Brief Story of Duwayne Cornum

Voris Jane Miller and Dorrel Duwayne Cornum in the fall of 1936, in Sanford, Colorado,
before they were married December 24, 1936

Brief History of Duwayne Cornum   

Dorrel Duwayne Cornum - baby
born March 24, 1915 in Sanford, Colorado

Dorrel Duwayne Cornum was born March 24, 1915, in Sanford, Colorado, at the home of Aunt Naomi Valentine. The little log house still stands on the southwest corner, of 1st North and 1st West St. He was the son of Heber Dorrel Cornum and Lizzie Pearl "Reed" Cornum. He is the oldest of a family of nine children: Gwendolyn Emerson, Bonnie Coombs, Shirley Fugate, Frank Cornum, Monte Cornum, Judy Parrish, Rex Cornum (Died in infancy), and Kurt Cornum.

D. Duwayne Cornum - Senior Picture in Springville, Utah, in 1934.

Duwayne grew up in Sanford and the area near there. He lived on a farm with of Sanford for several years. He received 11 years of his schooling in Sanford and his Senior year in Springville, Utah, where he stayed with his Aunt Mary and Uncle Ralph Reed. He graduated from the Springville High School in 1933.


He was always a hard worker, helping with the sheep and pigs and working in the fields. Milking by hand several cows while he was living on the farm. He lived on a ranch between Manassa and Sanford, where Ivan Thomas now lives, for most of his childhood.  When he was about 14, the family moved into Sanford, where Bob Cummings now lives.  He was very active in sports, playing baseball, basketball and track. He was a very fast runner. He also spent any spare time, and occasionally had to miss school to make spare time, ice skating. He could skate backwards faster than most, could skate foreword.


He and his family moved to Glendale, Arizona, in 1934, during the depression. He and his Father raised lettuce and had a crop failure. He being the oldest had to find jobs to help support the family . His memory of living in Arizona are not pleasant, he said they nearly starved to death down there. So they returned to Sanford the next year. They moved in with his Aunt Alice Reed. He and his Father built extra room onto her home, and Lizzie became the assistant Post Master. Alice was the Post Master for forty-two years, and the Post Office was on the east end of her home.


Duwayne married Voris Miller, December 24, 1936. He worked with his Dad , a few years drilling wells. They lived their first three years in the "Swen Peterson" apartments, then moved to Alamosa where Duwayne ran a Standard Oil Truck delivering gas. Wages her in the Valley were low, so they moved to California where more money could be made.


So Duwayne and Voris and their two children, Sherry and Tennis, moved to Los Angeles.  He worked for Standard Oil there, they were there when Pearl Harbor was bombed, December 7, 1941. It only took them six months to get all the City Life they needed. After several nights of black-outs and search lights in the sky expecting Japanese planes, they left Los Angeles.


Duwayne got a job with Construction work in Hobbs, New Mexico, building airports for Skousen and Hise Construction Company. He also worked in Carlsbad on an airport.


In the fall of 1942 they returned to Sanford and built their own Gas Station, Hardware Store, and Garage combined. They also bought the garage, which is now the Post Office and home of Fern Nielson. He ran this business for 20 years. They had bought Voris's parents home, and this is where they live today, there in Sanford. During this time they had five more children: Lorene, Hal, Myrna, Debbie, and Marilee, this making seven children in all. While Duwayne was busy with the Station, he also served as Mayor for 16 years. At this time he was noted for being the youngest Mayor in Colorado.


In 1956, he was having trouble with his knees and feet from working on cement so long. So he decided to go back to road construction work in New Mexico, again for "Skousen and Hise". He and Verdan Mortensen worked on many roads and dams all over the state for over 20 years. The family remained in Sanford except for the summer months when they lived with him in the trailer house. Every fall Voris would move back with the children to get them back into school. It was not possible for the family to stay with their Father all year, as he would have to move one to three times during the school year. But they looked forward to the weekend when he could come home.


Duwayne and Verdan were considered top notch heavy equipment operators. Duwayne was the foreman of most of the jobs, he was an expert blade man. He retired from construction work in 1976, when they had just finished building the Trinidad Dam.
He had heart surgery in Denver in February, 1975, which he recovered from in a few months. Other than a couple of heart attacks which were prior to his surgery, he has had very good health. Although he had another heart attack in March 1990, just two weeks before his 75th birthday. He was very lucky to live in the day of modern medicine, which saved his life and give him a clean bill of health, for a couple more years. In the spring of 1993 he had to have his hearth ballooned, but at least it was not open heart surgery again.


After his retirement, he dug and cleaned wells and installed pumps. And since 1982, he has been care-taker for the Sanford Cemetery. He has planted all the cemetery in lawn grass, and has made many improvements. It is now a very beautiful place, due to his efforts.


Duwayne has always been a strong, honest, hard working man. He has been active in the Church, holding many position. It has been since his later years that the Church has become so important to him. He and Voris filled a mission in 1984-1985, in the Pittsburgh Mission. There they served in West Virginia in the Wheeling Branch. They enjoyed their mission very much. While on their mission Voris had a heart attack, but they were able to remain there until it was finished. One month after coming home she had heart surgery. 
So now they even have more in common, although this was not something they wanted to share. Duwayne for the last several years and now is doing extraction in the Church. He spends many hours reading old Spanish films and extracting the names off them. He has proven you can teach an old dog new tricks.


Duwayne and Voris celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary, December 24, 1986. At this time they had a prosperity of 40 children and grandchildren. As of his 80th birthday, they have a prosperity of 61 children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, with 2 more great grandchildren on the way. Duwayne loves his family very much, and they have a lot of good times together. He loves to get them together for picnics and at Christmas time, and every Sunday night at his house for popcorn. They younger grandchildren call him "Papa" and he has enjoyed spoiling them, he is especially proud to be the Great Granddad to Erica's new little twin boys. He has always had lots of friends and enjoys being with people. He has really enjoyed life having so many of his family and friends living near him.


This story was dedicate to Duwayne on his 80th Birthday, Happy Birthday Dad!


Compiled by Marilee, 24 March 1995.

Closeup of the above picture in Butte, Montana

Duwayne Cornum, age 2, in Butte, Montana,
visiting his Aunt Hettie Bates, in 1917.

Duwayne playing with the kittens
at his Aunt Naomi Reed Valentine's
in Sanford, Colorado, this was his birthplace.

Duwayne Cornum - grade school

Duwayne Cornum and Voris Jane Miller Cornum
newly-weds in Sanford, Colorado, 1936.

Duwayne Cornum about 17 yrs.

This is Duwayne's little blue jeep pulling a float in the 24th of July parade, there are many fond memories of this little blue jeep.  Main Street in Sanford, Colorado.

Duwayne and Tennis Cornum oiling the wheels on the wagon at the Cornum's Hardware and Station
in Sanford, Colorado - about 1946.

Cornum Hardware & Service Station in Sanford, Colorado
This is Duwayne Cornum with Dow Kennedy, a sales rep.

Francis Whitney, Edker & Cecil  Wilson, Lab Garcia, Duwayne Cornum, Guy Cunningham, Lindy Cunningham,
and Kenneth Jones - standing.

Hal & Duwayne Cornum in about 1952.

Duwayne Cornum and Harvey Jones on the Mt. Taylor job,
near Cubero, New Mexico, in 1969.

Voris Jane and Dorrel Duwayne Cornum, 1978.

Road job in Deming, New Mexico, in 1970.

Duwayne Cornum watering at the cemetery, 1997.
He served on the Sanford Cemetery Board from 1980-2004; part of this time he served as caretaker.
During this time the cemetery took on a new clean appearance.  He leveled and planted the whole cemetery into lawn grass, trimmed the willow trees and planted the Russian Olive trees.

Duwayne Cornum with his great granddaughter, Rylie, 2004

History of Heber Dorrel Cornum and Elizabeth "Lizzie" Pearl Reed

Lizzie Reed & Dorrel Cornum - Golden Wedding 1964, Sanford, Colorad
Frank, Monte, Duwayne, Bonnie, Gwen, Shirley, Kurt, Judy, Lizzie & Dorrel

Information from Duwayne Cornum and memories from the Cornum Book complied by Jan Westbrook Ryker (typed by Marilee Cornum Vannoy in 2002)

Heber Dorrel Cornum - about 1889

Heber “Dorrel” Cornum, was born the 25th of October, 1888, in Sanford, Colorado. He was the first child of seven children born to Paul “Heber” Cornum and Mary Emily Brady. He was born at home in a small log cabin. It was located on the south-west corner of block 78, where the school baseball field is now located. Later they built a home on the north east corner of block 82, which is now the home of Bill & Priscilla Reynolds.

Floss & Dorrel Cornum 1891

Dorrel grew up in Sanford. He was a stalky built man, about 5’8” tall and weighted about 195-200 lbs. He had a sandy complexion with reddish blonde hair, like his father’s side of the family. Dorrel was very strong. His son Duwayne said, “He was as strong as a bull.” Some of Dorrel’s best friends were Myron Holman and Charlie Cunnigham.

Dorrel helped his father farm and drill wells, which later became the means of supporting his family. He also loved to raise hogs and big gardens. When he was just a kid he worked for Joe McIntire, raking hay for $.25 cents a day. The McIntire ranch was located east of town on the other side of Saddleback mountain. Throughout his life he worked for several different farmers putting up a lot of hay. Duwayne remembered raising hay on his Grandpa Heber’s block 103, now owned by Allen Jackson. He said they raised a good crop of alfalfa hay for 22 years and never had to irrigate it. Grandpa Heber also owned block 111. Dorrel owned block 94, Duwayne said this was poor farming ground. It was not like the good lots that his Grandpa had.

Duwayne also remembered helping Papa drill wells. Dorrel knew the make of the land and where he could always draw water. He drilled many of the wells in the valley, as well as his father and later his son, Duwayne. When Duwayne was just big enough to set on a horse, he would ride old “Pet”, which walked around in a little circle for the power to the well rig. Dorrel would hook up two horses, Pine and Pet, one behind the other to the pull the power. The horses would get tired and Duwayne was suppose to keep them going. Well, he remembered getting sleepy when a wrench come flying through the air and hit old “pet” right in the ribs. This woke both of them up and they picked up their speed. Dorrel always had good horses and they were important to his livelihood.
Dorrel married Elizabeth “Lizzie” Pearl Reed on July 12, 1914. They were married by President James P. Jensen, in the Reed home, which is now where the city park is.
When Dorrel and Lizzie were married they first moved to Mesita, Colorado. There Dorrel was busy raising hogs. Their home was in a bunk house which stood about 4 feet above the ground. When their first baby, Duwayne was learning to walk, he would walk around holding onto the wall. One day as he was walking along the wall and came to the door, his weight pushed the door open and he fell out right on his head. Well this upset Lizzie very much to have her baby fall out and she said, “That was enough of that, and she was not going to raise her little boy over there.”

Dorrel Duwayne was named after is father, but always went by the name of Duwayne. He was born in March of 1915, at the home of his Aunt Naomi (Reed) Valentine. Lizzie had went to stay with her sister Naomi before the baby was born. The Valentine home, a little log cabin, was located on the south west corner of block 44, just north of the new school football field. The little log cabin has now been moved next to the Sanford Museum as part of the museum.

After Mesita, the Dorrel Cornum family moved back to Sanford. They first rented a house where Lorraine Larsen now lives, which is in the center of block 46. Then they moved into the Robert and Clara (Chandler) Crowther house on main street, which is now where Butch Crowther lives. The Crowther home was located on the north west corner of block 30. They were living there when Gwendolyn was born in December of 1916. And another daughter Bonnie was also born there in May of 1919.

Dorrel would recall the good times they used to have in the old Harrison Hall. He said, “Duwayne was a little old towhead sitting in the buggy. He was able to say a few words. Someone’s dog came in and was trotting by his buggy and the little tike hollered “sic-em” and the whole crowd heard him and really cracked up!” He sure laughed as he told it and said how well he remembered it and the good times they all had and how they went together and made their fun just for a good time and at no cost.

Dorrel then leased the Ramey ranch, which was north of Manassa, and now belongs to Ivan Thomas. Mr. Ramey was from Salida, Colorado. Duwayne remembers one visit from Mr. Ramey when he had brought his cat with him. Well the cat got spooked and ran away, they could not find the cat when Mr. Ramey was ready to return home. Mr. Ramey had to leave without his cat, but three weeks later his cat showed up in Salida. It had made it all the way home and had very sore feet when it arrived.

Duwayne also remembered how the railroad ran from Alamosa to Salida. It was the longest straight stretch of railroad in the world. The railroad was a very important means of transportation, hauling freight, mail and passengers.

While living on the ranch, Dorrel had a bunch of sheep. He was plagued by a light-colored crippled female coyote. She limped due to three toes missing on one foot. Dorrel went into John Rasmussen’s orchard and buried a beaver with a trap on top of it and covered it well so the magpies wouldn’t get it. He also had a big log chain on it completely covered up so the coyote couldn’t see it. Sure enough she got caught and headed north. The chain hooked onto a woven wire fence when she went through it. He found her the next morning. Dorrel said he was sure glad to kill that old rascal as she had sure given him a lot of trouble. He also lost 32 sheep at one time, when Jim Daniels ran into them with a car!

The Cornum family has many found memories while living out on the ranch. During that time, four more children were born to them. A third daughter, Shirley was born in March of 1921; a second son, Frank was born in June of 1923; a third son, Monte was born in January of 1928; and their fourth daughter, Jewel “Judy” was born in April of 1930. Dorrel and Lizzie were good parents and they taught their family to do a honest day’s work.

After living several years on the ranch the Cornum family moved back to Sanford. This time they rented a house from Carl Gylling. The house was on the west and north side of block 27. Mr. Gylling charged $15.00 per month for the rent. Dorrel fed lambs for Walt Crowther. He would ride Duwayne’s horse “King”, back and forth to feed the lambs for $15.00 per month, which was to cost of the rent.

While living in the Gylling house, a fourth son was born to Dorrel and Lizzie. Little Rex was born March 23, 1932. Baby Rex died when he was about 6 weeks old of yellow jaundice, on May 7, 1932. Duwayne remembered how he was as yellow as a pumpkin, and how his mother would set and rock and hold him, while he just screamed. It was a very hard for them to loose this little baby, but it was even harder to see him suffer.

Duwayne tells a story while living there. “It was during the probation period. Papa was always a great hand to be on the edge of everything. That is between the boot-leggers and the law. The boot-legger, he would go to jail; the guy handling the booze, if he was smart, got by all right. Papa had been off on a tear, he was pretty good at that. Well, he had gotten three gallons of boot-leg whisky. Two gallons were sealed up with a cap on them and one gallon had a corncob in it. I found them, they were buried in the grain bin.

Tuesday night was mutual, well, I went and got Belg Westbrook. We had a little nip out of the one with a corn cob in it. Before we got to church there had been nine of us boys in it and the gallon was half gone. We were all soused. I don’t remember what they did to us at mutual. But PaPa did not speak to me for over a week. He was going to run me off. I was about 15-16 years old, and old enough to know better. He was mad we had spilt about half of it; you could smell it in the wheat. The wheat was what used to feed the chickens. The booze didn’t belong to Papa. It was for a Doctor in La Jara; and there wasn’t three gallons when he went to deliver it. Boy was he mad.”

In April of 1934, the last child Kurt was born. He was born in the Cornum hospital in Alamosa, Colorado. This completed the Cornum family with eight living children. You can imagine how happy the family was to have a new little baby boy after the lost of little Rex.

Dorrel and Lizzie spent most of their married life living in Sanford, except for a short time, when they moved to Arizona. The depression had hit, and it hit the Cornum family. So in October of 1934, they packed up all their belonging and moved to Glendale, Arizona. They made the trip in their old truck and took everything they had with them. The truck was pilled up with furniture and they made a bed on the top where all the kids rode.

The first night they stayed between Santa Fe and Albuquerque, just off the side of the road. They put their beds right down on the sand. The second night was spent in Stafford, Arizona. And the third night they made it into Mesa. Kurt was only five months old and he was so sick when they arrived there.

That winter spent in Arizona, will always be remembered as mighty tough. It took all that Dorrel and Duwayne (age 19) could make to pay the rent (that was $15.00 a month) and to live on. Thank goodness they had brought plenty of food with them. Duwayne remembers how they never had a dime. Dorrel and Duwayne worked in the lettuce fields. Well, the piece of ground they farmed the lettuce on became quit a disappointment. They had worked it up, planted, and irrigated it. And when it came up it was as thick as a lawn. It had so many wild oats in it you couldn’t even find the dirt. They had to cut it for hay, it was a total lost. They had bought a gunny sack full of grapefruit for $.10 cents a sack. A gunny sack would weigh 100 pounds, so they had plenty of grapefruit to eat.

When they were working in the lettuce fields, they would have to go out before sunup in the morning, because in the winter time the days were short. It was sure cold going out to work in the mornings. But by the middle of the afternoon it would get so hot they would have to peel off their clothes. Duwayne retells, “I remember Papa coming home with his underwear under his arm one day. He had got so hot he couldn’t stand it. That sure did tickle mother.”

While living in Glendale they went to church regularly. They were the only family with about three other people attending. So they didn’t have much church. Well they were tickled to death to have Gwen come, so she could play the piano for the rest of them to sing. In March the family was able to go to the temple and be sealed for all time and eternity. They went to the Mesa Temple on the 27th of March, 1935. The next month they left Arizona for good.

When the Cornum family arrived in Sanford, they moved in with Lizzie’s sister, Alice Reed, who never married. Aunt Allie, as they called her, became a second mother to the children. They built three rooms on the back of Aunt Allie’s home. In the front part of the house was the post office and a drug store. Allie was the Postmistress in Sanford for some 70 years. Lizzie helped her with the post office and drug store. John Westbrook would meet the train in La Jara with the mail each morning and night. The train came from Durango at night and from Denver in the morning. He would also take orders from Allie for medicine that was needed and bring it back. Allie was so good to people to give them their paper or mail or dry cleaning at the back door when the post office was closed. Her kindness and goodness knew no bounds.

(The following is from memories of their daughter, Judy) “I have the best parents in the world!!! One of the things that I remember about Dad is how his judgment was held in the highest esteem. I know of several people that would come to him and ask his opinion about most anything because they respected his judgment so completely. He was very honest and dealt with his fellow man very fairly. He didn’t owe anyone very long before paying them in full. The fact that the banker O.A. Garris, never hesitated to lend him money when he needed, helped me to know it was because of his integrity.
It would be fun to know how many wells he has drilled in this Valley. There were many I know, and how many homes he has put the plumbing in I can’t begin to say. He has crawled under many a house that was narrow and spidery and put the pipes together for the convenience of having water in the house.

He hauled coal from Walsenburg and took iron to Pueblo to sell many times. He always had good hogs that he was raising to butcher and to sell. My, how he did cook potatoes and grain to feed them. Never did he have an animal on the place that he would let go hungry. He always had fat animals. When it was time to butcher, everybody in the neighborhood had a fresh package of meat. Mother would take the skin of the hog and make cracklins when she rendered the lard from the skin. Oh, they were good!!! Then she would make cracklin biscuits. Say, they were hard to beat. Mother was a wonderful cook!!!

Mother was very good at doing for the family on whatever Dad provided and sometimes that was pretty meager. I never remember going hungry but hearing them talk about how tough times were. At times they must have done without just to see that us kids had plenty.
Mother was a very good seamstress too. I can remember some of the dresses that she made for me and they were cute too. I wish I could tell her how much that I appreciate it and all the things she did for me. Bbecause I didn’t always act like I wish I had, to show her how much I appreciated the things she did for me.
Mother would bake bread and have supper in the making when she would go into the Post Office to help Allie in the evening. We kids would come home from school, thinking we were starved to death, and of course, eat our weight in fresh bread or rolls. Then she would come in with the intend to have supper ready, and we had eaten her bread. She would scold us right good and then fix something real good to eat.

Mother always did her own fixing up around the house. She would paint and sew curtains and was an immaculate housekeeper. She designed her kitchen when she had it remodeled. Buck Canty made it just the way she wanted it. It was real pretty and convenient. She had good taste when it came the redoing whatever.

Sylvia Cunningham was a good friend to Mother and she use to come down. Mother would visit with her in her car in front of the house. I guess they had something in common and enjoyed each others company. Sylvia gave mother a creamer and sugar bowl when I was born, because I was born on her husband, Charilie’s birthday. They had a girl born in September after I was born in April and we were good friends also.

Mother and Dad always taught us kids honesty, how to work and to have Heavenly Father in our lives. They showed us how to love each other and to respect each other and to always stay close as a family. I am so thankful for that. They were truly good parents, not perfect, but really good parents and good people.”

Their grandson Mart recalls, “When I was real small there was a chicken coop in the northwest corner of the property that was the house of the rooster who chased me. Well the rooster was an Easter chick that Duwayne’s kids had gotten. When he grew up they gave him to Papa because he was too mean to keep with the kids. Papa asked me to stand in the gate so the chickens would not run out while he fed them. He knew the rooster would challenge me and he surely did. I was not about to stand and let him attack me so I turned and ran for the car in front of the garage. I got across the garden and almost to the garage when I fell face first on the ground. I looked back and the rooster was waiting for me to get up, so he could resume the chase, which he did. If roosters could laugh he would have been roaring; but not half as hard as Papa, as he watched the whole chase played out.

Papa never had teeth that I remember and we loved to use the grinder he used to grind peanuts. We always had to shell a few nuts and grind them for ourselves, and they tasted especially good that way. Mom was a great cook and one of the very favorite things that I remember eating there was the lemon desserts baked in a little crock bowl. Lemon ice box cake and lemon frozen pie were two other favorites that we had often when at their house.”

Dorrel and Lizzie lived with Aunt Allie until Lizzie passed away in October in 1965. After this Dorrel moved in with his daughter Judy. He enjoyed raising pigs and a big garden.

His granddaughter Jan recalls, “The aroma of potatoes, corn and oats cooking out behind our house for Papa’s pigs is a great memory. He had a big cooker at the pigpen and was always fixing something form them to eat. Loading the pigs for a sale was always a trial.

They had to be shoved up the chute (sometimes with a Scotch blessing from Papa). We used old pieces of hose to encourage them on their way. Papa would usually be the one to hold a large board so the pigs couldn’t run back down and squeeze by, back into the pen.” He was loved by all his children and grandchildren, who called him "PaPa".

Dorrel Cornum with daughter Bonnie Coombs, and granddaughter Becky - 1970

About the last two years of Dorrel’s life, he spent in a nursing home. There he enjoyed visiting with old friends, Heber DePriest and Billy Schempf. His roommate was Walt Timmins, and they sure went the rounds a few times. He was still a pretty tough old guy. He passed away on February 20 , 1977, and was buried beside his wife in the Sanford Cemetery.


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