Some Things I Remember About My Dad, James Edward Bingham (Ted)

Ted was born in Manassa Colorado to Jeremiah Edward Bingham and Ada Zoa Jack on the 5th of August 1898. He had two living sisters. His older sister was Eliza May Bingham and his younger sister was Bessie Bingham, who was born on the 30th of May 1900 and died on the 1st of July 1900. 

 On the 4th of June 1901, Dad’s dad was killed in a logging accident. He was working on the Tusas, Rio Arriba County, New Mexico. That was near Tres Piedres, New Mexico. His wife, my grandmother, Adah Zoa was pregnant with their daughter, who was born on the 18th of July 1901. She was named Dorothy. I know very little about Dorothy. I think she lived with Grandma Jack, Grandma Zoa’s mother until she died on the 5th of March 1909.

Grandma Zoa moved to Espanola, New Mexico where she married Charles Peterson in 1904. I understand that she went to Espanola, New Mexico to work for Mr. Peterson, and married him. Aunt May and Dad lived with their Aunt Mattie. I don’t know if Dad and Aunt May and Dorothy ever lived with Grandma Bingham. I don’t know why they didn’t live with her. Maybe she had to make a living and that is what she chose. My dad lived between the homes of Aunt Mattie and Aunt Zem and Uncle Ab Jack. Aunt Mattie never had children and Uncle Ab and Aunt Zem had a large family. Aunt Jennie was part of that family There was a house full of boys. He would stay at one place until he wasn’t happy and then went to the other. I don’t think he was happy at either place. He finished 8th grade and didn’t go back to school. Several older people said he would stay with their boys some of the time. He never felt he had a home of his own until he and Mom were married. He loved Mom and his children.

He learned several trades. Aunt Mattie sent him to barber school, but he never worked at that profession, except for family and friends. He was a guide on a dude ranch where he took people on pack trips, in the Rio Grande Canyon. . At one time he worked for the D&RGW Railroad, but he didn’t seem to stay at jobs very long. He worked as a farm hand with some people in Saguache, Colorado. He was a meat cutter for 2 grocery stores that I know of. One was Daniels in Antonito. That was when I was born. The other was in Manassa for Delbert Haynie, who owned the store where Gilliland’s own the store now.

He loved horses and we had 3 horses, the mare (Dixie), was the mother of the other two. One of the colts was half Shetland(Tiny Tim) and the other was one fourth Shetland was (Charlie).Charlie belonged to Keith. Dad was handy with shoeing the horses and caring for them. He said he was a jack of all trades, a master of none.

After Mom and Dad bought the farm, He did everything that can be done on a farm. We had cows, sheep and of course the horses. He also had a team of white work horses. They were Maud and Dobbins. We raised grain and alfalfa and one year we raised a field of head lettuce. It was the best I ever tasted. We sold it to the stores. I think they made pretty good on the crop. We had as big a garden as I ever saw a family have. We raised vegetables and strawberries and raspberries and rhubarb. Some of the people who lived up the canyon came by and bought things from our garden.

We were raised in a home of love. My Dad loved my Mom very much. He was so broken hearted when she died. Sometimes he would say to us, “if it weren’t for you kids, I would just as soon be with your mom. One thing we were never allowed to do was to talk back to Mom. There was no mistreating our Mom, our Dad wouldn’t hear of it.

After Mom died and we lived in Romeo he worked with a surveyor group, when they were surveying for the Platoro dam, up the canyon. That is where he was working when he went to the hospital to repair a hernia, the surgery caused adhesions and that lead to two more surgeries. He got blockage of the bowels and didn’t survive. He Had the surgery because he had insurance to pay for it.

There were several little ditties, that Dad used to say. One of them was a b c d puppies, o l m n o puppies, o s a r some puppies. C m p n.

He used to sing “The Man on the Flying Trapeze”. I can’t think now what some of them were. He had a better singing voice than Mom. Mom was like me. She sang in church, but she was like me. She never felt that she could sing.

Every night in the winter was like home evening. Sometimes we would sit around the table after meals and visit. Those were special times, Our parents read stories to us.

You asked how Dad showed his affection to Mom. He called her sweetheart. It was not unusual to see them kiss or for him to put his arms around her. You hardly ever saw one of the without the other when they were farming. That is why Mom was hurt. She was on the tractor with him as he was combining a field. The power takeoff on the tractor broke and swung around and cut Mom’s leg to the bone. She had complications from it and never recovered.

The boys milked the cows and got the wood and coal in. The girls did house work. We were a busy family.

One summer after Mom died. I went with Nona to the Soldiers and Sailors home up by Monte Vista, to work. I don’t know why Dad let me go but he said I should still have some childhood.

I think that Dad’s childhood made him a very compassionate Dad. Our lives were different after Mom died. All of the house work and taking care of the things that mom did were up to us girls. Because I was the oldest a lot became my responsibility. I was four years older than Barbara, so a lot was up to me. I look back now and realize what a poor help I really was..