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Photo postcard of Z. I. Yonge general store in Sterling, CO, 1910.

Pictured is the general store in Sterling owned by Z. I. (Zebulon Inslee) Yonge, born in New York in 1827.  He married Margaret Julia Dickerson in March of 1880 in the town of Jasper, Illinois, and came with her to Sterling in what was probably the early to mid 1880’s. They had two sons and two daughters.  Margaret died in Sterling in 1888.  In 1896, Z.I. married Margaret’s younger sister, Mamie, and two daughters were born to them. 

Although Yonge’s store sign only identifies “groceries,” his store’s newspaper ad for Christmas of 1910 gives one a good idea of the variety offered in a general store:  groceries, shoes and staple dry goods (e.g., flour, sugar, oats cornstarch, etc.);  nuts, candies, oranges, apples, dates and figs; women’s hats, collars, head scarfs (silk or wool), and knit wool shawls; men’s hats, ties suspenders, gloves, socks, and slippers; and children’s caps, mittens (wool, fur and leather) and handkerchiefs.

I don’t have any information about the identity of the man in the wagon.  Note the hatted onlooker behind him. 

The poster in the window of Yonge’s store is advertising the upcoming November 1,1910, musical performance in Sterling by “Blind Boone,” a piano  virtuoso and accomplished composer.    Boone would be appearing at the Sterling Presbyterian Church and would be accompanied by vocalist Stella May, with whom he had performed before. 

“Blind Boone” was born John William Boone in a Union army camp outside of Miami, Missouri, in 1864.   Rachel Boone, his mother, was a contraband slave (i.e., she escaped to Union lines) travelling with the military as a cook.  Boone’s father was purportedly the regiment’s bugler, 19-year-old William S. Belcher, who was said to have deserted before his son was born.   Shortly after Boone’s birth, Rachel moved the two of them to Warrensburg, Missouri, where she got work as a servant for several families.  At six months of age, Boone contracted cerebral meningitis, also known then as “brain fever.”  The treatment he received to decrease the pressure on his brain left him blind.      

As Boone grew, the Warrensburg townspeople recognized his musical talent.  They gave him simple instruments, such as a tin whistle, a harmonica and a triangle.   Boone, known as “Willy,”  started a band with friends, and they would earn money performing in parades or for other special events.   At the age of nine, with donations from town residents and the intercession of Missouri Senator Francis Cockrell, who persuaded county officials to pay Willy’s train fare and tuition, he began attending the Missouri School for the Blind in St. Louis.  The school taught skills allowing students to gain independence and also emphasized music, but its classes in Braille and broom-making were of no interest to him.  It was the music and the piano that dominated his interest – he would skip his studies to go listen to the advanced students play.     It soon became apparent that Boone could play anything on the piano that he had heard, even if just once. 

Boone continued to develop as a musician and composer, and at age 15, or around 1879, he acquired a manager named John Lange, Jr.  Boone and Lange’s younger sister, Eugenia, would later become husband and wife and would purchase a home in Columbia, Missouri.  Boone’s hook-up with John Lange would be the start of a long and prolific career.  Boone was on the road, performing ten months a year, for over 45 years.  At the time of his 1910 concert in Sterling, he had performed in Colorado in earlier years in Sterling, Brush, Loveland, Lamar, Wray, Fort Collins, Leadville, Denver, Pueblo, Golden, Ordway, Buena Vista, Idaho Springs, Yuma, Littleton, Greeley, Castle Rock, and Craig.    At a concert in Littleton in 1899, he displayed his remarkable ability to play any piece after hearing it once.  A volunteer from the audience named Hattie Snyder came forward and performed one of her own compositions, which Boone then played perfectly immediately after hearing it.  Boone retired in June of 1927 and died later that year at the age of 63.  Here is a link to more information about John Boone:  https://historicmissourians.shsmo.org/blind-boone . 

By 1922, Z. I. and Mamie Yonge had left Sterling behind for California, where he continued work as a merchant.   Mamie, 58, died in Clairemont, California, in 1925, and Z. I. died in Los Angeles in 1934 at the age of 83.

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