Joseph B. Brown's Oral History

Description

An oral history recording from August 1, 1990, in which Davine Pera interviews Joseph B. Brown. Here is the transcript: (Please note that track 2 is missing): Brown, Joseph B. OH27 9770 Chamber's Rd. Commerce City, CO.Rt1#80022 August 1, 1990 City Library, Telluride, Co. Davine Pera 728-3632 OH27 OH File CD1 57:34min 62 Tracks CD2 39:01 min. 36 Tracks CD1 Track1 Intro Track2 Personal information. Address, date of birth. Place of birth. Track3 Bibliography of family. Tells of first trip to Telluride when he was 6 months old. Brother, who was 15, drove car with mother and children. Track4 His parents were married in Telluride. His dad was here as a very young child. Track5 Back then you could only get around up top, not in the valleys. Track6 Grandfather was here in 1872-1875 as a scout with the Hayden Survey. Track7 Grandfather patented claim in Ophir in 1876, later settled in San Miguel. Track8 His grandfather had first dairy and post office in San Miguel. Track9 He laid out town and sold lots for $15 each. Track10 He filed on the water rights at Mill Creek and later sold some of the water rights to the town, reserving his own for the dairy. Track11 He started the Boomerang Mine. Track12 Grandfather settled old Brown Homestead at San Miguel. Track13 He went broke mining in 1870's so started dairy in 78 or 79. Track14 Talks about the Breckenridge boys. Joe speaks of different years he attended school here. Track15 He has four grandparents buried in the Telluride cemetery. Track16 Talks about grandfather filing claim on the water at Mill Creek to have water for irrigation of the valley. Track17 They took milk cows to Norwood for winter months. Rodger Williams. Put up hay and sold it to the miners to feed their horses they used in the mine for $50 a ton. Track18 Describes the milk house at San Miguel and the process his grandmother used to make butter, which she sold in town. Track19 Talks about how his grandmother used to make butter. Track20 Speaks of Bob Alexander working for his grandfather. Track21 Mentions other dairies and people that existed when he was in school. Track22 Wife's great grandmother Elliott was married at his grandmother's home in San Miguel. Track23 She ran hotel and rooming house at old town at Placerville. Track24 She gave the cemetery to the town or Ouray. Track25 Describes the quilt made for Chester A. Arthur’s inauguration in 1881 by ladies in Ouray that was given to grandmother. Track26 Describes location of rooming house at Leopard Creek. Track27 He knows many stories from the past. Track28 His grandfather milked 70 to 80 cows. Track29 Tells why they built the rock house, and had water flow through it to keep things cool. Describes how they separated the cream from the milk to sell cream in town. Track30 Father drove the milk route to Telluride and Pandora. They carried it in 5 and 10 gal. cans, and dipped it out at each house. There were no bottles back then. Track31 Mentions other tools that were used in the dairy business. Track32 His mother and father left the dairy ranch in 1942. Track33 Father moved to Telluride at age of few months and lived here until he left for Colorado College. He was on the college football team in 1898. Track34 His father was Harry J. Brown. His parents were married at Bridal Veil Falls in 1903. They rode train out to Denver for their honeymoon. Track35 His father died in 1960. Eva Lela Daniels was his mother, born 1880, and the family came here on the train in 1890. Track36 Some of the Daniels boys were already here. Mothers uncles all had dairies on Turkey Creek. Track37 Speaks of all the dairy farms on the mesas. The Collins also had dairies. Track38 Describes grandfather clearing willows and raising hay on the valley floor, and how they mowed it. Track39 Names different families that lived at San Miguel. Daniels, Boyers. Track40 The first school in the valley was at San Miguel. Track41 Grandfather also had a post office and store in San Miguel. Track42 Talks about all the bars in Telluride at that time. There was once 36 saloons in town at one time. Track43 His mother was 10 when they came to the valley. Track44 Talks about who his mother’s sisters and brothers married. Track45 She grew up here, attended school here. Track46 After graduating, she taught school in lower end of county, on Hastings and Specie mesas. Track47 He speaks of his brothers and sisters. Track48 His mother died in 1967 Track49 Names his sisters and brothers. Track50 Sister Lois married a Dunham who were big cattle family owners in the Norwood area. Track51 Tells of Lois meeting the Dunham boy. Track52 Tells story of reason parents left the area in the ‘40s. Track53 When they left they left everything behind, and the dirty dishes on the table. Track54 Talks about placer mining he and father did on river by city dump. Track55 Describes the equipment used for placer mining and how it worked. Track56 Finishes describing placer mining methods and equipment. Track57 They placer mined by the dump and worked in teams. Track58 Al Backman worked for his dad on project as a young man. Arnold Norflor also worked with his dad. It wasn’t very profitable. Track59 Talks about all the minerals and gold that lie at the bottom of the valley. Track60 Talks about thrumble screens used in placer mining. Al Backman was a great placer miner. Track61 Al was a strong man. Speaks of a large placer operation on river at San Miguel in earlier times. Track62 Talks about mining claims for placer mining. End CD1 CD2 Track1 He and his father went into the timber business on Boomerang for lumber for the mines. Track2 Describes the process used in timbering. Babe Schuler would haul the timber. ’36-’40 they were timbering. Track3 Mentions that the area was burned off by Navajo Indians in 1877. Track4 Recites story grandmother told him about traveling from St. Louis to Los Angeles by horse and wagon. She made three trips across the country before she was married. Track5 Her father was a Methodist preachers who followed the 49ers trying to convert them. Track6 She hated Indians, because of bad experiences. His granddad was friendly with the Indians. Track7 She was raised by her grandparents, who traveled. His grandparents were married in 1876. Track8 Memories of grandmother. Track9 Indians lived here when his grandparents settled here. Buffalo Bill was a great friend of grandfathers. Track10 Continues talking about the Indians. Track11 Tells several stories about the Breckenridge Brothers, Reece and Walter. They were great hunters, and Walter furnished meat for people of Telluride. Track12 They would hunt on the mesas. Track13 He describes the skidding process they used in timbering. Track14 Reece Breckenridge was in Klondike in 1890's. Track15 Tells about picture of Reece sitting on a million dollars of gold dust. Track16 He brought a not to Frank Wilson for the Breckenridge Brothers and Frank wrapped something (whiskey) in paper for them. The Breckenridge boys’ father came into the area with Freemont. Track17 None of the Breckenridge Boys’ had kids. Breckenridge girls had kids. Track18 Continues talking about the Breckenridge family. Track19 Recites story of how the town of Breckenridge was named. Track20 Reece and Walter died in the early ‘40s. Track21 Mentions that Joe Oberto owned most of the valley at one time. Track22 The Breckenridge boys might have came to hunt and trap originally. Track23 The Tolls owned half of claim with his grandfather in Ophir. The claim was dated in 1878. Homer Hastings. Track24 The Tolls lost their claim because their kids didn’t pay their taxes in the ‘50s or ‘60s and let it go. Track25 History of wife, Elsie Ross. She was born in Redvale. Track26 They were married in Gunnison. Track27 Names their children. Track28 Joe attended 1st grade in Telluride, left and returned to attend the last 3 years of High School, graduating here. Track29 Speaks of all the weddings at Bridal Veil Falls in the early days. Track30 Speaks of the Brown's relationships to C.D. Waggoner, and uncle Jim Brown. Track31 Continues talking about C.D. Waggoner and the trouble he got in. Track32 C.D. Waggoner was a dreamer. Track33 Continues talking about Waggoner and where he lived. Track34 Recaps his life history. Track35 Speaks of great grandfathers diaries and all the history contained in them. Track36 Joe currently keeps a diary. End CD2 End *