People

: Ruth (Brumbaugh) Long; Mesa County pioneer. Early Loma, Colorado resident. Mother of John Long and Florence Giles.

: Ruth (Key) Hoffman; She was born in Knoxville, TN and moved to Mesa County, Colorado in 1906, when she was eight years old. Her father, Gentry L. Key, was advised to move to the West for his health. She went to school at Pear Park Elementary. Her father died when she was quite young and her mother bought a five acre tract of land. As a result, Ruth and her siblings took any sort of seasonal agricultural work that was offered, including tending the smudge pots for local fruit growers, helping a neighbor with putting up hay and spraying fruit trees (always done on a windless day, to reduce the chances of inhaling the spray), and picking apples using large canvas bags. She packed peaches on West First Street in Palisade in the fall if 1912. In 1913, she packed pears at Hubert Lynn’s orchard. She packed peaches again in 1914 for a fellow named Mr. Hatter. She made eight cents a box working from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm, packing apples for Cross Orchards Ranch in the winter of 1916. In 1917, she began working in the office of the Palisade Fruit Growers’ Association as an assistant bookkeeper on the advice of her manager at the Hoel-Ross Business College. In 1921, she took an administrative job with the Farmer’s Union and continued in office work until her retirement. She married Duane Hoffman in 1922.

: Ruth (Mathers) Harrison; Married to Frank R. Harrison on July 21,1962 - source: Frank F. Harrison Obituary - Steamboat Pilot, Vol. 98, #47, June 16, 1983, page 2D " TO DENVER Ruth Harrison, widow of pioneer rancher Frank Harrison, has moved to her home in Denver to avoid our Routt County winters. She will be missed by her many friends." - source: Steamboat Pilot, Vol. 99, #16, November 10,1983, page 2D

: Ruth (McQueen) Smith; She was born to Guy L. McQueen and Emma E. (Barker) McQueen in Missouri. Her father was a time keeper and clerk for a railroad in Texas, and later the owner of a paint store in Grand Junction, Colorado. Her mother was a homemaker. Ruth grew up in Texas and in Grand Junction. She attended one year of high school in Palestine, Texas and finished school at Grand Junction High School. While in high school she was in the Glee Club, was the treasurer of the Rhetorical Club, the literary editor of Orange and Black, participated in Operetta, was part of the Latin Club, and served as the Class Historian. She served on the Orange and Black at the same time as Dalton Trumbo, who later became an Oscar winning screenwriter. She graduated the same year as Isabella Cunningham. Both later became reporters for the Daily Sentinel newspaper. She began her career as a reporter in the 1920’s and worked through the 1940’s. She also was a “stringer” for United Press International. The 1930 Census shows Ruth living with her parents at 1559 North 7th Street. She married Alvin W. Smith in Manatee, Florida on March 17, 1945. He was an airline inspector for the Civil Aeronautics Administration. The 1950 US Census shows them living in Los Angeles with their two children. She died in Ventura, California, where she is buried. *Photograph from the 1923 Grand Junction High School yearbook.

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