As a 14-Year Old, Ralph Handled Large Construction Equipment? What Could Go Wrong?

Fabric featuring Caterpillar equipment.
Image Source

For several summers, starting at age 14, Ralph would join his father, Virgil Mitchell (1908-1954) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, who had a business as a land-leveling contractor. One thing Ralph did was to help prep the tractors, bulldozers, and other equipment before the shift started each day and he would help park the equipment at the end of the day. Here, Ralph tells about one particularly memorable day that could have ended in disaster!

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It was 1948. I would go back [for the summer to Albuquerque] and work, and [my father] would let me drive the tractor. I had a grease job. In other words, I would go out before the shift started, and I’d head out and take the pump and grease all the trucks and tractors and everything. And I got to park them. 

And funny thing. He had about 4 or 5 pieces of equipment. And we had a bulldozer that was a little hard to start. It was a Caterpillar [brand]. I know about that much about it [gesturing a small amount with his fingers]. But it had a little starter motor. You’d start the starter motor, which was gasoline. And you’d start it up. And when you got it running, running smooth, you’d put the clutch in and it would start the big Caterpillar motor, the big engine. 

It sounds stupid now, but it made sense to me at 12 or 14 years old. They told me, when you get this one gassed up - and they sat there and let it idle, so we didn’t have to start it - so they said when you get this one all greased up and fueled and everything, why don’t you back it up on that hill, so in the morning we’ll just release it, let it come down, start it without having to try to start that little engine. And I said, Ok. So I got all finished with all the equipment, got on that thing and backed it up the hill and I kept going back and back and back. The hill got steeper. I said how far up? And they said, well, go as far as you can. So I got it up where almost the tracks were digging into the thing. And I put on the brakes and I’m holding it there, and I’m thinking, Ok, now I don’t want this thing to come rolling down at night, so I reached up and pulled the lever and put the dozer blade down, so the dozer blade was stuck in the dirt. It wasn’t going anywhere! In the morning they couldn’t let it go down and start it that way! They had to start that little engine with that thing on a hill like that!

KF: Did they have to dig it out?

RM: No, they got the little engine started, and started the big Caterpillar engine, and they pulled the blade up and it rolled right out. Boy they yelled at me that day and teased me for two or three days!

I was 14. It was 1948. Well, ‘48, ‘49, and ‘50. I would go back and work with him. They were building a dam, an earthen dam in Las Vegas, New Mexico, way up in the north part of the state. It was just a dirt levy, so they would go pull dirt out of the valley and put it on this levy. So he let me work on some of that. 

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From an interview with Ralph on 13 January 2017.

Photos of Extended Mitchell Family, and Working Together to Solve the Family History Mysteries

Not long ago, my mother loaned me a photo album that Grandma Ella had put together about 20 years ago. Ella compiled photographs of herself and Ralph growing up, as well as photos of their parents, grandparents, and beyond, making identical albums for each of their four living children. This album is such a treasure!

I happily scanned the pages of the album and started posting photos to FamilySearch, tagging the individuals who had been labeled in the pictures.

For some photos, such as a set of three extended family photos, only three of 12-22 individuals were identified: John Virgil Mitchell (1908-1954; Ralph's father), John Payne Mitchell (1849-1928), and Mary Adaline Stockwell Mitchell (1869-1959) (John Virgil Mitchell's parents/Ralph's paternal grandparents). And there was no additional information about where and when the photos were taken.

The Mitchell extended family, with previously only 3 family members identified

Not long after I posted these to FamilySearch,  I received a message from cousin JC, whom I had connected with before on FamilySearch. She is also a descendant of Mary Adaline Stockwell Mitchell, through her first husband Joseph Louis Mitchell, while Ralph is a descendant of her second husband, John Payne Mitchell. Ralph and JC are 1/2 first cousins once removed. We'll just say "cousins," as that's less complicated.

But here's the neat part: JC had never seen the 3 particular photos I had posted, but she recognized her mother, grandparents, and aunts and uncles in the photos, as her family had a similar photo taken by the same photographer that same day in the same location. JC has in her possession the similar photos with notes on them, which she inherited when her mother passed away 5 years ago.

With JC's help, here's what we now know:

These photos are of Mary Adaline Stockwell Mitchell's family, specifically three of her daughters from her first husband Joseph Louis Mitchell - Edna Lee Mitchell Brawdy/Abbott, Sylvia Renae Mitchell Newton, and Celia Ann Mitchell Graeber with their spouses and children, and John Virgil Mitchell (a son from her 2nd husband John P. Mitchell. No relationship to her 1st husband.)

These were taken on the farm of Walter James Newton and Sylvia Renae Mitchell Newton in Springer, Colfax, New Mexico in the summer of 1924.

It feels so satisfying to know for sure the faces in these photos. As I went through and labeled the names, I found myself saying, "Oh, hello! It's so nice to put a name to a face!" And I chuckled at the children pictured: Little girls holding their dollies, others shielding their faces from the sun, and hair that is more ruffled than coiffed. It seems that it was a battle then, just as it is today, to have that "perfect" family photo taken. But in this case I'd like to apply the definition of "perfect" to be "whole" or "complete," in which case, these photos are now perfect.

Thank you, cousin JC!