After leaving Garden of the Gods we drove to Woodland Park and stopped here long enough to get a picture of Bill and the dinosaur for our grandson, Donavin. Then west to Florissant, CO
We stopped at the Hornbek Homestead. Adeline Hornbek wasn't born in the west but she became a prime example of the can-do spirit of the American pioneer women. Born in 1833 in Massachusetts, she married Simon Harker at age 25 and moved to the untamed west. Four years after filing a claim on 160 acres near Denver, Harker died leaving Adeline with 3 children in the unforgiving west.
Showing east coast spunk, Adeline refused to surrender, using a clause in the 1862 Homestead Act to buy 80 acres of their land for $100. Two months after the purchase she married Elliot Hornbek and they added a fourth child to the family in 1870. In 1875 Elliot disappeared and his fate is unknown to this day.
Once more, Hornbek was left alone with young children to feed. Again she persevered, accumulating enough money to purchase property in the Florissant Valley west of Colorado Springs. A master craftsman hired by Adeline used dozens of Ponderosa pines to build a fine home for her family. Aside from the house outbuildings included a milk house, chicken house, and stables.
When completed in 1878, the house was the first in the valley to have more than one story and nearly a dozen glass paned windows. Mrs Hornbek became a prominent member of the growing community of Florissant, serving on the school board and hosting social gatherings at her home. At age 66, she married again and the couple stayed on the ranch until her death in 1905.
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