Williams Bottom

Williams Bottom around 1910

From Mitch William's memoirs

The ranch at Williams Bottom had an adobe house, a nice spring and a rock cellar. It was a way for Papa to make money besides his medical work. He didn't live on the ranch, though. He lived in town to be available to his patients.

The way they got the irrigation water to the ranch was with a paddle wheel. The river current turned the wheel and the wheel brought the water up to where it could run into the ditch and be used to water the crops.

Every ranch in those days was also a farm. They had to raise hay and corn to feed the livestock in the wintertime; that's what ranching was in those days…raise crops in the summer to feed livestock in winter. During the summer, the livestock would graze on the open range.

My father was born in 1853 in Missouri. He grew up on a farm near Vandalia and Curreyville in Pike County. In 1874, Father was riding a horse away from the farm and ran across a herd of cattle heading west. He talked to the owners, Tom and Ed Stark, of the now famous Stark Nurseries, from Louisiana, Missouri. They were driving their cattle west. Father hired on with them as a cow hand to drive the cattle to Elbert County in the Colorado Territory.He raced home and told his mother he was going to Colorado Territory. He grabbed a few clothes in a flour sack, raced back to where the herd was and went to work. They carried guns in those days in case they had to shoot a cow and to hunt buffalo, antelope and rabbits to eat. They did whatever they had to do to survive. Dad had an old cap and ball muzzleloader gun, a pre-civil war Henry Rifle. He remembered the Civil War. He was just a kid, but he recalled the raiders camping in their woods.

On the drive West, Dad got the measles and had to ride in the chuck wagon for a couple of days. They put a bandana over his face to keep the sun out of his eyes because they knew sunlight would damage the eyes when a person had measles. It was hard to keep the bandana over his eyes the whole time. It slipped off now and then, so his eyes did get damaged somewhat.

When they arrived in Elbert County, everyone wanted to see Denver. The owners wanted to sell some cattle to cover expenses. They took a couple of cowhands and camped on Capital Hill in Denver. Colorado wasn't a state yet and there was no Capital building on that hill yet. In 1876, Colorado became a state and eventually the Capital building was built.

Dad punched cows out there for a number of years. He was known as "Rawhide" John on the range because he made rawhide quirts, which he also sold to the cowboys.

Someone reported that the Indians were bothering people. The Indian wars were over, but sometimes there were incidents. The Army came around to the cow camps and issued guns and ammunition to the men. The men were sworn into the Army, but were to go about their regular duties. Many years later, when Dad was in his 80s or 90s, he told me this story. I asked Dad if he was ever discharged from the Army. Dad said, "No, they just gathered up the rifles." I said, "Dad, do you realize you may have a tremendous amount of back pay coming?" We had a good laugh about it, but that was the end of it. Dad would never dream of taking money in those circumstances!

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