Yuma County, Colorado Photographs

Yuma County Pioneers:

Claude Sweger, Lone Star and Yuma
Claude's Touche'

By Rollie Deering

Claude Sweger's Class of 1925 was the first to graduate from the new Lone Star High School built on the corner of a field 20 miles north of Otis, Colorado, 23 miles northwest of Yuma, and 35 miles southeast of Sterling. One hundred years later, Lone Star still fulfills the definition of being in middle of nowhere. The 1925 class would also be the largest Lone Star class for many years. The high school was still under construction when Claude and his classmates should have been enrolled as freshmen. The delay caused four pairs of siblings to attend high school together. Sibling pairs swelled the class to 12. My Dad, Artie, and his sister Grace Deering, Loel and Bruce Mollison, sisters Hazel and Helen Ohlhausen, plus Merle and Ruth Whittenburg made up the heart of the class. The other class members were Glen Stenson, Claude Sweger, Francis Keenan and Nadine Wheeler. Claude Sweger was one of the "singles" in the 1925 class. He was the adopted son and only child of Lucy and Lewis Sweger. The Swegers lived at the far southern end of the school district which made it possible for the Lone Star School Board to hire Claude –at the age of 14—to drive the district's Model T school bus to and from school. One hundred years later, school boards everywhere would faint at the idea of a 14-year-old student driving a school bus.

Claude began his day by hand cranking the Lone Star "T". He'd then wind his way from farm to farm picking up both grade school and high school aged students. The process was reversed at night. Claude was paid enough to buy a letter sweater, a luxury the other boys could not afford.

Claude didn't care to hunt, but my Dad, Artie, and Claude's father, Lew, became hunting buddies, shooting ducks on the nearby Deering Lake. The Swegers had arrived here from Pennsylvania. They described their friends from The Keystone State so vividly that the Deering family felt they knew their old Pennsylvania friends and neighbors just as well as they knew the Sweger's.

After graduation from Lone Star, Claude entered Denver University. While at DU, his ears and tonsils were severely infected by Streptococcus aureus. Antibiotics were 30 years away. One morning, Claude awakened to total silence, never to hear another voice or sound for the remainder of his life. He finished his engineering degree at the University of Nebraska. Upon returning to Colorado, he taught at several country schools in the Yuma and Wray area, quite an accomplishment for a deaf person.

Meanwhile, Claude and his Lone Star classmate Loel Mollison had married. Dealing with Claude's deafness was too heavy a load for the couple to handle and they divorced.

During the 1940's, Claude established furniture and appliance stores in in Yuma, Holyoke, and McCook, Nebraska.

After World War II had closed on September 2, 1945, steel and copper became available again, allowing Claude to build a beautiful, modern, brick furniture store in Yuma Featuring east facing and partial north facing windows that reached from floor to ceiling, it became the crown jewel of Yuma's Main Street. It was built atop of what was the Yuma's first trash dump of the 1870's.

My parents built their new home when I was in fifth grade. Claude sold them two new bedroom sets and end-tables. They also bought two matching easy chairs and a sofa for the living room as well as a dining room set and a yellow Formica kitchen table with steel legs and four matching chairs. Earlier, for the "old house" he had sold them a propane refrigerator and kitchen stove that we moved into the new house. Dad also bought Claude's steel building that had been parked on the backside of Yuma's Methodist Church. It was moved to our farm where it now shields our IH-140 mower tractor from the elements.

Today, Claude's store has become the home of The Orphanage, a tastefully decorated venue with multiple antique area rugs, sparkling chrome and wood displays, and soft furniture floating on a sea of Caribbean aqua enamel. The south wall is brick, still showing portions of the advertising of the adjacent building's paint of 100 years ago. Another wall is covered with license plates.

The name Orphanage was chosen because it features antique automobiles and motorcycles whose brand names have become extinct. The Orphanage has established a relationship with the Forney Museum in Denver and shows samples of Forney's extensive auto, motorcycle, and train collection every few months.

The Orphanage is privately owned by Richard Birnie and Ronald Wenger.

Several local artists and photographers have displayed their work at the orphanage. Local authors also hold book signings there . The Orphanage is also a popular site for birthday and wedding anniversary celebrations. My Yuma High Class of '61 held its 50th class reunion at The Orphanage in 2011.

Visiting musicians perform small concerts here. Birnie plays cello and jams often with local musicians. Local veterinarian Tom Parks, DVM, took up piano when he retired. I stopped by the Orphanage recently while a trio of local musicians were practicing. Rich Birnie was on the cello, Cindy Korf was playing violin and Leslie Woody was at the baby grand. Their classical music was magical.

After leaving Yuma, Claude owned a TG&Y store and a Ben Franklin store in Fort Stockton, Texas. He was also an income tax preparer in Fort Worth. He donated his body to science but his remains are inurned in the Yuma Cemetery.

After becoming deaf, Claude became very proficient at "lip reading". He was capable of running his businesses with little additional help.

When the Lone Star Class of 1925 met for their 50th reunion, the LS alumni and their old basketball coach, teacher, and principal, Mr. D.A. Sawyer, gathered at the home of Emil and Iva Trautman in Yuma. I was there as the men revisited their Lone Star days studying and playing basketball on a dirt court in the middle of nowhere. After a year of competing with area teams on dirt with snowy borders, visiting teams also appreciated the completion of the Lone Star gymnasium in 1923.

On their 50th reunion day in 1974, the women of the class and the wives of the men gathered in their own huddle. The men also formed their own clutch. As the conversations progressed noisily, the "ex" married couple of Loel and Claude kept close eye contact across Iva's living room. Claude had driven up from his retirement home in Texas, bringing along a Spanish speaking woman in her 50's to share with the driving and to act as an interpreter when needed.

While Claude could lip read English, Spanish was a higher hurtle to leap.

Loel, Claude's ex-wife, observed the men, especially her ex-husband as they visited. Claude did likewise. Eventually, Loel felt compelled to made a catty remark to the other women about "the Mexican hussy that Claude brought north."

Claude read Loel's lips from across the room, quickly shut down his conversation with his classmates, and marched hurriedly across the room. Pointing his finger at Loel, he said, "She is a friend who was kind enough to travel with me this weekend. I expect her to be treated with respect."

Touche'
March 1, 2025

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