This photo portrays a number of folks, all staring in the direction of the camera, on Inter Ocean Avenue in Holyoke. Named after Holyoke, Massachusetts, Holyoke was incorporated in April of 1888, and is the seat of Phillips County. It sits about 50 miles east of Sterling on U.S. Route 6. Like many towns in eastern Colorado, it benefited from, and may have even owed its early existence to, the influx of homesteaders staking claims under the Homestead Act of 1862. Under this act, citizens could claim 160 acres of surveyed government land. If they improved the tract by building a home and cultivating the land, after 5 years they could own the land out-right, except for a small registration fee.
Upon its incorporation, Holyoke already had a population of 800 and could boast a significant presence of railroad structures – i.e., roundhouse, coal house, ice house, and depot with a two-story “eating house.”
The unidentified sender of this postcard, postmarked in January of 1911, is writing to a Bill Walker in York, Nebraska, extolling the possibilities for making money in Holyoke and more than mildly interested in making some money himself. He writes,
“Jan 16th 1911. Well Bill I will drop you a few lines to let you know that I am still alive. Well Bill if you will come out you can get some good horses & mules. I can get you a good team of mules for 3 hundred seventy five. There is lots to sell & I think you can make a little money. I wrote to Bud Smith about them too.”
Note the hotel at the center of the photo. Its proprietor, Mert Morse, opened the hotel around 1908, and in 1916 it boasted 15 rooms, reportedly with a reserve capacity for double the normal number of guests. Morse at one time was a chef for the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver.
The Morse offered guests the choice of staying under the European Plan (meals not included) at $1.00 and up per day, or the American Plan (meals included) at $2.00 per day. His establishment included a bakery and a café. The 1910 Census listed Mert, his wife Allie, stepson Wayne Ryan, and daughter Mary as living at the hotel. Also boarding there were Bertha Huff, a waitress, and Roy Fogel, a baker, who may have worked at the Morse. Other boarders at the time were eight in number.
In looking at the 1910 Census, I was struck by the fact that none of the Morse family, their employees or their boarders at the time were born in Colorado. Mert and their two children were born in Michigan, and Allie was born in Ohio. Bertha Huff was from Indiana, and Roy Fogel was an Iowan. Of the eight other boarders, all of whom were men, three were from Nebraska, three were from Iowa, one was from South Dakota, and one was from Missouri. The occupations represented by the boarders were electrician, plumber, brick layer, and laborer.
I like to look for articles in area newspapers that give a glimpse of the happenings in a particular locale about the time a photo was taken. Here are some Holyoke news items found in area newspapers:
“Two large prairie fires have been raging, one northwest and one southwest of Holyoke, all day, doing considerable damage to the range. The wind is not high and the flames will be controlled.” (Sterling Republican Advocate dated April 19, 1911)
“Three auto loads of Sterling Masons went to Holyoke this morning to assist in laying the cornerstone of the new Phillips County High School…. The regular ritual of the lodge was carried out at the cornerstone laying and a banquet spread by the Holyoke Masons for their visiting brothers tonight.” (Sterling Republican Advocate dated August 23, 1911)
“The electric light plant is now running full blast and in it the people of Holyoke have one of the most up-to-date little plants to be found anywhere.” [NOTE: three of the above-referenced boarders at the Morse Hotel identified the “electric plant” as their employer. Two were electricians and one was a laborer.] (Wray Gazette dated May 20, 1910)
“O.H. Churning, a well-to-do horseman and bashful bachelor has ordered cards from a local printer to proclaim his matrimonial desires as follows: ‘You can buggy ride with me, you can spend my money, you can go through life with me. Will you have me, honey?’ Mr. Churning says his natural timidity has kept him from cultivating the acquaintance of young ladies, and he takes this means to gain him introductions.”
(Wray Gazette dated July 29, 1910)
“Charging blackmail against J.M. Allen, of the Farmers’ Bank of Windsor, and John McClain, a well-known Windsor farmer, a sensation was sprung today when the Bank of Holyoke caused the arrest of the two men by Deputy Sheriff Peterson of Weld County. The accused are charged with writing vile and threatening letters to the bank at Holyoke and to certain persons making accusations reflecting on the bank’s integrity. It is alleged that Allen and McLain made threats which endanger the Holyoke bank’s standing. It is said that trouble grew out of a sale of several hundred acres of dry land in Phillips County, made by the bank to Allen and McLain, who claim they had a purchaser for the land and would have sold it but that the title given them by the Holyoke bank was defective. Immediately, it is said, the defendants began writing threatening letters to the bank, demanding $5,000 damages and threatening what they would do if this was not paid. The letters came so frequently and were so damaging in their accusations, it is said, that the bank people held a meeting and decided to air the matter in court. Allen is a wealthy widower, influential in business circles, and he and McLain are both old men and pioneers of Windsor. Today, after their arrest, Allen and McLain declared that they had a case of blackmail against the Holyoke bank and could ‘fix it.’ It is said that the federal authorities are investigating the matter of letters sent through the mails.”
(Sterling Republican-Advocate dated August 3, 1910)
“The Holyoke Creamery and Ice-Plant is working overtime and is not able keep the output of ice up to the demand. They are shipping both ice and ice cream to Haxtun, Venango, Amherst and Grant, besides supplying the local trade.” (Venango and Grant are towns in Nebraska.)
(Wray Rattler dated August 5, 1910)
I couldn’t help noticing the two gents standing up against the fence at the left. They may be in the middle of planning their next mosey. The man on the right appears to be wearing a ten-gallon hat. I decided to research the origin of this hat’s name because, obviously, it doesn’t hold ten gallons. I did a Google search, and the most satisfying explanation I could find rests in the Spanish word for “braid” in decorating – i.e., “galon” (gah-lohn). If a hat had a hat band consisting of braids stacked ten high, it would be (mashing together English and Spanish) a hat with ten galones. It’s not hard to imagine an English speaker, especially one disposed to creating puns, morphing “galones” into “gallons.”
REFERENCES:
– “Distance Between Cities” at https://www.distance-cities.com/distance-sterling-co-to…
– Google search on “ten gallon hat.”
– “Homestead Act (1862)” at https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=31
– “Huebinger’s map and guide for Omaha-Denver transcontinental route,”
by Melchior Huebinger, page 84, date unknown, at Google books.
– “Peekin’ Into the Past,” The Holyoke Enterprise at https://www.holyokeenterprise.com/local/peekin-past-52
– “Phillips County Colorado – The Town of Holyoke,” cogenweb at http://cogenweb.com/phillips/towns-holyoke.html .
– SpanishDict.com at https://www.spanishdict.com/translate/gal%C3%B3n
– “Supplement for Colorado – Population – Agriculture – Manufactures (sic) —
Mines and Quarries,” 1910 Abstract at https://www2.census.gov/…/1910/abstract/supplement-co.pdf
– Village Hat Shop at https://www.villagehatshop.com/…/261/ten-gallon-hat.html
– Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillips_County,_Colorado
– 1910 Census at www.ancestry.com
