An Indentured Servant

Imagine for a moment that you are a 12 year old girl. Your parents and seven younger brothers & sisters are pioneers to Colorado. Then, your father died. That's what happened to Elizabeth "Lizzie" Fields.

Her mother tried to cobble a living together after Noah Fields died, but it was no use. Sarah Coberly saw their plight, though, and had a plan. She and Lizzie's mom signed an agreement giving Lizzie to Sarah as an indentured servant for six years. In exchange, Sarah gave Mrs. Fields six year's wages up front - money that she could use to take herself and the other seven kids back home to friends and family.

That left Lizzie - 12 years old, working in a hotel for six years for no pay, and no living relative west of the Mississippi River.

In the 1870 census, we see Lizzie listed at the hotel as a servant. By 1880 though, her six years were up - but Lizzie was still there. Only this time, she was listed as a daughter not a servant.

We also know that Lizzie married a man named John Kinner. The Kinner ranch is located just off of Highway 105 and their homestead is one of the few buildings left from that era. John and Lizzie raised twelve children and from all we can tell had a pretty happy life as pioneers in Colorado.