Queenie

Picture courtesy of PPLD

I would like to introduce you to Mary Lincoln Mellen Palmer better known as Queenie. She was Colorado Springs first school teacher.

Queenie came from a modest family, her father was a lawyer/coal miner/chauffeur. 1871 was a big year for her, she turned 21, married General William Jackson Palmer, gave birth to her first child and she and her husband founded the city Colorado Springs. The above picture was taken in 1871 a few days after her marriage.

Queenie stood shoulder to shoulder with her husband building the city of Colorado Springs. She took all the children and taught them no matter what race. She became a hero to the children and their parents. One woman she befriended, named her last girl child after Queenie. This woman was a Cheyenne Indian married to a white man. To Queenie, she was just another person making a life in the wild west, there was no racism in her heart.

Her heart was bigger then life and she was very much in love with her older husband. William Palmer was a good man and loved his wife. They built a beautiful home together here in the Springs, it is called Glen Eyrie. It's a wonderful castle.

By the year 1881, Queenie had two daughters Elsie 10 years old and Dorothy 1 year, with another child on the way. She packed her bags and moved to England. Colorado history books say she had heart problems and needed to live in a lower altitude.

Margery Palmer, Queenie's last child, was born in England. William loved Queenie and could not bear to be without her. In the early 1890's he went to England, he stayed so long his visa expired. In 1894, a member of his family died in the states, he applied for a emergency visa to return to America. His daughter Elsie, now in her 20's, went with him.

It was after this he told Queenie and his daughters things would be differant. I can find no record of Queenie returning but his daughters did. They found out things were not differant, only this time he had tied up the money so they could not leave. In 1906 fate made a call. While horseback riding on his land, William's horse threw him. The accident left him paralyzed for life, he ordered the horse shot. Many years later, his daughter Dorothy said "they should have shot him instead of the horse."

In March 1909 William Palmer passed away, Queenie followed in 1910. Their final resting place is here in Colorado Springs, the city they started.

I edited this story in April 2010 because some of the things that Dorothy had told me as a child were somewhat jaded. She did not have a good realtionship with her father but her father was a good man. He also had a gift of coming to an area and seeing what that area would become. He told his daughters things would be differant if they came back to the Springs, what he didn't know was that the men he was in business with were becoming more greedy and his money would be tied up.

Palmer was a good man that loved his wife above all and she loved him.

Amelia Earhart Part Two

I have read the rest of the classified file on Amelia, there are a lot of duplicate and triplicate pages. So, here is the bare bone facts, our government stood along side Japan and said she was not on Saipan Island.

The facts: pieces of her plane were found near this island, when the U.S. took this island during WWII, a japanese soldier had a picture of Amelia in front of a Japanese plane, a picture of Amelia with a Japanese officer was found inside a house on the island. Mr. Devine, who was with the military, was told of two people, a man and a woman, falling out of the sky by residents of the island. Mr. Devine was shown two unmarked graves in the cemetary on the island where these two people were buried (this was in 1944-45).

It is also a fact that Amelia was on a secert mission at the time of her disapperance. What the facts say is Amelia and her navigator were taken prisoners by the Japanese and most likely excuted.

So, there you have it. I don't think that they are still in those graves, I am sure the government has been there and made sure to remove all evidence of her ever being on that island, but I could be wrong.

Amelia Earhart, Classified Files

I was doing some research on Ancestary.com on another matter when a pop up came up saying they had the classified files on Amelia Earhart. Of course I stopped what I was doing and followed the link. It has 73 pages, I copied the first three, hoping all of you could read them but it doesn't seem like they came out big enough to read. Plus they came out backwards, the first page you see is page 3, page 3 is page 1 and so forth.

So, I've condensed the first three pages into this: In 1960 two Air Force officers turned in evidence that Amelia Earhart had been excuted by the Japanese on Saipan Island (it does not say what the evidence is). After investigating the government said Amelia was never on Saipan.

Then a Mr. Devine said he saw Amelia's grave when he was on Saipan in 1944-45. Because of this the Navy was asked to investigate.

That's it for the first three pages, so I'll digest the rest and do another blog on it. But it does not look good for our Amelia.

Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind

Picture courtesy of PPLD- Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind - 1900's


I have always had a love for this school, it was built in 1874, William Jackson Palmer (founder of Colorado Springs) donated over 300 arces to this school. It still stands and operates today though most of the land has been sold. I had the rare chance to spend a few days there. This is my story.

One Christmas morning, in the late 1950's, I was playing with my presents (a tea set was among them). My father was sitting in his favorite chair watching me.. I looked up and my dad's head slumped to the side, I walked up and gently touched him and told him to wake up, he didn't. My mother and cook (who was my favorite) came in and I told them daddy was sleeping. They called the doctor, who still made house calls


My father had a heart attack, he recovered but the doctor thought it would be better if my parents moved to a better climate. My father loved Colorado Springs, this runs in the Penrose blood-we find a city and its like a comfortable old shoe. For my Uncle Boies it was Philly, Uncle Richard it was New York, for Uncle Francis it was Ireland, for my dad it was Colorado Springs.


So, plans were made, my mother started letting the staff go. She would take them into the kitchen and I would never see them again. I thought that my mother was making them disappear and if I went into that kitchen, she would make me disappear. One day, she asked me to go into the kitchen to say good by to cook. I ignored her and I kept on ignoring her.


She thought something was wrong with me, the doctor was called in. He looked at my ears and noticed my ear canals were much smaller then normal. He thought I might be going deaf, he suggested that my parents take me to the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind. They had more experiance then he and they could help me.


So, a little bag was packed with my new tea set and my dad took my to the school. My room was very bleak but I had a room mate. She was about 8 and her job was to find out if I could hear or not and how much. I had a great time at this school, there were kids my age and we played. It was so much fun and one night I confessed to my roomie why I had been ignoring my mother.


She went to the heads of the school and reported to them, my father came and they told him. He laughed and took me home. When he told my mother, she was pissed. She only got madder when my dad said we were not going to leave Colorado Springs. My father explained to me about the disappearing staff.


So, the staff had to be hired back, some came, some didn't. Cook did and I was very happy. I missed my friends at the Deaf School, so I asked my father if I could go visit my roomie. He came up with a plan to have my roomie come live with us but when he went to the school, he was told she had died. It bummed me out and my dad said it wasn't a good idea for me to ever go back there and I never have.


My mother made me pay for a long time but it was still the best few days I had and I still love that school and the people in it.

William Jackson Palmer Statue

Pictures courtesy of the State of Colorado and PPLD

Hi, guys! I need your help. These pictures are the statue of William Jackson Palmer, founder of Colorado Springs. This statue has been redone and I am hoping that someone out there has an old picture of this statue with the hat in the hand. That's the way it used to be. And now the story behind the statue (you know me, I have to share the truth behind things).

Palmer died around 1906 and the people in Colorado Springs felt there should be a statue of him. That statue didn't come to be till 1926, two of his three daughters were there for the unveiling and they did not notice. Or if they did, they did not say a word.

Palmer had done a grave injustice to a friend of Spencer Penrose's. I do not recall what the injustice was but it was terrible enough for Penrose to go to the sculptor and pay a huge amount of money to have his own face put on the statue instead of Palmer's. And there it stood for many years, people thinking it was Palmer when it was Penrose. For Spencer Penrose it was a pay back for the terrible thing Palmer had done to his friend and every time he went by the statue he felt satisfaction.

The statue was redone and I do not know when. They took Spencer off the horse and put Palmer on it. The statue of Spencer, they put downtown. One person took a picture of it and said Penrose looks like he is taking a crap.

My husband laughed when he heard this and said "yes, the city sh-t on him and his daughters and now he's sh-tting back on the city" I agree with him. :)