Kit Carson County, Colorado
Photographs

 COGenWeb Logo

Kit Carson County Pioneers:

Clarence M. and Nellie (Dodd) Smith, 9 South 51 West


In 1900 Tama County, Iowa, Jeremiah Smith is 64,Martha Smith 64 Wife, and Clarence Smith 25 Son.

1902

Jeremiah 'Jerry' Smith BIRTH 1836 DEATH 1905 BURIAL Maple Hill Cemetery Montour, Tama County, Iowa, MEMORIAL ID 135976692.

NELLIE'S FAMILY

In 1900 Tama County, Iowa, Augustus R. Dodd is 49, Carla A. Dodd 48 Wife, Florence Dodd 22 Daughter is a music teacher, Mary C. Dodd 20 Daughter, Grace A. Dodd 18 Daughter, Alice L. Dodd 12 Daughter, Decia J. Dodd 10 Daughter, Rodney L. Dodd 11 Son, and Julia A. Hoskins 80 Servant.
Clarence Manter Smith, 30, born in Montour, Iowa to Jeremiah Smith and Martha A. Woolley, on 26 Nov 1903 in Tama County, Iowa, married Nellie Florence Dodd. Clarence claimed a tract in section 1, 9 South, 51W in 1908.


In 1910 Flagler, Clarence M. Smith is a real estate dealer, 35, Florence D. Smith 31 Wife, Philip D. Smith 5 Son, Dorothy C. Smith 2 Daughter, and Donald C. Smith 0 Son.


April 1912 Burlington, Colorado " C. M. Smith, a prominent real estate agent of Flagler, was in the city Thursday."

June 1914 "For Repreientative: I hereby announce myself as a candidate on the Progressive ticket for representative from this district subject to the will of the voters in the primary election in September.
Clarence M. Smith, Flagler, Colorado."

August 1917 "Mr. and Mrs. Plummer Bussey, of Bovina, accompanied by their old friend J. M. Buchanan, of Montour, Iowa, who has been visiting them, drove to Flagler Tuesday for a visit with Clarence Smith, who was also at one time a resident of Montour, and a neighbor of these people. Mr. Bussey made a pleasant call at the News office while in town. He informed us that his town of Bovina was on the boom, having a fine lumber yard, an elevator in course of construction, and a bank to come a little later on.
Flagler News."

March 1919 "Clarence M. Smith to Joseph Gangwich, NE 1/4 and SW 1/4 22-8-52, $1.00.

James Hinds to Clarence M. Smith, SW 1/4/ 14 8-52, $1.00."

May 1922 "Flagler - Dr. M. C. Traw was elected secretary of the school board for Consolidated District No. 35 at the recent election. C. M. Smith, present incumbent, lost by eleven votes. The ballot was the heaviest recorded at a school election in years."

In 1930 Burlington, Clarence M. Smith is county court judge, 56, Florence D. Smith 52 Wife, Donald C. Smith 20 Son, Edmund L. Smith 18 Son, and Martha E. Smith 16 Daughter.

Clarence and Florence are alone in 1940 Flagler.

Clarence Manter Smith BIRTH 2 Jul 1874 Iowa, DEATH 24 Oct 1961 Denver, BURIAL Flagler Cemetery Kit Carson County, MEMORIAL ID 5099693.

Nellie Florence Dodd Smith BIRTH 23 May 1878 Illinois, DEATH 10 Apr 1967 BURIAL Flagler Cemetery MEMORIAL ID 13983965.

1961 "Mrs. Milton Yoast's father Mr. Smith passed away at Flagler on Tuesday afternoon. Mrs. Yoast has been with her parents for the last couple weeks and Mr. Yoast left on Wednesday to join her."

Steamboat Springs "Mrs. Dorothy Yoast was called to Flagler. Colorado, last week due to the death of her mother. Mrs. Smith."

DOROTHY

Dorothy C. Smith and Milton S. Yoast married on 4 Jul 1933 at Flagler, Colorado.

Dorothy Carolyn Smith Yoast BIRTH 29 Feb 1908 DEATH Jul 1981 BURIAL Hayden Cemetery Hayden, Routt County, Colorado, MEMORIAL ID 84323121.


PHILIP

Philip Dodd Smith Sr. BIRTH 11 Mar 1905 Montour, Tama County, Iowa, DEATH 17 Nov 1979 San Bernardino County, California, BURIAL Twentynine Palms Cemetery Twentynine Palms, San Bernardino County, California, PLOT Row 22A, lot 20, site 1 MEMORIAL ID 98989000,

"On November 7, 1979, one of the great pioneers of Teton climbing, Philip Dodd Smith of Twentynine Palms, California, died of a heart attack. Born on March 11, 1905, at Montour, Iowa, Phil Smith, as he was always informally known, spent his early years at Flagler, Colorado, followed by attendance at Cornell College (Iowa) and Colorado School of Mines. In 1925 he found his way to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where he spent the next four years working in a variety of positions, keeping his eye on the nearby Tetons. In 1927 he took out a homestead on the side of Blacktail Peak. Starting in 1929 as one of the first seasonal rangers in the new Grand Teton National Park, Phil served with the National Park Service every summer (except 1934) for the next eleven years as a Teton ranger. For several winters he held similar positions with the NPS at Carlsbad Caverns and Muir Woods. In 1930 Phil and Dorothy Gibbs LePage were married; his family included Phil Jr., Rodney, and a step-son Don LePage. In the last years before the war Phil held positions with the CCC camps in Yellowstone National Park, serving as camp superintendent. Beginning in 1940 Phil was also employed by the NPS at Joshua Tree National Monument, and more recently with the recreation department at nearby Twentynine Palms where he made his home for the past 41 years.
Any description of the climbs of Phil Smith over his 37-year climbing career requires much condensation. As a boy of 15 with companions from Flagler, Phil initiated the interest in exploring and climbing which he held throughout his life. From 1920 to 1925 they searched out ridges and faces in the Front Range in Colorado, making a dozen ascents. But the turning point came in 1925 when with his friend, Walter Harvey, Phil was drawn to the almost unknown Tetons where he began the consistently competent pioneering which characterized his mountaineering. Their first climb was the now famous attempt on the Grand Teton from Amphitheater Lake, which resulted in the first ascent and the naming of Disappointment Peak. With a better route five days later the pair made the 14th ascent of the Grand Teton via the Owen-Spalding route, then the only known way to reach the summit of the imposing peak. In what was probably the first serious try for a new route, Phil returned the next summer and led three friends in an attempt from the southeast up onto the east ridge. Their attempt failed but its boldness was remarkable for that time. Never content to follow in the tracks of others, Phil made first ascents of Mount Wister and Shadow Peak, as well as the second ascent of Buck Mountain during the next three years.
It was the decade starting in 1929 with the dedication of the Grand Teton National Park that saw the major contributions of Phil Smith to American mountaineering. He made the first ascents of a total of thirteen major peaks and a dozen important new routes in the Teton range, his favorite mountains. Frequently teamed with fellow ranger F. M. Fryxell, this strong pair first climbed such well known peaks as Nez Perce, Teewinot, St. John, and Symmetry Spire. With Underhill and Henderson, Smith and Fryxell took a much sought prize in 1930, the first ascent of Mount Owen. In 1931 and 1937 Phil achieved two major new routes on the Grand Teton, the Underhill ridge and the Otter Body route.
It was a time never to be seen again, when everything about the Tetons was new and fresh, with a seemingly endless supply of unclimbed peaks and ridges. Yet a ranger’s duties were judged to be on a 24-hour basis, seven days a week so that ingenious schemes were sometimes required to get up onto the peaks. In 1929 a small, very small, wisp of smoke on the flanks of Teewinot served as the excuse for an official ranger investigation of the “fire,” and the first thing Smith and Fryxell knew they were on the unclimbed summit! And there was extensive climbing required to place the 16 bronze register tubes on the major summits; many of these are still in use today. Several of these early Teton climbs are impressive. For example, Smith and Fryxell made the first ascent of Rolling Thunder Mountain starting from Jenny Lake and returning during the course of a single day; a remarkable feat not yet repeated.
In later years Phil Smith made first or second ascents in the Absarokas (Pilot, Index, Abiathar), guided in the Wind Rivers, and pioneered numerous desert rocks and pinnacles in the Joshua Tree region. His final climbs were again in the Tetons in 1951, 1955, and 1956, when he climbed the Grand Teton by the Exum ridge, a route, typically, that he had never done before. Thus the Grand was the scene of his first and last roped climb.
His was a natural climbing ability and the associated knowledge developed rapidly for he became an expert in the use of crampons, ice axe, ropes and knots. His interest along these technical lines resulted in the publication in 1953 of a widely recognized booklet, Knots for Mountaineering. His climbs spanned the period that began with a few ropes and no pitons to the placement of bolts on blank granite walls. Phil Smith was one of the few in not only witnessing this technical transformation but actually practicing this entire gamut, from the Front Range to Joshua Tree. Phil enjoyed talking about the exploits of his climbing companions and friends, and was a masterly story teller, but he was overly modest in discussing his own climbs, always emphasizing the pleasure of the climb rather than the magnitude of the achievement. And these stories were astonishing in their accurate detail. While information was being gathered for the Teton climbing guidebook, Phil was able to remember with near total recall routes which he had pioneered some thirty years before.
His final and highly significant contribution to mountaineering was a year ago (1978) when his revision of an earlier book (1932) by Fryxell was published: Mountaineering in the Tetons, 1898-1940. This modest volume, typical of the teamwork of the authors, is a splendid, unassuming account of the pioneer period in Teton climbing. Phil Smith exemplified the best in early American mountaineering and he played his role, as an early newspaper account of his 1926 attempt stated, “in most approved mountaineer fashion.” He loved the mountains and in turn everyone who knew him held him in affection and admiration. One who knew Phil intimately for more than fifty years said, “I never knew Phil to act ungraciously or speak unkindly of anyone.”:

DONALD

Donald C. Smith and Ethel Thorine Johnson married on 29 May 1938 in Denver.
Miss Ethel T. Johnson of Fort Morgan, former student at Colorado State College, was married to Donald C. Smith of Flagler, in a pretty ceremony Sunday soon at the home of Rev. Robert Alllngham in Fort Morgan. Immediate relatives and close friends were present. The bride wore a charming frock of dusty rose, worn with light blue accessories. Her corsage was Johanna Hill roses and sweetpeas. The wedding was followed by a four-course dinner. Mrs. Smith is the daughter of Mrs. Nora Johnson and the late Lewis G. Johnson, and has been teaching in the Flagler high school the past several years. Mr. Smith is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Smith. He attended the University of Colorado and is now associated with his father in the real estate and insurance business in Flagler where the couple will make their home after a trip thru the southwestern states.

Donald is a broker in 1940 Flagler, with Ethel 30 born in Colorado.

Donald Clarence Smith BIRTH 29 Jul 1909 Flagler, DEATH 13 Jan 1974 Montgomery, Montgomery County, Alabama, BURIAL Green Acres Memorial Park Scottsdale, Maricopa County, Arizona, MEMORIAL ID 205419751.
" Graveside services for Don C. Smith, 64. who had been in abstract and title work in Colorado and Bisbee before retiring, will be at 10 a.m. Monday in Green Acres Cemetery, 401 N. Hayden Road, Scottsdale. Mr. Smith, of 16439 N. 32nd Way, died Sunday while visiting with a son in Montgomery. Ala. A native of Burlington. Colo., he had worked with his late father in Flagler, Colo., and owned a title business in Cortez, Colo., before coming to Bisbee. He served in the Navy in World War II and was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and the Palo Verde Christian Church in Phoenix. Survivors include his wife, Ethel; two sons, Maj. Donald N. Smith of Montgomery and Alan of Princeton, N.J.; two brothers and a sister out of state; and four grandchildren."


Ethel Thorine Johnson Smith BIRTH 11 Oct 1909 Colorado, DEATH Feb 1987 (aged 77) BURIAL Green Acres Memorial Park, MEMORIAL ID 205419829.

EDMUND

Edmond L. Smith and Marie Fisk married on 26 Apr 1938 in Kit Carson County.

Marie was in Kit Carson County in 1930, Edwin E. Fisk, farming, 40, Katherine E. Fisk 39 Wife, Marie E. Fisk 16 Daughter, Earl J. Fisk 6 Son, Beulah L. Fisk 4 Daughter, and Blanche L. Fisk 1 Daughter.

In 1940 Flagler, Edmond is a mercantile salesman, with Marie 26, born in Kansas.

Edmund Smith BIRTH 22 May 1911 Flagler, Kit Carson County, Colorado, DEATH Jan 1980 Flagler, BURIAL Flagler Cemetery MEMORIAL ID 5099686.

Marie Smith BIRTH 25 Jan 1914 DEATH Dec 1981 Flagler, BURIAL Flagler Cemetery, MEMORIAL ID 5099689.

Edwin Earl Fisk BIRTH 19 Mar 1890 Logan, Phillips County, Kansas, DEATH 25 Mar 1957 Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado, BURIAL Lafayette Cemetery, PLOT Lot 042N Spc 57 MEMORIAL ID 66304832.
Katherine Gertrude Schick Fisk BIRTH 18 May 1890 Nebraska, DEATH 3 May 1986 Lafayette, BURIAL Lafayette Cemetery, PLOT Lot 042N Spc 77 MEMORIAL ID 66304845.


MARTHA

July 1936 Steamboat Springs "Donald Smith, Mrs. Roy Cook, Misses Ethel and Grace Johnson, came in from Flagler, Colo., Friday. Mrs. Cook is spending a few days with her sister, Mrs. Milton Yoast. The others went on to California. Mrs. Cook wiU be remembered as Martha Smith, and she now makes her home in Oklahoma."

August 1937 Steamboat Springs " Mr. and Mrs. Roy Cook of Vernon, Tex., arrived at the Milton Yoast home Monday evening. They and Mr. and Mrs. Milton Yoast left for Wyoming Wednesady. They plan on being gone a week. While there they will visit with Mr. and Mrs. Oakley Ingersoll who are at Calpet, Wyo., and also Phil Smith at Jackson. Phil is a brother of Mrs. Yoast and Mrs. Cook, and Mrs. Ingersoll was Miss Mary Yoast."

In 1940 Decatur, Texas, Roy Cook is 33, Martha Cook 26 Wife, and Carolynn Cook 3 Daughter.

August 1940 " Mrs. Roy Cook and Carolyne were in Steamboat Friday."

Flagler "Teachers for the 1943-44 school year were Mrs. Roy Cook and Julia Dugan."

February 1947 Steamboat Springs "Roy Cook of Flagler, Colo., came in on the bus Monday to visit at the Milton Yoast home. Mrs. Cook and small daughter have been here several weeks visiting her sister, Mrs. Milton Yoast."

May 1947 Steamboat Springs "Mrs. Roy Cook and daughters, who have been visiting her sister and family, the Milton Yoasts, have returned to their home at Flagler, Colo."

Martha E. Cook, born 28 Oct 1913 in Colorado, died 28 Jun 1966 in San Diego County, BURIAL Flagler Cemetery, MEMORIAL ID 13983954.

Steamboat Springs "Mrs. Martha Cook, sister of Mrs. Dorothy Yoast, passed away in California last week after a lingering illness. Mr. and Mrs. Milton Yoast went to Flagler, Colorado to attend the funeral services. Mrs. Cook will be remembered by many having visited here a number of times."

This page is maintained by Steve Stein.