The
History of the Humphreys
The property was first developed by
John J. Clarke in 1878 when he
homesteaded 350 acres. He raised cattle, logged and built a
small
homestead cabin that still exists as the oldest part of the house. The
center of the house and the stone walled root cellar were built by
“Cousin Jack,” the best carpenter in Central City, in 1883. As most
Evergreen residents, Clark used the land to log wood to meet the
growing demand for lumber in Denver.
In 1920 Lucius
(Lee) and Hazel Humphrey bought the ranch and moved here in 1921 with
their daughter, Hazel Lou. The Humphrey’s named the property
Kinnikinnik Ranch.
Lucius (Lee) Humphrey
Lee
Humphrey was born at his grandfather’s farm house in Jericho Center,
Vermont in 1883. His ancestors came to New England from England in
1680. His newspaper career began early as he was editor-in-chief of his
school newspaper at Edmonds High Schools. He moved to Colorado in 1911
with his first wife Blanche. She died of tuberculosis in 1914.
Lee
was head of the copy desk at the Rocky Mountain News for 25
years and
the Denver Post for 10 years. He was a newspaperman’
s
newspaperman and
according to the Rocky Mountain News, “never too hurried to be
right
and never too busy to be courteous and kind.” He even helped Mary
Chase, author of Harvey, when she was a young
reporter.
He too
was known as the mountain area’s first year round Denver
commuter. An
honor indeed as Evergreen did not become know as a commuter community
until the 1950s. He drove a Model T, that he named Mary Ann, for two
and a half hours daily to reach the copy desk in Denver. At the time of
his death in 1946, the Rocky Mountain News estimated that he had driven
over a half a million miles - just to get back to the home and family
he loved.
Hazel Humphrey
Hazel
Humphrey was the daughter of David Harry
Hammer, a wealthy circuit judge from Chicago. Her mother,
Mary Hammer,
was a well-known socialite and traveled all over the world collecting
art, textiles, furniture, and other curiosities.
Childhood for
Hazel was a dizzying delight of formal parties often featuring
orchestras and costumed entertainers. Hazel was educated at English
boarding schools and traveled extensively with her mother touring
Windsor, Oxford, Cambridge and Lincoln Castles, attending receptions by
Lady Rothschild, ridding lessons at Regents Park, and even was
presented to the Queen. However, Hazel’s happiest days were spent at
the Hammer family farm picking potato bugs (earning a penny for each
hundred!), mowing lawns, riding horses, feeding chicks and gathering
eggs. The healthful farm environment may have influenced her decision
at age 14 to become a vegetarian, unusual for that time and certainly
at that young age.
On a trip with Mother Mary to a Women’s Club
Convention in Colorado, Hazel met a young
Denver newspaperman at a
dance. As their friendship deepened, Mother became alarmed and whisked
Hazel away to Europe. Hazel, however, was not to be distracted by the
social whirl. Correspondence between Hazel and her beau continued and,
much to her mother’s chagrin, Hazel became Mrs. Carl Paddock on October
30, 1901. Her only attendant was her younger brother as ring
bearer.
For
13 years, through struggle and loss, Hazel and Pad crisscrossed the
country from California
to Virginia in pursuit of “dreams and schemes
which never materialized”. Ward Edgerton Paddock was born in 1903, who
died at age 18 in a runaway
wagon and Marion Ernest Paddock, who died
when 10 months
old,
in 1907. When Pad died in 1914, Mother refused to
help Hazel and young
Ward. For two more years, Hazel’s fortitude and
resilience pieced together a living for her and her son.
Then, in 1916, she met and married
Lee Humphrey. Hazel and Lee found
happiness together in a brick bungalow in Denver, where Hazel Lucia
(Hazel Lou as she was more commonly known)
Humphrey was born in January
1917. Lee died in 1946 of cancer and Hazel died in her bed in 1972 at
the age of 90. Hazel’s life is the story of a pioneering and
resourceful Colorado ranch woman and how her
life evolved is a
fascinating look at the conventions of the early 1900s contrasted with
the westward thrust of young America.
Hazel Lucia (Hazel Lou) Humphrey
When the Humphrey’s first moved
to the Kinnikinnik Ranch, young Hazel
Lou was less than enthused about
the living accommodations, so
dissimilar from her fine home in Denver.
“…a shack”, she wrote. “The roof leaked, the windows
were shattered,
big holes in the floor allowed squirrels to poke their heads up, and
the place was full of bedbugs.” Most frightening was the open
ladder
leading to her room on the second floor. However, the property
underwent numerous transformations and renovations in the following
years. Two storage rooms and a bath were added, all of the 
same
hand-hewn logs as the main building from an old barn on the property
(reconstructed and now used as the garage, office and gift shop). A
screened porch later became a laundry room and back entry. The old
homesteaders’ cabin was dismantled and carefully rebuilt as a bedroom
addition beyond the living room. The ranch became the Humphrey’s
permanent residence in 1921. Hazel Lou call the ranch home
until her death on her 78th birthday, January 17, 1995.
Hazel Lou had a zest for
life and a life long interest in civic affairs. She considered
herself
a red, white and blue pro-choice environmentalist Republican. She was
active in the League of Women Voters and belonged to the Daughters of
the American Revolution, the Society of Colonial Dames and was
instrumental in organizing JCHS. In fact, in
1984 Hazel Lou was
inducted into the prestigious Jefferson County Hall of Fame for her
work in preservation. She was a vegetarian, an accomplished horsewoman
and tended to a menagerie of animals at the Kinnikinnik
Ranch
including
a nationally recognized herd of Toggenberg goats. Hazel Lou trained her
horse Cheyenne to do 17 tricks. Cheyenne was with Hazel Lou for 27
years. Prior to Cheyenne, there had been family horses named Angel,
Lady and Jean. After Buffalo Bill’s death in 1917, Lee purchased
Buffalo Bill’s horse Whitey. The horse was spooked at the ranch and was
kept in Denver.
Hazel Lou was proud of her family heritage and
it was her wish to dedicate the property as a park and museum in memory
of her family. She left the property and family home to the Museum in
her will. She had received National Register designation for the
property in 1974 and had set up the non profit corporation, by laws and
all. She was an amazing lady that many residents of Evergreen still
remember.
