(bits of oral history)
Grandpa Lewis Pounds� grandfather Anderson (? or Henderson??) was buried in a Quaker graveyard; the stones had fallen and been covered over with soil; to find them, the ground had to be probed with skewers. The stones were then set upright in their places. (source: Aunt Phyllis).
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Great Grandfather Anderson Louis (?) Pounds, (nicknamed �Ans�?), joined the Union Army in Indiana; his parents moved to Iowa during the war, where he rejoined them later. He met and married Catherine Hughes (of Chester County, PA) there (source: Aunt Billie, Aunt Phyllis). She was buried in Smith Center, KS [site of the 1976 Pounds-Overmiller reunion]. (source: Aunt Phyllis)
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Hilburn Dott Pounds was the brother of Grandpa Lewis Pounds, and married Alpha, who was born in Kansas, she lived to be 105. (source: Aunt Phyllis)
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Aunt Phyllis was born in Wilma�s house in Yuma County, CO. [Wilma Pounds Benjamin, neice of and raised by Dott and Alpha, according to her grand-child Kelly Howard�s email of ca. 06/01]. The Pounds family then moved to Huerfano County, CO, where Grandpa Lewis Pounds worked in the mines (not in the actual shafts; he brought the coal cars out) (source: Aunt Phyllis).
Grandmother Hannah Maude worked at the boarding house at the mines (source: one of the sisters). Aunt Maxine and Mom, Jerry, were born �in the camps� in Huerfano.
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The Pounds cabin in Rye was designed by Lewis Pounds and built by him with help; his good friend made the cobblestone and mortar. The logs were felled from the surrounding woods. The family moved into the cabin in 1925 (source: Aunt Phyllis). There was a stone walkway out front (source: ?? details??). The big room was a living and diningroom (the stone fireplace was added later; source: Margie). There were two bedrooms, a kitchen, a front porch and a back sleeping porch (source: my memory of tour). Aunts Billie and Bonnie were born there, most likely in the master bedroom, delivered by Dr. Crozier. The �little ones� slept inside (two to a bed) until they were old enough to graduate to the sleeping porch in back. It was wonderful in summer, Aunt Phyllis remembers. In the winter, tarps/canvas curtains were pulled down, and the children were sent to bed with hot water jars, but it was still cold (Aunt Phyllis). With two or three to a bed on the porch, it wasn�t too bad (Bonnie). Kenny slept on the front porch in summer, and in a corner of the livingroom in winter (Phyllis); or just took out a horse blanket out to the porch in winter (Bonnie, via Mike). Aunt Billie remembers it was wonderful to hear the rain on the tin roof. Grandmother Hannah had a chest from Lewis� family, which she kept out on the back porch as a cold chest. They had a gas-generator run washer, and cellar out back (source: Aunt Phyllis). Hot water was heated in resevoirs in the wood stove in the kitchen; they bathed in a big tin tub in the kitchen (source: one of the sisters) The Pounds children played in the surrounding woods, Rye Park (source: one or more people at the 2001 reunion). People come from miles around to the Pounds cabin for squaredances. They would bring cakes and other things to eat and the druggist would bring a piano (!). The furniture would be moved back, and they danced in the large room (source: Aunt Phyllis). It would have been their dream to stay there, but the Depression forced them to Arkansas (Margie).
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Uncle Kenny, Aunt Betty, and Aunt Elma graduated from Rye High School. Aunt Maggie Belle did, also; she was in Aunt Elma�s class, and met Uncle Kenny there (source: Aunt Billie). Uncle Kenny was nicknamed �Ounces� by a school friend (pun on Pounds) (source: Aunt Mary; PA trip June 01). Kenny�s children went to the same high school for awhile. (source: Aunt Billie)
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From Rye, the family moved to Sulfur City, Arkansas, in 1934 (source: Aunt Phyllis). Kenny helped them move, then moved back to Rye, and stayed there from then on. In AK, Aunt Mary and Aunt Phyllis had to board in Elkins to go to high school. (source: Aunt Billie). Phyllis liked Arkansas; there were nice people there. From there, the family moved to Tulsa, which had all sorts of advantages, like libraries and movies and jobs. Phyllis lived in Tulsa until she married. Her best friend knew Uncle Max�s best friend in Aeronautics school. Phyllis was invited to double date (?) at a school (IAS) function; she said, �I�m not sure I want a date, but I wouldn�t mind a steak dinner.� Which is how she met Uncle Max. (source: Aunt Phyllis). Uncle Max enjoyed sailplanes; he flew one with his friend Gordon to Richfield UT in 2001.
He built stone steps for each grandchild in his backyard in Agua Dulce. (source: Aunt Phyllis)
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Lewis died at Aunt Phyllis� house in his sleep; of TB? (source: Aunt Phyllis)
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Aunt Elma�s first job was as a teacher. (source: Aunt Phyllis)
Aunt Bonnie worked for the Tulsa papers for 24 years, much of it in advertising. (source: Aunt Bonnie)
Kenny worked in the CF&I steel mill in Pueblo until he retired in 1965, but bought the ranch from Maggie Belle�s father. (source: Aunt Billie)
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Daniel Holderman was Aunt Maggie Belle�s father. Her mother died when she was born, in Ohio. Doctors said it would kill a baby to drink cow�s milk, so they gave her the corner of a bag of sugar to suck on. Her father homesteaded the Rye ranch. His son Claude and Uncle Kenny went into partnership on the homestead. Uncle Kenny worked in the pig [iron] machine, and sometimes as a foreman when they made him (more responsibility, less pay). When the partnerhsip was split, Claude got the land in Ordway (also where Aunt Bert lived), more valuable land; but Kenny got the homestead, which was what he wanted. Because Daniel had a bad heart, Aunt Maggie Belle sent eldest child Penny at age 11 to help him farm; she drove the machinery (Penny).
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Aunt Phyllis and Aunt Mary came to the Pounds-Overmiller reunion in 1976 via Fall Down Farm; Phyllis hadn�t been there since her mother�s funeral (source: Aunt Phyllis). They arrived late at night (I remember hearing familiar-sounding voices and going out groggily to greet Aunt Phyllis as Aunt Elma; G).
Compiled August 5, 2001 from notes scribbled at the Pounds Reunion in Rye, Colorado, July 26th-29th, (unless otherwise noted), by Gretchen Margrit Lockwood.