During the Civil War we were living in Missouri and experienced the hardshops of the border warfare. Our family lived next to the Jesse James family. They were upright, nice people until Jesse's sisters were raped by some Confederate soldiers. After that the James boys became renegades.Our home was burned and we were left with practically nothing. Father traded three milk cows for a team of horses and we gathered a few things together and went to Texas. After we had been there a short time, father, D. C Williams, decided he would join the Confederate Army, but he was refused on account of a bad leg.
My stepmother wanted to go back to her folks in Missouri and stay so we started back. As we were coming through Arkansas we camped one night in a little log cabin. The next morning everything looked so beautiful that we were anticipating a fine trip for that day.
The folks were eating breakfast, but I was a curious ten year old girl and was looking out the window to see what might be around our campground. Suddenly I said, "Look out there. The whole army is coming." It was General Price's Army retreating and it took them all day to pass. We were held up by the Confederate Army for three weeks.
Then my father, stepmother, brother, sister and myself were captured by the Union Army and held prisoner for nine days at Elk Horn Tavern in Arkansas. The building is still standing and is of historical interest. We were given a permit to go to Springfield, Missouri and from there to Kansas City. a little way out of Springfield my sister, who had been ill for several weeks, died. We had to bury her by the roadside and go on.
Two days out of Springfield, near a little town of Humansville, we were stopped by two soldiers and searched. There were several wagons in our train. Father was the last one searched, although he had the lead wagon. The soldier told him he wanted his horses and for him to unharness them. Father did, but said,"Would you let me have them until I can reach my brother-in-law who lives near here?" The soldier said, "Who is your brother-in-law?" My father answered, "Bill Ernest." The soldier said, "He is my uncle. My mother is his sister." We were allowed to take the horses and proceed on our way.
I am telling you this part of my life so you will understand that the hardships that I experienced years afterward were not to be compared with those border warfare days.
We made our home near Independence, Jackson County, Missouri. Mr. Lobb and family were our neighbors and on November 12, 1868 Mr. R. H. Lobb and I were married. November 3 was my eighteenth birthday. In 1874 we moved to Texas and lived there nine years. We were trying to find a place where Mr. Lobb would be relieved of asthma, but he did not get any better in Texas. Then we came to Kansas and lived there five years but Mr. Lobb did not get much relief and the crops were so uncertain. We had only two crops during the five years.
During the Civil War Mr. Lobb and his father and brothers had freighted from Fort Leavenworth to Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. When in drier, higher climate Mr. Lobb had been free of asthma so we decided to go to Colorado. We had also heard from Jim Garton, an old friend, who was at Steamboat Springs. He said there was plenty of fine water and wood and that there could be no saloons in Steamboat Springs.
The old proverb, "a rolling stone gathers no moss", was very applicable to us. We gathered up what little we had and with my father and mother, my brother and family started out with three covered wagons, the boys' saddle horses and some loose horses. We had seven children then, Neil, George, Neva, Will, Etta, Mary and Tull. Joe was born in Steamboat in the year 1895.
We left Lake City, Kansas May 27, 1889 and reached Steamboat July 5, 1889. We followed the old trail up the Arkansas River that Mr.Lobb had traveled when he was freighting. After we reached Colordo Springs we came over Ute Pass into South Park, over Hoosier Pass to Breckenridge, down the Blue to Kremmling and over Gore pass. It wasn't an automobile road in those days but we got along very well and had no serious trouble.
Our first winter in Steamboat we lived in a log cabin with a dirt roof and dirt floor. That first winter I did not have many idle moments as I made mittens, socks, and wristlets for Mrs Jim Adams six children, forty nine pairs in all. I charged fifty cents a pair for knitting socks and twenty five cents a pair for mittens. I also crocheted yards and yards of lace for Mrs. Adams but never charged her for it because she was always doing something for our family. A few times she gave me five dollars for some of my work and it surely came in good that first winter. We mortgaged our team for a thousand pounds of flour. By spring we were out and there wasn't any to be bought. Some of the neighbors divided with us and by using corn meal we got along until a freight wagon could go out in the spring and bring back some provisions. Neil and Lou Myers brought in one load.
Lincoln Avenue didn't look very much like it does now. There was a little building at the bath springs, then sage brush for two blocks. On the present site of the courthouse Mr. Harding had a little law office; in the next block was the Franz building; then about two blocks and a half of sage brush. Mr. Milner's store came next; then the Sheridan Hotel which consisted of a sawed-log house; then Crowl's house; Jim Adams' residence; and the five Crawford cabins on Soda Creek. In one of these Miss Snyder had a milliner store.
Across Soda Creek was the McKinley cottage where they held church. On the south side of the street beginning at Soda Creek was the Town Co. office, a blacksmith shop, Pilot office, Jeff Clark's carpenter shop, Metcalf's drug store, Miss Bennet's novelty store, two blocks of sage brush, the Calder building not occupied, two more blocks of sage brush, and a block this side of the bath house, Tom Morgan's livery stable. There were not quite a hundred people living here. The street was unimproved and there were no bridges over the three creeks that run through town.
We took up a homestesd in 1900. I took the two little boys, Tull and Joe, and stayed at the ranch. Mr. Lobb was janitor for the school for a number of years. Etta was working in the store, so Mary kept house. One night a storm came up about sundown. It go so dark I had to light the lamp very early. Suddenly we heard a sound as if some one was in distress. I opened the door a crack and set the lamp down so if any one was lost they could see the light. Tull kept answering the call but no one came. We finally went to bed and the next morning we found tracks of a lion near the cabin.
Oh yes, I must tell you about how I got started in the dressmaking business. In 1892 Miss Scott,on the mesa, found out that I had made some waists for Mrs. Reinhardt's two little boys. After I made her three house dresses, she wanted me to make her a silk dress. Then Mrs. Reinhardt had me make her a wool dress. She ripped up a perfectly good dress so I could get a pattern. From that time until about twenty years ago I always had something to sew on. I ordered my patterns from the Delineator. I also did a great deal of mending and cleaning for the young men about town. With my own house work and the work I did for others, I never had time to get lonesome.
Mr. Gunn was the pastor of the Congregational Church. I was always interested in the work of the Sunday school and church. The W.C.T.U. honored me with a life certificate.
Mr. Lobb passed away February `5, 1920. Neil and Mary live with me in Steamboat Springs. George is a cowboy and has run cattle for some of the largest outfits in this part of the country. At present he is employed by the Bolton cattle and sheep outfit. Will was a printer and passed away in 1918 during the flu epidemic. Etta is Mrs. Sam Walker and lives in Denver. Neva passed away in 1895. Tull saw service in the World War and he and his wife are living at Ft. Baird, New Mexico where he landscapes for the government. Joe also saw service in the
World War and with his wife lives in Denver where he is a street car conductor.
Matilda H. Williams LobbMarch 15, 1934 |