Rockvale is not an Italian, Austrian, Polish, or Irish originated town. It is made up of many different cultural groups  from all over the world. Because America itself is made up of all different walks of life, Rockvale is an all-American town.

            This is because the elderly, those who were born and raised here,  stayed in Rockvale. They stayed to live and made Rockvale a caring community where they could raise their children  and still hang on to their beliefs.

SECOND, THIRD, FOURTH GENERATION

OFFSPRING BACK IN ROCKVALE, OR NEVER LEFT

BEVERLY KISSELL HARRIS and DOROTHY KISSELL PATTERSON are both third generation Rockvale residents. Dorothy’s children and grandchildren are fourth and fifth generation Rockvale residents. Sadly DOROTHY passed away on May 10, 2004 after a long and courageous battle with cancer. She was 57 years old.

LAWRENCE FAORO, JIM PICCO, LORRAINE VELTRI, JOHNETTE TESSADRI BROWN, ALBERT BUFMACK, DARYL BUFMACK, JOE TAMBURELLO, PHYLLIS DE ROCCHI LENNOX, RICHARD WHITE, DELORIS TRODGEN CRUMM

JIMMY WALKER is a second generation Rockvale resident. His son, MARTY, third generation residents, and their children are fourth generation

EARL WALKER, brother of Jimmy, DONNA COLGIN WALKER, ALICE ORSI THOMAS, ONEY DAVID BARNES, KENNY HORVATH, MARTIN KESSLER, LEROY KESSLER, NAOMI LANGLOSS KESSLER, NORMA DEL DUCA ARCHULETTA, JOHN RAMBISH, JOHN TONKO, JOAN KUKLINSKI, and son DAN, and JENNIE TESSEADRI MACKINNON.

There are many people who have lived in Rockvale almost their entire lives. All of these individuals are over 70 years old and have made Rockvale their home. Kathleen Williams Goodwin, Francis De Carlo Slack,  Lena Faoro, Lawrence & Lena Sartoris, Mary Horvath, Charles Newell,  Margaret Watkins, Ella Garner, James & Pauline Trodgen, Mary Alvidrez, Corniel Bufmack, Rose Del Duca, Mary Ann Tonko Walker, Don and Francis Gallop, and Dorothy Baccarella. 

Madaline Sudo passed away in August 2003; Antionette Ross passed away January 3, 2004; Clorinda Del Duca passed away on April 4, 2005; Eula Harrison passed away on October 3, 2005; Lorraine Faoro passed away on October26, 2005; Emily Swisher fought a long battle with cancer. She passed away in March, 2006. Diane Lakey Howell (61 years old) was living in Beulah when she died April 5, 2006. Eunice Rambish, mother of Louise & Joey Rambish, died at her home in Alaska in May 2006. She was 82. Lillian Smith Shook passed away in September, 2006. She was 63--a 1961 graduate of Florence High School.

Louise Williams passed away in June 8, 2007. Louise & her family moved to Rockvale in 1956. Ruth Massaro, passed away on January 27, 2008. She was 83 years old.
Sylvia Colgin Hinklin--64--was killed in an auto accident on February 19, 2008. She was living in Cotopaxi. Sylvia graduated eighth grade in 1957 from Rockvale School.

a few of the old generation living

but not in Rockvale  at the present time.

            Evelyn Eason Drake (Her father had the Eason store in Rockvale, Coal Creek, and Chandler.) is now in her nineties and lives in Canon City.

            Madaline Sudo lived in Canon City at Hilderbrand Nursing Home. She sold her home in Rockvale a few  years ago. She had lived in that  home with her husband, Andy, and daughter, Janice, for many decades. Madaline passed away in August 2003.

            Eula Harrison, lived with her daughter, Nancy, in Georgia. She passed away there on October 3, 2005. She was buried at Union Highland Cemetery. Eula had lived in Rockvale with her husband and family for more than half a century.

            Joe Lucerna, remarried and lives in Florence

          Colonel William Horace May homesteaded Rockvale land in 1863. He settled on low farmland in 1860. After suffering losses twice by floods, he moved to higher ground on the site that became Rockvale. He received his first patents from the United States land office of February 26, 1864. The first land grant consisted of one hundred and sixty acres and forms the east part of Rockvale. The second patent was granted to Colonel May on July 15, 1868. The grant consisted of one hundred and sixty acres and forms the western part of Rockvale.

            Colonel May was one of the incorporators of the Canon City Coal Company which was incorporated in October of the year 1878. On July 10, l882, he gave a quick claim to 47 acres of the land to the Canon City Coal Company. This land was plotted in lots and blocks to make the town site of Rockvale.

            Colonel May built a cabin and used his holdings as grazing land, not realizing at that time that millions of tons of coal lay under his land. They found small outcroppings of coal. Mining in a small way continued until 1880 when the Canon City Coal Company leased the mining property. In 1896, the Colorado Fuel & Iron Corporation acquired it.

The log cabin (still standing) built by Colonel May was composed of cottonwood logs which were cut and shaped by hand. The walls had portholes built in them. These were necessary as a protection against the Indians who wandered in and out of the settlement. However,  the Indians were essentially peace-loving only looking for food. The cabin has recently been moved to the park across from the YMCA.  Was on railroad land.

The inhabitants intended to call the town "Rockefeller,” but the Captain protested. He finally agreed to use the phrase "Rock" from his name and "vale" because it was in a rocky valley. (B. F. Rockefeller, for whom Rockvale was named, was born November 18, 1835 in Nunda, Livingston County, New York. He was educated at Temple Hill Academy, N.Y. and at Oberlin, College in Ohio. He was one of the promoters and incorporators of the original Coal Companies at Rockvale and Brookside. The Santa Fe Railroad finally secured some of the properties of these companies through his effort.)

            Back in the 1870’s Captain Rockefeller's history of Fremont county tells of very little change in temperature records over the years. He wrote that Fremont County possessed all the favorable features of Colorado climate. “The breezes common to the valleys, forerunners of storms--which are the exception, while fair weather is the rule--are said here to be the special purifiers of the air, coming down from the rarified atmosphere of higher mountains to westward, by the Grand Canyon; certain it is that though the valley portion of the county is a mile high, or, in exact figures, 5,300 feet. In winter months, the weather is usually ten degrees more favorable here than at other points, even in our own state.”

        John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who, with his wife visited the Colorado coal camps after the coa1 strike of 1913, supplied uniforms for the Rockvale Band. He was the major stockholder in the C. F. & I., which owned five of the largest Fremont County mines. He came to Rockvale in his own private railroad car, but ate several meals at Mrs. Doran's Hotel where Mrs. Doran served her famous fruit cake for dessert. After returning home, Mrs. Rockafellow wrote to Mrs. Doran praising the cake and asking for the recipe. Mrs. Doran always treasured this letter.

WHAT’S IN A NAME

 Rockvale area residents have had many colorful and unusual nicknames over the years.

These are only a few.

                  Nickname             REAL Name                    Nickname                 REAL Name                Nickname         REAL Name  

LITERATURE WORTHY OF NOTE:

King Cole - Antoinette V. Cresto

The Upper Arkansas, A Mountain River Valley - Virginia Connel Simmons

From Trappers to Tourist - Rosemae Campbell

Ghost Towns, Colorado Style - Kenneth Jessen (vol. 3.)

Out Back, Down The Path, Colorado Outhouses - Kenneth Jessen

Florence and Its Environs (republished by Florence Chamber of Commerce) x3

Fremont County School Days From "Slate to Apples" - Fremont County Extension Homemakers

special thanks to members of the Rockvale Historical Club:

Beverly Kissell Harris, Alice Orsi Thomas, and Juliette Cool

 and Antoinette Cresto's book King Coal