I was a cowboy
A personal family history
By Daniel J Arthur
Copyright © 2026 by Daniel A Jones
Introduction
I was a cowboy when I was a toddler in Charleston, South Carolina. I watched all the western TV shows on our black and white light tan wood grain cabinet TV. I had all the cowboy clothing and guns – toys of course, but realistic as they were in that era. My mother made me a cowboy as my father was away fighting the Cold War and highly involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis a portion of that time, both of which I knew nothing about, just his absence, and she knew about cowboy stuff as her father had been a cowboy of sorts, always having horses for her and her brother in addition to his, and she had admired her father. My father in his many travels, occasionally brought home interesting items including a few camel saddles from Turkey or somewhere in the Middle East. I didn’t know my saddles were camel saddles, but I loved to sit on them more than anything. I imagined I was riding a horse on those saddles quite often.
My older siblings were already engaged in grade school and various activities, like dance classes and recitals for my sister and military academy and sports for my brother – again, I didn’t really know much about what they were doing. I was a cowboy. And, this is one reason that this family history will be added to and edited by other family members from time to time. They certainly know things and remember things that I don’t, and sometimes I might be wrong. It could happen. Then, my younger brother came along to join the family. I know he took my place as the youngest, but I vaguely remember having my crib moved into my older brother’s room, and I had a new toy – a Yogi Bear with a plastic nose that seemed to be my pacifier.
The central theme of this family history is just that, a family history including a fairly detailed family tree going back many generations – almost always at least eight generation on every branch with one or two exceptions for now. My late uncle, truly a white hat cowboy if there ever was one, provided me with a very detailed written family tree, and once gave me a multi-media lecture at his home in Grand Junction, Colorado, the community that was home to my parents as children. I have since verified every bit of what he transferred to me, and I was able to add much more on my father’s side, especially with help from my Welsh cousin – an expert at all things Jones.
I will start the story with my parents when they were young, and then I will go further and further back in time for two more generations. I might cover current relatives and their stories from time to time, but I will try to respect their privacy. After those two generations, which my parents may have had some direct contact with or second hand stories heard, I will have family tree branch sections with chapters within each.
Volume I
Chapter 1
Our Parents
My mother and father were born in Grand Junction, Colorado in 1932. My mother, Nancy Jean Waldref at the time, was also raised there her entire childhood and did live there as an adult some. My father, Charles Leon Jones, actually lived in Rifle, Colorado, a small town upstream on the Colorado River soon after birth. He moved back to Grand Junction with his family by the third grade at about 9 years old and stayed through high school, until he and my mother married at 18 (he was actually 19, I believe) in 1951.
My mother’s parents are Henry Alfred Waldref, born in Greenbush, Minnesota in 1901, and Ruth Cheedle, born in Kearney, Nebraska in 1904. Al didn’t finish school in Minnesota before starting his journey to Grand Junction. His family moved near Grand Forks at one time where his father took a photo of his mother’s flooded store, then they moved on to Stillwater, Montana where his uncle was mining for gold. After that they rode their horses, Al and his mom and dad, to near DeBeque, Colorado where his father had a job on a ranch. His mother and father divorced in 1923 with his father riding a horse to another son’s place in Peace River, Alberta. Shortly before the divorce, Al and his mom moved into Grand Junction, where she married again in 1925. These were families on the move almost every generation.
My father’s parents are Arthur Benjamin Jones, born in Florence, Colorado in a coal mining family in 1895, and Hazel Franklin born downriver in DeBeque, Colorado in 1894. The Jones family moved to the Rifle area to mine coal near New Castle and started the Antlers Ranch just outside of Rifle. Hazel grew up on a ranch in DeBeque, was married to an Oklahoma cowboy having two children, before divorcing and meeting up with Arthur. Ironically enough, Arthur was into sheep herding and processing. Again people on the move.
Chapter 2
Nancy Jean Waldref Childhood
Nancy spent her entire childhood in Grand Junction in a house at 525 North Avenue. It was a modest and well decorated two bedroom and one bathroom home with a coal furnace. In the backyard there was a large garage and shop area just off the alley.
Al liked to have a hunting dog, so he kept a kind of Springer Spaniel with black on white. There is at least one photo of Nancy with her older siblings, Dick and Phyllis, holding puppies. Dick continued having Springer Spaniels throughout his lifetime, and he always named them Lady.
Al also like to keep horses, since he had been riding horses most of his life. Both Dick and Nancy had a horse. I cannot remember their names. Nancy loved having a horse, and she rode Dick’s horse, Partner, in the rodeo as a barrel racer through most of her teen years. She wanted to have a horse throughout life, but it was not practical as an adult.
While she was young, the family gathered often at the grandparent’s house on Fruitridge where they spent time singing in the music room with the upright grand piano. Someone in the family could always play.
Nancy was a good student and participated in many activities in school including dance. Her father would often take the family, kids mainly, fishing and camping where he would also paint landscapes.
Her cousin, Mark Fortsch, remembers seeing her in the summer with green hair, as her blonde hair would turn green from swimming in the city pool.
Tragically, Al was killed in a rock slide in the Thistle, Utah area during Nancy’s junior year in high school. She continued courting with Charles until their marriage not long after graduation.
Chapter 3
Charles Leon Jones Childhood
Charles family lived in Rifle, Colorado throughout his childhood, until they moved to Grand Junction, where he was born, when he started the 3rd grade in 1941. He had an interesting childhood with his older sisters, Geri and Kathleen, caring for him along with his doting mother and father. He did fall off a pony sometime before high school, and broke his arm in the fall.
After moving to Junction they settled at 227 Belford Avenue. He attended Grand Junction High School and was a star athlete in football, basketball and baseball. His football team at GJHS, famous for winning the state championship in 1936 without allowing opponents to score the entire season, were runners up in the state championship Chuck’s junior year, as they lost the final after missing an extra point try. Chuck was a running back that was a main receiver on pass plays and wore number 27, a number of which he kept a fondness throughout life. He won the trophy as the best athlete in school his senior year. He also attended a State gathering of high school boys, where he was elected as Governor of Colorado for a day.
Tragically, his father Arthur passed away in his junior year of high school from what they thought at the time as pneumonia, but it is very likely he suffered from the effects of asbestos related disease from his time as a carpenter for the US Army at Camp Hale near Pando during World War II. Ironically, this land was basically confiscated for low prices from the landowners, of which my mother’s step-grandfather was among. I don’t know how Great Grandfather Murphy owned his Pando land, near where he passed by as engineer of D&RGW trains going through the area, but he did according to mother. Uncle Dick always expected to get the land back, but it was contaminated more than he could imagine.
Chapter 4
Nancy and Charles Adult Life
Part I
Early marriage
These two love birds were married on July 15, 1951 in Grand Junction. That is almost 75 years from this writing, and they are still very much in love. They had a big, well attended and documented wedding. I am still in contact with one of the flower girls, Jan.
Shortly after getting married, maybe Charles was playing semi-pro baseball that summer, they moved to Fort Collins, Colorado where Charles had a baseball scholarship and played for Colorado A&M (now Colorado State University). They lived in a qantus hut, and Nancy got a job in office work at the college. One day she told Chuck (his lifetime nickname) to go ask the coach for his scholarship as promised, which he did and that really helped them out financially.
After he graduated, they had their first child, Debra Lee, and lived in Grand Junction with Chuck’s family until he was accepted into the Air Force and assigned to Vance Air Force Base in Enid, Oklahoma.
Part II
Early Air Force experience
Chuck was very successful in his pilot training and soon earned his wings. The young couple also welcomed a baby boy into the family in 1956, born in Enid.
A short while later they found themselves in North Charleston, South Carolina where Chuck was stationed at Charleston Air Force Base and primarily flying the C-121, the “Connie” as it was known. The young couple took their small family on a PAA flight to Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1958 to visit Chuck’s sister, Kathleen and her husband, Jack, who was working for the government of Haiti as a water systems engineer.
In 1959 they welcomed another baby boy into the family, Daniel, as he was born at the North Charleston Hospital. Later in the month, Hurricane Gracie made landfall, and it toppled at least one large tree in the neighborhood. Can I possibly remember the fear? In 1960, they took another trip to Haiti to visit Jack and Kathleen again in Haiti with the entire family returning on the 28th of December via Miami, FL on Pan Am Airway.
In 1962 Chuck was highly involved in relocating USAF airplanes away from the Cuban Missle Crisis area of conflict. He and Nancy thought about relocating the family temporarily due to the threat of a nuclear war. It was a scary time. My dad literally was flying into an area considered to be under a nuclear threat. We know the crazy Cuban leadership was for the nuclear option. Fortunately for us and humanity, cooler heads prevailed.
In 1963 their youngest son was born – maybe a Cuban Missle Crisis baby, in the North Charleston Hospital.
It wasn’t long before Chuck was transferred again, in the military way, to Tinker Air Force Base in Midwest City, Oklahoma in 1964, where he was to begin training to fly the Air Force’s newest jet cargo plane the C-141. The family spent about two years in Midwest City before Captain Jones was assigned to serve in the Vietnam War in 1966.
At this time Nancy had enrolled at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK to pursue a college degree. And, sometime back in Charleston they might have taken up tennis. They certainly played tennis with friends from time to time while living in Midwest City, OK. I remember playing around the tennis courts at Tinker AFB. I believe my parents were using Tretorn balls at this point in their development.
My parents established a lifetime tradition of visiting their mothers every year or so in the Grand Junction area. I believe as their children, we always considered Grand Junction to be home. I know I did. I can still recall the smell of the desert air dominated by sagebrush after a thunderstorm and the miles and miles of bookcliffs, mesa tops and Grand Mesa as standard scenary.
Part III
Middle Years Air Force Experience
The family relocated to Grand Junction, Colorado to be near family, while Chuck fought in the war. In recent times he told the story of how it wasn’t really dangerous; however, when he was in the Philippines for survival training, they pulled him out before he could learn much as his predecessor had been shot down in the same C-47E that he was assigned to fly out of Da Nang.
Just over a year or so later, in 1967, after Chuck finished his war duty in Vietnam he was reassigned to Tinker AFB in Midwest City. Within a year or so of flying C-141s there, he was given the opportunity to fly the latest huge aircraft – the C-5A, at Altus Air Force Base in Altus, Oklahoma where he move his family in 1969.
While Chuck was in Vietnam, Nancy enrolled at the local college in Grand Junction to continue her college degree program. After Chuck returned from Vietnam, the still young couple decided to buy some land in Colorado with the idea of returning there some day after retiring. They ended up with some smaller parcels overlooking Basalt, CO and a few acres on the slopes of Mount Sopris. It seems that Nan, her nickname, was still hoping to get a horse some day, since she always had a horse as a child. They did camp on their land every once in awhile. They loved the Carbondale and Glenwood Springs area, and spent many summer vacations in the area.
Prior to moving to Altus AFB, the family went on a trip to Grand Cayman. Dad flew an old Connie from Houston to New Orleans and then to Grand Cayman and back after a nice stay at a beach side hotel. Before leaving Houston, Chuck had to test the Connie for flight worthiness, while the passengers waited. It flew well and I remember spending some time in the cockpit over the Gulf of Mexico, prior to getting airsick. We had a good time on a boat doing some diving and having a nice fresh catch meal near a private dock with a few hammerhead sharks swimming in an enclosure.
By 1969, after serving as a flight instructor for the C-5 at Altus AFB, Chuck was promoted to Major and given a choice of assignments. He chose to work at Military Air Command at Scott Air Force Base near St. Louis on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River near Cahokia Mounds, and he moved his family to Mascoutah, IL for a few months in the summer of 1971, until they moved into their new home in O’Fallon, IL.
While at Scott AFB, Chuck enrolled in and completed a Master’s degree in counseling at Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville. Chuck was the first in his family to have a college education and a Master’s degree.
Part IV
Later Years Air Force Experience and Retirement
After a longer stint than usual as Scott AFB, Lt. Col. Jones accepted a new position as Commander of the University of Wyoming Air Force ROTC program and moved to Laramie, Wyoming in 1977.
While in Laramie, Nancy completed her Bachelor’s degree in Recreation and then earned a Master’s degree in Recreation. She had run many tennis lessons and youth tennis teams and adult teams as well.
By 1980, Col. Jones was given a new assignment as commander of the Midwest Region Civil Air Patrol operating out of the Minneapolis, Minnesota area in Bloomington, MN.
In 1982 he retired from the Air Force and moved to Gulf Breeze, Florida on the Santa Rosa Shores Country Club, renamed to Tiger Point Country Club after being purchased by Jerry Pate, the orange golf ball PGA pro. After a few near misses from hurricanes that had devastated part of the Gulf Coast, Chuck accepted a position to lead the Air Force ROTC program at the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL and relocated there with Nancy.
By 1989 he and Nancy retired again to Mount Dora, Florida. They continued to travel overseas and domestically, especially to the Glenwood Springs area every summer. Nancy began her watercolor painting at around this time. She is famous for painting flowers, animals and portraits. They enjoy their home on the country club golf course buffered by a large pond.
Chapter 5
Ruth Cheedle
Ruth was born in Kearney, Nebraska on March 1st, 1904 where her parents, Parker Julius Cheedle and Metta Laverna Mark owned a dry land ranch. She had a good number of siblings including Lillie, whose mother died from childbirth, Roxana, Esther and Florence.
By 1910 they were moved to just outside of Grand Junction on Fruitridge adjacent to the St. Mary’s Hospital location of today, where they had a nice two story home on acreage irrigated for growing fruit. According to Uncle Mark Fortsch, Ruth’s nephew, Parker was in charge of the fruit growing operation, which was mainly pears, and Vernie was the morning cook for the fruit laborers who lived in separate quarters on site.
I don’t have much information about Ruth’s childhood, though she had a nice house and good sisters. They all seem to have had some musical training and Ruth graduated from high school in Junction prior to leaving the nest and marrying Henry Alfred “Al” Waldref on the 13th of December of 1923. They moved to California soon after settling near Los Angeles in San Pedro, where Al had an uncle, Pvt. Martin Hans Miller, living. He also had a cousin in Long Beach and near Hollywood – a famous artist, Paul Lauritz, from whom they must have spent considerable time with prior to moving to Oakland where he was a painting and decorating contractor in the booming times in an effluent area.
Ruth had her first daughter in Oakland, Phyllis Ruth Waldref, on April 15th, 1928. Of course the stock market crashed and the economy dried up, so the young family packed up and moved back to Grand Junction. On the 8th of October in 1930, Ruth had her second child, Richard Alfred Waldref and they made a home on North Avenue across from the mortuary – a two bedroom, one bathroom house with a large garage in the backyard.
This is where they lived when Ruth had her third and final child, Nancy Jean Waldref, while Al worked for the D&RGW railroad as a fireman during the Great Depression.
After WWII things were going very well for the Waldref family with Al running a successful painting and decoration business in Grand Junction. He went with Ruth and two friends, his friend driving a very new car to a paint and decoration convention in Salt Lake City, Utah. On the way back to Grand Junction, disaster struck. A huge rock described as the size of a train caboose fell on their car from a cliff near Thistle, Utah. Grandpa Al died instantly. Ruth, sitting next to him in the back seat, suffered a broken wrist. Their friends were unharmed. December 11, 1949 was a sad day for the family.
Ruth was devastated of course, but the family carried on. The children suffered tremendously from the sudden unexpected loss of their father. They graduated from high school and moved on. Ruth was able to get some training and finally a job as a court clerk, which was a low paying woman’s job in those days. Her mother, Grandma Vernie died in 1968 at about 100 years old. We visited her many times, mainly on summer vacations, and stayed at her home. She treated us special. I remember her clawfoot bathtub, the walls decorated by Grandpa Al with frescos of nature, an old goldfish pond, ant lions in the backyard, occasional walks to the nearby Dairy Queen for an ice cream sundae and the constant noise of North Avenue traffic. She retired eventually, sold the house, which was moved to Fruita intact, and purchased a two bedroom condo at 1441 Patterson Road, a little closer to Uncle Dick’s house.
At the age of 81 and suffering from cancer, Ruth passed away on the 19th of April in 1985.
Chapter 6
Henry Alfred Waldref
Al was the second son of his father, Hamilton Alenson Waldref, and mother, Alice May Waldref (aka many names) was born on the 23rd of December in 1901 way up north in Greenbush, Minnesota. His father had three children from a previous, deceased wife. His older brother was born one July 22nd in 1893 in Lake Mills, Iowa prior to his parents marriage and among his mother’s Scandinavian relatives.
I don’t think Hamilton helped Al have a truly normal childhood. There are hints that his older brother was placed on a farm in Manitoba, Canada, not far from Winnipeg, to earn his keep. They may have visited him. I’m not certain of where he lived and when exactly. The moved to Badger, Minnesota when he was four, to Skagen in 1910 and we have a photo of a major flooding event on the Red River, which may have been on the Minnesota side of Grand Forks.
He didn’t finish high school, most likely from his father’s influence. But, he was a great kid and by 1920 he was with his mom and dad in Stillwater, Montana where at least one uncle was working a gold mining claim. We have photos that appear to show them in situ. After not much success, apparently, they rode their horses down to Colorado and both parents got jobs as ranch hands. Sometime before meeting his wife, Ruth, they moved to Grand Junction, where his mother was granted a divorce on July 11, 1923. His father moved on to Peace River, Alberta, Canada where his oldest son lived.
Al married Ruth in 1923. We have many photos of this very young couple from before and after marriage, I believe. They were both very photogenic. On April 4th, 1925 his mother Alice, known by my parents as Grandma Murphy, married Guy Ignatius Peter (GI) Murphy, a D&RGW railroad engineer. Alice had a women’s clothing store and she was a milliner. During the Great Depression she had to close her downtown Grand Junction shop and continued being a milliner.
After the Great Depression Al focused on his painting and decorating career. He was famous for his artwork, often being asked to paint deer and forest scenes on walls in homes. Uncle Mark Fortsch said he was famous for painting with both hands on standard interior and exterior jobs.
Al was also famous for his hunting and fishing skills. Nancy and the other children would often accompany him when he went fishing. He would also do oil painting of landscapes in situ when on an outing. He must have learned his artistry from Paul Lauritz, who visited the family and gave Nancy a signed sketch when she was a little girl. Al hunted to put food on the table for the family, which was especially valuable during the Great Depression and World War II ration card years. He was famous for making accurate long shots, and Uncle Mark Fortsch recalled witnessing him hitting a large buck at a long distance.
Unfortunately, when Al had everything going great in his business and for his family the caboose sized rock fell on him in December of 1949 near Thistle, Utah. I never got to meet Grandpa Al, but I know that he was held in high regard and well loved.
Chapter 7
Hazel Franklin
Hazel was born on the 6th of January, 1894 in DeBeque, Colorado on a small ranch run by her mother, Sarah Rebecca Laffoon, and her father James Rufus Franklin. She spent most of her childhood among her cowboy family relatives. The Franklin boys, her brothers, were famous for wrangling cattle in the rough mountainous, dry range in the DeBeque area. She had many brothers and sisters including Mary, Myrtle, Ruth, Sarah, James, Benjamin, Floyd, Dwight and Anna known as May. Their ranch was on Roan Creek, which is a beautiful place if it was like the homestead I visited when I was a young boy. I loved fishing for the brook trout that I could see in a crystal clear pool.
On the 10th of February, 1916 she married a cowboy from Oklahoma, Raymond Carey Knott in Grand Junction. Soon they moved to Pascoe, Oklahoma where her two daughters were born: Geraldine Marie Knott in Davidson in 1917 and Kathleen Faye Knott in Okmulgee in 1920. After ten years, Hazel divorced Ray in Garfield County, Colorado on the 19th of August, 1930.
Sometime late in 1930, while living back at Roan Creek, she met and married Arthur Benjamin Jones in Grand Junction. They had various residences between DeBeque and Rifle and their son, Charles Leon Jones was born in 1932. By 1940 they were living in Rifle, Colorado where Arthur made a living caring for and processing sheep. By 1942 they moved to Grand Junction into a two bedroom home with a detached garage not too far from Nancy’s place on North Avenue.
Arthur got a job during World War II working on the construction of Camp Hale in Pando, Colorado. It wasn’t long after working there that he was having trouble with his lungs. His condition worsened and he departed on the 7th of April, 1949 leaving behind a struggling family. It was most likely that the asbestos he was working with at Camp Hale had contaminated his lungs and caused his death from pneumonia. Hazel was able to keep things going, possibly with the assistance of her large family.
Her children all left by about two years after Arthur’s untimely departure. They all did very well and would come to live with here helping to pay the bills until they needed to move on with their new families.
Hazel continued to live in Grand Junction most of the rest of her years, but did spend a few years living in Fruita, Colorado with her sister Ruth. I remember her visiting us in Charleston when I was a toddler and other places like Laramie, Wyoming. We visited her whenever we were in Grand Junction for our summer vacations.
After a long illness she passed away in Grand Junction, Colorado on the 4th of February, 1980.
Chapter 8
Arthur Benjamin Jones
Arthur was born in Florence, Colorado on the 10th of October, 1895. His parents, William Evan Jones and Johanna Davies, were immigrants from Southern Wales. William found a job as a coal miner, since the stereotype was that all Welshmen were coal miners, in Pennsylvania and was sent to Florence, Colorado.
After some time, William was sent to the New Castle, Colorado mine to work. By 1910 they had established a small ranch in Antlers, which is between Rifle and New Castle along the Colorado River.
Arthur started a sheep processing business with a cousin, and did quite well in the Rifle area. He stopped the business at some point due to his cousin contracting a serious bacterial infection and dying.
In late 1930 he met Hazel Knott (Franklin) and they got married in Grand Junction. He helped raise her two girls and then their only son, Charles Leon Jones was born in 1932. They continued to live in Rifle until about 1941 when they moved to Grand Junction.
Arthur got a job during World War II working on the construction of Camp Hale in Pando, Colorado. It wasn’t long after working there that he was having trouble with his lungs. His condition worsened and he departed on the 7th of April, 1949 leaving his family to get by without him. It was most likely that the asbestos he was working with at Camp Hale had contaminated his lungs and caused his death from pneumonia.
Arthur was highly regarded and much loved by his family.
Chapter 9
Metta Laverna Mark
Vernie was born on December 24th, 1868 in Ringgold, Iowa to Sargent Gilbert Mark and Martha Jane Sinco. Gilbert was a Civil War hero of the Union Army who was captured and escaped from the Confederacy three times. Martha lived on a corn farm her father created. It’s hard to know how much she knew about her grandfather’s relationship with Abraham Lincoln, but she did let her family know that they had spent time together in New Salem, Illinois, as the family visited the village site when they were adults. They knew about Henry Sinco.
Grandma Vernie raised her girls, Roxana, Esther, Ruth and Florence at their fairly spacious two-story home on Fruitridge, which was just outside Junction adjacent to what is now St. Mary’s Hospital. The house was one major building on the Cheedle fruit farm. Vernie was the breakfast cook for the hired laborers for much of the time.
She and the family attended the 1st Presbyterian Church and they had many family members living in the area. I remember meeting her a few times in her advanced age as she lived to be 100. The family treated her with great warmth and care as a respected elder.
Chapter 10
Parker Julius Cheedle
Parker was born on July 13th, 1863 in Metamora, Illinois to Orin Cheedle, reported to have traveled on President Lincoln’s victory train to his inauguration, and Martha Maria Morse, Orin’s second wife. Orin’s first wife was Elizabeth Mary Lincoln, who died tragically from child birth complications.
Parker also lost his first wife to complications from child birth, Lillie Kuhl. Their child, Lillie M. Cheedle, was eventually sent to live with her mother’s relatives in the Washington, Illinois area near Peoria, Illinois. Parker moved from Metamora, where is father farmed about 100 acres and was an assessor for the county, to a dry land ranch just east of Kearney, Nebraska. After a few years toiling there somewhat successfully, Parker planned a big move to the irrigated land in the Western Slope of Colorado. He held an auction to sell his farm and most of his equipment, packed up his family’s belongings and traveled by train to Grand Junction, settling at Fruitridge just outside of Grand Junction.
He developed quite the plantation from scratch, growing mostly pears, as reported by Uncle Mark Fortsch, for sale back east, which they shipped via train. He also had other trees like peaches for personal use mainly. One of his prized possessions was an upright grand piano, which he purchased from New York City and it is still in the family, all 750 pounds of it. Mark Fortsch made a bench for it, and his sister is the current caretaker in Arizona.
Parker was quite wealthy when he moved to Grand Junction, but the stock market crash of 1929, Black Thursday, reduced his wealth significantly. Besides his fruit farm, he held other land assets in Junction and also in Telluride. He was involved in raising peacocks, the development of irrigation canals and helping brothers with their business endeavors.
He loved to read and shared that passion with his grandson, Mark Fortsch, when Mark was expelled from 1st or 2nd grade for an incident that injured his teacher when she was insulting his family name. Apparently, Mark also contracted scarlet fever or some such illness and was bedridden for a long period of time. Parker would visit Mark often and read to him.
Mark went on to become a nuclear scientist as an adult, after a detour as a brewer with the Coors Brewing Company in Golden, Colorado when he was supposed to be attending classes at the University of Colorado. He changed schools and attended college in Gunnison before graduating. Some of the nuclear projects he worked on included Navy nuclear reactors for vessels, Rocky Flats remediation, Three Mile Island consulting and the Yucca Mountain storage facility. He was a sailor, was good friends with Barry Bonds’ family in Anaheim, rode horses regularly in Las Vegas and loved to camp in the mountains near Marble, Colorado. I guess Parker was a good influence.
I don’t know how much he told his family about his grandparent’s participation in the Underground Railroad back in Illinois. Uncle Mark Fortsch knew about it and had some newspaper clippings among his photographs, so I believe Parker did spend some time telling Mark stories about his ancestors.
He died on May 17th, 1945 in Grand Junction at about 82 years old.
Chapter 11
Alice May Miller
Alice May, also known as Ellis Mae and Elsie, was born on October 3rd, 1875 in Putnam, New York, which is near Ticonderoga. Her immigrant parents were Hans Peter Miller from Denmark and Mary, also known as Marie and Mariah, Matison or Matthewson from Norway.
She grew up in a home with modest resources as her father was a laborer. There must have been discord between the parents as they divorced sometime after they moved to Williamsport, Pennsylvania and before 1892. Her mother remarried in 1893, but Alice May was hired out to Hamilton Waldref to help care for his dying wife Theresa C. Yocum in 1892 in Faribault, Minnesota. By a year later Alice May had her first child, Harry Waldref, on July 22nd, 1893 in Lake Mills, Iowas among her Scandinavian relatives.
They moved back to Folsom, Minnesota and Hamilton and Alice were married in 1893. Hamilton was a lumber and coal trader and they tended to move around. Alice may have worked in ladies wear shops and done work as a milliner. In 1901 she had her second child, Henry Alfred Waldref on December 23rd in Greenbush, Minnesota. At this time they may have hired out Harry to work on a farm in Manitoba near Winnipeg.
They moved about to Badger and Skagen before heading to Stillwater, Montana between 1910 and 1920 to help Hamilton’s brother with a gold mining claim. By 1922 they had moved to work on a ranch north of DeBeque and settled finally in Grand Junction. She divorced Hamilton on July 11, 1923. She remained with her son Henry Alfred in Junction where she may have opened a ladies wear shop and also been a milliner.
She soon met railroad engineer (the airline pilots of their day) GI Murphy and they were married on April 4th, 1925. They continued to raise Henry Alfred until he left to marry Ruth Cheedle.
In 1936 Alice traveled by ocean liner to England and on to Larvick, Norway to visit relatives returning via the docks of New York City on March 25th, 1936. She remained married to GI until her death in 1951 within two years of her loss of beloved son Henry Alfred due to a sudden death from a rockslide near Thistle, Utah in 1949.
Chapter 12
Hamilton Alenson Waldref
Hamilton was born on April 8th, 1849 at Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin to William Waldref, Jr. and Abigail S. Weeks. As a child he was reported to be living on the lands of the Native Americans. The family then moved to Oxford where he lived with the family until he was 21.
He moved to Faribault, Minnesota with his family and on the 9th of April, 1872 her married Theresa C. Yocum, who was yet another recent local girl. They had three children: Lela, Lanslott Winn and Glenn. Unfortunately, Theresa became very ill and needed care for a long period of time. Hamilton hired a young woman from back east, Alice May Miller, to help her care for her until her death on the 1st of May in 1892.
Over a year later Hamilton and Alice May had a baby boy on July 22nd, 1893 in Lake Mills, Iowas among her relatives. For some reason they didn’t get married until later that year, maybe civilly, in Folsom, Minnesota and then again in 1896 in Forest City, Iowa with better records. Hamilton’s father William passed away later that year on November 29th, 1896.
After living in Folsom for a good number of years, Hamilton moved his family to Greenbush, Minnesota where their second son, Henry Alfred, was born on the 23rd of December, 1901. The family moved to Badger, Minnesota then Skagen, Minnesota. It appears that they may have hired out their son Harry to a farm in Manitoba. They may have moved to the East Grand Forks area and started a store with a photo of what appears to be the 1902 flood showing the store.
The family of three moved to Stillwater, Montana to mine gold with Hamiltion’s brother Henry by 1920. A few years later they moved via horseback to a ranch north of DeBeque, Colorado and then by 1922 they were living in Grand Junction. Alice May secured a divorce on July 11th, 1923.
Hamilton seems to have drifted off at that time. He may have visited his brother in Stillwater again, he most likely visited family in Spokane, Washington and then made his way into Canada, crossing the border on May 11th, 1926 before heading on to Peace River, Alberta and remaining in Canada with his son Lanslott, a barber, until his death on April 12th, 1936. He is buried in a local cemetery.
Chapter 13
Sarah Rebecca Laffoon
Sarah was born on October 1st, 1856 in Belefonte, Arkansas to Willam Samford “Rufus” Laffoon and Sarah Elizabeth Boatright “Sallie” Sims.
She grew up in Blythe and Jefferson, Arkansas, and married James Franklin on September 21, 1881 in Bellefonte. The first four children were born in Arkansas, where her father was forced to fight for the Confederates and was wounded during the Civil War. She had many children including Carl, Mary, Myrtle, Ruth, Sarah, James, Benjamin, Floyd, Hazel, Dwight and Anna – eleven in all.
After the first four, the rest of the children were born in Colorado, most in DeBeque. The family was mainly living on a ranch on the beautiful Roan Creek. She spent her later years in Grand Junction until her death on September 5th, 1935.
Chapter 14
James Rufus Franklin
James was born on February 27th, 1857 in Springfield, Missouri to Sargent Benjamin Lafayette Franklin and Mary Catherine “Cass” Choate.
He was raised in Springfield until about 1867, a few years after the Civil War, when the family moved to Richland, Arkansas, where he lived until about 1881 when he married Sarah on September 21st. He was raised to be a cowboy, and that’s what he knew.
The problem most likely with the Belefonte area of Arkansas was that after the war it became very lawless. In fact, Jesse James and his gang would be in this area quite often. So, they found a place where you could make an honest living an moved there to homestead. By 1890 he had moved his family to DeBeque, Colorado to live on a ranch on Roan Creek, a homestead, and wrangle cows for a living. Most of his sons learned to be cowboys in the DeBeque area.
They might have even known that Doc Holliday had been living in the nearby Glenwood Springs hot springs resorts to try to be more comfortable with his tuberculosis. Wyatt Earp also visited Doc before he died on November 8th, 1887 at the Hotel Glenwood. I know my parents heard some stories about these notorious Western figures.
James Rufus passed away in DeBeque on March 7th, 1928.
Chapter 15
Johanna Davies
Johanna was born on April 12th, 1861 in Middlebough, UK to William Benjamin Davies and Mary Evans who were from Wales, but temporarily working at this location.
Shortly after he birth the family moved back to Wales (Cymru) to live Merthyr by 1867 and Brynammon by 1873. By 1881 she was living near William in Llangadock, which is in Carmarthenshire. In 1882 she and William took a ship, their own Titanic journey, to the United States of America, where they arrived safely in New York City.
After journeying to where relatives lived near Catasuqua, Pennsylvania, Johanna and William were married two weeks after their arrival to America on December 2nd, 1882. They had many children starting in 1883 including William Lewis, Elizabeth, David, Gertrude, George, Arthur, William Benjamin and Hayden. The first two children were born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania and the rest were born in Rockvale, Colorado, both places where they lived on William’s coal mining wages.
By 1910 they made their way to Antlers, Colorado, where they had a 40 acre ranch. They spent some time in DeBeque and finally moved to Rifle where she passed on August 15, 1939. Somehow Johanna had been swindled as she signed a document transferring ownership of the ranch to Hayden as she didn’t read or write in English. She had intended on her son Arthur getting the ranch as he had been providing for Willian and her in their late years. Arthur was very disappointed in some of his brothers and their greed.
Chapter 16
William Evan Jones
William was born on July 8th, 1859 in Gwnfe, Wales to William Jones and Elizabeth Beynon, who were caretakers of the Jerusalem Chapel in Gwnfe.
He had seven siblings living in a small caretakers cottage adjoining the chapel including John, Jane, Elizabeth, Joshua, George, Mary and Evan.
He left for America and married his sweetheart Johanna there. He was hired by a coal company to mine coal in Pennsylvania and was transferred to Rockvalle, Colorado where he worked many years. He was then transferred to a new mine in New Castle, Colorado where his purchased land for a ranch homestead nearby in Antlers, just outside of Rifle. He worked at the mine for many years until one day after his shift, the next shift went in and the mine exploded and caught fire. He lost many friends and relatives in the disaster that is commerated in the downtown New Castle park.
He stopped mining and spent his days between his ranch and the tavern, where he went most nights on horseback, he would sing some Welsh songs and return home. Eventually he bought a Model T and would drive to the tavern and back home, which wasn’t as good as riding the horse since he would be under the influence when driving home. He was among the first drunk drivers, I suppose and had that reputation from stories I have heard.
He passed away after a long life on the 19th of May, 1949 about one month after his son Arthur in Rifle, Colorado.
Chapter 17
Martha Jane Sinco heritage*
Martha was born in 1846 in Iowa City, Iowa and died in 1875 in Decatur City, Iowa.
Martha’s father Henry Sinco, likely descended from French Huguenots, resided in New Salem, Illinois and shared a one room cabin with Abraham Lincoln for a time. Abraham Lincoln voted for Henry to be Constable of New Salem in the first election he was of age to participate. They must have been decent enough friends for a period of time. Later Henry moved to Indiana, got married and somehow was able to get a patent of hundreds of acres of land in Iowa, some say 300 acres and some say 660 acres. He tried to start a city called Paris, Iowa (which is a hint at his ancestry), but that didn’t succeed. Again, it will take another volume to cover Martha’s ancestry stories.
Chapter 18
Sargent Gilbert Mark Heritage*
Gilbert was born on the 29th of September in 1838 in North Salem, Indiana and died on the 24th of February in 1922 in Grand Junction, Colorado
Gilbert was a member of the US Army in the Civil War with a role in the 6th Cavalry of Indiana among other assignments. According to Mark Fortsch, who was named after the Mark surname, Gilbert was captured three times by the Confederates and escaped capture all three times. According to Jan Fortsch and Mark Fortsch, Gilbert was a very difficult or grumpy person. He must have had PTSD from his experience in the war. He joined the Kansas Grand Army of the Republic when he resided in Chanute, Kansas, which is near the location of the Netflix series Little House on the Prairie, after the war.
There are many interesting stories in his ancestry along with the Civil War, Revolutionary War, Native American heritage and much more, which will take another volume to cover.
Chapter 19
Martha Maria Morse Heritage*
Martha was born on the 9th of July in 1832 in Rochester, Vermont and died on the 1st of October in 1894 in Metamora, Illinois.
Martha’s ancestors were very interesting and included Revolutionary War heroes, active participants and organizers of the Underground Railroad, a fairly close link to the invention of Morse Code and much more, which will take another volume to cover.
Chapter 20
Orin Cheedle Heritage*
Orin was born on the 6th of September in 1822 in Stockbridge, Vermont and died on the 29th of November in 1872 in Metamora, Illinois.
He had about a hundred acres of farmland and had moved from Vermont after selling Morgan horses there. He was reported to be a contemporary of Abe Lincoln, including riding on the victory train back towards Washington, DC. He was an assessor at some point in addition to farming.
We do have a great deal of information about his ancestors including royalty, the Mayflower, and much more. Certainly a volume could be dedicated to this branch of ancestry.
Chapter 21
Marie Matison Heritage
Marie (Mary) Matison (Mathewson) was born on the 10th of December in 1849 in Larvik, Norway and died on the 29th of January in 1937 in Montgomery, Pennsylvania.
We don’t know about her ancestry except that her father might be named Matthew. Larvik was known for being an artist’s colony of some sort.
Chapter 22
Hans Peter Miller Heritage
Hans was born on the 5th of January in 1856 in Halk, Haderslev or Sonderjylland, Denmark and died on the 27th of February in 1912 in Maquoketa, Iowa. His birth name was Moller with a strike through the “o”.
We don’t have a lot of information about Hans, yet, but he was a laborer when young near Fort Ticonderoga.
Chapter 23
Abigail Weeks Heritage*
Abigail was born on the 20th of April in 1828 in Winfield, New York and died on the 30th of July in Wells, Minnesota.
Her family heritage is quite complex and certainly goes back to royalty and many people persecuted for their religious beliefs. She had at least 40 acres of land in Minnesota. It will take at least another volume to explore her ancestry.
Chapter 24
William Waldref, Jr. Heritage*
William, yet another, was born on the 19th of July in 1817 in New Jersey and died on the 29th of November in 1896 in Wells, Faribault County, Minnesota.
William seems to have had a farm in Minnesota. He was descended from many, many German ancestors with at least one English and one Danish family, too.
Chapter 25
Sara Sims Heritage
Sara was born on the 2nd of October in 1823 in Tennessee and died on the 6th of October in 1906 in Bellefonte, Boone, Arkansas.
We don’t have much on her ancestry, but apparently she left 160 acres in her will. There is a gravestone for her in the cemetery.
Chapter 26
William Laffoon Heritage*
William was born on the 15th of October in 1818 in Kentucky and died in April 1866 in Boone County, Arkansas.
He was likely required to serve in the Confederate Army, which we have records of such service. His grandfather, James Laffoon, had served in the US Army during the Revolutionary War in the Virginia Line, Luneberg Artillery. He was present in Yorktown when the British surrendered. The Laffoon name may derive from French Huguenots as they fled persecution.
There is a good amount of heritage that can be found and investigate going back on his line of ancestry.
Chapter 27
Mary Choate Heritage*
Mary was born on the 17th of July in 1830 in Wayne, Tennessee and died on the 9th of June in 1906 in Bellefonte, Boone, Arkansas.
She has so much interesting heritage that it will take at least another volume to cover it all.
Chapter 28
Sargent Benjamin Lafayette Franklin Heritage*
Benjamin was born on the 28th of January of 1834 in Tennessee and died on the 28th of January of 1885 in Bellefonte, Boone, Arkansas.
He must have been a Sargent in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, but I don’t have much information about that. He is descended from many early colonists including Revolutionary War figures, apparently one is female.
His ancestry is so unique and so rich with characters that it will take an entire volume to cover. He was likely fairly closely related to the infamous Benjamin Franklin, maybe sharing the same father or grandfather, he was descended from a mayor of London, immigrants with land claims in the DC area, Chiefs of clans in Scotland, Chiefs of the Powhatan indigenous people and so much more. Where do I begin?
Chapter 29
Mary Evans Heritage
Mary was born in 1834 in Merthyr Tydfil in Glamorgan and died in 1906 in Nanticoke, Luzerne, Pennsylvania.
Chapter 30
William Benjamin Davies Heritage
William was born in 1833 in Merthyr Tydfil in Glamorgan and died on the 2nd of November in 1897 in Nanticoke, Luzerne, Pennsylvania.
Chapter 31
Elizabeth Benyon Heritage
Elizabeth was born in 1829 in Llangadog (Llandadock) where she died on the 13th of December in 1899. She is buried with William in the Capel Jerusalem graveyard.
Chapter 32
William Jones Heritage
William was born in 1836 in Llangadock and died on the 8th of April in 1918 in Upper Brynamman.
Caretaker of the Capel Jerusalem in Llangadock, Carmarthenshire, Wales. Llangadock and the area surrounding it has a lot of place names that reflect a close relationship with Yeshua of Nazareth. This Church was a small church with half the building a living space for the Jones family. William is said to have had a horse and wagon, which he used to transport slate and other things especially for the nearby Black Mountain slate quarries. This is from reports made by Mair Evans (Jones), a second cousin via her father John Jones, a nephew of William.
The chapel and graveyard, where William and wife Elizabeth are buried with a large headstone, is in the Gwynfe area with the Slate quarry nearby up the mountain. The area is just east of Carreg Cennen along the Bethlehem Road. This area may have been associated with an area in the South of France with a similar name and affinity for Yeshua. The believers in that area were forced to flee or die in the 1300s. This subject will take more research obviously.
I don’t have much family history beyond William and Elizabeth at this time, but there is much richness in finding out why our more recent ancestors felt compelled to immigrate to America, likely to avoid religious persecution, oppression from the English and scarcity of agricultural land, which was very beautiful, for such a large family.
Another topic needing more research is the origination of the surname “Jones” in this family specifically. It is known that John ap John was very much the naming convention traditionally, but when it changed and if it was just an adjustment or a clever disguise would be nice to know. Some say “Jones” became popular to confuse the tax collectors for the king, but it could have been just as likely to hide identity, too. There are several versions of the name.