Wednesday, August 6, 2014

The Gardener

I would like you to meet one of my summer friends. Dana is a master gardener from California. She lives here all summer with her husband Bob. Dana is actually the third generation in her family to live in our little town.
She was born here in Lake City, CO as was her mother. Dana's grandmother Katie arrived in the U.S. from Denmark in 1877, making her way to Lake City in 1898.
Here Dana's grandmother is pictured with her husband Roland (a native of England) . Katie and Roland were cooking, in this old photograph, in a boarding house, in Lake City, back during the mining days.
They were married in this church in 1901
and lived in this little house, where they were blessed with five children. This house, by the way, is now a vacation rental. Roland sadly died young, from the influenza epidemic in 1920...leaving Katie to parent alone. Her skills of salting and preserving fish, that she learned in Denmark, really came in handy with so many mouths to feed.

One of Katie's sons made enough money in the oil fields of South America, to come back and buy his Mom this larger home (two doors down), which is still in the family. One of Dana's cousins lives here.

Notice that Dana's grandmother was tiny, below 5 Ft , as is Dana.

History of our town is kept alive by an active Historical Society.

excerpts from taken from
Memorable Cooks
by Linda B. Iiams
Historical research by Grant E. Houston
who gave his permission for this article

4 comments:

  1. It is a wonderful family history enhanced by your photos.

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  2. such beautiful places! thanks for sharing this lovely lady and her lineage with us!

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  3. Love Dana's story Janey.. It's wonderful that your historical society does such a fine job and also that beautiful fence in the first shot survived the fire way back then.

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