My brother Raymond Vernett (Turner) was born in April 1911.
Father started calling him Bill from the time he was born and he was better
known by that name all through his life.
Bill was about two years old when our folks decided they had had
enough of dry-land farming and rented a farm just south of the town of Mead,
Colorado. We entered school there and I was in the 5th grade. We also attended
Sunday School there at the United Brethren Church. We only lived on this place about
nine months as Father was able to rent a larger and more productive farm
consisting of two hundred acres, about 6 miles north and east of Longmont.
(Note: this is the location of the community of Liberty located between
Weld County Road 3
& Weld County Road 5 on the present Colorado Hwy. 66). This was our home for over 25
years. The grade school was just across the road. This was called the Pleasant
Hill School, grades one through eight. Some of the boys going there were
practically grown young men as many had to miss school during the Spring
planting and harvest. One boy named Jim felt he had to show my brother Wesley
that he was head man and a big fight between them took place. Later they became
the best of friends.
The two sisters, Frances and Clestia Reese rode a horse to
school and came flying into the school yard at break-neck speed. After much
persuasion father bought us a riding horse. One of the neighbor girls rode a
small mule. The mule did not run as fast as the horses but rode like a rocking
horse. What a wonderful carefree summer.
Mother's health had improved and she was able to get out more.
Our neighbor, Mrs. Smith had gone to school with Mother. She invited mother to
join the community club, known as the Pleasure Club. (Note: The official name of
this club was, "The Ladies Pleasure Club" and was originally founded
in Highlandlake two miles north of Liberty.) Father was pleased about this and
always saw that she had a way of attending the meetings.
Father was very protective of Mother, possibly more than most
husbands. The only time I remember any of us being spanked was one time my
father heard my brother talk back to my mother. I don't remember ever hearing my
parents argue. If we asked mother's permission to do anything of consequence,
she would say, "Talk it over with your Father", after telling him our
wishes he usually said, "Have you talked to your mother about this?"
They seemed to use some sort of eye contact and he would give us permission or
say, "no" and we accepted that decision.
About this time, some of our neighbors were buying cars and of
course we wanted one, and miracles of miracles, mother won a Chevrolet Touring
car. She had entered some sort of contest. She was never able to drive but we,
as a family certainly enjoyed it for a good many years.
Father bought a farm one mile north of where we lived. It was 160
acres and his brother John farmed the place and Grandfather Turner lived there
with Uncle John. Grandfather died in 1917. (Note: This was
Boulder
County pioneer Tazwell Turner who had farmed at Hygiene and mined gold at
Sunshine, Colorado, with his brother Peter Turner. Peter platted Berthoud,
Larimer
Co., Colorado, on his farm from its first site along the Little Thompson
River).
In the summer of 1917 our brother Tazwell was accidentally shot
by a neighbor boy. The bullet lodged in his spinal column and partly severed the
spinal cord, causing him to be paralyzed from the waist down. He spent several
months in the hospital and when they brought him home he was able to be in a
wheel chair a short time each day. The living room was set up as a hospital
room. He had to be lifted and I did most of the lifting as mother could not lift
and the men had to work outside.
Tazwell died in February that next year in 1918. This accident
happened the summer after I graduated from the eighth grade so was unable to go
to high school that fall. Frances Reese and I enrolled at "Industrial High
School" in Greeley the following fall.
Before Tazwell's accident Father had brought a piano with the
fond hopes, no doubt, of one of we girls, if not all three of us, becoming
concert pianists. (Mother had played the organ before having arthritis). The
piano Father had bought was a beautiful player piano, which I believe
discouraged us from trying to compete with the piano rolls. We had to go to
Mead, three and a half miles for lessons. I drove the car. Mrs. Snyder asked me
if I would like to make some money while I waited for Ruby and Sylvia to take
their lessons. She paid me 10 cents an hour for ironing for the two hours. Not
so much money that it might have made me more particular about ironing. Sorry to
say none of us turned out to be great musicians.
Francis Reese and I were going to school in Greeley in the fall
of 1917 and 1918. That was the year of the flu epidemic. Many people died and
men in the army camps died by the hundreds. All schools, churches, theaters
& all public gatherings were closed. We packed up and went home.
Our family all had the flu, as did the men who worked for us. We
were more fortunate than many, as we all recovered. I can't remember how long
the quarantine lasted and we were allowed to go back to school.
When I left home Ruby took over the responsibility of the heavy
housework with Sylvia helping.
When Ruby started high school she rode the horse a mile and a
half to catch the school bus to Mead high school. She would turn the horse loose
and he would go home. This was the method of transportation to high school for
Melvin, Sylvia and Raymond (Bill) as well. In good weather they usually walked
the mile and a half.
My parents lost the farm in 1930 during the depression, as a
good many farmers did. They came to Greeley and Lon and Hilding (their
sons-in-law) bought a duplex
there. Return to
History
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