Page 5 Berthoud Weekly Surveyor February 13, 2014
A LOOK AT BERTHOUD
O.J. Smith used business sense to become a prosperous farmer I
n the early 1900s everyone in Berthoud knew O.J. Smith. One of the community’s most prosperous farmers, Smith and his family lived on a 60-acre farm that boasted an elegant two-story house at the southeast corner of Surveyor First Street Columnist and Mountain Avenue. Smith’s children; Virgie, Myrtle, Orville and Ted, all attended the Berthoud School that was located at the west edge of town, and the entire family worshipped Mark at the United French Brethren Church. When fattening sheep was a profitable industry at the turn of the century, Smith fed up to 2,500 sheep on his various farms. When he died at the age of 71, in 1926, the community mourned the loss of a “good and valuable citizen.” Oscar Julius “O.J.” Smith was born in Livingston County, Mo., in 1855. After completing his education, Smith worked as a farmhand before he came to Colorado in 1878. Smith continued along that line until he broke out on his own and bought a quarter-section farm east of Highlandlake. Over the next few years he
sold his farm, invested in a herd of cattle, and married Margaret Jane Smith in Chillicothe, Mo. Smith brought his bride back to Colorado and in 1889 purchased a farm, near Berthoud, that was located about three-fourths of a mile south of the Whipple country school. Smith prospered as a farmer and sheep feeder, and in 1899 expanded his business interests by purchasing John Beal’s harness shop in Berthoud. In the summer of 1900 Smith added a 60-acre farm that he bought from Berthoud general store owner R.M. Hubbell to his stock of properties. The transaction was consummated at a cost of $7,500 and included the home Hubbell had built at the southeast corner of First Street and Mountain Avenue in Berthoud in 1889. To modern residents the home is better known as the Berthoud Inn and is owned and operated by Mark Chaffee. When the Smiths moved into their new home in Berthoud the family included teenage daughters Virgie and Myrtle and six-year-old son Orville. A second son named Ted was added to the family in 1906, which was the same year Virgie and Myrtle graduated from Berthoud High School. The Smith home was the scene of many family reunions in the early 1900s. Years later one of Smith’s granddaughters recalled, “The Smiths had family reunions in their beautiful front yard consisting of fir, box elder, birch and elm trees. Many relatives came from Bedford, Hale, Savannah and Chillicothe, Mo. These families brought all kinds of food.
The bunk house was clean swept. There were four bedrooms in the house and a large leather couch in the kitchen where Grandpa [O.J. Smith] took a nap every day after lunch; then he would go back to the fields. There was a large screened porch off the kitchen. This is where the farm hands would eat breakfast and the bunk house was used for them to sleep when it was threshing time. Grandma Janie would have fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy, all kinds of pickles, jellies, preserves and marmalades put up. The dining room was reserved for evening meals when relatives were there. The organ in the front room was played and there was singing, laughter and fun. The ladies would show off their favorite recipes and someone was always turning the handle on the ice cream freezer.” Smith, who was well-educated by most standards of the day, believed that his children should attend college. As a result he sent his daughters, Virgie and Myrtle to Denver Business College after they completed high school. Orville, his oldest son who was afflicted with inflammatory rheumatism, moved to Berkley, Calif., at the age of 16 where he attended night classes and worked in the import-export business. Orville died in 1914 from complications of his disease. Smith’s youngest son, Ted, attended the University of Denver and followed a career in business. Smith eventually built his property holdings to include five sections of farm land in the Berthoud area. He died suddenly in April 1926, when his appendix burst and he underwent an unsuccessful
& FITNESS
Chocolate — The gift that keeps giving
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t is Valentine’s Day and love is in the air. Show a little love to yourself and those you Surveyor care about with Columnist a treat or two of dark chocolate. When it comes to chocolate, the news in the health and fitness industry just keeps getting better and better. New and continued studies show that chocolate has even more Dr. Caroline benefits than Creager, PT, DPT
previously reported. While nobody suggests that you binge on any food, let alone chocolate, it seems that chocolate hits the jackpot on several levels. It was recently reported that a dark chocolate bar has five times the flavonoids (the potent antioxidants) of an apple. A nine-year study of more than 31,000 women who ate one or two ounces of dark chocolate each week cut their risk for heart failure by as much as one-third. Research at the University of California San Diego has shown good news about the positive benefits of chocolate on stress and cortisol (frequently referred to as the stress hormone that is linked to belly fat and diabetes). Their
research showed that people who ate 1½ ounces of dark chocolate for two weeks exhibited significantly lower cortisol and that the metabolic effects of stress were partially mitigated. And that’s not all. Along the same lines, a small Italian study showed that participants who ate a candy bar’s worth of dark chocolate once a day for 15 days saw the potential for insulin resistance drop by nearly 50 percent. That means that if our bodies are better able to handle insulin, we will
Public Star Night
other. For starters, the primary mirror is the largest ever flown in space. At 6.5 meters in diameter, it’s 2.5 times bigger than Hubble’s primary mirror. The Webb’s unique design of 18 separate hexagonshaped mirrors allows it to be folded into a launch rocket. These gold-coated mirrors must work together as one mirror, and small mechanical motors called actuators make this happen. They move the mirrors tiny distances to keep them aligned with each other. And the entire mirror system must function in a deep freeze — at temperatures as low as -400 degrees Fahrenheit. Ball Aerospace has designed and built the Webb’s optical system, and Lightsey is Ball’s chief engineer for this program. Join him for a discussion of the telescope and future astronomy. Enjoy hands-on activities and take home space posters and other space goodies — for both children and adults. Lightsey is a mission systems engineer at Ball Aerospace. He has over 45 years’ experience in physics, math and engineering, much of it in optical systems such as those on the Hubble Space Telescope. He holds a Bachelor of Science in physics from Colorado State University, a Master of Science and doctorate in physics from Cornell University. He previously served as the systems engineer and systems analyst for two
Special to the Surveyor
Public Star Night at the Little Thompson Observatory will be held on Friday, Feb, 21, from 7 - 11 p.m. (850 Spartan Ave. at Berthoud High School, park east of the high school; directions are posted on our website, www.starkids. org). The guest speaker is Dr. Paul Lightsey, mission systems engineer at Ball Aerospace, and the title of his talk is “The James Webb Space Telescope: The Magic’s in the Mirrors.” The James Webb Space Telescope is sometimes referred to as the Hubble telescope’s “Cosmic Successor,” but what does that mean? With its amazing mirrors, this infrared telescope will surpass Hubble’s capabilities. Its increased sensitivity will see deeper into space and detect light from our Universe’s earliest stars and galaxies. Like most telescopes, the Webb achieves its vision with a series of mirrors, but its primary mirror is unlike any
WHAT’S YOUR RURAL AREA VISION?
Join us, share your vision, help shape your rural area. Meet with the Larimer County Rural Team on Monday,
Feb. 24, 2014 at 6 p.m. in the Berthoud Area Community Center 248 Welch Ave. Berthoud
PLEASE RECYCLE THIS NEWSPAPER
Community Development Division Rural Team 970-498-7683 ruralteam@larimer.org
What do you want in your area? What do you like about your area? What needs to be improved or changed? What do you want us to know about your area? What type of support services do you need?
Berthoud Historical Society, Allen Collection
Anna Hanna, O.J. Smith, Myrtle Smith, Virgie Smith and an unidentified man posed for a snapshot in front of Mr. Smith’s Hupmobile while on a mountain outing in the early 1900s. At that time Mr. Smith and his family lived in the home where the Berthoud Inn is presently operated. surgery. His funeral service was held at the United Brethren Church at the corner of Fourth Street and Mountain Avenue, and he was buried in Berthoud’s Greenlawn Cemetery. Over the years it has been the house and towering trees at the southeast corner of First Street and Mountain Avenue that has held the interest of Berthoud residents. Originally built in 1889 by Berthoud general store owner R.M. Hubbell, the house became the property
exhibit fewer symptoms of pre-diabetes and all the symptoms that go along with that — weight gain, lethargy and binge eating, to name only a few. Good news for the whole family is that dark chocolate has been found to quiet coughs almost as well as codeine, thanks to chocolate’s theobromine, the component of chocolate that is responsible for its feel-good effects. It turns out that it isn’t just in our heads when we think we feel better after a little chocolate treat — there is a scientific explanation. When discussing the benefits of chocolate compared to of the Hubble Space Telescope instruments. He developed a system optical performance model for design analysis of Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR), the corrective optics for the Hubble. The model includes the effects of structural dynamics and thermal effects on the imaging performance and was also used for the design of Near-Infrared Camera and MultiObject Spectrometer and Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. In 2007, NASA honored Lightsey with a Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest honor given to a nongovernmental employee. To receive the honor, the contribution must be so extraordinary that other forms of recognition would be inadequate. “Knowing that I helped contribute to these missions is a real thrill,” said Lightsey. “As a scientist myself, I appreciate working in an environment that is sensitive to the needs of science. The size of our company and its culture really lends itself to this type of work.” Lightsey was born and raised in Wray, Colo., and currently lives in Greeley with his wife, Carol, and their horses, dogs, cats, and occasionally sheep. They enjoy outdoor activities, nature observation, genealogy, and choral singing. He’s been active in the past in competitive race walking (six national medals) and running, including the Boston Marathon.
of Smith and his family in 1900. Since the house sat at the northwest corner of a 60acre farm, it was the center of a farming operation that Smith conducted until his death in 1926 and his son-in-law, Wilber Allen, carried on until 1971 when the property was purchased by Dr. R.B. “Doc” Fickel. Since that time the house has undergone many changes in order to transform it from a private residence into the charming bed-and-breakfast and events facility it is today.
codeine, a respiratory pharmacology professor at the National Heart and Lung Institute in London pointed out that chocolate has none of the negative side effects of codeine and certainly tastes far better than the drug. There is also good news for us during these cold winter months. As if there were not enough reasons to enjoy a good dark chocolate, there have also been numerous studies to show that drinking a cup of hot cocoa boosts blood flow to key parts of the brain for two to three hours, thereby improving performance and alertness in the short term. Many studies have found that the favorable results of eating dark chocolate are just not as common with the use of milk or white chocolate. So, whether you treat yourself or someone else, remember that it doesn’t have to be a holiday to enjoy the delicious treat of dark chocolate. They have one grown married daughter who is a biologist and carries on the family tradition of interest in nature and has provided them with a delightful granddaughter. The observatory doors will open at 7 p.m. and the presentation will start at 7:30 p.m. The observatory will be open after his slide show, probably around 8:30 p.m. After the presentation, and with weather permitting, our visitors will be invited to look through our large telescopes at various celestial objects. Public star nights at LTO are held the third Friday of each month (except July, when we are closed for annual maintenance). No reservations are necessary for these nights. Just come and join us for the talk and some observing afterwards. If you have any questions, please call the observatory information line at 970613-7793 or check the LTO website at: www.starkids.org Public Star Nights at the Pioneer Museum, 224 Mountain Ave. in Berthoud, home of the historical 6” Brashear Refractor from John Bunyan, are held on the first Friday of each month. If you have any questions, please call the Bunyan observatory information line at 970-532-2147 or check the website at: berthoudhistoricalsociety.org/bunyan.htm.