Haystack Mountain Ranch - Photographs brought home

The Arbuthnot family lived at a ranch on the south side of Haystack Mountain, Boulder County, Colorado.  They lived there from 1859 to 1924.  Children who were born here lived on farms on the same road until many years later.  Haystack Mountain was home.

Of the six children that were born here at Haystack, four had relocated as adults to California.  I recently took a trip to visit their descendants.  While there, I was able to share the family history and retrieve photographs taken at Haystack.  Here are some of those photos...

Home of William and Mary (Bader) Arbuthnot at the Haystack Mountain Ranch.

William Arbuthnot, son of Carson and Frances (Jones) Arbuthnot
Born August 30, 1835 in Pine Township, Allegheny County, Penn.
Died April 12, 1882 from being kicked by a yearling when branding it at the barn at Haystack Mountain.
This photo is on tin and then painted.

Mary (Bader) Arbuthnot, daughter of John George and Mary (Messinger) Bader.
Born June 17, 1848 Baden-Baden, Germany
Died June 22, 1923 at Haystack Mountain, Boulder County, Colorado
This photo is on tin and then painted.

Haystack Mountain Ranch in winter around 1900.
Home of the Arbuthnot family.
Born here were Frederick 1869, William 1871, George 1875,
Melissa 1876, Stella 1878, and Sidney 1880.

Many thanks go out to Yvonne, Charlotte, Marti, Nancy, and Gordon for sharing your family stories with me.

Children of William and Mary's in 1882.

Lois Waisbrooker, One of Boulder's first feminists

In the 1870 U. S. Census on page three, household 17, in Boulder City, Colorado Territory is listed Carson Arbuthnot and his wife Frances.  Carson ten years earlier had been sheriff in the Gold Hill Mining District, his wife was in Salt Creek, Tama County, Iowa at the time.  By 1870, they had been reunited and living together in Boulder.  Here is a portion of the U.S. Census where they appear...

Page 3, 1870 US Census for Boulder City, Colorado Territory

What is very interesting about this census are the others who are living with Carson and Franny Arbuthnot.  Two men, Scott Thomas, a carpenter and farmer, William Rinker a shoe-maker.  And a woman, a lecturer, Lois Weisbroker.  None are members of the Arbuthnot family.

I was recently contacted by a person who is researching a 19th century feminist who's name is Lois Waisbrooker.  He believes that the woman living with the Arbuthnot couple is the same woman as the one he is researching.  Given that the census taker misspelled Arbuthnot as Arbuttmot - I believe that this researcher is correct and the correct spelling for this woman in this household is Lois Waisbrooker.

In the 1870's she appeared before audiences in Denver for several lectures that were announced in the Rocky Mountain News.  These appearances coincide with the time period that the census was taken.

Lois Waisbrooker was not only a speaker, but an author who wrote extensively on sex, marriage, birth control, women's rights, and related issues.  She was a radical of her time, an anarchist and spiritualist.  She was one of Boulder's first feminists who worked tirelessly for the betterment of women.  She is best known for her 1893 publication A Sex Revolution.  Ms. Waisbrooker was born Adeline Eliza Nichols in upstate New York in 1926.

One wonders, what was her relationship to the Arbuthnots?  Did her presence in the Arbuthnot home have any bearing on Franny's leaving to return to Iowa later that year where she died?  Were any characters in her book, Mayweed Blossoms, that was published in 1871, have any relationship to those whom she met in Boulder?  (Could she have been having a relationship with any of the other men in this household?)  Given that her birth name was Nichols, was she related to any of Boulder's other Nichols as there were many in Boulder since it's beginnings in February of 1859, all of whom were either friends or aquaintcients of Carson Arbuthnot.  So many questions and again, one may never know the answers.

More information on Lois Waisbrooker.

Carson W. Arbuthnot in the Census

1882 - William and Mary Arbuthnot Family of Haystack Mountain

At the southern base of Haystack Mountain, in Boulder County, Colorado was the Haystack Mountain Ranch.  It was established by William Arbuthnot and in 1869 he married his neighbor, Mary Elizabeth Bader in March of 1869.  In April of 1882, William was kicked in the chest by a yearling horse when he was branding it with his brand.  A week later, he died from this injury leaving his wife and their six children to continue on at the ranch.

Through the generosity of distant cousins in California, I have recently returned from a trip to gather photos and documentation of the Arbuthnot Family.  After the children who were born and raised at Haystack Mountain, four of those six children relocated to California.  Many of their descendents I have not met before, but thanks to Cousin Yvonne and the family reunion that she organized, I was able to reconnect with these family members - all descendents of the Brammeier-Arbuthnot family.  I am very grateful for these folks who have saved the old letters, documents and photos.  They have given me a years worth of research.  The following are some of the photos that I scanned while in California.

These photos are of Mary and her children - the family at Haystack Mountain in Boulder County, Colorado - from the year that William had died, 1882.

William Carson (Left) Fredrick Wilhelm (Right)
Fred is the eldest child, born 1869 at Haystack Mountain

Melissa Leona (Left), Stella May (Middle), George John (Right)

Sidney Arthur who was only two years old when his father died.
In the arms of his mother Mary Elizabeth Bader Arbuthnot

Of these six children, Fred was the only one who stayed on at his Niwot farm, retiring in Boulder in 1944.  William relocated for a while in Montana and later returned to Boulder.  Melissa was the first to move to the L.A. area of  California with her oil man husband, "Jack" Walker, George and wife Nancy Brammeier moved to the Modesto area in 1908 after selling his farm to Nels Anderson the year before.  Stella and Sidney waited until their mother died at Haystack and moved to be close to their brother George in 1924.

Family Tree of William and Mary Bader Arbuthnot

Mary Bader Arbuthnot's story