Standridge / Renfroe Photos
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Your Life--What is and What was!
When you were old enough, you walked two miles to attend Wolf School where
you attended until you were in the 4th grade. You liked everything about
school and was fortunate to go that long, but because your parents needed
you to help with the farm work, you had to quit. You especially helped
plant, pick, and hoe cotton, corn and sugar cane.
In 1915, your family moved to Greeley, Colorado. There your step-father
continued to work on the farm raising sugar beets and cucumbers. Eventually,
when you were about 16 years old, your step-father became working for two
young brothers, Frank and Ernest Chesnut, and the whole course of your life
was destined to change. You and Earnest Joy Chesnut, who used to visit you
at the water pump, fell in love, were married on Sept.30, 1921,in Fort Collins,
Colorado, a small mountain town. Both of you were 18 years old at the time.
Stepping into your Model T Ford, the tow of you started for California on
your honeymoon, but on the way you had car trouble and stopped at Albuqerque,
New Mexico to get it repaired. It was 3 weeks before the car was ready. By
this time, the owner of the garage who fixed the car asked you to stay and
for Ernest to work for him.
The garage owner went out of business, and Ernest found a job in a small town
called Rincon. It was there that you two had your first child, a boy was
born Aug. 10, 1922. You should have had a caesarean section, but at that
time surgery was extremely dangerous. Instead the doctor tried to use
forceps with which he was unskillful, and your baby died while trying to be
born. You were too ill to attend the baby's burial. Ernest carved these
words, "Infant Son" on a small tombstone which he placed at the child's head
in a small cemetery in Rincon. When you moved away later, a minister promised
to care for the grave, because he had a child buried there. With in two
months you were well enough to travel. You and Ernest returned to Colorado
and he started farming again in 1923. He had one steady hired man.
After the farm began to prosper, you both were very happy to be able to buy
a new Model A Ford. It had curtains and even a self starter. It was in this
car that you brought home your next baby from the Greeley, Co. hospital.
Harold Leonard was born June 4, 1924. Two years later, on July 23, 1926, you
and Earnest became the surprised parents of twins, Glenora Jane and Glenn
Samuel. Needless to say, the next year was a busy one for all, but it was a
happy time.
It wasn't long before Earnest got very sick and had 3 surgeries in 4 months.
He had peritonitis, the doctors thought. He died August 17, 1927 at the age of
24. Only ten days later, Glenora's twin brother grew seriously ill with a
baby disease that was passing from child to child. He passed from this life
August 27, 1927. He was buried by his father in the Greeley cemetery.
The days ahead were extermely hard for you, but it was necessary for you to
continue and make a life for yourself, Harold and Glenora. During this time
and in the months ahead, Bill, the man Earnest had hired, was an enormous help
to you and your children. They became fond of him, and as the months passed
your friendship turned into love. On Dec. 28, 1928, you and Willis Arthur
Skelton went to Fort Collins and said I do. At that time you were 25 years old
and he was 27.
Bill, as everyone called him, worked the farm for awhile. You decided to sell
your car and buy a Ford truck which Bill used to haul your and other farmer's
sugar beets to market.
On Mother's Day, May 11, 1930, you claim you got the best Mother's Day gift you
ever received, even if some may wonder about that! The only child you and Bill
ever had, Betty Louise, was born that day at Greeley, Colorado.
It was during the Great Depression that you and Bill were raising your family.
You heard there was work in Oregon, and so on June, 1935, you prepared to head that
way. The two of you sold your farming equipment and household furnishings keeping
only what you could haul in the truck. Bill got a good, heavy canvas from the sugar
beet factory, and you two sewed a nice, large tent to live in on your journey. We
kids thought it was great fun but knew it was not an easy thing for you to do. On
the way we stayed near Boise, Idaho and worked in the vegetable and fruit. Then
you moved on to Gridley, California and lived there for awhile doing the same kind
of work. During much of this time the only home you and your family had was the
tent. We lived in a pasture and also in a cherry orchard. We had a two holer toilet
facilities.
We three kids hleped the family fortunes increase by picking prunes. The great sum
of 7 cents was paid to all the pickers for each large box they filled. During the
school year, Harold and Glenora attended a two roomed school house. It was near
Biggs, Ca.
In August 1936, we moved to Klamath Falls, Oregon. All three of us children started
school at Henley, Oregon. Betty began her first year there and 12 years later
graduated from high school. Harold and Glenora graduated there in 1943 and 1945.
Note by Betty Renfroe........the story continues telling of moving to Wasco, Ca. and
Bill passing away in 1962. Harold lives in Klamath Falls, Oregan. Glenora Phillips
in San Jose, Ca. and Betty Panter in Wasco, Ca. Delia Hubble Chesnut Skelton is
still alive in Ca.
A note at the bottom of the story says: Alabama Standridge died on August 16,
1925 and stepfather, John William Hurley died almost a year later, July 31, 1926. Both
are buried at Riverside Cemetery, Denver, Colorado. Margaret Roberts, Delia's sister,
lives in Lake Havasue Arizona. (probably Margaret is a daughter of Alabama and John
Hurley). Contact Delia's Granddaughter
Richard William Hubble was a farmer in the territory of Oklahoma. He
and his wife, Alabama Standridge, lived in the town of Maud in the County
of Pottawatomie. On May 24, 1903, you Delia, were born. You were your
parents 8th child, and they named you Delia Bell. Later a 9th (Lincoln, Nov. 1905)
was born into the family. When you were 3 years old, your father died of pneumonia.
Your mother had a hired man to help with the farm work. About two years
after your father's death, she married this man, John William Hurley. They
had two children (probably one was Margaret Hurley Roberts). This was about
the time that Oklahoma became the 46th state of the Union, 1907.