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Dearfield

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1911–1953. 27 miles east of Greeley on U.S. 34

After reading Booker T. Washington's Up From Slavery, Oliver T. Jackson established Dearfield as Colorado's only African American colony. Jackson had worked at the Colorado State Capitol as a messenger for Governor John Shafroth, who helped him realize his dream of an agricultural community where “our people can get back to the land, where they naturally belong, and to work out their own salvation from the land up.” Jackson's niece, Jennie, operated the lunch counter until 1953, when she became the last black to leave Dearfield. Her counter, with a faded sign, lingers. Windowless and doorless homes, a school, a store, and a few frame homes are tumbling back into the prairie.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Thomas J. Noel
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Data

What's Nearby

Stoll Sod House

Citation

Thomas J. Noel, "Dearfield", [, Colorado], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/CO-01-WE37.

Print Source

Buildings of Colorado, Thomas J. Noel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997, 250-250.

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