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by Terry W. Blevins
(Originally published December, 1983)
 Dryland farming, and particularly dryland wheat farming, is a familiar trademark of eastern Colorado, but early in the 20th Century, for a period of about 20 years, another, more unique crop was grown and marketed in Elbert County…dahlias!
For the uninitiated, dahlias are perennial plants with large, round flowers, named after an 18th century Swedish botanist, A. Dahl.
The Elbert County dahlias were raised from about 1920 to about 1940 by Charles Newton Tripp, then postmaster of Fondis.
In those days, Fondis was a thriving community of more than 100 residents, located 11 miles east of Elbert and almost due north of Calhan. In addition to the post office, Fondis had a store and a church, a cream station and an icehouse, a cheese factory and a brickyard, a hotel and a coal mine. Some former Fondis residents recall homemade ice cream and frequent ice cream socials, courtesy of the cream station and icehouse. Fondis was named after an Italian hotel, the "Fondide Italia." It was established as a post office November 25, 1895. Fondis made national headlines in the early 1930s, when the local storekeeper was shot and killed by robbers who were passing through the community.
Newton Trip was born in 1871 in Illinois, but was raised in Kansas. He came to Colorado as an adult. His parents had homesteaded near Rush; Newton filed on a homestead six miles east of Fondis. He married a Pueblo girl in 1912. The couple had no children, and Mrs. Tripp died in the early 1920s, about the time Newton became postmaster at Fondis.
It was also about this time that he began growing dahlias as a business. Newton and his two maiden sisters, Ella and Mary, raised a wide variety of dahlias on about two acres of gentle hillside north and west of the Fondis post office.
They had no wells; water for their own use came from a rain barrel. Lack of water for the dahlia gardens might have been a drawback, but Newton turned it into a selling point. He pointed out, "Dahlias grown without irrigation, as ours are grown, generally produce roots of a different quality from those that have been irrigated. They contain less water and are better matured. We often find that roots from irrigated fields do not produce as good plants the first year as they do afterward, when grown from roots we have produced ourselves without irrigation."
His advertising brochures and price lists proudly announced dahlias for sale that were "dry grown and sturdy." Newton's great-niece, Maxine West, said the secret of his success was "clean cultivation and tender loving care." Newton Tripp apparently agreed. In his "How to Grow Dahlias," he commented, "Any good soil will produce good dahlias if proper attention is given to them.... Don't be in too great a hurry to plant. Wait until the ground is warm enough to start them readily...a fairly good rule, here in eastern Colorado, is to plant about the time that the cottonwood trees unfold their leaves.
Cultivation the key
"As soon as the plants appear, or even sooner, if you can do so safely, begin to cultivate. This will give you the advantage over the weeds and tend to overcome drought conditions if the weather gets too dry.... Keep the soil loose and free from weeds. Stir it as soon as it is dry enough after each rain or irrigation. Never allow a crust to form.
"The dahlia is a wonderful flower, and will richly reward anyone for all the care bestowed upon it."
Tripp maintained a small printing press, on which he apparently printed his instructions, his price lists and his advertising flyers. While the hillside bloomed from July until the first freeze, he marketed the bulbs. Inflation apparently wasn't much of a factor in those days, for most of his prices remained unchanged over a period of years. Some varieties became more expensive: the Bon Ton went from 10 cents in 1926 to 25 cents in 1930; and the White Swan went from 15 cents to 20 cents. But others became less expensive at the same time: the Rose Anna declined from 50 cents to 30 cents; and the Silver State went from 35 cents to 20 cents.
Tripp was not only a grower, but was a breeder, as well. He developed many hybrid varieties, naming them with titles obviously taken locally. Some were named after individuals, such as the “W. D. Tripp,” while others were named after places, such as the “Belle of Elbert.” Apparently, he hesitated to name a variety after himself. In his 1926 planting record, the E 3 variety was followed by the name “C. N. Tripp (?).” But the C. N. Tripp dahlia doesn't appear on any of his price lists that are still available.
The business apparently was handled almost totally by mail. He said he accepted postal money orders and cash by registered mail, and sometimes personal checks, but he declined payment in postage stamps. He guaranteed his bulbs until 1927, then announced, “Heretofore, we have guaranteed our dahlia tubers, pledging to replace any that failed to grow. As we have never been asked to replace any tubers, this guarantee seems unnecessary and is withdrawn.”
The business apparently was successful, since he continued it for about two decades. He grew more and more plants, as time passed. His planting record for 1926 shows that he planted 2,453 plants, and 1,892 of them bloomed in July. In 1929, though, he planted 4,391 dahlias, and 3,305 of them bloomed.
It's not known when he stopped his dahlia business, although those who remember him seem to agree it was about 1940. His notice "To Former Customers of Fondis Dahlia Gardens" doesn't bear a date. In that notice, he wrote: "I regret very much that it has become necessary for me to discontinue my dahlia business. My health has failed to such an extent that I can no longer handle the work. I thank you for your patronage and hope you had a fine flower garden in which the dahlias you got of me played a prominent part."
Tripp told his former customers that they could continue to obtain dahlia bulbs from the Evans Avenue Dahlia Gardens in Pueblo, operated by his brother, George Tripp. "You need have no fear that this stock is inferior in any way," he reassured them. "The price alone is low, not the quality." Newton Tripp died in 1944, and was buried in the Kanza Cemetery, south of Simla. Frank Fuchs was one of his pallbearers. He remembers Tripp as "a very nice man, very friendly and talkative. He'd sit and talk by the hour about his flowers."
Gardens raided
Youngsters of the day appreciated Tripp's dahlia gardens, Fuchs said. The boys often raided the hillside to get flowers for their girlfriends. "He (Tripp) had a five-cell flashlight that would shine for a quarter-mile. He could tell you who was in his dahlia gardens," Fuchs said. Newton Tripp and his sisters were reclusive in a way, staying at home, reading, and researching their family's genealogy. But they were interested in their neighbors; Fuchs reported that Tripp had a telescope on a stand, and he kept track of his neighbors' farm progress that way. Tripp also was a blacksmith and a photographer.
Robert Fuchs, who still lives at Fondis, recalls Tripp as a "jolly old man," as well. "He liked to joke, always had some kind of tale to tell," he said. Fuchs said Tripp had a particular fondness for peanuts, and his daily routine included a walk to the store for a supply. A favorite Halloween prank of the local youths was to keep Tripp occupied at the post office front door while others reversed the coils in his Model T, so that it wouldn't start.
After Tripp died, the Fondis post office was not operated for several years, Frank Fuchs recalled. Then his sister, Mary Tripp, was the Fondis postmaster until it officially closed for good, in July, 1954.
Materials for this article were from Elbert County Cemeteries, 1981; A Guide to Places on the Colorado Prairie 1540-1975, by Kay Shaffer; and Colorado Postal History. Other assistance was given by Verna Ban, Robert Fuchs, Frank Fuchs, Lula Cusic, Ruby Miller, Jo Doak, M. E. Owen, Maxine West and Don Golding.
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