The daily tribune., 1908-12-09
IN THE STRENUOUS DAYS.


fights in Colorado We weren't partio.
ular whether We had salad ON let
tuce leaf and fish course. Ali We
had WAS the stuff we raised out of
the ground and 1 tell you it tasted
good and delicious. -
From this speech it seems that Mrs.
Martha E. Blake. a Colorado pioneer
who has just returned to Denver from
California, does not regard salad as
a necessity.
Mrs. Blake came to Colorado in
1869 with her father and mother. She
was a slip of girl, l6 years of age.
She travelled with an OK team and the
wagon SO lovingly enshrined in the
hearts Of all pioneers under the name
of the "prairie schooner. Many
were the trials and privAtions she en-.
dured during the first decade of the
forty years she lived in the Centen-
nial state.
II can tell you Of q sight that 1
saw in the Indian massacre in the
Bijou basin that will make your hair
stand on end," said the sweet old
lady who told me the story >of her
life as her chubby. checked grand
children played around her knee. 1t
was the children hour. in the twi-
light, that she recounted the Incl.
dents. The fashioned room In
which she sat at 2535 Champa street
seemed fitting setting for her silver
hai- and frail figure, and the strange
tale Of hardship.
''We came into Colorado in 1862
with the expectation of going on to
Arizona, where my father expected to
build a sawmill. But when we got
TO the Sangre de Cristo range a biz.
zard made us change our minds. l
WAS not sorry to turn back and win.
ter at Colorado CITY,
Here there WAS . sly twinkle in her
blue eyes. "I'll tell you why. On
our way to the mountains we had
stopped At a saw mill, and there was
there q young man who had been at.
tentive to me. He brought me q cup
Of water out Of the spring that bub.
bled close by, and since that time
had thought many times of the tall
young mountaineer who had stood by
our wagon. l thought also nsnv
times Df how lonely he must be at
times. with the drone Of the mill a.
the accompaniment to his thoughts.
when we returned in the spring /
saw him again and that time met q
French woman who took me into her
home and she became one Of the dear.
est friends ever had, although she
could not at that time speak a word
of English. She learned to speak
English much more quickly than l
learned her language.
Her name WAS Mrs Dieterman,
and her sister-in law was also one Of
my constant companions. taught
the sister-in law to ride horse back
and that accomplishment WAS the
means Of saving her life In the Bi jou
massacre.
MRS Dieterman's husband had
gone to Denver to get supplies and
she and her sister were alone with her
little son.
THE house was surrounded BY
sixty Apaohes and Mrs. DietermAn
and her little child were murdered.
Nor Is that the worst Of the awful
massacre. p" A tear slowly crept down
the faded check Of the brave pioneer
at the recollection. though the grass.
es on the grave of her murdered
friend from sunny France have been
growing more than forty years.
These brutes. with their painted
faces and straight black hair. mutt.
lated her body and LAID the bodies Of
her twins on either arm and left her
The body lies buried about four mil
north of Lnrkspur.
MRS. Dieternian's sister.in- law
escaped on her sweethcArt's horse
which WAS at the door. nm always
thankful when think that 1 taught
hor to ride.
after that We went to 1.-Two In
Blake'S Fort. It wAs = log AFFAIR In
the shape Of . cYoss. and below the
fort. down the hillside some three or
four hundred yards below, was tho
saw mill. Ny husband used TO recon.
noitsr the woods around 70 that his
men who worked In the mill might