In a previous post, I introduced Baker White Armstrong, Jr., son of Baker White Armstrong, Sr. and Mary Ophelia Nugent Armstrong. Baker was the fourth child of this couple and the only son. Baker, Sr., had left Virginia in the late 1880s and moved to Houston, Texas, where he prospered. The family had a home in Houston and a summer home in Boulder, Colorado. Later I will include a few photographs of the family enjoying their summers in Colorado, but this post will concentrate on one event in which Baker White Armstrong, Jr. showed courage in rescuing the body of a young boy who had fallen while climbing in the mountains of Colorado. The young man was William Brode, 15, from Memphis, Tennesee. Click on the images in order to read the accompanying text.The clipping just below is a news photo of Lindbergh Peak, near where Baker Armstrong, Jr., located the young man's body.
Stored in a plastic baggie along with another newspaper clipping and unrelated photos was a letter that Baker wrote his family shortly after the event. I'm rewriting the text here. The letter is written on the front and back of one sheet of paper from The Albany Hotel, R J. Bush, Proprieter, Cor. Thirteenth and Walnut Streets, Boulder, Colorado:
Camp Audubon
Ward, Colorado
Dear Folks:
In answer to your letter I am O.K. and have climbed Long's Peak twice since the accident and am going up again in the morning. Would appreciate it a lot if you will get me two copies of every Houston paper having anything about the accident AND PUT THEM IN THE MIDDLE DRAW OF MY DRESSER SO THEY WON'T GET LOST. Please do this right away before they are all sold out.
One of the Rangers over at the accident said that if I ever wanted a Ranger's job to let him know and that I might be able to get it without studying forestry.
Camp closes 26th this month and I will leave for Yellowstone with the MacDonald boys about the 27 or 28th.
Please do not do a lot of bragging on what I did to people. Thanks.
Lots of love to all,
BW
Dates of papers should be about Aug 9th 10th 11th as I found the poor boy on the 8th. P. S. Please order me two copies of New York Times for Aug 9th--It was in there, too.
I spoke with my almost 92 yr. old Dad today in Houston who told me he was writing a piece about Camp Audubon for his creative writing group & going to mention fondly his camp counselor the summer my Dad was 11, named Baker Armstrong. I googled Baker's name & thanks to your family history came up with a wealth of information. Thought you would appreciate that Baker Armstrong Jr. lives on in memory of my Father. He said that Baker is buried in Boulder which is where I happen to live. Small, small world!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your father's memories of my husband's great-uncle, who lived in Boulder for most of his adult life in what was once the Armstrong summer home on the corner of Ninth St. and Baseline--across from Chatauqua Park. We visited Baker there a couple of times in his old age, and recently when we were in Boulder, we walked by the house, which was sold after Baker died in 1989.
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