Family of Victor DALLONS and Agnes SLIPKE

Victor DALLONS  Father Mother  Francois DALLONS Emilia CHAUSTEUR

Agnes SLIPKE  Father Mother John SLIPKE Marie MAGETTE

Married: 29 Dec 1914 in Bisbee, Arizona

Children:

Marjorie Mary Dallons	b. 1 Jan 1918	Tyrone, NM	d. 6 January 1997
Eloise Roberta Dallons	b. 26 Jun 1919	Tyrone, NM	d. 12 June 1987
Willis Frank Dallons	b. 30 Oct 1922	Bakersfield ,CA
Richard Mark Dallons	b. 8 Jul 1924	Bakersfield ,CA	d. 3 July 1954

Story of Victor and Agnes' Life Together By Willis Dallons How they Met In January 1913, Victor Dallons left Stockton California and went to school in Chicago, Illinois to further his career as a window trimmer and show card writer. His first job after attending school in Chicago was in Beloit, Kansas at the Blue Store where he met Agnes Slipke. The year was 1913 and I have found no record of exactly when he arrived there but it was around March. Agnes, who was to be my mother, worked in the store as a clerk. Victor left Beloit in May, 1914 for a job at the Fair Store in Bisbee, Arizona and asked her to join him there in December, she readily accepted and left Kansas for a life in the West. She arrived in Bisbee on the 28th. of December and the following day they went to the Cochise County Courthouse in Tombstone to obtain a marriage license and were married that evening back in Bisbee. Early Days Agnes and Victor left Bisbee sometime in the spring of 1916 and were in Missoula and Butte, Montana in July looking for work but the prospects of the cold Montana winters made them look farther south so by November they were living in Trinidad, Colorado. I have no exact information as to how long they were in Trinidad nor when they moved to Tyrone, New Mexico. This was strictly a company mining town, laid out and designed by the wife of one of the owners of the Phelps-Dodge Mining Company. When Victor and Agnes arrived they found the town was being constructed so there was a job at the company store but no housing. They were furnished a tent and eventually they were able to move into a house in "Cement Gulch". Two daughters were born to them while they were living in Tyrone; Marjorie Mary was born on January 1st, 1918 in the company hospital and Eloise Roberta in the same hospital on June 26th, 1919. Life in Bakersfield

In 1921 the price of copper dropped, the mines closed and Tyrone "the most beautiful mining camp in the world" became a ghost town. Victor and Agnes by that time had departed for the west coast. In February of 1920 they had arrived in Bakersfield, California where Victor went to work for L.W. Lowell Men's Store. They rented a house on Maple Avenue where I was born and here is where I come into this story on October 30th, 1922. The following year my parents bought several acres of property on 8th Street on which they had a house built. Fruit trees were planted and a large chicken coop was built as the plan was to become independent by going into the egg business. My brother Richard Mark was born on the 8th of July, 1924 with birth defects. My parents tried many doctors and specialists both locally and in San Francisco but his condition never improved and he required constant care for 30 years until he died on the 3rd of July, 1954. It is difficult to imagine the despair my parents went through all of those years.

Victor with Margorie, Eloise, and Willis

In order to expand the egg business my parents bought 20 acres 4 miles south of town on Union Avenue. This was in 1929 and the same year the stock market crashed sending the country into the great depression. Dad went ahead and built two large chicken houses and stocked them with hens and we ate the roosters.The property had a service station with four hand pumps, so my mother opened it up to sell gasoline to the few cars that went by as it was on the main highway to Los Angeles so what little traffic there was in those days came that way. Nineteen thirty to thirty three was the depth of the great depression so much of the traffic were people on foot, searching for work. As a ten year old I was deeply impressed by these conditions as there was a steady stream of these poor people walking the roads searching for a way to earn enough money just to eat. We burned wood for heat and cooking so we had a wood pile that always needed chopping. When men came to the door begging food they were shown the axe and wood pile Those who were really hungry chopped wood and then were fed.and often those who did a good job were given some sandwiches to carry on their way. Those who were not seriously hungry usually dropped the axe and left as soon as Mother was out of sight. Nobody ever stole the axe which would have been hard to replace. Times were hard and the memory of it affects me to this day. The egg business did not last as in 1933 a disease swept through the chickens and Dad was burying dozens of hens each day. With the coops empty he turned his attentions to the service station which was about the only way left to make a living. The business survived and was expanded to a store and a few tourist cabins. Gas sold for 12 cents a gallon and a quart of oil was a dime. By 1936 the migrants from the dust bowl arrived in the San Joaquin Valley and many were steady customers because of the cheap gas. Several of the major gasoline companies attempted to cut off Dad's supplies but he countered by installing larger tanks and was able to buy in tanker load quantities direct from the refineries - with cash. Money talked in those days too. To be continued. 1957 Back Row: Donald HOSKING, Agnes (SLIPKE) Dallons Next Row: Willis DALLONS, Suzanne DALLONS, Pat HOSKING, Marjorie (DALLONS) Hosking, Linda HOSKING, Victor DALLONS, James Ryland CAVE, Eloise (DALLONS) CAVE. Children: Margaret Joy DALLONS, Steve DALLONS, Ronald CAVE, Robert DALLONS, Larry CAVE, Victor John DALLONS, Janice CAVE Photo taken about 1957.

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