HISTORY LESSONS – The Metzger Family

For those who missed Kay Biven’s library talk, this is a condensed version of “The Metzger Family” by Florence Metzger Franks. It is a wonderfully detailed example of early homesteaders to the White River Valley.
Otto and family, including his brother Bob Metzger, farmed on the Mesa south of Meeker in 1885. They came in two covered wagons from Leadville when the road was not more than a path for rugged freight wagons. Otto and Bob built a two-room cabin. Otto went back to Leadville and moved his wife and children to the Mesa. The cabin had a sod roof, which leaked in heavy rain. Tarps and umbrellas kept essential things dry. Water had to be hauled behind a horse from the White River every day. They were able to make friends with the Utes, who still hunted the valley.
Life was rough as they slowly cleared brush and dug a well. The Metzgers and neighbors created the Highland Ditch, which made farming much more productive. As the children grew older, the older girls would do the housework, and their mother, Bertha, handled the outside work and garden.
According to Florence, springtime was a busy time. They butchered pork and beef. Bertha took care of all the meat. They had a smokehouse where she smoked hams, shoulders, bacon and sausage. Martha had chickens, turkeys, ducks and a few geese. Martha had an acre of land watered by the ditch. She had cabbage, cauliflower, tomatoes, peas, gooseberries and currants.
Harvest time would bring in a threshing crew. Cooking three meals a day for the extra men was a challenge for everyone. Bertha would bake cakes and pies for a week ahead. Even on a normal day, there were 16-17 mouths to feed. The Metzgers had 13 children. Daughter Elsie did the cooking. The younger children never ate at the table with the men. After the men finished and the plates and silverware were washed, the children would sit at the table to eat.
When the peas were harvested, everyone would sit at the table after supper and shell tubs full. It didn’t make any difference how old you were. You had to shell peas. Bertha also sold gooseberries and currants in Meeker.
At the old cabin, there were no mattresses. After the grain was threshed, straw ticks were emptied, washed and dried. They would then be filled with new straw, and the openings sewn up. Every morning, the straw was shaken up and evened out on the bed.
In 1910-11, the Metzgers had a new house built. Otto and Bob hauled in rock for the foundation. Rough lumber came from a sawmill upriver. They had all new furniture, lace curtains and shades at all the windows, and new beds with new mattresses on them. The house was sparkling clean. Everyone had to take a bath before moving into the new house.
Otto Metzger died in 1918. Bertha outlived him by 21 years. They are both buried in Highland Cemetery.