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Members of Fruita Union High School’s graduating class of 1927 reminisce about their school days, lives and careers upon the occasion of their fiftieth class reunion. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.

Dr. Addie Russell Maynard discusses her family life, her schooling during youth, and experiences as an osteopathic doctor and schoolteacher in Mesa County, Colorado. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries, the Museums of Western Colorado and the Mesa County Historical Society.

Gertrude Rader talks about the profession and lives of teachers, who were primarily women, in Western Colorado during the early Twentieth century. She discusses how, in small communities, women were expected to be much more than teachers including: Doctors’ assistants in a pinch, de facto members of the families that they boarded with in cases of illness or maternity, and moral pillars of the community. She includes many anecdotes from her own teaching...

Charlotte (Jackson) Claar describes growing up on a homestead in Cheyenne County, Colorado, where the family witched for water, built an adobe house, and held jack rabbit drives. She speaks about moving to Grand Valley, Colorado (now Parachute) in 1920. She talks about her 37-year career as a teacher and then principal in Grand Valley, at the Clifton School, and at the Fruitvale School. She discusses her father and husband’s careers on the railroad....

Early Grand Junction resident Ruth Larson describes her life as a teacher and principal in Mesa County schools. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries, the Museums of Western Colorado and the Mesa County Historical Society.

Vern Wood discusses his life as an early Mesa County resident, homesteader in Pinon Mesa, and cattle rancher on Glade Park. Wood and his wife Bernice also discuss the building of the Serpent’s Trail on the Colorado National Monument, life at local schools, country dances on Glade Park, transportation methods, and murder scandals that occurred around Glade Park. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration...

In an interview from May 14, 1981 (audio only, no transcript), Basil T. Knight talks about his youth in Michigan, meeting his wife’s family in Palisade, Colorado and ultimately moving there, operating a fruit farm, and becoming a lifelong teacher and school administrator. He explains the mechanisms that originally funded the many smaller school districts on the Western Slope, including taxes on railroads, and the reasons for the consolidation that...

Sara Kruh talks about growing up near Collbran and in Grand Junction, Colorado, and about her schooling. She also discusses teaching in the Molina School on the Grand Mesa and her teaching career, her role in the origins of the Mesa County Teachers Federal Credit Union, and high button shoes. This recording is made available via signed release by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western...

Cordelia Files talks about the history of her family as early homesteaders in Mesa County, Colorado. She remembers life in Fruita in the early Twentieth century. She recalls working on a ranch near De Beque for her first job at the age of fifteen. She speaks about her life as a teacher instructing all eight grades in a one-room school house, about different episodes from her career in education (including the time a cat came to school), and about...

Frank Simonetti Sr. talks about his arrival in the United States from southern Italy in 1914 and his eventual arrival in Grand Junction, Colorado in 1918, where he began a long career with the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. He remembers a fire that burnt down the D&RG icehouse, the railroad shop strike in 1922, and working a seven-day work week for thirty years. He recalls different kinds of locomotives. Angela Simonetti recalls growing up in the...