June of 1938 my parents got a telegram that my dad's father had died on June 5th in Colorado. They were already planning a visit. But they didn't get out there in time for the funeral.
Published in the Wet Mountain Tribune June 1938
"Death Calls John Figge - Pioneer Silver Cliff Resident"
Funeral services were held at Hope Lutheran Church Wednesday morning for John H. Figge, a long time resident of Custer county, who passed away in St. Luke's hospital in Denver Sunday afternoon. Obsequies were conducted by Rev. John E. Hermann of Pueblo, with the Menzel Funeral Home in charge.
My grandfather's photos when he was a young man (about 1895 when he was about 27) . They are both black and white photos but one has been color tinted - someone painted watercolor onto the picture with a little brush. That is what you had to do in those days if you wanted a color photo.
Mr. Figge had been ill for some time, having suffered a siege of pneumonia early this spring, which coupled with a severe injury to his hand on May 5 [which became septic], led to a pulmonary embolus, or blood clot on the lung, which was the direct cause of his death. His condition was believed to be satisfactory as late as two o'clock Sunday, and his death at two-thirty came as a shock to members of his family and his many friends.
This is my mom's story about the trip.
Daddy was robbed, it was because he didn’t lock the door while driving through Baltimore. (That’s why I on driving with the doors locked.) It was close to midnight and he was returning from a meeting of high school students who had formed a biology club. Several of them later became his students at the medical school. A woman got into the car from the passenger side when he was stopped at a light at Eutaw Street and placed a knife pricking the back of his neck. We were leaving for Colorado the next day (it was 1938 and Rosalie Ann was a baby) and he had all our vacation money. He wasn’t about to give it up. So he got a couple of bills out of his wallet. When he got to a stop light, he said “Here take this” and she had to put down the knife to take it. He reached across her (cars were narrower then), opened the door, and shoved her out into the street. Out with her went a map. He closed the door and sped away with her chasing after him waving the map.
That wasn’t the end of the day’s adventures. Some friends, distant Colorado relatives (Harry and Susie Schwab – he was Daddy’s 1st cousin 1x removed), stopped by the next morning while I was packing up. I said to them, offhandedly, “Don’t you want to go with us?” Not really meaning it. Well. Fifteen minutes later the husband returned.
“Did you mean that,” asked the husband? “Were you serious? Because if you are, my wife WOULD like to go with you.”
I didn’t know what to say. We traveled with the baby carriage in the back seat so that Rosalie Ann could sleep or play. I had fixed a mirror (cars didn’t have visor mirrors then) so I could look in the back and see if she was asleep without her knowing.
But I said she could come — and she was actually helpful after all, checking on the baby, keeping her covered, and she was very pleasant, accommodating, and self effacing.
Susie Jones Schwab
Colorado
They took me up to Pikes Peak but didn't take any photos of that
Prof Wallen and the boys - I went to the Professor's cabin
This was the first time I got to sit on Old Man Dieckmann's horse. Old Man Dieckmann was born the same day as me, but in 1849 in Germany'
1938
I got to ride his horse again in 1942 - when they tried to get my sister to do it she screamed bloody murder.
I also was baptized in the church where my dad was baptized. It was a Lutheran church so since my mom was a Presbyterian, she couldn't take me up to the alter - it had to be church members. In my case it was my Aunt Mary and my Uncle Harry - my dad's siblings
This is Aunt Mary with Great Uncle Leonard out in front of his house in Wyoming with me
At my grandmother's house, my mom would put me out on the porch for a nap. There was a swallows nest under the eaves. My mom said that my ears were very sensitive because every time one of the swallow parents came to feed the babies, I would wake up screaming - although none of the adults could hear anything.
In the fall, my parents left me with my grandparents
and went to the Worlds Fair in New York
I didn't get to go
Published in the Wet Mountain Tribune June 1938
"Death Calls John Figge - Pioneer Silver Cliff Resident"
Funeral services were held at Hope Lutheran Church Wednesday morning for John H. Figge, a long time resident of Custer county, who passed away in St. Luke's hospital in Denver Sunday afternoon. Obsequies were conducted by Rev. John E. Hermann of Pueblo, with the Menzel Funeral Home in charge.
My grandfather's photos when he was a young man (about 1895 when he was about 27) . They are both black and white photos but one has been color tinted - someone painted watercolor onto the picture with a little brush. That is what you had to do in those days if you wanted a color photo.
Mr. Figge had been ill for some time, having suffered a siege of pneumonia early this spring, which coupled with a severe injury to his hand on May 5 [which became septic], led to a pulmonary embolus, or blood clot on the lung, which was the direct cause of his death. His condition was believed to be satisfactory as late as two o'clock Sunday, and his death at two-thirty came as a shock to members of his family and his many friends.
This is my mom's story about the trip.
Daddy was robbed, it was because he didn’t lock the door while driving through Baltimore. (That’s why I on driving with the doors locked.) It was close to midnight and he was returning from a meeting of high school students who had formed a biology club. Several of them later became his students at the medical school. A woman got into the car from the passenger side when he was stopped at a light at Eutaw Street and placed a knife pricking the back of his neck. We were leaving for Colorado the next day (it was 1938 and Rosalie Ann was a baby) and he had all our vacation money. He wasn’t about to give it up. So he got a couple of bills out of his wallet. When he got to a stop light, he said “Here take this” and she had to put down the knife to take it. He reached across her (cars were narrower then), opened the door, and shoved her out into the street. Out with her went a map. He closed the door and sped away with her chasing after him waving the map.
That wasn’t the end of the day’s adventures. Some friends, distant Colorado relatives (Harry and Susie Schwab – he was Daddy’s 1st cousin 1x removed), stopped by the next morning while I was packing up. I said to them, offhandedly, “Don’t you want to go with us?” Not really meaning it. Well. Fifteen minutes later the husband returned.
“Did you mean that,” asked the husband? “Were you serious? Because if you are, my wife WOULD like to go with you.”
I didn’t know what to say. We traveled with the baby carriage in the back seat so that Rosalie Ann could sleep or play. I had fixed a mirror (cars didn’t have visor mirrors then) so I could look in the back and see if she was asleep without her knowing.
But I said she could come — and she was actually helpful after all, checking on the baby, keeping her covered, and she was very pleasant, accommodating, and self effacing.
Susie Jones Schwab
Colorado
They took me up to Pikes Peak but didn't take any photos of that
Prof Wallen and the boys - I went to the Professor's cabin
This was the first time I got to sit on Old Man Dieckmann's horse. Old Man Dieckmann was born the same day as me, but in 1849 in Germany'
1938
I got to ride his horse again in 1942 - when they tried to get my sister to do it she screamed bloody murder.
I also was baptized in the church where my dad was baptized. It was a Lutheran church so since my mom was a Presbyterian, she couldn't take me up to the alter - it had to be church members. In my case it was my Aunt Mary and my Uncle Harry - my dad's siblings
This is Aunt Mary with Great Uncle Leonard out in front of his house in Wyoming with me
At my grandmother's house, my mom would put me out on the porch for a nap. There was a swallows nest under the eaves. My mom said that my ears were very sensitive because every time one of the swallow parents came to feed the babies, I would wake up screaming - although none of the adults could hear anything.
In the fall, my parents left me with my grandparents
and went to the Worlds Fair in New York
I didn't get to go
- Next entry in the series 'Exploring the USA by Car': Woods Hole 1939, New Haven 1940, Colorado 1942
- Previous entry in the series 'Exploring the USA by Car': My First Six Months of Travel - November 1937 to May 1938
