From a Pioneer Album - Annie DeCastro

by June Willson

Mrs. Annie DeCastro was born at Boston, Massachusetts, on May 12, 1876. She lived there with her family for seven years. Then they moved to Waubeck, Iowa until she was nearly sixteen, when she was married to Frank DeCastro, a former Massachusetts boy.

Annie and Frank went with the family back to Massachusetts where they lived four years. Her mother died in 1896, and she and Frank moved to Wyoming. She spent her twentieth birthday in Denver, Colo.

They homesteaded on the old Woman Creek, May, 1896. For the first few years they lived in a temporary cabin built into the side of a hill.

An incident which occurred there makes the blood run cold. One day as she was sitting at work, Annie felt as though someone were watching her. Turning, she saw a large timber wolf standing on the doorstep with his paws on the threshold. The animal had his head cocked as though he was puzzled. For several seconds they stared at each other, then the wolf turned and ambled away.

After a few years in the first cabin, they reconstructed a school house and moved in. It was down on a flat in the valley. One day about fourteen years later, they noticed the water rising fast. Then logs started to come down from the mill upstream. Frank walked up the hill to check on it. Seeing the flood coming he motioned to Annie to get out fast as possible. She was ironing, so she snatched up all the clean clothes and the baby and carried them to safety in the clothes basket. By the time she left the house, the water was ankle-deep. Their phone line was out and their neighbors had been trying to warn them, but had failed.

Shortly after that, they moved to town and have lived here since. They have raised eleven children. There were three others, two of which died in infancy, and the other as a small child. Another daughter recently passed away.

Her children are now: Mrs. Lila Johnson of Lusk; Mrs. "Jackie" Gallup (three children) of Lusk; Ab DeCastro (three children) of Lusk; Chad DeCastro (three children) of Hugo, Colo.; Ad DeCastro (three children) of Hay Springs, Nebr.; Frank DeCastro (two children) of Fort Collins, Colo.; Mrs. Francis Knowles (two children) of Bakersfield, Calif.; Mrs. Esther Fancher (four children) of Scapose, Ore.; Mrs. Edie Woods (two children) of Springfield, Ore.; and Mrs. Dora Osborne (one child) of Hemingford, Nebr. All together Mrs. Annie DeCastro has twenty-five grandchildren (thirteen boys and twelve girls), and three great grandchildren (two boys and one girl).

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