Carpenter – Daveno Historica

Gunnison – 1918

History is full of stories about cities that sequestered themselves during times of plague. In recent history, one of those cities was Gunnison, Colorado, which “declared a quarantine against all the world” during the Spanish Influenza pandemic of 1918.

Mildred Carpenter: School and Marriage

When I first entered high school, the principal had us write down what we would like to do when we graduated. I said “be a teacher.” Three weeks later I was in charge of the study hall…

Wilma Hughes: Vacations and the Great Depression

Sometimes on Saturdays we would put on a variety act; she would dance and I would sing, and we would charge the neighborhood kids two cents admission. Carol and I would divide up the money and buy penny candy at the little store up the street.

Mildred Carpenter: Adventures with Nella

I used to wash dishes at Gram’s hotel [the Sportsman’s Hotel] for a nickel, and then spent it for a Hershey candy bar, so Gram got her dishes done pretty cheap.

Mildred Lucille Carpenter Begins

I was born at noon on September 25, 1908, and arrived before the doctor did. I think my mother was angry at me all of her life for that…

Wilma Hughes: Seaside and a Hobo Visit

My next memory was of us living in a tiny house with a dirt floor… with kerosene lamps, and baths in a washtub placed near the wood-fueled cookstove.

Wilma Hughes: Starting life near our hunting lodge

“My earliest childhood memory was when I must have been two or three years of age. It was when my family lived in Colorado.”

Wilma Lee Hughes Begins

Wilma descended from immigrants who landed in America in the late 1600’s, and whose heritage included German, Dutch, Russian, and Welsh ethnicities; gold prospectors, ranchers, loggers, bootleggers, rail-riders, homesteaders, and a US Supreme Court Chief Justice. On her father’s maternal side, her family (the Risings) has been traced back to 1225 A.D.