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Life of Early Cowboy was Hard: JJ cowboy John Layton
As today, Dec 29, is the 140th anniversary of the incorporation of the Prairie Cattle Company I have compiled a couple of related items. The April 30, 1963 issue of the Guymon Daily Herald reprinted the autobiography written by my great uncle John Layton who was a JJ cowboy from 1901 to 1911ish. I have…
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Prairie Cattle Company Incorporated 140 Years Ago Today
Today is a day in history that may only matter to those of us in southeast Colorado, northeast New Mexico, the Oklahoma Panhandle and the Texas Panhandle. An event in in an office in Edinburg Scotland change the course of the afore mentioned areas, the American west and the American cattle industry. You see, 140…
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Horse Thieves Paradise: John Jennings leads Colorado Vigilantes into No Man’s Land
Here are a few clippings about the citizens “of half a dozen Colorado villages, Boston, Springfield, Vilas, Minneapolis, and Carriso and also Richfield in Kansas, are uniting to make an expedition against its horse thieves into No Man’s Land.” It appears this trip was led by none other than John Jennings who at the time…
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Preacher Evans: The Great Orator of Minneapolis, Colorado
Public speaking was an important part of life in 19th century America. Whether you wanted to win an election, win support for a reform movement, or become a successful minister, you needed to learn how to deliver crowd-pleasing speeches. Candidates for office debated one another. Evangelical ministers hoping to win people to their denominations could…
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Cooling Troughs in SE Colorado: Includes A Video Tour by Steve Doner
EDITORS NOTE: We have included videos from our good friend Steve Doner’s Youtube Channel. If you like history Subscribe Now. We live in an era where refrigeration allows us to have foods from all over the world. Modern refrigerated trucks and ships bring us foods which are kept in the fridge or freezer for months,…
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Crop Prospects for Southeast Colorado in 1888
PERSONS Stories and Incidents of the Early Day East Enders Before Baca County became a county in the spring of 1889 it was the eastern end of Las Animas county. As spring is upon us, I thought it might be good to look back at the crop prospects in Southeast Colorado in 1888. The following …
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Grandmother Eva Ratliff by Kathryn Ratliff Benes
With all of the news focused on COVID-19, I can’t help thinking about my Grandmother Eva Ratliff. As a young woman, she lived with her family in Pittsburg, KS where she taught school. She was told that, because of her weak immune system, that she would likely die unless she moved to a dry climate.…
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Jack Ratliff by Kathryn Ratliff Benes
Editors Note: I’ve often mentioned Jack Ratliff as the other Baca County Wanderer when writing about Orville Ewing. If you search online for Jack Ratliff will also find numerous postcards such as the one below which he sold during his travels. We are fortunate to be able to post the following below from his granddaughter…
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Poems of Faith (Post 1930s) by Nellie Grover Bamber
This 2nd post of Nellie Grover Bamber is again a true pleasure. There are some little things. The image of Grandma Bamber printed on an early dot matrix printer is a piece of history in itself. The poems? Priceless. In the not so recent past I had a conversation with Nancy Hall Nelson about using…
