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| Grandpa Michael Philip Tomney |
Left an orphan at an early age of 5 years, he knew many heartaches. His parent, Patrick Tomney and Annie Gahan had come from Liverpool to the United States in1880, that is his mother and her three sons; John, David and Patrick came then. Patrick Sr. had been here for a number of years and had a good house, a fine ranch with a team, farm implements, and twenty head of dairy cows for his family to come to, not far from Idaho Springs Colorado, at which place Philip was born on 25 Jan. 1982.
In Sept. 1883 Patrick sold his ranch, moved his family to Idaho Springs and left them there while he went to find a new location. He found a place that suited him on the Unaweep, and bought a squatters right to a piece of land fifty cows and a bull. He hired a man to care for them while he went to get his family.
He arrived at Golden Colorado on the 12th of December and was stricken with apoplexy; he sent for his family and they were at his bedside when he passed away on the 15th of Dec 1883. Philip, being a little less than 2 years old had no recollection of that event. Nor had he any recollection of his brother John, who went back to England after his fathers death.
Annie Tomney moved with her family to the new ranch in May 1884. Here she and her boys broke some of the cows for milk cows and she made butter to sell. She would pack it in large crocks and would take it to Grand Jct. to sell. Philip remembered those great crocks of butter and the fragrance of his mother's newly baked bread. He recalled also the way the cowboys called her "Mother" and loved to come to her home where she always made them welcome. This was a wild country, only one or two ranchers for miles around, and horse thieves and cattle rustlers often stopping here on their way through the country.
Around the 8th of May 1887, Annie and her son Dave started to Grand Jct to dispose of butter and to get supplies. When they reached White Water where they were to stay all night, she started to get out of the wagon, as she stepped on the the horses moved a little, turning the wheel and casing annie to fall, lighting on the wheel. She was helped into the house and said she wasn't hurt. But in the night she became very ill, and they sent to Grand Jct for a doctor. When he arrived he said she had ruptured herself badly. They took her to Grand Jct. where a consultation of 3 doctors decided to operate. She came through the operation alright, but died of complication two days later, on her birthday May 12, 1887.
After the death of their mother Dave and Patrick Tomney chose James H. Smith as a guardian and the court appointed his as Philips guardian, but Mr Smith sent him to Capt. F.M.Anderson and his wife to be cared for. Dave and Pat were alloted the cattle and the ranch was put in the care of Capt Anderson for Philip. Philip loved Mrs Anderson, "Aunt Molly" he called her, but the Capt was harsh and unfair with him so when he was quite a young lad he left to work for other people. While he was away Aunt Molly took sick and begged for Philip. Capt wouldn't send for him so some of the neighbors did and he arrived before she had answered deaths call. At this time they were living at Bayfield, Colorado. Capt had leased the ranch while Philip was yet with him and they had moved in 1892 to Whitewater, where Philip attended school and helped with the Stables. From there they moved to Durango and in the spring to Bayfield.
Capt persuaded Philip to stay with him for a while after Aunt Molly died but soon again the harsh treatment caused him to go away again. In the mean time Dave and Pat had sold the cattle and were mining or doing some other things first in one place or another. In 1889 Philip went to see Dave who was forman on a ranch in Ridgeway. While there he contracted Typhoid fever and was in the hospital for week, in Ouray. After leaving the hospital he stayed with Dave till after Christmas then went to Tin Cup to be with his brother Pat. He worked at the mines at Telluride, Ophir and Ouray and then at saw milling in Dolores, Colorado.
In 1908 he and Billy Brookins went from Farmington to Bluff in a boat, they were going down the San Juan to prospect for oil. Just a few miles above Bluff their boat capsized and they lost everything they had. He went to Monticello, where he met and married Gladys Perkins. He farmed and did carpentry was a road supervisor and took up a homestead. In 1915 he was shot by a carless boy with a gun which nearly cost him his life at the time and affected his health thereafter. (This is me Kelly wondering if that little boy was Otis?) He moved with his family to Colo in 1923, first to the mines then in 1924 to Montrose, where he ran a dairy for 13 years. The last 5 years of his life he was first in one hospital and then another Montrose, Denver and Salt Lake, where he passed away Sept. 7, 1938, after a series of operations and was buried in the city cemetery there.
Before he came of age Capt. Anderson had sold the ranch and skipped out with the money. Philips earliest recollection of Christmas was receiving a little brown jug of whiskey and a pipe from the cowboys.
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| The parents and their daughters; Gladys, Elda, Philip and Iris |
He was proud of his son and two daughters and thankful they had no such childhood as his. He was adored by them and there was no place he wanted to be but home with his family.
by Gladys P. Tomney
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