Two Paths to Rico (Hardcover)

<p>The author's granddad Thomas Keown was a man of many sorrows. His first wife died in childbirth and their daughter Sarah died young of diphtheria. Having been prosperous he went broke in Kansas and with his second wife Mary and sons Herald and Urban they joined 4000 other holders of $150 land drawing certificates August 8 1908 at the site of the new town-to-be of Blanca in the San Luis Valley of Colorado. The town development failed and they moved on to homestead near Dove Creek Colorado. In Blanca Herald and his brother became passionate baseball players. For their devout Christian mother their path was unblessed. Games were played on the holy Sabbath. As an impoverished homesteader then a miner Dad was elected Dolores County Treasurer. With only a tenth grade education he said he was elected because he could hit the ball. Meanwhile in Thayer Missouri the John Gage family with six children prepared to leave for Dove Creek. Doctors advised they move to an arid climate to save their youngest son from an early death from rheumatic fever. With belongings and six children in the back of an old truck and camping along the road they arrived at their desolate homestead on Halloween 1923. The Great Depression had begun when Mom was the Peel School teacher with fifty-four students. Dad married Bernice Gage December 1 1934 and took her to their Rico home near the Dolores County Courthouse.</p>