Louise Solberg’s family history in Falcon goes back further than the town.In 1871, Solberg’s grandfather, Sylvester Buzzard, came to Colorado Territory and homesteaded land east of what is now Curtis Road. He built a simple dugout into the creek bank, hoping it would serve as protection against the Indians. Buzzard married a girl from West Virginia whose family had long been friends with his, and the two raised sheep and a few children on the Colorado prairie. One of their children was Solberg’s mother, Sissyl Buzzard, who was born in 1884.Sissyl Buzzard attended Amo School, located on what is now Jones Road. The school was one of several one-room schoolhouses in the area. Buzzard met Solberg’s father, Jacob David Curtis, AKA J.D. or Jake, during her school years. The two married in 1902 in a ceremony on the Buzzard homestead, which by that time included a two-story house.Solberg’s grandparents, the elder Buzzards, eventually moved to Platte Avenue in Colorado Springs. When her grandfather became ill, Solberg’s father had been working as a missionary for the Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints, preaching in the small towns on the eastern plains of El Paso County. J.D. Curtis gave up his work and he and his wife and their youngest child, Louise, then a 3-year-old, moved from their home on Marksheffel Road to the Springs to care for his ailing father.Solberg’s oldest sister had married, so she stayed at the home on Marksheffel Road and took care of the remaining siblings, two sisters and a brother, so they could finish their schooling in Falcon.Solberg’s grandfather died in 1926, and her family and her grandmother moved back to Falcon to a house Curtis built on what is now Curtis Road, where Solberg still lives.Louise Curtis (Solberg) attended school in Falcon and graduated in 1938. Solberg served as president of the student council and achieved the highest student grade on the county tests in her junior year.The original schoolhouse, which housed all 12 grades, was torn down in 1981. Now in its place is Falcon Middle School.Solberg’s father, Curtis, was a farmer and rancher, and involved in the community. He served on the Falcon school board several times, as did Solberg and her grandmother, father, husband, father-in-law, and brother-in-law. “I came from a school board family,” she said.Curtis also served on the El Paso County telephone company board and organized a milk producers’ association, which allowed dairy farmers to pool their milk and sell to grocery stores in the Springs. He served as president of the organization.In 1937, Solberg said Curtis placed a 75-foot tower on his property and installed the first wind charger in the area. Only special 32-volt appliances could be run on the electricity generated by it.Curtis traveled to Washington, D.C., to seek approval and funding to start Mountain View Electric Company, and then became the company’s first president. Electricity first flowed through MVE wires in 1945, and Solberg’s oldest son celebrated his first birthday with another first. He turned on lights in the Curtis household for the first time.In 1943, Louise Curtis married John Solberg, whose family lived a mile north of them. By that time, Solberg’s mother was ill and her father was working primarily at the milk producers’ office in Colorado Springs. They decided to move into town and offered the newlyweds the house on Curtis Road. The Solbergs accepted, and soon farmed and ranched sheep and cattle.The Solbergs had four boys and two girls. Their oldest son died from aplastic anemia at age 13. The other five children all live within visiting distance and keep in close contact with their mother, she said. In 1974, at age 70, John Solberg died of congestive heart failure. He never retired, his widow said, working the ranch until the end.Louise Solberg has kept busy. As a Falcon historian, she wrote several articles for the book, “El Paso County Heritage.” In 2000, Solberg received the Falcon Education Foundation “Outstanding Service” award as an alumna of Falcon School District 49.More on Louise SolbergHobbies?“I’ve always liked to read. Lots of books. I think I started when we lived in town and took care of my grandmother. I was young and had to be very quiet. I like to watch TV and talk to my sons and daughters on the phone.”What is your idea of success?“To be happy in what you’re doing.”Pet peeves?“People who think they know it all. Maybe I’m one of them.” (said with a smile)Heroes?“I admired Eleanor Roosevelt for her determination. She was smart, I thought. She had a mind and spoke it out.”
