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Vesta Keen Mollohan

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Vesta Keen Mollohan

Birth	:	28 Aug 1878 Roane County, West Virginia, USA
Death	:	3 Oct 1968 Sterling, Logan County, Colorado, USA
Burial	:	Aasa Haugen Home Cemetery, Winneshiek County, USA
Coordinate	:	43.2698330, -91.8421110
Description	:	Vesta was one of those people you are proud to meet. She was my wife's great step grandmother. I only got to know her a short while. She ran a ranch north west of Sterling, CO. Three things I remember about her. Once they were drilling for oil on her property and one day she invited the whole crew in for a fried chicken dinner. She broke her arm one winter but had cattle to feed and she proceeded to do that job plus saddle and ride a horse to check the cattle. She had a... Read More	Vesta was one of those people you are proud to meet. She was my wife's great step grandmother. I only got to know her a short while. She ran a ranch north west of Sterling, CO. Three things I remember about her. Once they were drilling for oil on her property and one day she invited the whole crew in for a fried chicken dinner. She broke her arm one winter but had cattle to feed and she proceeded to do that job plus saddle and ride a horse to check the cattle. She had a hired man once that came home drunk and was cussing the American soldiers. She told him to stop or she would hit him in the head with a hammer. He did not so she did and knocked him out cold. She was small but tough. A true pioneer. Every one should meet and know a woman like her. I was blessed. Exert from a book not word for word. Vesta Keen homesteaded in Washington county Colorado in 1911. She came from Spencer, West Virginia. She was alone, being part Cherokee that is what she wanted. Vesta was 33 years old at that time. She was tired of the niceties of being a woman in the east. She wanted to ride astride a horse rather than side saddle. Also Colorado women had been voting for about twenty years. Vesta was a practical nurse and found work. She soon also found herself needed by a man Curtis(Cortez) Mollohan. She married him. He had several children one being older than Vesta. After Cortez died she bought a 1600 acre ranch north west of Sterling. She was 58 years old at that time. She ran the ranch, fixed fence, carried fence post on the saddle horse. Vesta had only six months of formal schooling. The following is from Betty Keen Potts. I remember my mother telling me that Aunt Vesta was a pioneer woman. She was obviously very proud of her, but delicately told us that Aunt Vesta had a rather tarnished reputation. Apparently, this less than stellar reputation was due to the fact that Vesta was the first woman at Newton, West Virginia to wear “britches” and sit astride a horse instead of side-saddle, the appropriate way a lady should ride. The other reason her character was questioned is because she was a single woman when she “went off to Colorado” to homestead. Only married women with their protective husbands were meant to be pioneers. My family made several trips back to Colorado to visit Aunt Vesta and my Father’s brother, Donovan (Don) Keen, during wheat harvest time. My dad had planned on living and wheat farming in CO, but that was interrupted by his father’s heart problem. Memories I have, at such a young age, of Aunt Vesta was of her ranch, horses, huge barn, and kitchen pantry in a big beautiful home. This was not the original land she homesteaded, it was land bought in addition to that. I have seen pictures of the original house. It was a sod house. The frame home she lived in at the time I was around was built by her. She had around 1600 acres of crop land, dug many water wells supported by old, wooden windmills for her cattle herd, and had hired hands that lived in a bunkhouse on the property. I remember my Aunt Vesta was particularly fond of my sister, Patty. She was determined that Patty, six years my senior, would be a successful woman and actually put Pat through four years of college. This was around 1960-64. This set the precedent that we three siblings would attend collage, as well. And, as a natural result, the four of us each had two children, who went on to graduate college. Thus, Cortez Grey Keen and Eunice Arlene Elmore Keen’s four children, and all eight of their grandchildren would become college graduates! This is something I attribute partially to Aunt Vesta’s lead and partly, and proudly, to my parents’s placing education at the forefront of our young lives, although we grew up in the agricultural, rural area of Roane County. Earlier, probably around 1957, Aunt Vesta took Patty and me on a bus trip to Washington, DC on one of her visits home to Newton, WV. I remember laying my head in her lap, on the long, exciting ride. We visited all the sights in DC as well as staying with her niece ( and our aunt) Bernita Keen and her husband William. Bernita was my father’s only sister. The other siblings were Donovan (Don), James (Jim), Lonnie, and Homer Logan (Logan). As mentioned earlier in the previous writing, we, the Keen family, had known and passed down through the generations, the theory that Aunt Vesta and her brothers were half Cherokee. That has never been proven, and, I and my sister, Patty, were disappointed when we had our DNA tested by Ancestry and it did not show any Native American heritage. However, we still hold to the possibility of there being Cherokee in our lineage due to many writings and widespread verbal supporting evidence. This story of Native American blood is still a mystery of the Keen family, which we would all like to resolve.

frequently asked questions (FAQ):

Where is Vesta Keen Mollohan's memorial?
Vesta Keen Mollohan's memorial is located at: Aasa Haugen Home Cemetery, Winneshiek County, USA.
When did Vesta Keen Mollohan death?
Vesta Keen Mollohan death on 3 Oct 1968 in Sterling, Logan County, Colorado, USA
Where are the coordinates of the Vesta Keen Mollohan's memorial?
Latitude: 43.2698330
Longitude: -91.8421110

Family Members:

Parent

Spouse

Nathan Curtis “Cortez” Mollohan

(1848 - 1930)

Siblings

Flowers:

Nearby Cemetories:

1. Aasa Haugen Home Cemetery
Winneshiek County, USA
Coordinate: 43.2698330, -91.8421110

2. Union Prairie Cemetery
Winneshiek County, USA
Coordinate: 43.2585983, -91.8368988

3. McIntosh Cemetery
Winneshiek County, USA
Coordinate: 43.2696991, -91.8833008

4. Saint Benedict Cemetery
Decorah, Winneshiek County, USA
Coordinate: 43.2835999, -91.7818985

5. Phelps Cemetery
Decorah, Winneshiek County, USA
Coordinate: 43.2908150, -91.7830920

6. Springfield Cemetery
Winneshiek County, USA
Coordinate: 43.2221985, -91.8171997

7. Garfield Family Cemetery
Conover, Winneshiek County, USA
Coordinate: 43.2266900, -91.8846700

8. Lutheran Cemetery
Decorah, Winneshiek County, USA
Coordinate: 43.2987130, -91.7774110

9. Madison Settlement Cemetery
Winneshiek County, USA
Coordinate: 43.2607994, -91.9233017

10. Madison Lutheran Church East Cemetery
Decorah, Winneshiek County, USA
Coordinate: 43.3133000, -91.8986000

11. Madison Cemetery
Winneshiek County, USA
Coordinate: 43.3135986, -91.9233017

12. Freeport Cemetery
Freeport, Winneshiek County, USA
Coordinate: 43.3006000, -91.7430000

13. Washington Prairie Norwegian Methodist Cemetery
Washington Prairie, Winneshiek County, USA
Coordinate: 43.2352982, -91.7433014

14. Bruvold Farm Cemetery
Nordness, Winneshiek County, USA
Coordinate: 43.2221968, -91.7509863

15. Washington Prairie Lutheran Church Cemetery
Washington Prairie, Winneshiek County, USA
Coordinate: 43.2378006, -91.7378006

16. Calmar Lutheran Church Cemetery
Calmar, Winneshiek County, USA
Coordinate: 43.1833000, -91.8588000

17. North Washington Prairie Pioneer Cemetery
Washington Prairie, Winneshiek County, USA
Coordinate: 43.2560997, -91.7236023

18. Calmar Community Cemetery
Calmar, Winneshiek County, USA
Coordinate: 43.1786003, -91.8728027

19. Saint Aloysius Catholic Church Cemetery
Calmar, Winneshiek County, USA
Coordinate: 43.1772003, -91.8636017

20. Russell Cemetery
Winneshiek County, USA
Coordinate: 43.3608017, -91.7885971

21. Lincoln Cemetery
Ridgeway, Winneshiek County, USA
Coordinate: 43.2627983, -91.9819031

22. Saint Wenceslaus Cemetery
Spillville, Winneshiek County, USA
Coordinate: 43.2055000, -91.9538000

23. Haug Cemetery
Spillville, Winneshiek County, USA
Coordinate: 43.2089005, -91.9657974

24. Canoe German Methodist Church Cemetery
Winneshiek County, USA
Coordinate: 43.3529000, -91.7358000