Rowena Victoria Hull

  General Notes:

Children of Frontier Widow Recall Early Town History

(Transcribed from the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel September 15, 1957 Special Edition) (Footnotes by Helen R. Hawkins - Granddaughter of Rowena Victoria Hull Davis)

A tent pitched at Colorado Avenue and First Street was the first Grand Junction home for two sisters, now Delta residents, who were among the earliest residents of the new town. They are Mrs. J.H. (Victoria) Wear1 and Mrs. Mary Watkins. They were five and fourteen years old when they arrived with their parents, John and Sarah Hull, November 28, 1882. Mr. Hull had previously visited the town site and purchased four city lots soon after the Utes had been escorted out of the Valley by General McKenzie on September 1, 1881. His family had waited near Montrose while the valley was cleared of Indians. Traveling by covered wagon drawn by oxen and horses, they had come overland from the Midwest, crossing the state line on Mrs. Wear's first birthday, in 1878. During the trip, the family saw Chief Ouray at his home west of Montrose, and saw Chipeta many times. Arriving at the Grand River2 they crossed on a raft built from trees cut along the stream. The horses and cattle had to swim for it but one old oxen was swept away in the current and drowned. Wintered in Tent

The worst of the winter was spent in the tent. Meanwhile the head of the household, a carpenter by trade, cut cottonwood along the Grand River at the foot of First Street to build a cabin. It served as a dwelling until he completed a real house in 1883, at the same location. Later the cabin was torn down and the wood burned as fuel. Tragedy struck soon after the home was completed. The father became ill and died3 leaving his wife with four children, the two daughters, another girl, Alice, and Tom, both of whom are now gone. The widow managed somehow to rear her family, working at almost anything that presented itself. She nursed, sewed, washed and ironed. During the 14 years the family lived in Grand Junction, they came to know virtually all the early residents. Mrs. Watkins worked in the hotel where Governor George Crawford lived.

Business Development

When the Hulls arrived, there was already a small business center located on Colorado Avenue between Fourth and Fifth Streets. All these establishments freighted in their merchandise by wagon from Pueblo or Leadville. They carried a good supply of staple goods, although the grocers didn't try to keep fresh meat, only the salt variety. There was practically no demand for the fresh goods for awhile, since the townspeople had an ample supply of beef, venison and fish at their doorstep. AP. A. And W. A. Rice operated the first lumber yard, procuring their merchandise from their own sawmill on Pinyon Mesa. The Rice men came in 1882, their families in 1883. Job Payne and George Shackleton opened the Payne and Shackleton butcher shop before long, and Steve Scovil started an ice business. He cut huge blocks of ice in winter from the Grand River. The chunks three or four feet square, were often two feet thick. They were stored in an ice-house near the river, carefully packed in sawdust, and peddled to the townspeople by wagon during the summer. Job Gordon was the first boatman for the Grand River ferry. He was the son of a Mr. Gordon, a cattleman, who drowned in the river during the spring of 1882. With a companion, Gordon was dumped into the river when their skiff overturned as they were attempting a crossing. The companion reached shore safely, reporting to spectators that he had "sure heard the angels singing." First Hospital

Mrs. Mary Briley was the community's first nurse. She arrived before the Hull family. Originally the operator of a boarding house, she later enlarged her house to take care of sick folks, and it developed into what amounted to the first hospital. Mrs. Briley was part Choctaw Indian.

A favorite picnic spot was known as Wurtz' grove, about a mile below town on the river. The owner, Henry Wurtz, was a German and had a fine orchard of fruit trees.

Mrs. Wear married Joseph Napoleon (Poly) Davis in 1896 and moved to Lake City. They came back in 1904 for three years then moved to Cripple Creek. Mr. Davis died in 1916. After 27 years of widowhood, she married Mr. Wear in 1943.

Mrs. Watkins married Lawrence S. (Larry) Heath.4 He was killed in a snow slide near Ironton on March 21, 1892. Mary lived with her mother until her death in 1896, then she too moved to Lake City. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was 11 years old when my grandmother, Rowena Victoria Hull, showed me this article in the newspaper. At that time I was not the least bit impressed about the article itself, but I do remember Grandmother flushed with excitement. It was this memory of Grandmother that, forty some years later, led me to the County Library in Grand Junction in search of the article.
There is one statement in the article that is not correct. My mother (Dorcas Dorothy Edson Davis) stated that Mamie "Mary Watkins" and Rowena had discussed whether or not it was appropriate to bring up the family problems for this article. They had decided to leave the matter of where and when John Hull died as vague as possible.
Mother figured that John Hull was a Mormon and that he died in Utah. Mamie spoke of another woman and baby who traveled with them to Colorado. She had mentioned to Dorcas that there was a terrible row back home in Missouri and Alice, her sister, would not come out west with the family. Neither Mamie nor Rowena would discuss their father's death with Dorcas.
Unaware of Dorcas's belief that John Hull was a Mormon my first cousin once removed, Jeannie Carol Davis told me that one afternoon she had asked her great-grandmother about her life. Uncharacteristically, Rowena told Carol of the hardship and anger she experienced of having her father leave them. She told Carol that her father was a Mormon and that her mother would not live with him. This conversation must have taken place around 1958 or 1959. - Helen R. Davis Hawkins

  Noted events in her life were:

• Move to: Family Arrived in Grand Junction, CO, 28 Nov 1882, Grand Junction, Mesa, Colorado. ⁵

• Alt. Birth, 4 Sep 1879. ⁷

Rowena married Joseph Napoleon Davis, son of Nehemiah Davis III and Mary Sturman, in 1896 in Lake City, CO. (Joseph Napoleon Davis was born on 15 Jul 1862 in Illinois ⁷ and died on 6 Aug 1916 in Montrose, Montrose, Colorado.)

Rowena next married Robert Wear in 1943. (Robert Wear was born about 1880 and died about 1963.)