James Edward Bingham (Ted) continued

I don't know how Mom and Dad got together, how they courted or anything about their time together before they were married. We didn't come to the time when we questioned them about their getting acquainted or how they first went together. I think if any of us were married, we may have asked questions. I guess we never thought about those things at the age we were. It was the beginning of a love story. You hardly ever saw one of them without the other. We grew up in a home of great love.

They were married at Grandma and Grandpa Dunn's home. Arlo and I were married there, too. When they were first married, they moved a lot. They lived in Manassa when Keith was born and in Antonito when I was born. I Think all of my brothers and sisters were born in Grandma and Grandpa's home, except me. Daddy worked at several jobs. He went to Barber School, but never set up a shop. He worked on a ranch in Saguache for a man named Homer Crow. That man owned the house we lived in on the ranch. I think we bought it from Homer Crow. He worked on the railroad for a time. He was a meat cutter in a store in Antonito and just before he died, he worked as a meat cutter for Delbert Haynie in Manassa. It was the same store that Cletus Gilliland owned. After he and Mama bought the ranch he worked on the ranch through the growing season. He raised hay, grain, a big garden. He loved horses and always had 2 or three riding horses and a team of gray work horses. He never had a working tractor. He bought an old one that he never got to run. Some years when the crops were in he worked at jobs away from home. During the World War II he worked in Pando, It was in Colorado in the Mountains. I am not sure where that place is. They trained army personnel to ski. The soldiers were sent to a place in Germany, where they used their skill. He worked in Los Alamos when there was just a dirt road up to it. I think it was where they were working on the atomic bomb. Of course he had no idea what they were doing. He would work through the week and come home on weekends. My dad was a jack of all trades, but he said he was a "master of none", but he was was a hard worker. He used to repair our shoes. He could resole them. He had a last that the shoes fit on as he worked on them. We used wood and coal to heat with. Dad and the boys would take a wagon and go to the mountains to get wood. It would take them 2 days. One day to go there and load the wagon and a day to return home. Keith and Leon used to talk about going with him. It took several trips to get enough wood for the year.

I think that my Dad loved the ranch, but when Mama died, he could hardly stand to be there without her. He sold it and me moved into Romeo. He worked for the forest service when they were testing for a place to put the Platora Dam.

James Edward Bingham (Ted)

Ted was born in Manassa Colorado, to Jeremiah Edward Bingham and Ada Zoa Jack on the 5 of August 1898. He was the second child. he had an older sister, May, and a younger sister, . Bessie who was born in 1900, and died shortly after her birth. When Ted was nearly 3 years old, His father was killed in a logging accident. His mother was pregnant with Dorthy. she was born about a month after their father died.

For some reason May and Dad lived with Aunt Mattie and Dorthy lived with Grandma Jack. Dorthy died when she was about 8 years old. Grandma Bingham (Zoa) married Charles Peterson and lived in Espanola, New Mexico. Grandma Zoa had two children there, Esther and Irene. Ester was the oldest of the two. Irene only live about 2 months and was buried in New Mexico, Grandma Zoa died in New Mexico in 1907, when Daddy was 9 years old. She was buried there. Esther was blind and lived to be quite old. I met her several times and when she died, (when her trailer home burned). we went to her funeral in New Mexico. Dorthy and Bessie are buried in the old Manassa Cemetery.

I think Daddy had a hard time as a child. Aunt May stayed with Aunt Mattie until she was grown, but Daddy went back and forth with Uncle Ab(Abner) and Aunt Zem(Ozemba) Jack, and Aunt Mattie. Aunt Mattie didn't have children of her own and Grandma Dunn thought Aunt May was an easier child to raise than Daddy so he was with the one he got along with at the time. He never thought he had a home of his own until he and Mama were married. He and Mama were so very close. You hardly saw one without the other. When Mama died, Daddy was so broken-hearted, it was hard to see how he suffered. Sometimes he would go the the cemetery and lay down on Mama's grave and cry. It nearly broke our hearts.

Daddy went to school in Manassa. I think he only went through the 8th grade. When he was too young to be on his own, he left both of his homes and took all kinds of work and stayed with friends or where ever he happened to be. In a way he was a lost child. As he grew up he learned many trades. Aunt Mattie sent him to barber school, but he never set up a shop. I didn't know that until just a few years ago. I know that in the Summers, he sometimes worked for a Dude Ranch, taking people on pack trips into the high mountains. He talked about that sometimes, but he rarely talked about how he grew up. Aunt Jenny used to tell me things about him. In Uncle Ab's family, there were 7 boys and they were like brothers to him. He would somestimes get into fights with them, like brothers do sometimes. My Dad had a temper that it took him a lifetime to over come. I don't remember him ever getting mad at us children. He was always a tender parent. He loved his family greatly. I think we were his great joy.