Speaking to the Future:
Wallace and Clara E. (McClure) Turner
.....Clara Turner is the daughter of Lucy and Jay McClure. Her father’s family settled in Canyon City, Colorado, and Grandfather McClure carried mail from Canyon City. Mrs. Turner was born on the “Miller Place” off Larkspur Rd. Clara McClure married Wallace Turner at the Fail place 2 houses north of Lone Tree School, the barn and house are still there. In 1946 they moved to the Ford Place in Monument, Colorado. Mrs. Turner’s great grandfather, Pete Brannon, had homesteaded the land.
.....This tape mainly concerns the history of Lone Tree School and other schools in Douglas County, Colorado. Mrs. Turner discusses the old school building, heating the school with coal, and the reason there were so many schools along Plum Creek. She discusses the first school buses in 1939/1940 and the consolidation of the schools in 1958. Lone Tree school was one of the last to close.
..... Mrs. Turner also discusses the dam at Perry Park, Colorado, breaking in 1920; the first airplane; the Turners’ first car; life on a farm in early Douglas County; Steven Long’s naming of Plum Creek; Ratcliff and Dillon who owned the T Ranch; Dr. Alexander and Dr. Palmer, and shopping in Larkspur. Mr. Wallace Turner also talks, but you can barely make out his words on the tape.
Clara Turner passed away March 10, 2003. Her obituary is available here from the Douglas County News-Press.