Harold & Grace Brewer's Oral History Recording in 1992

Description

An oral history interview, which took place on August 12, 1992, between Davine Pera and Grace and Harold Brewer. The length is about an hour and a half. Here is the transcription: Brewer, Harold & Grace OH78 1625 Dover Rd, Montrose, CO 81401 Aug. 12, 1992 Davine Pera 728-3632 CD1 42 tracks 47:17 CD2 31 tracks 47:14 CD1 T1 Intro T2 History of Grace's parents. Father came from England to Ophir to work in the mines. He met his mother there, who was from Black Hawk, CO, and she was working in uncle's saloon at Ophir. Father was road overseer. Grace was born in Ophir. T3 Describes attending school in Ophir Loop. There were 3 schools in area, one at Old Ophir, one at Ophir Loop and one at the Alta Mine. T4 Describes winters in Ophir. Speaks of skiing & coasting. She walked to school, about 1/4 mile. T5 Describes clothes they wore. Mother made most of the family’s clothes. T6 Speaks of her brother's death. She had six sisters and brothers. T7 Talks about her mother's hard life. She walked to Ames power plant to work, every day, before she was married. T8 Father worked at mines, but mostly worked as road overseer. Describes his work. T9 Speaks of Magnolia Snow Slide, which was too big to clear out of road, so they tunneled through it. It was over a mile long. T10 Tells the various places she lived. Talks about working at her sister's store and post office in Ophir Loop, when she was a young adult. T11 Names businesses in Ophir Loop. Mentions riding the train to town (Telluride) on weekends to see her mother. Silver Bell. T12 Grace's parents owned a dance hall in Old Ophir. Mother sold sandwiches and coffee. T13 Local people provided music. People from Telluride, Rico, etc. came over to dance. T14 Lots of card parties at different houses. T15 She picked lots of raspberries in the summer. She walked from Old Ophir to Trout Lake and back to fish. T16 There was a small community at Matterhorn. Rosseta Gallo. Beslax. Describes trip to Trout Lake when the bridge at Matterhorn broke down. T17 Picked mushrooms with Mrs. Clementi. Speaks of various families that lived in Ophir. Hawkins. Pengrazi. T18 Speaks of Mattri Clementi's death at Christmas. T19 Grace moved to Telluride in 1935 from Ophir. She talks of her first husband. T20 She worked at the American Legion Hospital after she was married. Dr. Parker. Dora Woods. T21 Names various places she worked before going to work for Troy and Ione Rose at the grocery store. Buckley. I. Wichman. She worked at the grocery store for 25 years. T22 Harold talks about the reasons he moved to Colorado from Iowa. Sold his farm, moved mother and kids into town and started traveling west. T23 Moved to Fort Collins where he worked for a painting contractor until the work ran out during the depression, then later worked at the sugar factory during the sugar campaign. T24 When that closed, he tried placer mining. T25 Describes a sugar campaign. Later he came to Naturita and worked his way to Placerville, gold panning. Cassidy. T26 Judge Dill suggested he go to work at the mine. Cashed his gold in at the drug store (Busy Pharmacy) with Frank Wilson. T27 Describes working at the mine for Ben Grimes. Worked for $4 a day for back pay, including room and board. Cy Washer. Telluride Mine. T28 He helped the electricians repair the power plant at the Red Mill. He operated the power plant for 12 hours a day during the summer, then worked at the Pennsylvania Tunnel during the winter, running the tram. T29 Describes his work. T30 It took 2 years to get the mine and power plant into operation. The men had to sue Grimes to collect their back pay and settled for $2 a day. R Ferguson. T31 Describes the fire at the Pennsylvania Tunnel. Had to rebuild all the buildings there. No men were killed in the fire, as they escaped up the back shaft and came out the Bullion Tunnel. T32 After the mine went back into operation, he worked in the warehouse. Anderson. T33 Operated the warehouse from 1933 until 1954. T34 Idarado bought the mine and combined the operation with the Ouray side. T35 He was laid off so he worked at the Four Corners Uranium in Bull Canyon. Worked there 1 year, then moved to Ophir to work at the Silver Bell. Al Smith. T36 After that, he worked at the County Assessor's office for a year. H. Ballard. T37 He met Grace at dinner at Charles Fanchers. T38 They were married in 1941. Harold raised Francis as his own son. T39 Grace speaks of close relationship with Ann Pullman. T40 They were married in Montrose and went to Iowa for honeymoon. Speak of their son, Francis. T41 He talks about the Red Mill and about the tram at the new mill. T42 Speaks of picture in the Rio Grande Book. End CD1 CD2 T1 Brewers owned Roses Grocery Store from 1957 until 1975. They talk about buying the store from Troy Rose. J. Hardy. T2 Mortgaged car and house for $4000 to stock the store. Made payments of $278 a month to the Roses. T3 Describes mistakes they made when they first started in the business. Built a warehouse and fixed up the upstairs to live in. T4 People would to wake them up in the middle of the night to get groceries for the Sheridan Hotel. Bought one lot for $1000 and added a larger meat market. Had to enlarge shelves. T5 The mine was working and they cashed all the miners paychecks. Harold would drive to Ouray and pick up $10-12,000 in order to have cash for the paychecks. There was no bank in town at that time. T6 Story of someone trying to break in to the store. Describes the incident. Same person also broke into the City Hall that night M. McDonald. J. Irving. T7 Continues talking about a shady character. They only had one attempted robbery in all those years. T8 Stories of incidents that happened through the years. J. Vigil. T9 They were so busy they lost lots of merchandise, as they could not watch everyone. Tell many stories about their customers. T10 Several Navajo Indians lived in town and worked at the mine during 1951 & 1952. A. Watt. T11 Customers always charged their groceries. T12 They talk about the many charge accounts they had. Customers did not pay their accounts in full. Lost lots of money on charge accounts. Everett Morrow. Bill Brown. T13 Ran charge accounts because people did not have the money to buy groceries. Had $50,000 on books when they sold, which they lost. T14 Names various people they employed over the years. F. Conrad. I. Lopez. G. Irving. A. Hughes. F. Goldsworthy. Koskinen boys. T15 Mary McDonald did the books. Grace did the everyday bookkeeping. Describes process of bookkeeping and the charge accounts. People paid every 2 weeks on paydays. T16 Grace remembers working through 1 whole weekend, with out sleep, doing inventory. Speaks of stores today. T17 Talk about produce suppliers and the meat department. T18 Continues stories about being cheated by various people. J. White. T19 They talk about all the changes in town during the years. Did not have money to keep up Social Security payments, so do not receive full benefits now. T20 Harold tells story of soap salesman, and the time they received 2 semi-truck loads of merchandise on the same day. Bud Carrier. T21 Names other grocery stores in town and why they closed. Goldsworthy. Pilcher. T22 New store from Rico tried to run them out of business. T23 Tells why the other stores closed. T24 Harold was operated on. He had cancer of throat after they retired. T25 Describes the Christmas parties they held for the children of the community every year. Gave candy and gifts to over 200 children. Always gave popcorn balls to trick-or-treaters on Halloween. T26 Mentions the many things they did for the community during the years. T27 Grace talks about working hard all her life. People do not work as hard now as they use to. Pakka. T28 Continues talking about how it is now. T29 Speak of depression and the bank closing. Pennasa. T30 Talk about all the various jobs they held during the depression. Hardy. T31 Conclusion End CD2 End