Wellington: Way back when

1910 – T.J. Miller sold a 155-acre farm north of town to W.E. Hurdle for $19,500. Mrs. W.H. Karns was severely bruised by a flying board during high winds. M.D. Ruby’s granary was blown over during this same storm and more than 100 bushels of oats were scattered. A. Cameron sold his blacksmith shop in Waverly. A hog sold in Chicago for $9.

1924 – Mitchell Well (Wellington #2) located in an oil field north of town caught on fire and burned for 24 days. The fire was so bright you could read a newspaper at night.

1934 – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron R. White graduated from Wellington High School.

1937 – Once harvest season was over, many farmers from this area were doing shift work at the Fort Collins sugar factory to support their families during the aftermath of the Great Depression.

1938 – Merwin and Jeannette Thimmig were married in Denver.

1940 – Bus Monroe was riding a horse from his home located near the Wyoming border to the Waverly School to attend classes. Many children in the area rode to school, but he traveled the farthest.

1948 – Grover Cannon coached the football team at Wellington High School. Robert Eyestone was coaching basketball.

1952 – Eyestone Field became the first grass playing field to ever exist in Wellington. A six-man football team at Wellington High School used the field first. Bob Stieben returned home after 18 months in the Korean War.

1964 – Grades 10, 11 and 12 were moved to Fort Collins and Wellington High School closed.

1968 – Wellington’s population was reported to be 635. The community celebrated the completion of Highway 1 – including new city sidewalks, curbs and gutters – with a parade and feast of pie and ice cream. Campbell’s tomato soup sold for 7 cents a can; five pounds of sugar sold for 49 cents; Wilson Leeper, chairman of the Wellington Planning Commission, called Wellington the “small town with big ideas” during an interview with the local paper on the $256,000 low-rent housing project that included a multi-purpose community building.

1993 — The Wellington Board of Trustees agreed to consider an auto race track proposal. The track was to include a lighted 1/4-mile oval asphalt race track and a smaller track for midget-car racing. The plan was contingent on getting water and sewer to the site southeast of I-25 and Highway 1.

1995 — A public notice in the March edition of the North Forty News reads “To whomever received the stuffed, fuzzy, yellow kitty cat with the red heart that said ‘I love you’ on it — on or near Valentine’s Day — should be made aware that it was stolen from a new grave site.”