August 22, 2008
Grace Maud Ford - Banjo Song 3
Grace Ford plays “Sod House on the Plains” on the banjo.
Grace Maud Ford - Banjo Song 2
Grace Ford plays an unidentified song on the banjo.
Grace Maud Ford - Banjo Song 1
Grace plays the song “The Old Days on the Prairie and You” on the banjo.
Walter Gillette
Walter Gillette was born January 17, 1909, in Colorado Springs. He graduated from Colorado Springs High School and, in 1928, married Bernice Waitzman. Gillette discusses the impact of the Depression on Colorado Springs, difficulties in finding work, low wages, government relief projects, and working for the Works Progress Administration.
Bernice Gillette
Bernice (Waitzman) Gillette was born in Ingalls, Kansas September 16, 1910. She moved with her family to Colorado Springs in 1917. In 1928 she married Walter Gillette and spent her life as a homemaker in Colorado Springs. Gillette talks about the effects of the Depression on her family life and particularly how it impacted the domestic chores of maintaining a household.
Le Roy Ellinwood
Le Roy Ellinwood was born December 2, 1901, in Colorado City. He married Fern Rader in January 1922. They had two children. He was a teacher and principal of several schools in Colorado during the Depression. He discusses the effects of the Depression on children, Works Progress Administration projects in the Pikes Peak region, and Civilian Conservation Corps camps.
John Will Merrill
John Will Merrill was born August 1, 1902, in Lamar, Colorado. He married Guardy Kweehr on February 16, 1928 and they had two children. He worked in the printing business, served on the Lamar school board for 16 years and was director of the Lamar library during the 1940s. Merrill talks about drought conditions during the Dustbowl, government-forced destruction of livestock, and big dust storms in Lamar.
Grace Maud (Nickell) Ford
Grace Ford was born August 19, 1900, in Phillips County, Kansas. She married Claude Ramsey Ford on August 21, 1918. They had five children. Ford’s family lost everything in 1929-30 and was forced to live on government relief. She talks about saving a starving cow by feeding her cactus. She also gives a vivid description of the big dust storms in eastern Colorado during the Dustbowl.
Helen Eurich
Helen (Trojanovich) Eurich was born March 26, 1906, in Calhan, Colorado. She married Joseph Eurich Sr. on July 15, 1923. They had five children. She lived as a homemaker in Calhan. Eurich talks about the effects on crops of drought during the Dustbowl. She also discusses farmers in eastern Colorado working for the Works Progress Administration.
Harry Collier
Harry Collier was born on February 25, 1902, in Mercer County, Missouri. He came to Holly, Colorado in 1917 with 160 head of cattle and farmed. He married Rena Robinson in September 1921 and they had six children. Collier tells about the effects of the Dustbowl on farmers in eastern Colorado, surviving the rough days of the Depression, and Works Progress Administration aid in Prowers County.
