Family Stories

MY GRANDMOTHER'S SCRAPBOOK
Part II
A true story written by 
Mrs. Phyllis Ceretto

The Winbourn's had now moved from their home on the island surrounded by
the Platte River and Lupton Bottom Ditch to their new home on the
mainland about a quarter of a mile north. This was also built of logs.
One of the milk houses was made of grout, a concrete-like mixture of lime
and gravel. This land west of the river was called Lupton Bottoms.

However, they lived here for a very short time, as this home was
destroyed by fire. They built a new home which was still further north.
This time a large barn was built of grout.

By this time Mr. Winbourn was a prominent citizen and politician of Weld
County. He was very much interested in the building of the first Union
Pacific Railroad depot in Fort Lupton. He owned much of the land where
the town now stands after purchasing eighty acres from the railroad
company.

During this time the Twombly Store, a red brick establishment, had been
built. Beside it Mr. Winbourn built a hotel in which space was left for
a store which he established later. The Twombly Store became the Fort
Lupton Mercantile, and was the gathering place where families visited
when they came to town to do their trading.

By this time the Winbourn children had grown to be young men and women.
Junie was about sixteen and had attracted the eye of several young men in
the community. A cousin is told the following store concerning her at
this time.

"I remember one day as I was driving up to the Twombly store, George
Twombly rushed out and told me my cousin, Junie Winbourn, then a young
girl about sixteen years of age, was about to run away with a youth whose
name I do not recall. So I turned my team of horses around and started
for the W. G. Winbourn ranch. I recall that my team was a couple of big,
heavy mares and were hitched to a hay wagon. I soon had them on the run
to head off cupid. There was a long wooden bridge across the Platte
River, just this side of the Winbourn place. As I took this bridge on
the run my heavy team and wagon made enough noise to awaken the dead. As
I dashed up to the main entrance to the Winbourn place, W. G. Winbourn
came running out. I told him what was about to happen in his family, and
he took Junie into a strong room and locked her up. Then he called a
family council and decided to take his daughter down to some relatives in
Alabama where she would be safe as far as this aspirant to her hand (and
W. G...'s broad acres) was concerned. About two months later, on a
bright June morning, my cousin Junie returned to Fort Lupton and with her
came her new husband, William Burge. Her father was astounded but
welcomed is new son-in-law and took him into his home. The son-in-law
began to make Mr. Winbourn nervous by just loafing around, so he let him
help with the breaking of some wild horses. This proved to be too much
for the new groom since he was unaccustomed to horses. The first wild
team he hitched ran away and threw him out of the wagon, breaking both
legs at the ankle. When W. G. came home, he found his son-in-law in bed
in the front room, and after several months of close association, decided
as a matter of self protection to stake Will to a dry land farm.

"Twenty years later, Will owned most of the farms in his neighborhood,
had more real money than his father-in-law, and had quite a family of
big, husky boys.

"So, if Rachel and Lucy, my two steady mares who galloped over the
Winbourn bridge just in time to spoil romance, had fallen in the river
and broken their necks, there would be no Burge family in the Fort Lupton
community today."

However, a letter found in Junie's scrap book years later proves this
story slightly false. Junie did come home married when she returned from
Scottsboro Academy, Scottsboro, Alabama, but she wrote her parents first.
Her father wrote this letter in answer.

"Ft. Lupton, Colo.
August 7, 1883

Junie Winbourn

Dear Child yours reaceived wich finds us all in good health and one of
the most prosperous years Colorado has had for a number of years plenty
of rain and good Crops.

"Well Junie you have asked my consent to marry Wm. Burge well it is a
most serious thing to give a Child away to another man not knowing what
will be the consequence But believing that he is a honest and
industrious young man I will give my consent hoping he will make you a
good afectionate husband and you make him an afecationate wife I could
not consent if I thought he would keap you thair I could not bear the
idea of your staying thair A Child is to a Parrent until you have
children of your own. Write soon and often as it is a great treat to
reaceive a letter from you Your Father
W. G. Winbourn"

They obtained their marriage license at Jackson County Court House,
Woodville, Alabama, and were married on August 21, 1883. In September
Will and Junie Burge came to Fort Lupton and established a home two
miles west of town. Here they lived happily and fourteen children were
born to them.


                                                   END
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