Liberty History
Locally known as Liberty Hall because of the name of the Grange.
For information about Liberty Hall Grange please contact: Leona Heimbecker 303-776-2535
Liberty was founded, as far as I can
tell, in the 1890's in the present area of Hwy 66 between Weld
County Road (WCR) 3 & WCR 7. All that remains of a once tight-knit
community is the brown brick Liberty Hall Grange on the northeast
corner of WCR5 and Hwy 66. At one time, it had several small
businesses, a school, and a church serving the surrounding farm
community. The Great Western Railroad crosses Hwy 66 on its way to
Mead between WCR 5 & 7 and a sign still stands at the crossing
declaring the community's name, "Liberty."
The school, Pleasant Hill, appears to
have been located on the south side of Hwy 66 between WCR 5 & 3 on a
slight rise, hence its name. I have several descriptions of where
the school once stood, but the most credible comes from Vera Turner
Berg's account. She, and her granddaughter, Alice York, says that
the school was located directly across the road from the Turner
farm. While the original farmhouse burned down, there is still a
brick, ranch style home on the original home site. Directly across
the road, you can still see some of the old cement foundation pieces
of the school next to an old silage pit. The Pleasant Hill School was consolidated into the Mead School
District in 1950.
Hazel Webb Dalziel attended Pleasant Hill School as a young girl and describes
it in her book, Joyful Childhood Memories of A Pioneer Woman (Some
not so joyful), published in 1988 by her children. I believe that the book is still available at the Longmont Museum and Cultural Center gift shop.,
"Our country schoolhouse was a
two-room building with a little hall in front and doors leading into
the separate rooms. Hooks, high and low, were placed on one side for
our coats and caps. We left our lunch buckets and overshoes on the
floor under our coats. The bell rang in the morning at nine o'clock,
and we were dismissed at four with an hour for lunch at noon. We made the most of this hour of play. the school grounds were just a dry, pebbly expanse, but close by was an irrigation ditch with willow trees lining its banks. They had been bent over across the ditch and made fine horses for excursions to the far reaches of the world where we bought treasures of lace and silk and diamonds and rubies.
The school yard had a pole fence along one side. One year, long pine slabs from the hills had been hauled for kindling wood. The pole fence was soon straddled with slabs, and the children had a fine time seesawing until they got tired of it. In spring, a favorite pastime for the girls was making mud pies. Colored glass was in demand for frosting.
Our school had one or two
entertainments a year --always one at Christmas. One teacher was
clever and wrote verses which were set to music and were sung by
different groups dressed in costumes appropriate to the words.
This was a graded school with two
teachers -- one for the primary grades and one for the others. We
had good teachers and went on to high school in Longmont (Boulder
County) without any difficulty." Joyful Childhood Memories of A Pioneer Woman (Some
not so joyful), published in 1988. pg. 40,41.
Liberty Hall Grange - was named by
Millie Kerby Webb. The community soon took the name "Liberty" from
the name of the grange and it is still known by that name today. The
old brown brick school building with a garden level basement on the
northeast corner of WCR 5 & Hwy 66, is the current home of the
grange. The grange meetings were usually followed by a dance and
provided many a young couple a chance to meet and court.
Dalziel describes the grange thusly. "In the winter, socials were moved into a hall by the people in the community. It had a cook stove, table and coarse dishes in a kitchen on one end of the hall. Mother named the hall "Liberty Hall" and the community is still called "Liberty." There, in addition to other activities, the Ladies' Aid had oyster and chicken pie suppers." pg. 51,52.
It is not clear from Dalziel book where the original grange was located. In 1950, after the second Pleasant Hill school was merged into the Mead Consolidated School, the grange moved into the abandoned brick school house located on the corner of Colorado Highway 66 and Weld County Road 5. It is still in use today as a grange.
Tom Kiteley (now deceased) whose family lived and farmed in the Liberty area since 1868, gives the following information:
"Just reading your item about Liberty Hall. I live on and own the property around the current grange hall.My grandfather homesteaded here in 1868 and the family all went to Pleasant Hill school. The school was moved to the corner of Weld County road 5 and state highway 66 as soon as the new brick building was built in 1926. That served as the Pleasant Hill school until consolidation in 1950. The building was purchased by the Liberty Hall Grange later in 1950. That grange was newly formed there at that time. The name Liberty came from the Great Western Railroad siding located less than one-half mile east. The community did have at one time a hall for meetings, a blacksmith shop and a general store.
Hope this adds a little more detail to your records. My daughter is establishing a farmers market at that corner right near the current grange hall and is calling it Liberty Hall Farm, hence her interest in any old records about the community."
Further
information that I have been able to glean. The railroad came
through in late 1905 or early 1906 and established a beet dump where the railroad
crosses what is now Hwy. 66. According to Dalziel's book, the grange
was established around the turn of the 20th century. Dalziel says
that her mother named the grange Liberty Hall and that the community
took its name Liberty from the hall's name. So now with Tom
Kiteley's explanation, we have two different versions of how the
community was named. I tend to go with Dalziel's version since
Liberty had a column in the Longmont Ledger before the railroad
came through.
Hazel
Dalziel:
"Later I met the man I married in Liberty Hall. There was a Grange
meeting followed by a dance. The Grange activities were a
preliminary to starting a farmers' organization which grew into a
nation-wide affair.
After the turn of the century and after the families of the first settlers had grown up, many of the social get-together's such as card parties and dances, especially barn dances, revolved around the Grange" (pg. 51, 52).
You can read about what life was like growing up in Liberty in Dalziel's book or read selections of the unpublished manuscript, Backward Glances by Vera Turner Berg here on our website.
Currently little remains of the original village. The brick school house on the corner of what is now Highway 66 and Weld County Road 5 still stands and is in use as the Liberty Hall Grange. A few homes remain, but the original school was long ago torn down and nothing remains of the businesses that once thrived there.
Longmont Ledger, January 17, 1901 mentions that Mr. Rinn, moved his general store from Highlandlake to Liberty Hall.
Backward Glances - Stories of Mead and Liberty, Colorado
Veva Turner Berg was the daughter, granddaughter, and niece of early Boulder, Larimer and Weld County pioneers. I am concentrating on the parts of her life that encompass the periods years when she lived in Weld County, and most specifically in the Mead and Liberty areas of Weld county. Read More
The Mount Zion United Brethern Church, originally located near the intersection of what is now Colorado Highway 66 and Weld County road 7, was sold to the Catholic Church in 1911, and moved to Mead where it still stands as the Guardian Angels Catholic Church.
Note: lf you have questions about renting the Liberty Hall Grange building or need to talk to someone in charge, please contact: Leona Heimbecker 303-776-2535. Historic Highlandlake does not have any connection with this building or organization, and we cannot help you beyond giving you the above phone number.
This page was updated on November 8,, 2009