This was Xeroxed by Pearl A. Freeman, May 1963 (she was a cousin of my Mother, Amy Dorothy (Nelson) Thompson.

Esther Mosher Eggleston, author of the manuscript entitled, FOUNDING OF A NEW HOME.

Esther was the 8th child of a family of ten, whose parents were Ruth and Stephen Mosher. She was born at Mt. Gilead, Morrow, Ohio, March 15, 1845. Esther grew up in a farm home in West Liberty, Iowa, where her parents settled in 1853. She died at Howard, Fremont, Colorado on 18 Jan 1924.

School credentials, preserved through the years, serve to provide a glimpse of her early career. These indicate she completed her Teacher Training courses at Iowa City Collegein March 1867. Teacher's certifications, prior to that date, tell of a teaching career which started earlier. Here are some of them: certificate dated April 15, 1865 Cedar County; April 27, 1867 Cedar County; November 19, 1867, Muscatine County and January 28, 1867 Johnson County - all in Iowa.

Following her marriage and after several children were born, Esther renewed her teaching credentials , and taught at Oak Creek, Fremont County, Colorado. This was sometime between1878 and 1882. At Salida, Colorado, a few years later, she taught in the Chafee County schools.

Esther Mosher married Wellington Kinne Eggleston at her family home in West Liberty, Iowa on 4 Jan 1872. Her own writing picks up her life story from there and carries it through to the time when all of her children had "found their mates ………and the bride of forty years ago, sits alone…………". These clues would date her manuscript at about 1912-1015. She was then 67.

I well remember Grandma Eggleston sitting beside the fireplace on long winter evenings, knitting woolen mittens and stockings. Little did I dream, as I marvelled at her deft fingers twirling needles and yarn, while she sat with her eyes closed that her busy mind was weaving her life-threads into another kind of creation destined to become a source of inspiration to coming generations, long after the woolen garb had served its time in protecting small fingers and toes from icy winter cold.

Her little log cabin was surrounded, in summer by a profusion of color from marigolds, morning glories, sweet peas, bright faced pansies and in the fall were the cosmos, asters and poppies all ushered in by the fragrant apple blossoms of the orchard each spring. In winter bread crumbs were tossed onto the glistening white snow for jumcos, sparrows and those little blue birds of Colorado whose coloring matched the deep blue of the sky. Always it seems wherever Grandma Eggleston lived there were morning glories twined around windows and doors in Ouray. Oak Creek, Bonanza, Salida - probably at Grand Junction. Her own story tells her love of Nature's wonders better than any words of min.

Now a few words about the "Good Man"

WELLINGTON KINNE EGGLESTON

Wellington was born 15 Jul 1845 on one of the Thousand Islands, Canada. He died 11 Mar 1845 at Howard, Fremont, Colorado. His parents were Rachel Kinne and Elisha Eggleston.

On the 18th of March, 1861, Elisha and Rachel Eggleston with their entire family left their home in West Union, Iowa for Colorado. They settled near Boulder (at Coal Creek). The family home was located eight miles from Boulder, Colorado.

W.K.E. taught that winter in a school in Boulder. (I've - Pearl Freeman, a daughter) heard my mother say it was the first schoolhouse built in Boulder, Colorado.

His teaching career at that time was brief as he preferred the outdoor work. On the 25th of Feb 1862 he was given an opportunity to drive a team into New Mexico and eagerly accepted the job. He spent about 5 months in New Mexico and then struck out for home; afoot.

It was the morning of the 23rd of June, 1862 that he started the 355 mile trek. "I was alone and had a long journey, but at the end of the 9th day I had the pleasure of once more beholding the spires of Denver City, now shining brightly and reflecting the lingering rays of the setting sun. It seemed as if the end of my journey was reached; and when I laid my sore and weary limbs to rest that night, my mind wandered away late into dreamland and again I seemed at home. The morning came and with the first rays of the sun I began my journey. During my absence I had not once heard from home and oh, what hopes and cares filled my mind! At one o'clock PM all my fears were dispelled, for the old, familiar home came in view. In a few moments I had greeted all and was entertained by such tales as mark such greetings."

He then went to work in the mines and earned very good wages. After a year he got tp thinking of his Iowa home and old time friends and got a yearning to return there to renew old time acquaintances and to go back to school. On September 1, 1865 he and one of his brothers, one with a family, set out for Iowa. They arrived at West Union, October 6th. 1865.

That winter he attended school and enjoyed the special life afforded him, but he sorely missed his friends of former years who who had gone off to war, some never to return. The following February he enlisted in the Union Army and served in Company G. First Iowa Cavalry. (Date of enlistment is given as Feb. 1864, but I do not have any date on time of his discharge). The Mosher family record comments that he served with General Custer during the Civil War.

OAK DELL 1872 and Wellington Kinne Eggleston's