Mabel Sarah Colby was born January 3, 1876, the oldest of a large family. She was a tiny little person, never very strong or able to do hard work. The younger children might have been a bit jealous of her, for she was a great favorite of both Clarence and Josephine. At times her mother would put her in charge of the younger ones.

Her father had her homestead the best piece of land, much better than the one he filed on himself. Each year the family would harvest her hay crop with no expense to her, and when it was sold the money was given to Mabel. She never was able to help with the haying but she helped her mother some with the cooking during the summer.

The 1902 Colby hay crop was sold to a large ranch called the BOX-T. Ed Brahmstadt, the cowboy who came to feed the cattle, boarded with the family and soon became young Clarence’s first friend. Ed and Clarence seemed to hit it off from the start. Clarence was only eight years old. When Ed called Clarence his pal, Clarence would fairly burst with pride. Later Ed taught Clarence to shoot a rifle, and often took him along while hunting prairie chicken. They would hunt from a buggy and as they drove over the rolling hills Ed’s beautiful dog, a black pointer, would range wide, and when finding a chicken would point and hold the bird until Ed would flush and shoot it. He was a good shot and seldom missed.

Ed and Mabel fell in love, and a short time later when he became foreman of the BOX-T, they were married. Their little daughter, Alice, their only chjild, was born September 30, 1906.

Ed had been an early day cowboy and had been making his own way since he was very young, so never had the opportunity to enjoy much home life. Now with his own family, he was very happy but his happiness was soon to end. He contracted tuberculosis and after a lingering illness passed away in 1913.

After his death, Mabel sold the ranch and moved to Spokane. There she bought a nice little house that must have been about an acre of land with some fruit trees and plenty of room for a garden. She had been left ample to provide for her and the daughter.

This is an excerpt from the Vandegrift Reasearch website