Adeline Hornbek joined the homestead act and grabbed up this luxurious mountain meadow to build her home. One of the first women to homestead claim in the Florissant Valley and the State of Colorado.
She was born Adeline Warfield in 1833 in Massachusetts. When she was 17, she attended a women’s rights convention that told her to be all that she was capable of.
She began traveling westward with her brother and his wife in the 1850s. They settled in Native Territory now known as Oklahoma, her brother working as an Indian Trader for the Creek Nation.
She married Simon Harker at the start of the Civil War. With their 2 children, they helped out with the trading post, until the Indian nation fell apart. Violence broke out between the native tribes and they abandoned the area to seek safety.
Landing in Colorado near Denver, they began a new life, selling cattle and produce to the miners. Another beautiful child was born at that Ranch.
The flooding of the area in 1864 not only devastated their Ranch, it ultimately added to the demise of her husband Simon who was ill from tuberculosis.
Upon his death, she and her 3 children stayed in the Ranch and rebuilt after the floods. Determined to rebuild, she hired a former gold miner named Elliot Hornbek.
In 1866 they married and she had a 4th Child in 1870. The marriage was short lived and he left her after a few short years.
When the State announced it’s statehood, she relocated one last time to the Florissant Valley. She built her home there in 1878.
Hornbek is within the Florissant Fossil National Site. Along the highway, not far from the fossil beds. Adeline was a significant part of the history of Florissant Colorado.
Great place to visit rain or shine. Be sure to read up on her history a little more and immerse yourself in the other history surrounding the area.
Not Forgotten Colorado
Not Forgotten Colorado 
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