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Photo postcard of Givan’s garage and service station in Arlington, CO, ca. 1925.

The proprietor of Givan’s Garage was most likely William Elisha Givan, a native of Missouri, born in 1876.   By his early 30’s he had come out to Colorado and was involved in raising livestock, and it was around 1919 or 1920 that he established his garage.  In 1926 he married Carrie Adelia Macswain, and they raised a son, William.  

The town of Arlington, originally known as Joliet, was established in 1887 and named in honor of a Missouri Pacific Railroad official.   Located in Kiowa County,  Arlington sits about 77 miles east of Pueblo on Highway 96.   It was in 1887 that the Missouri Pacific Railroad crossed into Colorado and platted towns about every seven miles.  In east-to-west order, they are Towner, Sheridan Lake, Brandon, Chivington, Eads, Haswell, and Arlington.    The path of that rail line is followed by present-day State Highway 96. 

At one time, Joliet (Arlington) had the biggest stockyards in what is now the Kiowa County region.  However, as more and more homesteaders came out to the area, Kiowa County’s main exports transitioned from cattle, horses and wool to grains, such as winter wheat. 

Note the two gas pumps in the photo, one on the right and one just outside the garage door; the “Fisk Tires” sign next to the garage door; and the  “Goodyear” sign above the large window.  The signs for Ford and the Dodge Brothers indicate Givan’s qualifications to repair those car brands.  It’s certain he repaired other brands, too, but the signs probably indicated significant numbers of both of those brands on the road at the time.   

(Before Brothers John and Horace formed the Dodge Brothers Motor Car Company in 1913, they built engines for Ford as well as all the mechanical parts for the early Fords, and became the biggest supplier of auto parts in the world for that era.   Their first vehicle, the Dodge Model 30, introduced in 1914, was designed to compete with Ford’s Model T.  Given their well-regarded reputation in auto parts and prior work with Ford, they had received 22,000 applications for new Dodge dealerships before production of the Model 30 was completed.)

Note the information at the bottom of the photo identifying the location of Givan’s Garage as “On the Kansas Colorado Boulevard and D.C.D. Highway.”      These two road names probably identify what are now termed “auto trails.”  “Auto trails” were roads or highways formed via cooperative efforts prior to the establishment of a numbered U.S. highway system in 1926.  These efforts could involve a variety of participants, e.g., private citizens, county commissioners, states, commercial boosters, and associations formed solely for promoting the development of a particular road or highway.  

The Kansas Colorado Boulevard ran from Great Bend, Kansas, to Pueblo, Colorado. A good example of local involvement with one particular segment of this road is found in an article in the Kiowa County Press newspaper dated June 11, 1926.  It stated:  “The Kansas Colorado Boulevard will be graveled between Eads and Galeton, a distance of fourteen miles.”  The project was authorized and paid for by the state, but the work would be in the hands of locals.  The article states:  “The gravel will be obtained north of Eads and will be hauled by wagons, one team being allowed each family and only home people will be allowed to work on the project.”  

The D.C.D. Highway acronym stood for “Dallas-Canadian-Denver.”  The word “Canadian” didn’t apply to our neighbor to the north, but, rather, to the north Texas town of Canadian, which sat on, and was named for, the Canadian River, a tributary of the Arkansas River.   In 1916, the completion of a bridge over the river at Canadian gave rise to the idea of extending an existing highway, which ran from Galveston up to Dallas, northwest up through Canadian, through the Oklahoma panhandle, up into southeastern Colorado and on to Denver (some accounts say Boulder.)     The result was the D.C.D. Highway.  It was greeted with excitement regarding its potential for increasing commerce and connections along its route.    It would be interesting to know if there are still remnants of these “auto trails.”

It’s interesting to note that an auxiliary U.S. Army Air Field was located about 3 miles east of Arlington during World War II.  It was one of three auxiliary fields (the other two were at Rocky Ford and Las Animas) associated with the La Junta Army Airfield (AAF).  The La Junta AAF was activated on November 2, 1942, under the jurisdiction of the 83d Flying Training Wing at the Douglas Army Airfield in Arizona.  The mission  was  to provide  advanced twin-engine flying training to pilots for the B-25 Mitchell twin-engine bomber. Here’s a link to a website on the subject – you may need to cursor down to look at the information it has on Arlington:   

http://www.airfields-freeman.com/CO/Airfields_CO_E.htm#arlington

In closing, below are some news nuggets coming out of Arlington in the early 20th century, as reported by now-defunct newspapers in the towns of Sheridan Lake (which sits about 60 miles east of Arlington) and Sugar City  (which sits about 20 miles west-southwest of Arlington).  The name of the Sheridan Lake newspaper was “Colorado Farm and Ranch,”  and the newspaper in Sugar City, whose town name was based on the area’s sugar beet production, had a gem of a title, i.e., the “Saccharine Gazette.”     

  • “Judge Woolsey has erected a handsome new wind mill on North Main Street.”   (1901)
  • “Mr. Grimsley reports a terrible drouth (sic) prevailing at Arlington and vicinity.  The range grass has dried up and the stock water has given out in many places. He says he saw a great many dead cattle on the range.”  (1901)
  • “Mr. Cooper has purchased a gasoline engine to pump water for his cattle on the ranch.”  (1901)
  • “Elmer Shockley of Galatea was in town Sunday.  He is running the Missouri Pacific fence gang at present.”  (Galatea is now a Kiowa County ghost town.) (1901)
  • “Jesse Lockwood is heaving coal on the day shift at present.”  (1902)
  • “An auto load of young folks attended an entertainment and pie-supper at the school in the Basin.”  (1913)
  • “Chas. W. Clark broke his New Year’s resolution by shaving last week.”  (1913)

REFERENCES:

  • Colorado, County Marriage Records and State Index, 1862-2006, at www.ancestry.com
  • Colorado maps on www.bing.com and www.google.com  

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