Hard times were two words not in Adeline Schlaepfer Neff’s vocabulary.
The 92-year-old, who died July 21 at her home in Morrison, survived log cabin living in Leadville without water or electricity, the 1918 flu epidemic and a cow that tried to run her down.
But it was all an adventure to her, and she wasn’t sympathetic when her children complained about today’s “inconveniences,” said her daughter Beatrice Trautman, of Morrison.
Adeline Schlaepfer was born in a two-room log cabin that is still standing outside Leadville.
She and her five siblings and their parents brought water up from the creek and kept warm with a wood-burning stove. Milk was kept cool in cans stored in the creek because there was no refrigeration.
The children got up at 5 a.m. and helped their dad, Edward Schlaepfer, milk the cows for his dairy. The kids went to school in a horse-drawn wagon.
The school building was turned into a morgue for the bodies of those killed by the 1918 worldwide flu epidemic. Bodies couldn’t be buried until the frozen ground thawed.
When Adeline was 10, she was helping her dad get cows into an enclosed area. Rabbit, a cow usually in bad humor, charged at the young girl, and she began screaming. Colonel, a herding dog, raced to her rescue, nipping at the cow’s nose until it backed off and the girl could run to safety.
Her parents saved enough money for her to go to college, and she graduated from the University of Colorado with an English degree.
It was there she met Alfred Neff of Creede, who was putting himself through college with summer jobs, including trapping. They met in a hiking club.
It was four years before they had the money to marry.
At one point, Alfred Neff missed his girlfriend so much he hiked, carrying his bed roll and fishing rod, from Central City to Leadville to see her. It took more than four days. They were married in June 1934.
He ultimately worked as an aeronautical engineer for United Airlines. He died in 1990.
The couple never lost their love of the mountains and took their children camping, fishing and hiking every year. Adeline Neff continued the practice well into her 80s.
She climbed several fourteeners, was a good shot with a .22 and was unbeatable at Scrabble, Trautman said.
Alfred and Adeline Neff’s children scattered the ashes of their parents near Leadville. And then they camped out.
“It felt so right,” Trautman said.
In addition to Trautman, Adeline Neff is survived by two other daughters, Pearl Pedersen of San Francisco and Kathy Keech of Morrison; six grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at 303-820-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com.
