare Island, near Vallejo, California, for six months, starting January 1967.
While staying at Treasure Island and at Mare Island my Aunt Ruth Taber would often invite me to spend weekends with her family. The Tabers had a farm with an almond grove outside the small community of Esparto, California, about 80 miles north of San Francisco. I would often take a bus up to Davis where the Tabers would pick me up. Sometimes while I was at Mare Island they would drive me all the way back to the school after a weekend with them. They displayed tremendous hospitality!
I thoroughly enjoyed my weekends with them. I enjoyed great conversations with Mr. Taber since we shared many interests and I would attend church with my Aunt Ruth. I enjoyed helping their son Bobby build a rudimentary computer. While there, my father towed my Henry J up from Yuma, Arizona and during weekends I put a larger engine into it and painted it. However, I sold it before leaving California.
In July of 1967, after Nuclear Power School, I was assigned to the Nuclear Power Training Unit in Idaho Falls, Idaho to receive training as a nuclear reactor operator. This is where Navy personnel learn how to operate nuclear powered equipment. The training facility itself is several miles outside of town and requires a considerable bus ride to and from it.
After Idaho Falls, I was assigned to submarine school in Groton, Connecticut. From there I was assigned to the USS Narwhal, a fast-attack submarine under construction at General Dynamic's Corporation Electric Boat Division in Groton, Connecticut. The Narwhal was a one-of-a-kind experimental submarine. I was on the submarine when it was commissioned on July 12, 1969. I served as a reactor operator during the remainder of my Navy years.
While assigned to the USS Narwhal I enjoyed several days of leave on the Virgin Island of St. Croix where the submarine was undergoing testing. Later I enjoyed time in the ports of Faslane, Scotland, and Bremmerhaven, Germany. We spent considerable time along the Arctic coast where I was initiated as a "Blue Nose" (an unofficial Navy of sailors who have been inside the Arctic Circle). While in Arctic waters I had the opportunity of watching Soviet submarines via the sub's paravision camera. Since this was the time of the cold war, watching them was pretty exciting.
While in Groton some of my fellow sailors and I kept rented houses near town to stay at during our off hours. I spent much of my off time building a dune buggy in a rented garage near the submarine base.
When my Father died on May 10th, 1970, I was out at sea on the nuclear submarine Narwhal. I was not notified of his death until my return to land. I was then granted emergency leave to take care of funeral arrangements and other affairs related to his death. While on leave to take care of the affairs associated with his death, I converted to Christianity.
I grew up in Baptist churches, attending regularly with my family until my parents divorced and I moved to Yuma, Arizona. But after the move I gradually abandoned the Christian way of living to the point that for my first 5 years in the Navy I led a life similar to most single sailors. When my Father died on May 10th 1970 I was out at sea on the nuclear submarine Narwhal. I was not notified of his death until my return to land. I was then granted emergency leave to take care of funeral arrangements and other affairs related to his death.
One of the things I had to do was to remove all his belongings from the rented house where he was living in Yuma, Arizona. I loaded all the belongings I wanted into a trailer to take to my sister's place in Colorado. I intended to drop the belongings and the car off at my sister's place and catch a plane from Denver back to Groton, Connecticut to return to the Narwhal.
As I was packing all the things into a U-haul trailer, I noticed a book called "Death of a Nation" by John Stormer lying on the table next to his bed. Now, I never was a reader, but the thought occurred to me that I needed something to read on the return flight; so I took the book with me, not knowing what it was about.
As I was on the flight from Denver to New York, I read the book and while reading it I realized that although I was raised in church, I had never understood what it meant to be a believer in Christ.
While I read the book's explanation of the Bible, I realized how much I had broken God's Laws and how much I deserved His just punishment. However, the book went on to explain that, according to the Bible, God loved the world so much that He sent His Son in the human form of Jesus to live a perfect life and to sacrifice Himself to pay for the sins of the world. It then used Bible references to explain that if I would only put my trust in Him, He would apply that payment to my sins and grant me eternal life.
How could I pass up a free offer for eternal life? So there in the plane, somewhere between Denver and New York in May 1970, I put my faith in Jesus Christ. At that point, my life changed dramatically. My goal became to follow the teachings of Jesus and try to live a life that pleases Him because of His great love for me.
After my conversion I became lay leader on the submarine. As a lay leader I was in charge of conducting religious services for the crew on Sundays. This was made difficult because most of the crew knew the life I lived before my conversion was certainly inconsistent with traditional Christian lifestyles. At my first service I was shocked to see the Captain and Executive officer in attendance. I didn't realize that Navy regulations (at least at that time) required them to attend. I continued as lay leader until I was honorably discharged on August 9, 1971.
After my discharge from the Navy, I wanted to learn more about the Bible, so I attended Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri for three years where I met and married Linda Jo Young on June 15, 1973, following my second year there.
Linda Jo was born on June 05, 1950. Linda grew up in Cleveland, Ohio before she had gone to college in Springfield. She introduced me to the pastor of the church she had attended in Cleveland and the pastor offered me a position as a bus mechanic at the church when I graduated; and, having no other plans, I accepted the position.
After graduation I moved to Cleveland in June 1974. I worked as a bus mechanic for the Cleveland Baptist Church for about 8 years maintaining a fleet of at least 16 buses plus numerous other church vans and service vehicles. I also taught in the college-age and adult Sunday-school classes and continued teaching occasionally for over 20 years.
While working at Cleveland Baptist church, I also taught high school auto mechanics in the associated Heritage Christian School. One year I tried teaching junior high science and high school geometry and decided quickly that I was not cut out to be a teacher.
At some point I realized that I was not going to be able to work such a physically demanding job for very many years, and probably not to retirement age. Also, by this time I had lost my enthusiasm for working on motorized vehicles. So I began taking correspondence courses in computers. In Navy electronics school in 1966 I was taught tubes. Transistors were still in the process of replacing tubes in electronics. The submarine equipment I worked on did not have any integrated circuits and personal computers had not been introduced yet.
I also started taking engineering night courses at Cleveland State University and Cleveland Community College. Due to family circumstances, I felt I had to drop out of college before completing my degree.
In 1983, I landed a job writing electronics lessons for Cleveland Institute of Electronics. In 1984 I took a job as a technical writer on contract to Bailey Controls. Following that, in 1985, I accepted a position as a technical writer for Picker X-ray.
Picker X-ray was bought by General Electric Corporation of England, which changed its name to Marconi and then went bankrupt. Marconi then sold the former Picker X-ray business to Philips of the Netherlands. But even though the company name and ownership has changed, I've been with the same company for nearly 20 years up to the present.
During my employment with Picker and Marconi I wrote installation and service manuals for X-ray machines, CAT scanners, and Magnetic Resonance scanners. The company closed down its X-ray manufacturing in the US and started selling equipment manufactured by other companies. One company they bought from was Shimatzu in Japan. So I got to travel to Kyoto, Japan to write the manuals for equipment being made there for sale by our company. I also got to travel to Helsinki, Finland three times (with one day in Paris) to write manuals for an MR machine being built there for sale by our company.
However, when Philips bought the company I was writing manuals for MR scanners. Since Philips was making MR machines in the Netherlands, in 2003 they decided to stop building MR machines at the Cleveland facility in the US. As a result my job as a technical writer was eliminated.
Fortunately, however, the manager of the company's technical training center offered me a position as a technical trainer on nuclear imaging equipment. I had worked for him before when he was manager of the technical writing department.
Another joy I've had over the years is taking mission trips with groups of men from the Cleveland Baptist church. In 1980 we assembled pews for a large church in Porte-au-Prince, Haiti. The following year we returned to build two school buildings. In 1984 we built a church in Nanyuki, Kenya, Africa and in 1987 we put up 5 buildings for a youth camp near Belo Horizonte, Brazil. In 1989 we added a second story to a church near Monterrey, Mexico.
I've led such a charmed life. I've lived in the great country of the US with all its abundance and advantages. I've never had to go a day without food. I've always had a roof over my head. I've always had gainful employment. I have a great wife and two wonderful children. I've led a life without major tragedies or illnesses. I've never known great hardships. I'm satisfied with the life I've led. It's probably more pleasant than the lives of 90+% of the people in the world. I look forward to possibly seeing my children marry and start their own families. But even at that, it's so great to know that when I leave this earth, I have a better, eternal life to look forward to.
Robert was born to Father Robert Q. and mother Linda Jo Montgomery on June 24, 1982 at Parma General Hospital, Parma, Ohio. The family was residing on Burger Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio at the time. His father was employed as a Bus Mechanic for Cleveland Baptist Church and his mother was working for the law firm of Squires, Sanders and Dempsey in downtown Cleveland.
The double middle name came about because Linda promised a long-time family friend, whose middle name was Keith, and whose birthday was the 24th of June that if Robert was born on the 24th, she would name him after him. She thought that there was no possibility of that happening. The problem was that she had already promised another long-time friend that she would name him after their son, Douglas. When Robert was unexpectedly born on June 24th, Linda gave him the middle name of Douglas as planned. However the other friend was very disappointed; so, Linda requested a name change and added the second middle name, Keith, to honor the promise she made.
When Robert was 13 months old he contracted bacterial spinal meningitis and was hospitalized for three weeks for intravenous injection of antibiotics. The doctor stated that he was very close to death when the treatment started. However, he made a complete recovery. Robert graduated from Heritage Christian High School in 2000 and began attending Cleveland State University. He graduated in 2004 with a BA degree in Communication, specializing in video production.
He is employed by a financial company as a data processor. He enters data for workmen's compensation.
Julie was born to father Robert Q. and mother Linda Jo Montgomery on May 2, 1985 at Deaconess Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio. The family was residing on Spokane Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio at the time. Her father was employed as a Technical Writer on contract to Bailey Controls and her mother was working for the law firm of Jones Day in downtown Cleveland.
Julie graduated from Heritage Christian High School in 2003 and began attending Pensacola Christian College in Pensacola Florida where she is in her second year. She is pursuing a degree in Speech and Communications.
John Martin Mansfield, Jr. was born on July 28, 1918. He shared that birthday with his grandfather, Elton, and his brother, Harold. He died on July 27, 1992 in San Diego, California. He remains were cremated. He served in the United States Army during World War II. He was, for most of his life, an itinerant worker and an alcoholic. Often, he worked for (or with) traveling shows, such as carnivals.
Johnnie was a testimony to the abuse that the human body can take and still endure for 74 years, minus one day. For a number of years, he was confined to a wheelchair in a care facility in California. However, while his health declined markedly, he seemed to retain a facile mind. Johnnie was married, briefly, in the 1940s. However, the name of that brief spouse and other details about her are not known. I do remember that she wrote at least one letter to my mother. I believe this was after the couple separated, or maybe even after they divorced. The tenor of the letter was one of hurt and of a failure to understand why the marriage did not "work." Of course, it was Johnnie's alcoholism and his itinerant life that probably made the marriage "unworkable."
Phyllis Pauline Mansfield Chance was born in Fort Collins, Colorado, on November 5, 1920, the fifth in line of ten children born to John Martin Mansfield and Addie May McClure Mansfield. The family lived in or around Fort Collins during her elementary school years, which were spent in La Porte and Fort Collins. Due to financial circumstances, she was unable to attend high school. She made pocket money by babysitting and cleaning houses.
When she was 15, she moved to a ranch in the Redstone Canyon, southwest of Fort Collins a few miles, to live with a cousin, Irene Burns Morrison. She earned $15.00 a month as a "chore girl" - milking cows, feeding calves, feeding and keeping an eye on 31 expensive buck sheep, and taking salt to and checking on 25 head of steers, at intervals. The job she enjoyed most was bringing in the small herd of horses. The job she enjoyed least was helping feed the hired hands at shearing and lambing time.
While working at the ranch, she met Donald Herbert Chance, who had a farm near Masonville, Colorado, not too far from the Redstone ranch. They were married in Fort Collins at the Presbyterian Church, November 5, 1938. Three children were born to this union: Patricia Anne, born on April 12, 1943; Janice Donea, born on August 18, 1947; and, Don Phillip, born on December 25, 1949. In 1961, the marriage ended in divorce.
Phyllis had several jobs working as a nurses' aide in nursing homes until 1963, at which time she took and passed a G. E. D. test and attended licenced practical nursing school under the Manpower Act. She graduated in 1964, second in her class. She received a $100.00 check for giving the best nursing care to patients while in training. She then worked in various nursing homes until retiring in 1983.
As this is being written, she lives near Masonville, on the old Chance Homestead, near her oldest daughter, Pat Conner. Phyllis takes care of her house, fixes meals, occasional feeds Pat's dogs and horses and, on occasions, cares for her great grandchildren. She keeps a flower garden and does yard work in the summertime. Her youngest daughter, Jan, and Jan's husband, Doug Heustis, recently built a home on homestead land, a few acres away from Phyllis and Pat's houses.
Her hobby is writing poetry. She received the Gold Poetry Award from "World of Poetry" in 1986, 1987, and 1988. She also had three poems published in the "Fence Post," a farm and ranch newspaper.
Don Herbert Chance was born in Loveland, Colorado, on May 28, 1918. He spent most of his early years in Masonville and Loveland, Colorado. He attended elementary schools and junior high in Masonville and Loveland. But, due to family finances, he was unable to attend high school.
He worked for Floyd Mason as a cowboy for $30.00 a month, plus room and board. He also worked for Larimer County and at the Great Western Sugar Company factory in Loveland. He milked cows under contract with the Carnation Milk Company and farmed the home place in Masonville.
He married Phyllis Pauline Mansfield in Fort Collins, on November 5,1938. The couple had three children, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1961.
Don joined the United States Army Air Force in 1943, and was selected for officer training school. He attended flight school in Wichita, Kansas. Even though he only had an eighth grade education, he was in the upper percentage of his class. The Air Force found they were training more pilots than they had planes for; so, all pilot training programs were closed. The men in the pilot training programs were given the choice of going to navigation, radio, or gunnery schools. Don became a tail gunner on B-17s and B-29s. He was stationed in the South Pacifica and was decorated for valor.
After the service, he lived on and farmed the family homestead at Masonville and also built and operated a fruit cellar. He drove to Texas for citrus fruit and for nuts; to the Western Slope of Colorado for peaches, pears, and apricots; and he and his wife sold the products he trucked in, plus cherries and apples that they grew on the homestead. He also leased and farmed other property.
After the divorce in 1961, he moved to Colorado Springs and married Irma Hays, in November of 1961. He bought several rental properties, which he maintains, during his semi-retirement. He especially enjoys lake fishing.
By any measure, my sister, Phyllis, is a remarkable woman. Though she received less than a high school education in formal terms, she has gone on to become widely self-educated, not only because she obtained a GED or because she was an outstanding graduate from the practical nursing program, but because she is an ardent reader.
Among all of our numerous and diverse family, she is and has been the one who is 'closest' to me in terms of intellectual and other interests. She has a genuine and enthusiastic interest in the natural world. She watches birds and all of the flora and fauna in and around her home. She reads on a daily basis (and at night when she can't sleep, which is all-to-often, according to her self-reports).
Although she left the family home when I was quite young, I do have a few memories of her. One centers around the fact that she and another sister, Erma, taught me to read before I was old enough to go to school. That became understandable to me, much later, when I learned that she has been a life-long, enthusiastic reader - as I became - herself.
I worked for her husband, Don, on a number of occasions when I was in junior high school, mostly in the summertime and usually for only short periods. On one of these occasions, I was in my one and only 'growth spurt.' My appetite was ravenous. Phyllis would fix me breakfasts of eggs, bacon, pancakes, and hot chocolate - as many of each as I wanted! I am sure that those meals helped me grow and develop.
Later, I remember how she spent long, long hours in the cold fruit cellar next to their house. There, she sorted and resorted apples from the Chance orchards and other fruits that Don hauled in from the Grand Junction area. A lesser person could not have worked those long hours in such cold and lonely circumstances.
Since she worked at the nursing home where our parents spent the last few years of their long lives, I got to watch her at her appointed tasks. She was a dedicated and award-winning employee. I could well see why during my visits. Her attention to the detail of drug dispensing to the various patents was a model of efficiency, effectiveness and precision.
In later years, I became aware of her interest in poetry and got to both read most of her poems but also got to enter them onto the computer. I was also in Las Vegas to attend a banquet where she was honored for some of her submissions to a poetry magazine. Her poetry is what I call vernacular. Even though she was never 'schooled' in the writing of poetry, hers is excellent because is come 'from her heart' and from her daily thoughts and experiences.
The fact that she has returned to the family farm after a career away in the medical field is something that I admire. I think it is great that Phyllis and her two daughters, Pat and Jan, all live on the 'old homestead,' along with Jan's husband, Doug.
It was a pleasure for me to join them there for the summer of 2005. They provided an apartment for me and I helped Pat some with the farm work. It was a great experience. Phyllis and I got to visit on many occasions, especially while playing games, either with just the two of us or with other members of the family.
There is a sense in which Phyllis, of all the family, is the only one who is 'educated' enough to appreciate that fact that I was able to complete the academic work for the Ph.D. degree in psychology and fashion a career of teaching in that field.
We cannot chose our family, as the old saying goes. However, I can't imagine choosing a better sister than Phyllis has been for me! I admire what she made of her life and I cherish the fact that she is both sister and friend.
Patricia Ann Chance was born on April 12, 1943. She was the first child born to the union of Phyllis Pauline Mansfield Chance and Donald Herbert Chance. She attended the Big Thompson grade school on United States Highway 34, near Masonville, and junior high and high school in Loveland, Colorado. After high school, she married "Jake" Jacobson. That marriage, a rather brief one, ended in divorce.
Pat spent the vast majority of her working life with the Mountain States Telephone Company and its successors. While working for the telephone company, she met and married Barry Conner. That marriage ended in divorce, after several years. She took early retirement.
After she retired from the telephone company, Pat and a phone company friend, Ray Griffin, farmed the home place on a shares basis. The major cash crop was alfalfa. They continued to do this, year after year, for a number of years. The work was hard and the "rewards" not always "great." But both enjoyed the work and its challenges.
Pat's love for horses began at an early age. She has continued to have a number of horses around the place through the years. In addition, most of her friendships and social activities revolve around horses, their training and care, riding, and related activities. For years, Pat bought blocks of tickets to the National Western Stock show, in Denver, and to the Cheyenne Frontier Days celebrations and shared these with family and friends.
Janice Donea Chance was born in Fort Collins, Colorado, and has lived in Larimer County, Colorado, all of her life. Janice Donea was the second child born to the union of Phyllis Pauline Mansfield Chance and Donald Herbert Chance. She went to Big Thompson School, near Masonville, through grade school. She attended Truscott Junior High in Loveland for seventh and eighth grades; then, she went to Lincoln Junior High in Fort Collins for ninth grade. She then moved to LaPorte, where she went to Cache La Poudre High School for tenth and eleventh grades. She transferred to and was with the first graduating class from the newly completed Poudre High School in Fort Collins, graduating in the top ten per cent of her class. She graduated from Colorado State University, in Fort Collins, in1970, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Housing and Design.
She married Fred Douglas "Doug" Heustis of La Porte, on June 12, 1968. After her marriage, she worked for Harder Construction Company, Woodward Governor Company, and for several firms through Western Temporary Services.
When she was nineteen years old, she had a freak water skiing accident, and should have drowned. She believes the Lord spared her, physically. Six years later, on September 17, 1972, she received the Lord Jesus Christ as her personal Savior, and He then saved her spiritually. Even though she had been religious all her life, she had a void that had not been filled, and was not 100% sure of heaven. After being saved in1972, all this was settled and she received a joy and peace she had never known before. She now endeavors to serve Him and to share wit h others how they too can have salvation and a home in Heaven.
Jan is now a "happy homemaker." She also does volunteer work that includes helping with second and third grades on Tuesdays at Front Range Baptist Academy in Fort Collins. Doug and Jan also know sign language and have worked with the deaf. They lived most of their married life in Fort Collins. But, they are now renting for the time being on the family homestead near Masonville, where Jan grew up.
In 1996, they began a new house on the Masonville property; it is a house that they planned. They also did some of the building and, particularly, the finishing work. (Since Jan wrote that, the couple finished their house on the Masonville property and now live in it. Hal Mansfield, 2006)
Don Phillip Chance, who was known as 'Flip' for most of his early life, was born in Fort Collins, Colorado, on December 25, 1949, to Donald Herbert Chance and Phyllis Pauline Mansfield Chance. The doctor said the baby would be a girl and would not be born on Christmas. The mother bet the doctor to the contrary on both counts, for a five-pound box of chocolates. The doctor delivered the baby boy and the box of chocolates on Christmas day.
Don lived on the family farm near Masonville, Colorado, and attended Big Thompson School until he was eleven years old. He then finished elementary school in Fort Collins, and graduated from Poudre High School, in Fort Collins, in June of 1968.
Two days later, he married Linda Pirkl. He joined the United States Air Force and served for seven years, one of which was in Turkey. During his time in the Air Force, he received several commendations for excellent work in communications technology.
The marriage to Linda Pirkl produced two daughters: Michelle Donette (Shelly), born on November 2, 1968; and Tamela Ann (Tami), born on April 27, 1970. When the marriage ended in divorce, Don was awarded custody of the children. Both girls were pre-school age at the time and the family lived in Aurora, Colorado.
A second marriage to Suzanne Lynn Hurley ended in divorce; there were no children born to this union.
The family later moved to Loveland at he time when Don was hired as a supervisor by the Hewlett-Packard Company, an internationally known electronics firm. While working days, he also attended night classes at Regis College, in the Denver area, and graduated in June of 1985, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Technical Management. Don became head of one of the quality control sections in the computer manufacturing sector at Hewlett-Packard.
Don enjoyed pinochle and bowling. He also spent time with his grandson, Christopher David, and his granddaughter, Brittany Nicole.
Don died in Las Vegas, Nevada, on July 7, 1991, under mysterious circumstances. The full nature of the circumstances of his death may never be known.
Michelle Donette Chance was born on November 02, 1968, the first child born to the union between Don Phillip Chance and Linda Pirkl. Shelly, as she prefers to be called, had two children. At the time of this writing, she is living in Nebraska. Until recently, she owned and managed a motel.
Christopher David Chance was born on October 12, 1986. As I am revising this essay, he is attending the University of Nebraska. In the summer of 2005, his great grandmother, Phyllis Chance and I drove from Masonville to Nebraska for a visit. Among, other things, we got to see Christopher in a baseball game. He was the catcher. He also played varsity football.
Bre'Anna Lynn Chance was born on September 18, 1991. Since visiting "Blah Blah" (her internet nickname for herself) in the summer of 2005, she and I have exchanged occasional e-mails.
Tamela Ann Chance was born on April 27, 1970, the second child born to the union between Don Phillip Chance and Linda Pirkl. Tami, as she prefers to be called, had two children. Tamela Ann and William Coffey were married on February 19, 1994. The couple owns a home in Loveland. Recently, they remodeled the house on the extreme south end of the Chance family homestead property at Masonville and moved there, while renting out their Loveland house.
Brittany Nicole Goldsberry was born on November 11, 1990. Brittany enjoys do 'art works' and she has a lively and unusual sense of humor (a Mansfield 'characteristic').
Michael Phillip Coffey was born on October 06, 2001, the first child born to the union of Tamela Ann Chance and William Aurther Coffey.
Don Phillip Chance and Suzanne Lynn Hurley were married sometime after 1970. The marriage was brief. Suzanne had children from a previous marriage, I believe. At this writing, I have no further information.
Robert Dale Mansfield was born in Fort Collins, Larimer County, Colorado on November 11, 1922. He attended the Fort Collins school system. He served in the United States Air Force during World War II. He was stationed in the South Pacific during part of his military service. He was a nice looking man. He was about 5' 10" tall and weighed about 165 pounds.
He had a problem with alcohol at least from the time that he returned from the service until his death. He worked for the United States Bureau of Reclamation. He was employed on a project in Estes Park, Colorado at the time of his death.
He died in a motorcycle accident on a highway outside of Estes Park. The wreck was not discovered until some time after it happened. He may have been "run off the road" by a car. By the time he was discovered and taken to Estes Park, he was near death. He died in an ambulance while being transported to Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins. The accident occurred in the late hours of August 28, 1948; he died on August 29, in the early morning hours, perhaps around 1:30 a. m.
His death was a profound shock to his mother. She learned of his death at the hospital in the early morning hours on a Sunday. She cried uncontrollably for several days. However, by the time of his funeral service, she was composed enough to that a couple of photos were taken. But, she never really fully recovered from his death. In some ways, he was her "favorite son" and she had high hopes for him. Also, she relied on him for some financial support while he was in the service and afterwards.
In a sense, I believe that Mother's grief was an expression of grief for all of the members of her family who had died while she was totally busy with husband and children. It was, so to speak, an opportunity to finally grieve fully and effectively. This is, of course, speculation on my part.
It is not clear to this writer what his intellectual or other talents were.
Eugene was born on January 03, 1925 in Fort Collins. He married Beryl in 1946 in Fort Collins, Colorado. Eugene was the seventh child born to the union of John Martin Mansfield and Addie May McClure Mansfield. He showed a lot or artistic talent when he was in school. However, he never got the opportunity to formally develop that talent. He joined the Navy as soon as he was eligible to do so and served honorably during the latter part of World War II. Part of his service was in the Pacific Theater of Operations.
He spent the majority of his adult years working for the Federal government for the Bureau of Reclamation. In this capacity, he had to move frequently during the early part of his working career with the bureau.
While working for the Bureau of Reclamation in California, he was seriously--perhaps critically--injured in an automobile accident in California. I believe he swerved to miss a chicken and crashed. He may have had "something to drink" before the accident and that may have been a contributing factor.
He worked as a school janitor after he was retired early from the government job. In later years, he held a variety of jobs to supplement his retirement income and to keep himself occupied, especially during the summer months. For example, he worked at a local golf course as a gardener and groundskeeper. To keep himself fit, physically, he walked and hiked a great deal. In later years, he turned to reading philosophy and to writing very short, humorous pieces, many of which are elaborate plays on words. Some are aphorisms, in the "Poor Richard" vane, similar to those written by or adapted by Benjamin Franklin.
He has a lively, if unusual, personality. He and his wife established and maintained--what seemed to me--a close relationship with their children and with the children's families, as these came into being.
Alcohol, in the form of beer, primarily and unfortunately, has played a crucial, negative role in his life.
Beryl was born on May 09, 1929 in Windsor, Colorado. She was the fifth and youngest child of record from the union of Robert L. Brothers, Sr. and Maude Effie Goodson Brothers. She was raised and went to school in Fort Collins, Colorado. When the Mansfield family moved to 231 North Meldrum Street about 1941, the Brothers family lived two doors to the north of the house the Mansfield family rented. Eugene and Beryl met when Eugene returned to Fort Collins and the family home following his Navy service.
Diana was born on July 16, 1947 in Fort Collins, Colorado. Dian Lynn was the first child born to the union of Eugene Howard Mansfield and Beryl Maxine Brothers Mansfield. She married James on May 06, 1967 in Ogden, Utah.
James was born on October 11, 1946.
Angelique was born on November 10, 1969 in Ogden, Utah. Angelique was the first child born to the union of Diana Lynn Mansfield and James Warren Reynolds. She married Shawn Gregory Bushnell on January 21, 1994.
Shawn was born on December 21, 1970.
Rachel was born on October 07, 1989.
Luke was born on September 16, 1996.
Jennifer was born on January 29, 1973. She married Jason on August 15, 1992.
Jason was born on September 24, 1970.
Cody was born on September 11, 1993. Cody was the first child born to the union of Jennifer Justine Reynolds and Jason Eric Rhodes.
Colton Jay Rhodes was born on April 15, 1998 in Ogden, Utah. Colton was the second child born to the union of Jennifer Justine Reynolds and Jason Eric Rhodes.
Sandra Lee was born on April 21, 1950 in Placerville, El Dorado County, California. She married Denny Royal Wright on March 14, 1977. For a time, Sandra was on the city council for South Ogden, Utah.
I do not have a birthday or place of birth for Denny.
Amy was born on December 22, 1980 in Ogden, Weber County, Utah. Amy Denise was the first, and only, child of record born to the union of Sandra Lee Mansfield Wright and Denny Royal Wright.
Jerry was born on November 04, 1951 in Delano, Kern County, California. Jerry Dean and his twin Terry Gene were the third and fourth children born to the union of Eugene Howard Mansfield and Beryl Maxine Brothers Mansfield. He married Linda Bench on November 26, 1971 in Ogden, Utah.
I do not have a birthday or place of birth for Linda.
Jerry Junior was born on August 25, 1973 in Ogden, Utah.
David was bor