Brothers recall life as children in Dearfield

Mary Voelz Chandler

Published July 4, 2008 at 3 p.m.

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Linda McConnell / Special To The Rocky

Brothers Walker, left, and Albert Groves spent some of their childhood at Dearfield until their father died from injuries in a farming accident. Both men completed college and became educators.

In 1942-43, brothers Albert Groves and Walker Groves lived in Dearfield with their father and stepmother. The boys were 11 and 13; their mother had died in childbirth.

The brothers were sent back to Denver in 1944 to live with relatives when their father died from injuries he suffered in a brutal farming accident. Both went on to college, and later worked for the Institute of Youth Services at Lookout Mountain and other state facilities, Albert as a principal and superintendent, Walker as a teacher.

Now, Walker is almost 83, and Albert is 81. Sitting in Albert's home in the 2500 block of Leyden Street, they recently recalled life in Dearfield: a town already nearly empty, and a life that ended in tragedy.

What was it like to live in Dearfield as kids?

Walker Groves: (Town founder O.T. Jackson and others still there) were nice people. He was some kind of man. I worked for him, pumped gas for him, and scooped snow. The bus (to school in Fort Morgan) used to stop a half a mile down the road. He called someone and said, "You need to bring the bus all the way to Dearfield so these young fellows don't have to walk through the snow."

We rode from Mr. Jackson's gas station clear to Fort Morgan every day. Mr. Jackson was a very kind man, a very exacting man. Mrs. Jackson (Minerva) was a sweetheart. He wanted it done the way he wanted it done. But he'd reach down in his pocket and get out some change for us.

Albert Groves: We lived in one of Mr. Jackson's houses about a block from the filling station. It was a large house. It had been a dance hall.

How did your father decide to move to Dearfield?

Albert: After our mother died, my father took us to Kansas. The dust storms came, and the family came back to Denver in 1935. My Dad saw his two boys in Denver, and he wanted to get them out of the city and keep them out of trouble.

How did you wind up back in Denver?

Albert: Dad worked for farmers, and one day he was bucking hay and the mules ran away and the rake went through him. (When he died) our stepmother brought us back to Denver and turned us over to our grandmother, then we went to live with our uncles. Dad's older brother took us in, but didn't want us. They put us with Dad's baby brother.

We had to work and go to school. People said we'd never do anything in life. We were a prop for one another, and said, "Let's show them what we can do."

We had nothing after Dad got hurt (he died several months after the accident). All I can remember is the welfare truck backing up to the house and giving us clothes and cheese and powdered milk.

We were the only blacks who rode the bus to Fort Morgan. There were some blacks in Wiggins, but they went to school in Wiggins.

What was it like being black in a white community?

Albert Groves: I had white kids as friends. We played together all the time. We didn't realize the segregation you would encounter in the city. Everyone out there (in Dearfield, Wiggins, Orchard) didn't have anything. Everyone worked in the beet fields. They knew you didn't have anything and didn't bother you.

Were there many people in Dearfield when you lived there?

Albert Groves: Mr. Jackson, Squire Brockman and another man were the only people I really knew. People had all moved back to town. Most of the land was dryland farming. If it didn't rain nothing would grow. Some farmers were lucky and could irrigate off of Empire Lake.

Dad scrimped and saved, and for Christmas we had nuts and apples and oranges in our socks. Maybe a pair of pants and a shirt.

Mr. Jackson had a phone and had electricity, but there was no indoor bathroom.

Walker Groves (laughing): We didn't have a bathroom. We were lucky to have a floor.

Albert Groves: The good thing about it is we made it. We look back and talk about how rough it was. I guess that's why I cherish my family today.

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