Mary Catherine Hagedorn
March 22, 1932 ~ June 12, 2015
Mary Catherine Stewart Hagedorn
Memorial services will be held at Holy Shepherd Lutheran Church (920 Kipling Street, Lakewood) on Tuesday, June 23, 2015 at 1:30 p.m. Private family graveside services will be at Fort Logan National Cemetery where she will be laid to rest with her loving husband Donald.
*The followng life story was written by Mary
Mary Catherine Stewart
The old yellowed newspaper clipping reads, “A nine and a half pound daughter was born Tuesday at 5:22 p.m. March 22, 1932 to Mr. and Mrs. Norman Stewart at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Huey in Holyoke”. Delivered by Dr. Means and named Mary Catherine. My sister Lois was ten years old, brother Keith was six years old and we had a foster brother, Ed Robinson who had lived with the family for a few years.
The Stewart family lived on Grandpa Cauble’s farm eight miles east and three miles south of Holyoke, in the Amitie community. The Amitie schoolhouse was about a half a mile away and besides school, it was a central meeting place for church services, voting precinct, social functions and PTA soup suppers. The school was organized in 1888 and dissolved in 1959. In 1977, a reunion picnic was held. The history of the school was read and had been written by our grandfather, A.C. Cauble. Our Dad, Norman Stewart was honored as the eldest pupil present and having his wife and three of his children attending that school. He had also served on the school board.
On the first day of school in September 1937, I had ridden along with Dad to take Keith to school, he was in seventh grade. I wasn’t scheduled to go to school, being only five years old, but there were my six year old playmates, Mary Ellen Owens and Donald Poe starting school. When I started to cry, the teacher, Miss Lois Hull, lifted me into her arms and told Dad I could go to school if I wanted to.
At Christmas time that year, the Scheunemann department store in Holyoke was holding a drawing for a Shirley Temple doll. Shirley Temple was a child movie star, about my age. One of our neighbors, knowing how poor our family was, bought several items for Christmas gifts at the store and put my name in the drawing. I won the doll. She was a beautiful doll and I still have her and treasure her.
Grandma and Grandpa Cauble had moved into town before I was born and she died when I was five years old, so I don’t remember much about her.
Grandma and Grandpa Stewart lived in the Pleasant Valley community about five miles east of us, in the sandhills and on the Colorado/Nebraska state line. We went to visit them a lot on Sunday. The county road to their place took you up a hill, a sharp turn and then downhill where they were tucked away in a little valley. It was a fun place to explore, with the sod house, big red barn and the sandhills. In the summer, grandpa had a big patch of melons and they were so tasty. Dad’s sister Bess and her husband lived with them, because she was crippled with Infantile Paralysis (Polio). I was scared of her in her wheelchair.
There wasn’t much money for entertainment during those Depression years, so families and friends socialized. We had good neighbors, especially the Owens, Poe, Denbo, and Schultz families. There were kids our age and we always had a good time. Mary Ellen and I played house and we played hospital in the big two-story barn. In the summer, we swam in the stock tank.
A trip to town on Saturday night was a weekly event. The town was crowded with folks visiting friends and relatives and doing their grocery shopping. In the summer, there were band concerts in the courthouse square. Grandpa Stewart sometimes gave me a nickel to go to Rife’s Candy Nook and that would buy quite a bit of candy. For his own treat, he bought pastel candy coated coconut drops.
In February of 1938, Richard was born and Grandpa sold our place to Harold and Viola Colglazier. We moved to a little farm a few miles north. The house was next to the Frenchman Creek, but there usually wasn’t much water in it. Keith told me if I would dig real deep down in the sand, I would get to China. So, I tried that.
Lois was in high school and Keith and I had to change schools, to the Evergreen School. Our favorite memory of that time was riding his horse, Tony to school.
It was a warm fall day and on the way home, I was taking off my sweater and in the process it started to fall. I kicked out my foot to catch it – that spooked Tony – he shied and I was on the ground. Then I was afraid to ride him again. Dad fixed up a two wheel cart for Tony to pull and we rode in that the rest of the year. After Tony had been in the school barn all day, he was ready to go home. As soon as we were out of the school yard, he was in a gallop and turned onto the dirt road on one wheel. This bothered our teacher, Mrs. Austin, and one day she sent a note home to the folks telling them about Keith’s reckless driving.
In the summer of 1939, we had a hard rain and devastating hail storm. Our place flooded and it was so scary, making our way thru’ the water to get to the neighbors on higher ground. The crops were ruined, so Dad took a job on a wheat farm near Brule, Nebraska and we moved there for the rest of the summer. This was near Ogalalla, Nebraska and the construction of Lake McConaughy was well under way. Dad loved to drive to that area and watch the earth movers at work.
Richard was such a sweet little fellow. When Mom discovered he was allergic to cow’s milk, Aunt Mayme and Uncle Walter Huey gave us a goat. It was Keith’s job to milk the goat. The milk agreed with Richard but that goat was so crazy – it was always standing on top of the car or the chicken house.
That fall we moved back to Holyoke and Dad rented a farm southeast of town. Again the corps failed to be profitable. Another new one-room school for me – Prairie Gem. Keith was in high school and Lois graduated from high school.
After one more year of farming on Aunt Mildred and Uncle Lawrence Wilcox’ place, north of town Dad gave up farming and went to work for the Holyoke Co-op. He loved that job, delivering fuel to the farmers in a truck he called his “tank wagon”.
The folks bought our house at 404 South Belford Avenue in Holyoke. Dad built on an addition which included a bathroom, new kitchen and a bedroom for me. It was a nice comfortable home and we were reasonably settled. By then, Lois and Arnold were married and Keith was in the Army. Our family consisted of Mom, Dad, Dick and I and our little mutt dog “Butch”.
The First Baptist Church was only a block away. Mom and Dad had been members there most of their married life. I was baptized when I was twelve years old.
Grandpa Cauble lived one block north of us. He strolled down to our house about every day and most always had Sunday dinner with us after church.
Grade school was through the eighth grade in those days. The summer I graduated from eighth grade, I got a job at Holyoke Drug as a “soda jerk”. The soda fountain had it’s regular’s and their order was always the same. Aunt Mayme always had a cherry coke, Dr. Hill had a cherry phosphate and there were many others.
In high school, my favorite subjects were Home Ec and the business classes. I played a cornet in the band. Just about every girl in school was in pep club. We had green and white uniforms for the "Holyoke Dragons".
During most of my high school days, I worked after school and on Saturdays at Shew’s Jewelry. Stuart and Johanna sort of adopted me because they didn’t have any children. He was crippled from rheumatoid arthritis and in a wheel chair.
College was not in my plans for the future, I wanted to be a “housewife”. So after graduation, I went to work in the REA office (Rural Electrification Administration). In the mid-40’s, they started building electric lines and it was interesting to see the farms getting their electricity for the first time.
In 1950, I married John B. Rohrs and became the housewife. A number of moves ensued, while he was in college in Nebraska, a job in Denver for a few years and then back to Nebraska. In the meantime, three daughters joined our family – Brenda Mari in 1952, Cynthia Jane in 1956 and Jennifer Ann in 1962. In 1977, we divorced and “Jenni” and I moved to Denver.
Mom passed away in 1970 and Dad passed away in 1980, leaving a void in all our lives. The girls married and grandchildren came into our lives.
In 1978, I met a wonderful man, Donald William Hagedorn, a widower, and we were married adding three children to my family – William Arthur, Darla Jayne and Kara Jean.
Life has dealt us joys and sorrows. Our greatest joy is our family. We work and we play together.
Our cherished memories are where our roots began. I am thankful for these memories and for the heritage of our pioneer families – and will always love the sight of a lone tree growing along side a narrow dusty road – a tall wooden windmill standing alone on the prairie – and a beautiful Colorado sunset.
“You can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl”.
Cindy, Fred, Kate and Curt,
I so enjoyed talking to Mary the few times I was blessed to see her at your family gatherings. I loved reading the eulogy she wrote – such a wonderful piece of history described by the author! She always had a beautiful smile and was a loving, gentle woman. She will be truly missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with you at this very hard time. Love you all!!!
Shar and Jim
Mary was one of my childhood friends and classmates. We lived just a block south of the Stewarts. I'm so sorry to hear of her passing. Condolences to all of you.