Harvey C. Kett: Plainsman

By Mabel Mirie Austin and Judi Barchet

Harvey C. Kett—who everyone called Harve—was a key figure in the development of Southeastern Colorado.

In 1886, at age three, he travelled by train with his parents, brother, and sister from Massachusetts to the barren, wide open plains of Colorado, a land that would enchant him and capture his heart.

He lived there most of his life as a cowboy, rancher, and politician. He helped shape the landscape both literally and figuratively. As he grew, he captured the stories of his life, the people he knew and the adventures he experienced.

The vivid pictures were painted by a young man with little formal education, giving voice to a cowboy and plainsman who lived in a little-known corner of Colorado more than a hundred years ago.

Written by his grandaughter and great-granddaughter, this book provides a detailed account of an overlooked plainsman, who along with his family, was among Colorado’s greatest pioneers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: LifeRich Publishing
• Release date: Mar 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9781489733931

Mabel Mirie Austin

Mabel Mirie Winsor Austin, the granddaughter of Harvey C. Kett, was born and raised in and near Springfield, Colorado. Her grandfather was an important, ever-present figure in her life. She is a daughter, wife, mother, and grandmother who enjoys time with family, bird watching, volunteering at the museum, and going to the symphony. She belongs to several book clubs. Judi Austin Barchet is the great-granddaughter of Harvey C. Kett and Mabel Mirie’s daughter. While she only knew her great-grandfather from stories passed down from one generation to the next, she has always had a remarkable respect for him. She enjoys making crafts and spending time with her dogs. She cherishes quiet summer evenings at home with her family in Littleton, Colorado.

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Copyright © 2021 Mabel Mirie Austin & Judi Barchet.

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ISBN: 978-1-4897-3392-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-3391-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-3393-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021903320

LifeRich Publishing rev. date: 03/09/2021

Contents

Introduction

Childhood Years

To Canada and Back

Harve’s Later Years

Acknowledgments

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Introduction

HARVEY C. KETT – PLAINSMAN

A plainsman, by definition, is a person who lives on a plain, especially a frontiersman who lived on the Great Plains of North America. That describes my great-grandfather, Harvey C. Kett. What follows are his writings. As you read the stories, you will hear something long lost: the voice of a cowboy from 100 years ago.

I never met him, as my mother will remind me. He passed away just a few weeks before I was born in 1959. She was very pregnant with me and was not allowed to attend his funeral. And because he was such a big part of her life, she always wished that she could have attended. But she’d moved to the suburbs of Denver, about 250 miles from Springfield, Colorado, where he lived, died and was buried. It is a town that he helped build, in a sense…

When he first arrived at his family’s homestead at the age of three, in 1887, the town of Springfield was very small, almost nonexistent. Harve, as he was commonly known, remained in Springfield until his father’s death in 1896. He, his sister and their mother went to Sadowa, in Ontario, Canada, where he lived for a few years until he fled (yes, fled!) alone in the middle of the night after an incident in school with a gun. He traveled back to Springfield, which must have held a special place in his young heart, because this no doubt was a long, difficult journey. He remained there the rest of his life. Eventually his mother and sister rejoined him. His mother would also live out the remainder of her life there.

Harve lived his young adult life as a cowboy. He went on cattle drives, lived through countless blizzards, exposed, with little-to-no shelter. He ate from the chuck wagon and learned to cook from the camp cook. Cutting cattle, a popular rodeo competition today, was not a sport back then, but an act of survival that required great expertise. Cattle roundups and cattle drives were frequent. I can’t help but wonder where these cattle drives took him. How far from home did he travel?

He married in1914 and had two daughters, raising his family on his homestead. His wife, Mabel Clara Abrams Oldham, was a woman ahead of her time. She went to college in the late 1800s in Greeley, Colorado, to become a teacher. She moved to La Junta, Colorado, where she was married and taught. She got a divorce from a philandering first husband and moved with her young son, Neil Oldham, to Springfield, where she met and married Harve. There they raised their two daughters, Carrie Mirie and Mabel, as well as Neil. Harve’s wife taught in the county and eventually was elected county school superintendent, a pretty big deal for a woman in 1913. She passed away from cancer in 1932, leaving Harve a widow. He spent most of the next 27 years living alone.

Harve became a rancher, raising cattle on his property. He eventually amassed over 1,000 acres of land on this prairie that he loved. This included the original homestead of his cousins, the Ben Scamons family. He went on to become a sheriff (approx. 1908-1912), deputy sheriff (approx. 1918-1922), as well as county commissioner (approx. 1928-1932) for the small town of Springfield, cementing his place in the history books of the town.

While Harve Kett was county commissioner, he and the other two county commissioners decided to increase the size of the Baca County Courthouse. His name is on a plaque inside that courthouse today.

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SPRINGFIELD COURTHOUSE - 2020

While he was county commissioner he lost his hearing and eventually isolated himself on his land. While alone on the ranch, he would jot down some of the stories that we will share. In 1945 he sold his ranch and moved to a small house in town.

Harve kept boxes full of his writings—these boxes were his filing cabinets. He never sent a letter without making a copy first. These copies are the reason his stories can be shared today. He didn’t finish high school but was always studying and reading. He would read a book and keep it when it was finished in order to read it again later. His home was full of books.

My mother, Mabel Mirie Winsor Austin, took each of these stories, written on whatever blank paper Harve could find, and carefully, painstakingly, transcribed and copied them. They were written on scraps of paper, corners of envelopes, even the blank side of a cardboard Christmas box. Because Springfield was the home of German prisoners of war during WWII, there are several stories and letters that were written on stationery from that camp. These writings now reside in the town museum in Springfield.

Harve’s stories are from a day gone by, a world so much different than the world we live in today, a life that seems desolate and isolated compared to the 21st century. It was a life he loved in a town that he loved deeply.

The following rough draft was written on the back of a Santa Fe Railroad calendar in July of 1958 at the birth of great-granddaughter Renee Austin. He wrote a final copy that was mailed to Mable Mirie Austin.

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To my little Great Grand Daughter,

You have certainly chose a wonderful country to come to. One thing sure, you was a welcome guest. Your mama & daddy love you very much your daddy said when you come to this great world.

Welcome little stranger. Your presence makes me glad.

Image23025.jpg was Harve’s brand for the cattle and the Bar KE ranch. You’ll see it here occasionally to acknowledge the ending of one story and the beginning of another.

Childhood Years

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HARVE’S PARENTS, CAROLYN AND FRANCIS J. KETT, CIRCA 1880’S

HARVE’S ROOTS

A freshman at Kansas Wesleyan University, Mabel Mirie got an assignment to write her biography. Her grandpa, Harve, was the best person to ask for the information. What follows is what she