Cha'Nara's Gift

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 Book Two Sentimental Journey

Deak Picks up the Story

Annie, Ben, Abby, Cha'Nara, Emily And I all took seats, everybody was buzzing with excitement. On the metal box Rachel had painted in white paint, "Property of Emily and Deak Mathers Semper Fidelis"

I chuckled, "That Rachel, always faithful! I opened the lock and then the lid. "Hmm, quite a bit of stuff in here, what's this?" I pulled out two obituaries from some newspaper, "It's an obituary for Hardy Albright, I'll be damned! Here's what it says."

October 9 1944

Mr. Hardy Albright of Cheyenne Wyoming died yesterday, at the home of his daughter Mrs. Laura Markham of Casper Wyoming, Mr. Albright was 82

His wife Clara, 80, who passed away in 1943, preceded him in death

Mr. Albright was a longtime resident of Cheyenne Wyoming, having owned a garage on the Lincoln Highway for many years.

Mr. Albright was also active in various civic organizations, funeral services are pending.

Hardy, he was just a kid when we left, 18 I think, it says he ran a garage, must have paid attention to what I told him about cars and stuff taking the place of horses, have to make a trip to Cheyenne I guess.

"Look at this, here's one for Kate Edmonds (McDaniel) "Why that's my old student!" said Emily, I wonder why her obit is in there?" "Well maybe we'll find out," I replied. Anyway, here's what it says'

April 20th 1942

Mrs. Kate Edmonds, a long time resident of Glenwood Springs Colorado

Died suddenly yesterday at her home, here in Glenwood Springs. Mrs. Edmonds was 79.

She retired in 1919, after more than 35 years teaching elementary school here in the city.

Mrs. Edmonds is survived by her husband Carl, and two children Emily Stafford of San Francisco California, and Walter Edmonds of Colorado Springs Colorado, funeral services to be held April

25th at St. Mary's Catholic Church Glenwood Springs, at 1:00pm

"What do ya know Emily; she named her daughter after you!" Tears were forming at Emily's eyes, she sniffed, "I really spent a lot of time with her, she was really smart, so she went into teaching, Wow!" "I always thought she was kind of a "smarty pants" said Annie. "She was always asking me what went on upstairs at the "Bad Girls" chuckled Abby." "What did you tell her?" I asked, "The truth!" giggled Abby, "You didn't!" commented Emily. "Sure I did, I think she was seventeen when we left, she seemed kinda nave, she always acted so shocked, but I think she knew more than she let on." "Did you ever see her and Hardy together?" asked Emily, "Not really" said Abby. "I remember kissing Hardy at the Christmas party in '79, but the McDaniel's hadn't been in Deakstown all that long before we left.

"Well let's find out what Rachel has to say, here's her letter, wait, there's another obituary inside this envelope, it's Rachel's" I noticed eyes starting to get misty, "It's from the Rocky Mountain News dated October 30th 1935.

"Mrs. Rachel Beneteau (Evans) of Boulder Colorado passed away in her sleep on October 28th of this year, Mrs. Beneteau was 78. Preceded in death by her husband Edgar, in 1930, who was 74 at the time. Mr. and Mrs. Beneteau were long time residents of Boulder, owners of Beneteau Ford here in Boulder, and in Manitou Springs. A son, Steven, of Golden, survives. In addition, three grandchildren of Golden. Besides being active in several local women's organizations, Mrs. Beneteau was also a long time supporter of women in aviation, having learned to fly herself in 1908."

"Hah! Looks like she got one over on you there Annie," I proclaimed. Annie sniffed, "Funny, she never said a word when I told her I flew in an aero plane, or actually took the stick for a few moments, well; I was still the first, as far as I'm concerned, and I fully intend to follow up on that as soon as I can!"

"Well, let me read further here, "Mrs. Beneteau was also a member of the "99's" a female flyers organization, it's most famous member being Amelia Earhart, who was a guest of the Beneteau's on many occasions."

"Well that cuts it Annie, you can't top that," "Why's that?" she asked, "Did any of those videos happen to mention Amelia Earhart?" I asked her, "I can't remember." "Amelia Earhart was a very famous Aviatrix, probably the most famous female aviator in history, she and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared in the South Pacific on a round the world trip in 1937, disappeared without a trace, although that is being disputed at this time. Anyway she was a friend of this woman and apparently entertained her in her home, pretty impressive." Annie just shook her head, "She must have been planning this all along, is all I can figure." "Did you two have some sort of rivalry going on there?" Asked Emily. "No, not really," said Annie, "We always got along fine, in fact," Annie lowered her voice and looked around, "Once, this salesman wanted two girls at the same time, Rachel volunteered to be the second girl, needless to say, things got pretty rowdy." I laughed, but Emily and even Abby stared at Annie with surprised expressions on their faces, "When did this happen?" said a very surprised Emily. "Sometime in '79, can't remember the exact date, maybe it was June, I'm just not sure…"

"Well that's it for the obituary, let's see what her letter says;"

"My dearest Emily and Deak, I pray that the lawyers did their part, and held onto this repository for you. Hello to you Abby, and Abigail as well. We spoke to each other only a few days ago, but it will be over one hundred and thirty-three years for you, I am writing this on August 8th 1934, a letter that won't be read for another seventy-nine years. Can I assume you're all sitting around the kitchen table at Emily's parent's home," We all gasped at that one. "She's starting to freak me out a little," said Emily.

"I trust you found my obituary, I left instructions with the executor of my estate to place it in this letter then forward it to Dallas, Mittler and Stevens. Annie dear, you've no doubt read that I flew an airplane in 1908, and was a friend of Amelia Earhart, I just paid attention to those movies Emily showed me, I started driving a car around the turn of the century, there was nothing left to do except learn to fly. I will concede that flying has gotten a lot more complicated since I learned in 1908. From what you told me about your experience things were pretty simple back in '08.

After the war, Edgar and I bought a war surplus J4, and used it to fly to and from our dealerships in Boulder and Manitou Springs, I cannot describe the beauty of the Front Range as we flew along, but I digress, back to my narrative. Let me begin at the beginning, Sally ran the "hotel and "Bad Girls" until March of 1883, when she took ill with pneumonia, and died. If you visit the little cemetery where we buried Alice and Sarah, Sally is the grave on the left of Sarah. Jenny, Sam and I paid for a nice casket, and stone, there were not many present to mourn her, Sam, Jenny and I plus Lucinda and Sheriff James, along with a traveling preacher. The Stillwater's, along with Ned and his son left just before Sally died. Jenny, Sam and I stayed until 1883. In July, a man named Edgar Beneteau came through town, stopping at the "Bad Girls" saloon, by this tine the gold strike up north had played out, business was way off, and everybody in town was talking of leaving. Jenny Sam and I were running the saloon pretty much on a day-to-day basis, one thing led to another, Edgar and I went "upstairs" but instead of s*x, Edgar and I spent most of the night talking. Edgar poured his heart out; I really liked him, smart, witty, nice looking guy. Anyway, he asked me to marry him, "Here's my ticket out of here!" I thought, Edgar knew what he was getting, which is what he wanted, someone who knew their way around a bedroom. Jenny and Sam decided to stick it out a little longer, but Edgar and I left for good about a week later, headed for Boulder.

Edgar was a mining equipment salesman, who did quite well. On August 8th 1883 we were married, and set up housekeeping in a little apartment in Boulder. Thanks to you Emily, I was pretty good in mathematics, Edgar saw this and unlike most men assigned me to keep track of his business expenses, he even went so far as to form a partnership with me, a partnership I might add lasted until his death. Jenny and Sam headed to Georgetown for a short time, then she left for Leadville, and according to her letters, Same struck out for Colorado Springs.

It would appear that Deakstown became a "ghost town" by the spring of 1884, Edgar and I visited it in the spring of 1886 to check on the graves. We planted flowers, did a little upkeep , but that's the last time I ever went back there. Edgar and I worked very hard, for the next few years, he was looking to get out of mining equipment, and I persuaded him to get into a new-fangled contraption coming along, something everybody was calling a "horseless carriage" I told him this was the wave of the future (thanks to you two) In fact, he was always amazed at my "uncanny" knack of things to come. For a time, Edgar sold a couple short lived brands, then we became affiliated with the Stanley Steamer company, opening a small dealership here in Boulder. I gave birth to a son, Steven in 1890, things were rough for awhile, the Steamer, was a good automobile, but too expensive for average folks. Eventually we closed the dealership, Edgar worked as a salesman for a farm implement company until we saw a story in the paper that the Ford Motor company was looking for someone to open a new dealership in Boulder. (again, thanks to you two, I knew all about Fords!) I told Edgar I was prepared to do whatever it took to get that dealership.

Needless to say, we hocked everything we had, but in the end got the dealership, first Ford dealership on this part of the Front Range. The Model T was definitely the right automobile for this area, at the time (1909) roads were no better than trails or roughed out wagon roads, the Model T answered the call and met the challenge. Well, as they say, the rest is history; we worked very hard, received many awards from the Ford Motor Company, opening up another dealership in Manitou Springs in 1916. A side note to Emily; these early automobiles sure were a pain to operate, (I kept thinking of that Dodge truck you and Deak had, and how easy that was to drive, electric start couldn't come fast enough for me. Deak: you were right, it took me quite awhile to master a clutch/gearshift, and I never did figure out "double clutching." As a side note, I always did better with the model T and it's array of pedals that the "A." Hopefully my old Pick-up truck is still in the family, but more on that later. Our son Steve took over the dealership in Manitou Springs around 1920, I think I mentioned earlier that I got into flying. For a while, Edgar and I thought about getting involved in aviation in some fashion, but it really wasn't until after the war, that flying really took off, and by then we were too heavily invested in our dealerships. That didn't stop us from buying an airplane; A "Jenny" which constantly reminded me of my friend. Over the years, I supported women in aviation, promoting air races and the new "air mail" service. Along the way, I became friends with a number of female aviatrix's including Amelia Earhart.

My Edgar passed away in 1930, needless to say I was devastated, he meant the world to me, the doctors said it was a stroke. Back then, they didn't know as much about them as I'm sure they do in 2013. As I write this letter in 1934, my heart still longs for him. Around 1933, I approached Dallas, Mittler, and Stevens concerning the repository, they agreed to retain possession of it under the terms of our arrangement until the year 2020, (they thought I was crazy and always asked too many questions) I placed pictures of Deakstown and portraits of my family as well as others inside as well as a couple of those tokens (Sally's idea) and a few other small memento's. From around the mid 1920's I would receive periodic letters from Kate. I had originally planned on including all of them in the box, but in the end space considerations won out, forcing me to only include one. As for Jenny, we maintained a correspondence over the years, and in fact at one point were considering the opening of a third dealership in Leadville.

However, further consideration revealed too many problems involved in trying to maintain a business of that nature that far away. You must also remember at the time, the roads out that way were still basically trails and it is only since the WPA has come along that there has been any real improvement in that situation. I recently asked Jenny to capsulate her life since leaving Deakstown and it is included with all the others.