Review by Martha Quillen
Local History – May 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine
Images of the Past – Places and People, Volume 1
Copyright 1996 by Saguache County Museum
ISBN # 0-9651079-1-4
Images of the Past is an unusual book.
Or, as the introduction says: “During its 38 years in operation, the Saguache County Museum has amassed recollections of early settlers: pictures, newspaper articles, and other documents. Lacking sufficient work or display space for these, they have been archived, with time taking its toll upon the old papers and pictures. Concerned that much of our early settler histories and records of events, places, and people of our area may be forever lost, we are making an effort to compile and publish, in no particular chronological or alphabetical order, some of the interesting materials we possess.”
The introduction goes on to explain that some of the material in Images of the Past was accumulated by a publishing company that asked Saguache residents to write up short family histories, but never received enough narratives to publish, and therefore gave the narratives to the museum. And thus the explanation concludes, “Neither will we alter the information we are presenting, though it may not be historically correct.”
That sounds like a hodgepodge, and it is.
Yet altogether Images of the Past delivers a surprisingly coherent picture of Saguache history. The different voices meld into a more unbiased picture than one usually finds in a history book.
And contrary to the way the introduction makes it sound, the book does as good a job as possible of presenting material in chronological order, even though many of the family narratives span decades.
Images of the Past starts with a decent amount of material about pre-pioneer days, which includes entries about Indians, trappers, and Hispanic settlers. Then there are articles about leading citizens — John Lawrence, Otto Mears, and Isaac Gotthelf, followed by information about the founding of Saguache and many of its early enterprises.
Images of the Past also includes some oddities, such as minutes taken from meetings and details nabbed from account books, that tend to make these forebears seem less illusory and more real than many histories do.
Accounts of the Curtis family, the Campbell family, the Braun family, the Lujan family, the Maestas family, the Sanchez family, the Wards, Woodards, Whittens, Wales, and Shellabargers dominate the book, however.
All in all, the family histories give the reader a fair idea of what things must have been like. But more important, because they’re in so many different voices, the family histories reflect the individuality of the subjects.
Abigail Shellabarger’s personal narrative offers a colorful and comprehensive history of Saguache’s beginnings. Shellabarger obviously thrived in early Saguache, but many of the narratives share tales of hard times and bad luck.
A poem by May Whitten shows a sentimental love for life in Saguache. Yet in her narrative about the Ward Ranch, Muriel Ward wrote, “Julia never learned to love this ranch as much as Nathan did and said, `this land is good for men and mules, but is not fit for women.'”
The story of Maria y Cipriano Lujan says something not only about the couple, but also about the obvious affection they inspired in the narrator, Armenio Lujan.
“But life was not only about working,” Armenio recounted. “Cipriano started playing baseball when he was 20 or 21 and he enjoyed it so much that he played baseball for the next 18 years. His team won the championship for five years straight. They played throughout the whole valley.
“Once, they were invited to ride some wild horses which promptly threw them into the dust and manure. They then realized that Bronco riding was a risky business.
“Cipriano said, `They call me chief because of my Indian blood. I do not care about time. I have never had a watch and seldom look at a calendar. One does not need to look at a watch to know when it is time to eat. I eat when I am hungry,’ he says.”
Images of the Past is amply illustrated throughout with black and white pictures of families and buildings. (I especially liked a painfully formal old-time picture of the Sanchez family which included their pet sheep.)
Altogether, Images offers a compilation of vastly different tidbits and tales about Saguache County. But perhaps the most telling fact in these accounts of generations of Curtises, Brauns, Wales, et al — is the fact that many, if not most, of the descendants of Saguache’s early families eventually moved on.
In Images of the Past the Saguache County Museum has preserved something of who those people were and what they did.
All proceeds from the book go to the Saguache County Museum which hopes to publish a second volume in the future.
–Martha Quillen
Images of the Past is available at the Saguache County Museum for $13, or by mail at: The Saguache County Museum, Images of the Past, PO Box 569, Saguache CO 81149. Orders should include a request for the book by title and $15, which includes $2 to cover postage and handling.