Montrose - Daily Press

Marilyn
Cox
A Step Back
In Time

Presently it’s just a cold, empty house — circa 1909, white frame — sitting on  the street at the Museum of the Mountain West, located between Lee Wung’s Laundry and the Jutten Schoolhouse. Its original location was not far off Highway 50 East at 70 Hillcrest Avenue where a new subdivision is underway. When the house and outbuildings were offered to Richard Fike, museum director, Fike and the museum board definitely wanted to incorporate them into their re-created townsite.

Fike, an archaeologist and historian, is a stickler for authenticity and detail. When he found out that the Frank Williams family lived in the house for many years and that the two daughters currently live in Grand Junction, he invited them to come and walk through the house with him. I was fortunate to be there.

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Marie Warner and Frances Frigetto approached their childhood home, remembering the huge lilac bush that was in the side yard. As they stepped onto the lovely front porch with its white columns, Fran exclaimed, “Oh my gosh!”

The memories started flowing. As the front door opened into the living room, the ladies remembered how the piano, couch, arch-shaped radio and pink-colored easy chair were all arranged, with an area rug covering the wooden floors. Marie commented, “I remember this room being so much bigger,” while Fran said, “Our mother was a meticulous housekeeper. There was a place for everything and everything in its place.”

As we went from room to room, a picture emerged of this happy, contented family with a hard-working father, devoted mother, happy kids and large extended Italian family who were there to brighten almost every day.

Their father was born Frank Guglielmino on December 15, 1893, in the little village of Montelenghe in the Province of Torino in northern Italy. Robert Faussone, his godfather, sponsored Frank when he immigrated to the United States as a very young man. Frank changed his name to Williams and was naturalized in January, 1923.

When he first arrived, Frank went to work at anything he could find. His goal was to buy land and get into the sheep business, which he did. Not only did he have land in the valley, but he had land on Dallas Divide. Fran said, “I like to brag about my dad. He was such a hard worker. He didn’t speak much English, but he worked so hard and he built an empire.”

Through his friendship with her brother, Frank met his future wife, Angelina DeJulio. She was born in Ridgway January 7, 1907, and they were married in Montrose on December 6, 1925. Frank and Angelina had three children. Frank, Jr. was born in 1926, but unfortunately died in 1934 from peritonitis. Marie (1932) and Frances (1935) were both born in the house.

Walking through their childhood home sparked so many memories for Frances and Marie — playing with many near-by cousins, feeding bum lambs, swinging from a rope in the backyard tree, roller skating on Highway 50, peeling peaches on the back porch, their mother having tea at the kitchen table, being one of the few families to have a bathroom, going to sheep camp with their dad.

After visiting with each other on their way back to Grand Junction, Fran wrote the following e-mail:

“Our mother, Angelina, did not know how to drive and our dad was always on the go working on Saturdays, so we would get a ride with my mother’s cousin into town and spend the morning looking around and shopping…really remember the five and ten cent store on Main Street. At lunchtime our mom would take us to the little hamburger shop on a side street off Main for a hamburger and soda…mid-afternoon we would go to the drugstore and get an ice cream sundae…then on to the grocery store to get weekly groceries…what a day…actually brings tears to my eyes…we do have some special memories of our parents.”

Yes, the little white house suddenly became a family home with plants in the dining room bay window, floral linoleum on the parents’ bedroom floor, and a warmth and coziness that came from more than the coal heater and cast iron cooking range.

“Are you glad to see this house saved?” asked Fike.

“Yes!” the ladies enthusiastically answered.

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