In this edition of the Kiowa County Independent, we are featuring the groundbreaking ceremony for the new McClave School District. It has been a long time coming and many forward thinking people have worked extremely hard to make this achievement a reality. They are the builders of today. In honor of a promising future, we thought this would be a good time to look back a few generations to the original builders of McClave.
The photograph shows a crowd gathered in front of the Farmers Mercantile Store and Post Office in McClave, Colorado, sometime around 1910. Men in hats lean casually against the storefront, a horse-drawn wagon dominates the foreground, and one man—balanced confidently on top of the wagon—appears almost heroic against the tall false front of the building. A sign to the left reads “McClave Cash Store.” Whether this was a special day or simply an ordinary Saturday gathering, the scene captures a moment in time when McClave was full of energy, possibility, and the bustling commerce of a young agricultural community.
Today, McClave remains a small but sturdy settlement of just over 400 residents in eastern Bent County, located about 109 miles east and slightly south of Pueblo along U.S. Highway 50. Though no longer incorporated, the town continues to maintain its post office—first opened in 1908—which stands as one of the most enduring symbols of its early development. The town took its name from Bayard Taylor “B.T.” McClave, an Illinois native who arrived in Colorado as a homesteader in 1892 and married Ruby E. Shephard, also of Illinois, in Greeley four years later. When the settlement began to take shape, it did so on land B.T. owned, making him not only the community’s namesake but also one of its primary founders.
From the outset, McClave grew around farming and ranching. B.T. himself became one of the region’s most respected agricultural leaders, a man whose interests extended far beyond his own land. Early newspapers—from the Lamar Register to the Las Animas Leader—regularly noted his activities. In 1900, reporters described him as “one of eastern Bent county’s most prosperous farmers” as he completed final proof on his homestead at the local land office. In the years that followed, B.T. worked to improve important infrastructure, joining with Dr. Hasty in 1910 to upgrade the graveyard road at a time when local roads depended entirely on community initiative. By 1915, he donated land for the United Methodist Church, demonstrating his belief not only in the economic future of the town but its spiritual and civic foundation.
In addition to his work on the land, B.T. emerged as a major figure in water management, banking, and regional development. His leadership roles included vice president of the Bent County Good Roads Association; representative and later vice president of the Arkansas Valley Ditch Association; president of the Fort Lyon Canal Company; president of the McClave Drainage District; vice president and later president of the Lamar National Bank; and director of the Southeast Colorado Livestock Association. These positions made him central to everything from irrigation and transportation to finance and livestock commerce in southeastern Colorado. When he passed away in 1941—followed by his wife Ruby in 1955—he left behind a legacy woven into the fabric of the community that still bears his name.
To understand what life was like in early McClave, one need only browse the lively “locals” and community notes published in area newspapers during the first decades of the 20th century. These short columns offer a vivid, often charming picture of everyday life. By 1908, for example, the beet growers in the area were reported to be joining together in protest against the reduction in beet prices, asserting that the sugar factories were claiming too much of the profit. In 1911, the Las Animas Leader chronicled activities that ranged from mule breaking to livestock shipping. B.O. McClave, it noted, was spending most of his time training twenty-three young mules, each about three years old and considered fine stock. Around the same time, a Mr. J.E. Davis sold a young mule for the impressive sum of $100, while livestock producer Howard Fulkerson shipped twenty-three rail cars of sheep to Chicago, all loaded at McClave. On that same day, Fred Keener shipped four rail cars of livestock from Prowers, illustrating how central McClave had already become to the region’s agricultural economy.
These newspapers captured smaller stories of daily life as well. A local photographer—referred to as “the McClave picture man”—was traveling to nearby Hasty to do some work. The McClave Cash Store had installed new wagon scales, signaling the growth of commerce in the town. A broom-corn producer, J.B. Peterson, was loading a rail car of his product. The community planned a box social for February 14, inviting “all good-looking boys and girls” to attend, adding a playful touch to pioneer social life. Not all daily adventures were pleasant: one young man accidentally drove a knife through his hand while repairing a violin, and another, D.M. Ard, was kicked in the face while trimming a mule’s tail, breaking his nose and cutting his lip. Yet even these injuries were recorded with dry frontier humor—injuries were “not thought to be serious,” and life moved on. Women worked in local establishments such as the Village Hotel, where Ella Ralston served as cook, and community members traveled, visited, and teased each other with the easy familiarity of neighbors who shared both hardships and joys.
By 1912, the newspaper noted—perhaps with a wink—that the “McClave butcher” had been spotted in Wiley, prompting locals to wonder what attractions might be drawing him away from home. These small-town notices, preserved in historic newspaper archives, reveal a community that was hardworking, interconnected, and full of personality.
Though McClave is no longer incorporated, the town continues to be grounded in agriculture and family life. Its school remains a vital center for the surrounding area, its post office still serves as a hub of connection, and many families trace their roots back to the early settlers who built the community from the ground up. From the bustling storefronts of 1910 to the quieter rhythms of today, McClave’s story is one of resilience and continuity—proof that even the smallest towns on the high plains carry histories as sweeping and meaningful as the prairie sky above them.
