Mable Elsa Davis - Lou's mother

Lou's sons probably remember camping and fishing and family Christmases with Grandma and Grandpa Butler. They may remember family reunions with the Davis clan or Sunday dinner at Grandma's house. Most of Lou's grandchildren remember Grandma Mable Butler as a woman with snowy white hair carefully fixed in an "up-do" and decorated with a hair net dotted with tiny colored beads.

But Mable's story began many years before those memories, and it seems fitting to give some of her childhood history here.


Mable Elsa Davis was born 20 July 1902 on a ranch 10 miles east of Ramah, El Paso County, Colorado where her father had homesteaded 160 acres in the spring of 1898. She was the 7th child born to ViAnna FiDella Shafer and Charles Harker Davis. Her sister Birdie Bell Davis Harriman wrote in her history, "We almost lost mother when Mable was born. Mother was so very sick that the report had gotten around to some of the neighbors that she had died. How surprised they were when they came to sympathize with us and found her still with us and the baby doing fine. We children were surprised, but very happy with the food they brought in."

Following are some excerpts from Grandma Mable's history as written January 6, 1973. The dates are approximate, as all of this family's histories record them a little differently!

In 1906 we sold our ranch and bought an irrigated farm and dairy herd at Fountain, Colorado. So Mama and us little kids took the train to Fountain, and Daddy and the boys took the wagon and horseback and drove some milk cows. How we loved it there – beautiful house and yard, trees and flowers, and only 2 miles from town. Good school and my first Sunday School and church. Here I learned we had a Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ.

Mable as a teenager

[It was also] here daddy built us a school house and we were taught by Mr. Wiley. He was single and didn’t care for a very curious little girl, so I got spanked every day. If I could see him today, I’d kick him on the shins.

One day in the summer of 1908 I felt sleepy and my family couldn’t understand why I roamed all over the ranch and would hide and go to sleep. We had sheared the sheep and had the wool in big sacks all stacked up when I crawled in between them and went to sleep. At supper time no one knew where I was. They looked in all the barns and in the old wells. About midnight daddy found me. Boy I got scolded and sent to bed. I didn’t care as I was still sleepy and didn’t want to eat. The next day Birdie took me to the post office. I slept all the way and had a headache and wouldn’t eat. Then Mama decided I had to be doctored as she never had a child act this way. Birdie was sick too, so we drove to Pueblo – took us all day, and the next day the Dr. came. I was real proud that the attention was all on me until the Dr. pulled up my dress to feel of my tummy. I can remember how indignant I was, but he found I had walking typhoid fever. Birdie had it too, and was real sick. He gave us pills and told daddy to dig another well, as our water was giving us this sickness. How worried our parents must have been, with 9 children to worry about.

Mable as a young girl

One June morning in 1909 Daddy said, “Birdie! Take all your brothers and sisters and go play in the sand draw. Mrs. Mary Arnold was there, and that was strange so early in the morning. Well, we all went out the door together, Birdie, Norman, Augusta, Floyd, Lemuel, Me, Garnons and Johnnie. Richard was a baby still in bed. Now I was curious so I slipped around to the front door and sat on the steps. Sure enough – in a while Daddy called for Birdie to come and bring her family. I waited till they got to the house then I joined them. Sneaky, eh? But I had to know. Daddy said the stork had brought us a baby sister. I asked how he got in the house and Daddy said by the front door and I told him, “Oh, no it didn’t as I was sitting on the steps.” So I got a whack and sent out.

I was 7 years old and my big sister was my ideal. She was always nice to me and I liked her boyfriends. I used to look at our mother and think she was so beautiful with big blue eyes and coal black hair. But I really thought she was getting old. She was 40 I think.

Mable holding the horse with "The younger set" riding

The Fountain River ran across our farm and we were told to stay away from it, and above all not to throw sticks or rocks in it. Again Garnons and I were disobedient and Daddy rode up just as I threw a stick in. He said, “You little devil, jump in and get that stick out.” So I jumped in. I had never been in any water except the bath tub. So under I went, up I came, down again, and Garnons jumped in, and pulled me out by the hair on my head. See I was bigger than him so he stayed clear of me but could hold to my braids.

In April 1913, Papa sold or traded our beautiful farm and we moved by covered wagon to Haswell, Colorado.

And that's another story for another day.