Get a home of your own. Get some property.get some of the substance for yourself. Booker T. Washington Dr. Bob Brunswig, Professor of Anthropology Department of Anthropology, UNC Greeley, Colorado Dr. George H. Junne, Jr., Professor of Africana Studies Africana Studies, UNC Greeley, Colorado
Greeley Dearfield Greeley Highway 34 Highway 34 View to East
Booker T. Washington s advice coincided with an African-American back to the land movement in the late 19 th Century that inspired Oliver T. Jackson to invest his own money to buy land for a black agricultural colony, 23 miles east of Greeley. Photo Source: Colorado Historical Society
Dr. Joseph Henry Peter Westbrook was an African-American Denver Physician who coined the name Dearfield because the fields are dear to us. Stephens et al. 2008 African Americans of Denver, page 53. Arcadia Publishing, Chicago.
In 1910, Dearfield s first seven homesteaders established land claims and lived in tents and dugouts. O.T. Jackson and Booker T. Washington, Jr. family. Photo Source: City of Greeley Museums Permanent Collection
The town s first recruit was an elderly man and friend of Jackson, J.M. Thomas. On August 20 th, 1910, James Smith and J.M. Thomas of Denver planted 100 acres of winter wheat. Photo Source: Denver Public Library
In 1911, the first full year of settlement, seven families moved to Dearfield, surviving that year s severe winter living in two frame houses. By 1915, the town grew to include 27 families, 44 wood cabins, a concrete block factory, dance pavilion, lodge, restaurant, grocery store, and a boarding house.
Construction of a Dearfield house (left). The boarding house (bottom left photo to right) and the town Granary (left photo to left). Collapsed Granary (2010) Photo Source: Denver Public Library
Settlers dry-farmed corn, oats, barley, alfalfa, hay, potatoes, Mexican beans, sugar beets, cantaloupes, strawberries, and a variety of truck garden products. Farm animals included cattle, horses, hogs, turkeys, geese, ducks, and chickens. Some farmers grew crops for the Kuner s factory, the Beatrice Creamery and the Green Brothers Fruit and Produce Company in Denver. Dearfield corn crop (Booker T. Washington, Jr. in white shirt and bow tie) Photo Sources: City of Greeley Museums Permanent Collection
O.T. Jackson with a Dearfield family in their cornfield Photo Source: Denver Public Library Dearfield Physician, Dr. Jones, and three women in an early summer cornfield.
Dearfield Residents at a Community Celebration in 1915
Dearfield was extremely successful during World War I (1918-1919) when rainfall and crops were good and prices high. Some young Dearfield residents served in France during the war. Charles Rothwell (right) served in the U.S. Army during WWI.
In 1920, Dearfield farmers produced the colony s largest crop, one third more than the previous year. By 1921, sixty to seventy families lived in Dearfield and its net worth for tax purposes was appraised at $1,075,000. In 1921, fifteen thousand of its citizen-owned or leased 20,000 (total) farm acres were under cultivation.
Although many Dearfield colonists came from Denver, others traveled Ohio, Missouri, Texas, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Virginia, and California. Aside from farming, people worked in retail businesses and truck gardening. The majority of the men worked at jobs in Denver during the week and women and children did much of the garden and farm work.
Hosting week-end dances for visitors from Denver were important social occasions and a source of revenue for Dearfield community members. Advertisements of Dearfield s entertainment were displayed throughout Denver s Historic Five Points neighborhood and many of its residents traveled to Dearfield on weekends for food, fun, and dances at its Barn Pavilion.
Due to strict segregation of public entertainment for Denver s African- American community, there were limited places for recreation. In the 1920 s, many people from Denver travelled to Dearfield on week-ends by car and by train, (a train station was located only a mile and a half away).
Example of an advertisement of Dearfield s entertainment offerings were placed throughout Denver s Historic Five Points (African-American) neighborhood Many of Denver residents who traveled to Dearfield for weekends went to the Barn Pavillion for great food, social networking, and dances.
The Barn Pavillion
The Hunter s Cabin
The Jackson House (and Dearfield Lodge) Photo Source: Denver Public Library
Dearfield Public School 1910-1919-in Weld School District 42 1920-1937-in Chapelton School District 124. Photo Source: Denver Public Library
Inflated food prices of World War I fell suddenly when the war ended and over 400,000 U.S. farmers lost their land. For Dearfield, those who lived through the 1920s suffered economic downturns as their soil dried up and blew away in the Dust Bowl. Jackson s dreams turned to dust as Dearfield and many other eastern Colorado farming communities suffered economic crises beyond their control.
Some People of Dearfield Mrs. T.H. Bailey and her sister (left) Photo Source: Denver Public Library Dr. W.A. Jones, Dearfield Physician, and patients (above) (from Alabama and Graduate of the Tuskegee Institute)
By the late 1920 s, most Dearfield residents left to find new opportunities. By 1940, its population had decreased to twelve, only two percent of its highest (1921) population. O.T. Jackson desperately attempted to revive interest in Dearfield, even offering the entire town for sale, but there were no takers. Jackson lived at Dearfield until his death on February 18 th, 1948.
In 1995, Dearfield was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1999, Colorado Preservation, Inc. (CPI) listed Dearfield as an endangered site.
The Preservation of Dearfield The Black American West Museum, with community and university partners, is working to preserve Dearfield s heritage by stabilizing existing structures and documenting its past. Archaeological research (UNC) starts in 2011 with a 2 week field school program. With care and support, we believe Dearfield s past can be preserved for future generations and, hopefully, become a popular as well as an important learning experience for Colorado school students on the state s rich social and cultural heritage. With stabilization of existing buildings and new research, future creation of a historic park and museum are envisioned.
In 2002, the Black American West Museum joined Colorado Preservation Inc. and Colorado State University s Architectural Preservation Institute in stabilizing Jackson s home, and in 2004, the Black American West Museum acquired much of the original town site. Present condition of the O.T. Jackson House, also formerly used as the Dearfield Lodge
The Dearfield Lunch Room in 1973 and 1995 1973 1995 Photo Source: Rocky Mountain News Photo Source: City of Greeley Museums Permanent Collection
The Dearfield Blacksmith s Shop in 1995 Photo Source: City of Greeley Museums Permanent Collection
Dearfield Service Station 1995 Photo Source: Wikipedia.org
The Dearfield Dream Research Project is a partnered community engagement effort, involving participation of community members from Greeley and Weld County and Denver, volunteers and staff at the Black American West Museum in Denver, university faculty and students at the University of Northern Colorado, non-profit organizations such as Colorado Preservation, Inc., city and county governments and museums in northeastern Colorado, and students and teachers from schools in Weld County and Denver. Publications and school curriculum materials resulting from the research will be used to enrich heritage education opportunities to the general public as well as Colorado s K-12 and university students.
The Dearfield Dream Research Project s main goal is to reconstruct the social, economic, and cultural history of the Dearfield community. Much has been done by earlier historical and preliminary archaeological investigations, several graduate theses and dissertations, and published articles. New research will emphasize: 1) analysis of existing and collection of new oral history records of former Dearfield residents and neighbors, 2) reconstruction of the site s archaeological and historical architectural history, including remote sensing of buried underground wells, house foundations, trash scatters, fields and gardens, and former irrigation ditches, 3) historical documentation studies, 4) studies into its economic and transportation background, 5) study of its local school system, and 6) research into its physical environment, climate, and ecology, particularly as related to its natural resources and agriculture.
Dearfield Retracement Survey 2009
A 2003 test excavation program by contract archaeologist Brad Noisat excavated 80 50 cm 2 subsurface test units throughout the site area. He concluded that much of the original ground surface occupied in the early 20 th Century remains shallowly buried ~1 ft. below ground (see test unit 44 above right). Previous surface surveys have recovered artifacts related to the early Dearfield occupation in a few areas where the original surface is exposed, representing an easily accessible source of information on functional and stylistically distinctive historic artifact types, particularly tools, buttons, and ceramics. Laboratory analysis of recovered historic artifacts within their horizontal contexts, e.g., on or near known owner-identified house or business lots, will assist researchers to infer their Dearfield inhabitant s U.S. region of origin, relative prosperity, occupations, and, if a business or special function locality, the type of business and function represented.
Four lots purchased by Reginald Cooper for $400 on February 14, 1920. Lack of cultural materials indicated the blocks were never developed.
View to East Northeast Lots 42 and 43 were purchased sometime between 1914 and 1917 and changed hands at least twice through 1921. The town granary was built on the lots sometime between 1914 and 1920. The Dearfield Grocery (General) Store was built in Block 21 to the northeast about the same time.
Saving Dearfield and Preserving its Heritage Immediate needs for preserving Dearfield are continued stabilization of surviving buildings and maintaining its property taxes. An adopt-a-lot patron investment program has been implemented. A monument at the site is already constructed and in place, dedicated at the Dearfield 100 th anniversary on September 26 th, 2010. Long-term plans and future funding initiatives for historical and archaeological studies of the site and its surviving historical records have already begun and archaeological field studies will start in 2011.