Frontier Forbears

Frontier Forbears

Early in the 1990s, I assembled the family photographs into a three-volume set that included some family history, such as the letters from my great-grandfather Julius Kurtz. It provided few records and background. It occurred to recently that both of my great-grandfathers were pioneers in our country's westward expansion and that I had some of their first-hand documentation of what they went through. During Julius Kurtz's seven-year engagement to Johanna, while she remained in Germany and he established himself in Central City, Colorado, they exchanged letters that my Grandmother Treva Kitchen Kurtz had translated. My other great-grandfather, Richard Warburton, wrote extensively about his Mormon pioneer life at the request of the July 4th, 1907, arrangement committee in Tooele, Utah. Both are records of dedication and fortitude—and have "Indians!" This book is an assembly of the documents and photos that I currently have and is not a consistent narrative of the lives of my forebears.