Boulder County Biographies/Family Records : Walton

The following information on the Walton Family was submitted by: By Kathy Kautzman

The Walton Family History in Boulder County
By Kathy Kautzman

Gold Hill was a gold mining town in Boulder County Colorado.  Caribou and Jamestown were small settlements close to Gold Hill and in Grandma (Barnette) Walton’s obituary, it states that she was born in Caribou.  Among the other towns in that area were Nederland, know for the quartz mining, Louisville, where the coal miners lived and Eldora with various metal mines.
 
The Walton Family had emigrated from Wales to Pennsylvania and then to Wisconsin.  Leonard Walton, his wife Lizzie, and three of their children had moved to Gold Hill in about 1878 to work the gold mines.  The 1880 Census states that Leonard was 45, Lizzie was 33 and Allie, Bennett, and Oscar were 12, 6 and 2, respectively. 
 
In the Walton Family Bible, 1885 edition, the inscription reads "Presented to Walter R. Walton by his Mother Ellen Walton."  In the center of the bible there are pages for Marriages, Births, Deaths and Memoranda. 
The first entry on the Marriage page is Leonard R. Walton and Elizabeth R. Rule, March 8th, 1886.  The second entry is William H. Patton and Allie Walton, Sept. 28th, 1887.  Allie was to die less than a year later.
Births listed are, Leonard R. Walton, Jan. 28th, 1838; Elizabeth Rule, July 31st; 1848; Allie R. Walton, April 28th, 1868; Annie Florence Walton, Oct. 6th, 1870; Bennett Lewis Walton, July 3rd, 1873, Oscar Leonard Walton, Nov. 25th, 1878; and Walter R. Walton, July 29th 1881.  They are not in chronological order. 
The names of Oscar Leonard Walton, May 16th, 1939, and Leonard R. Walton, March 17th, 1910 are written in blue ink and a poor imitation of the previous elegant handwriting.  Three other entries, written in my Mother’s hand, are Bennet Lewis Walton, Walter R. Walton, and Elizabeth R. Rule Walton.  There are no dates for these deaths.

In 1900, Leonard R. Walton, Elizabeth and their sons Oscar, 21, and Walter, 18, were living next door to William H. Patton, his second wife, Hattie, and their four children Oscar was to become the father of Allie Pearl, Lois and Gwendolyn. 

Allie (Walton) Patton was pregnant and went to the out-house one day.  Her Mother, Lizzie, had seen her go since they lived next door to each other.  She meant to check on Allie but forgot and when William came home and asked for Allie, her Mother screamed and they ran to the outhouse.  They discovered that Allie had miscarried and bled to death. 
 
 Elizabeth Rule Walton, Lizzie, listed her place of birth as Wisconsin and her parents were from Cornwall, England.  Leonard was born in Pennsylvania; his parents were from Wales. 
Bennett Walton lived seven houses away, was married to Nelly and they had one daughter, Leta. 
Near him lived James Barnette, his wife Wilheminna, and three daughters.  The daughters were Minnie P., 12, Dora M., 9, and Myrtle R. who is 4.  Minnie P. was to become the wife of Oscar Walton and subsequently, my Grandmother. 
 
Dora died at 16, while Grandma was helping bathe her.  They thought she was recovering from something contagious.  Dora was the one who painted the flowers on velvet. 
 Myrtle R. was to become Aunty Mae.  There was a little brother, named Bennett, who died also.  He was sick with diphtheria and the remedy of the day was to restrict his diet.  Minnie Pearl was baking cookies one day and her little brother begged her for just one cookie.  She didn’t give it to him but Bennett died anyway; she would never bake cookies again.

George Barnette, his wife, one daughter, and one son lived ten houses from his brother, James.  James and George both list themselves as born in Michigan and their parents from England. 
All the men listed their occupations as ore miners.  Some of the mine names were the Alvin Mine, Wolf Tongue Mine, and the Slide Mine of Gold Hill.  The town names were Nederland, Niwot Village, Lyons, and Nolan.  And Salina.  There was the Left Hand Canyon, Right Hand Canyon, Sunshine Canyon, and Sugarloaf Mountain.

 In 1910, Gold Hill had street names and a Post Office.  Oscar and M. Pearl (Barnette) Walton lived on # 7 Main Street with their first daughter, A. Pearl, born June 11, 1910.  Ellen Walton, 62, lived at # 14 Main Street.  Walter Walton, Daisy, his wife and their two daughters, Evelyn and Frances, lived at # 25 Pine Street. 
The Barnetts were scattered.  Joseph, 37 and his wife Frances, 34, lived at # 19 High Street, and at # 20 High street James, 45, Minnie, 41, and Myrtle (Aunty Mae), was 14. 
 
  My grandfather, Oscar, owned the Slide Mine, and did pretty well for some time, but he agreed to do something which took nearly all his money and lost him the mine and his spirit. 
All of the mines in the Gold Hill area ran into bedrock at about 300 feet.  Some geological engineers at the University of Colorado were convinced that drilling through the bedrock would uncover another body of valuable ore.  He sunk the mine to 1,100 feet and came to the end of his finances but no ore.

 The family moved to Boulder in about 1920, and purchased a house with what was left of their money.  Oscar tried to do small jobs but became bedridden with arthritis.  Mama says that the last winter he tried to work, all he could get was shoveling streets in the winter and all he had to wear was old tennis shoes.  (They used to be the cheapest shoe around).

  Pearl was 12 and Lois was 9 when Mama was born in 1922 in Boulder.  Mama never remembers seeing her father walk.  All the girls had to help take care of him.  There were wheels on his bed and they rolled him into the kitchen.  Mama remembers hearing him cry with pain while Grandma would rock him to sleep. 
Grandma took a job cooking for a fraternity house.  She’d have to be there for breakfast and stay 'til after supper.  She’d bring home leftover food, so they always ate pretty well.  But Mama remembers having only one pair of socks in the eleventh and twelfth grades and having to wash them out every night.  She could wear Pearl’s clothes so she had a fair wardrobe to use.  She also had a dog, Boots, who went everywhere with her.  She had Boots for sixteen years.

Pearl became friends with a neighbor boy named Loftin.  Loftin was crazy for Pearl but Pearl was crazy for everyone else.  Pearl loved the high life and was looking for a rich husband.  One time Pearl had no dated for a Saturday so she said she’d go with Loftin to a movie.  Well, a date came up and Pearl cut out on Loftin. 
Loftin waited in the hedge until Pearl came home and hit her in the back of the head with a bat.  Loftin got scared and dropped the bat.  Pearl pulled her hand away from her head and saw blood, grabbed the bat and chased Loftin through the hedge back into his house. 
 
Loftin came over the next day to apologize then enlisted in the Army.  Pearl got a couple of post cards and a picture of Loftin standing in some waters somewhere but, as far as I know, never saw Loftin again.  She married a rich miner, Proctor Milliken, and moved to Idaho Springs.  They had a large house and a maid.

It was 1937 and Lois, the second daughter, had come back to live with Grandma for the second time because her husband had committed suicide.  Lois was a dance teacher and Mama was baby sitting her baby nephew, Gerry, at Lois’ house.  At about two in the afternoon, Ray, the husband, came home.  He had a funny look on his face and Mama thought he was sick to his stomach.  He went in to the bathroom and she heard him mixing something in a glass.  A few seconds later she heard him kicking the door.  She called to him and tried to open the door but couldn’t get it open.  She heard gasping and choking sounds and ran to get the neighbor to help.  She and the neighbor managed to push the bathroom door open and saw that Ray was lying on the floor.  His feet were wedged against the door.  They got someone to call the police.  Ray had mixed up cyanide in a glass of water and drunk it.  It ate out his throat as it made its way to his stomach.

 One Saturday night, Mama was all done up to go out on a date and Grandma and Lois were arguing that Lois should stay home and take care of Gerry because Grandma had worked all day and Mama was going out.  Mama had long, thick, black hair and had sat out in the sun for two hours to get it dry and it was beautiful.  Her crowning glory.  Well, Grandma was doing dishes and threw a wet dishrag at Lois, Lois ducked, and the wet rag hit Mama right on the head.  Her hair was ruined.  She stayed home with Gerry that night. 
One day, Lois was trying to get Gerry ready to go somewhere and he kept wiggling.  She said "Gerry, I think you’ve got St. Vitis Dance." 

He looked at her with his heavily lashed green eyes and asked,  "Where’s me got it, in me pocket?"
Lois married Charles Forney on August 14th, 1941.  She had Jeanette Ann in August of the next year in Denver. 

Mama met my Dad and her best friend, Ruby, started going with his brother, Randall.  One day, Randall picked Ruby and Mama up from school.  Daddy and another friend climbed into the 
One time, when Mama and Daddy were having a malt at the drug store, Daddy asked if Mama could sing good.  She said, "Well, yes, why?"

He answered, "You ought to, you have legs like a canary." 

Mama and Daddy moved to Idaho Springs near Pearl and Proc.  Proc gave Daddy a job in his mill.  Mama and Daddy lived in an upstairs apartment two blocks off Highway 6 and 40.  This is where I was born on May 12, 1942.
 
By Kathy Kautzman, ©1999, all rights reserved.

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