Myra Imogene Mead Cope
was born and raised in
Highlandlake, Weld County, CO. She was the daughter of Paul
Mead (whom the town of Mead was named after) and Ariet
Palmer Mead.
Paul Mead was the nephew of Lorin C. and Elizabeth
Mead, (the founders of Highlandlake), and it was on Paul's farm
that the town of Mead was formed in about 1906. As a child, Myra attended
the Highlandlake school, and is listed in the
1902-1903 Highlandlake School Roster.
She wrote the following letter at the request of the Highlandlake Reunion
Committee in 1971 to celebrate the 50th Highlandlake Reunion.
Myra was born on 13 May 1895 and died 13 Jan 1983 at the
age of 87 years. My notes are in red.
"I remember well the
Highlandlake of my childhood, around the turn of the century.
The church where Mrs.
(Melissa) Waite, the perennial primary teacher in
the Sunday School, and a loyal member of the W.C.T.U. taught us
all the evils of alcoholism: where on Christmas Eve the whole
family piled into the surrey and drove to speak our pieces and
receive a red mesh bag of candy from a glorious tree hung with
festoon of popcorn and cranberries and lighted with real
candles. Where (Rev.) Mr. Strong sometimes preached special "Children's
Sermons", and where Ralph Holmes and I were once publicly
reprimanded for "playing" during a sermon. We weren't playing,
we were just amusing ourselves by putting our fingers into the
perforation in the seat of an empty chair between us. Remember
those chairs? I remember my "Papa Paul" opening the Sunday
morning services by playing the Doxology on the organ, the
signal for everyone to find a seat and then stand to sing it.
I remember the children with
whom I went to school, and the teachers, Mr. & Mrs. Lerch, Miss
Strawbridge and Miss Clark, Miss Tilyou, Mr. Temple and Mr.
Reid. My playmates were Blossom and Fern Entwistle, Vera
Woodley, Hazel Brown, Marion Holmes, Pearl Cleveland, Flora
Gateley, Clara Munson, Alta Coon, Vernon Patterson, the
Ballinger boys, Ralph and John Holmes, to mention a few.
I remember the young couples
who were "going together" before they got married. There were
Cora and Ewing, Pearl and Will, Carl and Stella, Forbes and
Grace, Mac and Florence, Rufus and Elsa, who's names were always
linked together, as were their later lives.
I remember racing home from
school in an effort to call my friends on the new telephone,
before they could call me. I heard a phonograph for the first
time one evening at Cora's and Ewing's. I had my first
automobile ride in Dr. Dillingham's Maxwell.
I remember our rough and
tumble games on the school playground. One day Mona Quaile and I
collided and my nose was broken. In the winter, at recess time,
we'd rush with our skates across the road to skate on the lake,
as soon as Uncle Lorin, the Deacon, would declare the ice safe.
I remember Mr. Richie's
(Richey's) store where we always got a pound of candy free, after
the crops were sold and the summer's bill was paid.
There were lots of nice things
about being a child at Highlandlake, and it's fun sometimes to
remember them and write down a few. My greetings to any who may
remember me.
Myra Imogene Mead Cope Return to
History
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