What if you had to personally pay to have your mail delivered for 25 cents/mo? That’s how it worked back in 1896 when Maggie (Maple) Crow delivered mail daily between Morrison and Hutchinson via Turkey Creek and the Medlen Post Office.

Before 1895 people living in Hutchinson (now Conifer) had mail service from Evergreen and those in the Turkey Creek settlements picked up their mail at the Morrison Post office. A new mail route and the Medlen Post Office was established in 1895. As a side note, the Conifer post office name was changed from Hutchinson to Conifer in 1897 to stop mis-deliveries to Hutchinson, KS. The route evolved over time, adjusting to coming down North Turkey Creek from Conifer to Morrison and being delivered by automobile in 1914 by Robert Kemp.

Maggie was the first mail carrier for the new route in 1895-1898 and then starting again in 1906 with her daughter Dora. They took turns carrying the mail with a two horse wagon, through all weather conditions including breaking their own roads in the deep winter snow.

Maggie was a colorful character. She arrived in Morrison at the age of 15 in 1881 via a covered wagon from Iowa with her parents who settled in the Turkey Creek Canyon area. At 21 she married William Crow in 1887. William and Maggie moved to Creede in 1892 during the silver mining boom, where Maggie worked in a factory making tents by hand while William worked in the silver mine. Stories say that while delivering mail she “packed a gun and cracked a whip as well as any man, earning a total of 76 cents her first year” and that she “…kept her seat warm by sitting on a big rock she had heated the night before in her wood-burning range.”

Maggie died in 1950 at the age of 83 living in the area for 66 years, still owning mining property at the time of her death. Her grave is located in Ault Cemetery, along with other area pioneers.

One of Conifer’s earliest pioneer families were also descendants of the earliest immigrants to the United States. 

Isaiah & Ella Green were originally from the east coast, 6 generations deep. Isaiah’s family heralded from England and were in Massachusetts by 1639. We can trace Ella’s family in Massachusetts as far back as 1717, with ancestors having immigrated before that. To put that in perspective, 100 English settlers established Plymouth in 1620 after sailing on the Mayflower. Settlements expanded from there, largely ending around 1700, with a small stream thereafter.

• Isaiah Buckman Green, Son of Uriah Green & Seraphine Buckman, Had 3 bros. and 2 sisters
• Green family came to US from England, were in Massachusetts by 1639
• 1861: Isaiah enlists in Army,
• Serves as a private in the Civil War in Company G, 7th Regiment, Ohio Infantry for 3 years
• Wounded in Aug 1862 in Cedar Mountain, VA
• Shell to the head, causing partial deafness
• 1867: Isaiah marries Ella Bowman
• Her family also in US for 5 generations, traced back to 1717 and earlier
• 1868-77: Have 6 children in Vermont
• Living as farmers but also mining for gold
• 1880: Move to “Lamb” Colorado
• 1888-1892: 2 land patents, totaling 326.43 acres
• No land bounties were offered to Civil War veterans
• but Union soldiers could deduct the time they served from the residency requirements of the Homestead Act of 1862.
• 1881-1890: 5 more children (11 children total)
• 1887: Isaiah is on Lamb school board, Of the 19 students likely 5 were from the Green family

Family Tree

• https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/8489419/person/372038858156/facts
• Isaiah Buckman Green Born 2/2/1838 Vermont, Died 8/13/1914 Littleton, Age 76
• Ella Elvira (Bowman) Green Born 9/22/1848 Massachusetts, Died  3/31/1927 Littleton, Age 78
• Carlton “Carl” Edward Green Born 9/9/1868 Vermont, Died 3/7/1943 California, Age 74
• Perry H. Green Born 12/9/1870 Vermont, Died 3/2/1941 Denver, Age 70
• Ada E. (Green) Hewitt Born 9/13/1872 Vermont, Died 8/14/1957 Seattle, Age 84
• Arthur W. Green Born 1/2/1875 Vermont, Died 11/3/1962 Englewood, Age 87
• Frederick Ernest Green Born 8/30/1876 Vermont, Died 3/28/1905 Lamb, Age 28
• Laura Ella (Green) Tinkham Born 11/6/1877 Vermont, Died 8/30/1922 Littleton, Age 44
• Walter Henry Green Born 1/19/1881 Lamb, Died 3/25/1919 Littleton, Age 38
• Johnnie Bowman Green Born 1/2/1884 Lamb,  Died 1/25/1884 Lamb, Age 23 days
• George Washington Green Born 8/22/1885 Lamb, Died 3/3/1977 Santa Clara, Age 91
• Frank Isaiah Green Born 8/30/1887 Lamb, Died 5/22/1892 Lamb, Age 5
• Nelson Logan Green Born 2/25/1890 Lamb, Died 2/19/1968 Denver, Age 77

Green Family Cemetery Burials

• Isaiah, Ella
• 6 Children: Perry, Fred, Laura, Walter, Johnnie, Frank,
• Son-in-law Charles Tinkham (Laura’s husband)

View Green family photos

Stay tuned for more!