Hugh Nylin is a real native of the Commerce City area. He came here at the tender age of 14 days. Hugh's grandfather, Andrew Nylin moved here in 1896. His parents owned 20 acres of ground where the Goode Centennial Methodist Church is now located. Hugh's father Thomas Nylin worked for the Union Pacific Railroad Co. for 48 years and lived in a house that is still standing on 10 acres in back of Hugh's home.

"Rose Hill Cemetery was the only thing here at that time." Hugh says with a grin. "There were a few residents."

Hugh's great-uncle, Alfred Newlean changed the spelling of the name, and had a dairy farm, but he quit selling milk when they had to bottle it.

The town of Derby when Hugh was growing up consisted of a blacksmith shop, grocery store with a post office in the back, Black's garage and a stone depot that sat next to the railroad tracks. The postmaster at that time was Floyd Templeton and his father Lee Templeton was the sheriff. To-be lawyer, Estelle Hadley lived on five acres near the Nylins.

Children in that day made up their own games, Annie-Annie Over, Pump-Pump-pullaway, played marbles and once in awhile walked on homemade stilts.

Hugh went to school with former City Councilwoman Marge Christiansen in Rose Hill School. The school was a one-room frame building on land taken over by the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, on Rose Hill Road on 64th Ave.

The Nylin family had doctors through the Union Pacific Railroad. Hugh's older brother died of typhoid fever in 1922 and his mother died in 1927. Hugh had a stepmother and four stepbrothers.

Hugh graduated from Union High School, later named Adams City High School, in 1933. On the last Sunday in June of every year the students from Union High School meet at Mount Vernon for a school reunion.

The New Rose Hill School is still standing and was used as barracks for prisoners of war in the Second World War. Monaco was a dirt road. Kemp Blvd. and 72nd Ave. were the only paved roads.

Apparently there were no churches in this area at that time and Sunday services were held in Rose Hill School.

Hugh joined the Navy in 1934 and was gone until 1946. He and his wife Rose, who came from Lander, Wyoming, lived in Denver for awhile and then moved back to the Commerce City area. Hugh worked for the Union Pacific Railroad for 37 years in engine service in the roundhouse at 40th & Williams in Denver. The Nylins have three sons and one daughter.

The area where Hugh and Rose live was called Rose Hill. A man came with a petition and the Nylins signed it. The city didn't care if they annexed Rose Hill or not, but they "graciously admitted them."

Hugh, who will be 80 in April and his wife Rose, like Commerce City because there are so few problems. Commerce City's greatest assets are nice people like Hugh and Rose Nylin.

- Note: Hugh Nylin is now deceased.