Monday, November 2, 2009

Blanche Mae McQuillan School TEacher Colorado 1909


I really must share the story of a young woman from Salida Colorado. Her name was Blanche Mae McQuillan. she was born in Nebraska to a Railroad father and stay home farm mother. She went to Salida with her family by age 5 and never left. She traveled but never moved from Salida. She married a young man named Roy Young who was also from Nebraska moved to Salida. She was an only child, they had one child, but her husband was one of 12. She went to teacher's college in Colorado and then immediately took a job alone at a young age of about 19 or 20 working on a farm not far from her home in Salida on the Watters ranch. She had a log cabin school house and taught over 20 children, many who belonged to the Watters family and the hired hands' children. Every child was dressed to the tee despite living on a ranch. Clean and spic and span and she worked there a year living on the ranch. This photo of her could be when she first arrived. Some how there was always a camera around or people taking photos so that lucky for me I have 3 full albums of her family, well, it really is mostly of his extended family. Her sister in law Pearl Huston was the youngest of the 12 children of the Young family and she was also a school teacher out in Gunnison county. Women went to college and then into the wilds back then. This image is that of a strong woman who spent many years in her golden years, putting together a genealogy which is hand typed, that I aquired when I bought her albums. I am not sure what to do with it. The details go back to civil war era.
This is Blanche. She aged gracefully. Her husband worked for Texaco for awhile in Salida that is from a photo they included. If interested in following her story I will be listing the images of Blanche and her photo album family for the next few weeks on my eBay store which you can get to from clicking on the girls on the right who are swinging.
History is an amazing thing-let us not forget, those who came before us and how they paved our way.

1 comment:

Sandra said...

I really enjoyed this post. Thanks for sharing...

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I am a mother of 2 wonderful girls, grandmother of 4, don't worry you will see photos of them one day! I live in Sedona Arizona, a beautiful place, lots of sun and blue blue skies! I listen to politics and my favorite radio channel is Cinemix. I am the oldest of 11 , I love my kids, my parents and my siblings and my friends!!

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