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Show !"H0flELES5 TWENTY" HONOR FOSTER-MOTHER vt5 & . i 3 j s MONUMENT AND TABLET PLACED AT GRAVE BRONZE tablet placed by pioneers of Twin Falls, Idaho, on granite monument at resting place of Alice Ro.eille McCollum, who saved the town when depopulation stared it in its dusty little face. j ; 1 ., ALICE JlbZEjLLE MVXOUtC ?A I oOTivMOTHea qf the homihussJKtvI " j ' nommv vomau 01- twin palls ' t; ; liHlv ivtKDK ESSES -BVER; BREHmBHRED l CHecTCO'iSiS CY THE HDMELKSlVam C- 9 , K,e:i?t4.okc u.w.aiiu ts'ckEL F-ntis'ft. Rtrt-D iff! i !. I.JA'pOtS CJ'.CieKt'- O.A-f-ALVPiv, U.P0eoftK Ai Twenty Desert Defiers Bow Heads in Grief When "Mother" Dies. By JESSIE WARRINGTON. Special to The Triburfe. TWIN FALLS, Idaho, Nov. 6. On Friday morning there was placed at the foot of the grave of Mrs. Robert M. McCollum in the Twin Falls cemetery a gray monument of "Vermont "Ver-mont granite, bearing on its face a bronze plate 15 by 24 inches, with the following inscription. "In loving memory of Alice Eozeille McCollnm, foster. mother of the Homeless Home-less Twenty, pioneer woman of Twin Falls. May her kiudness ever be remembered. remem-bered. Erected 1915 by the Homeless Twenty of 1904 M. B. Be Long, C. S. Loveland, J. V. Baker, T. J. Woods, G. F. Baker, C. M. Hill, W. W. Dunn, H. I. Wall, C. E. Cole, C. P. Diehl, G. B. Fraser, ft. F. Allen, P. S. A. Bickel, P. W. Sweenev, A. N. Frankel, 0. A. Stalker, Stalk-er, S. T. Hamilton, II. W. Clouchck. Fred R, Reed, M. C. Heap, J. E. Hayes, M. F. Osborne. F. A. Burringto'n, C. H. Mull, Stuart H. Taylor, A. N. Sprague, T. C. Macauley. ' ' Members of the Homeless Twenty" still resicfing in Twin Falls assisted in. the placing qf the monument Friday in the presence of the immediate members of the family Robert M. McCollum and daughter, Mrs. .1. Walter Craven, .1. Walter Craven and the two little grandchildren, grand-children, Alice McCollum Craven and Robert McCollum Craven. Depopulation Threatens. The ' ' Homeless Twenty ' ' organization represents the pioneer business and professional pro-fessional men of Twin Kails doctors, lawvers. dentists, newspaper men. mer- chants, promoters, druggists, etc. They came in the beginning" when the newness new-ness and rawness of things started a wave of homesickness that threatened to become quite as demoralizing to the life of the new city as a band of murderous mur-derous Indians. Tents and shacks for homes and stores; dust nearly a foot deep where the sagebrush was cleared for the streets and alleys; no tree in sight as far as the eye could see, and a wind that worked, at that time, 'almost unceasingly un-ceasingly day and night all this was highly conducive to the severest , attacks at-tacks of homesickness, and the men really suffered. There came a time when matters became be-came serious and depopulation stared the town in its dnsti face, and it was necessary that something be done at once to save the city. It was at this time that Mrs. McCollum Mc-Collum stepped into her place. Woman Saves Town. "It is a home they need," she said to her husband, the real "Father of Twiu Falls, " who had finally voiced his fears. "A home will save them and the town," she said confidently, "and as ours is the only real home within miles we must throw it open to them at once." So it was done,' almost before the plastering was dry on the walls of the new McCollum home. And nearly every week thereafter the men of Twin Fall's gathered at the McCollum home and enjoyed music, entertainment, good things to eat and the spirit of a real home. It was to them as an oasis in a great, lonely Sahara. Thus- the 11 Homeless Twenty ,r was organized at the first 11 house warming" in the first residence in Twin Falls, and it grew until it included twenty-seven twenty-seven men. And there, came a day when the ""mother' of the '( Homeless Twenty" was called away, April 4, 1915, and the members of the "Homeless Twenty" Twen-ty" many of them scattered from ocean to ocean bowed their heads in grief at her passing, and the memory of her kindness to them filled their hearts. And so, to honor her memory, and as a tribute to the remaining members of the family, they have placed at the foot of her grave the enduring monument of bronze and granite, dedicated to the "Foster-Mother of the Homeless Twenty" Twen-ty" and pioneer woman of Twin Falls. |