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1. Carter Hall, the first library on the university campus, an architectural gem, razed in 1938 to make room for a new library, also called Carter Hall. The beautiful dome and imposing pillars were reflected in a lily pond at the intersection of Ninth Avenue and Seventeenth Street.1 |
Out of the Box: The Photographs By Arliss Shaffer Monk (originally published in the Weld County Genealogical Society Quarterly August, 2007 ) |
2. A snow scene of the campus adjacent to the library building, identified by the pool in the foreground. |
3. One block to the east, and still standing, the entrance gate to the campus on Eighth Avenue. In former times this marked the driveway through the grounds, ending with a similar structure on Tenth Avenue, designated as the Horace Mann Gate. |
4. A horse-drawn parade float in the foreground of the Sterling Hotel and Theater buildings, erected in 1911. The structures were replaced in 1968 with the Weld County Centennial Center at Ninth Avenue and Tenth Street.2 |
5. The second Weld County Court House in its first stage of demolition on the site of the present building, at Ninth Avenue and Ninth Street.3 |
6. Completed demolition of the above court house. In the background was the Elks Club on the right, and the round window of the old jail was in the building on the left. The visible cupola was atop the sheriff's office.4 |
7. Young man near stairway or fire escape. Penned on the back is "Augie 1919, Back of Mr. Couture's." |
8. Young man in army uniform, World War I era. |
9 Woman on sidewalk, "In Aunt Laura's front yard." |
10. Small boy with two goats, identified as "Reginald Carl Rhiner age 6 years June 16th 1906. Taken Aug. 1906." |
11. Group photo of eleven women, three small children and two infants. On the front: "Aug.5-1920 Ladies Aid" and on the reverse "Standing: Mrs. Combs, Mrs. Mills, Mrs. Robinson War widow, Mrs. Sanborn Sr., Mrs. Allred, Mrs. Kraut. Sitting: Mrs. Sanborn Jr & baby, Mrs. Johnson [ditto], Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Thomas, Mrs. Flat, Your kindness, Our Tige, 2 Sanborn boys, Edwina Mills." Background detail places the event in the mountains, quite possibly in those nearest Greeley, but incomplete research has failed to discover a local church with whom all the ladies were affiliated.5 Lack of given names complicated the search. The war widow conceivably lost her husband in the first World War. However, the 1920 census did not produce a likely Robinson widow of a draft registrant of that time.6 Issues of the Greeley Daily Tribune were consulted for mention of an outing, both before and after the given date, with no results.7 It may be a group photo with no Weld County association. |
12. Group photo of young people, at the Central School building at Eleventh Avenue and Eighth Street, next to the Union Colony Civic Center. 8 There are thirty persons in the picture but only eighteen signatures on the back. In a lower corner is written "Miss Rhiner." Of the eighteen names, thirteen were identified in the 1920 census of the city, during which time their ages ranged from nine to eleven. 9 The names and ages, parents, and addresses from the enumeration are: Elberta English, 9, daughter of E. G. and Ethel, 912 Fourth Street Edward G. Lauck, 9, son of John and Anna, a farm on Fifth Street Grace Robb, 9, daughter of Orval and Nina, 1027 Thirteenth Street Ruby Son, 9, daughter of J. H. and Cabelle, Gibson Precinct Donald Neal, 9, son of Clifford and Selina, 1013 Fifth Street Helen Anderson, 9, daughter of Joseph and Anna, farm on Fourteenth Avenue Katherine Cater, 9, daughter of Claude and Florence, 1544 Thirteenth Avenue Clara Grossnickle, 9, daughter of John and Nellie, 208 Twelfth Street Orphia Robinson, 10, daughter of Charles and Duella, 523 Ninth Street Edwina Kihn, 11, daughter of George and Maggie, 503 Tenth Street Gordon Howard, 10, son of Herman and Eleanor, 301 Thirteenth Street Reuben Herbst, 11, son of Jacob and Annie, 228 Tenth Street Lloyd Carr, 9, son of J. Arthur and Blanche, 918 Fourth Street Margaret Chater's signature, but she was not found in the 1920 Weld County census |
The children in the photo are obviously a class of students who are older than those in the census. By comparing the names with lists of classes in several high school annuals of the 1920s it is quite evident that they are ninth grade pupils in the 1923/24 school year. All eighteen names appear in the roll of the 10B class in the 1925 annual but they are posed on the steps of the Ninth Avenue building. In The Spud annual of 1926, G. E. Brown, school superintendent, wrote a chronology of high school buildings.10 According to him, the first Meeker School was erected in 1873, followed by Central School in 1895. In 1912 high school students moved into a new building located further north, on Ninth Avenue and Fourteenth Street and Central became the housing for junior high schoolers. However the new school was so overcome with pupils that in his words, "In 1921 we sent the ninth grade down to the junior high building" where that grade would still have been housed in 1924.11 A new high school opened in 1927 and is in present use as Greeley Central.12 In its early years the Weld County Genealogical Society met for several months in a classroom of the old Central School until it was condemned and underwent extensive renovation before it became the modern office building adjacent to the Civic Center.13 This collection of photographs will be offered to the City of Greeley Museums when the research is completed. A study of the Rhiner family who originally owned them follows. |
Endnotes 1 John Dugan, Greeley and Weld County: A Pictorial History (Norfolk, Va: Donning Company, 1984), p.100. Historically the institution has undergone several name changes and is now the University of Northern Colorado. 2 Ibid., pp. 107, 161. These first four photos are a part of my childhood and college life experience. 3 Greeley Tribune and Greeley City Museums, Greeley, Colorado: The Historical Picture Album(Portland, Ore.: Pediment Publishing Co., 1997), p. 19. 4 Compared with Dugan, pp. 56, 160. 5 Dorothy S. Forman, ed., First Congregational Church: 100 Years of Service, 1870-1970 (Greeley, Colo.:n.p., 1969): First United Presbyterian Church, 1321 9th Avenue, Centennial, 1870-1970 (n.p., 1970); and Esther Lotz, History of a Pioneer Church: The First United Methodist Church, Greeley, Colorado 1870-1970(Greeley: Wilkinson Printery, 1970), pp. 80, 87. 6 "1920 U.S. Federal Census," database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 20 March 2007), entries for all Robinsons, Weld County, Colorado. 7 Greeley Daily Tribune, 1-15 August 1920, microfilm #38, Centennial Park Library, Greeley, Colo. 8 Dugan, p. 69. 9 "1920 U.S. Federal Census," database, Ancestry.com. 10 The Spud, vol. 18, published by the senior class, 1926, p. 6. Copies for this study were examined for the years 1924-1927, and are found at Centennial Park branch of Weld Library District in Greeley. 11 Ibid., vol. 17, 1925. 12 Dugan, p. 120. 13 Arliss Shaffer Monk, co-founder of the Society and Weld County resident for 71 years.. |
Opportunities for genealogical research present themselves in many interesting ways. Recently the Society received a box of pictures from Jack McAdams of Kirkville, Missouri, accompanied by a note saying that the former owner no longer wanted them. There were about 200 photographs enclosed, only a few of them with handwritten information. Some were picnic or campsite snapshots, many obviously taken in the mountains. One of a man beside a lagre stream drinking from a bucket, recalls the days when mountain water was clear and potable. The style ofdress in many depicts the era of long skirts and long hair on women, dating them in the early 1900s. The majority were of family members, begging for identifiction. By walking the streets of Greeley the houses might still be identified because of porches, columns and other architectural elements. After a cursory examination of the contents of the package we felt that there was potential for some historical and genealogical research relating to Weld County. To this end I was given temporary custody, based on my longevity in years and residence in the area. Twelve pictures from the collection represent the research; half are outdoor scenes, two are group photos and four are of individuals. |
Go To: |
ORIGINAL RESEARCH BY ARLISS SHAFFER MONK As published in the Quarterly of the Weld County Genealogical Society, Vol 34, # 1, August 2007 (.pdf file opens with Adobe Reader) |
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