John died of Cancer. Here is his obituary:

"John William Henry Kleiboeker was born in Mounds OK, on January 30, 1909 and departed this life in Cheyenne Wells CO on September 27, 1981at the age of 72 years, 8 months. He was baptized on February 7, 1909 in the Lutheran Church in Mounds OK and was confirmed in the Trinity Lutheran Church in Kit Carson and remained an active member throughout his life. When John was 5 years old, he moved with his parents Henry and Anna, and two brothers, Ervin and Herbert, to their Homestead 10 miles southeast of Kit Carson. He attended schools in the Kit Carson School District and then began helping farm the family homestead. On April 12, 1936, he married Hallene Christian in Clarksville, Arkansas. Two daughters were born to this happy marriage, Ann and Jenness. John and Hallene lived on the family homestead until February 1973 when they retired and moved from the farm to the town of Kit Carson. John's favorite past time in his retirementyears were traveling, fishing, and visiting with his friends and neighbors on his several mile walks which he took daily. He was a loving, devoted and generous husband, father, brother, and a friend of many. John will be greatly missed by his wife Hallene, his daughter and son in law, Ann and Peter Crowell of Aurora, CO, his daughter Jenness of Annandale, VA and his brother Herbert of El Cajon, CA. Heis also survived by one uncle Gilbert Meyer of DeSoto, Texas, and numerous other relatives. He was preceded in death by his parents and his brother Ervin. Funeral Services were held Wednesday September 30, 1981 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Kit Carson with Rev. Arnold F. Boehnke of Colorado Springs officiating. The organ music was provided by Margaret Bloder. Curtis Shrimp and Darrell Schallenberger sang "What a friend we have in Jesus," and "I'm but a stranger here". Burial was at the Kit Carson Cemetery......."

The following was written by John in 1979:

Kleiboeker, Henry and Anna
John Kleiboeker, son

After a siege of crop failures because of drought and chinch bugs in eastern Oklahoma around Pawhuska, Mounds, and Foraker, my parents, with their three children, decided to move west and take a homestead. We left Oklahoma in the spring of 1914 with one covered wagon and a hay rack which was loaded with a few old implements. Dad drove one wagon and my older brother Ervin, who was nine, drove the other. I was five years old and my younger brother, Herbert, was one year old. As we went through Kansas, Dad worked in the wheat harvest, hauling bundles to a threshing machine.

The first place I remember camping in Colorado was west of Lamar, on what is now the Skelly Truck Stop on High 50. From there, we went on to Rocky Ford where we camped for a while.

While we were camped in Rocky Ford, Dad went to Kit Carson where he bought a homestead relinquishment from Henry Stewart and finished the homestead processing. To prove up on a homestead required building some improvements, plowing a certain amount of land, and living there for three years. Before the family moved to the homestead, Dad built a homestead shack, which was a frame building covered with tar paper and was one big room 14’ by 24’. From Rocky Ford, the family went to Eads and camped for two weeks while the homestead shack was being finished. We moved to the homestead ten miles southeast of Kit Carson in February, 1915.

After a year or so, Dad went back to Oklahoma to get some horses he had left there. He ordered an emigrant car (a railroad car which you could rent to move your possessions) out of Dexter, Kansas; and he brought back to Colorado the horses, our dog Shep, a surrey he had bought, and he finished filling the car with hedge posts. He arrived in Eads on a night when it looked as if we might have a blizzard, but he hitched a team of horses to the surrey and came home through the cold and snow anyway, getting there about midnight with Old Shep lying on his feet to keep them warm.

We had cold winters, with blizzards almost every winter. At first we only had cow chips to burn, and the house would get very cold during the nights. Frost would be on the nails sticking through the roof, and the water in the water bucket would be frozen solid. During a blizzard, we wouldn’t have enough fuel in the house to keep a fire going all day, so we would stay in bed to keep warm. Sometimes enough snow would blow through the cracks to cover the bed covers. Later, we had corn cobs to burn and, eventually, we had coal.

We attended a country school. The school house was moved several times. When it was fairly close, we walked to school. When it was far away, we rode a school bus which had curtains for windows to keep out the cold and snow! The two teachers I remember were a Miss Long and Oliver McReynolds.

My parents helped organize Trinity Lutheran Church. For many years, church services were held in the members’ homes. The first ministers were Fred Grunwald and Bunde Skov.

In the early years, Dad and Mr. Henry Troue, who homesteaded the south half of the same section, would go to Collier, Kansas to work in the wheat harvest. Usually during that time we would get some severe storms and big rains. Mom would be scared, and in the middle of the night she would get us out of bed and we would go down to Troues to go in the cave. After the storm, we would wade through the water to get back home.

Besides the Troue family, our nearest neighbor, other neighbors were the Schrammel family and the Pollreis family.

The main crops during those early days were corn, potatoes, and a small patch of cane for feed for the livestock. We sometimes had as much as ten to twelve acres of potatoes. At one time, a few neighbors got together and sent a carload of potatoes out of Kit Carson.

In 1921, we built a barn; and in 1923, we built a house.

I continued to live on the homestead until 1973, when we moved to the town of Kit Carson.

Kit Carson, 1979


Taken from “Homesteaders and Other Early Settlers 1900-1930, History of Western Cheyenne County, Colorado”, Volume II 1985. Presented by Kit Carson Historical Society.