Frederick Walter Mallory ¹

  General Notes:

Source: "Rifle Shots - The Story of Rifle, Colorado", compiled by the Reading Club of Rifle, Colorado, published by the Rifle Reading Club of Rifle, Colorado in 1973. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 72-96950 Text follows...

FRED MALLORY (page 135) By Clarissa Mallory George
Research by Gene H. George - 1980

Fred was born in Illinois and orphaned at age 12 when his father died. His mother had died 9 years earlier. He was sent from Illinois to Ohio to live with his Aunt Clarissa Mallory Rounds. He grew up and was educated in Medina Co., OH. At age 19 he headed to the Colorado Territory, arriving in Pueblo in 1873. His first known job was with the telegraph company as a line repairman on the line from Pueblo to Santa Fe, New Mexico. He worked that line on foot with only a pack mule and was said to have packed a hair rope with him, long enough to encircle his camp, to keep the rattlesnakes off him and the mule at night.

He moved to Leadville and later to Central City where he worked as a tram operator in the mines. It was here that he met and married Anna Miles and the first three children were born. In 1892 they moved, with many others to the Antler Valley. This move was made due to the collapse of the mining industry and also because of Anna's anxiety over him working in the mines. She had lost a brother in a mine accident a few years earlier.

They purchased 10 acres and established a home at Antlers. Living was bleak at the best, and too for years while irrigation water was not available, the family hauled water from the river to water a garden. They milked a few cows and made butter and sold it in New Castle. After water was available they raised potatoes and sold them in New Castle and Glenwood. He also kept bees. A photo of the hives was shown to a bee keeper and he estimated the production from them at about 1500 pounds of honey a year. He and the bees were supposed to have been the subject of a book "The Bee Man" by B. M. Bonkers.

In 1889 he worked one session as a secretary in the state legislature. He also acted as legal counsel at times for his neighbors. Reference is often made of him as Judge Mallory, but I think this was because of him being an election judge and not as legal counsel.

In 1909 they sold the 10 acres and took a 160 acre homestead north of the original farm. On this land they built a cabin and farmed a small piece of irrigated land. This farm was to be his and Anna's home for the rest of their lives.

During his active years he returned to the eastern Colorado a number of times, staying for extended periods, and the reasons for these trips is unknown. He was a stern, regimented man, well read and informed, somewhat of a dreamer, and with a love of the future. He was said to have completely believed in the future of the airplane, and liked to talk about it. He really wanted to ride in one. He was a Bible reader and while the children were growing up, he read from it to them, nightly. Some good tracks to his ancestry was left in papers from his estate, but the stories told to his family about his ancestry have proven totally incorrect. I still wonder why he didn't tell them the truth.

Rifle Shot - 1993

In 1891 Fred Mallory brought his wife and five children to their new acreage he had purchased from the Antlers Development Company. He quickly put up a wooden frame over which a tent was stretched and a plank floor laid. This was their home until the next summer when he erected a two-room log cabin.

The first Clarissa Mallory remembers seeing Rifle, the family rode in a wagon to the top of Graham Mesa within sight of the town and watched a fireworks display, celebrating some event (probably the 4th of July). The family did not come into town, but returned home after the display was over.

The family raised most of their food; only a few staple groceries such as flour, sugar and coffee were purchased.

The school was at Antlers, a one-room building and O. B. Fleming was the first teacher. Mr. Mallory was a member of the school board for many years. The settlement grew so fast that in 1898 there were 60 students attending classes in the one room which measured about 20 x 30 feet. The next year a second room was added and the building remained in constant use until 1952. Sunday School and Church were held in the school house. John Hickman preached there, also Mr. Howard and E. N. Mallery.

Fred Mallory also served as a Judge while in the Rifle creek area. At his death, Fred was one of the oldest residents of the Antlers section. He was found dead at the home of his son, Otis, about five miles east of Rifle. His death was caused from heart failure. He was feeding the hogs at the time he was stricken. The first to discover his body was Mark Barnett, who happened to be riding along the road on horse back. Mr. Barnett noticed a man laying by the haystack, and at first thought him to be asleep on the sunny side of the haystack, but upon closer investigation discovered that life was extinct. Dr. LeRossignal was called at once, but to no avail, as death was instantaneous.

Fred had long been affected with heart trouble (about 3 years), and had remarked to friends not long ago, that he didn't expect to be long for this earth. He had, apparently, been enjoying fairly good health, aside from suffering a sinking spell occasionally, caused from a weak heart, and was in Rifle Monday joking with friends, as was his usual custom.

Fred was a pioneer resident of the Antlers vicinity, having located there in about 1891, coming there from Central City, CO. Funeral services were held at the Antlers school house. Internment was in Rose Hill Cemetery in Rifle, CO.

Frederick married Anna Miles, daughter of Christopher Miles and Rosa Toner, on 8 Jun 1885 in Central City, Gilpin County, Colorado. (Anna Miles was born on 21 Jun 1854 in Ovid, Seneca, New York,¹ died on 15 Mar 1917 in Antlers, Garfield County, Colorado ^{1 2} and was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, Rifle, Garfield County, Colorado ⁴.)