VanDenBerg Family History

Uncle Andy (also called Toots) married Kleo Keele in 1928 in Crawford, Colorado. He and brother John were renting the Feekus ranch adjoining Grandpa Charles and Grandma Maggie's ranch and the great depression struck. The Keeles, Kleo’s parents, thought there was opportunity for employment in Idaho so Andy and Kleo went there with them. Andy hired on as a railroad worker and then later worked as a rancher. Spare time was taken with breaking some old horses. Andy’s riding bucking horses scared Kleo to death but he did it anyway. Kleo also worked for a rancher. Andy’s brothers John and Lester followed them to Idaho and trapped fur animals. Andy and Kleo lost a child during this time. Kleo gave birth to six children in seven years -- Dollie, Duard, Teddy, George, Lester, and Joann. Andy needed to go home to help Grandpa Charles in Paonia. They fixed many flat tires to get back home.

After months of their hard work, Kleo was pretty disgusted when thrifty Grandpa Charles brought in a sack of potatoes as Andy’s total wages for the summer. During WWII, Andy leased a ranch on the Smith Fork and set up a dairy. They really thrived there and bought a small ranch on Rogers Mesa for Charles and Maggie to live. The Smith Fork ranch sold so Andy bought a ranch on Crawford Mesa with two houses and moved his parents there. He also bought the old home place on Clearfork about that time. With his boys, he had a built-in crew, so he put the boys into extra work cutting and stacking hay for the neighbors and feeding their cattle in the winter. He sold the Crawford Mesa property and bought the Piburn and Lambertson places. About 1955 he sold all four ranches and bought a large ranch on Missouri Flats above Crawford. They lost their teenage daughter Joann while there. In 1965, he sold the ranch and retired to the big city of Delta and passed away in April 1980. Kleo survived until 2006.