Pictures on the Blog

Last night as I was working to put the quote from Ikkyu in a post I noticed a little picture in the tool line of the blog editor. It was new. I clicked and it allowed me to scan my computer storage and find a picture and put it into the post. I don't have a lot of pictures on my computer but I found pictures from Christmas and put a cat into the post. Now if you want to do something on the blog but don't want to write you can blog pictures. Above is a picture of our house in Prescott, AZ circa 1944 with a little dog. I assume this picture has never been seen before since I created it from a roll of negatives I found. I assume this is the winter of 1944-45.

The dog later drowned in the well. I think I remember Dad fishing him out with his fishing pole. You can see the tall porch and the garage under the house. You can also see we had a good snow fall; at least for people like me from California and southern Arizona

If you have comments and don't want to post them here (shy) send me an e-mail rlrutherford@triconet.org.

Never lost again

Having no destination, I am never lost.

IKKYU

This is "Big Fuzzy" he is not the smartest of our eight cats but he is lovable. This picture was taken in December of 2004 when we said, "Fuzzy is not the brightest bulb of the string." As you can tell he is never lost.

Mr. Thrasher

Mr. Thrasher

I first ran into this Bird when I was living in Walnut Creek, California about 15 years ago. He was sitting in the front yard on a pyracantha bush. He was brown, about the size of a Robin, but not as plump and he had a long beak that curved down. I am not much of a birder but I enjoy it when I can recognize a bird. This one I had never seen before. I went for my little bird book. He stayed there and let me look him up and put a name to him (a complicated process for me). He was a Thrasher. There are several kinds of thrashers but thrasher was enough for me.

I didn’t see another until about 10 years later. One spring I was camped near a water spot in the Anza Borrega Desert in Southern California. He came hopping into camp and then hung around for all the days we were there. I think we were the visitors. It was his home.

When we moved to Tucson a year ago, there he was, a regular visitor to our back yard bird feeders. Each day I would take my dog for a long walk of about 2 miles, down one wash and up another, through the surrounding desert. One day I heard a bird singing about 20 yards away at the top of the wash. I wondered what it was. It had a complex song and I thought that maybe it was a mocking bird. From a distance it was about the right size. Of course I didn’t have my glasses so I couldn’t get a good look. I heard this song several times after and wondered what it was. Finally the day came when I had my glasses and I heard the song close by. I waited and looked and moved around and there was Mr. Thrasher in the top of a mesquite tree singing his heart out. I had always thought, based on his name, and seeing him at the feeder, that he just hopped around on the ground and picked up seeds.

Turk Rutherford from Baca County Book

The next selection form the Baca County Book, and I think the last. Turk Rutherford was the most successful of the family financially. I remember the end of one summer, dad (Royal) came home from working the summer on Turk's ranch suffering with a broken rib from being kicked by a horse. Dad brought home an indian who spent a week or two with us and he was fascinating. The indian had 3 one hundred dollar bills in his wallet (something I had never seen) and bought us matches and all kinds of things we shouldn't have had.

Rollins Lipscomb (Turk) Rutherford, third son of James and Annie Rutherford, was born near Klondike, Oklahoma, April 24, 1899. He came to Baca County with his mother, brothers and sisters in 1910. He grew up on a farm near Vilas, working in Vilas for C. F. Wheeler until he started farming for himself. He married Elizabeth Thorp and they made their home in a little rock house 2 ½ miles northeast of Vilas. Turk farmed and raised cattle in various parts of Baca County.

His first wheat crop was 500 acres but later he farmed thousands of acres. He constructed a lake near the center of his ranch holdings on Horse Creek south of Two Buttes. This was used for irrigation and as a game preserve. Many thousands of geese wintered on this lake where they could depend on plentiful food supply from the loads of grain which he distributed on the ground near the lake. This became known as Goose Haven and hunters came from all over Colorado and many other states to try their luck there.

Although Turk spent most of his time on his ranch, he had built a home in Springfield and lived there until the time of his death, April 16, 1976.

Turk left an estate amounting to millions of dollars. Just as he had helped many people in the county by furnishing employment and by paying hospital bills for those who could not afford treatment, he continued to help. He gave each hospital in the county a gift of $50,000 while he was still living, and his estate he left in trust to be used for hospitals and for helping young people of Baca County attend college.

After Turk's death, Elizabeth continued to live in Springfield until her death, two months later.

By Ronald Rutherford

Deet & Anna Rutherford from Baca County Book

More from Baca County (the big book). You might recall Deet was the one who found the rattlesnake under the table. Every where we turn we see the Rutherfords involved in education.

Deet and Anna Rutherford

Forrest (Deet) Whaley Rutherford, son of James and Annie (Rollins) Rutherford, was born near Klondike, Oklahoma in December 1900. He grew up on a farm near Vilas. While his older brothers worked away from home, Deet stayed and worked the farm for his mother, gaining valuable experience in both farming methods and accepting responsibility.

In 1927 Deet married Anna Crill, and they moved to a farm southwest of Walsh, where he farmed and raised cattle. As he had helped his younger brothers, he also helped his neighbors, both with advice and with practical help when that seemed needed.

Deet went to school at Vilas. At one time during his school days he misbehaved and his teacher, Elsie Schweizer, jerked him by the shirt front and all the buttons popped off. Many years later when he was a gray haired old man he saw her on the street and spoke to her. When she didn’t know him, he asked “Don’t you remember jerking the buttons off my shirt?” She promptly answered, “Deet Rutherford!”

Deet and Anna had two daughters, Mary Margaret (now deceased), and Jackie Dee Graham of Spearman, Texas, who teaches there.

Deet served many years on the Vilas school board. At one time when the district had overspent its resources he was instrumental in getting it back on sound footing by getting people to cooperate and work out their problems.

That is one of the most useful things he taught us younger Rutherfords – no matter what problems we have, if we work together we can solve them. By Darrell Rutherford

Bill Rutherford from Baca County Book

Again the following comes from the Baca County book published in 1983.

I remember being at the family homestead in the middle 1950's as a pre-teen and going along what was probably Bear Creek with Tom & some of our boy cousins. The creek was not running. It was a series of pools some of which had fish in them. We were always interested in fish.

Then we were driving somewhere and there was a tremendous thunder and lighting storm and when we got whereever we were going the electricity was out and there were kerosene lanterns.

Bill Rutherford

James A. (Bill) Rutherford came to Vilas from Ochiltree, Texas in July 1910. He lived with his mother, brothers, and sisters in various places near Vilas until his mother homesteaded in 1911 on Bear Creek 3 ½ miles northeast of Vilas.

He attended school in Eureka and Vilas and graduated from Springfield High School in 1927. In 1928 he enrolled in college in Greeley, but had a serious motorcycle accident and was unable to continue. The doctors said his leg would have to be amputated, but his brother Tom, who was also attending college there, would not allow it, so his leg was saved. For many years, splinters of bone worked their way out of it and it has remained larger than the other leg.

When he regained the use of his leg, he returned to farming for his mother.

In 1938 he married Edith Bryan and they lived on the family homestead. Edith was a native of Baca County and taught school in Springfield and Pritchett. She was a graduate of Colorado Teachers College in Greeley. After their marriage she taught at Glendale and Vilas.

They had 6 children; James, Wesley, Ronald, Darrell, Farrell, and Leatha, all of whom still live in Baca County except Wesley and Leatha.

On April 7, 1957, Edith succumbed to a heart ailment. At that time the boys were all in school, but Leatha being barely 5 years old, became a constant companion of her daddy.

The oldest boy James, does farming and carpentry. Wes attended P.A.M.C. at Goodwell, Oklahoma, and University of Colorado at Boulder. He took R.O.T.C. and served in Korea. While there he married and they live in Kansas City, Missouri where he works for Bendix Corporation. He has 3 children; Connie, Billie, and Bonnie.

Ron, Darrell, and Farrell attended P.A.M.C. and graduated from there. They also took R.O.T.C. and became lieutenants, but served in the United States.

Farrell while stationed in Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, married Nancy Gates, of Alexandria, Virginia. They have 4 children; Thomas, Kristina, Rebecca, and Donald.

Ron, Darrell, and Farrell farm the family homestead. Bill has retired to raising garden, chickens, and cattle.

Leatha attended Friends University at Wichita, Kansas. After graduation she taught school at Valley Center, Kansas. Later she and her husband started a lawn and garden service and she is now helping coach girls basketball at Friends University. Her husband is Norman Hein from Gate, Oklahoma.

Darrell married Cheryl Berry, from Denver, who was teaching in Taiwan. They had a very interesting roof-top wedding, the wedding music was accompanied by the horns of the street traffic below. She now teaches at Vilas.

In December 1957, Bill married Opal (Cope) Oliver, who was teaching school in Springfield. She took early retirement and took care of his home and children until Leatha was a senior in high school. Vilas needed a kindergarten teacher and the half day fitted well with her work at home. She retired in 1978. They still live on the place his mother homesteaded in 1911. By Bill and Opal Rutherford