Editor’s note: Longtime Pilot & Today columnist Jean Wren, who compiled The Way it Was, has died. Her contributions will be sorely missed. The Pilot & Today will be reprinting a selection of Jean’s previous columns.

Oct. 21, 1921

Whiskey was responsible for some excitement out of the ordinary at Oak Creek Wednesday when Joe Johnson, who now has the former Bennie Laughlin ranch, northeast of Yampa, was arrested with his brother and they broke out of jail, only one of them being recaptured. He was tried yesterday before Justice O.E. Mallory in Steamboat Springs and fined $100, which he paid. The brother is still missing.

Reports are conflicting about what happened, but it is agreed that there was quite a battle between the men and Trix Brennan, the town marshal. The marshal testified at the trial in Oak Creek that when he had attempted to arrest Johnson for the possession of liquor, he resisted and called upon his brother to help him. The officer also called for help and a battle royal ensued.

The warring brothers were finally subdued and placed in the lockup. Sheriff Neiman was called to convey them to the county jail. He had just reached Oak Creek and was being told the details of the case when an alarm was given that the brothers had escaped. The men made their way over the hill north of town with the officers in hot pursuit. Joe Johnson was soon recaptured but his brother was successful in making a getaway.

Get the most

modern equipment

Attorneys C.H. Monson and A.M. Gooding have installed the very latest in office appliances, each having a dictaphone. They are now in successful operation. This is a modern machine operated by electricity. Dictation is recorded on a wax cylinder. The cylinders are then taken to another machine where the typist does her work directly from machine dictation. There is a device by which the records are made smooth for use again and thus the cylinders are used over and over.

Miss Margaret Love has been engaged as operator and the trials of the new system this week have proved satisfactory.

Big deals in lettuce

A big deal in Egeria Park real estate was closed this week when Jim Norvell sold his 400-acre ranch southeast of Yampa, formerly the Rube Squire ranch, to CaCity men interested in the head lettuce business. The new owners are preparing 50 acres for planting this fall and will also prepare 50 acres for spring planting.

Thomas Tynan and his wife have been spending a few days this week at his Yampa ranches where he cuts about a thousand tons of hay. He will winter about 3,000 sheep this winter. Mr. Tynan was the first man to interest head lettuce growers in the Yampa district and says he is going to plow 100 acres this fall on one of his ranches and will plant head lettuce next year.

Lively local news

Isaac Booco was in Steamboat Saturday from his ranch 3.5 miles south of town, accompanying his son, G.V. Booco. The old gentleman is still in excellent health notwithstanding the fact that if he lives until the 24th day of this month he will be 93 years old. Mr. Booco purchased a hunting and fishing license this year, same as he has done each year since the laws first required them.

Mrs. May Lundy who had recently been assisting at the Welcome Hotel, and Lawrence Stark, a returned soldier who has a homestead near Toponas, went to Craig Monday and on their return announced that they had been married. They had been acquainted only three days before their wedding.

The splendid fall weather continues, greatly facilitating the work of threshing, which is in progress all over the country.

It clouded up last night and before morning there was a little light rain, with a little snow on Storm Mountain. Today it is fine again.

Road Overseer Ward Wren is carrying his left arm in a sling, one of the bones in the hand having been fractured when the state highway truck backfired when he was cranking it.

W.F. Cross and Ralph Drake returned last Friday from an auto trip to Denver and North Park. In the latter section they purchased 200 head high grade Hereford cows and calves, which Bennett Savage drove across the range, reaching here Monday.

Preston King has returned after assisting his sons putting up hay on the Toponas ranch. He had been away nearly two months.

Dr. and Mrs. Kernaghan and the latter’s father, Henry C. Monson, left Wednesday for their auto trip to the Pacific Coast.

A.P. Wood was up from Hayden Monday on business with the county commissioners.