By Terry W. Blevins
(Originally published February, 1987)
 In the early part of the 20th Century, Cal Stewart, as "Uncle Josh Weathersby," performed a long series of Yankee-dialect monologues around events in Pumpkin Center, a mythical wide spot in the road which is reminiscent of Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegone.
That Pumpkin Center may have been a mythical place, but "Pumpkin Center,” Colorado exists. Despite the best intentions of professional writers and their editors over the years to spell it the "proper" way, Colorado's "Pumpkin Center" has survived as "Punkin" Center, as it was named around 1930 by young Mildred Stevens.
Mildred's dad. Sears M. Stevens, built a small store and filling station at the point where two roads crossed about 29 miles south of Limon, in Lincoln County. In those days, those roads were just plain country dirt roads, but now they are State Highways 71 (which runs north and south) and 94 (the former "Farmer's Highway, which runs east and west). Sears Stevens built his new store on four acres next to the road, north of Highway 94 and east of Highway 71. Further west on Highway 94, at Hall Station, Stevens had another store and a blacksmith shop.
That parcel was included in 320 acres for which Charles E. Blackburn of Clay County, Kansas received a patent on July 28, 1913. The patent was issued by President Woodrow Wilson. In 1919, Blackburn deeded the land to George Walker, also of Clay County, Kansas.
During the next decade, the land was transferred back and forth between George Walker and John B. Walker, until June 17, 1929, when Sears M. Stevens acquired those four acres.
The new store was painted a bright orange, which prompted young Mildred Stevens to comment, "It looks just like a big punkin!" So while the business was advertised in the local papers as "the Orange Front Filling Station," it became known to the Stevens family as "Punkin Center," and that is the name that stuck.
Sears Stevens' brother, Howard Wilson Stevens, was born to Mr. and Mrs. George Mitchell Stevens in Poweshiek County, Iowa January 9, 1874. His father had come from Pennsylvania, while his mother (whose maiden name was Farmer) hailed from Indiana.
Howard Stevens came to Colorado from Oklahoma in 1906, and worked as a ranch hand. At one time, he had an interest in the Farmers Union Store at Calhan. Stevens proved up on a homestead in the Cocklcbur community in Lincoln County around 1926, then traded the claim for land near Rye.
Arrived in 1929
He came to Punkin Center in 1929, when he took over operation of the store and station for his brother.
A lifelong bachelor, Stevens didn't leave much evidence of a personal nature behind him. After his death, the Eastern Colorado Plainsman newspaper noted, "He was a man of quiet disposition, good habits and attended strictly to his business and hardly ever was absent from the station where he had sleeping quarters."
His second cousin, Marjorie Hitchcock of Hugo, said "He was tough, I guess, but he was really pretty nice.. .a nice man."
Mildred Stevens, now Mildred Williams, associates food and song with her Uncle Howard.
"He cooked what he called 'flap jacks.' They were large, skillet-sized pancakes he flipped in the air to turn. I was fascinated at how he would catch these, seldom ever missing. He made enough for him and his dog; they (the flap jacks) were quite greasy, and they both got fat on them."
"I remember a mulligan stew. This he made mainly in the winter time. A large kettle would sit and simmer on the wood heating stove all day long. He started with beans, and added vegetables according to the needed cooking time, until there was an enormous, tasty variety."
Howard and Sears both had good singing voices, she said. Her Uncle Howard "had a marvelous voice that boomed the tune and words into the air." One of her favorites, which she's remembered over the years, was "I Love the Man in the Moon."
I love the man in the moon
We shall be married in June
Sweet little Venus
Shall stand right between us
When I marry the Man in the Moon.
The Stevens family spent hours around the piano at Hall Station, singing old and new favorites, and church hymns. "But there never was a time Uncle Howard joined us. He was always at Punkin Center."
Members of the Sears Stevens family did go to Punkin Center to visit with Howard, though, and Sears checked on him weekly. Every Tuesday evening, he would go to Punkin Center to pick up Howard's grocery list, along with the money from the past week's sales. "I don't think anyone ever tried to hold him up, but he was prepared, carrying his trusty six-shooter," said his daughter.
Howard Stevens was not as fortunate.
In addition to the store and station, Punkin Center boasted two small cabins which were rented to travelers by the night. December 13, 1930, two young men. Jack Crawford, 16, of Flint, Michigan, and Willie Blade, 17, of Trinidad, rented one of the cabins from Howard Stevens.
Poor reward for hospitality
The evening was a cold one, so he invited the pair into his living quarters to get warm and to have something to eat. After the meal, one of the youths excused himself, saying he was tired and going to bed; the other remained inside with Howard.
Once outside, the first youth went to a window and fired shots into the room, one bullet entering Howard's shoulder from behind and two others imbedding themselves in the wall. Though wounded, Stevens still was able to get his own rifle and get the drop on the second youth.
Howard forced the youth to treat his bullet wound with turpentine, then marched him on foot to the Monroe house, 1 1/2 miles east of the store. From there, they went to the Alex Matheson ranch to call the sheriff.
The neighbor took Howard and his prisoner to Hall Station, and Sears then took them both to Colorado Springs, Howard to the doctor and the prisoner to the jail.
The other youth went north, walking across the prairie all night before hiding in Clay Walker's hayloft for several days. He survived by robbing the pantry when no one was around.
Finally, he "borrowed" a horse and saddle from Walker and proceeded north. Authorities found him burrowed in a hay stack on the Schellenberger farm 5 1/2 miles south of Limon.
Both boys were sent to the reform school at Buena Vista for their parts in this incident.
Howard's niece, Mildred, moved into one of the Punkin Center cabins, where she lived while attending seventh grade, her freshman and sophomore years, at Pride of the Prairie School, some six miles away. The bus stopped right in front of the store for "this lone passenger."
"I felt like I was there as a kind of body guard for my uncle, as there had been an attempted hold up," she recalled. "I kept a loaded .410 shotgun within reach of my bed. I had experience in handling guns, with practice in rabbit hunting. I also had used a .22 rifle.
"But nothing ever happened, while I was there (at Punkin Center)."
Something did happen, after she had gone, however.
Friday, July 2, 1937 proved to be another fateful day in the life of Howard Stevens, although when he retired for the night, it no doubt seemed like any other night to him.
But while he slept, someone took advantage of a broken window to enter the store. He was slugged in the head with a blackjack; his hands were tied behind him with his socks; his legs were bound with electrical wiring.
Stevens was never certain whether he was awake or asleep when he was attacked; he told authorities he recalled one man telling another to wipe out all fingerprints.
At any rate, the thieves got away with about $100 in cash, a revolver and a watch, plus 11 gallons of gasoline, after ransacking the place. The culprits were never caught.
Found by niece
Howard's niece, Mildred, by this time married to Bryan Miller and expecting her first baby, found her uncle the next day. She and her husband were en route to Limon, and stopping by Punkin Center, found Howard tied in his bed.
"He had a terrible black eye. We presume they were trying to get him to tell them where there was more money, but as far as I know, there wasn't any more."
This assault had a profound effect on Mildred. "It really disturbed me, and my sleep. Night after night I had nightmares, seeing Uncle Howard's black eye. Some people were afraid my baby would carry a birthmark of a black eye, but thank God, he didn't. Being an All-American boy, he managed to get a few on his own later, the kind that teach and heal."
Howard Stevens, himself, apparently was undaunted by the two attacks on his person, for he remained at Punkin Center. In the fall of 1937, he purchased the business, with Sears Stevens officially transferring ownership to his brother January 8, 1938.
In late August, 1941, Mr. and Mrs. Sears Stevens were recovering from "a really tough bout" with the flu. Mildred said, "This loving daughter thought it would be good to take them for a nice ride, to get fresh air."
That "nice ride" ended at Punkin Center, where Mr. and Mrs. Stevens and their daughter, Mrs. Williams, found Howard Stevens lying dead, just inside the door to his store.
The Eastern Colorado Plainsman gave two different accounts of when authorities knew that Stevens had been attacked again. The first account, published August 29, 1941, said Stevens was found with his .45 Colt, one shell discharged, lying by his side. But the second account, published a week later, said authorities first thought Stevens had died of a heart attack, as other members of his family had expired suddenly of heart ailment.
The September 5, 1941 issue reported the bullet wounds were first discovered by Coroner Velman Seal, at the funeral home. Doctors R. P. Harvey and J. O. Clanin were called in to probe for bullets, and they found two .22 "Hollowpoints".
One bullet had entered the chest, striking the third rib and hitting the pleural cavity. The other entered his right side, shattering the liver.
A coroner's jury composed of W. C. Wright, R. E. Bozell, Elmer Kesler, Glenn Harris, George Lohmeier and T. H. McCallum convened at the Seal Funeral Home in Limon and reported, "We, the coroner's jury, find that Howard W. Stevens came to his death by bullet wounds inflicted by a gun in the hands of parties unknown."
Following the inquest, Stevens was buried in the Limon cemetery August 30,1941.
Back at the store, investigation was underway by Sheriff Merlin Koerner, deputy district attorney Charles Beeler, and Courtesy Patrol (now State Patrol) officer Duane Handrick. They found three empty .22 shell casings about 18 feet away from the station. Two of the bullets had struck Stevens; the third went through the door casing, struck a can of popcorn in the store, then lodged itself in a can of potted meat.
They also found one of the station's two gas pumps unlocked, with the hose lying on the ground, and Howard's flashlight lying beside it. One news account stated the flashlight was still on, when found.
The pivotal piece of evidence, however, was a gasoline cap found by local rancher E. A. Simmons before it was known that a crime had been committed. The gasoline cap was of the locking variety, with unusual ornaments around its edge.
Legwork has results
Through painstaking investigation involving contacting every service station operator within miles of Punkin Center, authorities were able to determine ownership of the gas cap. It finally was identified by the young son of Alfred Madson, who lived in Otero County, as belonging to his father.
The elder Madson soon was freed from suspicion, but authorities turned their attention to another of his sons, Alfred Madson Jr., who had used his father's car on the day Stevens was killed. Madson Jr. was nowhere to be found, however.
Then about a month after the murder at Punkin Center, authorities got a "lucky break" when Alfred Madson Jr. walked into the Otero County Sheriff's Office and asked for a dollar. He didn't get the dollar, but he did get a free ride to the jail at Hugo September 25, 1941, and from there, he was taken to Colorado Springs.
Madson was no greenhorn. At age 23, he already had served four terms in prison: at the Colorado Industrial School at Golden, at the reformatory at Buena Vista, and in the state prison at Canon City, each time for burglary. And earlier in 1941, he was released from the federal penitentiary at Terminal Island, San Pedro, California after a term for forging a WPA (Works Progress Administration) check in La Junta.
In custody again, he denied involvement in the Howard Stevens murder for nearly a week. But under relentless questioning from police inspector I. B. Bruce and district attorney Irl Foard, Madson finally signed a confession to the crime October 1. His confession implicated another La Junta man, Frank Madill, 27.
Madill likewise was nowhere to be found, but his photograph was widely circulated. When he attempted to sell a camera at a pawnshop in Salt Lake City, Utah, he was arrested for vagrancy, and later was identified as the man wanted in Lincoln County for murder.
Madson had claimed the robbery and murder were all Madill's idea, but even after his fingerprints matched up with those of the wanted man, Madill still claimed police had arrested the wrong individual.
He had not been "on the run," Madill said; he had been "on the bum," following the hobo trail to California and back, while looking for work.
Divorced, with a three-year-old daughter, Madill also had a prior record, having served time for burglary, once at the Industrial School at Golden, and twice at Canon City.
Madill admitted being at Punkin Center with Madson in August, but he said he didn't know Stevens was shot, at the time, and he didn't know Stevens had died until he was arrested in Utah. (He later claimed the robbery and murder were all Madson's idea.)
Pleaded guilty to murder
November 18, 1941, Madson pleaded guilty to Stevens' murder, while Madill pleaded innocent. At the time they entered their pleas, neither was represented by an attorney.
The next day, the murder weapon (a .22 Woodsman target pistol) was found at the home of Madill's brother, in La Junta.
Madson's mother, Goldie L. Madson, thought he was insane. As part of the agreement made when he pleaded guilty, Madson was sent for evaluation to the Colorado Springs Psychopathic Hospital. But November 28, the hospital found him sane.
District Court Judge John M. Meikle appointed Hugo attorney and Lincoln County Judge C. M. Somerville to defend Madson in court. A trial, to determine whether the murder was in the first degree and, if so, to determine the punishment, was set for December 9, 1941...just two days after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States entered World War II.
Madson's jury consisted of Fred L. Lemay, Clyde Warner, John Westlund, Iller P. Anderson, R. D. Matheson, C. M. Alien, K. K. Station, A. T. Spaid, Raymond J. Peterson, R. S. Logan, Clarence E. Pratt and Clarence Rowley (foreman). December 10, Rowley advised the court that the jury had found Madson guilty of first-degree murder, and recommended a sentence of imprisonment for life at hard labor in the state penitentiary.
Madill's trial was set for December 10. He changed his plea to guilty of murder, and again, a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder, and recommended a sentence of imprisonment for life at hard labor in the state penitentiary. Members of Madill's jury were Roy Muckler, Paul Marso, H. R. Marshall, Lawrence Hoepner, Chester Palmer, Tom Capps, Gerald Hammond, C. C. Draper, H. P. Quist, Charles Kennedy, D. J. Riordan (elsewhere spelled Reardon), and J. P. Iseman Jr., foreman. Madill's court-appointed attorney was former Limon Mayor Robert Schaper, by then a Colorado Springs lawyer who later became a district court judge, himself.
The death of Howard Stevens resulted in the land and buildings at Punkin Center being inherited by his brothers and sisters, who in turn deeded the property back to Sears Stevens in July, 1942.
The property then was sold to Ralph C. Haddock in September, 1944, who was to operate the business, including the sale of coal, for the next nine years.
December 14, 1953, Haddock sold the property and personal items at public auction, and transferred ownership of the four acres at Punkin Center to Veryl and Mary Storey, and to Clint Storey. The Storeys intended to continue the business there, but they didn't get the chance.
January 7,1954, the store building, house and garage were destroyed by a fire which also damaged a nearby well house and windmill. While ownership of the property had been transferred. Haddock still was in possession at the time of the fire.
Haddock said the fire probably started from a bunch of oily rags in the garage, although there were other papers and combustible articles in the buildings which could have been the cause. There had been considerable activity around the place that day, as various articles were being moved out.
The Storeys had possession of the place for a mere 12 hours, before it was burned to the ground. Veryl Storey ranched for the next year with his father, Claude, in the Kutch vicinity.
A store no more
In early 1955, the Storeys moved a mobile home onto the property at Punkin Center, and announced in a Rocky Mountain News article that they intended to rebuild the store and gas station. But they never did.
Instead, the property was used only for their residence, and for kennels installed for Mary Storey's dog breeding business, until the mobile home burned down, as well, in the mid-1960s.
The gas pumps and storage tanks from Stevens' station at Punkin Center ultimately were sold to Ralph Book, who moved them to his place of business at Rush.
During this same time, the state was considering extending the state highway (94) east from Punkin Center. It had existed as a county road before, though it had been upgraded as a WPA project in the 1930s. But the thought of completing a paved highway between Wild Horse (on Highway 40, between Limon and the Kansas state line) and Colorado Springs caused some consternation among businessmen in Limon, Simla and Calhan.
The primary concern was that travelers, who leave money behind at motels, restaurants and filling stations along the way, would be bypassing local communities by taking the cut-off to Colorado Springs.
Highway 94 ultimately was improved and was accepted into the State Highway System, although a cursory search by Highway Department personnel was unable to turn up a date when that was accomplished. And there were no noticeable adverse effects on tourist-related businesses in Limon, Simla or Calhan from the move.
Meanwhile, back at Canon City, Alfred Madson Jr. had been spending some time in the law library, and in 1956, he asked the district court for a copy of his trial transcript, for a copy of his confession, and for a picture of "the late victim," Howard Stevens. Court reporter Frances J. Cuckow responded, in a letter to district court clerk C. R. Hedlund, that "Because of lack of storage space, we have, in the past few years, been forced to destroy any shorthand notes older than 10 years back, and therefore.. .no transcript of this man's trial testimony can be furnished." And, "As to obtaining a copy of 'my confession' and a picture of the 'late victim' as Mr. Madson requests, I can only suggest that you or he contact the district attorney."
In January, 1959, Madson asked the court to vacate his judgment and sentence. Destruction of his trial transcript violated his constitutional right to due process of law, he insisted, by depriving him of full appellate review. The transcript would have shown that he was denied effective and competent counsel, and was denied a fair and impartial trial, among other errors and violations, he stated.
In his ruling October 30, 1959, Judge Meikle didn't address the legality of destruction of the transcript; he merely stated its destruction did not violate the rights of Madson. Contrary to Madson's contentions, he said, "35 terms of the district court have expired" with no previous appeal filed, and Madson had withdrawn his own motion for a new trial back in 1941.
Madill paroled
March 4, 1960, the governor commuted Frank Madill's sentence for parole, and he was released. No record has been found by Department of Corrections officials of Madill ever being discharged from parole, and his whereabouts since I960... if he's still alive... are unknown to authorities.
Whether Madill's parole had anything to do with it or not, Madson did file a new request with the court in April, 1961, again asking that the judgment and sentence be vacated in his case. He claimed he wasn't even in court when he was sentenced, originally. That claim was disputed by both defense attorneys, Somerville and Schaper, however, who both advised the court they were in court at the same time as Madson, when sentence was handed down. and Schaper, now the district judge considering the matter, denied Madson's motion August 9,1961.
In 1962, Madson was paroled also, and in 1969, he was discharged from parole. He turned up in the news again in early 1978, the defendant in another murder trial.
The victim this time was Madson's girlfriend, Geneva Josephine VanHee, who was found shot to death in her car in a La Junta parking lot. She apparently was killed on Christmas Eve, 1977.
Madson was convicted and sentenced, again, to another life term in prison. He appealed the verdict because "hearsay" evidence of the victim's statements to third parties "irreparably impaired the fairness of the trial." The conviction was reversed, and was remanded to Otero County for re-trial.
Madson was tried again in 1982, and was found guilty again. This second conviction remains (in 1987) in the Court of Appeals.
Prior to his second trial for the VanHee murder, Madson asked the court again to vacate his conviction for the Stevens murder, and to expunge it from his record. "In the present trouble (the VanHee murder trial), it is still being used to downgrade the petitioner (Mad-son)," he said. Further, as a licensed journeyman plumber, the prison record had caused him to lose jobs with shops doing work in private residences, banks, or other secure places, he claimed.
During this process, Madson was asked if he had killed Howard Stevens in 1941. "I caused the death, yes," was his reply.
"When we stopped at that filling station and the man was putting gas in the car, and he seen the gun in my pocket, he dropped the gas hose and pulled out a pistol, and said, 'Nobody's going to rob me anymore,' and 'You must be robbers.' I tried to hold him (Stevens). I jumped over him and tried to hold him and the gun in his pocket....He got around where he could get his arm out, and I ran to the car-ran to get in the car, and he fired his gun, and I fired back at him."
Madson's point in this testimony was that, in 1941, he didn't understand the difference between "moral guilt" and "legal guilt." He was not legally guilty of Stevens' murder because it was self defense. "A poor person from out of town did not always receive a fair trial in those days," he said.
Different version
This 1981 version of the incident was somewhat different from Madson's 1941 statement to authorities, in which he had stated he and Madill had driven from La Junta to Punkin Center with the sole purpose of robbing the premises.
"We arrived at the filling station, woke the old man up and told him we wanted five gallons of gas," Madson had said in 1941. "I picked the gun up off of the seat and put it in my pocket, got out and walked around back of the car, was watching the old man put the gas in until he just about had the five gallons put in.
"I started to pull the gun out of my pocket and he seen me. He dropped the gasoline hose and jumped back about three steps, started to take the gun out of his pocket.
"I told him to 'Stick them up.' He didn't act like he was going to obey. It looked like his gun was just about out of his pocket, so I shot twice. He raised his left arm up to his chest, then run around the car to the doorway of the station. As he stepped into the door sill, he turned facing me. I seen his right arm coming up; I told him to hold it. I seen him start to move back in, so I shot and he jumped back in and closed the door as he shot."
In 1973, Mary Storey became sole owner of half of the four-acre parcel due to a divorce decree, and she later became owner of Clint Storey's half, as well. In 1976, Mary Storey Nielsen and Berger O. Nielsen transferred title to the four acres to H. O. Johnson and Ronald Parker.
Its violent past notwithstanding, Punkin Center lives a fairly quiet existence today.
Materials for this article were obtained from recorded materials from the Lincoln County Clerk's office; from the death certificate of Howard W. Stevens; from the Eastern Colorado Plainsman (12/19/30, 7/2/37, 7/9/37, 8/29/41, 9/5/41, 10/3/41, 10/10/41, 10/17/41, 11/21/41, 11/28/41, 12/12/41); from The Eastern Colorado Leader (later The Limon Leader) (7/9/37, 8/29/41, 9/5/41, 10/3/41, 10/10/41, 12/12/41, 1/14/54, 1/27/55); from the Rocky Mountain News (2/20/55); from the Colorado Prospector (8/72); from the files of the Lincoln County District Court (maintained by the Colorado State Archives); from the archives of the Lincoln County Sheriff's Department; from the files of the Otero County District Court; from Alta Harris, David Harris and Cecil Stone; from Mildred Williams; from Marjorie Hitchcock; from Carl Sorrentino of the Colorado Department of Highways; and from Ralph Book.
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