Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2008 with funding from
Microsoft Corporation
http://www.archive.org/details/coloradoprogressOOawborich
PROGRESSIVE MEN
OF
WESTERN COLORADO
ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO
A. \V Bowen A: Co.
190S
.
PREFACE.
In placing this volume of the "Progressive Men of Western Colorado"
before the citizens of this section of the state, the publishers can con-
scientiously claim that they have carried out in all respects even-
promise made in the prospectus. They ]x>int with pride to the elegance of
the binding of the volume, and to the beauty of the typography, to the
superiority of the paper on which the work is printed, and the high class of
art in which the portraits are finished. Every biographical sketch in the
work has been submitted to the party interested for approval and correction,
and therefore any error of fact, if there he any. is solely due to the person
for whom the sketch was prepared.
The publishers would here avail themselves of the opportunity to thank
the citizens for the uniform kindness with which they have regarded this
undertaking and for their many services rendered in the gaining of necessary
information. Confident that our efforts to please will fully meet the
approbation of the public, we are
Respect fully.
A. \V. Bowen & Co.,
Publishers
T]
M78<110»
INDEX.
Abbott, Ursa S 563
Adair, Samuel A 436
Adair. William W 100
Adams, Robert L 557
Adams, Samuel G 99
Ahrens, John W 837
Alerton, Henry 650
Alexander, Thomas M 460
Allen, John M 176
Anderson. August 606
Anderson Brothers 667
Anderson Brothers 606
Anderson. David 472
Anderson, Eric 731
Anderson, Fred 667
Anderson, Lewis 667
Anderson, Olaf 606
Andrews, George W 712
Andrews, Richard H 712
Ankele, Charles 292
Arbaney, Alexis 163
Armstrong, George W 298
Armstrong, William J 64
Ashley. William T 821
Asking, Michael 212
Austin, Lyman W 79
Avery. Henry A 578
B
Bagley, Heaman S 316
Baker. Alonzo L 457
Baker. Charles E 606
Baker. Charles T 477
Baker. David 404
Ball. George 503
Bane. Clinton T 541
Banta. Zachariah T 41
Bardwell, George D 684
Barnard. Hiram H 533
Barsch. Jacob 513
Barth, Peter 116
Barthel. Edward G 409
Baxter. Addison H 314
Baxter. A. S 67
Beardsley, Arthur L 165
Beck, Henry 78
Beckley. George 339
Bell. John C 370
Belot. Adolphe 432
Benjamin. George F 635
Bennett, James A 245
Bennett, John G 767
Berg, Hagen R 781
Bert holf, John M 761
Bertholf. Zachariah 394
Bevier. Charles 555
Biebel, Augustus G 181
Bills. Albert 42
Bills Brothers 42
Bills. Charles W 42
Bird. William M 871
Bivans. Emeline 312
Blachly. Andrew T 382
Blair, D. F 4S9
Blair. James M. 275
Blair. R. A 266
Blewitt, Christopher 95
Bogert. Hank 759
Bogue. Joseph 208
Bolem. Henry 491
Boner. Leander N 245
Boone. George W 136
Borah. Alfred G 688
Borah. Jacob E 736
Bosse. Christian 654
Bourg. Benedict 211
Bourg, Louis 213
Bowles. Samuel 252
Boyle. Harry D . .305
Boyce, Stephen A 278
Breeze, Lemuel L 134
Brewer. Alonzo 515
Briggs. William 386
Brock. Norris W 803
Brower. William J 332
Brown. Frank 630
Brown. G. W 485
Brown. Horace G 26
Brown. John P 710
Brown. Robert 866
Bruner. Frederick S 564
Bryan, Robert V 239
Buchmann, Max 574
Bueklin. Alvin N 564
Bucklin, James W 147
Buddecke, A. E 301
Budge, James 46
Bull. Heman R 840
Bull. Harry W 647
Bunting. Isaac N 570
Burger. Frank M 17
Burrltt, Fred R 336
C
Cain. Charles W 838
Campbell, Edmund F 411
Campbell. John A 442
Canfield, Isaac 373
Cannon, Frank P 402
Cannon, Harry M 385
Cardnell, William 168
Carle. William W 454
Carnahan, James S 146
Carolan. Thomas 622
Carpenter. John Y 689
Carroll, Joseph A 801
Carroll. Miles 210
Carter, Henry C 60
Cartmel, William 265
Caster, Charles 242
Caswell, Charles F 579
Cavanaugh. Martin 115
Chad wick. Charles A 764
INDEX.
Chadwick, William 250
Chapman, Franz S 452
Chapman, George T 421
Chapman, William 118
Chapman. W. C 673
Chapman. William L 420
Charlesworth, John C 466
Chatfield, I. W 68
Chiles, George P 328
Chisholm, Daniel W 589
Choate. Mark 870
Christie, Charles C 719
Clapp, Charles L 802
Clare, John C 852
Clark. George A 73
Clark. Harold W 205
Clark, John F 105
Clark, Robert E 94
Clark, Samuel B 80
Clark, Thomas C 827
Clark, Thomas 83
Clark. William H 33
Clark. Walter S 197
Clausen. Jens J 74
Cobb. George W 846
Coburn, W. S 285
Coffey, Robert J 717
Collins. Frank A 501
Collom, Arthur 432
Cone, George H 310
Conklin, W. D 742
Cook. John C 76
Cook. John W 458
Cook, William S 396
Cookman. Gideon 769
Cooper, Byron B 136
Copeland, William S 169
Copp, Henry 664
Corcoran, George 261
Couehman, George R 847
Covey, Charles H 637
Cowell, George E 426
Cox, James W 492
Crabill, Aden B 367
Craig, D. H 295
Craig, Mrs. Jane 313
Cramer, Samuel 219
Crawford, George A 150
Crawford, James H 92
Crawley. John F 82
Crisweli, J. L 843
Croall. Norman G 156
Crook. John E 44
Crossan, George C 516
Crotser, William H 364
Crowell, David C 131
Croxton, John H 278
Crumly, Harvey D 422
Cullen, Patrick 98
Cunningham. Joseph L !622
Curtis Brothers 823
Curtis, George H 823
Curtis. John A 362
Curtis, James W 254
Curtis. Wilbur L 823
Curtiss. Frank ' 288
Cyr, Nelson 728
D
Daggett, Orion W 683
Dailey, Charles 81
Dappen, Louis C 685
Davenport, Vorhis C 730
Davidson, James J 609
Davidson. William D 582
Davis, Charles 222
Day. George J. D. . . .• 519
Deakins, William R 537
Delaney, John 791
DeLong, Horace T 840
Dennison, L. G 860
Dickinson, W. Scott 487
Dickson, Amos J 31
Diel, Christian J 715
Dirlan, Robert C 774
Ditman, William 259
Doak, William A 282
Dodgion, A. J 756
Donlavy, Frank 752
Donnelson, Ephus 804
Doughty, Carl 718
Dow, Andrew 415
Downing. James M 680
Ducey, Thomas R 807
Duckett, James L 548
Dunckley, John 439
Dunham, Alfred 664
Dunham, John 862
Dunn. Dacre 463
Dunn, Frank 751
Dunstan, Richard J 130
Dunstan. Thomas 799
Dwyer, Robert W 155
Dyer, Joseph M 410
E
Easterly. Lewis H 262
Eaton, Ervin D 525
Eaton, Robert 389
Ebler, Frank J 216
Edgerton, Hamlin L 186
Edwards, Riley M 822
Eglee. Edward E 777
Egry, Charles F 534
Ehrhart . Thomas J 727
Eilebrecht. Herman 708
Ellington. A. C 342
Ellington. L. C 724
Elliott, Thomas C 517
Ellis, Bert 494
Ellis, John M 449
Fllison. Albert C 304
Elmer, Mathias 437
Elmer, Nicholas 526
Elrod, John B 248
Erwin, William 528
Estes, James R 182
Evans. Milton 663
Ewers, James 55
Ewing, S. E 465
F
Farmer, Samuel H 653
Farmers & Merchants Bank 594
Farrington, John 633
Fenlon, James A 746
Ferguson, David D 539
Finley, Rowland W 133
Fisher, Samuel C 180
Fiske, Abram, & Son 139
Fitzpatriek, John A 394
Fitzpatrick, Peter 740
Fix. Samuel 619
Fletcher, R. E 259
Fogg, George 337
Forker, William 601
Forkner, Thomas A 238
Fox. Charles B 817
Frahm, Jonn H 538
Franz, Charles J 809
Fritzler. Thomas J 462
Fullenwider, John H.. Sr S35
Fuller, Collins D 190
G
Gagnon, Thomas 540
Gaines. Samuel A 675
Gale, William R 360
Galloway, John R 853
Gant, Emanuel 771
Cant, William 50
Gavin, Horace 255
Gavin, John T 264
Geiger, J. V 757
INDEX.
Geil. John 102
Gentry, James C 448
George, Alfred 25
Gerbaz, Jerry 214
GibbS, Thomas B 450
Gibson, George 395
Gillaspey. William A 389
Gilliam, Jesse T 469
Goddard. W. E 480
Goff. John B 786
Goff, William H 787
Gollagher. S 480
Goodrich, George H 765
Goodrich, Hubbard W 109
Gould, AJec 845
Grace. Gustaveus 162
Graham, Isem W 406
Graves, Arthur 836
Graves & Ahrens 836
Gray. Elbert H 215
Green, Chester A 473
Green, Robert H 795
Griffing, John L 748
Grow, William J 333
Guiney, Cornelius M 399
H
Hahn, Joseph 701
Hall. Augustus 756
Hall, James 862
Halsey, John S 726
Halsey, John S., Jr 725
Hamilton, Eugene C 859
Hamilton, Riley S 243
Hammond, Henry 362
Hanson, Knud 566
Harker, Frank A 789
Harp. Horace S 24
Harris, Charles H 127
Harris, John L 616
Harris. J. M 656
Harris, William H 600
Harrod. Joseph C 542
Hart man. Alonzo 174
Hasley, Henry 173
Haverstick. Simon E 331
Hawthorne, D. C 387
Heaton, William V 27
Hedges, Leroy C 567
Heiner, Joseph F 376
Hel vey. Robert 520
Hemmerlee Brothers 870
Hemmerlee. Louis 870
Hemmerlee. William 870
Henderson. William J. S 347
Henrickson, Hans S 63
Henry. Edward 265
Henry. George W 366
Henry. William 493
Hernage, Henry J. W 681
Heron, Alexander 531
Heuschkel, Frank L 141
Hick, Lawrence A 368
Hickman. John F 61
Hickman. T. C 565
Hickman. William H 71
Hicxson, John 335
Hills, Francis M 584
Hitchens. Joseph 443
Hitchens. James H 613
Hitchens. William M 612
Hockett, Prior W 231
Hoffman, David J 408
Hoffman, George F 631
Holbrook, Charles C 643
Holland, M. D 490
Holland, Oscar 455
Holland. Timothy D 44
Hollingsworth. J. S 268
Holmes, Albert 661
Hook. William R. K 153
Hooker. Thomas P 142
Hooper. William F 811
Hoskins, Fred 424
Hoskins, Owen W 423
Hotchkiss, Charles R 854
Hotchkiss, Roswell A 849
Hotz, Martin 192
Howard, David L 348
Hudson. Lorenzo D 112
Hughes, Dennis 640
Hughes, Edwin S 170
Hull. Frank 101
Humphrey. Richard 396
Hunter. James T 77
Hunter, Pendleton 863
Hurlburt. John B 766
Hurst, Wilfred L 89
Hurt. James L 682
Hutchinson, Frisbie D 518
Hyde, Arthur B 848
Hynes, Laurence 430
Hyzer. Abram E 419
I
Ikeler. Hiram B 171
Imoversteg. Robert 754
Innman, Irwin 1 235
Irving, P. F 193
Irwin. Charles C 769
J
Jacobs. Charles E 159
Jacobs, Oliver G 159
Jacobson, Jacob 775
James, David S 779
Jaquette, Fred C 349
Jarvis. John T 244
Jay, Samuel 721
Jaynes, Chester E 423
Jaynes. Ezra E 391
Jaynes, Lester E 427
Jayne. Whitaker 590
Jeep. Frederick 505
Jenkins. Charles T 758
Jens. John 353
Jensen, John H 258
Jewell. Samuel 461
JoHantgen. F. N 352
Johnson. Abijah 298
Johnson. Albert T 532
Johnson. Charles F 292
Johnson. Lester C 561
Johnson, Louis A 533
Johnson, Nels P 469
Johnson. Wallace A 825
Johnson. William S 53
Jones, Daniel S 829
Jones, Joseph J 611
Jones. J. M 340
Jones. Owen O 230
Jones. Price i\j 511
Jones. Roy E 759
Jones. William G 106
Jones. William H 522
Joseph, Edwin 856
Judy. Adam H 471
Julian. Charles 474
Jutten. Gerhard 64S
K
Kauble, John A 91
Keller. Alfred 740
Keller. William A 37
Kelley. Daniel M 314
Kelley. John 669
Kellogg, Irving M 70
Kellogg, Joseph E 433
Kelsey. J. M 744
Kern, Omer M 693
Kendall. John 46S
INDEX.
Chadwick, William 250
Chapman, Franz S 452
Chapman, George T 421
Chapman, William 118
Chapman. W. C 673
Chapman. William L 420
Charlesworth, John C 466
Chatfield, I. W 68
Chiles, George P 328
Chisholm. Daniel W 589
Choate, Mark 870
Christie, Charles C 719
Clapp. Charles L 802
Clare, John C 852
Clark, George A 73
Clark. Harold W 205
Clark. John F 105
Clark. Robert E 94
Clark, Samuel B 80
Clark. Thomas C 827
Clark. Thomas 83
Clark. William H 33
Clark. Walter S 197
Clausen, Jens J 74
Cobb. George W 846
Coburn, W. S 285
Coffey, Robert J 717
Collins, Frank A 501
Collom, Arthur 432
Cone, George H 310
Conklin, W. D 742
Cook. John C 76
Cook. John W 458
Cook. William S 396
Cookman, Gideon 769
Cooper, Byron B 136
Copeland, William S 169
Copp. Henry 664
Corcoran, George 261
Couchman, George R 847
Covey. Charles H 637
Cowell. George E 426
Cox, James W 492
Crabill, Aden B 367
Craig, D. H 295
Craig, Mrs. Jane O 313
Cramer, Samuel 219
Crawford, George A 150
Crawford, James H 92
Crawley, John F 82
Criswell, J. L 843
Croall. Norman G 156
Crook. John E 44
Crossan, George C 516
Crotser. William H 364
Crowell, David C KM
Croxton, John H 278
Crnmly. Harvey D 422
Cullen. Patrick 98
Cunningham. Joseph L !622
Curtis Brothers 823
Curtis. George H 823
Curtis. John A 362
Curtis, James W 254
Curtis. Wilbur L 823
Curtiss, Frank ' 288
Cyr, Nelson 728
D
Daggett, Orion W 683
Dailey, Charles 81
Dappen, Louis C 685
Davenport, Vorhis C 730
Davidson. James J 609
Davidson. William D 582
Davis. Charles 222
Day. George J. D. . . .• 519
Deakins. William R 537
Delaney, John 791
DeLong, Horace T 840
Dennison, L. G 860
Dickinson, W. Scott 487
Dickson, Amos J 31
Diel, Christian J 715
Dirlan, Robert C 774
Ditman, William 259
Doak. William A 282
Dodgion. A. J 756
Donlavy, Frank 752
Donnelson. Ephus 804
Doughty, Carl 718
Dow. Andrew 415
Downing. James M 680
Ducey, Thomas R 807
Duckett, James L 548
Dunckley, John . . 439
Dunham, Alfred 664
Dunham, John 862
Dunn. Dacre 463
Dunn, Frank 751
Dunstan, Richard J 130
Dunstan, Thomas 799
Dwyer, Robert W 155
Dyer, Joseph M 410
E
Easterly. Lewis H 262
Eaton. Ervin D 525
Eaton. Robert 389
Ebler, Frank J 216
Edgerton. Hamlin L 186
Edwards, Riley M 822
Eglee, Edward E 777
Egry, Charles F 534
Ehrhart, Thomas J 727
Eilebrecht. Herman 708
Ellington. A. C 342
Ellington. L. C 724
Eliiott, Thomas C 517
Ellis, Bert 494
Ellis, John M 449
Ellison. Albert C 304
Elmer, Mathias 437
Elmer, Nicholas 526
Elrod, John B 248
Erwin. William 528
Estes, James R 182
Evans. Milton 663
Ewers. James 55
Ewing, S. E 465
F
Farmer, Samuel H 653
Farmers & Merchants Bank 594
Farrington. John 633
Fenlon, James A 746
Ferguson, David D 539
Finley, Rowland W 133
Fisher, Samuel C 180
Fiske, Abram, & Son 139
Fitzpatrick, John A 394
Kitzpatrick, Peter 740
Fix, Samuel 619
Fletcher, R. E 259
Fogg, George 337
Forker, William 601
Forkner, Thomas A 23S
Fox, Charles B 817
Frahm, Jonn H 53S
Franz, Charles J 809
Fritzler. Thomas J 462
Fullenwider, John H.. Sr S35
Fuller, Collins D 190
G
Gagnon, Thomas 540
Gaines. Samuel A 675
Gale, William R 360
Galloway, John R 853
Cant. Emanuel 771
Gant, William 50
Gavin, Horace 255
Cavin. John T 264
Geiger, J, V 757
INDEX.
Geil. John 102
Gentry, James C 448
George, Alfred 25
Gerbaz. Jerry 214
Gibbs, Thomas B 450
Gibson, George 395
Gillaspey. William A 389
Gilliam, Jesse T 469
Goddard. W. E 480
Goff. John B 786
Goff. William H 787
Gollagher. S 486
Goodrich. George H 765
Goodrich, Hubbard W 109
Gould, Alec 845
Grace, Gustaveus 162
Graham. Isem W 406
Graves. Arthur 836
Graves & Ahrens 836
Gray, Elbert H 215
Green, Chester A 473
Green. Robert H 795
Griffing, John L 748
Grow. William J 333
Guiney. Cornelius M 399
Hahn. Joseph 701
Hall. Augustus 756
Hall, James 862
Halsey . John S 726
Halsey. John S., Jr 725
Hamilton, Eugene C 859
Hamilton, Riley S 243
Hammond, Henry 362
Hanson, Knud 566
Harker, Frank A 789
Harp, Horace S 24
Harris, Charles H 127
Harris. John L 616
Harris. J. M 656
Harris, William H 600
Harrod, Joseph C 542
Hartman, Alonzo 174
Hasley. Henry 173
Haverstick, Simon E 331
Hawthorne, D. C 387
Heaton, William V 27
Hedges, Leroy C 567
Heiner, Joseph F 376
Hel vey, Robert 520
Hemmerlee Brothers 870
Hemmerlee, Louis 870
Hemmerlee. William S70
Henderson, William J. S 347
Henrickson, Hans S 63
Henry. Edward 265
Henry. George W 366
Henry. William 493
Hernage, Henry J. W 681
Heron, Alexander 531
Heuschkel, Frank L 141
Hick. Lawrence A 368
Hickman. John F 61
Hickman. T. C 565
Hickman. William H 71
Hiexson, John 335
Hills. Francis M 584
Hitchens, Joseph 443
Hitchens, James H 613
Hitchens, William M 612
Hockett, Prior W 231
Hoffman, David J 408
Hoffman, George F 631
Holbrook, Charles C 643
Holland, M. D 490
Holland, Oscar 455
Holland, Timothy D 44
Hollingsworth. J. S 268
Holmes. Albert 661
Hook. William R. K 153
Hooker, Thomas P 142
Hooper. William F 811
Hoskins, Fred 424
Hoskins, Owen W 423
Hotchkiss, Charles R 854
Hotchkiss, Roswell A 849
Hotz, Martin 192
Howard, David L 348
Hudson. Lorenzo D 112
Hughes. Dennis 640
Hughes, Edwin S 170
Hull. Frank 101
Humphrey, Richard 396
Hunter. James T 77
Hunter, Pendleton 863
Hurlburt. John B 766
Hurst. Wilfred L 89
Hurt, James L 682
Hutchinson. Frisbie D 518
Hyde. Arthur B 848
Hynes, Laurence 430
Hyzer. Abram E 419
I
Ikeler, Hiram B 171
Imoversteg, Robert 754
Innman. Irwin 1 235
Irving, P. F 193
Irwin. Charles C 769
.1
Jacobs. Charles E 159
Jacobs, Oliver. G 159
Jacobson, Jacob 775
James, David S 779
Jaquette, Fred C 349
Jarvis. John T 244
Jay. Samuel 721
Jaynes, Chester E 423
Jaynes, Ezra E 391
Jaynes, Lester E 427
Jayne, Whitaker 590
Jeep. Frederick 505
Jenkins. Charles T 758
Jens. John 353
Jensen, John H 258
Jewell, Samuel 461
JoHantgen, F. N 352
Johnson. Abijah 298
Johnson. Albert T 532
Johnson. Charles F 292
Johnson. Lester C 561
Johnson, Louis A 533
Johnson, Nels P 469
Johnson. Wallace A 825
Johnson. William S 53
Jones. Daniel S 829
Jones, Joseph J 611
Jones. J. M 340
Jones, Owen O 230
Jones. Price M 511
Jones. Roy E 759
Jones. William G 106
Jones, William H 522
Joseph. Edwin 856
Judy. Adam H 471
Julian. Charles 474
Jutten, Gerhard 648
Kauble. John A 91
Keller. Alfred 740
Keller. William A 37
Kelley, Daniel M 314
Kelley. John 669
Kellogg, Irving M 70
Kellogg. Joseph E 433
Kelsey. J. M 744
Kem, Omer M 693
Kendall, John 468
INDEX.
Kennedy. W. A 269
Kennedy. William P 415
Kenney, Daniel 707
Kenney. William 865
Kermode, Richard 868
Kiefer, Benjamin F 553
Kiefer. Frank D 559
Kiggins, Zaehariah B 189
Kilduff, Thomas 72
Kimball, G. P. 403
Kimbley. Robert 132
King. Alfred R 365
King. George W 221
Kinney, James 700
Kitchen. Mrs. Eliza E 760
Kitchens. Henry 138
Knowles. Frank F 838
Koch, Harry G 204
Koehne. Theodore 341
Koll, John 445
Kreuger. Edward S74
L
Lake, Henry F 374
Lake. Lucius 414
Lando, G. H 747
Lane. Matthew 554
Lane. Squire G 496
Langstaff, John J 782
Larkin. John 763
Larson, Charles H 51
Larson, Charles P 75
Laughlin, Matthew 507
Laurent, J. A 491
Lawley, Charles E 509
Lawrence, Clinton 1 645
Lawrence, John 623
Lee. William R 172
Lefever. Peter 470
Leighton, Charles H 103
LeKamp. John H 45
Lewis, Alfred S 323
Lewis, Benjamin W 784
Lewis, Wilbert E 120
Lewy. Adam 673
Libbey. Charles 377
Light. Frederick 86
Lightley, Frank E 495
Lightley, George W 179
Lindgren. Yomas Ill
Lindsay, Thomas P 104
Linell, Nelson L 551
Lines. William H 315
Linton. Harry S33
Lot'. Anders J. 88
Loper. E. A 734
Loshbaugh, Eli C 62
Lucero, Louis 652
Lumsden. John J 356
Lundgreen. John 90
Lunny, Owen H 794
Luxen, Joseph 66
Lyons. John 800
Lyttle, James 232
Mc
McBirney. Joseph T 416
McCall. Thomas R 858
McCarthy, Daniel 188
McCartney, Oliver P 368
McCary. James T 409
McClure, Finla 729
McConnell. Albert H 646
McConnell. David A 4S4
MoCormick. William G 521
McCoy. Charles H 620
McCoy. John Ed 805
McCoy, Thomas 327
McDonald, James R 659
McDougal. John M 378
McDowell. E. H 481
McFarland. Edwin H 107
McGrew, J. B 865
McHugh, James B 338
McKee, M. H 160
McKenna. James J 874
McKenzie. Alexander 87
McKinlay. William A 447
McKinney. Charles 765
McKinnis. Philip R 615
McLachlan. Archie 236
McLaughlin. Farrell ...... ..792
McLean. Donald 776
MeMullin, Samuel G 575
McMurray. Irvin M 359
McPherson. Daniel C 52
McQuaid, Barney 723
M
Mahany, Albert D 56]
Mahon. Hugh 723
Male, Joseph B 446
Mallory, Enoch G 156
Manges. Franklin 334
Mann. John B 272
Marold. Carl L 510
Marsh. William A 575
Martin. Samuel 400
Masser. Charles B 149
Masters, George W 258
Matthews, Sanford H 668
May, William 864
Melton, George W 603
Meredith, Henry A 705
Meredith, Harold H 706
Merling, John 845
Metcalf . Hartley A 275
Metzger. Otto 223
Miller. C. G 484
Miller, George W 418
Miller. Jacob 383
Miller, Jacob D 178
Miller. Louis 488
Miller. Lawrence M 429
Miller, Reinhard D 535
Misemer. Samuel C 239
Mollette, A. R 872
Monroe. J. Vernon 183
Monson. William B 482
Monteith. William R 826
Moog, John D 786
Moore, Frank H 741
Moore. Joseph 744
Moore. Otis 494
Moore. Thomas C 743
Moore. Thomas M 302
Moore. William W 128
Morgan, Stephen 855
Morgan, Thomas , 806
Morin, Julian P 797
Morse, Oscar F 233
Mott, George S 851
Mounson. Nels C 639
Moyer, William J 144
Mulqueen, Andrew E 197
Mulvihill. Jeremiah 384
N
Nachtrieb, Charles 875
Naefe. Frederick A 220
Naeve. John 386
Needham. James 119
Neidhardt, George 819
Neiman, Charles W 451
Nelson. William H 857
Newcomb. Cyrus F 869
Newell, George J 310
Newman, Joseph D 21S
Nichols, Benjamin L 40
Nicholson, Joseph 167
Nimerick Brothers 47
INDEX.
Nimerick, James B 47
Nimerick. John C 47
Nisbeth. Thomas P 709
Nolan. J. B 757
Norton. Enos H 736
Norvell. James L 447
Nuckolds. Marshall J 780
Nuruberg, Eugene 161
Nurnberg. John 160
O
Olesen, Hans P 113
Olesen, Julius P 117
Olesen, Samuel P 116
Ornis. Lewis V 848
Orr. Robert A 270
Osborn. Jesse W 678
Osborn. William C 558
Ostrom, Ralph W 399
Overbay. William H 326
Overman, George F 65S
P
Page. James 266
Palmer, Mrs. Ellen T 471
Parker. Thadd 565
Parlin, John T 713
Parry. Joseph M. B 194
Parton. J. H 263
Paterson. John 162
Patterick, George N 428
Patterson. S. C 247
Pattison, William L 48
Paxton, Livius C 84
Pelton, John E 732
Perkins, Herbert E 371
Perreault. A. N 698
Peters. Phil 281
Phillips, William D 157
Pierce. Albert M 226
Pierson, Henry 790
Pierson. Joseph W 318
Pitchfqrd, George E 241
Plank. John J 388
Piatt, John 311
Port, John .-». 716
Porter. James S 56
Porter, Perrin 739
Powell, Arnold 61S
Powell, Edwin 209
Price, Edwin 576
Price, James F 807
Pritchard, William 527
Proffitt. John W 585
Puett, Albert M 700
Purdy. Samuel L 261
Putney. Joseph J 286
R
Ralston, Joseph 225
Ranney. Charles A 436
Ranney. Frank B 237
Ratekin. John B 676
Rathnell, William 850
Rausis. Henry 750
Rausis, Herman 750
Ray, Thomas 666
Rector, James W ' 39
Reeser, C. Edward 499
Reeser. William 498
Reeves, Aylmer F 703
Reid. Samuel B 804
Reid. Samuel C 617
Reigan, Robert 793
Reynolds, Reuben 539
Rhinehart, William E 560
Rhoads, Jasper N 401
Rhyne. Charles M 778
Rice, Phidelah A 145
Rice. William A 58
Richner. Herman 431
Rider. Jacob W 143
Riehl. G. A 341
Riland. James L 229
Rives, Robert B 649
Roatcap. Daniel S 324
Roatcap, Joseph S 343
Roberts. Charles B 621
Robertson. Robert A 772
Robinson. Andrew J 201
Robinson. Edward W 850
Rock. Henley C 51
Rodgers, Vincent U 662
Rogers, R. N 842
Rohrbough, George E 85
Roller. William W 294
Romer. John H 393
Rominger. Frank 505
Rominger. John 587
Rose. William H 434
Rosenberg. Theodore 166
Ross. Elmer H 279
Ross. Frank 380
Ross, Lewis E 280
Ross. William H 801
Roth. Joseph 556
Rownan. Michael T 772
Russey, McKay 412
Rutan. J. C 852
Ryan. Charles M 299
Ryan. Robert M 203-
S
Salmon. Elijah 224
Sampson. Delos W 267
Sampson. Robert 738
Sand Creek Indian Fight... 627
Sanders. Jesse F 359
Sandy. Martin L 49
Sapp, Dexter T 591
Saylor, Davis H 868
Scales, Charles 287
Scandrett. Charles A 509
Schaffnit. Henry. Sr 440
Scharnhorst. Charles J 670
Schermerhorn. Fred 372
Schildt. Stillman H 306
Schilling, John 506
Schmitt, Adrian 547
Sclropyi. August 753
Schutte. John Christian 813
Schwartz. William 553
Scott. Arthur T 628
Scott. Frank 677
Scott. Thomas B 546
Scott. Theodore W 420
Sebree, Ozias D 187
Seeley, C. D 274
Sewell. Charles B 413
Sharp, Milo B 546
Sharpe, Charles M 873
Shaver. Frank E 234
Shaw Brothers 798
Shaw, Graham O 798
Shaw, Herbert 798
Shaw. John 798
Shaw, Robert 198
Sheek, Wiley F 343
Shellabarger. Adam 502
Shelton. Ezekiel 529
Sherwood. Benjamin 30
Sherwood, Robert L 124
Shindledecker. George W 325
Shinn, Edward E 704
Shippee, James H 277
Shippee. Marcus L 152
Shumate, John T 206
Sieber. Charles R 369
Sievers, George 191
Simmons. Frank 477
Simpson. William E 37
INDEX.
Slick, B. B 657
Sloan, William C 687
Sloss, Sterling P 154
Smith, Adam 225
Smith, Charles 605
Smith, David 36
Smith, Francis 768
Smith. Prank R 587
Smith, George 656
Smith, George 568
Smith, George J 711
Smith. George P 550
Smith. Harvey D 345
Smith. Jay F 289
Smith, James H 549
Smith. John R 344
Smith. John R 246
Smith. True Albert 777
Smith. William L 54
Snelson, James W 330
Snoddy, Joseph W 317
Songer. Prank E 715
Spalding. George R 284
Spencer. Jonn F 256
Spencer, Walter 235
Spencer, William D 638
Spiers, Jacob Z 674
Springer, John M 65
Squire, Albert 528
Squire. Frank D 69
Squire, John F 108
Staats, Henry A 543
Stahl. Philip 818
Staley, Daniel H 728
Stanley, Harvey W 655
Stapleton, Timothy C 91
Stark. H. M 479
Stat on, Hyrcanus 123
Steinberg. Melvin S 599
Stephan, George 594
Stephens. David S 290
Sterner, John D 217
Steward, John H 775
Steward, John S 773
Stewart, Lemuel T 397
Stewart, Mansir 500
Stockdale, Frank M 861
Stoddard, George 762
Stolze, August F 467
Stone, Columbus, L 749
Stone, David T 573
Stone. William 692
Strehlke, Julius L 38
Streit. Martin H 406
Stringfield. Charles W 193
Stroud. H. A 401
Strouse, Edwin H 604
Stubbs, Benajah P 625
Stubbs, Dallas B 628
Sullivan, J. F., Sr 490
Swanson, Frederick W 833
Sweet, Charles L 641
Sweitzer, Louis W 309
Sweney, Joseph P 271
T
Tagert. William C 202
Talbert, Shadrack T 858
Tappan, Stephen V 303
Taylor, Arthur G 572
Taylor, Edward T 18
Tayior. James C 296
Teachout. Henry W 329
Temple, John Charles 610
Thatcher. George W 597
Thomas. John L 414
Thompson. Benjamin H . . . . 28
Thompson, Elijah B 794
Thompson, M. C 760
Thompson, Robert E 228
Tichenor. W. W 405
Tobin, John J 733
Todd. Charles L 783
Toland. Frank M 57
Tomkins, Henry S 475
Tomlinson, Hiram W 227
Torrence. Hugh 536
Totten. James 867
Tourtelotte, Henry 195
Trimble. James 699
Trites, John W 815
Truax. Charles 665
Trull, George E 523
Turner, John W 96
Twining. Warren H 200
U
Ulin, August 110
Ulin Brothers 110
Ulin, Charles ...» 110
Ulin. Gustavus 110
Utley, David 231
V
Vader. Palmer H 184
Van Cleave, H. M 762
Van Cleve, Philip H 125
Van Deusen, Robert M 97
Van Hoorebeke, Gustave ....571
Van Ostein, William V 487
Van Tassel, Hiram 135
Veatch. William L 23
Veerkamp, James P 686
Vezina, Nelson 381
Vickers. Thomas 322
Victoria Hotel Company 686
Vidal, Regis 497
Virden, Thomas 755
Von Hagen. H 658
Voorhees. Kilburn C 164
W
Wachter, Albert G 735
Wade, Felix G 379
Waggoner, James Q 666
Wald, Peter 122
Wales Brothers 580
Wales, Edwin 582
Wales, Otis A 580
Walker, Cullen F 355
Walker. Gilbert A 293
Walker. George W 796
Walker, John 417
Walker, Samuel J 810
Walker. William R 810
Wallihan. Allen G 137
Walther. Amos E 720
Ward, Robert A 307
Wardlaw, John M 660
Ware. Hiram V 58
Warren, William G 43
Wason. Henry H 691
Waters. Stephen 652
Waters, Thomas 253
Watkins, John M 854
Watson, Benjamin K 29
Watson, Charles S 661
Watson, James 830
Watson, John A 34
Watson. Samuel 832
Watson, Samuel W 770
Watson, William 273
Watson, Zedekiah 291
Wattle, Theodore W 672
Webb, D. M„ Jr 464
Webber, William 654
Weeks, Samuel W 385
Weir, Andrew 121
Weisbeck, Martin 435
Welch, Milton R 358
Welch, Stephen R 426
Welsh. John 156.
Welty. John 634
Weston, John N 814
INDEX.
Wheeler. Frank E 679
Wheeler, L. S 844
Wheeler. Samuel N 569
Whetstone, John Adam 444
Whetstone, James M 437
Whinnery, John E 319
Whipp, John E 273
Whipp, Smith L 596
White, Ralph H 249
Whitley, James 350
Whitsell, Charles M 356
Whitsell, James H 356
Wilbur. Eddie P 788
Wilder. George C 690
Wilhelm, Isaac A 524
Wilkinson. George S 114
Wilkinson, William H 412
AVilliams Brothers 129
Williams, David H 129
Williams, Eugene 814
Williams, John Hugh 812
Williams. John M 201
Williams, Seth 129
Willis. John W 632
Willis. Oliver E 754
Willits. Lee R 15S
Willson. Fred D 403
Wilmoth, Sylvester 59
Wilson, Charles A 644
Winburn, S. D 668
Wingate. John W 671
Wingert, Leonard M 687
Winkelman. John W 856
Winter. Walter 257
Wise. R. C 263
Wise. Thomas H 240
Wister. George 646
Wood. Rut'us A 466
Woodward. Henry E 598
Wolbert, Harry H 595
Wolf. John 260
Woll, William W 752
Woolery. Harvey 512
Woolley, George D 530
Wright. Alonzo S 320
Wright, William S 321
Wurts, William W 544
Wurtz. Henry G 269
Wylie. John Edward 390
Y
Yeaton, Arlie B 354
Yeoman. Enos F 407
Yessen, John H 551
Yoast. William L 438
Young, George L 766
Y'ule, George 592
Yule. Joseph 251
Z
Zanola. Cesar 589
Zaugg. William O 199
Zerbe. Allen L 21
>. A, /X
'
PROGRESSIVE MEN
OF
WESTERN COLORADO
FRANK M. BURGER.
Frank M. Burger, of Mesa county, a pros-
perous and enterprising ranchman and stock-
grower living twelve miles east of Grand Junc-
tion, is one of the leading citizens of his por-
tion of the county, and has been a great force
for good in the development and growth of
the section, giving his aid to every promising
undertaking for the benefit of its farms and its
people and originating and constructing some
works of great public utility himself. Although
somewhat engaged in general farming and rais-
ing stock, his principal industry on his home
farm is the production of large quantities of
superior fruit of choice varieties. Mr. Burger
is a native of Ohio, born at St. Paris, that
state, in 1852. and the son of Michael and
Julia (Barnheart) Burger, both natives of
Pennsylvania. Soon after their marriage they
moved to Ohio and were among the first set-
tlers at Dayton. The father was a cooper by
trade, and followed his craft until his death,
in 1852. at the age of fifty-one. His widow
lived until 1891, then died at a good old age.
lacking only three weeks and ten days of
being one hundred years old. The remains of
the father were buried at Columbus, Ohio, and
those of the mother at Grand Junction, this
state. Frank was the last born of their nine
children. Being orphaned by the death of his
father soon after he was born', life was for him
a serious matter at a very early age. When he
was but eleven years old he went to work on
farms in Illinois, and continued this employ-
ment about seven years. He then began to
learn the trade of a machinist at Peoria, Illinois,
and served an apprenticeship of four years at
it. In 1876 he started west, passing through
Iowa and Kansas, and then coming on to
Pueblo, Colorado, reaching that city in 1881
and going to work in the machine shops there.
After being thus employed for eleven months
he moved on October 9, 1882. to the fruit farm
( hi which he now lives, and which has been his
home since the date last named. As a means
of improving his land and that of other per-
sons in this part of the county he built at his
own expense the Mount Lincoln ditch, the con-
struction of which occupied him nine years,
and the money for which he made by keeping
a short-order house of good grade. He was
PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
married in 1896 to Miss Lydia Curry, of
Palisade. They have one child, Frank M., Jr.
Mr. Burger has been very active in promoting
the interests of Grand valley, aiding every good
enterprise for the purpose himself, and by his
influence and example securing the active and
effective co-operation of others. Fraternally
he is connected with the Odd Fellows, with
membership in Palisade Lodge, No. 147, and
the Elks, Grand Junction Lodge, No. 575.
HON. EDWARD T. TAYLOR.
This distinguished lawyer, business man.
legislator and publicist, who is now ( 1904) a
resident of Glen wood Springs, and forty-six
years of age, has passed just half his life in
Colorado, and has had among her people a
career which is an impressive lesson and an
inspiration. He was born on a farm near
Metamora in' Woodford county, Illinois, on
June 19, 1858, and there he acquired habits of
useful industry along with independence of
spirit and self-reliance. His father. Hon.
Henrv R. Taylor, a native of England, was
brought by his parents in his infancy to Mor-
gan county, Illinois, ami was reared to man-
hood on a farm near Jacksonville, that county.
In 1857 he was married to Miss Anna M.
Evans, who was born in Indiana. At the be-
ginning of the Civil war he enlisted in the
Fifty-first Illinois Infantry, and in that com-
mand he served to the close of the momentous
conflict, seeing much active service and facing
death on many a hard-fought field, but escap-
ing without wounds, capture or other disaster.
After the war he passed the remainder of his
life as a prominent and well-to-do farmer, liv-
ing as such for a number of years in Illinois
and afterward in western Kansas. In the latter
state he served frequently in the legislature and
held other important public offices. He died in
1888, and four years later his widow passed
away, leaving two sons and three daughters.
The sons, Hon. Edward T. and Charles W.
Taylor, are associated in the practice of law at
Glenwood Springs; and the three daughters,
who are all married, live at Kansas City, Mis-
souri. The immediate subject of this brief
memoir passed his boyhood and youth on his
father's farm in Illinois and stock ranch in
Kansas, and was a cowboy for a number of
years. His academic education was obtained
in the public schools of his native county and
at the Leavenworth (Kansas) high school, he
being graduated from the latter with honor in
i88r. After his graduation he at once came
to Colorado and located at Leadville, where
during the school year of 188 1-2 he was prin-
cipal of the high school. Resigning this posi-
tion in the fall of 18S2, he entered the law de-
partment of the University of Michigan at Ann
Arbor. In the university he was president of
his class; took a special course in the literary
department ; passed a year as a student in Judge
Cooley's private office ; belonged to the Phi
Delta Phi college fraternity; and was a room-
mate of the late Governor Richard Yates of
Illinois, in the class with whom he was gradu-
ated in 1884, with the degree of Bachelor of
Laws. Immediately thereafter he returned to
Leadville and entered the law office of his uncle,
Hon. Joseph W. Taylor, with whom he was
actively associated in the practice of his pro-
fession for a period of two years. Owing to
ill health from overwork at college, he was
obliged to seek a lower altitude and in the
spring of 1886 moved to Aspen. There he
practiced during the remainder of that year,
and being then required by his physician to
seek a still lower altitude, he located in Febru-
ary, 1887, at Glenwood Springs, where he has
ever since lived. Giving his attention wholly
to his profession, by his characteristic energy,
legal ability and devotion to his business, he
has built up a very large and remunerative
PROGRESS/ 1 'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
practice throughout the northwestern part of
the state. He has had many cases of com-
manding importance, and in the trial of them
all has attracted the attention of both his pro-
fessional brethren and the laity by his compre-
hensive and accurate knowledge of the law, in
statutes and decisions, his readiness and re-
sourcefulness in legal expedients, and his elo-
quence and logical power before courts and
juries. Meanwhile he has used his business op-
portunities with vigor and good judgment, and
has acquired a considerable body of valuable
real estate besides his residence, which is one
of the finest in western Colorado. From [887
to 1889 Mr. Taylor was the referee of the dis-
trict court that adjudicated all the water rights
in the Roaring Fork, Grand and White river
countries, and his decrees have been followed
by all other referees in the northwestern sec-
tion of the state. He personally took the
evidence and prepared the decrees in more than
a thousand acres, and in none was he ever
reversed by the appellate court. He is there-
fore referred to generally as "The Father of
the Water Rights on the Western Slope." and
is everywhere recognized as one of the ablest
and best informed irrigation lawyers in Colo-
rado. For various magazines and other publi-
cations he has written numerous articles on ir-
rigation, good roads, needed legislation and
other subjects of current interest, one of the
most important being his address before the
Colorado Bar Association in 1902 on "The
Torrens System of Registering Title to Land."
In the thirteenth general assembly he was the
author of senate joint resolution No. 7, direct-
ing the governor and attorney general to retain
sufficient counsel and go to whatever expense
might be necessary, without limit, to protect
the rights of Colorado in the litigation with the
state of Kansas over the use of the waters of
the Arkansas river. That was the initiation of
Colorado's defense in this memorable litigation.
and is fraught with vast and vital importance
to the state. Taking always and in every way
a lively, earnest and intelligent interest in
public affairs. Senator Taylor has held many
important positions and has filled them all with
credit to himself and advantage to the peo-
ple. In the fall of [884 he was chosen as the
candidate of all political parties county super-
intendent of schools for Lake county, and he
held the position until he left Leadville. He
was also appointed deputy district attorney for
that county ami served as such until his re-
moval to Aspen. In the fall of 1887 he was
elected district attorney for the ninth judicial
district, embracing Pitkin, Garfield, Routt and
Rio Blanco counties, and he held the position
for a full term. In 189!) he was chosen state
senator for the twenty-first senatorial district,
comprised of Garfield and Eagle counties, and
in 1900 he was re-elected by an overwhelming
majority. In 1901 Rio Blanco county was
added to the twenty-first district. In 1904 he
was renominated and made the race against
desperate odds. It was positively asserted and
generally believed that there was fully twenty
thousand dollars expended by the smelter trust
and other corporations to defeat him, but he
was again re-elected, carrying all three counties
by handsome majorities, when each of the
counties gave Roosevelt large majorities, and
he is at the time of this writing just entering
upon his third four-year term in the state
senate. In the meantime he has served five
terms as city attorney of Glenwood Springs.
In 1 90 1 and 1902 he was also county attorney
of Garfield county, and during the latter year
was president of the State Association of
County Attorneys. He is a charter member of
the Colorado Bar Association, and was its vice-
president during the year 1902-3. In politics
Senator Taylor was originally a Republican,
but he renounced his allegiance to the partv in
1896 on account of its financial position, and
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
since then he has been actively aligned with
the Democrats. In their organization he has
been tor the past two years chairman of the
county central committee for Garfield county
and that county's member of the state central
committee. In fraternal life he is an enthusi-
astic Freemason, being a Knight Templar and
a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, and is also a
member of the order of Elks. He was mar-
ried in 1892, his wife being formerly Miss
Etta Taber, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, a native
of the state of New York and who was reared
and educated at Council Bluffs and graduated
from the high school of that city. Two chil-
dren have blessed their union and brightened
their household, Edward T., Jr., aged ten, and
Etta T., aged four. In the eleventh and
twelfth general assemblies of the state the
Senator was chairman of the senate judiciary
committee. In the thirteenth he was chair-
man of the reapportionment committee, and
in the fourteenth chairman of the revision com-
mittee. In each assembly he was also a mem-
ber of the finance and other important com-
mittees. At the close of the thirteenth he was
elected president pro tempore of the senate,
holding the position from April 1, 1901. to
January 7, 1903. and in that capacity presided
over the senate during the extra session of the
thirteenth assembly in the absence of the presi-
dent. During Governor Orman's extended trip
east in the summer of 1902, Lieutenant Gov-
ernor Coates filled the executive chair and Sen-
ati ir Taylor acted as lieutenant governor. The
Senator has probably been the author of more
important bills than any other member of the
legislature of Colorado during its entire history
as a state, some thirty laws bearing his name
being now on the statute books. The most
important of these are the constitutional
amendment passed at the election of 1900, al-
lowing six amendments to be submitted at any
one election; the bill appropriating forty thou-
sand dollars for the construction of the Taylor
state wagon road from Denver to Grand Junc-
tion over Tennessee Pass and through the
famous scenic canyon of the Grand river, which
is one of the most picturesque highways in the
world as well as the first practical wagon road
across the state, and which the Senator hopes
to make the Colorado division of the proposed
national boulevard across the continent; the
law abolishing double trials in mining and all
ejectment suits, which saves a vast amount of
litigation and expense to litigants ; the law of
1897 from which the state derives a large
increase of fees from corporations ; the law per-
mitting counties to refund their indebtedness ;
the surety company law ; several stock and four
of the most important irrigation laws in the
Colorado statutes, and many measures simplify-
ing the practice in the courts and promoting
general public economy throughout the state.
His most important measures in the thirteenth
general assembly of 1901 were his constitu-
tional amendments consolidating county, dis-
trict and state elections, and providing that
there shall be only one general election every
two years in the state, thereby saving to the
taxpayers a quarter of a million dollars every
alternate year, and being of vast benefit in other
ways. These amendments, known as the
"Taylor biennial election bills," are universally
commended as among the most far-reaching,
statesmanlike and unqualifiedly. beneficial legis-
lative measures ever enacted by the state legis-
lature, and will not only forever redound to
the Senator's credit, but have rendered it im-
possible to ever write the political history of
the state with his name left out. In all his
public acts he has been the friend of the farm-
ing and laboring classes, but he has in a special
way befriended the printers and publishers
also. The press of the state had for years ap-
pealed to the legislature for recognition with-
out avail. In the thirteenth general assembh
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Senator Taylor took up their cause as almost
their only champion and forced through the
session the remedial legislation they sought,
earning thereby and securing the lasting grati-
tude of the entire newspaper fraternity. In
the fourteenth assembly (1903) he was the
author of the constitutional amendment abolish-
ing the court of appeals and increasing the su-
preme court to seven judges, and fixing the
term of office for them at ten years; the act
governing the dissolution and renewal of cer-
tificates of incorporation of both domestic and
foreign corporations, and regulating the fee-
therefor; the act establishing the present legal
holidays in Colorado and making for the first
time the birthday of Abraham Lincoln one of
them; the irrigation law creating the office of
superintendent of irrigation and specifying its
duties and fixing the scope of its authority ; the
law providing for the records, maps and state-
ments that must be made in reference to all
ditches and reservoirs in the state; and. more
important than many others, the act providing
for the adjudication of all rights t<> water for
domestic and other beneficial purposes. But his
most important legislative service to the com-
monwealth and its people, aside from the con-
stitutional amendments of which he was the
author, was his securing the passage of the
present law concerning land titles, which es-
tablished in Colorado the "Torrens system of
registering titles to land.*' This is probably
the most beneficial and far-reaching act that
wa- ever passed by the state legislature.
Senator Taylor made an exhaustive study of
the subject in all its bearings, and he is wholly
entitled to the credit for the introduction and
enactment of the law. Senator Taylor is one
of the best equipped men in the state for legis-
lative work, and seems to have a large and
special natural fitness for it. He has remark-
able industry, a thorough knowledge of the
state's laws, its financial conditions and essen-
tial requirements, and great vigilance in look-
ing after the general welfare and the special
interests of his constituents. He has been and
will continue to be of inestimable value in
service to the entire state. He approaches the
discussion of every public question with full
knowledge of his subject and presents it with
an eloquence and logical force that carry con-
viction to the most skeptical. As an occasional
speaker he is eloquent, fervid and profound,
and is in great demand for addresses at Fourth
of July. Decoration Hay and other public cele-
brations, and in political campaigns. But in the
seii.Me he seldom makes a long or formal
speech. In fact, it has been said of him that
be talks less and works more than any other
lawyer in the body. His activity, learning,
breadth of view and lofty patriotism have at-
tracted universal attention throughout the state
and led to extensive favorable mention of him
as a probable m iminee for the office of governor
and membership in the national congress. With
youth, vigor and energy on his side, with a wide
and elevated reputation in the commonwealth
for ability, integrity and sterling manhood, ami
with a laudable ambition to serve as well as he
can in his da}- the people among whom he has
cast his lot, there can be no doubt of the bright
future and higher honors that are before him.
ALLEN L. ZERBE.
Born and reared on a farm, with only the
school advantages common to country boys
who have to work for their living, either at
home or elsewhere, and without favoring cir-
cumstances at any period of his career, Allen L.
Zerbe has. by his own thrift, enterprise and
business capacity, won a comfortable estate
from hard conditions and established himself
in the lasting esteem and good will of his fel-
low men by his sterling integrity, industry,
interest in the common welfare of his com-
PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
munity and his upright and independent citi-
zenship. He was born in Stark county, Ohio,
on November 24, 1857, the son of John and
.Maria ( Smith) Zerbe. also natives of that state.
In 1878 they moved to Michigan and he. being
then twenty-one years of age, located in Chi-
cago and for four years and a half was en-
gaged in various occupations of usefulness and
profit for Ins own benefit, he having up to that
time worked at home on the farm in the in-
terest of his parents. At the end of the period
mentioned he joined them in Michigan and
again worked for them on the farm until 1886.
In March of that year he came to Colorado
and located at Central City, where he mined
for wages until the next spring, then made a
trip over the mountains at Rollins Pass to
the head of Middle Creek Park in the hope of
finding a suitable location for further enter-
prise and a permanent home. He moved on
to Steamboat Springs, and after a short stay
there proceeded by way of Dillon and Red Cliff
to Rifle. Here he located mining property in
the fall of 1877 which did not prove of much
value, and he took up the ranch he now con-
ducts as a pre-emption claim in 1890. It com-
prises eighty acres, thirty of which are under
cultivation. Before doing this, however, in
[888 be went to Aspen, and during the next
two years he was employed in the mines there
for wages. The years (894 and 1895 were
spent by him in contracting and mining in the
interest of a stamp mill at Breckenridge. Then
he returned to his ranch, and ever since he has
been developing and improving that until he
has made it a choice place for a large body of
patrons and one of the successful institutions of
its kind in this part of the country.
The ranch house stands upon a rise of
ground on the east side of the valley of Rifle
creek. This stream, taking its waters from
never-failing springs in the canons above, car-
ries a large flow of perfectly clear water. It
simply swarms with trout. The owner of Rifle
Falls ranch absolutely controls, by ownership
or lease, more than two miles of the best fishing
on the stream, all directly adjoining the ranch
house. This magnificent trout stream flows
through scenes which for grandeur or beauty
can hardly be surpassed within the borders of
Colorado. The sides of the valley are of red
and orange and buff sandstone whose vivid
colors are seen through a thick mantle of ever-
green pinons and cedars. The bottom of the
valley is green with bay-meadows, title grass
and groves of trees, through which flows Rifle
creek, in an infinite division of small, clear rills.
From spring to fall the meadows and hillsides
are covered with wild flowers. The groves are
full of song birds. The hillsides are fringed
with wild fruits and berries. Overhead are the
constant sun and the blue sky that make the
Colorado climate glorious. The air is cool and
dry and bracing, while instead of the aridity
which is so painful to Eastern eyes in most of
Colorado, the landscape is as green as any in
Vermont.
Although surrounded by the wilderness,
and remote from the dust and noise of the busy
world. Rifle Falls ranch is easily reached and
whoever wants to can still keep in close touch
with all his affairs. A good road follows the
creek twelve miles to Rifle, a bustling little
town with almost metropolitan stores, being
the trading point for an immense area of coun-
try. Rifle is on the main lines of the Colorado
Midland and Denver iv Rio Grande roads, and
eight transcontinental trains pass through
every day. with connections from the Atlantic
to the Pacific. A good stage service between
Rifle Falls and the railway affords almost daily
mail service. Rifle Falls ranch is connected by
telephone with the postofhce, telegraph station
and the business houses of Ritle. and has con-
nections to most of the principal towns of the
valley of the Grand river also.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
23
Rifle Falls ranch caters to the patronage of
those who value cleanliness, comfort and good
cooking. It is no longer necessary to put up
with discomfort, lack of privacy, bad cooking,
dirt and disorder in order to get into the edge
of the wild. The guests* rooms are nicely
finished, well furnished, well lighted and venti-
lated. Beds and bedding are clean, and mat-
tresses and springs are of highest quality.
Wide porches, abundant shade and large living
rooms add to the comforts of the place. The
lower valley of Rifle creek is full of orchards
and gardens, producing the best of Colorado
fruits and vegetables which, added to what can
be grown on the place and can he brought
from the town, with fresh meats from the
abundant ranges and fish and game from the
streams and hills, afford a menu of wide range.
The cooking has the best home quality. The
service is dainty and appetizing.
In political affiliation Mr. Zerbe is an
earnest and strong Democrat, but he has never
sought public office or a position of influence
in the councils of his party. His mother died
on December 5, 1878. and his father is still
living, a well-to-do farmer in Michigan. Seven
children were born in the family, two of whom
died some years ago, William and Frank. Five
are living: Margaret, wife of George Dow, of
Chicago; Amanda, wife of Frank Hunt, of
Akron, Ohio; Allen L.. of tin- state; Jacob, of
Breckenridge. Colorado, and Gertrude, wife of
W. S. Park, of Silt.
WILLIAM L. VEATCH.
Beginning the battle of life for himself at the
age of fourteen in the actual and awful strife
of the Civil war, in which he enlisted at that
early age and was soon at the front, and after
his three-years term of enlistment expired con-
tending with a destiny of toil and often of
privation for many years, the subject of this
brief review came to his present estate of public
esteem and earthly comfort along no primrose
path of dalliance and lulled into pleasant slum-
ber on ni) flowery bed of ease. His was the
strenuous life in its most exacting form dur-
ing much of the time from his very youth.
But he was sustained in the struggle by his
lofty courage, his native resourcefulness, his
sturdy self-reliance and his persistent determin-
ation. Mr. Veatch was horn at Connersville,
Fayette county. Indiana, on September 8. [848.
His educational advantages were few, and he
was unable to make full use of what he had.
Soon after the beginning of the Civil war, filled
with the martial spirit then flooding the coun-
try in its hour of peril and need, he enlisted in
the Union army and in the midst of the most
active field service passed three eventful years.
Responsibility educates rapidly, however, and
experience, although a hard, is a thorough task-
master, and his military service much more
than made amends for his lack of schooling,
and armed him well for all the subsequent trials
and dangers he was destined to encounter.
After his discharge at the end of his term he
returned to his Indiana home and during the
next two or three years he remained with his
parents. In 1867, at the age of nineteen, an
age at which many young men of promise are
contending for the prizes of degrees and
scholarship, or waiting with hesitant spirit for
opportunity to seek or be found for them, he
once more essayed the weighty task of build-
ing his own fortunes, and moved to Ellsworth.
Kansas, where, in partnership with his oldest
brother. James C. Veatch, he conducted a hotel,
an enterprise in which they were successful and
prosperous until T874. when a disastrous fire
swept away their property and business, to-
gether with a large proportion of their accumu-
lations. During the next three years he lived
the uneventful life of an Indiana farmer. In
1877 he returned to the hotel business and he
24
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
continued in it until 1884, his location being at
Denver, this state. In the year last named the
business was sold, and Mr. Veatch moved to
Middle Park and bought the improvements on
a ranch claim, and mice more became a farmer.
He remained there engaged in ranching until
1886, when he moved to the White river
country among the earliest settlers. Here he
followed mining and prospecting in various
camps, but still held an interest in the hotel
enterprise. He located a ranch of one hundred
and sixty acres and soon afterward added an-
other of the same size to his possessions. He
set about diligently and with energy to improve
his property and continued his efforts with
steady progress until he owned a good farm,
two hundred acres of which were under cul-
tivation, the ranch being eight miles southeast
of Meeker. His principal occupations at this
point were ranching and raising stock, and he
continued them with profit until he sold out in
1902. In that year he was appointed by the
secretary of the interior supervisor of the
forest reserve, a position which he is still filling
with general satisfaction to all parties inter-
ested. He has been generally successful in
business notwithstanding his several reverses,
and is now one of Colorado'- prosperous and
prominent citizens. When he reached the
White river country the whole section was
sparsely populated and Indians in the region
were still numerous, but they gave the whites
no trouble. There were few roads and no
bridges, and even the common conveniences of
civilized life were scarce and often unattain-
able. But the early settlers there were men of
hardihood and courage, boldly confronting
their difficulties and privations, challenging
fate herself into the lists and ready to meet her
on almost equal terms. In all the movements
for advancement Mr. Veatch took an active and
helpful part. He is an earnest and unwavering
working Republican in politics, and among the
fraternal organizations he has affiliation with
four, the Freemasons, the Odd Fellows, its
sister organization the Daughters of Rebekah,
and the Grand Army of the Republic. His par-
ents were George and Eliza (Baringer) Veatch,
the former born in Kentucky and the latter in
Pennsylvania. They passed the greater part
of their mature lives in Indiana, where they
died, the father on February 21, 1875, and the
mother on February 28, 1900. The father was
a farmer, kept a hotel and conducted a real
estate and stock brokerage business, and was
very successful. All of their six children are
living, James G, in Washington. D. C. ; John
S., in Chicago; Martha J., wife of Octave
Bigouess. in Washington, D. C. ; William L..
'at Meeker, Colorado; Mary E., wife of Hilton
B. Hall, at Momence. Illinois, and Nancy G,
wife of Tucey Tyler, at Kremmling, Colorado.
Mr. Veatch was married on October 15. 1874,
to Miss Emma G Bellows, a native of Missouri,
who died in October. 1884, leaving one child,
their son Charles E.
'HORACE S. HARP.
Horace S. Harp, of Meeker, in Rio Blanco
ci muty. who also has interests at Rifle and else-
where in Garfield county, and whose active
mind and busy hands are variously employed
in the mercantile and industrial interests of this
state, is a native of Marion county, Iowa, born
on December 21, i860. Since the age of thir-
teen he has been the sole architect of his for-
tunes and has builded them well and wisely.
He began earning his own living by working
on farms in the vicinity of his home for very
small wages, and continued to be so employed
there until he reached the age of nineteen. In
1880 he came to Colorado under the influence
of the mining excitement at Ashcroft. He
entered into the spirit of the time and place,
locating a quartz claim and worked it and other
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
mining properties until 1882, when he turned
his attention to the livery and transfer business
at Crested Butte. In 1884 he sold out at a
good profit and moved to Meeker, which at
that time contained only seventy-five inhabit-
ants. Here he conducted a hotel with good
results until 1887, then sold the business and
began running stage lines between Steamboat
Springs and Rifle. In 1894 he established a
line between Axial and Rifle and dropped the
lines to Steamboat Springs. The lines between
Axial. Meeker and Rifle he is still running.
He is also largely interested in ranching and
raising stock, having a ranch of his own com-
prising three hundred and seventy-five acres of
tillable land, and extensive herds of full blooded
thorough and range-bred cattle, and raising
large crops of hay, grain and vegetables. The
water supply for his land is abundant and the
right belongs to him. The ranch adjoins the
town of Meeker and is admirably located for
the purposes to which it is devoted. In addi-
tion to this Mr. Harp is a partner with A. C.
Moulton in a one thousand two hundred-acre
ranch, seven hundred acres of which are under
cultivation, being irrigated from a reservoir
built for the purpose. The remaining five hun-
dred acres are used for grazing. Besides his
ranching interests, which are. as can be seen,
extensive, Mr. Harp is connected with a large
blacksmithing enterprise conducted at Meeker
by the Harp-JoHantgen Manufacturing and
Blacksmithing Company, one of the most pro-
gressive and enterprising corporations of Rio
Blanco county. In fraternal life- he is an Odd
Fellow and a Woodman of the World, and in
political faith a determined Republican. His
parents were William C. and Hannah
(Brouse) Harp, the former a native of Ken-
tucky and the latter of Ohio. The father was
a large and successful stock shipper and specu-
lator and a man of considerable local promin-
ence. He was an active Republican in politics.
They had a family of ten children. Pleasant
I', and Mary J. are deceased. The eight living
are: Charles W.. of Marion county. Iowa;
Sarah, wife of A. E. Rees, of Meeker, Colo
radu; Dr. John F., of Prairie City, Iowa;
Horace S. ; Thaddeus, of Rifle; Sherman, of
Sioux City, Iowa; Margaret, wife of Clinton
Smith, of Newton, Iowa, and Isaac, of Otley.
Iowa. The father died in 1886, and the mother
now makes her home at Newton, Iowa. On
August 1 1. 1893, Mr. Harp united in marriage
with Miss Charlotte Beemer. a native of Mis-
souri, the daughter of Henry and Margaret
Beemer. who have made Grand Junction, Colo-
rado, their home since 1892. Mr. and Mrs.
Harp have four children, Horace. Margaret,
Con and Russell. Mr. Harp's success in busi-
ness has been exceptional}- good and his stanch-
ing in the communities where he is known is
exceptionally high.
ALFRED GEORGE.
The career of Alfred George, of the Rifle
neighborhood, in Garfield county, is full of in-
terest and valuable suggestions, and his citi-
zenship is of the sterling and useful character
which has made the American workingman
notably one of the. controlling factors in mod-
ern civilization. Mr. George was born in Calla-
way county. Missouri, on October t. 185T. and
in that state he was reared to the age of thir-
teen, then coming with his mother and sister
t<> Colorado in T864. he has since mingled with
the activities in this state, always bearing
cheerfully the share of his community's bur-
dens properly belonging to him and performed
faithfully the share of its duties which has been
incumbent on him. He received a slender com-
mon-school education, remaining at home and
working in the interest of his parents until
death ended their labors, the father dying in
i8s8, when the son was seven, and the mother
26
PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
in 1872, when he was twenty-one. His par-
ents were Alfred and Margaret (Robinson)
George, natives of Kentucky, who settled in
Missouri when young, where the father died
and the mother and children moved to this
state in 1864. The father was a cabinetmaker
and dealt in real estate, but he also made money
as a fanner. He supported the Democratic
party in political affairs, and with his wife he
belonged to the Methodist church. They had
a family of eight children, but two of whom
are living, Annie, wife of Jasper P. Sears, of
Denver, and Alfred. The latter had the usual
experience of country boys in the West, for
even the Missouri home of the family was on
the frontier, and at an early life became inured
to the hardships and privations of pioneer life.
The trip from Missouri to Colorado was made
over the plains with an ox team and occupied
three months. There were Indian troubles be-
fore and behind the train, but it suffered no
disaster and was not attacked. After the death
of his mother Mr. George rented land and
ranched on it until 1886. In the fall of that
year he moved to the Roaring fork, near
Emma, and the next spring to Grand Junction.
From there he went out on the trail and en-
gaged in raising cattle. In 1887 he settled on
East Middle Rifle creek and for a year was
occupied in ranching on shares with H. G.
Brown. He then, in partnership with G. W.
Noble, bought the improvements on his present
ranch, which he pre-empted. It comprised
• •ne hundred and sixty acres, and a few years
later the land was divided, each partner taking
one-half. Mr. George has since sold forty
acres of his tract, and he is now profitably en-
gaged in farming the other forty with good
results, producing large yields of hay. grain,
vegetables and fruit, and raising numbers of
good cattle and horses. He has a good water
right and his land responds generously to skill-
ful tillage. On March 16. 1886. he was mar-
ried to Miss Clare V. Noble, who was born in
I ' >\\ a 1 >n September 4. i860, and is the daughter
of George W. and Marietta (Woulsey) Noble,
the former a native of Pennsylvania and the
latter of Iowa. Mrs. George is a sister of Mrs.
I "harles H. Harris, of this state, and the family
record of her parents appears in a sketch of
Mr. and Mrs. Harris, which will be found on
another page of this work. Five children have
been born in the George household. One
daughter. Anna L.. died on April 26. 1901.
The living four are Claude A.. Harry X.. Clara
M. and William Jasper. Mr. George has
found a fruitful field for his enterprise in Colo-
rado, and is well pleased with the state and
devoted to its best interests in every way. He
is well esteemed by its people who know him
and withholds no effort due on his part to
promote their substantial progress and develop-
ment and lasting good.
HORACE GREELEY BROWN.
Horace Greeley Brown, of Garfield county,
who was one of the earliest settlers on Rifle
creek and is now one of the most prosperous
and popular citizens of that portion of the
count)-, was born on April 8. 1855, in Burling-
ton county. New Jersey, and was there reared
and educated, attending only the district
schi 11 ils. He remained at home until he reached
the age of twenty, then passed some years
working in a machine shop at Smithsville, in
Ins native state, at small wages. After that he
opened a meat market there on his own ac-
count, which he conducted six months.
He then moved to St. Louis, where he secured
employment in the machine shop of Hall,
Brown & Company, of which his brother
Charles S. is president. From St. Louis he
went to Joplin and later to Granby. Missouri,
and at the latter place he conducted a meat
market eighteen months with good results. In
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
-7
the spring of 1879. under the influence of the
gold excitement at Leadville, this state, he came
to that camp and, making his headquarters
there, he freighted between that place and
Pueblo and Canon City, and also carried on a
meat market at Leadville, being successful in
both enterprises, but losing all his money in
mining. On April 3, 1883, he moved to the
ranch he now owns and occupies, taking a
squatter's right to a tract of land, and after the
government suryey was made pre-empting one
hundred and sixty-four acres, to which he has
since added fort}', making his present ranch
two hundred and four acres in extent, of which
about three-fourths can be easily cultivated.
The place has an abundant supply of water in
its own right, and as he tills the land with care
and judgment, the returns for his labor in hay,
grain and vegetables are very good. He also
has ten acres in fruit which yield abundant
harvests of superior products and bring him in
a handsome revenue. His main reliance, how-
ever, is upon hay and cattle. Mr. Brown has
been prominent in the local affairs of the sec-
tion, and has ever been foremost in every work
of improvement and every duty of a 'good
neighbor and citizen. He. J. J. Langstaff and
William L. Smith buried the first white man
who died in this vicinity, the coffin for the pur-
pose being made by James Moss, of Rifle, out
of a wagon bed. timber in the neighborhood
being very scarce. When Mr. Brown settled in
this region it was the unbroken wilderness, still
abounding with wild game of all kinds and in-
fested with beasts of pre\'. Indians also were
numerous, but in the main they were not un-
friendly. The nearest trading points were As-
pen and Grand Junction, settlers were few and
it was far between them, and the conveniences
of life were scarce and difficult to get. But
the spirit of the settlers was resolute and tri-
umphed over every obstacle, pushing forward
the progress of the region with good speed and
on a substantial basis. Mr. Brown is the son
of George C. and Harriet (Swing) Brown,
natives of New Jersey and residents of a place
known as Brown's Mills. The father was a
farmer and operated saw and grist-mills and
also conducted a store and a hotel. In addition
he was active in the real-estate business, and
as a zealous Republican took a leading pan in
local affairs. Both were members of the
Methodist church. The father died on March
20, 1003. and since then the mother has made
her home at Mt. Holly. Three of their four
children are living. Charles iS., president of
the Hall & Brown Wood Working Machine
Company of St. Louis: Horace, and Georgia,
wife of John Adams, of Waco. Texas. Mr.
Brown was married on October 8, 1895, to
Miss Hannah L. Lacy, a native of Ohio and
daughter of James R. and Elizabeth ('Craw-
ford ) Lacy, who were born, reared and married
in Pennsylvania and moved to Ohio in the early
days of its history. They came to Colorado in
T887 and are now living at Ritle. Although
possessing business acumen and personal char-
acteristics that would probably have made him
successful in any environment, Mr. Brown has
found in Colorado circumstances adapted to his
tastes and has made them subservient to his
progress and prosperity. He is therefore well
pleased with the state of his adoption and looks
forward with confidence to the great future that
is in store for it. Its people are enterprising
and broad-minded themselves, and they ap-
preciate enterprise and breadth of view in
others. So he stands well in his community,
and what is more to the purpose, he deserves
the regard in which he is held.
WILLIAM V. H EATON.
Living on a fine ranch of one hundred and
sixty-one acres which he originally took up as
a pre-emption claim, one hundred and forty-five
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
acres of which are under ditch with a plenti-
ful supply of water, and which is located four
miles north of Ride. Garfield county, and there
quietly pursuing- the peaceful and productive
life of a prosperous and progressive rancher
"far from the madding crowd's ignohle strife."
William V. Heaton would seem to lie safe from
all the shafts of adversity and have a portion
in the struggle for supremacy among men in
full accord with the quiet tastes of a modest
and unassuming man. such as he is known to
be. He was born near Indianapolis, Indiana,
■ .n March 28, 1852. His parents were David
R. and Jane (Vincent) Heaton. who also were
born in Indiana, the father on January 14.
1828. The mother died in 1862 in Ree county.
Iowa, and the father died on January 5, 1902,
at the home of the subject. In the family of
William Heaton"s parents six children were
horn. Two of these are dead and the other
four living: William V.. of this state; Fred-
erick, of Reno county, Kansas ; Frank, of Ant-
lers, Colorado, and Jane M., of Livingston
county, Missouri. William V. Heaton secured
the little education it was his privilege to get
in the district schools. He remained at home
assisting his parents on the farm until he was
twenty-one. moving with them from Indiana
to Iowa and later from there to Missouri. He
farmed in the latter state until 1883, then sold
out and came to Colorado, living at Buena
Vista and Leadville until 1884, when he moved
to the ranch he now occupies. Here for a num-
ber of years he was actively engaged in raising
cattle, but for some time past he has devoted
his attention wholly to general ranching and
the management of his real estate interests at
Rifle. The hay. grain, vegetables and fruit
which he raises for the markets are excellent
in quality and abundant in quantity, and the
work on his ranch affords scope for all his ef-
forts and satisfaction for all his aspirations.
Tie was married on December 8. 1882. to Miss
Emma L. Reynolds, a native of Kentucky,
born on Decemher i6. 1861, and the
daughter of James and Lucinda (Precise)
Reynolds, also horn and reared in that state
and afterward moved to Missouri where they
ended their days as prosperous farmers. The
father died on December 31. 1883. and the
mother on January 15, 1898. They had ten
children. Elizabeth is deceased and the other
nine are living, George, John. Daniel, Margaret
and Emma, at Chillicothe. Missouri. Frances
and Susan, at Trenton, that state, and James
and Milton in Utah. Mr. and Mrs. Heaton
have six children, Ernest E.. Janie C, Frances
M.. Helen L.. William R. and Hazel R.
BENJAMIN H. THOMPSON.
It was on June 14. 1857. and at the busy
little mart of Sunbury, Pennsylvania, that the
useful life of this enterprising and progres-
sive ranch and stock man of Garfield county
began, but his boyhood, youth and early man-
hood were passed in Henry county. Towa. He
got his education at the country schools and
acquired the habits of industry, thrift and fru-
gality which have distinguished him through
life on the paternal homestead aiding in its
arduous but invigorating labors. At the age
of sixteen, with the self-reliance for which he
is noted, he began to make his own living, first
engaging in farm work and later in clerking in
a country store. ' In 1880 he came to Colorado
and located at Leadville, being led to that place
by the excitement over its rich mineral deposits
then recently discovered. He turned his atten-
tion to teaming at Independence and afterward
to puddling in the stamp mills. In the spring
of 1883 he moved to the vicinity of Ride and
located the ranch now owned by C. J. S.
Hoover. Next he took a squatter's right to a
tract of land hut did not prove on the same
and sold his improvements to George Williams.
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OE WESTERN COLORADO.
29
He then located the Stone Cabin ranch on \\ e st
Rifle, which he afterward gave to his brother
Arthur. Mr. Thompson now devotes his time
to ranching and raising cattle on the place he
makes his home, and there, in addition to his
stock industry, he raises large crops of hay,
grain, vegetables and fruit, all of superior
quality. The water supply is good and his
farming is first class in every particular. In
fraternal circles he belongs to the Modern
Woodmen of America, and in politics is a con-
sistent and serviceable Republican. On April
1. 1890, he was married to Miss Carrie Steven-
son, a native of Seward county. Nebraska, and
daughter of Samuel and • Garafelia M. ( ( >s-
born ) Stevenson, the father a native of near
Westminster. Maryland, born on June 5. [833,
and the mother of Indiana. The father moved
to Nebraska in 1867, and afterwards to Adams
and later to Henry county, Illinois. In 1881
he brought his family toColorado. locating near
Buena Vista. On Christinas night. 1882, he
settled on Rifle creek, being now the oldest
settler on that stream. Here he took a squat-
ter's claim to one hundred and sixty acres of
land, which after the government survey he
pre-empted. Since then he has given his whole
attention to improving and farming his ranch
and building up his stock industry, taking an
active part all the while in advancing the in-
terests of the section and promoting the wel-
fare of its people. For many years he has been
connected with the Freemasons and the Odd
Fellows in fraternal circles, and from its foun-
dation has supported the Republican party in
politics. He and his wife had one child, Carrie,
the wife of Mr. Thompson. Mrs. Stevenson
died on December 12. 1898. Mr. and Mrs.
Thompson have three children, Ralph S., Susan
A. and Alice G. The parents were early set-
tlers on Rifle creek and they are now among
the leading and most esteemed citizens of this
part of the county.
BENJAMIN K. WATSON.'
After many years of toil, in which the ele-
ments of danger, hardship and privation have
often been present in large measure, and in
which he has courageously and vigorously
paddled his own canoe from the early age of
sixteen, the approaching evening of life funis
Benjamin K. Watson, of near Rifle, in Garfield
county, comfortably settled on a fine ranch of
one hundred and sixty acres in the midst of a
productive and progressive region of this state,
where he was an early arrival and has been a
potent factor in the development and improve-
ment of the country around him. He located
here when the whole section was a veritable
wilderness, still the abode of its native denizens
in human and animal life, and the soil was as
yet untouched by the persuasive and molding
hand of systematic husbandry. And to its
progress from that state of savage wildness to
its present condition of fruitfulness and ad-
vancing civilization he has been not only an
interested witness but a substantial contributor.
Mr. Watson was born on August 20, 1830, in
Onondaga county, state of New York. The
family moved from there to Wisconsin and he
afterward took another flight in the wake of
the setting sun, locating in Iowa. He attended
the public schools in his boyhood, and at the
age of sixteen took up the burden of life for
himself, becoming a bookkeeper in the city of
Dubuque. He next sought the seductive smiles
of fortune in the mining camps of Montana and
Utah, and in 1879 moved to Denver. With
that place as winter headquarters, he passed his
summers mining and prospecting in various
portions of the state until 1884. In that year
he located on the ranch which has since been
and is now his home, six miles north of Rifle.
taking up the land as a pre-emption claim, one
hundred and sixty acres, of which forty-five
are well irrigated and under good cultivation.
3°
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
On this portion he raises excellent crops of hay,
grain and potatoes with other vegetables, and
large quantities of superior fruit, the latter
being his main product and chief reliance. He
has also devoted considerable attention to the
stock industry, being connected with the Grand
River Sheep Company from 1887 to 1892.
Before coming west he rendered good service
to his country in a time of its extreme peril,
being a soldier in the Union army during the
Civil war, a member of Company I, Second
Iowa Cavalry, enlisting as a private and being
mustered out in the fall of 1865 as a captain.
He is a member of the Masonic order and the
Grand Army of the Republic, and in politics
earnestly supports the Republican party. Mr.
Watson stands well in his community as a
worthy citizen and has the lasting regard and
good will of all classes of its people. His
parents were Joseph and Ann (Metcalf) Wat-
son, natives of England, who came to the
United States in 1827. The father was a manu-
facturer of woolens, successful in business, and
always a staunch Democrat in politics. Both
parents have long been deceased. They had
four children, all of whom are living: Sophie,
wife of Ladayette Odell, of New Jersey; Dr.
William Watson, of Oak Park, Chicago;
Joseph M., of Newcastle, Colorado, and Ben-
jamin K., the interesting subject of this sketch.
BENJAMIN SHERWOOD.
Born and reared in Connecticut and en-
dowed by nature with the native ingenuity,
thrift and shrewdness of tbe New Englander,
Benjamin Sherwood by his advent into this
state brought a valuable addition to the re-
sources and mechanical skill of her then small
and scattered population, and his career here
has not disappointed the promise of his early
manhood or the hopes of his usefulness cher-
ished by those who knew him in youth. He
was born at Danbury, Connecticut, on January
16, 1847. the son of Albert and Eleanore
(Turkington) Sherwood, natives of the same
state as himself. The father was in his
younger manhood a manufacturer of shoes,
but in later life gave his attention to politics
and public office. He was an active working
Democrat and for many years was sheriff and
jailer in his native county. In fraternal life
he belonged to the Odd Fellows, and to the
Know-Nothings as long as that organization
was a non-political secret society. He and
his wife were Methodists. They had seven
children, of whom four are living. Benjamin :
William, at Danbury, Connecticut; Mary E..
wife of N. E. Barnum, of the same place, and
Sarah E., wife of Charles Allen, also living j n
Connecticut. The father died in 1890 and the
mother in 1897. Their son Benjamin was edu-
cated in the public schools and remained at
home until he was twenty-one. He then passed
some years lumbering in Michigan and Penn-
sylvania, and afterward .located in Kansas
where the town of McPherson now stands, re-
maining there until 1872. From there he
moved to Brookville, on the Kansas & Pacific
Railroad, where he kept a hotel with excellent
profits until a disastrous fire destroyed the
town. Then being left without funds he en-
gaged in driving - cattle up and down the
Smokyhill river country until 1873, when he
moved to Great Bend and built the fifth house
in the town. He was at that time engaged in
butchering for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa
Fe Railroad, conducting his operations along
the road and continuing them in that connection
until T874. He then turned his attention to
hunting buffalo and was very successful in the
business. In i&~j. in company with other
buffalo hunters. James Watts. Jack Howe. Ben-
jamin Howard, John Barker, Peter Hoss, Red
Saunders and George McKay, he came over-
land from Lakin, Kansas, to Buena Vista in
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
this state, and there, in partnership with Jack-
Howe, located placer claims and followed min-
ing and prospecting until 1875. his success
being irregular. In the year last mentioned
he occupied himself in getting out ties from
Cottonwood creek into the Arkansas river, and
next with his partner located hay ranches at a
place called Jack's Cabin. Here they also con-
ducted a general store, a postoffice and a hotel
for nine years and made money at the business.
When the Rio Grande Railroad was built
through this section they sold nut at that point
and journeyed overland to Aspen, where for a
time they engaged in the real estate business.
Mr. Sherwood next pre-empted a claim of one
hundred and sixty acres of land three miles
south of Carbondale, on which he ranched until
1896. He then sold this land and moved to
California for the benefit of his wife's health.
Seven months later he returned to Colorado
and during a number of the following years
worked at carpentering at Glenwood Springs,
although originally a hatter by trade. In 1897
he was attached to the C. C. & I. Coal Com-
pany as an authority on prospecting. The
enterprise proved a failure, so he filed mi ;i
timber and stone claim for his services. His
ranch comprises forty acres and is seven miles
north of Rifle. Mr. Sherwood takes an active
interest in the public life of his community, and
is one of the broad-minded and progressive
promoters of its progress and development. He
is a Democrat in politics, but although zealous
in the service of his party, he is not an aspirant
for official position of any kind. On Novem-
ber 20, 1881, he united in marriage with A 1 i s s
Libby Palmer, a native of Iowa who was reared
at Golden. Colorado, where her parents set-
tled early in their married life. They had two
children, Mrs. Sherwood and her brother.
Clough, both living. The father died in 1875
and the mother in 1883. Mr. and Mrs. Sher-
wood have three children. Marv E.. wife of
( ). Roby, of Routt county, Clara and Brownie
B. For nearly thirty years now Mr. Sherwood
has been a resident of this state, and in a num-
ber of places he has left the impress of his
progressive spirit, his unyielding energy, his
mechanical skill and his breadth of view in
reference to public affairs. Wherever he has
lived he has a good name, and the general
esteem in which he is held by those who know
him best proves that he deserves it. He is re-
garded in Garfield county as one of its best
and most useful citizens.
AMOS JACKSON DICKSON.
The press is undoubtedly oik- of the lead-
ing educators and most influential potencies in
molding and directing public opinion in the
modern world, and it is more or less useful ac-
cording as it is wisely and lucidly, forcibly
and honestly conducted or otherwise. Among
the agencies in the expression of public thought
and the enforcement of a proper public desire
in the western part of this state, in the realm
of journalism, is the Glenwood Post, one of the
best and most influential newspapers on the
Western slope, edited and owned by Amos J.
Dickson, who purchased it in January, 1898.
of C. L. Bennett, and since that time has greatly
enlarged its popularity and circulation, in-
creased its power in the community and placed
its affairs on a sound financial basis. Mr. Dick-
son hails from Champaign county, Illinois,
where he was born on May 6, 1861. His par-
ents are Andrew S. and Henrietta (Boggs)
Dickson, the former a native of Kentucky and
the latter of Ohio. They located at an early
day in Illinois, where the father was a pros-
perous farmer until 1869, when the family
moved to Kansas and after a residence of
twenty years in the Sunflower state came to
Colorado and located at Colorado Springs,
moving from there to Glenwood Springs in
3-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
1902. The father was a soldier in the Civil
war and bore his full share of the burdens of
the momentous conflict, losing a leg at the bat-
tle of Kenesaw Mountain. Georgia, and spend-
ing a year of awful privation and distress in
Andersonville prison. He was a member of
Company H. One Hundred and Twenty-fifth
Illinois Infantry, a regiment that did good
service on many a hard-fought field and won
distinction throughout its term of service.
There were four children born in the family,
all of whom are living. Amos J., at Glenwood
Springs; Oscar F.. at Calhan. Colorado; Sarah
J., wife of Charles D. Foster, at Ness City,
Kansas, and William S., at El Paso. Texas.
The father supports the Republican party in
political affairs, and belongs to the order of
Odd Fellows. Both parents are Methodists.
Their son Amos was educated in the public
schools and reared on the farm, remaining at
home until he reached the age of twenty years.
He then began to earn mi nicy with which to
secure a more advanced education, and after-
ward attended the State University of Kansas
for two years. Next he devoted several years
to teaching school in that state, and in 1886
opened a book and stationery store at Ness
City. Kansas, which he conducted successfully
for one year. At the end of that time he was
appointed deputy clerk of the district court of
Ness county and served in that position two
years. After coming to Colorado he located a
homestead of one hundred and sixty acres near
Arlington, in the eastern part of the state.
Later he abandoned this and moved to Colo-
rado Springs, and soon afterward, in 1889.
settled at Glenwood Springs. Here he soon
became deputy clerk of Garfield county, and
after holding the position five years started a
real-estate and insurance business in 7805.
which he continued until January. 1898. when
he bought the Glenwood Post, of which he has
since been the proprietor and editor. The busi-
ness of the paper seems to have been badly
managed before this and the enterprise was run
down t( 1 a low state of prosperity and influence.
He began at once to build it up vigorously, and
has continued his efforts in this direction with
such energy and capacity that he has made the
paper one of the most prosperous, potential and
admired in the western portion of the state.
The plant is equipped with fine appliances suf-
ficient to meet all the requirements of up-to-
date journalism within the scope of this paper
and of a first-class job printing business in all
its departments. Mr. Dickson is an active and
earnest advocate of every form of judicious
public improvement, and always willing to do
his part in the promotion of every good enter-
prise for the advancement of the interest- of
the community. He is one of the five irrigation
da ision engineers of the state, the territory in
which he works being the whole northwestern
part of the state, having under his supervision
fifteen water districts, each in charge of a water
commissioner. In fraternal life he is a promi-
nent Odd Fellow, standing at the head of the
order in this state, having served in 1904 as
grand master of the jurisdiction of Colorado
and now grand representative to the sovereign
grand lodge. In politics he is a firm and faith-
ful supporter of the principles of the Repub-
lican party. In the councils of his party he
has a place of commanding influence and is an
attendant at all its party conventions, county
and state. On March 29. 1891. he was married
to Miss Imelda J. Phillippi, a native of Penn-
sylvania, daughter of Louis N. and Mary.
(Weaver) Phillippi, Pennsylvanians by na-
tivity who settled in Illinois soon after their
marriage and later moved to Kansas. The
father is a merchant and farmer, a staunch Re-
publican and a loyal and earnest Freemason.
The parents are living at Milan in Sumner
county, Kansas. Both are Methodists. They
have four children. John. Mrs. Dickson. Edgar
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLOR. IPO.
33
and Bert. In the Dickson household two
bright and interesting children have heen
hern, Eldie Ray and Genevieve Lncile.
WILLIAM H. CLARK.
Born in Blackhawk county, Iowa, and re-
moving' from there to Missouri with his par-
ents when he was hut one year old. then chang-
ing his residence to Kansas at the age of six-
teen and to Colorado in iSSo. when he was
twenty-three. William H. Clark, of Meeker,
Rio Blanco county, has had knowledge of peo-
ples and conditions in four states, and from
the experience thus gained lias had his view's
hroadened and his faculties quickened, so that
he is a man of much worldly wisdom and prac-
tical common sense. He has also had ex-
perience in several occupations in different
places, and has profited in the same way
through them. He began life's journey on
December 29, 1857, and in the new home to
which the family moved a year later received
a common-school education. The death of his
mother when he was sixteen caused all the
children who were old enough to begin earn-
ing their own living, and he prepared himself
for the profession of school teaching by attend-
ing private schools and individual effort. He
took up school teaching as a profession, which
he followed in Montgomery county. Kansas,
five years, in the meantime qualifying himself
for a life work of wide usefulness by studying
civil engineering, in which he acquired great
proficiency and is still engaged. In 1880 he
located in Colorado, and in 1883 became one
of the early settlers in the vicinity of Meeker.
Here he found a wide and profitable field for
his new professional knowledge, the country
being new and undeveloped, and there being
need of many surveys and works of construc-
tion throughout this and adjoining counties.
He entered into the work with eagerness, and
3
ever since then he has heen busily occupied in
its various branches with great credit to him-
self and advantage to the territory he has
wrought. From 1897 t( > I9°° he was also
omnty superintendent of the public schools,
and in this department of public usefulness
he was also of great service. During his pro-
fessional career of more than twenty years in
this state he has made many government sur-
veys, and lias done a large amount of valuable
work in several counties, especially those of
Garfield, Rio Blanco and Routt. Giving earn-
est attention to the proper use of the public
domain, he was instrumental in having the
department of the interior eliminate from
forest reserves vast areas of agricultural land,
and had introduced and passed the bill for a
resurvey of the northwestern portion of the
state embracing about one hundred and fifty-
six townships, thereby settling many contests
and much litigation. In 18X3 he took up a
ranch which he improved and which he sold
in [887. When the hour was ripe for the
separate organization of Rio Blanco county he
took an active part in the movement and was
very helpful in promoting it and hastening its
conclusion, saving the new county from getting
the worst of it by finally adjusting the bound-
aries. He then secured the patent for the t> >w n-
site of Meeker and devoted himself energetic-
ally to building up and developing the town.
He stands high in the community and is gen-
erally cordially esteemed for the work he has
done in promoting its best interests. He served
three years as mayor of Meeker, and his ad-
ministration of the office was marked by wis-
dom and vigor, enterprise and breadth of view.
In political allegiance he is an earnest and zeal-
ous working Republican, and in fraternal cir-
cles belongs to the Masonic order, the Odd Fel-
lows and the Woodmen of the World. His
parents were George W and Lavina (Myers)
Clark, the father a native of New York state
34
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
and the mother of Indiana. They were farm-
ers and were fairly successful at the business.
The father served in the Civil war from its
beginning to its close, entering the army as a
private and being mustered out as an officer.
He was a stanch Republican and took a great
interest in public affairs. He died in 1882,
having survived his wife nine years. They had
a family of nine children, six of whom survive
them, James, of Meeker; Mary, wife of John
Pettijohn, of Terre Haute. Indiana ; William
H., the subject of this sketch: Benjamin F., of
Meeker: Ida, wife of Andrew Hardy, of St.
Joseph. Missouri, and Charles E., of Terre
Haute. Indiana. William was married on April
9, 1885, to Miss Frances Pierce, a daughter of
D. W.' and Lucretia (Higgins) Pierce, who
were born and reared in Ohio and soon after
their marriage settled in Michigan, removing
later to Kansas, where the father died. The
father was a soldier in the Civil war and lost
his life in the memorable contest. Of their
three children two are living, Mrs. Clark, and
Jessie, wife of Thomas Sweet, of Manhattan,
Kansas. Mr. and Mrs. Clark have had five
children, of whom Robert E.. Douglas E.,
Hazel and William K. are living and Donald
is dead.
JOHN A. WATSON.
In the fifty-six years of his life, nearly
twenty of which have been passed in Colorado,
John A. Watson, like other members of his
family, has rendered important service to the
public interests of his country, local and gen-
eral, in peace and war. No call to public duty
has ever been unheeded by him, no effort for
the advancement or improvement of his locality
or the betterment of its people has failed of his
cordial and substantial support. Mr. Watson
came into the world on April 28, 1848, at
Woodsfield, Monroe county, Ohio, and is the
son of James and Maria Jane (Smith) Wat-
son. James Watson was a native of Glasgow,
Scotland, who emigrated to the United States
and settled in Ohio in the early life with his
parents, who remained in that state until
death. The mother, Maria Jane (Smith) Wat-
son, was of Irish parentage, but born in Jef-
ferson county, near Steubenville. Ohio. James
Watson was a prominent man in his portion
of the state, held in high esteem by its citizens
and chosen by them to many offices of im-
portance and responsibility. He served them
well as justice of the peace, postmaster at
Graysville for sixteen years, representative in
the legislature two terms from January 1,
1874, to January r, 1878, master commissioner
and president of the Monroe County Agri-
cultural Society, and in various other official
capacities. He was also a prominent merchant
at Graysville until the beginning of the Civil
war. when he espoused the cause of the Union
and entered the service in its active defense as
lieutenant of Company D, and afterwards as
captain of Company I, Seventh West Virginia
Infantry. His command was soon at the front
and in most of the important engagements of
that portion of the field of conflict in which it
was located bore itself gallantly. At the battle
of Fredericksburg, in the Slaughter Pen as it
was called, while fighting under General Burn-
side, Captain Watson was shot in the shoulder,
receiving an ounce ball which disabled him and
led to his retirement from the service. His
first marriage was with Miss Maria J. Smith,
and brought him seven children, Maria Jane
(deceased), John A., Smith H. (deceased),
James A., Mary H., Archibald J. and Maggie.
After the death of their mother he married
Miss Mary S. Devore, who bore him two chil-
dren, Devore (deceased) and Katie (deceased).
The third marriage occurred on November 22.
1865, and was to Mrs. Hester Ann Beard-
more, daughter of John and Lucinda (Cook)
Latshaw, both lx-irn in Monroe county. Ohio.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
35
Six children were the fruit of this marriage,
Henry Knox, Olive L., Roy Heber, David
Okey, G. W. W., and Columbus M. The Wat-
son family and their relatives were full of
martial spirit and fervently patriotic. Robert
Smith, an uncle of the subject of this sketch,
was killed at the battle of Missionary Ridge;
William Watson, another uncle, became a vic-
tim of consumption from exposure in the
service and thereby gave his life to the cause
of the Union; another uncle was a soldier in
the One Hundred and Sixteenth Ohio Infantry,
and still another in Seventh West Virginia In-
fantry; while their cousins, the Givenses and
other families related to them, sent large num-
bers of their best and bravest men to the Union
~,it]v in that memorable conflict. James Allen
Watson, a brother of John A., also had the
martial spirit and to such an extent that he
ran away from home to take part in one ol
General Custer's campaigns against the In-
dians and joined Company K, Nineteenth
Kansas Cavalry, for the purpose. In the
service which followed he suffered great hard-
ship, nearly starving on the plains, under-
going long forced marches, fighting at times
with great odds and in imminent peril, and en-
o wintering all the worst phases of Indian war-
fare from a foe savage with the fury of despair.
On being mustered out of this service he re-
turned to Ohio and entered Mt. Union Col-
lege, from which he was graduated in the
scientific course. He then served a number of
wars as principal of the Woodsfield schools.
John A. himself was a soldier for the Union in
the Civil war. although he did not reach the
proper age for entering the army until the con-
test was nearing its close. After being edu-
cated at the common schools and Spring Bank
Academy, at Woodsfield. Ohio, he enlisted in
Company I. One Hundred and Eighty-sixth
Ohio Infantry, in February, 1865, and served
to the end of the war. being mustered out at
Nashville, Tennessee. He then returned to
Ohio and entered his father's store as a clerk,
soon rising to a partnership in the establish-
ment. In the meantime he took a course of
business training at Duff's Commercial Col-
lege at Pittsburg. Pennsylvania. When the
father was elected to the legislature the sons
took charge of and conducted the business until
1884. Then John A. sold his interests in it.
having been elected treasurer of his township.
He also kept a hotel at Graysville for a few
years. In 1885 he left the scenes and associ-
ations of his childhood and youth, and coming
to Colorado entered actively on a new field of
stirring activities. Locating at Meeker, he pre-
empted one hundred and sixty acres of land
adjoining the townsite, to which he has added
thirty-five acres by a subsequent purchase. The
ranch is well supplied with water for irrigation
and one hundred and sixty acres of it are in an
advanced state of cultivation. Four ditches, in
which Mr. Watson has interests, help to irri-
gate his land, and that of many others, the
Beard & Watson, the Highland, the Meeker
and the Meeker Bridge Gulch, and these he aids
in maintaining for the common service of the
locality. While carrying on his ranching and
cattle industries he has also bought and sold
land as a business and for the development and
settlement of his section of the county. He was
largely engaged in the stock business until the
fall of toot, when he was elected county
treasurer, a position which he is now filling - .
He is a stockholder in the Union Oil and Gas
Company near Rangeley and owns twenty
valuable building lots in Meeker. In 1889 he
was appointed clerk of the district court by
Judge Rucker. and he held the office eleven
years. Thus in almost every line of productive
energy, official usefulness and personal worth
he has served this people, and by all classes
of them he is well esteemed. Fraternally he is
a Mason of the Royal Arch degree and a mem-
36
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
her of the Grand Army of the Republic, and
politically he is linn and faithful in his al-
legiance to the Democratic party. On Janu-
ary i, [867, he was married to Miss Pauline
Allen, daughter of David and Pauline (Hill)
Allen. They have had five children, Mary E..
Nora M., Evart H.. who died on December 27,
1877, Frank E. and Beatrice K. Mr. Watson's
mother died in April. 1860, and his father in
September. 1901.
DAVID SMITH.
For nearly twenty years Mr. Smith, one of
western Colorado's most active and enterpris-
ing business men and public-spirited citizens.
has been a resident of the state, and for about
seventeen has lived in the neighborhood of
Meeker. During all this time he has been
prominent in the business and public life of the
community of his home, and to every under-
taking for its advancement he has contributed
essentially and substantially, his helping hand
being strongly felt in many phases of the in-
dustrial and mercantile activity of the section.
1 le is a native of Scotland, born in Fifeshire on
January 22. 1854. I lis parents, Andrew and
Ann (Durie) Smith, were natives of Scotland.
The father was a busy contractor and builder
and also held public office as an inspector and
collector. He died in 1898 ami the mother in
1903. Their son David obtained his education
in a common school, and leaving while yet a
youth became a bookkeeper and cashier in the
office of a distillery. After a service of some
years in this capacity he began to study brew-
ing practically in the distillery and prosecuted
his study of the business a number of years.
In 1885 he came to the United States and.
impelled by the promise of favorable oppor-
tunities for business of all kinds in the West,
located at Port Lupton, this state. Here he
purchased railroad land, which he sold after
fanning it for awhile. In the fall of [887 he
moved to Meeker and located a ranch six miles
south of the town on what is commonly known
as Strawberry. On this ranch he became ex-
tensively engaged in the sheep industry as a
member of the Robinson-Smith Sheep Com-
pany. He pre-empted one hundred and sixty
acres and made extensive improvements, then
in 189 1 sold the place and bought the one he
now owns in the vicinity of Meeker. This also
contains one hundred and sixty acres, and 011
it hay. grain and hardy vegetables are produced
with success and profit. The land is well
watered from the Town ditch, which Mr. Smith
owns. Having a commercial turn of mind.
since 1888 he has been prominent in the lumber
business, and since 1889 with the saw-mill in-
dustry, his enterprise in the latter being the
first one started in Rio Blanco county. He also
has valuable interests in the oil trade and in
coal fields. By his efforts the lumber company
in which he is interested has so prospered and
progressed that it is equipped to meet all de-
mands for first-class material. The name
under which it trades is the D. Smith Lumber
Company. He was also for some time assistant
cashier of the Bank of Meeker and occupied
tins position at the tune of the robbery of the
institution on October 13. 1896. The robbers
fired two shots at him. but he escaped without
injury. He has been active in the fraternal
life of the community, being connected with
the Masonic order and the Woodmen of the
World; and in the spirit of progress and de-
velopment in the community he has been one
of the valued inspirations. On March 5, 1891,
he was married to .Miss Mary Allsebrook, and
their home has been brightened and blessed
with six children. Andrew P.. Dorothy 11..
Allan 1).. David H.. Colin A. and Isabel L.
Mr. Smith has in a marked degree the con-
fidence and esteem of the business and social
life of the county and adjacent territory, ami
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
37
is generally accounted one of the best citizens
and representative men on the Western slope.
WILLIAM A. KELLER.
A Virginian by nativity, and born in Rock-
ingham count}- on March 25, 1850, then losing
his father by death two years later. William A.
Keller, of near Meeker, one of the prominent
ranchers and self-made men of Rio Blanco
county, began life under very unpromising con-
ditions, as in addition to his orphanage his sec-
tion of country a few years later was bearing
the brunt of the Civil war. which paralyzed
every industry of its people and laid untold
hardships upon them. Under the circum-
stances Mr. Keller had almost no opportunity
for attending school, but was obliged to begin
hustling for himself at the age of ten years. He
remained in Virginia until April 5, 1870. when
he left for Missouri, locating first in Lafayette
county and later in Clay. Here he worked as
a farm hand for small wages until [873. With
a party of ten men he then crossed the plains
from Carney to Chery creek, in the neighbor-
hood of Denver, consuming six weeks in the
journey. He came to this state for the benefit
of his health and. desiring still an outdoor life
he became a cattle herder for the Coberlv
Brothers, with whom he remained until winter.
At that time he moved to Denver and occupied
himself in an express business which later he
sold and afterward went to Hall's Gulch, where
he worked in the mines for the Hall's Gulch
Mining Company three months. From there
he moved to Caribou and continued the same
line of work until 1876. At that time he
changed his residence to Boulder and his occu-
pation to keeping a hotel. This he continued
two years with profit, then went to Leadville
and there mined and kept a hotel, remaining
until 1887. when he sold his interests, and mov-
ing to Lone Tree creek, pre-empted one hun-
dred and sixty acres of land, a portion of the
ranch on which he has since lived and which
he has increased to four hundred and eighty
acres. Here he has carried on extensive in-
dustries in raising stock and general ranching,
his cattle for the greater part being Short-
horns and Herefords of good quality. His
water supply is sufficient for the cultivation of
three hundred acres of land and it is highly
fertile and productive, yielding good crops of
tlie ordinary farm products suited to the region,
hay. grain, vegetables and small fruits, but the
cattle being his principal reliance. His suc-
cess in this enterprise has been exceptional and
he is rated as one of the leading stock men of
the county. Fraternally he belongs to the Elks
and the Odd Fellows, and politically he is a
firm and loyal Democrat. His parents were
Joseph and Margaret (Crickenberger) Keller,
natives of Virginia, where the father was a
blacksmith and died in 1852. The mother still
resides at the old family homestead, and is past
eighty-one years old. They had two children,
a daughter Susan, who died, and William. On
October 26. 1876. Mr. Keller was united in
wedlock with Miss Wilda Younker, a native
of Coshocton count}-. Ohio.
WILLIAM E. S1MPSOX. -
William F. Simpson, of Meeker, one of the
county's most substantial and influential men.
was born on Jul}- 4. 1855. in Jefferson count}-,
Pennsylvania, but was raised in Indiana count}-,
that state, whither his parents moved when he
was quite young. He received a good educa-
tion, attending the public schools and Mount
Union College in Stark county. Ohio, where
he was graduated in 1874. At the age of
fifteen he began teaching school and followed
this profession seven years in Indiana county.
He also conducted a store and the postoffice at
a small place called Hammil. Here his health
38
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
failed and he was obliged to come to Colorado
for its improvement. In the spring of 1888 he
located at Meeker. For some years he was as-
sociated with T. B. Watson in business and
afterward with J. \V. Hugus & Company.
From 1 89 1 to 1894 he conducted the Antlers
Hotel. During the next four years he carried
on a meat market and also dealt in hides,
finding both lines of business profitable. In
1 89 1 he also engaged in ranching, purchasing
one hundred and sixty acres of land on the
North Fork of White river, to which he has
since added four hundred and forty acres. The
ranch is thirty miles east of Meeker, and is
well supplied with water and timber. Two
hundred and twenty acres are under cultivation
in the usual products of the section, hay and
cattle being the chief sources of profit. In the
public affairs of Meeker and the county he
takes an active and serviceable part, having
served as president of the school board for
many years and also as mayor of the town,
elected on the citizens' ticket. In the fraternal
life of the community he is prominent and
serviceable as a member of the Masonic order,
and in business his success has been very good.
Politically he is a Republican, and to the needs
of his party he contributes in personal work
and material substance. His parents were
James and Jane Simpson, who were successful
farmers. Six children were born in the family,
of whom Ellen and Catherine are dead and
John M., of Indiana count}', Pennsylvania;
Elizabeth (Mrs. James E. Dilts), of Leon
Kansas; James M., of Colorado, and William
E. are living. The father died in 1856 and
the mother in 1S9S. On January 4, 1882. Mr.
Simpson was joined in marriage with Miss
Almyra A. McKillip. a native of Indiana
count)-, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Hamil-
ton and Elizabeth McKillip, natives of Penn-
sylvania. The father was a miller and a manu-
facturer of woolen goods for many years, but
devoted the later years of his life to farming.
1 te was a Democrat in politics and both he and
his wife were members of the Presbyterian
church. The father died on March 2, 1878,
and the mother on January 18. 1898. They
had six children, of whom James S. and Mary
A. have died, and William, Mrs. Simpson,
Hamilton L. and Anna J. are living. Although
conducting his ranch operations in person and
giving them close and energetic attention. Mr.
Simpson makes his home in the town of
Meeker. His life among this people has been
potential for their good and he is highly es-
teemed among. them as a business man, a genial
and obliging friend and an upright and public-
spirited citizen.
JULIUS L. STREHLKE.
This skillful mechanic and successful ranch
man. who was well esteemed in the community
of his residence, was a native of Stugard, Prus-
sia, Germany, born on April 14, 1837. His
parents were Gotfried and Florentine Strehlke.
natives of Prussia, where the}- were industrious
ami prosperous farmers, and devout Lutherans.
Their offspring numbered nine, three of whom
are living. Henrietta, Ferdinand and Caroline.
Julius attended the public schools, receiving a
good education within the limit of their course.
and assisted his parents on the farm until he
reached the age of seventeen, when, according
to the law of the country, he entered the army
for a term of three years. At the end of his
service he learned the trade of a blacksmith
and worked at it in his native land until C863,
when be came to the LJnited States, locating at
Detroit, Michigan. There be wrought at his
trade at various places in and around the city
until [867. At that time he went to the copper
region along Lake Superior, and for a number
of years was employed in the mines. In 1875
he came to Colorado, traveling by stage from
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
39
Atchison, Kansas, to Denver. In that city he
secured employment as traveling blacksmith
of the Overland Stage Company, in whose em-
ploy he remained one year and a half. He next
moved to Central City and worked at his trade
a few months, after which he opened a liquor
store which he conducted until the excitement
over the discovery of gold at Leadville took
him to that promising camp, where he found
an active demand for his mechanical skill as
a blacksmith. In 1885 he disposed of his in-
terests there and moved to the vicinity of
Meeker. He pre-empted a ranch of one hun-
dred and sixty acres there, to which he added
forty by purchase and had the whole of the
two hundred acres under cultivation. Cattle
and hay were his principal resources, but he
also raised some grain and vegetables. He
was a Democrat in political faith and action.
and was well pleased with Colorado for a home
and place of business. On August 9, 1869, he
was joined in wedlock with Miss Alvina Pis-
chel, a native of Prussia. They had five chil-
dren, of whom one died in infancy, and Albert,
Fred, Louis and Carl are living. Albert and
Carl are residents of Meeker, Fred lives at
Cape Nome, Alaska, and Louis at Montrose in
this state. Mr. Strehlke's death occurred on
May 31, 1904, his loss being keenly felt in the
community which had been benefited by his life.
JAMES W. RECTOR.
James W. Rector, of Rangelv, in Rio
Blano > county, one of the leading and most
successful ranchers in the section, is a native
of Barton county, Missouri, where he was born
on August 29. 1862. and is the son of Jacob
and Jane E. ( Peery) Rector, the father a na-
tive of Kentucky and the mother of Illinois.
After their marriage they located in Missouri.
where they were prosperous farmers. The
father died in 1869, and after that sad event
James, who was the oldest of the four children,
was obliged to work as soon as he was able to
aid in supporting the family. His wages were
small but of material assistance in this laudable
desire. The other children are Jacob, who
lives in Scott county, Kansas; Benjamin F.,
also of Scott county, Kansas, and Alice, wife of
John Taylor, of Kansas. Under the circum-
stances surrounding his boyhood and youth it
was impossible for Mr. Rector to get much
education in the schools, but he managed to
attend a few terms in the winter months. At
the age of seventeen years he started out for
himself, going to western Texas and making
Colorado City his headquarters. There he was
employed as a range rider until 1882. He then
moved to a point one hundred miles north of
Pacos, Texas, on Seven Rivers, in New
Mexico, and continued range riding in the em-
ploy of William Adams, an extensive cattle-
grower. From the spring of 1884 to the fall of
1885 he was engaged in bringing outfits over
the trail. In the fall of 1885 he came to Colo-
rado and pre-empted a ranch four miles west
of Rangely, to which he has added by pur-
chases from time to time, until now, in part-
nership with R. G. Peters, of Manistee. Michi-
gan, he owns seventeen' hundred acres, one
thousand of which are under cultivation in hay,
grain and vegetables. The ranch has an
abundant supply of water for this acreage and
the land is highly productive and thoroughly
cultivated. The improvements are extensive
and valuable, being of an unusually ornate and
costly order, and were all made by Mr. Recti >r
who is the active manager of the property and
business. The dwelling is one of the most im-
posing and beautiful in this section of the
county, being in the midst of extensive grounds
tastefully laid out and carefully tended. In
political faith Mr. Rector is a firm and faith-
ful Democrat, taking an earnest and helpful
part in the councils of his party and always
40
PROGRESSU'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
working with energy for its success. He lias
been a county commissioner since 1900, and
the wisdom of the choice is manifested by the
excellence of his work in the office. He beli >ngs
to the Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen,
and in their workings he also takes an active
interest. He was married on April 9, 1899,
to Miss Rose M. McNew, who was horn in
Barton county. Missouri, and they have two
children. James R. and Rubie L.
BENJAMIN L. NICHOLS.
The scion of old Kentucky and Virginia
families who long- lived and labored in those
historic states of this great republic, Benjamin
L. Nichols, of Meeker, in the various fields of
labor which have engaged his attention, has
well sustained the traditions of his ancestry and
proved the elevated character of his own man-
hood. He was born in Switzerland county,
Indiana, on February 26, 1849. and is the son
of William H. and Nancy ( Wiley) Nichols, the
former a native of Kentucky and the latter of
Virginia, who made their early home in Indi-
ana and 111 1855 moved to Kansas where they
were among the very early pioneers. They
farmed successfully and the father took an
active part in politics on the Republican side.
He died in 186] and the mother in [895. Their
offspring numbered seven, four of whom are
living. William F.. at Fort Collins; Elizabeth
(Mrs. Bennett), in Kansas; Lucy (Mrs.
Webb), at Joplin, Missouri, in addition to the
pleasing subject of this brief review. He re-
ceived a common-school education and when
he was but sixteen answered the last call for
volunteers in defense of the Union in the Civil
war. and gallantly took the field as a member
of Company E, Sixteenth Kansas Cavalry. Re-
turning to his Kansas home at the close of the
gigantic conflict, he assumed his father's place
in managing the work of the farm and re-
mained there so occupied until he reached the
age of twenty-five. At that time he moved to
St. Joseph. Missouri, and farmed two years in
that locality. In 1870 he changed his residence
to Omaha, Nebraska, and during the next five
years was engaged in the grocery business m
that city, first as a member of the firm of Beal
i!x Nichols, and after selling his interests in
that establishment to Mr. Beal, as a partner of
Mr. Collins. His success in trade was gratify-
ing, hut he had a desire for life farther west.
and in 1881 he sold out in Omaha and came
to Colorado. Three months after his arrival
he located a ranch in North Park, which, after
improving it. he sold in 1884. He then moved
to Meeker, at that time a small village with but
few inhabitants, and for a year conducted a
dairy with profit, then located a ranch of one
hundred and sixty acres eight miles south of
Meeker, the one now owned by Henry Wilson.
This he traded for the ranch which Robert
Crawford afterward secured by purchase.
After selling it Mr. Nichols devoted a number
of years to freighting between Meeker and
Rawlins. Wyoming, in the service of Hugus
& Company. Prior to this, however, he was
appointed road overseer and built the roads
in the lower part of the county. He was also
appointed the first marshal of Meeker and
served a year. In [900 he was again appointed
to this office and held it until April, TQ04. He
was very active in the defense of the bank at
the time of its robbery on October [3, 1896,
and for his bravery and skill on this occasion re-
ceived a handsome and costly rirle from
Hugus & Company as a testimonial. Mr
Nichols is a stanch Republican in political faith,
and belongs to the order of Odd Fellows in fra-
ternal life. He was married on August <). 1874.
to Miss Anna Von Kennel, a native of Jackson
county. Ohio. They have had live children,
three of whom are living. Myra I Mrs. George
Bloomheld). at Meeker. Fred, at Rangelv. and
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Hazel, at home. An infant, and a son named
Clarence, who passed away on September 14,
1895, are dead. Mr. Nichols is universally
recognized as a most worthy ami useful citizen
who fulh' deserves the high esteem in which
he is held 011 all sides.
ZACHARIAH T. BANT A.
Having lived in Colorado more than half
the duration of a human life as fixed by the
sacred writer, and during that time participated
in many of its varied industries and productive
occupations in a forceful and helpful way. wit-
nessing the progress of the state from a wilder-
ness to what it is now and aiding materially
in bringing about the change. Zachariah T.
Banta, of Rio Blanco county, is entitled to the
position he holds in the regard of the people
of the commonwealth, and justly enjoys the
pride he feels in the achievements he and others
like him have won here from obdurate and
obstinate conditions confronting- them at the
start, yet hiding beneath their unpromising
surface unbounded wealth of opportunity and
of material substance. It was in Henry
county. Missouri, and on March [4, [838, that
his life began, and he is the son of Abraham
and Elizabeth Banta. natives of Kentucky who
moved to Missouri soon after their marriage
and there passed the remainder of their lives,
successfully engaged in the peaceful pursuit of
agriculture. The father was in his young-
manhood a firm believer in the doctrines of the
Whig party, but later became as firm a
Democrat. He died in 1882 and the mother in
1885. Of their seven children four are living.
Zachariah was educated at the public schools
and worked on the farm with his father until
twenty-one years of age. In 1850. when he
determined to leave home and make his own
way in the world, he came overland by way of
Santa Fe and up the Arkansas to Pueblo, then
on to Denver. After a short stay at that town
lie located at Boulder ami engaged in mining.
Later he moved to Spring gulch where he con-
tinued the same pursuit. In the fall of 1859
he went back to Missouri and in the spring of
i860 returned with freight and in the fall of
i860 returned to Missouri by the Platte route
and engaged in farming in Henry county until
1862. The times and place getting too hot for
a young loyal Democrat, he went north to
Davis county. In the spring of 1863 he re-
turned to Henry county and put in a crop of
wheat, but in August things were so unsettled
he again left that locality and came back to
Colorado. Until [864 lie was occupied in
ranching' near Colorado City. He next located
at Buffalo Flats, where he again engaged in
mining with profit until 1867. At that time he
returned to Missouri for a short visit, going
overland by the Platte route, but while there
embraced an opportunity for a little profitable
farming which kept him until near the close
of 1868. Then disposing of his interests in
that state, and collecting a herd of cattle, he re-
turned to Colorado by the old Santa Fe trail.
There were Indian troubles behind and before
his party, and to avoid having his cattle stolen
by savages he sold them at Fort Harker. He
then hired the government outfit to bring him
and his family to Pueblo. He bought land
ten miles west of the city and followed ranch-
ing there until 1 87 1 . Then selling the ranch,
but retaining the cattle, he moved up to Buffalo
Flats. The cattle were placed on the range near
Breckenridge for a time, then taken to the
Arkansas valley. In 1872 he changed his resi-
dence to Fremont count}-, above Canon City,
and located a stock ranch on which be remained
six years. At the end of that period he sold
this ranch and bought another on the Arkansas
river where he lived until 1885, conducting a
store during much of the time. Selling out
once more, he turned his attention to getting
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
out ties for the Rio Grande Railroad, and also
furnished beef for the company under contract.
After disposing of all his interests in the Ar-
kansas valley he moved to the ranch which is
his present home four miles west of Rangely.
This comprises eighty acres, is well watered
and highly productive, yielding good crops of
the ordinary farm products, and also supports
comfortably his cattle, these and hay being his
main reliance in the business. When he located
here there were but few settlers in the neigh-
borhood, his land was wholly unimproved and
all that men wanted in the way of development
of the section was yet to be worked out. His
ranch as it is now is the result of his own in-
dustry and persistent attention, and the retro-
spection of the past recalls some thrilling
episodes of local history. From the top of his
abode cabin he witnessed the soldiers, seventy
volunteers and two hundred territorial militia
drive the Indians out of this section of the
country as a penalty for their having stolen
horses and cattle from the settlers, the hostiles
having camped three miles west of his home.
A number of the whites were killed, among
them the noted Lieutenant Ward, deputy
sheriff, and Mr. Curly, and of course many
more of the Indians. The country at the time
was overgrown with wild sage brush, willows
and kindred untamed vegetation. Mr. Banta
was married on September 14, 1862, to Miss
Louisa Owen, daughter of John and Nancy
Owen, natives of Platte county, Missouri.
They have had eleven children, four of whom
have died, one in infancy and three, George,
Mary and Elizabeth, later in life. The seven
living children are John. Nancy. Charles.
Virda, Fannie, Astena and Irene. Their
mother died on November 25, 190 r, and on
Septemlier 21, 1003. the father married a sec-
ond wife, .Mrs. Virginia Stotts, widow of J.
P. Stotts and daughter of George G. and Mary
\\*. Grove, of Winchester. Virginia; die was
bom and raised in Virginia, but afterwards
lived in Missouri, coming to Colorado in 1901.
BILLS BROTHERS.
The ranching and stock-growing firm
known as the Bills Brothers, doing business on
a good ranch of two hundred and twenty-two
acres eight miles southeast of Meeker, is com-
posed of two brothers who are natives of Lin-
coln county, Nevada, where Charles W. was
born on October 21. 1865. and Albert on April
19, 1876. They are the sons of David and
Sarah Bills, the father a native of Iowa and
the mother of Utah. The father, who is now
prosperously engaged in blacksmithing, ranch-
ing and raising stock, did good service for his
country in a time of need, being a soldier for
the L T nion in the Civil war in a Wisconsin
regiment, in which he enlisted as a private and
was mustered out as sergeant, his term extend-
ing from early in 1862 to the end of the strife.
Seven children were born in the family, six of
whom are living. Albert, Charles W., George,
Lewis, Elizabeth and Iva. A daughter named
Ava is deceased. The brothers who compose
the firm were educated in the public schools
and remained at home assisting their parents
until they neared the ag - e of manhood. In
1894 they came to Colorado and during the
next six years were variously employed in dif-
ferent localities. In 1900 they bought the
ranch they now own and occupy and which
they are vigorously cultivating. They have
sufficient water to provide for the cultivation
of the entire ranch of over two hundred acres,
and on this they get good harvests of hay.
-rain, vegetables and small fruit, and also run
a number of cattle suited to the size and yield
of the place. They are successful in their husi-
ih-ss and are well thought of in the com-
munity. Both are active Republicans, earnestly
interested in the success of their part)', ami are
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
43
wide-awake and progressive men. Albert was
married in August, 1898, to Miss Princetta
Collett, a native of Vernal, Uinta county, Utah,
and they have had three children. Elden and
Lloyd are living, and Bliss has died. The mar-
riage of Charles occurred on August 30, 1900,
and was with Miss Nellie Richardson, who was
born in Peru, Indiana, and reared in Kingman
county. Kansas. Their household has been
brightened by two children, one of whom died
in infancy, and the other, a son named Herbert,
is living. The father belongs to the Woodmen
of the World and takes an active interest in
the work of his camp. Conducting their busi-
ness with enterprise and progressiveness. dis-
charging the duties of citizenship with upright-
ness and earnestness, living among their
neighbors with credit and esteem, these factors
of the ranch and cattle industry, one of the
great sources of wealth and power in Colorado,
are well worthy of the standing they have in
business and civic circles and the substantial
success they have won.
WILLIAM G. WARREN.
Beginning a life of labor in the mines of
Colorado at the age of fourteen and ever since
then actively engaged in productive pursuits of
various kinds, William G. Warren, of the
White river valley, living on a good ranch of
three hundred and twenty acres twelve and a
half miles southeast of Meeker, has found no
time for idling in his busy life, but has ever
been present with pressing duty, and the results
of his ready and capable response to its calls are
seen in the productive activities flourishing
around him and the advanced state of improve-
ment of the country in which he has lived and
labored. His life began on April 8. 1862. in
Otonogan county, Michigan, where his parents.
George B. and Elizabeth (Shepherd) Warren,
settled some time after their emigration to this
country from their native England, the father
having been born in Devonshire in that country
and the mother at Newcastle-on-Tyne. On ar-
riving in the United States they first located in
New Jersey, then some time afterward to
Michigan, and finally to Colorado. The father
engaged successfully in mining and followed
that pursuit to the end of his life. He w r as also
engaged in works of construction of magnitude,
being, in addition to other things in this line,
overseer of the work on the Hoosac tunnel. In
political faith he was an earnest Republican and
fraternally belonged to the order of Odd Fel-
lows. The family comprised eight children,
five of whom are living. Thomas H.. James W '.,
Elizabeth (Mrs. Thomas Parsons), Emma
(Mrs. James Cox) and William G. The
mother died in July. 1868. and the father in
January, 1897. The facilities for education
afforded to William were meager, as in his
youth he was obliged to go to work in the mines
at Georgetown, this state, being employed there
from the age of fourteen until 1878. He then
moved to Leadville and mined for wages there
until 1882. During the next seven years he
was following the same pursuit, most of the
time on his own account at the Holy Cross, Red
Cliff and Iron Mask mines. On selling his
property at Gillman in 1S89 he settled in the
vicinity of Meeker, taking up half of his pres-
ent ranch on White river and afterward adding
the other half. Of this three hundred and
twenty acres one hundred and eighty can be
cultivated, the water supply being abundant for
this purpose, as Mr. Warren owns an individual
ditch. He also has a one-half interest, in the
Warren-Dreyfuss and Warren-Smith ditches.
For many years he was a member of the United
Workmen. On September 29. 1886, he was
united in marriage with Miss Emma W. Ter-
rell, a native of Nebraska reared in Missouri.
They have had six children, one. Ralph, being
dead, and Jessie E., Daisy C. George William.
44
PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Clara A. and Edna living. Mr. Warren is one
of the prominent and influential men in this
county, forceful in every phase of its public
life and business enterprise, and has the regard
and confidence of all its people.
JOHN E. CROOK.
Born in Harrison comity. West Virginia,
on November 12, i860, and growing to man-
hood at a time when the whole section sur-
rounding his home was in the throes of the
Civil war and suffering from its disastrous ef-
fects, the early life of John E. Crook afforded
but little opportunity for his systematic edu-
cation and gave the entire generation to which
he belongs only irregular and disturbed busi-
ness chances. He therefore sought a wider and
more settled field for effort when he reached his
legal majority by moving to Lincoln. Nebraska,
where he worked as a farm hand for five years
In 1886, when the excitement over Oklahoma
was at its height, he moved to southern Kansas,
but accomplishing nothing to his own ad-
vantage, he returned to Lincoln. Some little
time later he changed his residence to Cheyenne
county, Kansas, where he homesteaded one
hundred and sixty acres of land and devoted
two years to farming, but suffered repeated
losses through tires and hail storms. In the
fall of 1887 he came to Colorado and settled at
Calumet, where he worked at saw-milling for
wages a few months, then moved to Buena
Vista and there for a period of eighteen months
he got out ties for the Denver & Rio Grande
Railroad under contract at a good profit. After
closing that contract he was engaged by the
D. & M. Ranch Company as a range rider. In
iSS() he moved to Meeker, and here he con-
tinued range riding and other ranch work in
the employ of others until 1897. when he pur-
chased one hundred and sixty acres of land on
White river thirteen miles southeast of the
town. He has one hundred and twenty-five
acres of his tract under cultivation, with a good
water supply, and is steadily improving his
property and enlarging his arable acreage. His
main dependence is on cattle and hay, but he
raises other farm products in good quantities
and of superior quality. Air. Crook belongs to
the Woodmen of the World and takes an earn-
est and helpful interest in politics as a Republi-
can, lie is a son of James W. and Harrietta
( Wolf) Crook, the former a native of Virginia
and the latter of West Virginia, who were
farmers in that section, and died where they
had lived and labored, generally esteemed, the
mother passing away in 1872 and the father in
1899. They had a family of five children, all
of whom are dead but their son John E. He
was married on November 12, 1804. to Miss
Hannah Pierson, a native of Central City. Colo-
rado, and they have one child, their son Frank
M. The parents of Mrs. Crook were natives of
Sweden.
Note. — Since the above sketch was written
the dark angel has visited the home of Mr. and
Mrs. Crook, removing the light of the house-
hold, the child of their hopes and solicitous
care, their son Frank, who died May 24. [904.
TIMOTHY D. HOLLAND.
Bom of Irish parents who sought in this
country a better chance in life than was offered
in the inhospitable land of their birth, and
bringing to their new home the characteristic
energy and versatility of ther race which they
transmitted to their offspring. Timothy D. Hol-
land has well borne out in his own labors the
thrift and frugality they exemplified in theirs,
and built for himself a substantial estate in the.
western portion of the country just as they did
for themselves in the eastern. His life began
in Onondaga county. New York, on Septem-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
45
ber 17. 1852, and there he received an ordinary
common-school education, finishing with a
high -school course. At the age of thirteen he
began to earn money with a view to his ad-
vancement in life, doing with a will and a cheer-
ful disposition whatever he found to do. In
1875 he entered business lite as a grocer, and
continued in that line until 1879. when he sold
his interests. In the ensuing spring he came
to Colorado and took up his residence at Den 7
ver where he was associated with the Denver
Omnibus Company for a period. He then
moved with a party of sixteen men over Mos-
quito pass to Leadville, and there lor a year
worked in the lumber industry of Ceorge
Bennett. At the end of that time he bought
a team and outfit and began hauling ore from
the various mines, continuing his operations in
this occupation until January, 1893. The work
was hard and trying hut the profits were large.
and so he was enabled to gain from it both
strength of body and a stake for a start in a
more congenial engagement. Selling out his
outfit at the time last mentioned, he turned his
attention to the livery business, which he con-
tinued with gratifying success until conditions
were made less favorable by the strike of 1896.
He kept on in his enterprise, however, until
[899, then, disposing of his holdings at Lead-
ville. he moved to the vicinity of Meeker and
moved to the ranch on which he now lives. , me-
half of which he had pre-empted in 1885. the
other half having been since acquired by pur-
chase. He has now three hundred and twenty
acres, one-half of which can be cultivated with
good returns, and on the entire tract he runs
a good band of cattle and horses. The ranch
is located fourteen miles southeast of Meeker.
so that a ready market is easily within reach,
and as he owns independent ditches, the water
supply is abundant. He has made all the im-
provements on the land himself, putting int< 1 the
property all his energy and business capacity.
and from a state of natural wildness he has
transformed it into an attractive and fruitful
home. He is a Republican in political faith
and takes an earnest interest in the success of
his party. His parents were Timothy and
Hannah ( . Tobin ) Holland, natives of Ireland,
who were born in county Cork. They emi-
grated to the United States in 1849 ani ' settled
in Xew York city. The father" was a pros-
perous paper manufacturer, a Democrat in
politics, and a Catholic in church affiliations.
as was also his wife. He died on ( (ctober 10.
1891. and the mother on June 12. 1897. They
had a family of seven children, five of whom
are living, Ellen. Timothy D., Katharine. John
and Charles. Timothy was married on Janu-
ary 25, 1875. to Miss Mary Jane Casey, a
native of Onondaga county, Xew York, the
daughter of James and Mary (Matthews)
Casey, the father born in county Tipperary and
the mother in count)' Meath. Ireland. The
father was a carpenter and builder and pros-
pered greatly at the business. Although born
in Ireland he was reared in England. In the
politics of this country he supported the Re-
publican party. He served as constable for a
period of eighteen years. Both he and his wife
were Catholics. They had nine children, seven
of whom are living. Katharine (Mrs. Owen
Sullivan), Mrs. Richard Tague, Mrs. Holland,
John. Michael. James and William: Mr. and
Mrs. Holland have three children. Nora L.. the
wife of Michael Schneider. Katharine T. and
John A. Mrs. Holland's mother died on June
27, 1890, and her father on April 26. 1896.
Both were highly respected and esteemed
where they were known.
JOHX HENRY LeKAMP.
More than twenty years ago the subject of
this brief review took up as a squatter's claim
a portion of the ranch which he now owns and
4 6
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
occupies, the land at the time being in its state
of primeval nature, virgin to the plow and
almost untrodden by the foot of the all-con-
quering white man. There were but few set-
tlers in the neighborhood at the time, and each
man was obliged to make the best of his op-
portunities and provide as well as he could for
his necessities himself. There was much to
commend the wild and self-reliant life of so
remote a section, where nature and her various
brood were almost the only companionship of
the adventurous spirit, yet where hardships
were not wanting, privations were often press-
ing and danger was ever present. For bounti-
ful as nature was to provide, she was at the
same time armed against the intruder and as
ready to destroy. After the government sur-
vey was made Mr. LeKamp pre-empted his
landj a tract of one hundred and sixty acres
eighteen miles southeast of Meeker, which he
has since increased to two hundred and eighty
acres. He set to work diligently to improve
his property, make it habitable and bring the
untamed land into responsive fruitfulness with
the products of cultivated life. For awhile he
had slow and slender success as there was no
water supply for systematic irrigation. This
difficulty was in time overcome, and he now
has sufficient from independent ditches to pro-
vide for the cultivation of two hundred and
thirty acres, and these respond generously to
his persuasive and skillful husbandry, yielding
good crops and supporting in comfort his large
herds of cattle which have replaced the horses
which he formerly raised. Mr. LeKamp was
born in Hanover, Germany, on April 28, 1818.
and is the son of John and Elizabeth LeKamp,
who were born and reared in Germany and de-
scended from long lines of ancestry in that
country. In 1830 the family emigrated to the
United States and located at Cincinnati. The
father was an industrious man and found re-
munerative employment in various fields of
labor, and both parents were devout members
of the Lutheran church. They had three chil-
dren, of whom John H. is the only survivor.
The parents also have died. Their son John
attended school for a few terms in the winter
months, and at the age of fourteen was ap-
prenticed to a tailor. After learning his trade
he worked at it in various parts of Ohio until
1869, then came west and located in Saline
county, Nebraska. There he followed farming
with profit until 1879, when he came to this
state and here he devoted his attention to min-
ing and prospecting until 1883. At that time
he moved to where he now lives, the pioneer of
the section, and began to lay the foundations
of his present home and prosperity. He is
one of the patriarchs of the region and has
been prominent in all phases of its development.
Although an active and loyal Democrat in
political faith, he has given serviceable atten-
tion to promoting the general welfare of his
neighborhood without reference to party con-
siderations, and has been potential in useful-
ness to every element of its progress and pros-
perity. He married, in 1848, Miss Christina
Haselbrook, of the same nativity as himself.
They have had ten children, six of whom are
living, Gerhardt, Henry and two infants hav-
ing died. Those living are Mrs. B. F. Nichols,
Albert, Charles, Mrs. John Knottingham. Mrs.
David Steele. Mrs. LeKamp and Frank. All
are members of the Lutheran church.
JAMFS BUDGE.
It is a matter of common observation and
genera] human experience that to a great extent
the circumstances of his birth and rearing
shape the man and determine largely his course
through life. The sailor is oftenest born beside
the heaving ocean which he makes his future
home, the ardent advocate of liberty on the
mountain side, the lumberman in the forest.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
47
And so it happens that James Budge, although
now one of the flourishing and progressive
ranch and stock men of Rio Blanco county,
this state, having been born in Cornwall, Eng-
land, in the mining districts, and reared amid
those engaged in the same pursuit in this
country, became a miner and prospector him-
self and followed those lines of employment
for many years. He came into the world on
June 15, 1872, the son of Christopher and
Emma (Alford) Budge, also natives of Eng-
land, the father born in Devonshire and the
mother in Cornwall. The father was a miner
in his native land, and naturally sought the
same field of labor when, in 1874, he brought
his family to this country. He came to Colo-
rado and after working at his chosen vocation
in a number of places in the state, finally settled
at Aspen, where he died in 1892, and where the
mother is now living. The father was success-
ful in his pursuit and lived actively among his
fellows, taking an interest in their welfare and
uniting in their pleasures and elevating means
of enjoyment. He belonged to the Odd Fel-
lows and the Foresters, and was a member of
the Methodist church. Seven children were
born in the family and five of them are living,
James, Harry, Edmund, Lillian and Chris-
topher. James was well educated according to
his opportunities, attending the common and
the high schools. On leaving school at the age
of eighteen he began at once to take his part in
the useful work of the race and make his own
way in the world, at the same time aiding his
parents until he reached the age of twenty-five.
He mined for wages and also leased mines at
Aspen, pushing both lines of profitable employ-
ment vigorously in that locality until 190 1. He
then determined to engage in another of Colo-
rado's great industries and purchased the ranch
which he now owns, twenty miles southeast of
Meeker. It comprises one hundred and sixty
acres and with a good water supply he finds it
easy to cultivate one hundred acres of the tract.
He also raises horses and cattle in profitable
numbers, and they are his main reliance as
ranch products. In the fraternal life of his
community he has an active interest as a Wood-
man of the World, and in its political affairs
as a devoted Democrat. His marriage oc-
curred on June 22, 1892, and was to Miss Anna
Schmidt, who was born in Green county, Wis-
consin, and is the daughter of Adam and Mary
(Durst) Schmidt, Swiss by nativity and emi-
grants to this country in 1836, when they lo-
cated in Green county, Wisconsin, where the
father rose to prominence and influence in
politics, serving successively as county clerk
and recorder, assessor, treasurer and county
commissioner. He was also for a time active
in the real-estate business. Since 1903 he has
been living in South Dakota and farming. He
is a United Workman and a member of the
Evangelical church. The family comprised
eleven children, nine of whom are living,
Nicholas, Carrie, Matthew. Mary, Theodore.
Rose, Anna, Bertha and Clara. In the house-
hold of Mr. and Mrs. Budge three children
have been born and are living, Russell E.. Orin
E. and Durst.
NIMERICK BROTHERS.
This enterprising and progressive firm of
ranch and cattle men is composed of James B.
and John C. Nimerick. the former born on
February 22, 1858, in Monroe county, Illinois,
and the latter on May 5, i860, in Madison
county, Illinois, the sons of James M. ami
Elizabeth (Glass) Nimerick, natives of St.
Clair county, Illinois. The father's life began
on August 31, 1822, and he grew to manhood
in his native place after the manner of boys of
his time and locality, attending the common
schools and working on the home farm. He
also had a term or two at McKinley College
48
PROGRESS!]' E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
When twenty-six years old he began learning
the trade of milling, and during the next
twenty-five years he followed that craft, after
some years building a mill of his own. In
[864 he came west, going up the Missouri as
far as Fort Benton, Montana. Later he went
into Utah' and Colorado, returning to his
eastern home from Denver. Indians were
plentiful and often he was obliged to seek shel-
ter from their fury. In 1872 he purchased land
near Greenland, forty-eight miles south of
Denver, and there he was occupied in ranching
until 1886. He then sold his interests in that
locality and moved to the section in which he
now lives. Soon afterward he made a trip
through Washington Territory as it was then,
and on the return trip, stopping at Salt Lake,
devoted some time to speculation. In 1889 his
family came to the White river valley and took
up a squatter's claim on which they followed
ranching. The father became prominent in the
political affairs of the section, representing
Elbert and Douglas counties in the territorial
legislature while he lived in one of them. He
also held local offices in Illinois before leaving
that state, serving as justice of the peace and
probate judge. He was married on November
9, 1840, to Miss Elizabeth Glass, a native of
the same county in Illinois as himself. Of their
nine children five are living, Jennie ( Mrs.
Lloyd Stealey), Neil G., James B., John and
Nellie (Mrs. George Taylor). The two sons
who form the subjects of this review were edu-
cated at the common schools and early began
learning on the paternal homestead the les-
sons of thrift ami useful industry which have
been their main stay through subsequent life.
They have a good ranch of two hundred acres,
eighty of which are under cultivation in the
usual farm products of the region, and they
carry on a nourishing stock industry. The
ranch is twenty-eight miles east of Meeker,
which affords them a good market. The pos-
sessions they have and their good standing in
their community are the legitimate fruits of
their own enterprise and worth, and their
career affords a forcible illustration of the
benefits of forecast, industry and careful atten-
tion to a chosen pursuit in this land of wide and
fertile opportunities. Both are Democrats and
earnestly interested in the welfare of their
party. They are the pioneers of the north fork
of the White river, their mother and nephew.
Guy M. Stealey. accompanying them. They
were obliged to cut their way for many miles
through underbrush which grew along the
river and forded that stream nine times in order
to reach the location of their present home. It
was a wild, unbroken country and far from the
civilization of white people. Mrs. Nimerick
was the first woman to settle in the North Fork-
valley. Since those days the country has been
well developed and Nimerick brothers have
done their share, having constructed four miles
of the present road to their ranch. They have
also laiilt irrigating ditches, etc.
WILLIAM L. PATTISON.
Orphaned by the death of his mother when
he was one year old and that of his father
five years later, and thus thrown upon tin-
attentions of others for rearing and prepar-
ation for life's usefulness, William L. Pattison
was not favored by circumstances in his start,
and he has not depended on fortune's favors
for advancement at any subsequent stage pf
his career. He was born in Logan county,
Illinois, on January 26, [853, and is the son
of Daniel ami Laura ( Harcourt) Pattison, na-
tives of Indiana. There were seven children in
the family, live of whom are living, Hannah,
wife of Grandson Dawson; John; Llizabeth.
wife of Philander Semico; Jennie, wife of
Frank Hackley: and William L. The mother
died in 1854 and the father in 1859. When but
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
49
a boy William was put to work in his own be-
half and thereafter was employed at various
kinds of labor in his native state until [868.
lie then moved t< i Winfield. Kansas, and during
the next three years he farmed in that vicinity
with indifferent success. In 1S71 he came to
Colorado and. locating at Colorado Springs,
furnished logs under contract until 1K74, when
he moved to Middle Park. Here for ten years
he followed mining and prospecting with many
successes and reverses. In 1884 he took up
his residence at Trappers' Lake and there con-
ducted a summer resort until 1893. at which
time he homesteaded one-half of his present
ranch, which now comprises three hundred ami
twenty acres, two hundred of which are yield-
ing good crops of the usual farm products
grown in this region under his careful and
systematic cultivation. He also raises cattle to
,-1 profitable extent. The ranch is twenty-nine
miles east of Meeker, and is pleasantly and ad-
vantageously located. In the fraternal life of
the community Mr. Pattison takes an earnest
and serviceable interest as a member of the
Woodman of the World and the Odd Fellows,
and politically he is a cordial supporter of the
Republican party. He was married on April
13, 1884. to Miss Laura Spurgeon. a native of
Virginia. They have two children. Pearl and
Lvton. Both parents are far from the scenes
and associations of their childhood, but they
have established a pleasant home in this state.
and they find the conditions of life around them
and the field for enterprise in which they are
located agreeable, and in consequence they are
devoted to the welfare of Colorado and among
its useful and respected citizens.
MARTIN L. SANDY.
Prom old Virginia, where he was born on
November 14, 1869, in Rockingham county.
Martin L. Sandv, of Rio Blanco county, this
state, brought the traditions and lessons of
families long resident in the Old Dominion
from which he is descended, and also the con-
dition of poverty and disaster which the great
('nil war in this country put upon the section
from which he came. Because of the general
paralysis of every industry in that section
through the mighty conflict, he started in the
race for supremacy among men seriously handi-
capped, and was able to snatch from the stream
of knowledge as it sparkled across his pathway
but a small portion of its invigorating waters,
attending only the common schools at inten lIs
for a brief period, lie is therefore a self-made
man and has built his fortunes by his own
efforts unaided by circumstances or favorable
conditions, except that he had health, courage
endurance and a determined spirit of enter-
prise. From the age of fifteen he has paddled
his own canoe, and although he found the cur-
rents rough at times and the progress slow, he
has made steady advances. In the spring of
1888 he came to Colorado and located at
Meeker. Soon after his arrival he became con-
nected with the Oakridge Park ditch and con-
tinued working in its construction until r8ai.
at which time he located his home ranch of
one hundred and twenty acres seven miles
southeast of Meeker. He also has acquired the
ownership of another ranch of one hundred and
sixty acres, and in the two has about one hun-
dred and fifty acres of good land sufficiently
supplied with water for profitable cultivation.
Fie raises cattle in goodly numbers and carries
on a general ranching business. His home
ranch has been improved until it is one of the
best and most attractive in his section of the
county. Mr. Sandy owns an individual ditch
and has interests in the Oakridge Park and
the Archie & Holland ditches, and not only in
the matter of improvements of this kind for
the benefit of his district, but in all matters
which make for the general weal of it and its
5o
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
people, he takes an earnest and serviceable in-
terest. He is a Democrat in politics, and is
prominent in the councils of his party and also
in the common public life of the community.
His parents are William and Susan (Keller)
Sandy, who were born and reared in Virginia
and the father is still living there, making his
home at Staunton, Augusta county. He was
for many years prosperously engaged in farm-
ing, but is now retired from active pursuits.
The mother died in 1870. They had two
children, both of whom are living, Ella Vir-
ginia (Mrs. John Nielsen) and Martin L. The
latter is one of the highly esteemed and repre-
sentative citizens of Rio Blanco county, whose
work in the improvement of that portion of the
state proclaims him as worthy of honorable
mention among any enumeration of the pro-
gressive men thereof.
WILLIAM GANT.
Traveling, freighting and prospecting all
over the western country, enduring with com-
mendable fortitude its extremes of heat and
cold in various places, and encountering with
courage and resourcefulness its dangers of
various kinds under various circumstances,
William Gant, of near New Castle, Garfield
county, one of the prosperous and enterprising
ranch and cattle men of his section, may be
said to know this part of the United States as
well as any one and to have seen its manifesta-
tions of wild and tame life in as many forms
and under as many different conditions as any
citizen of this state. He is a Canadian by
nativity, born at Hamilton, in the province of
Ontario, on June 9, 1845. He received only
a common-school education, and at the age of
twelve began making his own living by farm-
ing and market gardening. Impressed with
the belief that "The States" offered better op-
portunity for enterprise and skill, his parents
migrated to Iowa in 1854. When a young
man the subject worked in the coal mines for
a couple of years in that state, then changed
to Nebraska and three years later to Kansas
where he leased a coal mine which he worked
until 1873. In 1864, in the interest of Jones
& Hendry, he made a freighting trip from
Plattsmouth to Denver, this state. From 1873
to 1876 he made Boulder his headquarters and
was employed in the Rob Roy, Baker Stewart
and other mines, and in 1877 and 1878 he was
mining on Coal creek below Canon City, after
which he located at Leadville for a short time.
He also made several prospecting trips through
Arizona and New Mexico. November 29,
1881, he squatted a claim a portion of which
is his present home, and on November 29, 1891,
took full and final possession of it. It com-
prised one hundred and fifty-four acres,, part
of which he has since sold. He has now sixty
acres under cultivation, producing good crops
of the general products common to the neigh-
borhood but depending on onions as his staple,
which he raises in great abundance. Mr. Gant
built the first cabin between Grand Junction
and Glenwood Springs, and wherever he has
been has been enterprising and progressive ac-
cording to the needs of the region. He belongs
to the Masonic order in lodge and chapter, and
takes an active part in the work of the bodies.
In politics he is independent of party control
but he is by no means indifferent to the wel-
fare of his county and state. His parents were
John and Elizabeth (Grant) Gant, natives of
England who came to America and settled in
Canada soon after their marriage. In 1S54
they moved to Iowa, where they remained until
t866, then found their final location in Kansas.
They were engaged in farming and raising
stock until the end of their days, the father
dying on December 3d, and the mother on De-
cember 4, 1903. They were Methodists in
church relations and he was a Republican in
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
politics. They had a family of nine children,
five of whom are living, William; James L., of
Phoenix. Arizona; Emanuel; John, of Colo-
rado, and Minnie, of Kansas. On September
3, 1890, he was married to Miss Mary J. Mc-
Burney, a sister of Mrs. George Yule, of Gar-
field county (see sketch elsewhere in this
work). She was a daughter of Hugh and
Elizabeth Mc.Burney and was born at Pitts-
burg, Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Gant have
had six children. Two who died in infancy
and a' daughter named Elizabeth are deceased.
Another Elizabeth E., James L. and Emma M.
are living. The parents are Presbyterians,
active in church work and respected by all who
enjoy their acquaintance.
HENLEY C. ROCK.
Henley C. Rock, of near Meeker, Rio
Blanco county, was born in Lee county, Vir-
ginia, on April 20, 1849, anf l > s me son °f
Henrv and Nancy (Webb) Rock, who were
born and reared in Craig county, Virginia, and
moved to Greenwood county, Kansas, in 1873.
The father has been a farmer through life and
prospered at the business. He is an ardent
Democrat in politics, and both he and his wife
belong to the Christian church. They are the
parents of seven children, four living and three
dead. Oscar died in 1865. Sarah in 1870 and
Gustavus in 1900. The four living are Martha
A., wife of James A. Robinson, a farmer of
Greenwood county, Kansas, Henley C, Clifton
P.. a banker of Stillwater, Oklahoma, and Van
Buren, a stockman of Indian Territory. Their
son Henley remained at home and assisted in
the work of the farm until 1873. He received
a good business education, and when he left
In mie went to work on a farm in Kansas, re-
maining there so occupied until 1876. during a
portion of the time carrying on the farm in
partnership with his father. In 1876 he became
a resident of Colorado, locating in the San
Juan country near Lake City, where he fol-
lowed mining with moderate success. In 1879
he moved to LeadVille, where he continued min-
ing until 1882. He then bought a portion of
the ranch which is now his home, and which
he has since increased to four hundred and
eighty acres. He can cultivate three hundred
acres of the tract, and on this part he raises
good crops of hay, grain and vegetables. He
is also extensively engaged in the cattle in-
dustry, raising large numbers of thoroughbred
Hereford cattle and horses of superior grades.
The water supply for irrigation is sufficient for
present purposes and can be increased when
necessary, as he has an interest in the High-
land & Miller creek ditch. The ranch is lo-
cated seven miles east of Meeker, the soil is
fertile, the tillage is skillful and the results are
gratifying. Mr. Rock found the land wild and
unimproved, and what the ranch is today it has
become wholly through his own efforts and
wise management, he having made all the im-
provements, and raised his property to the first
rank among the ranch homes in this valley. In
the fraternal life of the community he is con-
nected with the Masonic order and the Mod-
ern Woodmen, and in political faith he is an
unwavering Democrat, interested in the suc-
cess of his party and at all times willing to
aid in its contests. On January 23, 1893, he
was united in marriage with Miss Laura S.
Hayes, a native of Indiana, born in Mont-
gomery county. They have had five children,
of whom three died in infancy and two are
living, Lois V. and Frederick H.
CHARLES HENRY LARSON.
Young as Colorado is in the world's his-
tory, she is yet old enough to have produced a
generation or two of good men of brain and
brawn and women of force of character and
5^
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
resolute endurance through whom her interests
have been well cared for and her resources have
been materially developed, or who have at
least greatly aided in the mighty work. Of
these is Charles Henry Larson, of the vicinity
of Newcastle, Garfield county, who was born
in the state, educated at her public schools,
reared to habits of industry on her prolific soil
and acquired his first knowledge of the duties
of citizenship in the activity "I" her civil institu-
tions. His life began at Kokomo, Summit
county, mi August 3, [881, and he is the son
of Charles P. and Carrie (Anderson) Larson.
a sketch of whom will he found elsewhere in
this work. Mr. Larson attended the primitive
country schools of his boyhood and youth in a
wild country, and assisted in the farm labors of
the homestead until he reached the age of
twenty-two. On October 19. 19OJ, soon after
reaching his legal majority, he was united in
marriage with Miss Maud L. Conner, and early
in 1903 he bought his present ranch of one
hundred and sixty acres twelve miles southwest
of Newcastle. Garfield county. Seventv
acres of the tract are under cultivation and
yield abundantly of cereals and hay, with other
farm products suitable to the section, and give
a generous support to his cattle, which he pro-
duces in goodly numbers. The ranch is well
supplied with water from an independent ditch,
and is steadily advancing in value, in the acre-
age devoted to tillage and in the quantity and
quality of its yield. .Mr. Larson belongs to the
Modern Woodmen of America and is a Re-
publican in politics. His wife is a daughter
of Edward M. and Ophelia J. ( Sartwell ) Con-
ner, and was horn and reared near Witchita
Kansas. Her parents were born and grew to
maturity in the state of New York, and after
a residence of some years in Kansas came to
Colorado, settling 111 Garfield county, where
they now live and are actively engaged in
ranching and raising cattle. Her father is a
stone mason and contractor by regular occupa-
tion, but he now devotes nearly all of his time
to his ranching and stock interests. He has
also followed railroading, lumbering and min-
ing at times. Mr. and Mrs. Larson have one
daughter. Yerda, who was born on the 21st
of October, [903.
daniel c. Mcpherson.
Born in Scotland on March 15, 1853. and
coming to this country in his boyhood. Mr
McPherson early began to imbibe the spirit of
our institutions ami use to advantage the op-
portunities for advancement afforded by his
new home. He attended the public schools for
a short time and at the age of thirteen began to
learn shipbuilding as a trade, serving an ap-
prenticeship of three years at Boston. He fol-
lowed his craft three years longer, and then was
at sea for some time as second mate on a fruit
vessel running between Ponce, Porto Rico and
New York, Providence and Boston. He next
engaged in bridge building from Providence
and Worcester, devoting three years to the
work. In 1S77 he came to Colorado and lo-
cated at Denver, and here he again engaged in
building bridges, being employed on lines be-
tween that city and Wallace. At the end of a
year passed in this occupation he went to Lead-
ville. where, in partnership with John Stevens,
he passed another year in mining and prospect-
ing, but with very little success. In 1880 he
located at Aspen and. continuing his mining
operations, he located a number of claims of
value. For three years he carried on the work
independently, then sold out his interests and
turned his attention to herding cattle and range-
riding in the employ of the Yule Brothers, with
whom he remained three years. At the end of
that period be located his ranch of one hundred
and sixtv acres which he took up as a pre-
emption claim, but of which he has since sold a
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
portion. Sixty acres are under cultivation, the
crops raised being those of the section, potatoes
being the principal vegetable produced. He is
a stanch Republican in politics and is always
active in the service of his party. His parents,
now both deceased, were John and Sarah Mc-
Pherson, natives of Scotland who came to this
country when young and located in Massachu-
setts. The father was an industrious laborer
and a man of upright character. They had a
family of seven children, one of whom, John
is deceased. The six living are Xiel. Angus,
Catherine, Margaret. Mary and Daniel. The
parents were Presbyterians. Mr. McPhersor,
is deeply interested in the welfare and progress
of Colorado and her people, ami is always ready
to contribute his share of inspiration and more
substantial means to promote their interests.
WILLIAM S. JOHXSOX.
William S. Johnson, of Garfield count}".
living on a ranch of one hundred and twenty
acres fourteen and one-half miles southwest of
Xew Castle, is a self-made man and one of the
most enterprising, progressive and successful
young ranchmen of the Western slope in this
state, and one of its most representative citi-
zens. It was on a farm near Mt. Vernon, Mis-
souri, that his life began, and the date of his
birth was May 2. 1864. He is the son of
Larkin and Roselba (Blackburn) Johnson, na-
tives of eastern Tennessee who located in 'Mis-
souri early in their married life, and there
passed the remainder of their days farming and
raising stock, the leading pursuits of the sec-
tion in which they lived, the father also was a
devoted and loyal Democrat, taking an active
part in public affairs in a local way. Of their
nine children, a daughter named Laura is de-
ceased and the other eight are living. They
are: Louise, wife of William Colley, of Law-
rence county, Missouri: Hugh, of Shawnee,
Indian Territory: Sarah, wife of James Colley,
of Lawrence county. Missouri: Joseph, of Xew
Mexico: William, the subject of this sketch;
Thomas L. and Florida, wife of Jefferson
Steele, both of Lawrence county. Missouri: and
John, of Mam creek. Colorado. William re-
ceived a scant education at the common schools
and also attended for a short time the Baptist
College at Pierce City, in his native state. He
also pursued a thorough course at a good busi-
ness college, lie remained at home and worked
in the interest of his parents until he reached
his twenty-third year. In the spring of 1888
he came to Colorado and 'for eight months
worked in the employ of Austin & Toland, then
of William L. Smith, a sketch of whom ap-
pears elsewhere in this volume, with whom he
remained eight years. In [897 he purchased of
Jack Cunningham eighty acres of land, and has
since taken up forty acres additional adjoining
his purchase. Of the whole tract one hundred
and twenty acres are naturally tillable, and on
these he raises good crops of cereals, hay, vege-
tables, and also produces cattle in good num-
bers. His vegetables have an especially high
rank in the markets, his potatoes being the
largest grown in the state. He is now under
contract to raise two thousand pounds of this
vegetable for exhibition at the Louisiana Pur-
chase Exposition at St. Louis in 1904. His
ranch is well supplied with water and he fur-
nishes the brain and a good portion of the
brawn necessary for its successful cultivation.
In national politics Mr. Johnson is a faithful
Democrat, but in local affairs his interest in the
general welfare of the community overbears all
pafty considerations. On October 31, 1900. he
was married to Miss Xora Steward, a native of
Lawrence county. Missouri, where her parents
James and Elizabeth (Allen) Stewart, the for-
mer a native of that state and the latter of Ten-
nessee, lived many years engaged in successful
farming and stock-growing, and where the
54
PROGRESSIFE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
father is now living, the mother having died on
February 19, 1892. Of their ten children seven
survive her, Hiram, Obe, Benjamin (of Bisbee,
Arizona),, John (of Garfield county, Colorado).
Annie and Jennie (of Garfield county, Colo-
rado), and Mrs. Johnson, who shares in the
aspirations and enterprises of her husband, and
is a cheerful and inspiring aid and encour-
agement in his progress and success.
WILLIAM L. SMITH.
Since 1864 Mr. Smith has been a resident
of Colorado, working at its various industries.
enjoying and promoting its progress and
through effort and vicissitude, through triumph
and defeat, through trial and privation, win-
ning his way by a varied course to final suc-
cess and prosperity- He is a native of Ken-
tuck}-, born on November 13. 1840, and the
son of Robert and Sophronia (Lewis) Smith.
natives of that state who emigrated to Iowa in
1849. They remained in that state until 1867,
at which time the father came to Colorado,
where he joined the Second Colorado Battery
against Price. He served three years under
McLean and had three encounters with the.
Indians prior to the decisive engagement and
his enlistment under Russel and Major Wad-
dell as a wagon master. They freighted pro-
visions from the Missouri river through Colo-
rado to Salt Lake. After leaving this service
he became a frontier ranchman, following the
pursuit he had in Iowa. He belonged to the
Grand Army of the Republic, and was a mem-
ber of the Baptist church, as his widow is now.
He died at the Soldiers' Home at Monte Vista
on May 16, 1902. The mother is living at New
Castle, Garfield county. Their family com-
prised eight children, six of whom are living:
William L. ; Mary J., wife of George H. Nor-
ris; Rosamond A., wife of John M. Springer.
of New Castle; Zachariah T., of Wyoming;
Isaac J., and Cyntha, wife of W. J. Myrtle, of
New Castle. William attended the public
schools available to him for short periods at in-
tervals, beginning at the age of thirteen to
assist his parents in supporting the family, and
he has been a help in this respect ever since.
While in Iowa he learned his trade as a cooper
and also acquired a good practical knowledge
of farming. In 1864 he started, in company
with Abraham Springer. George Brooks and
Thomas Venator, to travel overland with three
yoke of cattle and an outfit from Napello
county, Iowa, to Denver, and after their ar-
rival at that city he turned his interest in the
outfit over to his companions, and with his
blankets on his back started for the mines. I )n
the way he met a man who gave him employ-
ment on a ditch on Clear creek. He completed
his work on August 29, 1864, and his employer
had no money to pay him for it. so gave him a
milk cow in part payment. This he took to
Golden, where he sold it. From there he m< >\ ed
on to Mill creek and there engaged in saw-
mill work at five dollars a day. continuing his
labors until the snow got too deep. He then
returned to Golden and opened a meat market.
Credit business ruined him and in the spring of
1865 he was obliged to close his doors. I It-
was next employed in partnership with a Mr.
Burts in burning lime near Morrison. This en-
terprise he continued eight years at a fair profit.
In 1873 he was elected sheriff of Jefferson
county on the Democratic ticket, and at the
close of his term in 1875 he was re-elected. In
[878 he moved to Leadville and there passed
the spring and summer prospecting with only
moderate success. He returned to Morrison
and traded some limestone property which he
owned for a livery and feed stable which he
conducted three years, then sold it at a good
profit in 1882. After the sale he moved to
Garfield county and located the ranch he now
owns, a squatter's claim which his mother filed
PROGRESSI] E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
y?
and he afterward purchased. He has made ad-
ditional purchases and the ranch now comprises
six hundred acres, one-half of which can be
easily cultivated. It has a good supply of water
and responds generously to the persuasive hand
of the husbandman. Hay and cattle furnish his
staple industry, and grain, vegetables and fruit
are raised with success. He owns the oldest
orchard on the south side of the Grand river,
and its products are of the finest quality, the
apples taking the first premium at the state fair
of 1895. The ranch is sixteen miles southwest
of New Castle in the midst of a fertile and pro-
ductive region which is abundant in all sorts of
farm products suitable to the climate. In 1884
he w T as elected county commissioner on the
Democratic ticket, and in 1900 he was re-
elected. He belongs to the Masonic order as a
Master Mason, a Royal Arch Mason and a
Knight Templar, and is very active and service-
able in the work of the various bodies. In Sep-
tember, 1859. he was united in marriage with
Miss Emeline Fowler, who was born in Iowa.
They had two children. Lafayette, living at
home, and Martha, wife of John Cunningham,
of Aspen. Their mother died on February 29,
1880, and on February 28. 1893. the father
married a second wife, Mrs. Adell Adams, a
native of Medina county, Ohio, the daughter of
James S. and Jane (Cannon) Stephenson, the
father born in New England and the mother in
Pennsylvania. They settled in Ohio in early
life and later moved to Wisconsin, and finally
to Minnesota, being farmers in three states.
They had a family of ten children, seven of
whom are living, Theresa, George. James.
Franklin. Alphius, John and Mrs. Smith. Mr.
Smith is well pleased with Colorado, both on
account of its extensive industries which af-
ford large and fruitful opportunities to men of
enterprise and the generally agreeable condi-
tions of life for residents.
JAMES EWERS.
James Ewers, whose industry and capacity
have won for him a substantial prosperity and
a well established regard among his fellow
men in the wilds of Colorado, now blooming
and fruitful with all the products of cultivated
life, was born near the town of Mason in Ing-
ham county, Michigan, on October 2, 1854, and
is the son of Joseph C. and Eunice (Liver-
more) Ewers, natives of New York state who
settled in Michigan when it was a part of the
western frontier. There they devoted their
energies to farming and raising stock, ending
their days on the soil which they had redeemed
from the wilderness, having built a home in
the virgin forest and helped to start a civiliza-
tion where as yet the savage roamed and the
deer disported. They were members of the
Methodist church and the father supported the
Republican party from its foundation until his
death, which occurred in 1897, he having for
thirty-seven years survived his wife, who died
in i860. They had a family of seven children.
of whom but two are living, a. son Frank at
Morrison, Colorado, and James. The latter
had the usual experiences and hardships of
country boys on the frontier, short and infre-
quent attendance at the public schools and con-
tinual and arduous labor on the farm. He re-
mained with his parents until he was twenty-
one, then came to Colorado, arriving at Denver
on February 1, 1879. He worked in that neigh-
borhood for awhile on ranches for wages, then
began an enterprise in the business for himself.
He also did some mining, locating claims at
the head of Rock and Maroon creeks, which,
however, proved to be of little value. He gave
up prospecting at the end of a year, and in 1883
ti >ok up a pre-emption claim of one hundred
and sixty acres, which he has since doubled by
purchase of another one hundred and sixtv
56
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
acres adjoining- it. Half of his land is naturally
tillable and he has a large acreage under culti-
vation in hay, grain, vegetables and fruit, hay
and cattle being his main reliance. He has
prospered in his undertaking and is held in high
regard by the people around him. In politics
he supports the Republican party, but in refer-
ence to local affairs affecting the welfare of the
community he works for the best interests of
the people. On May to. 1891, he united in
marriage with Miss Belle Cozad. who was born
in Kansas and is the daughter of John G. and
Rovina (Sullivan) Cozad, the father a native
of Ohio and the mother of Missouri. The
father was a farmer in early life but after-
ward became a wholesale merchant. They came
to Colorado in the early days of its history,
and here the father freighted for a number of
years, then turned his attention to ranching and
raising stock on Divide creek. He supported
the Republican party with zeal and fidelity, and
took an active interest in public affairs. Their
family comprised three children, Mrs. Ewers,
Eunice B., the wife of Emanuel Grant, and
Andrew', living at Purdy. The father died on
February 22, 1895, and the mother has since
lived at Purely. Mr. and Mrs. Ewers are the
parents of six children, Eunice, Nellie, Joseph.
Laura. Rosa and Frank. Mr. Ewers recently
completed a commodious residence of modern
construction, which is one of the best on
Divide creek.
JAMES S. PORTER.
Born more than fifty years ago in western
Missouri and there reared to the age of twenty,
then coming to Colorado when it was the far
frontier. James S. Porter, of Garfield county,
living in the neighborhood of Raven, ha- passed
the whole of his life as a pioneer and is thor-
oughly imbued with the spirit and aspirations
of the class as well as familiar with their ex-
periences, their point of view, their methods
of thought and action, and the services they
have rendered to the cause of civilizing the
wilderness and developing its resources. His
life began on February 4. 1851. in Johnson
count}'. Missouri, where his parents, Alexander
A. and Adeline ( Phillips) Porter, the former a
native of Tennessee and the latter of Kentucky.
settled in early life. In 1874 they followed him
to Colorado and. locating at Golden City, gave
themselves up to ranching and raising stock for
a number of years. Of late, for some time now.
the father has been janitor at the schoolhouse
in that town. He is a member of the Masonic
order, and both parents belonged to the Chris-
tian church. They had a family of seven chil-
dren, one of whom. Mary, then Mrs. Robert
Tharington, died on February 15. 1898. The
living six are Lee A., at Rich Hill. Missouri;
James S. ; Nancy (Mrs. Ryan), at Denver;
Andrew, at New Castle, this state; Margaret,
wife of George Crosen, of Golden City; and
Wood, living at Telluride. Mr. Porter had but
few and scant means of education in the schools,
being obliged from an early age to bear his
part in the farm work. At the age of eighteen
he left his parents, whom he had assisted up
to that time, ami began doing farm work for
wages in his native state to support himself. In
[871, when he was twenty, he came to Colo-
rado, and locating at Golden City near Denver,
passed the next eight years ranching, and the
next two mining, but in the latter occupation
he was unsuccessful. From Golden he came
to Divide creek and located a ranch of one
hundred and sixty .acres, which he took up as
a squatter and after the survey pre-empted. He-
has since bought additional land and sold some
and now has about the extent of his original
claim, of which he can cultivate one hundred
acres. Hay and cattle arc his main products,
but he also raises -rain and vegetables, and at
this writing ( 1 004 I pays special attention to
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLOR.! Do.
raising mules. In business he is prosperous and
progressive, and in public local affairs is stimu-
lating and helpful in example and activity. He
is a Republican in national politics, but rather
independent in local matters. On April 22,
1885, he united in marriage with Miss Cora
Wendell, a native of Clark county, Wisconsin,
the daughter of Charles D. and Cynthia (Ale-
Donald) Wendell, New Yorkers by nativity.
who located in Wisconsin in early days. The
father was a carpenter and made a good living
at his trade. During the Civil war he was a
member of Company F, First Colorado In-
fantry. He came to the neighborhood of Pike's
Peak when gold was first discovered there, and
lived through all the early life of excitement.
danger and privation, making his headquarters
at Denver. Later he moved to the vicinity of
New Castle, and there he died on October 22.
1903. his wife having passed away on Febru-
ary 20. 1881. Five of their children survive
them: Mrs. Porter, Fannie (Mrs. Joseph C.
Austin), Earl 11. Ralph R. and Millie (Mrs.
Ben Gillam). Mr. and Mrs. 1'orter have eight
children, Bessie A., Emma C. Charles A.,
Lillian P., Nellie M., Carl P.. May B.
and Edith X.
FRANK M. TOLAND.
Frank M. Toland, of Garfield county, living
on a fine ranch of four hundred and forty acres
in the vicinity of Raven, whose record in this
state and elsewhere illustrate with force and
impressiveness the necessity for push and
energy, and persistent and well applied effort,
even amid the boundless possibilities for suc-
cess in the early days of Colorado's history, is
a native of Muskingum county. Ohio, horn on
June 17, 1852. His parents, Clark and Siddie
( Crane) Toland, were also natives of Ohio, and
moved to Johnson county. Missouri, when it
was on the frontier, and there devoted their
energies to farming and raising stock. The
father was a man of local prominence in his sec-
tion and took an active part in political affairs
on the Democratic side. They had a family of
seven children, four of whom survive the
father, who has been deceased for a number of
years. The mother is still living in Johnson
count}'. Missouri. The living children are
( ceorge C, of Johnson county, Missouri : Frank
M.. of this sketch; Eva. wife of Frank Dod-
son, and Charles, the last two living in Pratt
county, Kansas. Frank remained at home until
he was twenty-one and was educated at the
public schools. After attaining his legal ma-
jority he began farming for himself in Johnson
county. Missouri, remaining until [881, when
he moved to Kansas. The change was dis-
astrous, fate seeming to be against him in his
new home where the drought and the grass-
hoppers combined to destroy all the fruits of his
labor. He then came to Colorado and located
at Twin Lakes. Here he engaged in freighting
from Leadville and Granite to Independence,
in this state, and found the business very profit-
able. He continued it until 1884, then disposed
of his outfit and interests at a good profit. He
next located at Aspen and during the following
four vears worked in the mines for wages. In
[888 he located a pre-emption claim of one
hundred and sixty acres, which is a part of his
present ranch. He has since purchased two
hundred and eighty acres additional, and the
whole tract of four hundred and forty acres
can be easily tilled, an unusual condition for
ranches in this part of the state. He raises fine
crops of hay. grain and vegetables and excellent
fruit. Cattle and horses are also extensively
produced for market. The water supply to the
ranch is abundant, and as he cultivates his land
with industry and skill, the good results he
achieves follow as a matter of course. The
ranch is fifteen miles southeast of Rifle, so that
good markets for its products are easily avail-
S8
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
able. In political faith Mr. Toland is an un-
wavering Democrat. He was married on Oc-
tober 5, 1876, to Miss Nancy Hayhurst, a na-
tive of Ohio and daughter of James and Jane
( Rineyear) Hayhurst, also native in that state,
where they are prosperous farmers. Four of
their eight children are living as follows : Mary
J., living at Sandcoulee, Montana, wife of Wil-
liam Smith; Ann. wife of John Davis, of Gar-
field county, Colorado; Mrs. Toland, and
Charles, of Johnson county, Missouri. The
mother is deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Toland have
four children, James F., Ernest, Stella (Mrs.
Johnson), and George, all of whom live in
Garfield county, this state.
WILLIAM A. RICE.
The statement is as true as it is old that
death loves a shining mark, and such a mark
was found in the demise of the late William
A. Rice, of Grand Junction. He departed this
life suddenly on April 12. 1901, of pneumonia,
and a few days later was laid to rest in the
Masonic cemetery on Orchard mesa, with
ever} - demonstration of popular esteem and
affection. His useful life began in Dade
county, Missouri, on November 30, 1846. His
parents returned to their old home in Barren
county. Kentucky, when he was less than a
year old and there the father died in 1850.
Soon after the mother moved again to Missouri
with her four children. There William grew
to manhood and received his education in the
public schools and in a select school near Green-
field. Three years of his early manhood were
passed in teaching school, and these were fol-
lowed by eight in mercantile life in Newtonia,
Missouri. In 1871 he was married to Mary
Elizabeth Gover, of Stanford, Kentucky, and
in 1881 moved to Canon City, this state, where
lie engaged in the lumber business with his
brother, P. A. Rice. Two vears later the firm
of Rice Brothers moved to Grand Junction,
where W. A. took charge of and built up the
business, while P. A. manufactured lumber at
his mills on Pinion mesa. In 1896 William
withdrew from the lumber business and turned
his attention to horticulture and stock raising.
He was a man of sterling character and public
spirit, ever ready to aid in every enterprise
looking to the moral and material improvement
of the community in which he lived. He was
throughout life a consistent and serviceable
member of the Cumberland Presbyterian
church and for many years prior to his death
was a valued officer thereof. He also belonged
to the Masonic order and the Odd Fellows, in
the latter standing especially high. A Pro-
hibitionist in politics, he was recognized as the
leader of that party in western Colorado, being
its candidate for congress in 1894. Ever
working for the elevation of his fellow man, it
is doubtful if his influence for the promotion
of everv element of the general welfare of his
section has ever been surpassed by that of any
resident of the western part of the state.
HIRAM VALENTINE WARE.
Acquiring his first knowledge of Colorado
in 1864, after making- a trip to the territory
overland with ox teams from Omaha, in which
the progress of the train of one hundred
wagons to which he was attached was stub-
bornly resisted by the Indians, and helping to
fight a way through them, and then finding the
conditions of life so entirely to his taste here
that wherever he has been since he has longed
for them again, Hiram A". Ware, of near New-
castle, Garfield county, returned to the state in
1881 and has since made it his permanent
In. me. He is a Virginian by birth and rearing,
having been born in Randolph county of the
Old Dominion on \ugust 17. 1838. His par-
ents. William and Matilda (Ware) Ware, were
PROGRESS! I '£ MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
59
also Virginians, as their forefathers had been
for many generations before them. The father
was a planter there, a prominent man in local
affairs, a Democrat in politics and a Free-
mason in fraternal life. Both parents were
members of the Methodist church, dying many
years ago in full sympathy with the organiza-
tion. Five children were born to them, of
whom only Hiram and his brother William, of
their native county, are living. Mr. Ware was
educated at subscription schools to a limited ex-
tent, receiving the bulk of his education
through travel, reading and observation. At
the age of fourteen he set out in life for him-
self and made his own living in various occu-
pations until he reached the age of twenty. He
then learned the carpenter trade and afterward
worked at it for a period of about twenty-five
years. In 1876 he engaged in the grocery
trade in St. Louis, at the corner of Market and
Twenty-second streets, in partnership with F.
E. Bush. They continued in the business until,
1878, when Mr. Ware disposed of his interest
and again came to Colorado, locating at Lead-
ville in 188 1. Here he followed carpenter work
for a year, then moved to the Grand river and
located his present ranch, a pre-emption claim
of ninety-two acres, eighty-seven of which are
under cultivation, producing good crops of ex-
cellent hay and supporting his large herds of
cattle. He also has ten acres of the tract in
fruits and its products are large in quantity and
superior in quality. Grain and potatoes are
also grown in a small way. The water supply
is sufficient for ample irrigation, he being a
stockholder in the first ditch built from Elk
creek, two miles west of Newcastle. He is so
well pleased with Colorado that he says he
would not live in any other state. He takes a
cordial interest in the affairs of the state, in
politics being an unyielding Democrat. In 1857
he was married to Miss Jennie Westfall, a
native of Virginia, by whom he had four chil-
dren. Mary lives at Denver; Sophronia B. at
Sacramento, California, where Leonora (Mrs.
Taylor) and John H., the youngest son, also
live. Their mother died on December 27, 1865,
and on December 14, 1867, the father was mar-
ried to Miss Rebecca Jones, also a native of
Virginia. They had one child, Reuben E. His
mother died on December 28, 1873. Nearly
two years afterward, on September 13, 1875,
Mr. Ware married his third and present wife,
Miss Alice Markley, who was born in Carroll
county, Illinois, the daughter of Joseph and
Sarah ( Durfee) Markley, who were born in
Ohio. Of their marriage four children were
horn, all of whom are living: George W., at
Leadville; Josephine (Mrs. Frank Siefert), at
St. Louis; Irene (Mrs. Deprey), at St. Louis;
Mrs. Ware, of this state. Her father was a
successful farmer who died on June 18, 1902,
since which time her mother has made her home
with Mr. and Mrs. Ware. They have had six
children. Allie, Maud and Delia have died,
and Josephine (Mrs. Paul Greenwood), of
Newcastle, Garfield county, and Irene and Earl
are living. Mr. Ware is accounted one of the
most substantial and representative citizens of
the county, or even the whole Western slope.
He is enterprising and progressive, with a
breadth of view and energy in reference to im-
provements in his section that has been pro-
ductive of much good to its people, and a pleas-
ing and entertaining manner that wins him
general popularitv wherever he is known.
SYLVESTER WILMOTH.
Sylvester Wilmoth, of Garfield county, a
prosperous and successful ranchman who is set-
tled on a good ranch of eighty acres not far
from Newcastle, was born in Randolph county,
in that part of Virginia which is now West
Virginia, on July 23, 1851. His parents.
Arnold and Rachel (Triplett) Wilmoth. were
6o
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
also born and reared there and followed in the
wake of long lines of ancestors who were
prominent in the history of that part of the
Old Dominion. The father was a prosperous
farmer and tanner, a zealous Democrat in
politics, and an energetic man in matters in-
volving the improvement and development of
his county and state. He held a number of
local offices and was accounted one of the lead-
ing men of his vicinity. He died in June.
1892, leaving two children who are yet living.
Rebecca, wife of George A. Dick, of Elkins,
West Virginia, and her brother Sylvester. The
latter attended good schools in his boyhood
and youth and also pursued a course of study
at West Virginia College. He remained at
home until he was twenty-one vears old, then
began to make his own living by teaching
school in his native state and farming in connec-
tion therewith. After teaching fifteen terms
there, he sold his farming interests in 1885 and
moved to Nebraska, a year later changing his
residence to Kansas, where he remained three
years, teaching and working in each place. His
success was not flattering in Kansas, and so in
1889 he came to Colorado and located at Breck-
enridge. There he followed mining for wages
until he moved to his present location or
vicinity and took up a pre-emption claim and a
desert claim, two hundred and eighty acres in
all, which he improved with a ditch and some
buildings and then sold them at a good profit.
He next purchased the ranch of eighty acres
which he now owns and on which he lives.
He intends to build a ditch to tin's and seventv
acres will then be fit for cultivation. At pres-
ent he raises good crops of hay and all kinds
of vegetables from the ground that is produc-
tive anil fruit of excellent quality. The ranch
is two miles west of Newcastle, is a good farm-
ing region with markets within easy access.
Mr. Wilmoth is a member of the Masonic order
and in political activity supports the principles
and candidates of the Democratic party. In
September, i8/_>, he was married to Miss
Emma Chenoweth, a native of the same county
as himself and daughter of Hickman and Julia
C. (Meek) Chenoweth. also Randolph county
West Virginians. The father is deceased and
the mother is still living in Randolph county.
past ninety-two sears old. Two of their chil-
dren are living, Mrs. Wilmoth and George W".
Chenoweth. of Randolph count}'. West Vir-
ginia. Mr. and Mrs. Wilmoth have had four
children. Two died in infancy and Cora A.
( Mrs. James Heatberly). on Divide creek, and
Doyle R.. at home, are living.
HENRY CLAY CARTER.
Born and reared far away in the South-
land, and when the dread cloud of civil war
overspread the country following his convic-
tions through the terrible struggle, facing
death on many a hard-fought field and endur-
ing untold hardships and privations in camp
and on the march, Henry C. Carter, of Garfield
county, this state, one of the prosperous and
progressive ranch and cattle men in the neigh-
borhood of Newcastle, knows much of our
great country's history from actual experience
and observation under circumstances most
likely to make lasting impressions and heighten
the pleasures of peaceful enjoyment of its
boundless opportunities and the products of its
prolific soil. lie first saw the light of this
world in Chesterfield county. South Carolina,
on April 6, 1844, and is the son of Simon and
Margaret (Seals) Cartel', the former born in
South Carolina and the latter in North Caro-
lina. They passed their lives in the Carolinas,
where they were engaged 111 tanning, raising
corn and cotton, and enjoying a modest pros-
perity until the war came. The father was an
ardent devotee of the section in which he lived
and heartily supported the Democratic party in
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
61
politics. 'There were seven children born in
the household, of win mi three are living, Henry
C, of this sketch, Robert, a resident of South
Carolina, and Simon, living in the vicinity of
Newcastle. The deceased children are Alex-
ander, who died m 1X54. George, who was
wounded in the battle of Shiloh and died in
Duke's Hospital in Mississippi, and Gilbert and
Debbie. Henry was educated at the district
schools of his home neighborhood, remaining
with his parents until he reached the age of
twenty-one except during the period of the
Civil war. When that broke out he enlisted in
Company F, First Infantry of the .Confederate
army, and his service to the cause did not cease
until the last Mag of the Confederacy went down
in everlasting defeat. He was taken prisoner
at Smith's plantation in 1865 and paroled at
Heart's Island in New York state in June of
the same year. He then returned to northern
Alabama, and in the ensuing fall moved to
Arkansas. There he worked on farms for
wages three years, in 1868 going to Lawrence
county. Missouri, where lie remained until
1870. At that time he began to learn the
carpenter trade, which he followed at various
places for a number of years, working at it in
Erath county, Texas, a year, then at Fort Grif-
fin, where he was also a post trader and con-
tractor. In 1872 he was at Dallas for a time,
and in November, 1873, came to Colorado. In
1875 he helped to build the Malta Smelter
Company's plant at Leadville, and after wan-
dering about two years, working at his trade,
returned there in 1877. at which time there
were but three white women in the cam]). Re-
maining there until 1881, he took up ranch
work for Mr. Hayden, mined and prospected
and worked at his trade, there, in South Park
and elsewhere, until the winter of [883-4,
when he came to his present location in Gar-
field county. On June 12. 1884. he took up his
present ranch, a pre-emption claim of one hun-
dred and sixty acres, which was full of wild
sage brush at the time. He has improved tin.
place and brought a considerable portion of it
to advanced cultivation, fourteen acres being
set out in choice fruit which is considered the
best in the county, including apples, peaches,
pears, plums, grapes and small fruits. He al-
so raises good crops of hay and grain. The
ranch is three miles west of Newcastle and is
well supplied with water.
On November 26, [904, Mr. Carter was
united in marriage with Miss Dora Prickly, a
native of DeKalb county, Missouri, daughter
of Strawder and Fllen (Patton) Priddy, the
former a native of Ohio and the latter of Penn-
sylvania, who were married in Ohio and soon
after went to Missouri. In 1880 the family
moved to Pueblo. Colorado, where Mrs. Priddy
soon after died. The father was a soldier in the
Union army during the Civil war. serving in
an Ohio regiment.
JOHX F. HICKMAN.
This prosperous and progressive ranchman,
cattle-grower and fruit culturist of Garfield
count)", who was one of the earliest settlers in
the neighborhood of Rifle, locating there be-
fore the town was laid out or started, hails from
far-away Tennessee, where be was born, near
Strawberry Plains, in Jefferson county, on No-
vember 2^,. 1865. and where his parents. Fred-
erick and Elizabeth (Mount) Hickman, also
were born. They moved to Missouri in the
fall of 1870. when he was but five years old.
and located in Caldwell county, where they
passed the remainder of their days farming and
raising stock. The father was an ardent Re-
publican in political faith, and when armed re-
sistance threatened the integrity of the Union
he joined the Federal army and served three
years in the memorable contest under General
Rosecrans. The parents were Baptists in
62
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
church affiliation. The mother died on April
13, 1878, and the father on May 21, 190 1.
Their nine children are all living: William H.,
Owen P., James H., Martha S. (Mrs. Eli Mc-
Comas), John F., Samuel M. and Thomas, all
reside in the vicinity of Rifle, this state ; Sarah
(Mrs. James Sneed) lives in Oklahoma Ter-
ritory; and Mary (Mrs. Daniel McCullough)
is a resident of Ray county, Missouri. John
F. was educated to a limited extent in the pub-
lic schools, remaining with his parents until
he was seventeen years old. Then, after work-
ing one season in a flour-mill at Hardin, he
began farming on his own account, and he con-
tinued his operations in this line in Missouri
until 1887, when he came to Colorado and lo-
cated on Rifle creek. Here he entered the em-
ploy of the Grand River Ranch and Cattle Com-
pany, with which he remained six years, serving
as foreman during the last three. After leav-
ing the service of this company he engaged in
ranching for himself, having sold to his part-
ner, Dr. Edward Norris, of Rifle, his interest
in the first stock of drugs and groceries held in
that vicinity, after the partnership had lasted
three years. He purchased in partnership
with his brother Henry the ranch he now owns,
comprising one hundred and sixty acres, and
the partnership continued until it was har-
moniously dissolved in 1901, since when Mr.
Hickman has owned and operated the property
alone. His principal industry here for a num-
ber of years was raising cattle, which he car-
ried on extensively. The last few years he has
given more attention to fruit culture with ex-
cellent results. He has thirty-five acres in
trees of good bearing order, and their product
is the pride of the neighborhood and the top of
the market. He also raises hay, grain and
vegetables in profusion, and, in short, conducts
a genera] farming industry with success and
profit and is regarded as one of the leading
men in his line in this part of the state. In
fraternal life he was a charter member of the
Odd Fellows lodge and the camp of Modern
Woodmen in his locality, and is also a member
of the order of Good Templars. In political
allegiance he is a Republican. On April 3,
1889, he was united in marriage with Miss
Emma Stephenson, who was born in Ray
county, Missouri, and is the daughter of Carl
and Susan (Johnson) Stephenson, prosperous
farmers in that county for a number of years
and both now deceased, the father having died
on May 24, 1884. and the mother on August
27. 1889. Both were members of the Church
of God. They had four children, of whom
Caroline (Mrs. Owen Hickman), James S., of
Ray county, Missouri, and Emma I Mrs. John
Hickman ) are living. Three have been born to
the Hickman household, Ralph B., Earl F. and
Ruth. The parents are Methodists and are held
in the highest esteem throughout all the sur-
rounding country. They are well pleased with
Colorado, and proud to be numbered among
the state's progressive citizens.
ELI C. EOSHBAUGH.
Eli C. Loshbaugh came into being near
Dayton, Ohio, on September 15, 1854. but be-
fore he had knowledge of that rich and pros-
pen ins agricultural and manufacturing region,
his parents. John and Sarah (Hartman) Losh-
baugh moved, within the year of his birth, to
Texas, where they remained two years and a
half. They then changed to Iowa, and made
their home in that state nine years, after which
they took up their residence in Kansas, and
there they remained until death ended their
lain us. the father dying in 1869, and the
mother on July 14, 1894. He was a native of
Germany and she of Ohio. Both were mem-
bers of 1 he Dunkard church, and in political
t.uth he was a firm and loyal Republican. Of
their seven children three are living: Eli C,
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
63
the subject of this sketch; Laura, wife of Jacob
Richel, of Newcastle, Colorado, and Orley, a
resident of Indian Territory. Eli received a
limited common-school education and remained
at home assisting his parents on the farm until
he was twenty-four. He then began to work
independently for himself, hiring out on farms
in the vicinity of his home. In 1879 he came
to Colorado and located at Denver, where he
remained two years working on ranches. From
1 88 1 to 1886 he was at Durango and Telluride
prospecting and mining. In the year last
named he moved to Glenwood Springs and
from there to Camp Defiance, where he passed
the summer prospecting. In the autumn of
1887 he changed his base to Red Cliff and his
occupation to getting out railroad ties under
contract. From the fall of that year to the
spring of 1898 he rented land and occupied
himself in ranching. In April, 1898, he pur-
chased one hundred acres of the ranch which
he now owns, to which he has since added sixty
acres, and here he has from that time been
actively engaged in conducting a general ranch-
ing and stock industry. One hundred acres of
his land are under cultivation and produce good
crops of the character common to the region
and abundant supplies of fruit. He has an
orchard of twelve acres which is very prolific
and thrifty, and this he finds a source of con-
siderable revenue. The water supply for his
land is fair and its fertility is of a high order.
During the last twelve years he has carried on
a flourishing cattle industry with every, care to
the business needed to secure the best results.
In fraternal connection he is an interested Odd
Fellow, and in political faith an ardent Re-
publican, especially in national affairs. On Oc-
tober 21, 1889, he was married to Miss Laura
Leas, a native of Pennsylvania and daughter
of Joseph and Sarah (Shurr) Leas. She was
born on October 19, 1853, and died on March
27. 1 901. leaving three of their four children
to survive her, Silas L., Charles O. and Fan-
nie. The other child died in infancy. Her
father was an active Republican and for many
years served as a justice of the peace. He died
on August 29, 1891, having survived his wife,
who passed away on June 7, 1858, thirty-three
years of age, deeply lamented by all.
HANS S. HENRICKSON.
One of the foreign contributions to the in-
dustrial and agricultural forces of the United
States who is entitled to mention in any account
of the enterprising and progressive men of the
Western slope in Colorado is the subject of this
brief review. Hans S. Henrickson, of Garfield
county, residing and carrying on a profitable
business in the vicinity of Newcastle. He has
become thoroughly Americanized in his ideas
and methods, and is deeply loyal to the in-
terests and instructions of his adopted country
and in full sympathy with the welfare of its
people. Mr. Henrickson was born in Denmark
on June 27, i860, and is the son of Annie
Paline and Soren Henrickson, Danes by na-
tivity and dwellers in their native land from
infancy, as their forefathers had done from im-
memorial times. The father was a merchant
in his young and vigorous manhood, but be-
came a farmer when he retired from mercantile
life. They had six children, four of whom
survive the father, who died in 1898. ' They
are Martin, of Spokane, Washington, Hans S.,
of Colorado, and Frank and Metta, still living
in Denmark, where the mother also still resides.
The father was successful in business and es-
teemed throughout his community. He be-
longed to the Lutheran church, as his wife does.
Their son Hans educated himself in his father's
store mainly, attending the state schools only
for a short time. At the age of sixteen he
started out to make his own way in the world,
and in 1883 came to the United States, locat-
6 4
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
ing near Bloomington, Illinois, where he
worked on farms for wages until 1884. He
then came to Colorado, and after a short resi-
dence at Denver, moved to Fort Collins, where
lie again took up ranch work for a year. In
[885 he moved to Leadville and for a year
conducted a dairy there in the interest of the
Sherman Brothers. Portions of the next two
years were passed in useful industry in the
smelters, and in August, 1887, he settled in
the vicinity of Antlers, Garfield county, locat-
ing a pre-emption claim. After spending four
years improving his property and making it
productive, he sold it at a considerable ad-
vance on his investment. He then made a
visit to Denmark, but was so well pleased with
Colorado that he soon returned and purchased
eighty acres, a portion of which is included in
the home which lie now occupies. He has
bought additional land and sold some, and now
has seventy acres, of which lie can cultivate
sixty-five. His crops are principally hay, grain
and vegetables, but he also raises cattle and
horses. His land is well supplied with water
by its own right, and his tillage is vigorous and
skillful, so that there is no reason why it should
not prove to be of greater and greater value
and productiveness. While taking an interest
in the political affairs of this country, local and
general, he is independent of party control, and
in all respects is a good and useful citizen. As
such he is well esteemed, and both by his own
activity and the force of his example he is
recognized as an influence for good in the
section and county in which he lives.
WILLIAM .1. ARMSTRONG.
William J. Armstrong, one of the prosper-
ous and progressive ranchmen of Mesa county,
living on a well improved and highly pro-
ductive ranch two miles northeast of Grand
Junction, is a native of Ontario, Canada, born
on December 28, 1855, and reared and edu-
cated in Jackson, Michigan. In 1880 he came
to Colorado, and for a number of years worked
at mining and on ranches. In the spring of
1 90 1 he moved to Mesa county and soon after-
ward settled on the ranch he now occupies.
being married on Christmas clay. 1902, to Mrs.
Amanda (Bowers) Wellington, the widow of
John A. Wellington, who owned the place.
Mr. Wellington was a native of Massachusetts
who came to Colorado in 1882 among the
early settlers of the western part of the state,
and took up one hundred and sixty acres of
land in Mesa county not far from Grand Junc-
tion, which he afterward sold. In 1894 he lo-
cated on a tract of wild land and by industry
and skill transformed it into a good home and
a productive farm, it being the one on which
the Armstrongs now live. The land is above
the level of the irrigating ditch and Mr. Wel-
lington put in a private plant in the form of a
huge water wheel to lift the water forty feet
which furnishes enough to irrigate his land
and that of two or three neighbors. He also
owned town property and other ranches. In
March. 1 902, he died on this land, and after
that his widow carried on the ranch until her
marriage with Mr. Armstrong. She is a na-
tive of Toledo. Ohio, and the daughter of
Elea'zer and Polly (Woodbury) Powers, the
former a native of New York and the latter of
Vermont. They were married at Ravenna,
Ohio, and died in Lenawee county, Michigan.
the mother in 1S77 and the father in 1882.
They moved there when Mrs. Armstrong was
two years old. and there she was reared and
educated. There also she was married to
James N. McKay, by whom she had four chil-
dren, John R.. James H. and a pair of twins,
now all deceased. In 1892 James H. came to
Mesa county, this state, where he died the
next year, leaving a widow and three daugh-
ters, the oldest of the latter. Amanda, who is
THK WKLLINCTuN RANCH.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
now fourteen year- old, living with Mrs. Arm-
strong. Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong arc prosper-
ous in business, active in social life and the
general affairs of the community, and are
highly esteemed on all sides as leading and
representative citizens.
JOHN M. SPRINGER.
The cattle industry when viewed in all its
ramifications and immensity, is one of the
modern wonders of the world. It employs the
brain and brawn of thousands of men. women
and children, many of them among the fore-
most business minds of the age. In the num-
ber of those who aid its conduct and develop-
ment in an individual way John M. Springer,
of near Newcastle, Garfield county, is entitled to
honorable mention as one who conducts his
share of the gigantic enterprise in a manner and
with a capacity that give him success and pros-
perity for himself and enlarge the usefulness
of the industry in his section in a potential
magnitude. He was born in Muskingum
county, Ohio, on May 30, 1840. and is the
son of John and Mary (Strait) Springer, na-
tives of New York state, who settled early in
Ohio and afterward removed to Iowa, where
they prospered as farmers and raised some
stock too. in a small way. The father was a
sterling Democrat in political faith and gave
his party good service on all occasions, and he
and his wife were members of the Baptist
church. They had a family of seven children,
but three of whom are living. John M., Phil-
ander, a resident of Ottumwa. Iowa, and Lucy
(Mrs. Louis Montgomery), of Jennings, Kan-
sas. Mr. Springer enjoyed only the limited
educational advantages which are the lot of
country boys who have no resource in this re-
spect but the public schools, and he bad also
their usual experience of hard work on the
farm. He remained with his parents and
worked in their interest until he was twentv-
one years of age. He then engaged in inde-
pendent farm work in Iowa until 1868, when
he moved to Nebraska City, where he passed
two years teaming on the streets. In 1870 he
came to Colorado and located at Mt. Vernon,
fourteen miles west of Denver. Here he
bought a timber claim, on which he labored one
year in the way of improvement, then moved
on to Gunnison county, where he engaged in
various occupations, among them selling goods
and freighting. He next settled in the vicinity
of Newcastle, taking up a squatter's right on
Divide creek, where after the survey was made
he proved Up on as a pre-emption claim. He
made all required improvements and started a
cattle industry and did general ranching. In
Kio_> he disposed of this ranch to Al. Robinson
and then purchased the ranch on which he
now lives. This comprises twenty-three acres
and is devoted chiefly to raising cattle, although
some general farm products are also raised.
such as hay, grain, vegetables and small fruits.
The ranch is two miles and a half west of New-
castle and is well watered so far as necessity
requires. Air. Springer is an unwavering
Democrat, and always aids materially in the
campaigns of his party. On November 1, 1867,
he was united in marriage with Miss Roasmond
A. Smith, a sister of William L. Smith, a
sketch of whom appears on another page of
this work. She was born in Campbell county,
Kentucky, on October 15. 1847. They have
one child, Jennie, now the wife of Al. Robin-
son, of South Canyon. Garfield county. Mr.
Springer is a loyal citizen of this state, devoted
to its interests, strong in his faith in its future.
and well satisfied with its present conditions
for residence and business. And as it has
been a child of his earnest solicitude, so it has
not only rewarded his labor with substantial
success, hut has enshrined him in the regard
and good will of its people as one of his county's
most useful ami representative citizens.-
66
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
JOSEPH LUXEN.
A self made man in the true sense of the
term, since he began the battle of life in his
own interest at the age of ten years and has
since continued it with success and increasing
prosperity through the unaided force of his
own capacity and resourcefulness, meeting
every emergency with a spirit of undoubting
courage and self-reliance, Joseph Luxen, of
Rifle, Garfield county, this state, is entitled to
the position of substance and consequence he
occupies among the people around him, and the
satisfaction he must enjoy as the architect of
his own fortune. And knowing, too, the stings
of adversity, he has won the grateful thanks
of scores of men in temporary need he has
helped over difficulties and to either a first or
a new start in life. He first saw the light of
this world on July 6, 1853, in Newton county,
Missouri, and is the son of Richard and Lu-
anda ( Roberts) Luxen, the former a native of
Ireland and the latter of Alabama. On his
arrival in this country the father located in
Alabama and some little time after his mar-
riage moved his family to Springfield, Mis-
souri, where he was prosperously engaged in
tailoring until his death in the spring of i860.
Four children were born in the family, and of
these Joseph is the only survivor, Alfred, Wil-
liam and Mary having died some years ago, the
last named being at the time of her decease the
wife of Joseph Lively, of Philipsburg,
Montana. The mother lived thirty-four years
after the death of her husband, dying in 1894.
Both were Methodists and the father belonged
to the Masonic order. He was an ardent Re-
publican in politics. Joseph attended the public
schools for brief periods in his boyhood and
when he was ten years old began to earn his
own living by working as a messenger boy in
the United States quartermaster's department
at Springfield in his native state. He did
service there in that capacity three years, then
began mining lead at Granby, m the south-
western part of the state. He received one dol-
lar and a half a day for his work and continued
at it until 1869, when he moved to Indian Ter-
ritory and passed two years there as a range
rider. In the spring of 1871 he transferred his
energies to Texas, where he followed the same
occupation near the town of Fort Worth. In
the fall of 1872 he returned to his Missouri
home and after a visit of some months there,
came to Colorado, locating at Georgetown.
There he followed mining in the mines on
Democrat mountain until the summer of 1874.
He then entered the service of the United
States government moving troops and hauling
supplies from Camp Colonel near Forts Lari-
mer, Fetterman and Kinney, and also to
Meeker after the Indian massacre in 1879. He
remained in the service of the government until
1881, then moved to Utah where he passed
three years in retail merchandising. In 1884
he took up his residence in Rio Blanco county,
this state, and engaged in raising cattle. Meeker
being his nearest town. This industry oc-
cupied his attention until 1898. when he sold
his stock and moved to Rifle. For a year and
a half he conducted a hotel there, the hostelrv
now known as Clark's hotel, in which he made
many improvements and carried on a thriving
business, although at that time the town was
small and rural in comparison with his present
condition. Tn the spring of 1900 he bought a
ranch of two hundred acres seven miles from
Rifle, making the purchase of J. J. Clausen.
This he has since doubled in extent, and now
has three hundred acres of his tract under
cultivation. He raises large crops of hay,
grain, vegetables and fruit, and conducts a
cattle industry of large proportions. Mr.
Luxen has been very successful in his business,
and i^ esteemed throughout his community as
one of its best business men and most repre-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
>>7
sentative citizens. He belongs to the Order of
Elks and the United Workmen, and in politics
gives a firm and loyal support to the Demo-
cratic party. With the public life of the county
he has been prominently connected for years,
and while living in the adjoining county of
Rio Blanco served three years as a member of
the school board. His ranch is one of the best
and most skillfully cultivated in the county.
He is a man of extensive knowledge of men
and countries, having traveled much and with
observing faculties so that he acquired a good
command of several languages. He is a typical
range rider of the West, full of courage, gen-
erous to a fault, with an abiding faith in his
fellow men and breadth of view as to the pos-
sibilities of his section. On October 8, 1882,
he united in marriage with Miss Belle Hall,
who was born at Aetna in Coles county, Illinois,
and is the daughter of William and Marie
( Tuel) Hall, natives of Indiana who moved to
Illinois, and later to Missouri, where they died,
the mother in 1869 an d the father in 1883.
He was a prominent and successful contractor
and builder, and also a manufacturer of
wagons, a leading Republican politician, and
for years mayor of Granby, Missouri. Fra-
ternally he was connected with the Masons and
the Odd Fellows. Two of their children are
living, Mrs. Luxen and Mrs. John Shepherd,
of Seneca, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Luxen
have one child, Richard.
A. S. BAXTER.
A. S. Baxter. 1 if Garfield county, pleas-
antly located on a good ranch in the neighbor-
hood of Glenwood Springs, although born on
a day of the month fateful in our history and
pregnant with the genesis of bloody strife and
battle oyer political questions on two occasions,
has been a man of peace and productive useful-
ness and is now enjoying the fruits of his labors
in even greater peace than that in which he won
them. His life began on April 19, 1861, in
Clay county, Missouri, and he is the son of
James and Kate (Hickman) Baxter, natives
of Kentucky who located in Missouri in the
early days of its history. The father was a
farmer, especially during the later years of his
life. He was an ardent Democrat in politics
and a great lover of law and order; and he
was therefore called upon to serve the people
of his county for many years as deputy sheriff
and sheriff. He died in 1884, and the mother
is living at Glenwood Springs. Eight of their
ten children are living : William, at Newcastle :
George, on Piccance creek, Rio Blanco county ;
Ella, wife of James Siebert; A. S., of this
sketch: Fannie, wife of William Lunning, of
Red Bluff, California; Sallie, wife of G. W.
Talkenbaugh, of near Rifle; Wallace, at Rifle;
and Kate, at Glenwood Springs. Mr. Baxter
received a very limited common-school edu-
cation, at the age of ten beginning to aid his
parents on the farm, and at seventeen starting
out for himself. In 1S77 lle went to California
with his mother, and after remaining in that
state six years came to Colorado in 1883. He
took up a squatter's right on Canyon creek, and
after the government survey was made he pre-
empted it. The claim comprised one hundred
and sixty acres, and after making some im-
provements on the property he sold it For a
good price in 1900, at which time he bought
a part of the ranch which is now his home.
This also comprised one hundred and sixtv
acres and is located near Glenwood Springs.
He has added five hundred and twenty acres on
Canyon creek to his original purchase, and of
the whole tract which he now owns he can
cultivate three hundred acres, which yield hay.
grain and vegetables of excellent quality in
abundance, and a desirable quantity of small
fruits. His water right is the second on the
creek and is ample for his purposes. In ad-
68
PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OE WESTERN COLORADO.
dition i" ranching- Mr. Baxter has. during the
last eighteen years, acted as a guide throughout
several of the western states, and has won a
high rank and wide reputation as a leader oi
hunting parties, Ins outfit tor the work being
one <>t the best. It comprises eighty-rive pack
animals and twenty-one hounds. He is a
Woodman of the World in fraternal circles
and an ardent and active Democrat in political
affair-. < )n June 27, [886, he was married to
Miss .Mary Harbin, a native of California and
daughter of Alfred and Addline (Peevey)
Harbin, who were born in Kentucky. Mr.
and Mrs. Baxter have one child. Thomas A.
Baxter, who is Irving at home.
I. W. CI I vTFIELD.
Horn in Geauga county. < >hio, in the region
which slopes away peacefully to Lake Erie,
reared on a farm in Illinois, taking a turn in
the commission business when be was but nine-
teen, burned, out by a disastrous tire when be
was conducting a prosperous hotel enterprise,
living 111 the midst of alarms at the time of
the border war in Kansas, traveling back and
forth overland across the plains, buying and
selling ranches in Colorado, frequently whirled
about in the maelstrom of politics, 1. W. Chat-
field, of Garfield county, this state, whose home
is at Ritle. has bad an eventful and interesting
career. I lis life began on August 11. [836,
and be is the son of Levi T. and Levina I Mas-
ters) Cbattield. Xew Englanders by nativity,
the father born in Connecticut and the mother
in Vermont. The father was a. farmer and
followed bis vocation for a number of years in
Ohio. Then in 18+4 he moved to Mason
county, Illinois, but after a short: residence in
thai -tate returned to Ohio, where be remained
until bis death in [848. The mother soon
afterward made Illinois once more the borne of
the family, and there she taught school at the
town of Bath. Site died in 1858. Both par-
ents were Episcopalians and in politics the
father was a Whig. Of their six children only
three are living, I. W.. Clark S.. at Basalt, and
Airs. Ellen S. Batchelor, at Denver. Mr. Chat-
field is one of the pioneers of this state, having
passed much Of his residence in it on the
Frontier; and he is also one of its best repre-
sentative men and most useful citizens. He
had very little schooling, and while a boy began
to work on the farm for a compensation of
six dollar- and a half a month and his board.
In this way he was employed until he reached
Ins nineteenth year. He then became .is
sc mated with Gatten and Ruggles in the com-
mission business at Bath. Illinois, and he re-
mained with them four years, during which
time he was rapidly promoted 111 their business.
At the end of the period named he took charge
of a hotel 111 partnership with his mother, and
prospered in the undertaking until they were
burned out. After that Messrs.* ratten and Rug-
gles backed him financially for another venture
in the hotel business, and this he conducted
until the excitement over the discovery of gold
at Pike's Peak induced him to sell at a good
profit and start for the new eldorado with three
yoke of oxen and a stock of provisions. The
tram was two months on the way to Denver,
and after arriving Mr. Cbattield remained only
a short lime, then returned east to Kansas. He
located at Fort Scott and settled on a squat-
ter's claim, but the border troubles breaking
out soon afterward, be with his wife and his
brother Charles journeyed overland to bis for-
mer home m Illinois. There he was variously
employed until the beginning of the (nil war.
when he enlisted in the Union army in the
Twenty-seventh Illinois Infantry. During Ins
service be was promoted to the rank of ser-
geant, and as such fought in the battle of Island
No. [O, and also that of Stone River. There
he was taken ill and sent to the hospital. Later
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF HESTERX COLORADO.
69
he was made lieutenant at the battle of Farm-
ington on May 9. 1862. After leaving the
army in 1863 he went to St. Louis where he
fitted out with ox and horse teams and again
came to Colorado, consuming eight weeks on
the trip and having with him his wife and his
sister, now Airs. Batcheler. of Denver, and R.
M. Wright, now a resident of Fort Dodge,
Kansas. They located where the town of Flor-
ence has since been built, Mr. Chatfield patent-
ing the land on which it stands, which was then
covered with wild sage brush. He farmed in
this neighborhood until 1871. on a ranch of
one hundred and sixty acres which he bought
of William Ash. adding to the purchase until
he owned two hundred and eighty acres. When
he disposed of this property he moved to Bear
creek and bought out J. B. Hendy, who now
lives in Denver, and whose ranch comprised one
hundred and sixty acres. This he traded for
the Daniel Wetter ranch on the Platte river, on
which he remained until 1879. He then sold
it to Frank Caley and moved to Leadville,
where he engaged in merchandising and rail-
road contract work, remaining there until 1SS4.
In that year he again sold out and moved to
Aspen. Here he once more began merchandis-
ing and continued until [888. At that time he
bought a ranch of one hundred and sixty acres
at Emma of Good & Childs, and this he con-
tinued to work until 1896. when he sold it at
a profit. While living at this point he intro-
duced the growing of potatoes in the section,
a movement that has added greatly to the value
of the land there. On selling his interests at
Emma he moved his cattle to Rio Blanco
count}', where he has since kept them and car-
ried on the stock industry on a large scale,
although maintaining his home at Rifle. He
belongs to the Masonic order and the Grand
Army of the Republic. In politics he is a Re-
publican and has served as alderman at Lead-
ville and as state senator of his county, occupy-
ing the latter position in the years r88o, 1881
and 1882. In 1892 he was elected to the lower
house of the legislature for the counties of
Pitkin, Montrose, Delta, Mesa and Gunnison.
On May 20. [858, be was married to Miss
Eliza A. Herrington. a native of Iowa who
was reared in Texas and Missouri. She is the
daughter of Sylvinus and Jane (Anderson)
Herrington, natives of Ohio, who moved to
Iowa, then to Illinois and finally to Texas, and
were successful farmers. The father was a
Whig in political affiliation and both were Pres-
byterians. But three of their nine children are
living. Clara. Riley and Mrs. Chatfield. The
mother died in 1846 and the father is also dead.
Mr. and Mrs. Chatfield have had nine children.
Willard, Wirt. Grace and Myrtle have died.
The five living are: Mrs. Josiah A. Small, at
Pueblo; Elmer E., in Bighorn Basin. Wyo-
ming; Jacquelina A. at Canon City; and
Charles A. and Calla, at Ririe. Mr. Chatfield
has in his possession a cherished memento
a roll of honor presented to him by Colonel
Sheridan, on which his name occupies a con-
spicuous place.
FRANK D. SQUIRE.
Born and partially reared on an Illinois
farm, educated in the public schools, migrat-
ing to this state a number of years ago and
here engaging in a number of different pur-
suits, ranching, freighting, raising stock, and
doing other useful and profitable things. Frank
D. Squire, an esteemed citizen of Garfield
county, living in the neighborhood of Rifle,
has had much variety in his career and has
seen human life under many different circum-
stances. His life began at Rockford, Win-
nebago county, Illinois, on November 25, [858,
and he is the son of Reuben and Mary E.
(Simpson) Squire, natives of the state of
New York, the father horn in Livinsrston
JO
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
county and the mother at Norfolk, in St.
Lawrence county. Soon after their marriage
they located in Illinois, then in 1863 moved to
Iowa and in 1865 to Colorado, locating in El
Paso county. Previous to coming to this state
they were farmers, but here the father turned
his attention to lumbering and met with fair
success. He was a man of influence in his sec-
tion and heartily supported the Republican
part} - in political matters. He and his wife
belonged to the Congregational church. They
were the parents of eight children, one of
whom died in infancy. The other seven sur-
vive the father, who died on January 31, 1875.
They are: Eva. wife of Jonathan Goodrich, of
Rifle; Frank D., of Garfield county; Elmer E..
of Telluride; Charles G, of Grand Junction;
Laura, wife of Smith Harper, of River Bend;
Reuben M., of Pueblo; and Walter S., of
( '.rand Mesa, all residents of Colorado. Frank
remained with his parents until he was fifteen,
working on the farm and in the lumber busi-
ness, and attending the public schools when
he could. When he reached the age mentioned
he began hustling for himself, freighting until
the fall of 1887. Until 1879 lie was in El
Paso county with headquarters at Buena Vista,
then went to Jefferson county and later to
\.spen, carrying on the same business, and at
the last named place also staging. From [886
until 1887 he had charge of the toll road. On
November 16, 1886. he bought twenty-five
acres of the ranch he now owns and he has
since added one hundred and sixty acres by
purchase. Of the whole tract he can cultivate
one hundred and twenty acres, and he raises
good crops of hay, grain, vegetables and fruit,
but cattle form his chief production and his
main reliance. He belongs to the Odd Fel-
lows and the Woodmen of the World, and in
politics gives an ardent and effective support
to the Republican party. On April it, 1886.
be was married to Miss Anna Russell, who
was born in Illinois and is the daughter of Asel
and Ellen Russell, natives, respectively, of Ohio
and Connecticut. They moved from Illinois to
Colorado in 1872, and here the father became
a merchant instead of farming as he had done
before. He was the founder of Rocky Ford
and prospered there in mercantile business, at-
taining prominence in local affairs as a zeal-
ous working Republican, and also as a superior
business man and good citizen. For a num-
ber of years he served as county judge in Bent
county. He was also prominent in the Masonic
order. They had six children, one of whom,
then Mrs. M. Williford, died. The other five
survive their father, who died on July 6, 1903.
They are: Josie, wife of Joseph Brant, of Den-
ver; Augusta R., wife of Glen Reynolds, of
Texas; Anna, wife of Mr. Squire: Warren,
living in California: and Piatt, a resident of
Denver. Their mother died on April to. [892.
IRVING M. KELLOGG.
Born to a destiny of privation and toil, and
ever without the aid of adventitious circum-
stances and fortune's favors, Irving M. Kellogg
has triumphed over all difficulties by his own
industry, thrift and native force of character.
He was born on February 17, 1855, in Lorain
county. Ohio, and is the son of Clement A.
and Susan ( Reynolds 1 Kellogg, who were
both born and reared in Ohio. The father was
an inventor and made good profits out of his
genius from time to time, lie was an earnest
and loyal Democrat in political affiliation, and
stood high in the community of his home.
The}' had a family of five children, but three
of whom are living. They are Estella. wife
of Mr. Leslie, of Elgin. Ohio; Irving M., at
Rifle; and Boyd, of East Carmel, Ohio, The
father is deceased and the mother now lives in
1 Ihio. Irving is. so t'ai" as scholastic education
is concerned, a product of the public schools.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
7*
but he also received a good business education
at Oberlin, in his native state. At the age of
fourteen he braved the world and all its trials
in an effort to make his own living, and from
then on has provided for himself. He started
as a cash boy in the employ of R. A. D. Forrest,
of Cleveland, with whom he remained six
years, rising by merit in this period to the post
of chief clerk in the establishment. In 1875
and 1876 he was engaged in the retail meat
and grocery trade on his own account. He
then became a traveling salesman of patent
rights and followed this line for a time. From
1877 to 1880 he lived at Columbus Grove.
Ohio, then in the latter year moved to what is
now South Dakota, where he farmed with in-
different success until 1886. In that year he
came to Colorado and settled at Leadville
where he worked in the freight department of
the railroad company until 1896, when he took
charge of the road house between Rifle and
Meeker, and in connection with that conducted
a ranch, continuing until 1902, at which time
he sold the ranch and his cattle at a good price
and went back to Ohio on a visit. Being well
pleased with Colorado, he returned and bought
a ranch comprising two hundred and forty
acres on Piceance creek, which he held until
1903. then sold it and moved to the one he
now owns and works. This comprises sixty-
three acres, of which he can cultivate forty-
five in hay. grain, vegetables and fruit of all
kinds, the hay, grain and a dairy business being
his principal dependence. Although actively
interested in public affairs and the growth and
improvement of his neighborhood, Mr. Kel-
logg is independent in politics. On September
T2. 1876. he was united in marriage with Miss
Lillian Arnold, a native of Rhode Island who
was reared at Cleveland. Ohio. She is the
daughter of Peleg R. and Betsey (Carpenter)
Arnold, who were born and reared in Rhode
Island and who moved to Ohio in l8=;6, re-
maining in that state until 1879, when they
came to Colorado and located at Leadville. In
1 No] they changed their residence to Kokomo,
where the father still resides, the mother hav-
ing died on December 16, 1899. The parents
were members of the Baptist church, and the
father has long been a wholesale and retail
meat merchant. All of their six children are
living: Frederick, at Leadville; Luella (Mrs.
Henry Damon), at Winnebago. Minnesota;
Mrs. Kellogg, in Garfield county; Mary 1 Mrs.
Frank Wood), at Morgantown, West Vir-
ginia; Franklin, at Salt Lake City; and Wil-
liam, at Englewood, Illinois.
Wl 1. 1.1AM HUMPHREY HICKMAX.
The prosperous and enterprising ranchman
whose name heads this sketch is a brother of
John Hickman, a sketch of whom will be found
on another page of this work, and a son of
Frederick and Elizabeth (Mount) Hickman.
He was born near Strawberry Plains, in east-
ern Tennessee, on March 31, 1853, and was
reared on a farm, attending the district schools
when he could, and there receiving a limited
education. He remained with his parents and
worked on the farm in their interest until he
was twenty-four. Living then in Missouri, he
at that time began farming in that state for
himself, and he continued his independent
operations there ten years. In 1870 he moved
to Ohio, where he attended the Preparatory
< )rder schools at Findlay for three years, then
entered the ministry, in which he remained
eleven years, working in Iowa and Illinois.
Owing to the failure of his wife's health he
was obliged to give up the ministry and come
to Colorado. After a residence of one year in
this state they returned to Illinois, but came
back to Colorado in 1901 and then he bought
the ranch on which he now lives in the vicinity
of Rifle. Garfield county. It comprises forty
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
acres, thirty-five of which are under cultivation
in the ordinary crops of the neighborhood, but
he makes a specialty of potatoes, and has the
reputation of raising the best quality and
largest yield per acre of this popular vegetable
in the count}'. One unusual yield in recent
years was one hundred and eighty-five sack-.
averaging in weight one hundred and thirteen
pounds each, from seven-eighths of an acre of
measured ground. He also has one thousand
three hundred fruit trees, apples and peaches,
all in good bearing order, the products of
which bring in a handsome revenue. Mr.
Hickman is a third-degree Freemason, an Odd
Fellow, one of the Sons of Veterans, and a
Knight of the Maccabees. In political faith
he is a zealous Republican. He was married
on March 20. 1879. to Miss Martha A. Myers,
who was born on February 3. 1861, and is the
daughter of William and Martha (Foster)
Myer-. natives of Tennessee who moved to
Missouri when young and there passed the
remainder of their lives farming and raising
stuck. Her father was a stanch Republican.
and they had a family of six children, four of
whom are living: Louisa, wife of D. Blevins,
of Caldwell county, Missouri; Mary, wife of
Marion F. Nickel, of Oklahoma; Martha A..
wife Hi" Mr. Hickman; and Rosa, wife of Sam-
uel Stephenson, of Ray county. Missouri The
father died in 1875 and the mother in [886.
( tin- child has been born to the Hickman house-
hold, a son named Charles \Y.
THOMAS KILDUFF.
A bachelor, yet earnestly interested in the
welfare of his county and state, and always
willing to contribute his share of effort and
material aid to their advancement. Thomas
Kilduff, of near Meeker, Rio Blanco county,
Colorado, has keen a potential force in the
progress and development of the common-
wealth and enjoys in a marked degree the re-
spect and confidence of its people among whom
he is known. He has been a resident of the
state nearly thirty years, and. during the whole
of that time has been employed in adding to its
commercial and industrial wealth and promot-
ing the comfort and welfare of its citizens. 1 le
was horn in Bradford county. Pennsylvania, on
December 1, 1855. and remained with his par-
ents until he reached the age of eighteen, hav-
ing the usual experience of country hoys in his
locality, slender school opportunities at the
district schools and plenty of hard work on the
farm. In 1875, at the age of twenty, he came
to Colorado, and locating at Alma, formed a
partnership with his brother in conducting a
hotel at that place. This lasted until July. 1877.
and was a profitable enterprise. At the time
mentioned the partnership was dissolved and
he moved to Fairplay and again engaged in
the hotel business, hut sold out at a profit at
the end of a year. He then moved to Kokomo,
where he devoted a year and a half to retail
merchandising with good success. In the sum-
mer of 1880 he transferred his business to
Leadville, and there he conducted it for another
period of a year and a half on a profitable basis.
In [882 he changed his base of operations to
Aspen, hut carried on the same business, con-
tinuing it at that point until 18S5. Tiring then
of mercantile life, he took up a pre-emption
claim in the vicinity of Meeker, and he still
owns and operates the ranch of one hundred
and sixty acres which it included. He has
since, however, become a partner of the Baer
Brothers, and works with them as manager of
the properties belonging to the firm, which
comprise three thousand five hundred acres, of
which two thousand can be cultivated. Cattle
are raised by this firm on a scale of great mag-
nitude and enormous crops of hay and grain
arc produced. In [903 the yield of hay was
one thousand eight hundred tons from five hun-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OP WESTERN COLORADO.
73
dred acres of land. The properties have good
water supplies, the soil is fertile and productive
and the tillage is first class in every particular.
Under the management of Mr. Kilduff the re-
sults have increased in magnitude and im-
proved in quality, and the enterprise of the
firm is now one of the most imposing and
profitable on the Western slope of the state.
Mr. Kilduff is an earnest working Odd Fel-
low, and in politics a faithful supporter of the
principles and candidates of the Democratic
party, not now and then, but every da}- in the
year and by every proper means. He is con-
sidered a typical and representative stock man
of Rio Blanco county, and has the universal
respect and good will of all classes of its citi-
zens. His parents were Patrick and Ella
(Laughlin) Kilduff, natives of Ireland who
emigrated to America and settled in Pennsyl-
vania, where they passed the remainder of their
lives, the father dying in 1867. on February
[6th, and the mother in [892, on February
[2th. Five of their seven children survive
them: Susan, wife of Eugene Crawley, of
Bradford, Pennsylvania; Mary, wife of Fred
Schultz, of Buffalo; Edward, living at Alma,
this state; Thomas, and Ella, wife of William
Sill, of Bradford county, Pennsylvania.
GEORGE A. CLARK.
George A. Clark, the leading hotel keeper
of Rifle, where he owns and conducts a house
that pleases the commercial tourists anil the
general public in its appointments and the
manner in which its accommodations are
served, is a native of Hartford county. Con-
necticut, where he was horn on October 11.
1844. Flis education was secured by a limited
attendance at the public schools and a term
or two at Lewis Academy. At the age of four-
teen he went to work in a shoe store, and from
that time until 1865 he was so occupied in his
native state and Wisconsin, during a portion
of the time being also a clerk- in a mercantile
lio U sc. In 1865 he moved to Marquette, on
the shore of Lake Superior, where he was
variously employed until 1871, when he re-
turned to his Connecticut home, and after re-
maining there for a number of months came
to Colorado in 1872. He made a short stay at
Denver, then moved to Fairplay where he and
A. B. Crook started a mercantile business
which they conducted until [876, meeting with
good success. In the year last named Mr.
Clark opened the first hotel with hot springs
bathhouse attached that was ever conducted in
this part of the country. In the spring of 1S7S
he changed his residence to Leadville and soon
afterward to Malta. Here he engaged in mer-
chandising and the livery business, and in con-
nection therewith conducted the postofiice ami
for nine years served as justice of the peace.
In 1887 he sold out his interests at Malta and
moved to the Rirle valley, where he purchased
the improvements on the one hundred and sixty
acres of land which he still owns. When he
settled here the country was also wholly un-
developed, there being few roads and no
bridges, the settlers being obliged to ford the
river when they wished to cross. Of his ranch
one hundred acres are tillable and produce
abundant crops of hay. grain, vegetables and
fruit, hay and cattle, however, being the chief
resources of revenue thereon. Since 1895 Mr.
Clark has been a hotel keeper and the most
prominent and successful one in the town or
Rifle, showing in his business a skill in man-
agement and a suavity of manner that make
him and his house universally popular. In
political faith he is an unwavering Republican,
and in fraternal life belongs to the Elks and
the Eagles. He is the son of George and Hen-
rietta X. (Cowles) Clark, the former of Scotch
and the latter of English descent. The father
was a blacksmith and machinist and also a
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
farmer. He supported the Republican party
with ardor and pushed his business with vigor
and successful enterprise. He died in 1880,
having- for a year outlived his wife, who passed
away in 1879. They had a family of ten
children, four of whom are living, Josephine, at
Denver, Mrs. A. B. Clark, at Fairplay, George
A., at Rifle, all in Colorado, and Edward A., at
St. Louis, Missouri. Of the other six four
died in infancy and Frederick A. and John in
later life. George was married on April 29,
1874, to Miss Minnie Norman, a native of
Chillicothe. Missouri. Mr. Clark is highly
esteemed as a man of liberality, public-spirit
and enterprise who has been a potent factor in
promoting the growth and development of his
county and community, and as a genial and
companionable citizen.
JEXS J. CLAUSEN.
Jens J. Clausen, a progressive and suc-
cessful stock and ranch man of Garfield county,
who is now living in the city of Rifle, and who
through hard knocks and diligent toil well ap-
plied has risen to consequence and won a sub-
stantial estate, is a native of Slesvig, Denmark,
now a part of Germany. He was born on
August 20, 1843, where his parents, Jens and
Marelane (Raven)- Clausen, were also born
and reared, and where after long and useful
lives, they were laid to rest in their natal soil,
the mother dying in 1848 and the father in
1887. The father followed various occupa-
tions and both were devoted members of the
Lutheran church. Two children were born to
them, a daughter Christina, who died in early
life, and their son Jens, the subject of this re-
view, who is now the only survivor of the
family. He received a common-school educa-
tion and at the age of twelve became the builder
■ if his own fortune^, beginning to earn his liv-
ing by working on farms in the vicinity of
his home, and doing whatever else his hand
found to do, and doing all faithfully and with
close attention to every demand of duty. In
1 882 he emigrated to the United States, arriv-
ing in Colorado on March 27th, and stopping
for a period of six weeks at Fairplay. From
there he moved to Ashcroft. where he passed
a month, and then located on the ranch of one
hundred and sixty acres now owned and oc-
cupied by Joseph Luxem, which he pre-empted,
some time later taking up forty acres ad-
ditional. The country was very wild and
its population was scant, Mr. Clausen's nearest
neighbor being George Yule, who lived at a
distance of twenty-five miles from him. To
this point Mr. Clausen brought the first wagon
over the Indian trail from Fourmile, being ac-
companied on the trip by Mr. Starkey and the
late Charles Kelma, and, aided by them and his
wife, he built the first road in this neighbor-
hood. There was nothing growing on the
land for many miles around but wild brush, and
the roadmakers were seriously handicapped for
tools, having but one pick and two shovels.
They were occupied two months in building
the road, and then it was necessarily incom-
plete and somewhat rude, but it was a great im-
pr< ivement in the section for that time and
proved very serviceable to themselves and later
settlers. Mr. Clausen then devoted his energies
to the improvement of his ranch, during the
first two years of his residence on it selling-
its products at Aspen, seventy-five miles away.
Later he turned his attention to raising cattle,
in which he has been successful from the start.
He had no money when he came to this part of
the state, and he was confronted with dif-
ficulties in every enterprise he started. But by
hard work, frugal living and continued shrewd-
ness in business he has made gratifying prog
rcss and has become one of the substantial and
influential men of the region. He is a stanch
Republican in politics and gives his party loyal
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
75
and effective service on all occasions. On May
24. 1866, he was married to Miss Augusta
Fredericka Erhard, a native of Lygomskloster
and daughter of August F. and Christina
(Apel) Erhard, the former born at Bruns-
wick and the latter at Lygomskloster, Germany.
The father was a tanner and prospered at the
business. Both parents were members of the
Lutheran church. They had a family of ten
children, but four of whom are living, Anna
M., wife of August Steinberg, of Chicago:
Mrs. Clausen; Augusta, living at hi .me: and
George H.. of Washington. Utah. The father
died on September 28, 1840, and the mother on
June 11, 1893. Mr. and Mrs. Clausen belong
to the Lutheran church. Mrs. Clausen was one
of the first white women to settle in Garfield
D 'iinty.
CHARLES P. LARSON.
Born at Philifstad. in the province of
YYermland, Sweden, and reared and educated
in that country, where he remained until he
was twenty-one, learning his trade as a mason
there and engaging in a number of useful occu-
pations, in which he acquired a general knowl-
edge of business and habits of fruitful industry,
Charles P. Larson, of Garfield county, came to
this country in his early manhood well prepared
fur the duties of the strenuous life in which
lie w as to take part, and since his arrival he has
been active and serviceable in developing and
building up the sections in which he has lived
and labored. At the age of thirteen he started
nut in life for himself by herding stock, at
which he continued until 1865. He then began
to learn his trade and worked at that and other
pursuits until 1869. when he emigrated to the
United States, arriving on June 1st. His first
location was at Ishpeming. Marquette county,
Michigan, where he devoted his time to con-
tracting and building and also to butchering
at intervals. He also engaged in mining and
prospecting in that state and Wisconsin, spend-
ing some money and time at the business with-
out satisfactory results. On October 15, 1877,
he arrived in Colorado and remained at Denver
until the following December, then was led by
the gold excitement to Leadville. Some little
time afterward he moved to Kokomo, and
here he again engaged in mining without suc-
cess. He then once more turned his attention
to contracting, working on the Blue river ex-
tension of the Rio Grande Railroad. In this
enterprise he made good profits. In the sum-
mer of 1 88 1 he again moved to Leadville, and
worked at hauling timber until the spring of
[882. Then on account of failing health he
was obliged to seek a different location and
took up his residence on Divide creek, in Gar-
field county, where he pre-empted one hundred
and sixty acres of land, to which he has since
added until he now owns and farms six hun-
dred and forty acres in that neighborhood. He
has been diligent and enterprising in improv-
ing his land and earning on a vigorous and
thriving stock industry and a general ranching
business, raising good crops of hay. grain and
potatoes. His land is favorably located, the
water right is sufficient for its proper irriga-
tion and the tillage he gives it is first class. He
also owns a ranch of one hundred and twelve
acres at Rifle where he maintains his home for
the purpose of securing good school facilities
for his children. A considerable portion of
this ranch has been laid off in town lots, which
sell from time to time at good prices. The rest
yields a good revenue from its farm products.
Mr. Larson was one of the earliest settlers in
this part of the state and one of the original
promoters of its improvements and public con-
veniences. He. Mr. Starkey and Jens J. Clau-
sen, assisted by Mrs. Clausen, built the first
road to Fourmile, and he took a prominent
and active part in other enterprises of public
utility. He is the son of Lars and Anna M.
76
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
(Bergquist) Larson, natives of Sweden and
earnest Lutherans. The father was prosperous
as an iron manufacturer in his native land.
They had three children, one of whom died in
infancy. The other two and the mother sur-
vive the father, who died on November 14,
1851. One son. Olof, resides at Templeton.
California, and the mother makes her home
with the other, Charles P. He was married
on December 22, 1881, to Miss Carrie Ander-
son, a native of Sweden, and eight children
have blessed and brightened their household,
Charles II., John R., Emma, Swan, Edith.
Alfred. Oscar and Otto. Mr. Larson's success
in this state has been of such a character and
so pronounced as to make him well pleased with
the state as a residence and field for enterprise.
and also to have been of great service to the
welfare of the commonwealth and its people.
JOHN" C. COOK.
John C. Cook, one of the leading citizens of
the Rifle section of Garfield county, this state,
is a native of Dearborn county, Indiana, born
on October 29. 1838, and the son of Elisha
and Charlotte (Briddle) Cook, the father born
in the state of New York and the mother in
Maryland. They settled in Indiana in very
early days and remained in that state until 185J.
when they moved to Iowa, locating in Wapello
county. There the father became a successful
and prosperous farmer. He was an ardent
Republican in political allegiance, and both be
and his wife were active members of the Baptist
church. Their offspring numbered eight, four
of whom have died. The four living are An-
drew X., a resident of Council Bluffs. Iowa:
John C, the subject of this article; and Nancy
J. and Sarah E.. twins, who are still living in
Wapello county, b.wa. The father died in
[880 and the mother in [886. John C. the
second in age of the living; children, received a
common-school education and remained at
home working for his parents until he attained
the age of twenty-seven. He then began farm-
ing in Iowa for himself and remained there en-
gaged in that pursuit until 1874. Before this.
however, early in the Civil war. he enlisted in
the Union army as a member of Company D,
Fifteenth Iowa Infantry, ami was in active field
service until he was seriously injured at the
battle of Shiloh. This disabled him for further
service and be soon afterward received an
honorable discbarge. After spending a short
time at his Iowa home when he returned from
the war. he came to Colorado and settled on the
I livide, north of Colorado Springs. Here he
ranched and raised stock until [885, when be
moved to his present location, three miles
north of Rifle. He has a ranch of one hundred
and sixty acres, one hundred acres of which
are easily cultivated and yield abundant and
profitable crops of hay. fruit and vegetables.
He has a good water right to his property with
a sufficient supply of water for irrigation and
the wants of his large herds of cattle, and his
business in both general ranching and the stock
industry is extensive. He is a zealous Repub-
lican in political affiliation and takes a leading
part in public local affairs. From [888 to [892
he served as county commissioner and in ad-
dition has held other local offices of importance,
rendering good and faithful service to the
county in each and winning the approval of the
citizens generally without regard to party. On
December _'X. [865, he was united in marriage
with Miss Josephine Calvin, who was bom in
Edgar county. Illinois, and is the daughter of
John C. and Elizabeth A. (Lewis) Calvin. Her
father was a native of Ohio and her mother
of Illinois. The father was a merchant in early
life, and on retiring from this business became
a farmer. lie also was a stanch Republican
in politics, lie died in [873, having survived
his wife, who passed away in [869, four years.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COl.oR.llu>.
The) had eight children, six of whom are liv-
ing. Wesley, Charles, William P., Am. is,
Josephine (Mrs. Cook), and Margaret, wife of
Isaac X. Craven. Mr. and Mrs. Cook have had
seven children. Grant died on July u. [880,
and Elisha R. on November 8, 1903. The five
living are Elmer, Frank, Harry, Josephine < \.
( Mrs. Ora Card, of Salt Lake City) and Row
When Mr. Cook located on his present ranch
the country was wild and undeveloped. Deer,
he says, were as thick as snow-birds and In-
dians were numerous, hut they gave the new
settlers no trouble. The region was a good
iield tor his enterprise and this was wisely and
diligently employed.
JAMES T. HUNTER.
James T. Hunter, who is now conducting
an active and profitable livery business at Rifle,
Garfield county, has had a varied and interest-
ing career in the West and has profited by his
experiences, learning much of the hest business
methods for this portion of the land and of the
men who live and. labor in it. lie was horn
on February 25, 1834, in Washington count).
Missouri, where his father. John A. Hunter, a
native of Virginia, was an early settler, and his
mother, whose maiden name was Martha A.
Talbott. was a native. The father in his earl)
manhood was a merchant. Then for a number
of years he was a miller on the Missouri river,
and the latter portion of his life was devoted to
farming. Politically he supported the Republi-
can partv and fraternally was connected with
the Masonic order. Both he and his wife were
strict Baptists in church relations. They had
a family of eight children, of whom hut three
are living, James T.. Jennie E., wife of John
\mouett. of Washington county. Missouri,
and William T.. a resident of the same count).
Mr. Hunter's educational advantages were
limited. In 1X41). when he was hut sixteen, he
accompanied his father on a trip to California
in which the_\- spent five months in driving a
five-yoke hull team across the plains and moun-
tains from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Hangtown,
111 the former state. There they were pros-
perously employed in placer mining until the
Inst great flood experienced by the whites in
that country swept everything away in 1852.
Hie lather then returned to Missouri and the
son turned his attention to freighting between
Stockton and the mines, continuing in this oc-
cupation with varying success until 1X64. Then
with two eight-mule teams he went to Idaho.
After his arrival there he made a freighting
expedition to Salt Lake City, and when he
reached that place he determined to remain for
awhile, and so started a livery business which
he carried on until January 1. [865, at which
time he sold out to four Eastern speculators
tor a consideration of one thousand two hun-
dred dollars ami moved to Boise. The snow
blocked the roads badly, hut he succeeded in
reaching his destination in fourteen days. Then
rinding the snow so had all around him. he
gave up the idea of returning and passed the
winter in freighting between Boise and Idaho
City. Returning to Salt Lake in the spring, he
again engaged in the livery business and con-
tinued in it until his establishment was de-
stroyed by fire. Hearing at this time of the
White Pine gold excitement in the vicinity of
Austin, he opened an eating house station
thirty miles east of that town. This he con-
ducted until the Union Pacific was built
through the section, when he sold out and
moved eight)- miles farther east and started
again in the same business, and in addition
managed a toll road over Diamond mountain.
About this time the Eureka mining camp.
opened up and Mr. Hunter became very busy
supplying the miners with food. After the
town was located he took up a ranch two miles
and a half from the place and also invested in
78
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
town lots which he afterward sold at a good
profit. He started a livery business there and
kept it going until 1872, when he returned to
his Missouri home and gave his attention to
fanning in that state until the Lake City
mining excitement broke out in this state.
Then, with a carload of mules, he came to
Colorado and located at Denver. He made a
number of trips to Lake City and met with
much success. Moving to Cheyenne, Wyo-
ming, he freighted for a time between that
town and Fort Fetterman, on the North Platte,
after which he did hauling for the Red Cloud
and Spotted Tail agencies. Next he took a
contract for grading in the interest of the Colo-
rado Central Railroad in 1876, and had thirty
teams at work. Later he sold his outfit to the
railroad company and moved fifteen miles west
of Denver, where he managed a ranch for his
sister until 1885. In that year, with three hun-
dred head of cattle and twenty horses, he
moved to the Mam creek region in Gar-
field county and purchased of Emanuel
and John Gant a squatter's claim to one
hundred and sixty acres • of land, which he
afterward increased to four hundred acres. He
improved the ranch and on it conducted a thriv-
ing ranching and cattle industry until July 13,
1903, when he disposed of his interests to John
A. Stephens, and since then he has been en-
gaged in the livery business. at Rifle. In politi-
cal matters Mr. Hunter is independent and
takes no special interest. On August 7, 1865,
he was married to Miss Minnie A. Miller, a
native of Iowa, the daughter of James and Rose
\nn (Sharp) Miller, Pennsylvanians by birth,
who settled in Iowa when they were young and
after some years moved to Colorado. In 1864
they changed their residence to Salt Lake, and
in 1866 to Nevada, where they conducted a
hotel until they moved to California, where
both died. Mr. and Mrs. Hunter have had
eight children, of whom Fannie. John, Robert.
James, Olive and an infant have died, and
John F. and Robert H. are living, the latter in
British Columbia.
HENRY BECK.
Henry Beck, of Aspen, a leading merchant
and prominent and highly esteemed citizen of
Pitkin county, is a native of Filipstadt,
Sweden, where he was born on February 20,
1861, and the son of Henry and Mary 1 ( )lson )
Beck, also natives of that country, where the
father was a diligent and prosperous worker
in the iron ore mines. When his son Henry
was eight or nine years the father came to the
United States and, after a short residence in
Pennsylvania, settled on the border of Lake
Superior in 1871 and there continued mining
iron. He was moderately successful in his
operations and became a citizen of the United
States and a loyal Republican in political af-
filiation. He died in 1878, and his widow is
now living in her native land. They belonged
to the Lutheran church and had a family of
four children, Henry, Carl ]., Mary and Selma.
Henry had but little opportunity to attend
school, as at the age of ten he was obliged to
go to work in the iron mines and from then
on to make his own way in the world. In
1879 ne carne t° this country, being at the
time about eighteen years old, and located in
the Lake Superior mining region where he re-
mained two years. In 1881 he came to Colo-
rado and settled at Leadville. There for four
years he wrought in the silver mines as a
laborer at three dollars a day and his board.
In 1885 he returned to his native land and pur-
sued a course of instruction at the high school
Two years later he again came to America and
once more located at Leadville, but instead of
mining he became shipping clerk for a whole-
sale liquor house, and remained with it until
1892. On January 1st of that year he moved
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
79
to Aspen and assumed charge of the Baer
Brothers wholesale liquor business. He con-
tinued in the service of that firm until January
I, 1896. then bought the stock and business and
has since conducted its operations for himself.
He has been very successful in the enterprise
and has also extensive mining interests. He is
a prominent and influential citizen, taking a
deep and continuing interest in public local
affairs, and standing well in the good will and
regard of his fellow men. He belongs to the
Elks, the Odd Fellows and the Eagles, holding
the rank of past president in the order last
named. During the last two years he has
served the people of Pitkin county wisely and
faithfully as a county commissioner, being
elected in the fall of 1902 on the Republican
ticket. On January 13. 1890. he was united in
marriage with Miss Ida M. Echberg. a native
of Sweden. Her parents were successful farm-
ers and useful members of the Lutheran church.
They died some years ago, leaving five chil-
dren surviving them. Mr. and Mrs. Beck have
four children. Edith. Verner, Ellen and Carl.
The parents are Lutherans in religious belief
and active members of the church. Mr. Beck-
is universally recognized as one of the leading
and most representative citizens of his portion
of the state.
LYMAN W. AUSTIN.
Entering the Union army near the close of
the Civil war as a member of Company F, First
Iowa Cavalry, at the age of seventeen, and ac-
quiring in that service, perhaps, a love of
variety in scene and associations and adventure
in life, and thereafter trying his hand at various
occupations in a number of different places, but
chiefly at farming. Lyman W. Austin worked,
gradually from his early home in the Mis-
sissippi valley to his present location in the
mountains of Colorado, where he is now per-
manently and comfortably established on a
good ranch of one hundred and seventy-five
acres two and one-half miles north of Rifle,
Garfield county. He was born on January 3.
1848, in Pike county, Ohio, and when he was
four years old moved with his parents, Walter
and Sarah (Kittles) Austin, natives of Mary-
laud, tci Iowa. The father was a successful
farmer and an active Republican with an
earnest interest in local affairs. Both he and
his wife were Methodists. He died in 1866
and she is also dead. The}' had a family of
nine children, four of whom are living: Isa-
belle. wife of William Nash, of Craig. Mis-
souri ; Martha ; Josephine, wife of James Tyler:
and Lyman W. The last named received a
slender common-school education, and early
in 1864, at the age of seventeen, enlisted in de-
fense of the Union in the great Civil war whose
end was then visibly approaching. He served
two years, being mustered out in the spring
of 1866. After the war he returned to his*
Iowa home and engaged in farming, continu-
ing his operations in that state until 1871.
when he moved to Holt county, Missouri.
There he followed the same pursuit six years,
then changed his residence to Ness county,
Kansas, where he remained and farmed until
1890. At that time he came to Colorado and
in [899 purchased the ranch on which he now
lives, which comprises one hundred and
seventy-five acres, one hundred and twenty of
which can lie cultivated, the place having a
good water right and plenty of water for suf-
ficient irrigation. Here he raises good crops of
hay, grain and potatoes and carries on a thriv-
ing stock industry. He belongs to the Wood-
men of the World and the Grand Army of the
Republic in fraternal circles and is a firm and
serviceable Republican in politics. On March
21, 1867, he was married to Miss Mary E.
Sitler, a native of Ohio and daughter of Peter
and Anna M. (Bowers) Sitler, the father born
8o
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
in Pennsylvania and the mother in Maryland.
Early in their married life they moved to Iowa
where the father carried on blacksmithing ex-
tensively and profitably. Both were Method-
ists and in political faith the father was a Re-
publican. Their family numbered nine chil-
dren, one of whom, then Mrs. A. Powers, is
deceased. The other eight are living : Martha,
wife of lames Adams, at Washington, Iowa;
Clark, at the same place; Mrs. Austin, near
Rifle, this stale; Dilla; Peter, at Oskaloosa,
Iowa; Patience, wife of Clark Brown, at Well-
man, that state; Collet, also at Wellman. Iowa;
and Charles, at Oskaloosa. Their mother died
on October 26, 1883. and their father is also
deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Austin have had six
children. One died in infancy, and Charles.
James. Dilla. Bertha (Mrs. Martin Roy, of
Rifle) and Susan are living. Mr. Austin has
been very active in promoting the progress and
welfare of his community and ranks among its
mi 'St useful and respected citizens.
SAMUEL BRITTOX CLARK.
With a strong and active mind encased in
a bod) with many frailties, Samuel Britton
Clark, of Aspen, has been from his childhood
seriously handicapped in the race for supremacy
among men. hut his native force of character
and lmsiness capacity added to his persistent
energy have enabled him to win a substantial
triumph and secure a goodly competence of
worldly possessions, lie was horn at Kala-
mazoo, Michigan, on Vugust -'5, [856, and is
the son of George Jahiel and Antoinette 1 Ran-
som) Clark, the former a native of New York
and the latter of Massachusetts. They accom-
panied their parents to Michigan in early life
and in that state they were reared, educated
and married. In 185K they located at Fort
Scott. Kansas, where the father served a num-
ber of years as postmaster. In 1N61 he was
appointed captain and ordnance commissary m
the Union army and served in this capacity
until he was mustered out. He next became
associated with the Kansas City, Fort Scott
& Gulf Railroad as traveling passenger agent.
with headquarters at Blooming-ton, Illinois, and
continued to be so employed until his death, in
.August. [899. His widow now resides at
Aspen. He was a Democrat 111 politics and an
Episcopalian in church affiliation. Six children
were horn in the family, one of whom, Mrs.
Bradish P. Morse, is deceased. Those living
are William Ransom, Charles. Samuel Britton.
Maria (Mrs. Walter Kent) and Frances ( Mrs.
Addison Rucker). Owing to his poor eye-
sight Samuel's education was limited. He was
reared at Fort Scott and at the age of ten began
to help his father in the railroad ticket office.
In 1868 he entered the First National Bank of
that city as a messenger boy, and at the end of
fifteen years was chief bookkeeper and one of
the directors of the institution. Then his health
began to fail and he was obliged to seek a
milder climate. He went first to Arizona and
later to California, passing two years in re-
cruiting his vigor. In 1881 he located at Den-
ver. Colorado, and there during the next six
years he was engaged in various capacities in
.me of the express offices. During this period
he started a commission business at \spen. and
in the year last named he moved to that town
and took active personal charge of his busi-
ness, the same that he is now conducting. He
handles groceries, produce, fruit, hay and
grain, and is also interested in real estate and
life insurance. He has been unusually suc-
cessful and is well established in a large and
expanding trade with increasing profits. In
fraternal life he is connected with the order of
Elks, and m politics is Democratic. In Janu-
ary. 1S88, he was united in marriage with Miss
Florence Maria Johnson, a native of England
who was reared in Utah. She is the daughter
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN C(U.OR.UX).
of William M. Johnson, of England, who was
born in that country on February 4. 1833, and
who for a number of years lived in the United
States and carried on successful mining oper-
ations at Ogden, Utah. He is now an artist
and lives at South Kensington, England. His
wife, whose maiden name was Mary Kibble
Showell. was born in London, England, on
March 18, 1839, and died at Aspen, this state,
on March 11, 1895. They were the parents of
six children, two of whom have died, Mrs.
Lavina M. A. Christian, at the age of forty-
six, and Charles, at that of forty-one. The
living children are Mrs. Alice Marian Corria,
of Butte, Montana, Mrs. Florence Maria Clark.
of Aspen. Colorado, Mrs. Edith Hepzibah
Schlageter. of Ogden. Utah, and Mrs. Ada
Eliza Lavender, of New York city. Mr. and
Mrs. Clark are Episcopalians. They have
three adopted children, Florence, Ada and
Ethel.
CHARLES DAI LEV.
Even more than the stage is the press a
mirror, showing forth "the very age and body
of the time." recording all doings and happen-
ings among men. presenting each da}- a picture
of the world and its multiform activity. But
more than this, — it is a watchman on the tower,
taking note of wind and sky. and if need be.
giving warning of approaching danger. It is
a guide and a restraint, governing the trend of
public opinion, and holding it away from
wrong channels. It is a creator and a de-
stroyer, providing stimulus and nourishment
for what is good, and seeking to overbear all
the insidious influences of evil — uncovering to
the public gaze the true gods in moral'-, and
taste and politics, and opposing the false with
resolute and relentless energy. Holding this
lofty ideal, the Aspen Daily Democrat strives in
its modest way to perform its true function and
meet the requirements of its high duty. It
6
labors to be a pleasure and a help to the com
munity in which it is circulated, with many
shortcomings, doubtless, but with a large
measure of success, as its present prosperity and
influence attest. Charles Dailey. the popular
and accomplished editor and owner of this jour-
nal, was prepared for his duties by a long ap-
prenticeship in the newspaper office. He was
born at Geneseo, Henry county. Illinois, on
April 29, 1806, and is the son of Charles and
Lydia F. Dailey. the former a native of Xew
Jersey and the latter of Indiana. The father
was a shoemaker and worked at his trade many
years with success. He was a soldier in the
Mexican and the Civil wars, serving in each
with the valor of a true American citizen
whose ordinary duty lies in the fields of peace-
ful production, and never takes up arms
in military conflict unless the honor or the wel-
fare of his country requires it. and then bears
himself in the struggle as if all the interests of
home and family and country were at stake.
After their marriage the parents settled in
Illinois, and there the father passed the re-
mainder of his life, dying in December, 1880.
He was an ardent Democrat in political faith,
and constant and efficient in the service of his
party. There were six children in the family,
four of whom are living, William A.. Mrs.
George G. Farley, Charles and Mrs. John H.
Reinhardt. On June 6, 1886, the mother mar-
ried a second husband, Dr. Frank Fulton, of
Monte Vista, Colorado, the leading physician
of the San Luis valley and one of its most
prominent and esteemed citizens. He was a
Freemason of the Knight Templar degree, and
at the time of his death, on April 17. 1903. was
a member of the Populist party in political as-
sociation. Charles Dailey was educated in the
public schools of Denver, and at the age of
twelve became a mail boy for Messrs. Chain &
Hardy, stationers of that city. After four
months' service as such he was made assistant
82
PROGRESSIVE MEN OP WESTERN COLORADO.
shipping clerk, and at the end of his
first year was appointed shipping clerk,
so high was the order of his fidelity
and capacity and his character. From
1 88 1 to 1886 he was night sealer in the yards
at Denver for the Denver & Rio Grande Rail-
road. In 1887 he moved to Monte Vista and
apprenticed himself in the office of the Graphic
newspaper to learn the printing trade. When
his apprenticeship was completed he became
foreman of the office, and this position he held
until 1896. During the next four years he was
editor and manager of the Daily Miner at
Creede, Colorado. On July 29, 1900, he moved
to Aspen and took the post of manager of the
Aspen Daily Democrat and as such conducted
the paper until January 1, 1903. He then pur-
chased it. and he has owned and edited it ever
since. When he bought it the journal had a
feeble and languishing existence, an insufficient
patronage, a load of debt, and a rather low-
place in public estimation. He has placed it
firmly on its feet, greatly enlarged its circu-
lation and support, considerably enlarged its
popularity, raised its tone, and established it
firmly as one of the admired and influential in-
stitutions in the community. This he has dune
not by feeding popular vanity or catering to
personal whims or yielding to public clamor:
but by meeting the requirements of the people
generally, and showing a commendable in-
dependence of individual and class opinions,
interests and ambitions. In consequence of this
policy, the paper is as regularly expected now
in the ordinary life of the territory in which it
circulates as necessary food or raiment. Mr.
Dailey inherited the martial spirit of his father,
and was a member of the Colorado National
Guard from 1887 to 1896. In this organiza-
tion he displayed the same energy, zeal and
comprehensiveness of view that have dis-
tinguished him in other lines of activity, and
by his merit he rose from the ranks to the
position of captain. In fraternal relations he
is connected with the order of Elks, the Ma-
sonic order and the Knights of Pythias, and his
political allegiance is firmly and loyally given
to the Democratic party. On April 18, 1894,
he was married to Miss Emeline B. Bennick, a
native of Boston, Massachusetts. Thev have
one child. Charles Dailey. Jr. Tt should be
added that while endeavoring to publish a first-
class newspaper, and make it a valuable party
organ, Mr. Dailey has not omitted due atten-
tion to the needs of advertisers, and has one
of the most completely equipped newspaper
offices in his portion of the state.
JOHN FRANCIS CRAWLEY.
Beginning life for himself at the age of
fourteen as a farm hand at ten dollars a month
and his board, and since then hoeing his own
row with assidious industry and making his
way slowly but steadily toward a substantial
competence and a firm footing in the good will
and esteem of his fellow men. undaunted by
danger and undeterred by difficulties and ad-'
versifies. John F. Crawley, one of the best and
most successful business men of Aspen, ex-
hibits in a forcible manner the value of pluck,
determination and courage in the race for su-
premacy among men. and gives an impressive
proof of the wealth of opportunity open to dili-
gence, thrift and capacity in the American re-
public. He was born on May 24, T854, in
Waukesha county. Wisconsin, the son of Mi-
chael and Rose (O'Brien) Crawley, natives of
Ireland who came to the I nited States in 1830.
and located in what were then the wilds of
Wisconsin. There the father was prosperous
as a laborer and reared his family of seven chil-
dren, one of the eight horn to him having died
in infancy. He was a loyal and active Demo-
crat in politics and he and his wife were mem-
bers of the Catholic church. lie ended his
PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
«3
labors and laid down his trust on May 30,
1891, and ln's wife followed him to. the spirit
world on July 7. [899. Their seven surviving
children are John Francis, James E., Mary J.,
Julia F.. Wilsey, Joseph and Louis M. The
first horn, John Francis, had hut little oppor-
tunity for acquiring the education of the
schools, since, as has been noted, he was
obliged to go to work for himself at the age of
fourteen as a farm hand. Mis compensation
during the first two years of his service was ten
dollars a month and his hoard. The money
consideration was then raised to sixteen dol-
lar- a month, and at the close of his engage-
ment he was getting twenty-two. But he had
aspirations above being a laborer for wages and
about the year 1876 apprenticed himself to a
butcher in Milwaukee to learn the business.
He began with a compensation of ten dollars
a month, and four years later, at the close of
his apprenticeship, was receiving twenty-five.
In the winter of 1880-81 he came to Colorado
and located at Leadville, where he received
good wages in the same occupation, and a year
later, on January 4, 1882. he entered the busi-
ness of butchering for himself in partnership
with three others under the firm name of J.
F. Crawley & Company. They bought sheep
in Xew Mexico and fattened them in the moun-
tains near Leadville. after which they were
slaughtered and sold as mutton. Soon after
forming the partnership Mr. Crawley moved
to Ogden and opened a meat market there, his
partner driving sheep for the business up from
Xew Mexico. The health of his family was
poor at ( )gden and he was obliged to return to
Leadville. Then being dissatisfied with tht
business outlook, after leaving his market for
a time in charge of Mr. Morrison, he sold out
to him, the two dividing the real estate of
which they were joint owners harmoniously
between them. In 1892 Mr. Crawley moved
to Aspen and purchased E. M. Dawson's gro-
cery. He then formed a partnership with
Grover W. Tobin and they added a meat
market to the business. The partnership con-
tinued until the fall of 1899, when Mr. Crawley
bought his partner's interest and he has since
conducted the business alone. By close at-
tention to its requirements and good business
capacity he has made a gratifying success of
his undertaking and is now considered one of
the leading business men of the county. He is
also interested in mining, having a number of
promising claims of his own at Idaho Springs.
He has in addition his residence property at
Ogden. He takes an earnest interest in public
affairs and warmly supports the principles and
candidates of the Democratic party. In fra-
ternal circles he is connected with the United
Workmen, the Woodmen of the World, the
Red Men. the Wolf Tones and the Knights of
Columbus. He and his wife are devoted mem-
bers of the Catholic church. On February 5,
1884. he was married to Miss Maggie A. Mc-
Koen, like himself a native of Waukesha
county, Wisconsin, and the daughter of
Thomas and Ann McKoen, who were born and
reared in Ireland and emigrated to the United
States early in life. Her father is a farmer in
business and a faithful Democrat in politics.
His wife died in 1891). leaving two children.
a son. John Henry McKoen, and Mrs. Craw-
ley. Since 1901 the father has made bis home
with Mr. and Mrs. Crawley. They have two
children. Francis Henry, and James Marshall.
THOMAS O. CLARK.
Turning his back resolutely on the adven-
turous occupation of his father, which though
full of incident and interest is also full of
hazard, ever since steam has depoetized com
merce and reduced the fury of wind and wave
to some measure of control. Thomas O. Clark,
of Aspen, and one of the progressive and
84
FROGRESSIFE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
prominent ranchmen of Pitkin county, has
found in the wilds of Colorado one as full of
perils and hardship at times, wherein often the
chances of life and death seemed even, but in
which the danger and privation came from men
and beasts and not the watery waste. He is a
native of St. George, Knox count)". Maine,
born on April 2, 1857, and the son of Reuben
and Sophronia (Blake) Clark, also natives of
that state. The father has served many years
on sailing vessels as cook, mate and captain
successively. He is a skillful navigator and
has weathered many a storm at sea when the
stoutest hearts have ([nailed, and brought his
craft safely through the tempest. He is a de-
termined Democrat in politics and a man of
tine public-spirit in reference to the welfare and
progress of his country. Three children were
born in his family, two of whom, Dora and
Thomas O., are living. A daughter named
\l:lne died at the age of twenty-three. The
son. Thomas O. Clark, received a public school
education in his native town, and in 1873, when
be was sixteen, came to Colorado in search of
fortune, or at least an opportunity to make
one if he could. He located in Gilpin county
and went to work as a teamster at two dollars
and a half a day. After working faithfully in
this capacity for three years and a half, he pur-
chased an outfit of his own and during the nexi
thirteen years was engaged in freighting and
teaming on his own account. In the autumn of
[889 he moved to the vicinity of Aspen, and
with that place as his base of operations con-
tinued teaming until the fall of 1902. He then
leased of the railroad company the ranch he
now occupies, which comprises six hundred
and fort}' acres of land, four hundred and fifty
acres of which can be cultivated. To the im-
provement and development of this property
he has since devoted himself, and he has suc-
ceeded abundantly in his laudable ambition to
make it one of the best ranches in the county.
It yields under his skillful husbandry large
crops of hay and gram and a plentiful supply
of other ordinary farm products. He has also
given some time and attention to mining with
success. He owns a residence in the town of
Aspen where his family live in the winter so
as to secure good school facilities for the chil-
dren. In the social and fraternal life of the
community he is active and serviceable, belong-
ing to the Masonic order in blue lodge and
Royal Arch chapter, to the order of Elks and
the Woodmen of the World. He and his wife
are zealous members of the Baptist church. ( >n
May 12, 1875, he married with Miss Emma
Seavey, like himself a native of St. George in
Knox count}-, Maine. She was the daughter
of Captain John H. and Catherine Seavey. also
natives of Maine. The father was a sea cap-
tain and sailed from New York to various
European countries, and after years of life on
'the ocean, braving many dreadful storms and
other dangers of the deep, was finally lost 111
the gulf of Mexico in September, 1856. Ik-
took over the first cargo of wheat donated by
the United States to Ireland in the time of the
great famine there. He was an ardent Demo-
crat in political faith and an enthusiastic mem-
ber of the Masonic order. By his first mar-
riage Captain Seavey became the father of one
child. Charles, who died in 1863. His second
marriage was to the sister of his first wife. Miss
Clara C. Hooper, and they had two children,
Ella and Mrs. Clark. Mr. and Mrs. Clark
have bad three children. Earl and Lyster living,
and De Eoss. their first born, deceased.
LIVIUS C. PAXTON.
Although born and partially reared in the
province of Ontario. Canada, where his life
began on May 5. [861, Livius C. Paxton," of
Pitkin count}, living on ;i fine ranch of two
hundred and fifty-nine acres two miles west of
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
85
Aspen, is an excellent citizen of the United
States, fully in sympathy with the aspirations
and aims of the country and devoted to the
welfare of its people. His parents were Wil-
liam and Charlotte (Churchill) Paxton,
Canadians by birth and reared and educated in
that country. In 1875 the father, having
moved to this country, conducted a flourishing
creamery in Delaware count)-, Iowa, and later
carried on the same business in Lyon county,
thai state. In 1892 he moved to California and
for a time was engaged in various pursuits
there. His later years have been devoted to the
culture of oranges, in which he has been suc-
cessful. He is a genial and obliging gentle-
man, with breadth of view and an intelligent
interest in the welfare of his section, and in
political action is independent. He is a Baptist
in religious faith, as was also his wife during
her lifetime. She died in 1867. She was his
sen Mid wife and bore him six children, two of
whom are deceased. By the first marriage he
was the father of five. The children living are
Livius C. : Mrs. F. H. Huetson, of Owatonna,
Minnesota; Joseph, assistant superintendent of
the Newman tunnel; William A. and Archie
I), twins, living in California; Charles II., in
< alifornia; Effie, a school teacher in the Phil-
ippine islands; and Margaret and Jessie, in
(alifornia. Livius C, the second born of the
first marriage, received a common-school edu-
cation, being graduated from the high school
and afterward attended the Bryant & Stratton
Business College at Chicago. At the age of
fourteen he went into the creamery business to
assist his father, and in 1882 moved to South
1 )akota, where he was interested in flax and
tow -mills, located on the edge of that state and
Iowa. In 1890 he changed his base to the
northern part of South Dakota where he de-
voted his time to farming until 1901, but met
with little success on account of the drought.
He then came to Colorado and purchased his
present home of two hundred and fifty-nine
acres, one hundred and fifty of which are fit
for cultivation and on which he produces good
crops of grain, hay and other farm products.
He is always earnestly interested in public local
affairs with a view to securing the best results
for the community, and is independent in po-
litical action. In 1885 he united in marriage
with Miss Ruby Merman, a native of Lyon
county. Iowa, and daughter of William G. and
Addie M. Herman, who were born and reared
in Pennsylvania and moved to Iowa in 1878.
The father is a successful farmer and a loyal
Republican in political affiliation. They are the
parents of twelve children, eleven of whom are
living, and one, Mattie L., is deceased. Those
living are Ruby L. (Mrs. Paxton), William
D.. Frank E., Delia J.. John R.. Lottie M.,
Edith, Clifford, Benjamin. George and Wal-
ter. The parents live at Beloit. Iowa. Mr.
and Mrs. Paxton have had i'wc children. Elsie,
John, George and Joseph, living, and Rachel,
one of twins, deceased. Thus through aspir-
ation and resolute industry, through business
capacity and worldly wisdom, Mr. Paxton has
won a competence without the aid of favorable
circumstances, and even over obstacles and ad-
versities which would have cooled the ardor if
they did not destroy the courage of many a
man. And by exhibiting an intelligent and
helpful interest in the welfare of his section of
the state and its people he has secured their
lasting regard.
GEORGE ELMORE ROHRBOUGH.
Between the mountains of West Virginia
and the mountains of Colorado there may not
he much difference in appearance, but there is
as wide a difference in climate and agricultural
conditions as there is distance in space between
the two regions, as George Elmore Rohrbough
has learned by practical experience. Yet he
PROGRESSII'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
illustrates forcibly that a man of capacity and
real grit is not deterred from success by cir-
cumstances and conditions, but is able to win
success anywhere if he have a fair chance to
use his abilities. He was born in Lewis county.
West Virginia, on January 10, [873, and is
the son of George M. and Louisa (Brake)
Rohrbough, who were horn and reared in that
state. They moved to Illinois in 1881 and
located in Marion county, but a year later re-
turned to their native state, and after passing
some years in merchandising turned their at-
tention again to farming, in which they have
been successful. The father is a zealous Re-
publican and a member of the Masonic order,
and both parents are Methodists. Seven of
their eight children are living: William Law-
rence; Mary E.. now Mrs. L. B. Chidester;
Gertrude 1.. now Mrs. Luther L. Casto ; How-
ard Freeman, Elsie Eva, George Elmore, and
Oswald J. A daughter named Blanch died at
die age of fourteen. All the living reside at
Buckhannon. West Virginia, except Oswald,
who lues at Belington, West Virginia, and
( leorge, who lives at Aspen, this state. 1 le was
educated in the public schools of Upshur county
in his native state, completing the common and
high-school courses and afterward being gradu-
ated at the West Virginia Conference Semi-
nary. Le began teaching school at the age of
seventeen, and devoted four years to the work
in Upshur count}- and one in Harrison county.
In [894 he came to Colorado and located at
Aspen. Here he again taught school, continu-
ing his work in this line until [901, when he
bought the ranch on which he now lives, four
miles west of the town and comprising one
hundred and sixty acres, the greater pari of
which produce- good crops of hay and grain,
lie is als.> interested in raising cattle and
horses, and in all his efforts is measurably suc-
cessful. As a member of the order of ( >dd Fel-
lows he takes an active interest in the fraternal
life of the community, and as a zealous Re-
publican devotes a commendable energy to the
promotion of its political welfare according to
his views of public matters. On August 25,
1896. he united in marriage with Miss Maud
Lynch, a native of Harrison county. West
Virginia, and daughter of Peter and Virginia
A. (Elliott) Lynch, also natives of that state,
where they are successfully engaged in farm-
ing and raising stock. They are both Metho-
dists, and have reared a family of thirteen chil-
dren. Tillman 1)., Truman J.. Waitman E..
Florence, George G., Etta Maud (Mrs. Rohr-
bough), Charles L.. Mollie, Willie. Clarence,
Bertha, Howard and Mabel. .Mr. and Mr-.
Rohrbough have had five children, one of
whom died in infancy. Those living are Jay
Keating, Elmore, Lynn, George and Irwin.
The parents are Methodists and are active in all
the benevolent works of their church.
FREDERICK LIGHT.
Owning and operating with skill and suc-
cess one of the hnest ranches in Pitkin county,
which is of ample size, comprising nine hun-
dred and forty acres, and sufficiently fertile and
productive to yield abundantly of cereals and
hay and liberally support large number- of cat-
tle and horses. Frederick Light, of near Snow-
Ala--, is so situated that he may laugh adversit)
to scorn and feel secure of an expanding and
substantial prosperity during the remainder of
his days, lie was born on January 17. 1S50.
at Morrisonville, Clinton county. Xew York,
the -on of Charles and Matilda (Raymond)
Light, natives of the province of Quebec,
Canada, where they grew to maturity and were
educated and married. They are successfully
engaged in farming in Xew York, where they
enjoy in a marked degree the respect of the
people around them. Both are members of the
( iatholic church, and the father is a zealous and
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
87
effective working- Democrat. Eleven children
blessed their union, three of whom have died.
Delia. Benjamin and Louis. The eight living-
are P'rederick ; George H.. who lives at Daw-
son in the Klondike; Melvina; Jennie; Emily;
Medrick, who lives at Scaley Falls, New York;
William, residing on the homestead at Morri-
sonville, New York: and Louise. Frederick
had but little opportunity for attending school,
as he was earl)- put to work on the home farm,
and at the age of twelve went to Keysville, New
York, and wrought one year in a shingle-mill
at thirteen dollars a month and his board. He
then devoted three years to learning carriage
trimming at A. F. Welcome's establishment,
and two under instruction in the works of the
J. B. Brewster Carriage Company. The next
three were passed in the carriage trade in the
service of the Brewster Company, and in 1879
lie came to Colorado and settled at Leadville.
Here he gave a year of earnest effort to min-
ing, then moved to Aspen, where he continued
prospecting until 1XN2. At that time he lo-
cated on a part of his present ranch, which he
had taken up as a pre-emption claim in 1SN1.
To this he has made additions by subsequent
purchases and otherwise until he now has a
body of nine hundred and forty acres of ex-
cellent land, the greater part of which can be
successfully cultivated. During [882, [883
and 1884 he carried on a freighting business
between Aspen, Leadville and Granite in con-
nection with his ranching industry, lie is ex-
tensively occupied in raising grain and hay and
producing superior grades of horses and cattle.
His trip from Leadville to Aspen 111 1880,
through Independence pass, was eventful and
full of excitement because of the fires which
were then burning over all the country he had
to pass through, which made travel very dan-
gerous and the utmost care necessary. On lo-
cating at Aspen he at once took an active part
in the affairs of the country, and in 1895 his
ability for legislation and his manifest interest
in the welfare of the state made him the choice
of the people for a seat in the legislature, to
which he was elected as the candidate of the
Populist party. He is now, however, a stanch
Democrat, and is still active and serviceable in
political matters. Fraternally he is connected
with the Masons, the Odd Fellows, the Elks,
the Modern Woodmen, the United Workmen
and the National Aid Association. On No-
vember 5, 1 884. he was united in marriage
with Miss Margaret McClimont, a native of
New York state and the daughter of John and
Agnes ( Campbell ) McClimont. natives of Scot-
land, who came to this country when they were
a young married couple and settled in \e\\
York city, where the father was engaged in the
hardware business. In r88o, moved by the
promise of great prosperity in farming in
Kansas, which was then being actively boomed,
they sold out in New York and migrated to
Iverwin in the promising- state. Here their
expectations were realized and they became
prosperous and extensive farmers, that is. the
mother became one, as the father died the next
year after arriving at his new home. The
mother passed away at Aspen, this state, in
1002. The father was a good Democrat in
politics, and both were devoted members of
the Catholic chuich. They were the parents
of thirteen children. Mr. and Mrs. Light have
eight. Effie, Edith, Leo. Raymond. Frederick.
Jr.. Helen. Howard and Mildred.
ALEXANDER McKENZIE.
The late Alexander McKenzie, who lived
"ii a large and well-improved ranch not far
from Watson. Pitkin county, this state, and
there carried on a profitable stock and ranching
business, and was accounted one of the lead-
ing men of the neighborhood, was a native
of Scotland, born 111 [827, and the son of Alex-
88
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
ander and Catharine (McKenzie) McKenzie,
with whom he remained and worked on the
home farm until he was twenty-one. They
moved to Australia in 1875 and from then until
the end of their days were successfully engaged
in farming in that country. They were mem-
bers of the Presbyterian church and the father
was a Democrat in politics. Both are now de-
ceased, and but three of their nine children
survive them, Kenneth, James and Anna B.
Alexander was a mason by trade and emigrated
to the United States in 1859, locating at Chi-
cago, and some time later moving to Lewis-
town, Illinois, in both places working at his
trade. In 1880 he came to Colorado and, lo-
cating at Leadville, again wrought at his trade.
remaining there until 1883, except a portion of
the time which be passed at Gunnison. He
traded a. horse and some valuables for his ranch.
the consideration being one hundred dollars,
and after taking possession of it added a home-
stead claim. Here he worked at his trade and
bis children conducted the ranch. He was
married on August 1, 1873, to -^' lss Anna Fair-
bairn, a native of Scotland and daughter of
Walter and Anna (Fischer) Fairbairn, also
born in that country where they passed their
lives profitably engaged in farming. They
were Presbyterians and died in active connec-
tion with that church. Of their twelve chil-
dren only two are living, Margaret, now Mrs.
Alexander Cameron, of Aspen, this state, and
Mrs. McKenzie. The offspring of Mr. and
Mrs. McKenzie number four. James. Walter.
Jennie and Catherine. Mrs. McKenzie is a
Presbyterian, as was her husband at the time
of bis death. Since he passed away she has
managed the ranch and cattle interests with
success and profit ami continued the improve-
ments which he had begun. The ranch now
comprises nine hundred and sixty acres, of
which three hundred are under cultivation, and
the yield of hay. grain and other farm products
is extensive and of good quality. In addition
to her cattle she raises a number of horses of
good strains for market and is prosperous in
this branch of the business. Mr. McKenzie
did some prospecting and mining in his time.
but without success worthy of note. He was
highly esteemed as a good citizen, friend and
neighbor, and was prominent in all undertak-
ings for the benefit of his community.
DR. ANDERS J. O. LOF.
The life of a country physician, particu-
larly in a new and unsettled section, is full of
privation and toil. There is no class of serv-
ants to humanity more useful to the com-
munity, and in point of fact, none more appre-
ciated, however scant and unimpressive the
evidences of approval may be in ordinary
times. When pain and anguish cloud the
brow the doctor becomes a ministering angel,
affording solace in sorrow, relief in suffering,
companionship in solitude and even consolation
in death. To this class of public benefactors
belongs Dr. Anders J. 0. Lof, of Aspen, this
state, one of the most prominent and success-
ful professional men in his portion of the state.
He came to this section in 1896. after an ex-
tensive and careful preparation for his life
work secured at some of the best technical
schools and in practical experience, and to it he
has devoted all his energies and the results of
continuous study and careful observation. The
Doctor was born on April 25, 1807. at Gotten-
borg, Sweden, where his parents. Lars and
Mary (Johnson) Lof, were also native. The
father was a successful and prosperous
merchant tailor, working industriously and
living frugally until bis death in tS7<). The
mother is still living in her native land. They
had two children, the Doctor and his brother
August, the latter a resident of Sweden and
profitably engaged in the pursuit of his father.
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLOR A I ><)_
merchant tailoring. The Doctor attended the
state schools of Sweden, then passed three
years at a gymnasium. After coming to
America he entered the medical department of
the Denver University, graduating in 1896.
Later in 1902 he pursued special courses in
professional instruction at the Universities of
Berlin and Vienna, hospitals in Sweden and
London. In 1896 he located at Aspen, where
he has since heen actively engaged in a general
practice of medicine and surgery, and in the
comparatively short time of bis work here he
has attained to a high rank in professional cir-
cles and won general commendation from the
people for his skill and ability and the fidelity
of his devotion to duty. He is also warmly in-
terested in the welfare of his county and state,
and gives good and serviceable support to every
commendable undertaking for their advance-
ment. In politics he is independent but by no
means indifferent, and in every element of good
citizenship his record is an example worthy of
general imitation. He is one of Pitkin county's
most esteemed citizens and most popular men.
WILFRED L. HURST.
Although his boyhood and youth was
clouded with the shadow of a domestic sorrow,
and he was early thrown on his own resources
to make his way in the world, Wilfred L.
Hurst, of near Aspen, one of the most suc-
cessful and prominent ranchmen of Pitkin
county, has won his way with steady success
and credit, and is now well established in
business and in the regard and good will of bis
fellow men. He was born in Coles county.
Illinois, on March 18, 1856, and is the son of
Dennis and Sarah A. (Kingrey) Hurst, both
natives of Illinois. They had but one child.
their son Wilfred, and ceased to live together
while he was yet a mere boy. The father
moved to Terre Haute. Indiana, where he
passed his earlier years in the express business
and is passing the later ones in collecting for a
large milling company. The mother moved to
Kansas, where she remained until her death,
in September, t886. Their son Wilfred at-
tended the public schools when he had oppor-
tunity, and secured a course of instruction at
the Pella. Iowa, high school. At the age of
twelve he was apprenticed to a trade and passed
three years in learning it. then in [871, when
he was but fifteen, he began herding cattle by
contract at a compensation of one hundred dol-
lars a month. The work was arduous and ex-
acting, the herds containing from one thou-
sand one hundred to one thousand five hundred
cattle, but he was interested in the work- and
remained at it six years. In 1874 he moved to
Kansas City, Missouri, and engaged in freight-
ing between that place and points in Indian
Territory. After two years and a half of this
work he came to Colorado and settled at Lead-
ville in the spring of 1880, and there turned his
attention to mining atid prospecting, continu-
ing the work until 1^84. when he made a trip
to bis old home, wintering in Iowa. In the
spring of 1885 he returned to Colorado and
located at Aspen, and there he devoted three
years to mining tor wages in the Emma. One
Thousand and One and Durant mines. Late
in r887 he occupied himself in selling water at
thirty-five cents a barrel, and did well at this
until a war of rates cut the price to twenty-five
cents. Still, he continued the trade two years
and a half, then sold out at a profit and bought
a portion of the ranch he now occupies, and
which at this time comprises three hundred and
sixtv acres, three hundred and twenty of it
being well adapted to cultivation. His prin-
cipal crops are hay, grain and vegetables, the
hay being particular!}- good and having the
highest rank in the markets. He also raises
cattle and horses extensively. In political mat-
ters he is independent, and in fraternal life
9 o
PROGRESSU'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
is connected with the Woodmen of the World.
On September 15. 1885, lie united in marriage
with Miss Eleanor Hamblin, a native of Madi-
son county, Iowa, born near Winterset, the
county seat, and daughter of Simeon and
Eleanor (Thompson) Hamblin, the former
born in Vermont and the latter at Pittsburg.
Pennsylvania. They first located in Ohio,
then in Wisconsin, and last in Iowa, and pros-
pered as farmers in each location. Both are
now deceased, as are two of their nine children,
Christopher C, who died at Galveston, Texas,
on his way home from the Civil war. in which
he served until taken down with the measles;
and Hulda, who died in Iowa. The surviving
children are: John, of Roseburg, Oregon;
Elizabeth, now Mrs. Wesley Cochran; Joseph-
ine, living in Iowa; Martha, now Mrs. James
Kirk, of Kasson. Iowa; Seth T., of Lincoln
Kansas; Robert F., of Winthrop, Arkansas,
and Mrs. Hurst. Mr. and Mrs. Hurst have
had five children, three of whom died in in-
fancy. Leon II.. Eleanor and Wilfred L. The
two living are Raymond O. and Herbert V.
Air. Hurst has been unusually successful 111 his
ranching and cattle industry, lint his success is
not the result of accident or fortuitous circum-
stances. He selected his ranch with judgment,
and both in location and in quality and variety
of soil it proves his wisdom in the choice. Ami
lie cultivates it with skill and conducts all its
operations with such business capacity and
vigor as to command the best results at all
times, llis standing in the community, t<»>.
is due in real merit and intelligent interest in
the welfare of the people among whom he lives
and practical service in promoting it.
rOHN LUNDGREEN.
mil enter))
the
ships of his early life, but he is well established
in his new home, and through difficulties and
privations, toils and dangers, he has attained
to a substantial competence and an elevated
place in the regard and confidence of his fellow
citizens therein. He was born in Denmark,
on September 5, 1849. me son °f P ar Hogan-
suii and Ellen Magdalene ( Holnengreen)
Lundgreen. natives of Sweden, but early in
their lives residents of Denmark, where he
winked diligently at his trade as a cooper.
They had seven children, one dying in infancy,
and the others still living. The father died in
1865 and the mother in 1879. Their son John
was educated at the state schools to a limited
extent, while a mere boy beginning to learn
the cooper trade under instruction from his
father. After the death of the latter he car-
ried on the business three years, and at the end
of that time, in 1869, went to Sweden, and
during the next four years worked at his trade.
In [873 he came to the L'nited States and lo-
cated at Chicago, where he again was employed
at his trade, remaining until 1877. He then
moved to Omaha, and after passing three
vears in that interesting city, came to Colorado
in 1S80, and settled at Rollinsville, Gilpin
county, where he passed the summer 111 placer
mining. In the fall he returned to Omaha, and
soon afterward moved to Nebraska City. Here
lie worked at coopering until spring, then came
once more to Colorado and. locating at Aspen,
turned his attention to prospecting, continuing
his operations until [885. \t that time he
found profitable employment in the smelters
and later 111 the lumber industry, working for
a number of different linns, hut never out of
a job. His last move was t,. locate the ranch
en which he now lives and conducts a thriving
farming and cattle business. "Phis he took up
as a pre-emption claim and has since improved
it and brought it to an advanced state of
cultivation. It comprises one hundred and
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
sixty acres, half of which was naturally till-
able and well adapted to the production of ha)
and grain. Portions of the rest have been
made productive by irrigation and other ar-
tificial means. In addition to the ordinary
farm products, Mr. Lundgreen raises numbers
of good cattle. In political matters he supports
the Republican party. He is much pleased
with Colorado and warmly interested in the
state and his count}, omitting no effort on his
part to promote their substantial welfare and
the comfort and advancement of their people,
among whom he is highly esteemed and has a
serviceable influence for good.
TIMOTHY C. STAPLETON.
The late Timothy C. Stapleton, of Aspen,
one of the successful and progressive ranch and
cattle men of Pitkin county whose death i >n
September 10, 1903, when in the full maturity
and usefulness of his powers, was generally la-
mented, was a native of county Tipperary, Ire-
land, and was reared to the age of seventeen in
that country. His parents were Michael and
Julia Stapleton, also natives of the Emerald
Isle, and who passed their lives in that country
profitably engaged in farming. They had a
family of ten children, two of whom died in
infancy, and all the rest have since passed away
except one son named Thomas. The parents
also have been dead for many years. Timothy
received a very limited education at the public
schools, being obliged to take part in the labors
of the farm from an early age. When he be-
came seventeen he emigrated to America and
settled in Connecticut, where he learned the
trade of a carpenter. Then. 111 [865, he moved
west to Colorado and took up his residence at
Georgetown, where he followed mining and
prospecting five years. In 1870 he changed his
base to the San Juan country, and later made
trips to California and Nebraska, returning to
this state and locating at Leadville in 1879.
Here for two years he devoted bis entire time
and attention to mining and prospecting. In
1 NX 1 he located a homestead claim in the
vicinity of Aspen, which is a part of the ranch
now occupied by his family, and to this he
added by subsequent acquisitions until the
ranch comprises eight hundred acres. It is
largely fertile and productive land, and yields
abundantly of hay, grain and other ordinary
farm products, and the family is extensively en-
gaged in raising cattle and horses. The ranch
is pleasantly and advantageously located about
four miles west of Aspen, and under the man-
agement of Mrs. Stapleton and her sons, since
the death of her husband, it is growing in pro-
ductiveness and value. He was an ardent and
active Democrat in politics and a Presbyterian
in religious belief. Nine children were born
in the family, the present Mrs. Stapleton being
the second wife. The children are William,
Mary, John, Edwin, Thomas. Timothy, Julia,
Nettie and Margaret. Mrs. Stapleton' s maiden
name was Miss Ellen Kilker. She was born in
Washington county. Missouri, and is the
daughter of John and Mary (Monahan) Kil-
ker, natives of Ireland, where they were reared
and married and soon after came to the United
States. P>oth are deceased.
JOHN A. KAUBLE.
John A. Kauble. of near Aspen. Pitkin
countw after years of various employment in
which he sought the favors of fortune with suc-
cessions of prosperity and adversity, and in
which he had the usual run of incident and ad-
venture of the western pioneer, has settled
down tn the peaceful and profitable life of a
ranchman and stock breeder, on a fine ranch of
three hundred and twenty acres, one hundred
of which he has under cultivation and the rest
devoted to grazing. He was born near Terre
9 2
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLOR. IPO.
Haute. Indiana, on November 10, 1800, and is
the son of Joseph and Emaline (Hicks) Kau-
ble, who settled in Ohio in 1863 and moved to
Kansas in 1872. They were farmers and suc-
cessful at the business. The mother was a
Baptist and the father a Methodist. Their
family comprised ten children, two of whom.
Harry and Margaret, have died. The eight
who are living are Mary, Elizabeth, John A.,
Alma, Jennie. George, of Florence. Colorado
Lou, and Clara, who lives in Indian Territory
John A., the third in order of those living, at-
tended the public schools at infrequent inter-
vals for short periods, his opportunities being
limited, as at the age of fifteen he was obliged
to begin earning his own living. In 1883 he
came to Colorado and located at Pueblo, where
he remained six months, then passed two years
at Alpine, this state. Since 1885 he has divided
his time between Leadville and Aspen, and was
engaged in teaming and packing down to
[899, when he purchased the ranch on which
he has since lived and carried on a nourishing
industry in general ranching and raising stock.
I fe produces large quantities of hay and grain
of excellent quality and raises horses and cattle
of good strains in numbers. Fraternally he be-
longs to the Modern Woodmen of America
On December 23, r8o.2. he united in marriage
with Miss Margaret Collins, a native of Wis-
consin and daughter of Joseph and Mary Col-
lins, the father horn in Ireland and the mother
in Wisconsin. Their earlier married life was
passed at various places in the West, the father
being a railroad contractor and doing grading
for a number of roads. He now lives in Wis-
consin and the mother in Arizona. Both be-
long to the Catholic church. They were the
parents of five children, one of them, John.
dying in February, 1802. The four living are
Margaret (Mrs. Kauble). Mamie (Mrs
Thomas Dwyer), Joseph and Tosie. Mr. and
Mrs. Kauble have one child, their daughter
Yelma. Mr. Kauble is a citizen of enterprise
and public spirit in local affairs, an earnest
Democrat in politics and a much esteemed man
in his general relations to the community and
its people.
JAMES HARVEY CRAWFORD.
The subject of this brief memoir belongs
to that class of men who are needed in our
land with every generation. They make their
way upward as painstaking, honest men. with
the skill and conscience to do well the tasks that
lie before them. They are resolute and per-
sistent in their calling, without ostentation or
boastfulness, but they laugh circumstance-- to
scorn and make a career of serviceable produc-
tiveness in any environment. The work of
their hands wears well, and the work of their
brains guides well the hands of other men and
the}- invariably leave behind them, when they
lay down their trust, a spirit of public improve-
ment and the tangible results of its beneficent
activity. Oftentimes, as in the case of Mr.
Crawford, they are adventurous men and chal-
lenge fate on any field, finding by their very
boldness and indifference to consequences the
best and most fruitful opportunities for useful-
ness to mankind, and at the same time a boun-
tiful largess of fortune's favors for themselves.
Whether it be peace or war that calls them into
action, they meet the demands of duty with
courage and constancy, and without a to,, ten-
der regard for consequences personal to them-
selves. James Harvey Crawford is a native
of Pettis count)-. Missouri, born near Sedalia
on March 30, 1 S45. and the son of John Ed-
ward and Sarilda J. (Donnohue) Craw fori!,
who were born in Kentucky. The father was
one of the earliest pioneers of central Missouri.
He was a farmer but was also active in politi-
cal life, serving in the state legislature and for
vears as a colonel in the State Guard, lie was
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
93
also prominent as a member of the Baptist
church and was long recognized as a leader in
the organization in Missouri. Seven children
were horn to him and his wife, of whom live,
are living, John 1).. Anne E. (Airs. James J.
Ferguson), Cynthia M. (Mrs. Bailey T.
Thomas), James H. and ldY-.se> Grant, and
all are residents of Sedalia. Missouri, except
James II. The father died in November, [879,
and the mother in February, 1883. Their sen
James II. received a limited common-school
education, remaining at home until the begin-
ning of the Civil war, when he enlisted in de-
fense of the Union as a member of the Seventh
Missouri Cavalry, Company 1*".. entering die
service at the age of sixteen a- a private and
being soon afterward promoted second ser-
geant, and mustered out as first lieutenant on
April 14, 1865, at St. Lotus. After the close
of the war he returned home and during the
next eight years was engaged in farming in
his native county. In 1X73 he crossed the
plains with teams by the Smoky Hill route
thn nigh Kansas to Denver in this state. The
trip consumed thirty-five days. Leaving his
family at Empire. Colorado, he made an ex-
ploring expedition into what is now Routt
county. On this trip, while journeying on foot,
he discovered the fine mineral springs at which
he ni fw lives, and to which he gave the name of
Steamboat Springs from the sound made by
the rapid rush of the water which resembled the
puffing of a steamboat. He had left his teams
at Egeria Park, being unable to get them
farther through the wild and trackless country.
Finding the region around the springs promis-
ing, he moved his family to the place in [874
and thus became the first settler at the town and
its founder. He laid out the townsite and gave
his whole attention to promoting the growth
and welfare of others who followed him to
this favored locality, and his home in the town
is one of the most pleasant and interesting in
the town, the various rooms 1 icing abundantly
and tastefully decorated with the trophies of
his skill as a hunter. Here, where he cast his
lot in the veritable wilderness, he has found
and developed a thriving little city, and i> held
in high esteem by its people and those of the
surrounding country, being especially noted for
his liberality and general worth as a citizen, a
man of line public-spirit, and a general author-
ity on all matters of interest to the neighbor-
hood. He has fine cabinets of valuable speci-
mens of minerals peculiar to the section, his
collection being considered rare and valuable.
Besides organizing the Steamboat Springs
Company, he has taken an active interest 111
other schemes for the improvement and de-
velopment of this portion of the state, being
largely interested in -the Onyx mine, and in
one thousand five hundred and twenty acres of
anthracite coal land, and having holdings of
value in copper claims, and the Yampa Land
Company, as well as in the Water and Land
Company at Elberta Lakes. He helped to or-
ganize the Routt County Pioneer Association
in 1903 and served as its first president. In
political faith he has been a life-long Democrat,
and has rendered hi- part) good service both
in private life and in public offices of great re-
sponsibility and importance, having served two
terms in the state legislature, and as judge of
Routt county, first by appointment of the gov-
ernor and afterward by election by the people.
At a critical time for the school system of the
county he was appointed county superintendent
of the public schools. He was also the first
postmaster at Steamboat Springs. Fraternally
he is connected with the Odd Fellows and the
Grand Army of the Republic. On May 25,
1865, he united in marriage with Miss Mar-
garet E. Bourn, a native of Pettis county. Mis-
souri. Thev have four children. Lulu M., wife
94
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
of Carr W. Pritchett, of Denver. Logan B..
John D. and Mary B. Mr. Crawford is a self-
made but broad-minded and intelligent man.
an honor to American citizenship and an orna-
ment to the section in which he lives.
ROBERT ELLIS CLARK.
Coming to Colorado for the benefit of his
health when he was but nineteen, and being
doubh orphaned by the death of both parents,
and having already for six years been making
his own living. Robert Ellis Clark, of Steam-
boat Springs, has by indomitable energy and
perseverance, and through natural ability
which made him capable and a cheerful and
courageous disposition that mad? him willing
for any sort of work, won his way to conse-
quence and a substantial estate and a high
place in the regard and good will of his fellow
men. He is a native of Clinton county, Mis-
souri, born near Lathrop on June 23. 1859. and
the son of Robert P. and Delilah ( Long)
Clark, the former born in Kentucky and the
latter in Ohio. Soon after their marriage they
settled in Missouri, and here they passed the
remainder of their lives, the mother dying in
June, 1863. and the father in August. 1872.
They were industrious and comfortable fann-
ers and of their nine children seven grew to
maturity and are living, John L., Peter H.,
David M., Elizabeth, James M., Robert E. and
George J. After the death of his father Robert
E.. then but thirteen years old. began to make
his own living by working on farms for very
small wages. After six years of this exacting
and poorly paid toil, his health began to fail,
and he sought the benefits of a more salubrious
climate in this state, coming hither in 1878 and
locating at Georgetown. He remained there
a year, then set out on foot for Leadville.
However, he was obliged to return to George
town, where he remained until July 3. 1879.
when he started with three of his brothers for
Steamboat Springs. They journeyed with
teams by way of Middle and at Rand saw the
last house until they reached the Springs. The
hardships and privations along the route were
many, and young men less determined might
have been forced to abandon their purpose and
return to a region nearer the centers of civiliza-
tion in the state. But they persevered, and
found they were wise in doing so, as the region
to which they came was full of promise and
furnished them with good opportunities for
advancement. After their arrival at Steam-
boat Springs Mr. Clark carried the mails be-
tween that point and Hayden and Rock Creek.
continuing until September 29, 1879. when he
was forced to stop because of the Indian out-
break of that period. Then for a time he
served as a herder of horses, and during the
winters of 1X71, ami 1880 the people of the
section received no mail except when he was
able to travel on snow shoes to and from
Halm's Peak, there being but three deliveries
between September 3. 1880, and the summer
of [881. In the summer last named he began
raising cattle, which he continued until [896,
when the panic caused him to quit the business
After this disaster, with characteristic energy,
instead of bewailing his losses, he opened a
general blacksmithing business at Steamboat
Springs, of which the special feature has been
and is horseshoeing. He is well skilled in this
branch of his craft and has been verv successful
in winning .-11111 holding a large trade. While
sparsity of population in the region made his
progress in this enterprise somewhat slow for
awhile, it was steady and kept laying an ever
increasing- scope of country under tribute to
his forage, as he applied both brain and brawn
to his labor and soon demonstrated that he was
intelligent in it as well as industrious. Mis
shop is now one of the valued institutions in
the industrial life of the town and enjoys a
PROGRESSll'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
95
wide and a high reputation. Game was
abundant when he settled here and the wild
country, undeveloped as it was. furnished
freely and abundantly many of the necessities
of life and some of its luxuries, so that while
work was hard and its returns were slow, a
comfi >rtal>le living was not difficult to get. Fra-
ternally Mr. Clark belongs to the Odd Fellows
and the Woodmen 01 the World. Politically
he has always supported the Democratic party
with ardor. He was married on December 18,
[886, t<> Miss Nellie Fisk, a native of Wiscon-
sin, and the daughter of A. Fisk, a sketch of
whom appears on another page of this work.
They have five children. DeEtte, Delilah. Ter-
relia. Trevinia and Leneve.
CHRISTOPHER BLEWITT.
With a decided bent for the line of useful-
ness to which he was born, and which bis
father successfully followed before him. Chris-
topher Blewitt. the active, capable and popular
treasurer of Routt county, was engaged in it
for many years in his native land and in
various parts of this country to which he came
from his native Cornwall. England, in 1867
at the age of nineteen. He was born on Feb-
ruary 26, 1848, the son of Henry and Jane
Blewitt. also natives of England, where the
father was a successful and prosperous miner,
and where both parents and one of their three
children died, leaving Christopher and Henry
the only survivors of the family. The section
in which he lived, the nature of his surround-
ings and the early death of his parents deprived
him of almost all educational advantages, but
he had a native force of mental endowment
and a spirit of inquiry and investigation which
in large part supplied the deficiency, and made
him what he is now. a man of extensive and
accurate general information. After the death
of his parents, which occurred during his child-
hood, he found a home with other relatives and
worked in the mines of count)' Cornwall, Eng- ■
land, until he reached the age of nineteen. He
then, in [867, emigrated to the United States,
and soon after his arrival found congenial and
profitable employment in the copper mines of
the Lake Superior region in Michigan. Pie
remained there until the autumn of 1868, then
became a resident of Colorado, locating in
Gilpin county, where he prospected, worked
leased mining properties and worked in the
mines for wages until 1872. In that year he
sold his Colorado interests and moved to Cali-
fornia, engaging in mining at North Bloom-
field. Nevada county. After six months of suc-
cessful operations there he changed his resi-
dence to the state of Nevada, and until the fall
• ■f 1874 worked in the old Comstock camp at
Virginia City with profitable returns, then re-
turned to California and until July, 1875, fol-
lowed mining with energy ami success. By this
time his long residence in mining camps and
his arduous labors in various kinds of mining
atmospheres began to seriously impair his
health and. going to San Francisco, he was laid
up seven months with a serious illness. After
his recovery he again turned to mining - and fol-
lowed for eight years longer the voice of the
gold excitements, now in Eureka county,
Nevada, then at Tuscarora in the same state,
afterward at Silver City, Idaho, then in Lemhi
county, that state, and finally on the East Fork
of the Salmon and Wood rivers, seeking always
good opportunities for his favorite vocation
and seldom failing to find them. In the fall
of t883 he moved to Routt county, this state,
and took up a homestead in the canyon between
Hayden and Steamboat Springs. This was
known as the Blewitt ranch and here he was
actively and prosperously engaged in ranching
and raising stock until moi. Pie made all the
improvements on his ranch and built up there
an extensive business in ranching and the stock
9 6
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
industry which marked him as one of the most
enterprising and progressive men in the trade,
as he had been one of the most resourceful and
successful mining men prior to that time. In
1 901 he sold his ranch and cattle to Adair &
Solant, of Hayden, and was elected to the
office of county treasurer, which he is still hold-
ing. He is a pronounced Republican in politics
and belongs to the Odd Fellows and the Knights
of Pythias in fraternal life. In September.
[S71. he was married to Miss Anna E. Jones,
who died on the 22d of September, 1879, and
on July 2, 1 891, he contracted a second mar-
riage, being united on this occasion with Miss
Kate Harrington, a native of Plymouth. Dev-
onshire, England. Mr. Blewitt is universally
popular, prominent in the public life of his
county, recognized as a man of great useful-
ness in promoting every interest of value, and
held in the highest esteem as a citizen.
JOHN W. TURNER.
Born and reared in North Carolina, and
approaching the dawn of his manhood in the
time of the Civil war. when the whole section
of his nativity was prostrate and wasted by
the awful contest. John W. Turner entered
upon the stage of personal responsibility and
activity under very unfavorable auspices, and
found the shadow of that destiny over him for
many vears afterward. But although thus
handicapped at the beginning of his career, his
native force has enabled him to triumph over
all difficulties and has carried him forward in
a steadv current of progress, even though he
has suffered reverses at times and has found
his way impeded by difficulties of weight and
moment. His life began along the picturesque
Yadkin river in Yadkin county, of the Old
North state, on August 13, 1843. and owing to
the circumstances of the family and the state
of the countrv around him his educational ad-
vantages were few and meager. He remained
at home until he reached the age of twenty,
losing his mother by death in 1853. when he
was ten years old, and his father in 1864, when
lie was just twenty-one. A few months prior
to that sad event he left the sunny South for
the western frontier, and in that land of
promise and opportunity he has since had his
home. By the Platte route he freighted in and
■ nil of Denver, this state, for one year, then
turned his attention to farming and the grocery
trade in Arkansas, in which he was engaged in
that state until 1878. In that year he went to
Texas and became a factor in the great cattle
industry of that section, remaining until 1882.
when he returned to Arkansas and in the north-
western part of the state occupied himself in
raising apples with poor success for ten years.
In 1892 he moved to Jasper county, Missouri,
and for six years thereafter was busily and
profitably engaged in the grocery business. In
1898 he sold this and changed his residence
to New Mexico, hut not being pleased with the
outlook there, soon afterward came again to
Colorado and locating at Colorado Springs.
passed a year and a half in freighting between
that city and Cripple Creek, and in helping ti
build the Short Line Railroad. In the fall of
1899 he moved to Steamboat Springs. Routt
county, and opened a livery barn which lie is
Mill conducting, having by studious effort and
commendable enterprise equipped his stables
with every requirement for quick and satis-
factory service to his patrons. In 1902 he lo-
cated a ranch of one hundred and sixty acres
sixteen miles northwest of Steamboat Springs,
and to the improvement of this property he has
since given a due share of his time and energy.
He now has one hundred acres of the tract.
which he took up as a homestead, under good
cultivation and yielding large annual crops of
hay, grain and hardy vegetables. The ranch is
on Deep creek and is well watered. He has
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
made all the improvements on it and is steadily
converting it into a comfortable home for his
declining years, should he choose to pass them
there. In political affairs he supports the Re-
publican party, and fraternally he has been
connected for many years with the Masonic
order and the Odd bellows. He was married
on November 2, T869, to Miss Letitia Fort, a
native of Arkansas, and they have had eight
children, six of whom are living. Elias \\ ..
Mrs. Ettie Obenchain, Mrs. James Zering, Wil-
liam S.. James A. and Ella G. Mr. Turner is
the son of John and Susan (Miller) Turner,
natives of North Carolina who made Arkansas
their final earthly home. The father was a
farmer by occupation, a Republican in politics
and an Odd Fellow in fraternal life. Both
parents were Methodists. They had six chil-
dren, four of whom are living.
ROBERT MEADE VAN DEUSEN.
Successful and serviceable in many lines of
useful activity, prominent in business, esteemed
as a capable public official, and held in the
highest regard as a citizen of great public-
spirit and progressiveness, Robert M. Van
Deusen, of Steamboat Springs, Routt county,
has established himself in the confidence of the
community and done much in his short life
there of nine years to aid in the development
of the town and surrounding country and the
improvement of all its elements of growth and
power. He was born in Bay City. Michigan,
on December 2. 1867. and is the son of
Stewart A. and Nancy (Meade) Van Deusen.
natives of the state of New York. Down to
1893 the father was prominent as a miner,
hotel-keeper and civil engineer, employed in
many valuable works of construction, active in
improving mining methods and devices, and
enjoying a wide and well deserved reputation
as a most capable and popular boniface. In
his professional capacity as a civil engineer he
installed the water works at Bay City, built the
-renter part of the Michigan Central
Railroad between Bay City and Detroit,
and made the survey for the old Texas
& Xew Orleans Railroad. He also served
eight months in the Civil war. In [878
he moved to Colorado and followed mining in
I 'ark county until he was disabled by an ac-
cident in 1893. He now lives at Steamboat
Springs. His wife died on March 19. 1896.
( )f their three children. Walter E. died in 1880
and Alnivra R. and Robert M. are living. The
father has been a Democrat from his youth.
The son. Robert Meade, was educated in the
common and high schools at Bay City, and at
a grammer school in New York city and
Buchtel College in Akron. Ohio. He assisted
his father in his hotel and mining business, and
in addition devoted some time to assaying. In
[895 he moved to Routt county and located at
Steamboat Springs. Here he has given atten-
tion principally to ranching and the real estate
business, acquiring his ranch of one hundred
and twenty acres on Elk creek by purchase.
The tract is substantially all tillable and on it
hay and cattle are raised with great success. In
T90T Judge J. T. Shumate appointed him clerk
of the district court for Routt county, and he
is still filling the position with satisfaction to
all concerned. He is an ardent Democrat- in
politics and a blue lodge and chapter Free-
mason fraternally. Since 1903, in connection
with his official duties, he has devoted his
energies principally to the real estate business
as a member of the firm of Van Deusen &
Myler. the most reliable and energetic firm in
this line in the neighborhood of Steamboat
Springs. Both members are prominent and
successful men in other lines, and they have
put into this enterprise all the energv and high
character for which they are distinguished else-
where, and are winning a success commensur-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN CO LOR. I no.
ate with their merits, which are of a high order.
On one occasion Mr. Van Deusen was con-
nected with the Huntoon Land & Investment
Company, and was employed by it to examine
the mineral springs at Mt. Constance in the
Olympic mountains, in the state of Washing-
ton. They made the trip to the place of em-
ployment 1)}- a route from Hood's canal they
were the first white men ever to take. Mr.
Wan Deusen was married on April 29. 1891,
tn Miss Olive Slade, a native of Columbus,
Ohio. They have four children. Stewart A.,
Marion, Nancy M. and Alice: the latter died
at the age of one year.
PATRICK CULLEN.
The versatile and resourceful race of peo-
ple who inhabit the Emerald Isle have written
their salient characteristics in every history of
the world, in modern times at least, where
valor is appreciated, energy is productive,
poetry is pleasing, and sympathetic feelings en-
list attention. In works of construction also,
whatever the burden and howsoever little the
reward, they have shown their worth, all ob-
stacles yielding to their skill and readiness of
resources, and all conditions being made sub-
servient tn their requirements. Among the
conquests in which they have borne an honor-
able and highly serviceable part is the coloniza-
tion and development of America from the time
when as a new world she rose from her couch
of long slumber to greet her lord in the period
of discovers', until now when her last frontier
has yielded to the march of civilization and be-
come a portion of her wide and generous do-
main which ministers in counties'; ways to the
good of mankind. Patrick Cullen, of Routt
county, one of the makers and builders of the
Western slope in this state, belongs to that race
and has exhibited in his career many of its
most valued attributes. He was born in Ire
land on March 1, 1865, and remained in that
country until he reached the age of seventeen,
receiving in it> common schools the rudiments
of an education and sharing in the destiny of
toil and slender opportunities which it made
inevitable to its people of his class. In 1882
he migrated to Scotland and for four year c
worked on farms in that country for small
wages. Feeling all the while within him a
longing for the land of promise across the sea,
he finally, in t886. yielded to the impulse and
came to the United States, and on landing in
the city of New York determined to remain
there for a time, which he did, always finding
work because he was willing and capable to
do whatever offered in which there was no dis-
honor or want of proper remuneration. After
spending some months in the great metropolis,
lie passed a year at Jersey City in the employ
of the Erie Railroad, then, in 1888, sought a
home and a more congenial situation in the
great unsettled West, coming to Colorado and
locating in Routt county. Here he concluded
to devote himself to farming and raising cat-
tle, and to this end pre-empted a ranch of one
hundred and sixty .acres, which he improved
and afterward sold. He then took up a home-
stead which forms a part of the ranch he now
owns, which comprises two hundred and
eighty acres, one-half of which is under culti-
vation in crops usual in the neighborhood, his
principal resources being hay and cattle. He
hesitated not to go to the real frontier, being
one of the first settlers in the county, and lo-
cating here at a time when the whole country
was yet in ;i state of almost primeval wilder-
ness and free from the intrusion of the all-con-
quering white man and his lofty ambitions.
Wild game was most plentiful, wild beasts were
still numerous and defiant, and the savage pen
pies of the waste, who fed upon nature's un-
restrained bounty, were yet in possession of
the soil. He settled six miles southeast of
PROGRESSIVE MEN OE WESTERN COLORADO.
99
Steamboat Springs, and here he has erected a
tine farm, comfortably provided with good
buildings and other improvements, and
brought the reluctant land to a cheerful and
generous obedience to systematic husbandry.
The development and improvement ot the sur-
rounding country has been a matter of grave
and practical concern with him, and he ha^
labored assiduously in promoting it. omitting'
mi share of the toil and responsibility that was
properly his, and stimulating others to like in-
dustry and breadth of view by his influence and
example. He is a Democrat in political affili-
ation and has ever been warmly and serviceably
interested in the welfare of his party, and by
his zeal in this and his general attention to
public affairs, he has become widely known and
well acquainted throughout the country, every-
where being recognized as a leading man and
full of progressive spirit. His parents were
Owen and Margaret Cullen. also natives of
Ireland and after the manner of that country
prosperous farmers. They are devout mem-
bers of the Catholic church, and have carefully
reared, according to their opportunities, a fam-
ily of eight children. John. Dennis. Patrick,
Joseph, Peter. Frank. Owen and Annie. A
daughter named Elizabeth died many years
ago. Mr. Cullen has not been disappointed in
Colorado. The promise it hell out to him has
been fully realized, although the price exacted
for the benefits offered has been required in full
measure, and included plenty of hardship and
privation, arduous toil and patient waiting. He
is well pleased with the stale and loyal to its
every interest and aspiration.
SAMUEL GAINES ADAMS.
While the lessons of adversity are not al-
ways salutary, sometimes awakening and in-
tensifying humors which lie near the surface of
our being, and exciting the uncomfortable feel-
ings that spring from envy and kindred pas-
sions, they are in the main beneficial in that
they strengthen character, multiply resources
and increase self-reliance. When the burdens
laid upon us appear heavy beyond our years
and unjust in proportion to those of others, a
sense of duty is aroused and the reserve forces
of our nature are called into action, and by
their very exercise they are built up and forti-
fied. It was so in the case of the interesting
subject now under consideration. Called upon
at the early age of eleven to support himself
and assist in the support of his widowed
mother, he nerved himself for the task and in
the very effort gained new power and greater
self-confidence. And the gain thus made has
continued through life to him. enabling him t>>
meet later trials and difficulties with greater
fortitude and more extensive facilities. Mr.
Adams was born at Kingsport, Sullivan county.
Tennessee, not far from the Virginia line, on
July 6, 1862, and is the son of Joseph and
Susan (Crickenberger) Adams, natives of the
Shenandoah valley in Virginia. The father
farmed until his death, which occurred in 1863.
lie supported the Republican party in politics
and was generally esteemed a good and useful
citizen of his county and state. The mother
and their one child, Samuel G. Adams, survived
him. the mother living until September 12,
r 886. The son grew to the age of eleven with
scarcely any schooling, as he was obliged to
work at whatever he was able to do from a
very early age. In 1873 he and his mother
moved to Colorado Springs, this state, and
there he at once became connected with news-
paper work', using his spare time in attending
school. The summers of 1874. 1875 and 7870
he devoted to running cattle in the employ of
A. V. Hunter. He next moved into the moun-
tains and. in partnership with S. B. Clark,
raised cattle on the open range, being successful
at the business and making a gratifying profit
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
out of their venture. The partnership con-
tinued until the fall of 1878, when it was har-
moniously dissolved. In March, 1879. Air.
Adams, then nearly seventeen, changed his
residence to Leadville and his occupation to
prospecting and mining, 111 which he had vary-
ing success for two or three months. In May
he moved to the Tincup country, where he
mined and prospected for a year, then passed
an equal portion of time near Salida. In the
summer of 1881 he became a news agent on
the Rio Grande Railroad, and in time was
promoted to the position of conductor on this
line, remaining with the road until 1803. He
was then sent to the Columbian Exposition at
Chicago to represent the state of Colorado in
the department of natural history, exhibiting
especially the native animals and birds of the
state. After the close of the fair he returned
to Colorado and followed mercantile life at
Minturn until 1898, then selling out his in-
terests there, he mined to Routt county, locat-
ing at Steamboat Springs in July. Here he
has been continuously engaged 111 keeping a
hotel and dealing in coal lands, and was inter-
ested in the Steamboat. Sprines Pilot, a publi-
cation (levntcd to the development of the county
by making known the value, extent and char-
acter of its mineral lands, of which he makes a
special study. I lis services in this behalf have
been so valuable and so much appreciated that
he has the credit of having done more to de-
velop the county and bring its hidden wealth to
the notice of investors and into the channels of
trade than almost any other man living within
its borders. In politics he is not an active par-
tisan, but in national and state affairs supports
the Republican party. Fraternally he belongs
to the Masonic order and the Brotherhood of
Railway Conductors. On December 19, 1886,
he united in marriage with Miss Ada L.
Weaver, a native of Massachusetts reared in
Vermont.
WILLIAM W. ADAIR.
William W. Adair, of Routt county, whose
career covers several lines of active and pro-
ductive usefulness, has been successful beyond
many men who have had greater opportunities
because his natural qualifications for business
and thrift have made him so. He is a native of
McMinn county, Tennessee, born on Decem-
ber 19, 1856, and the brother of Samuel .Adair.
1 if the same count)', a sketch of whom, contain-
ing the family history, is to be seen elsewhere
in this work. He received an elementarv edu-
cation in the public schools, remaining at home
with his parents until he reached the age of
seventeen, when he took up the work of mak-
ing his own way in the world, learning his
trade as a sawyer and working at it in his
native state until 1878. He was next with the
Wason Car Works at Chattanooga for a year,
then taught school one term. In i88r he came
to Colorado and. selecting Routt count)' as his
place of abode and future efforts, located'
through homestead and pre-emption claims a
ranch of three hundred and twenty acres ten
miles west of llavden. This he improved and
on it conducted ranching and stock industries
until [888, when he sold it and moved to
Steamboat Springs, where he engaged in mer-
chandising until 1 901. He then sold his busi-
ness to A. and ( i. Whithers and purchased the
ranch he now owns, which comprises four hun-
dred acres of arable land, all of which he has
under cultivation and fruitful with good annual
crops of hay, grain, hard) vegetables and small
fruits; and there also he carries on a large and
profitable cattle business, which is his main re-
liance from the ranch. The location is five
miles south of Steamboat Springs, and the land
is of excellent quality and well supplied with
water. Mr. Adair has also made good im-
provements in the way "f many and ornate
buildings, ami the oilier necessary equipments
PROGRESS! I 'E MEN OF LIESTERN COLORADO.
of ranch work in the best style. He has proven
himself one of the progressive and tar-seeing
ranch and cattle men of the county, and in the
matter of public progress and development Min-
or its most energetic, broad-minded and
patriotic citizens. He takes an active interest
in the fraternal life of his community as a
Woodman of the World and in political affairs
as a stanch and zealous Democrat. On Janu-
ary 27. 1886. he was united in marriage with
Miss Sallie C. Harris, a native of Monroe
county, Tennessee, and a sister of John L. Har-
ris, a memoir of whom appears on another page
of this work. Although amid scenes, associ-
ations, social customs and methods of farming
far different frqm those of his youth, Mr.
Adair has shown ability to adapt himself thor-
oughly to his present conditions and surround-
ings, demonstrating the great adaptability of
the American mind, and the qualities of gen-
tility and social courtesy of his own particular
section, which make the Southern gentleman
at home everywhere and win him popularity
and high regard from all classes of people.
FRANK HULL.
Coming to Colorado in 1877. and locating
at Georgetown among the earliest settlers of
the neighborhood, without a dollar of capital,
afterward becoming the third man to locate at
Steamboat Springs, and' now one of the sub-
stantial and prosperous ranch and cattle men
of Routt county, Frank Hull shows in his
career the wealth of opportunity in this state
for thrift and energy, and justifies the estima-
tion 111 which he is held as a far-seeing, enter-
prising and ready man. He was born in Ma-
haska county. Iowa, near the city of Oska-
loosa, on July 28. 1857, his parents. Benjamin
F. and Nancy (Shilling) Hull, who were born
and reared in Pennsylvania, having made that
portion of the Mississippi valley their home
soon after their marriage. The father was a
farmer and prosperous at the business, with
some of its reverses intersprinkled with his
prosperity. He was a Republican in political
allegiance and both he and his wife were mem-
bers of the Christian church. The mother
died in 1865 and the father in 1894. They had
three children, two of whom are living, Mrs.
William Shoeberlein and Frank. The latter re-
ceived a common and high-school education,
and at the age of fifteen began to make his own
living by working on farms near his home for
wages. After pursuing this means of advance-
ment for a few years he began to farm for
himself, and continued to do so in his native
state until 1874. then moved to Kansas, where
he clerked in a hardware store in Lyon county
and completed his education. In 1877 he came
to Colorado and. locating at Georgetown, found
employment in a saw-mill tor two years. At
the end of that period be moved to Leadville,
and after following the same vocation there a
few months returned to Georgetown, where be
again engaged in it until 1882. He then con-
ducted a sheep ranch on the plains for a time
and in the winter of T883 worked in the Rio
Grande Railroad shops at Denver. In March.
1SS4, he took up a ranch in Routt county on
a pre-emption claim, and after making some
improvements on it sold it to William W.
Adair in 1901. After that he located another
ranch, of which he has since sold all but one
hundred and twenty acres, the whole body of
which is arable and under cultivation. Here
he is peacefully established and carrying on a
profitable stock industry, running both cattle
and horses, and raising good crops of hay. grain
and vegetables. His location, five miles south
of Steamboat Springs, is one of the best in
this part of the county, and is well supplied
with water and improved with good buildings.
He also owns the Onyx Hotel at the Springs
and a number of promising- coal claims. In
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
political relations he is a confirmed Socialist.
On July 27, 1877. he was married to Miss Ruse
S.uttle, a native of Lyon county, Kansas. They
have had six children, of whom Ethel, Victor
and an infant have died, and Cora B.. Horace
and Beulah are living.
JOHN GKIL.
Born at Pfalze. on the hanks of the historic
Rhine, and reared there to the age of eleven,
and now one of the well settled and enterpris-
ing ranchmen of Routt county, John Geil has
wandered far from the home of his childhood,
and in his wanderings has covered many miles
of travel and engaged in many occupations at
different places widely separated. But endowed
with an energy and willingness to work that
is characteristic of his race, he has found in
every place something to do and has well and
cheerfully performed his task, uninviting and
unprofitable as it has sometimes been. But
though reverses come in the life of an indus-
trious and resourceful man, they cannot keep
him down, or very long or materially retard
his progress. Mr. Geil first saw the light of this
world on March 24. 1831, the son of Francis
J. am! Katharine B. (Keller) Geil. who were
also natives of Germany, and who, when he
was eleven years old, left the picturesque and
progressive but somewhat over-crowded
fatherland and sought a new home where their
hopes might have more room to expand and
flourish in this country, coming hither in 1842
and settling near Waverly, Ohio, which was
their final location. The father was an in-
dustrious and well-to-do farmer and both par-
ents belonged to the Catholic church. The
mother died in 1863 and the father in 1869.
Of their five children John and Christina are
living, and of the three who are dead Michael
( '.., who was a member 1 if the Fourth 1 or Fifth )
Ohio Cavalry, was wounded by a piece of a
shell while in Sherman"s march to the sea dur-
ing the Civil war. and finally died from the
effects in 1S77; one died in infancy; and \nna
M. passed away at a more advanced age. John
attended school two or three years in his native
land, hut after reaching this country was soon
obliged to go to work, and from that time until
he reached his legal majority hail almost no op-
portunity to pursue his studies; and since he has
keen a man life has been too exacting in labor
for him to renew them except in the form of
desultory reading, so that he is practically a
-elf-made man. In Ohio, where he remained
until 1856, he worked on farms and at clear-
ing land six years, then became a hand in a
brick yard and a clerk in a store successively.
In 1856 he moved to Keokuk. Towa. where he
engaged in the manufacture of brick in part-
nership with Thomas Flood. They prospered
in their enterprise until the panic of 1857 de-
stroyed their market and they were obliged to
suspend operations. He then went to St. Louis,
Missouri, and again became a brick yard hand
for a few months, at the end of which he made
a trip south and parsed some time in Louisi-
ana and Mississippi cutting wood, ami also
served as watchman on a steamboat on the
Mississippi and Red rivers. In the spring of
1851) he returned to Missouri and located at
St. Joseph, wdiere he followed brick making
for a year. In the spring of i8<">o he came t"
Colorado and during the next two years vvas
variously occupied in this state, prospecting
and mining, making brick, and doing other
things as occasion required and opportunity
offered, among them hunting and trapping, and
in all meeting with ups and downs. In the fall
of [862 he enlisted in Company D. Second
Colorado Cavalry, in defense of the Union, and
in that command he serxed to the end of the
war. being discharged at Leavenworth.
Kansas, in October, 1805. Returning then to
Colorado, he mined and served as salesman in
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
t03
a store until 18O7. when he went to Cheyenne,
Wyoming, then the center of industry in the
construction of the Union Pacific Railroad.
Here he engaged in making adobe for houses
fur the workmen and new settlers until winter.
Then going to the headwaters near Sherman
Summit, he passed the time until the spring' of
[869 making ties for the Union Pacific under
contract. At the time last mentioned he again
came to Colorado, and from then until the sum-
mer of 1888 he wrought at making- brick as a
hand on the yard, as overseer for Loveland,
who had the contract for this work for the
Colorado Central Railroad, and on his own ac-
count, and also cut cord wood and mined at
intervals. In the summer of 1888 he located
his present ranch, becoming thereby one of the
early settlers of the county, especially in the
vicinity of Steamboat Springs. His ranch
comprises one hundred and sixty acres and
of the tract one hundred and fifty acres can be
cultivated, and Mr. Ceil has omitted no effort
required on bis part to make the most of it.
His principal crop is hay, which he raises m
large quantities of excellent quality. The im-
provements on the place have all been made
by him and they are worth}- of his effort. The
ranch is six miles south of Steamboat Springs.
in a locality well favored by nature and mak-
ing rapid progress under the industry of a very
enterprising people. In the politics of this
country Mr. Ceil -Ties with the Democratic
party, and in its fraternal life is connected with
the order of Odd Fellows. He was married on
February 17. 1N57. to Miss Man Miller, a
native of Chillicothe, Ohio. She died in the
autumn of 1857.
CHARLES H. LEIGHTON.
Inheriting from his parents a spirit of ad-
venture and conquest. Charles H. Leighton.
now peacefully settled in Routt count}- on a
good ranch three miles southwest of Yampa,
passed the years of his early manhood farm-
ing in Minnesota, Iowa, Tennessee and Wis-
consin, unsatisfied until the wild frontiei of
this state furnished food for his appetite for
danger and the more strenuous life of the
holder, where with the wild before and, around
him, and the world at his back, he has been
able to confront and subdue the untamed forces
of nature and build himself a home of comfort
and value out of the surrenders they have made.
Mr. Leighton was born on March 12, [852, in
Cowass county, New Hampshire, and moved
soon afterward with his parents to Minnesota.
He is the son of Robert and Margaret (Gib
son ) Leighton, natives of Glasgow, Scotland,
who came to the United States in early life and
took up their abode in New Hampshire. After
a residence of some little time there, desiring
to farm on a larger scale, they moved to Min-
nesota, and in that prolific region, where
bounteous harvests of cereals usually reward
the faith of the husbandman, they passed the
remainder of their lives. The father was a
blacksmith and wrought at his trade in connec-
tion with his farming operations. His wife
died in Minnesota in 1862 and he in South
Dakota in 1903. Four of their children sur-
vive them, Charles H., Arthur, Alexander and
Jane, wife of James Warington. Charles
passed the first fifteen years of his life with his
parents, and since then he has shifted for him-
self and made bis own way in the world. What
scholastic training he had was obtained in the
common schools. In 1867, when he was Inn
fifteen years old, he leased a farm in Minne-
sota, where he remained until 1870, then moved
to the vicinity of Spencer. Clay county, Iowa,
where be spent two years in farm work. In
1872 he changed his residence to Wisconsin,
hut still engaged in the same pursuit, and after-
wards followed it in Tennessee. He retained
his Iowa farm until 1893, but in 1889 he came
PROGRESSIJ'E MEX OE U'ESTERX COLORADO.
to Colorado and took up by pre-emption a por-
tion of his present ranch in Yampa valley.
This now comprises three hundred and fifty-
six acres, three hundred of which are tillable
and in a state of advanced cultivation. Here
his main resource has been hay-growing and
the cattle and horse industry, but be also raises
some grain and the vegetables suited to the
region. What the ranch is at this time it lias
been made by his own industry and skill, for it
was all in wild sage when be located on it and
without improvements of any kind, ft is favor-
ably located and well supplied with water, and
under his vigorous management is steadily in-
creasing in fruitfulness and value. Tn politics
Mr. Leighton is a Democrat, but while loyal
to his party and always eager for its success,
lie is not himself an active party worker.
Fraternally he is connected with the order of
Odd Fellows. On October \2. 1875, he was.
married to Miss Ellen J. Gould, a native of Ed-
wards count}-. Illinois. They have had four
children, three of whom are living. Mrs. Walter
l.aughlin. Ellen Jane and Charles Robert.
THOMAS P. LINDSAY.
Thomas P. Lindsay, one of the progressive
and far-seeing ranch and cattle men of Routt
county, whose well cultivated and highly im-
proved ranch of one hundred and sixty acres is
located four miles and a halt southwest of
Yampa. and who has been connected with other
enterprises of value in that section, was horn at
Louisiana, Missouri, on December 24, 1861,
and received a common-school education. From
the age of twelve he made his home with his
grandmother Booth, of Buffalo, Missouri, re-
maining a member of her household until 1880.
and during that time was an active assistant on
her farm. In 1880 he went to Xew Mexico
and secured employment as water carrier For
the workmen who were building the Rio
Grande Railroad, and after its completion as
a brakeman in its service. In the fall of that
year he joined a United States surveying party,
with which he remained nearly a year, then
came to this state and took up his residence at
Leadville. Here he followed various occupa-
tion-,, among them freighting on the Blue river
and working in the Harris Reduction Furnace.
until 18S3, when he moved to South Park,
where for six years he burned charcoal for
wages. In the year last named he located a"
ranch on which he made his home and engaged
in ranching and raising stock two years, then
in 1891. returning to Xew Mexico, he engaged
in burning charcoal for his former employer
two years. On May 15. 1893, he purchased his
present ranch, one hundred and ten acres of
which are tillable, and on which he is busily
occupied in farming and raising cattle with
good returns for his outlay of labor and care.
He holds an interest in the H. J. Hemage Mer-
cantile Company, and was one of the earliest
as he has been one of the most active promoters
of improvement in his part of the county, build-
ing the first hotel at Yampa, the one now
known as the Antlers, which he kept with suc-
cess to himself and satisfaction to its patrons
from 1899 to 1901. Politically he is an earnest
and active Democrat, and fraternally a Wood
man of the World, an Odd Fellow, a Free-
mason and a member of the Order of the East-
ern Star. He is considered one of the county's
best and most progressive citizens and is widely
popular among its people. His parents,
Thomas P. and Lucinda Lindsay, were natives
of Missouri and farmed in that state until
death, that of the mother occurring in iSSS.
and the father in 189J. Eight of their children
are living, Thomas P., John W.. Mrs. Jacob
Fry, Mrs. George Fry. Lemuel. Ira, Mrs. I..
Bird and Ovie B. Mr. Lindsay was married
May 7. 1886, in Denver, Colorado. Carefully
reared in a peaceful household, and early taught
PROGRESS!}' E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
the importance of faithful performance of duty,
Mr. Lindsay has followed the precepts of his
home life, and wherever he has lived has won
commendation and esteem by his fidelity and
capacity, his devotion to the interests of his sec-
tion of the country and his wise attention to all
the claims of a true and elevated citizenship.
JOHN FREDERICK CLARK.
Although the son of American parents.
John Frederick Clark, of Routt count}-, living
on a well improved and productive ranch of
three hundred and twenty acres twelve miles
west of Yampa, was born in Munich or Mun-
cheri, Germany, on August 16, i860, and is the
son of John E. and Caroline C. (Doty) Clark,
the former a native of Sault Ste. Marie. Michi-
gan, and the latter of Rochester, New York.
They dwelt for years at Ann Arbor. Michigan,
and when the Civil war began the father raised
a company in the Fifth Michigan Cavalry, and
from then to the close of the war. except a
period of nine months during which he was
confined in Libby prison, be was in active
service in defense of the Union. He was pro-
moted rapidly and at the close of the war was
a colonel of cavalry. After the return of
peace he took up his residence at Ann Arbor,
and took a government contract for surveying
the Sioux country, in Dakota, and then became
a professor of mathematics for a number of
years in Ann Arbor. He then was employed
in the same capacity at Yale University, in the
Sheffield School, for thirty years. He is now-
living retired on Long Meadow, near Spring-
field, Massachusetts, but his public spirit and
ardent interest in all public affairs make him
still a useful citizen, active in all undertakings
for the general welfare. Of his five children
four are living, John F., William, Mrs. Helen
Miles and Alice. The first named received only
a common-school education, and at the age of
fourteen shipped as a cabin boy on a merchant
vessel. He was so employed for more than a
year, and in 187O, when he was but sixteen, he
came to Colorado and located at Pueblo. From
there as a base of operations, he passed four
years as a range rider for P. T. Barnum and
1). \\". Sherwood, who were at the head of the
< Colorado Cattle Company. In [880 he became
associated with Prior Brothers, who bad large
cattle interests in southern Colorado and
northern Texas, serving them faithfully until
[886 in driving cattle between their several
ranches and ranges. During all this service in
both companies his hardships and dangers were
many, but nothing daunted him and the very
hazard of his occupation gave it an added zest
in his enjoyment. In 1886 he took up a part
of his present ranch as a desert claim, and he
has since added one hundred and sixty acres
by purchase, making the ranch three hundred
and twenty acres in all. It was covered with
wild sage when he took possession of it. and
from that unbroken condition he has trans-
formed it into its present state of high culti-
vation and productiveness and enriched it with
all the improvements required for his industry.
His energy and diligence here have been wisely
applied and fruitful of the best results. He
has a fine ranch and a profitable business on it,
raising immense crops of hay and numbers of
first class cattle and other stock. In political
relations he adheres to the Republican party
with fidelity and ardor, and in the campaigns
of that organization he is always an earnest
and active worker. On April 22, 1883, he was
married to Miss Georgia I). Smith, a native of
Georgia. They have had ten children, one of
whom, a son named John F., died on October
5, 1885. Those living- are Emory F... Alice,
Helen, Louisa A.. Clay A.. James E.. Thomas
S.. Caroline and Frank R. Through toil and
trial. Mr. Clark has steadily made bis way.
losing 110 foothold he once gained, and moving
[o6
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF ll'ESTERN COLORADO.
slowly at times but continuously forward
toward the goal of his desires in the state of
prosperity and consequence he now enjoys.
WILLIAM GUY JONES.
By continued effort and application, by
close attention to whatever he had in hand, by
diligent lookout for opportunities of advance-
ment and vigilant enterprise in the use of them,
William Guy Jones, of near Sidney, Routt
count\'. where he is a leading and progressive
ranch and cattle man. has achieved his success
in life and made his way to the substantial com-
fort and public consequence he enjoys. He is
a native of St. Lawrence county. New York,
born on December 31, 1835, and the son of
Harry and Nancy Jones, the former a native of
the state of New York and the latter of Canada.
The father was a soldier in the war of 1812.
After a residence of many years in New York
the parents moved to Canada where they passed
the remainder of their lives, dying there at ad-
vanced ages. The father was a machinist and
steamboat builder and was very successful and
widely known for his skill. In dominion poli-
tics he helonged to the Liberal party, and both
he and his wife were devout and prominent
Methodists. William Guy Jones is their only
surviving child and has inherited all the strong
and commendable qualities of mind and heart
that distinguished his parents. Entering on
the stage of independent action at the age of
sixteen, he has ever since been self support-
ing and has always gloried in the fact that he
owed nothing to fortune's favors or adventi-
tious circumstances. Receiving a limited educa-
tion at the common schools, lie began at an
early age to acquire mechanical skill as a ma-
chinist, carpenter and blacksmith. Then, when
he was twenty-one. leaving- home, he turned his
attention away from all of these and engaged
in business as a butcher in partnership with a
man named Fischer, the firm being Jones &
Fischer. The partnership lasted untii i860,
when a harmonious dissolution took place and
Mr. Jones associated himself with A. S. Wood
& Company, who had extensive oil interests in
Pennsylvania, of which he acquired one-third.
The business of the firm in the unctuous fluid.
which often made millionaires over night, was
large and profitable until all their plant was de-
stroyed by fire, the disaster cleaning Mr. Jones
out of even-thing. Meeting this condition with
resolute fortitude, he accepted employment in
a butcher shop at one hundred and fifty dollars
a month, and after a faithful service of six
months in this engagement he opened a grocery
of his own at Tidioute, a beautiful little town
on the Allegheny river which was once an
active oil mart. He carried on the grocery
with success for a time, then turned his atten-
tion to the oil trade again and acquired new
interests of value which after three months he
sold to a company of Des Moines, Iowa, capi-
talists. From the oil trade he turned to build-
ing a steamboat for Scribner & Company to
use Mil the Des Moines river. Flis next move
was to Boone, Iowa, where he clerked in a store
for a time, then came to Denver, this state, be-
fore it had a railroad. Here he clerked until
[868, when he bought a store for himself in
the city and during' the next two years he con-
ducted this. In 1S70 he sold his mercantile in-
terests and moved to Rocky Ford, this state.
where he pre-empted a ranch of one hundred
and sixty acres and bought one hundred and
sixty acres, on which he lived and worked until
1873. In that year he sold the ranch and
moved to Del Norte, and at that picturesque
and flourishing little town he carried on a
profitable flour and feed business lor three
months, (losing this out at the end of that
period, he took a train of twelve ox teams and
wag. ins to the San Miguel county; the fust to
enter that region. At San Miguel he opened
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
a store and kept the postoffice and from that
place as headquarters ran three trains of burn is
as pack animals to various other points. He
found this business very profitable and con-
tinued it three years, then in [879 sold it and
returned to Denver. Here he remained a short'
time, then moved to Buena Vista. Mr. Jones
was one of the first men to follow mining in-
dependently in that section, and he was very
successful in his undertakings until he quit the
industry in 1891 and located a portion of his
present ranch of three hundred and twenty
acres by a homestead claim. He has three hun-
dred acres under cultivation in hay. grain.
vegetables and small fruits, and raises cattle on
an extensive basis, and fine horses for market
in considerable numbers. For a number of
years he also owned and managed the stage
station between Yampa and Steamboat Springs.
His ranch is twelve miles south of Steamboat
Springs and one of the most beautiful in the
valley. Tt is well watered by independent
ditches and cultivated with all the vigor and
skill of which Mr. Jones, who is one of the best
farmers in his neighborhood, is capable. Mr.
Jones is an ardent Democrat in political faith,
and a prominent ami widely esteemed citizen.
He was married on December 14. 1^70. to Vli -
Phebe A. Basford. They have had seven chil-
dren, two of whi mi have died. Harry and Flor-
ence. Those living are Edward D.. Guy W.,
Cora E., Ida B. and Neva C. All the mem-
bers of the family are affiliated with the
Methodist church.
EDWIN H. McFARLAND.
Edwin H. McFarland, one of the early set-
tlers and now one of the leading ranchmen in
the neighborhood of Yampa, Routt county, was
horn near Darlington. Fayette county. Wiscon-
sin, on January 24. iS^y, and is the son of
John and Sarah A. ( McKee ) McFarland. na-
tives of Kentucky, whose final earthly home
was in Iowa, whither they moved in 1864. The
father was a successful merchant and farmer,
a zealous Democrat in politics and an active
Odd Fellow in fraternal life. They had nine
children, of whom two, Emma and Jennie, died,
and Robert A.. Samuel B.. William P., Edwin
H., John B., Charles N. and Mrs. David Bart-
lett are living. The parents were Methodists.
The mother died in 1890 and the father in 1902.
Edwin remained at home and assisted his par-
ents until he reached his legal majority, then
in 1878 began life for himself as a farmer
and stock-grower. He had received a limited
common school education, but was further pre-
pared for the battle of life by a thorough
knowledge of farming acquired on his father's
farm and under the instruction of that esti-
mable and progressive man. His farming
operations in 1878 and 1879 were not profit-
able owing to the prevalence of hog cholera,
which destroyed his stock, and the ravages of
the chinch bug, which destroyed his crops. In
1880 he moved to Colorado and located at
Breckenridge. where he devoted his energies
to prospecting and mining with lint little capital
but fair success. This he continued until 1883.
when he moved to his present location in com-
pany with nine other colonists. These men
were all good friends, and determined to de-
cide a friendly rivalry for the choice of ranch
lands by a game of cards. Mr. McFarland's
location thus secured was one of the best. He
ha- idded to lii^ original entry until he now
owns, together with his wife, eight hundred
ami eighty acres of tillable land, with a plen-
tiful supply of water, his being the second right
on the creek, and is also the sole owner of the
Roberta reservoir. Here he carries on an ex-
tensive ranching and cattle industry, hay and
cattle being his staples, and grain and vege-
tables being produced in abundance. His im-
provements are good, his land is well cultivated.
io8
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
his cattle industry is vigorously managed and
every element of profit in his work is made
serviceable. The ranch is ten miles south of
Yampa, and is widely known as one of the
most desirable in that neighborhood. Mr. Mc-
Farland is essentially a self-made man and his
standing and prosperity are the results of his
( >wn native force and industry. He is popular
throughout the county, always winning and
holding friends by his sterling worth and pleas-
ant manner, and receiving general com-
mendation for his progressiveness and enlight-
ened public spirit. In fraternal relations he is
connected with the Masonic order and the Odd
Fellows, and in political relations he is a stanch
Democrat. On October 28, 1902. he was
united in marriage with Mrs. Alice Wilson,
a native of Oak county, Missouri, at the time
a widow with two children, James and Roberta
Wilson. Mr. and Mrs. McFarland have two
children, their son Don C. having been an early
settler in this region, and Fanny A. Mr. Mc-
Farland has always been earnestly devoted to
its best interests and has given freely of his
time and energy to promote them, actively en-
gaging in all commendable undertakings for
the development and advancement of the sec-
tion, and aiding ever in arousing public senti-
ment in this behalf.
JOHN' FRANK SQUIRE.
Not until recently did the United States
do anything in the way of colonizing in for-
eign lands, and the work done by our govern-
ment in this line in the last few years came to
it as the fortune of war. Our policy until it
became necessary to vindicate our national
honor, avenge our martyred dead of the bat-
tleship "Maine." and redeem Cuba and the
Philippines from the tyranny of Spain, was to
develop the wide domain and boundless wealth
of our land by offering inducements to all the
world to come and live among us, through
libera] homestead and naturalization laws, be-
fore which all should be equal, and enjoy free-
dom from governmental oppression of every
form. And in consequence of this policy we
have seen the steady progress of civilization
westward from the Atlantic seaboard, over the
Uleghanies, through the rich alluvial sloping
in either direction from the Father of Waters,
across the stupendous Rocky mountains and on
to the shores of the Pacific, until we have well
nigh realized that three-quarters of a century
ago was hopefully prophesied for our far fu-
ture: "As the sun rises on a Sabbath morning.
the anthem of praise will begin with the hosts
on the coast of the Atlantic, be taken up by ten
thousand times ten thousand in the valley of
the Mississippi, and continued by the thousands
of thousands on the Pacific slope." Nature
gave us a boundless empire, and our hospitality
and opportunity for all mankind has magnifi-
cently developed it. In the march of progress
the subject of this review has been one of the
valiant soldiers of the mighty army, and in the
contest with nature he has borne his part as
such. His life began at St. Louis, Missouri, on
January iS. 1853. and he is the son of John
and Alary J. (Cassell) Squire, the former a
native of the state of Xew York and the latter
of Missouri. The father was a wholesale
merchant of bar iron and did well in the trade.
He was a man of prominence in the city of his
merchandising and highly respected by its peo-
ple. His political affiliation was with the Re-
publican party, but he seldom took an active
part in partisan contests. lie died in [862 and
his wife in 1875. Their son John F. is their
only surviving child. He obtained a good edu
cation in the public schools at Pittsrield. Illinois,
and at the Episcopal College of Palmyra. Mis.
souri. After completing his course he turned
his attention to the drug trade and learned the
business from its foundation by close attention
PROGRESSIIE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
.09
to its every phase and detail, following it five
years in his native city. In August, 1876, he
came to Colorado without capital, and locating
at Golden, served one year as ticket agent in the
office of the Colorado Central Railroad. The
next three years he passed as deputy county
clerk there, two years as an appointee of a
Democratic clerk, although he was a Repub-
lican. In 1881 the excitement over the rich dis-
coveries of gold at the Mountain of the Holy
Cross, in Gold Park, led him thither, and for
a year he was bookkeeper for the transportation
company at that place. In [882 he moved to
Redcliff, and in the tall of 1883 he was elected
the first count}- clerk and recorder of Eagle
count)' as the candidate of the Republican
partv. At the end of his tenure of this office,
which lasted six years, he engaged in mining
on Battle mountain, working tor others and
leasing properties for himself, and also served
as manager of the Ben Butler mines owned by
F. A. Reynolds near Canyon City . In March,
[890, he closed out his interests in Eagle
count}' ami went prospecting in British Colum-
bia, but without success. Returning to this
country, he pint in one year as assistant pay-
master for the Anaconda Mining Company, at
Butte. Montana, then nearly two as bookkeeper
for Doll Brothers in the Gypsum valley, Colo-
rado. In 1902 he was appointed deputy treas-
urer of Fremont county, this state, and served
two years. At the end of that time he became
register of the United States land office at
Glenwood Springs, and this office he is still
holding. In his wanderings through the
Rocky mountain region and Canada he suf-
fered many hardships and reverses, but 1 >n the
whole his success has been very good, and he
is one of the substantial citizens of the section.
His interest in the numerous fraternal orders
is shown by his active and zealous membership
in two of the most prominent of them, the
order of Elks and that of Freemasonrv. in the
latter of which he is of the Royal Arch degree.
( )n December 6, 1876. he united in marriage
with Miss Emily W. Scanland, a native of
Pittsfield. Illinois, who died in 1903, leaving
one child, James F. Mr. Squire is a man of
high character, great energy and ususual
ability. In all the relations of public and
private life he has exemplified the commanding
attributes of the best American citizenship, and
is well worthy of the elevated place he occupies
in public estimation.
HUBBARD WARNER GOODRICH.
This leading merchant of Eagle, whose
business capacity and enterprise have made him
successful, and whose sterling manhood and
elevated citizenship have made him universally
respected, was born far from the scenes of his
present activity, and reared to the age of seven-
teen amid conditions far different from those
which now surround him. But taught by an
exacting and exigent experience to adapt him-
self to circumstances as he found them, and
having, moreover, great native force of char-
acter and business acumen of a high order, he
has felt at home in all the trying situations of
a varied career, and made the most of his op-
portunities on every heath where lie has pitched
his tent. His life began at Pittsford. Rut-
land county, Vermont, on February 17, 1845.
and he received a good business education. His
parents. David and Sally E. (Keller) Good-
rich, were bom in Vermont and moved to the
state of New York in 1850, where they died,
the father on March 19. 1865. and the mother
in Maine in 1882. After leaving school, and
just when "manhood was darkening on his
down}- cheek." in 1862, at the age of seven-
teen, stirred by the armed resistance to the
Union on the part of the southern states, and
obeying one of the early calls for volunteers to
defend it, he enlisted in the One Hundred and
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Eighteenth New York Infantry as a private
soldier. He served until June 13, 1805, when
he was mustered out at Richmond. Virginia.
with the rank of sergeant, to which he had risen
by meritorious conduct on many a gory field.
He then learned the trade of a carpenter, and
worked at it until 1869. when he started to
keep good hotels in Vermont during the sum-
mer and in southern Florida during the win-
ter, continuing this line of occupation ten years.
In 1879 ne came to Colorado and located in
Park county. There he turned his attention to
prospecting, the almost universal occupation of
the region, and. in partnership with Dr. Gilpin
and W. K. Goodrich, discovered the Mollie
mine, which, after they sold it. proved to he
a good producer. In 1881 he moved to Eagle
county and. locating at Eagle, began working
at his trade, building many of the best dwel-
lings and business houses in the place during
the six years he devoted to the trade there.
In 1887 he was appointed postmaster at Red-
cliff. Eagle county, and he held the office until
1892. In 1886 he was elected county commis-
sioner and served three years and in 1894 ' le
was appointed county commissioner to fill a
vacancy caused by the death of William Not-
tingham, and this important office he filled for
one year with satisfaction and advantage to
the people. But prior to his appointment, that
is. in 1895. he opened a merchandising estab-
lishment at Redcliff which he conducted until
180X. In that year he sold the business and
assumed the management of the mercantile in-
terests of the Tierney Merchandise Company al
Basalt, the proprietor being the founder of the
business there. A year later he returned to
Redcliff and again started a store which he
kept on his own account until he consolidated
with the Ten-Mile Mercantile Company, the
name being changed to the Redcliff & Gilman
Mercantile Company, with which he was con-
nected until root, when he sold ids interest in
the concern. In T902 he was the candidate of
the Republican party for county treasurer, but
was defeated at the election owing to the large
adverse majority in the county, which, how-
ever, his personal popularity greatly reduced.
He then moved to Eagle and started the busi-
ness he is now conducting, a general wholesale
and retail trade in hardware, meats, groceries
and dry goods. In this he has been eminently
successful and has become the leading merchant
of the county. Politically he is a stanch Re-
publican and fraternally a devoted Freemason.
On June 3, 1886. he was married to Mi~s
Rosella A. Rugg, a native of Massachusetts,
who died on December 9, 1895. Mr. Goodrich
was married October 19. 1904. at Eagle, to
Mrs. Frances B. (Bridge) Richter, a native
of Carroll county, Indiana. Mr. Goodrich has
one brother, Willis K. Goodrich, who is now
living at New Bedford. Massachusetts. There
were eight children in his father's family, of
whom two sacrificed their lives to the Union
cause during the Civil war, and another who
served in that conflict has since died. There
are three sisters living, Mrs. E. A. Green, of
Essex Junction. Vermont; Mrs. Mary A.
Wood, of Mi. Idle Crove. New York, and Mrs.
]•".. A. Goodwin, of Garland, Maine. Their
father was a farmer by occupation, an ardent
ami active Republican in politics, and a promi-
nent and highly respected citizen.
IT. IX BROTHERS.
These three enterprising and prosperous
ranchmen and cattle-growers and excellent
citizens. Gustavus, August and Charles Clin.
are natives of Sweden, the first born on April
if«. 1863, the second on August 10. 1865, and
the third on October 2. T867. and sou of Nels
and Mary (Magnisdotter) Ulin, also natives
of Sweden, where the father died on Vugusl
:. [800, and the mother and the rest of the
PROGRESSIVE MEN OE WESTERN COLORADO.
family are still living. The father was during
his manhood foreman in extensive iron mines
and prospered in his occupation by steady in-
dustry and attention to duty. He was a mem-
ber of the Lutheran church, to which also his
widow belongs. Seven of the children born
to them are living, Nels, Victor, Ole. Louise,
and the three who are the subjects of this ar-
ticle. These three sons were all educated in
the common schools of their native land ex-
cept Charles, who had also a course in the high
school. The)- worked in the interest of their
parents until they became men, and then sever-
ally came to the United States, ( lustavus ar-
riving in Colorado in 1885. Charles in [888,
and August in 1890. Gustavus was one of the
earliest settlers in the Gypsum valley. He came
to this country on borrowed capital, and after
his arrival worked on ranches for wages, sav-
ing his money until he paid off the loan and had
enough to buy a ranch, which he did in 1890
He improved this ranch and lived on it until
1901. then sold it. Tt is located one mile east
of Gypsum in a fertile and well-favored region,
and he turned it over to its purchaser in good
condition as to tillage and with good buildings
and other necessary improvements sufficient for
present purposes. The three brothers then
together bought the ranch which they now oc-
cupy and on which they have since expended
their energies to such good purpose that it is
one of the best of its size, one hundred and
sixty acres, in Eagle county. Cattle are raised
on it extensively, and good crops of hay and
grain are produced. Nearly the whole acreage
is under cultivation, the dwelling, barn, sheds
and corrals, with fences and other improve-
ments, are such in number, extent and quality
as to meet the requirements of the situation
and to indicate the native thrift, taste and en-
terprise of its occupants. The water supply is
from independent ditches and furnishes enough
for the needs of the place at present, and there
is a means and source of increasing it as oc-
casion may demand. The brothers do the
greater part of their work, and find in the new
home which they have built up in the wilder-
ness of the western world congenial and profit-
able employment, opportunity for advancement,
freedom from restraint in thought, speech and
action, and beneficial civil institutions, that
have fully justified the expectations and hopes
which brought them hither. They have been
warmly welcomed in the region as aids in de-
velopment, and have so conducted their busi-
ness and their private lives as to win the com
mendation of their neighbors and fellow citi-
zens generally, and add substantially to the
civic, industrial and social forces of the county
in which they have cast their lot. They are
all Republicans in political affairs, and Gus-
tavus and August are Odd Fellows fraternally.
When such emigrants as these smite the rock
in our wilderness, it is no wonder that streams
of living water gush forth in refreshing
abundance — when such as they command it, the
opposing forces of nature are bound to yield a
prompt and generous obedience.
YOMAS LINDGREN.
From the land of Gustavus Adolphus and
Charles XII, of Swedenborg and Ericsson, ice-
hound but progressive and enlightened Sweden,
have come to this country and assisted in its
progress and development in many leading
ways a host of able and broad-minded men,
with brain to conceive and brawn to execute
great schemes of improvement, or carry for-
ward in steady though unostentatious advance-
ment the great work of agricultural and in-
dustrial production already in motion, and
among the latter class few if any are entitled
to more credit than the subject of this brief
article, who was born on September 18. 1854.
the son of Sockrey E. and Anna Hilda (Sul-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
livan) Lindgren, also natives of Sweden, and
life-long residents of that country, where they
were well-to-do farmers and devout members
of the Lutheran church. The mother died
about i860, and the father about 1875. They
lived in useful service to their community and
died universally respected. Four of their chil-
dren are living. Yomas. Charles P.. Adolph and
Schroegern. The first named obtained a com-
mon-school education and worked on his
father's farm until he was fifteen, then went
into the employment of the railroads and the
mining interests, remaining in his native land
until i&J/. when he came to the United States
and located in the mining regions in Michigan.
There he passed two years working in the iron
mines, then in 1879 ca u> e to Colorado, and
during the next two years was engaged in
quartz mining at Leadville. In [881 he moved
to Glenwood Springs for the benefit of his
health, and two years later located a ranch in
the Gypsum valley through a homestead claim,
and in 1888 purchased the ranch on which he
now lives, which comprises two hundred acres,
with one hundred and seventy under cultiva-
tion in hay, grain and vegetables. He has made
good and valuable improvements on the prop-
erty, which is within the town limits of Gyp-
sum and an excellent home, giving every evi-
dence that it is in the hands of a progressive
and prosperous man whose knowledge of its
requirements is sufficient to make the land
obedient to his will and whose skill and in-
dustry in applying that knowledge brings about
the best results, and proclaim him as one of the
most successful and far-seeing men in the
neighborhood. Mr. Lindgren is affiliated with
tlie People's party in political affairs, and
throughout the county of his residence he is
widely and favorably known, lie was married
March 3. [882, to Miss Anna Haiti, a native of
Norway, the daughter of Ola and Ingeborg
I Anderson") Dahl, also natives of Norway.
where they still reside. Mrs. Lindgren came
to the United States in 1887, joining friends in
Minnesota, where she remained three years.
After a visit to her parents she came to Colo-
rado and was married at Glenwood Springs.
Mr. and Mrs. Lindgren have an adopted
daughter. Engrid Solvida.
LORENZO D. HUDSON.
Through both sides of the line in the an-
cestry of Lorenzo D. Hudson, of near New-
castle, Garfield county, this state, the strain of
martial music has run almost continuously,
there being scarcely any contest from our early
history in which our country has been engaged
that members of both families have not been
prominent. Mr. Hudson was born in the state
of New York in 1854, and is the son of Horace
ami Mary (Earl) Hudson, also New Yorkers
by nativity and the children of veterans of the
war of 1812. The father of the subject moved
to Michigan in middle life and there died. He
was a farmer and was highly respected in hi-*
neighborhood. His wife died in Michigan.
Their son Lorenzo lived in Texas witlt a
brother from his childhood until he was four-
teen. His brother then started him home, but
being of a resolute disposition and wishing to
take care of himself in the world, he stop]>ed
in the Indian Territory instead of going home.
and during the next eight years lie lived there
engaged in farming. He then came to Colo-
rado and located- at Leadville, reaching that
place in 1SS0, and for three years thereafter
he was employed in hauling ore and timber.
In 1SS4 lie located the ranch on which he now
lives on Garfield creek, and since that time he
has lived on this place and devoted his energies
to improving it. developing its resources and
bringing it to an advanced state of cultivation.
It has well repaid his labors and responded
eenerouslv to his skillful husbandry, and the
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
"3
cattle industry he has carried on in connection
with lu's farming operations has become one
of the leading ones in his portion of the county.
Mr. Hudson has been prominent in educational
circles in his section, having served acceptably
as secretary of the school board for five years.
He was married in 1881 to Miss Beulah For-
sythe, and they have had two children, Horace,
who died in 1884, aged two years, and Frank-
lin. Mrs. Hudson's father. Abram Forsythe,
was a soldier on the Southern side in the Civil
war and her grandfather, also named Abram,
was in the war of 1812. Mr. Hudson had
three brothers in the Civil war, and also a
cousin who was killed at the battle of Antietam.
HANS P. OLESEN.
Coming to this country and to Colorado at
the age of nineteen, making the long journey
from his native Germany and beginning his
employment here on borrowed capital. Hans
P. Olesen, of Eagle county, who owns two
ranches in this part of the state and is one of
its most progressive and prosperous ranch and
cattle men, has in the sixteen years of his
residence here accumulated a comfortable estate
and risen to a high regard in the general es-
timation of the people around him. His success
has been based on no favors of fortune or fa-
vorable circumstances, but is the logical re-
sult of his own energy, frugality and capacity.
He was born in the fatherland on February _> 1 ,
1869. and is the son of Peter and Christina
Olesen, natives of that country and life-long
residents in it. Their forefathers lived, labored
and died there for many generations, and there
the mother of Hans also died, passing away in
1877, on April 7th. The father is stil! living
there and is prosperously engaged in farming.
Twelve years of his life were passed in Eagle
county, this state, but at the end of that period
he returned to his native land content to pass
8
the remainder of his days amid the scenes of
his childhood and youth and die with the re-
spect and esteem of his old friends and neigh-
bors. Of his offspring seven are living.
Samuel, Andrew, Fred, Hans P., Christian,
Mass and Julius. Hans obtained a fair com-
mon-school education in his native land and
remained there until he reached the age of
nineteen. The first sixteen years of his life
were passed on the paternal homestead and as
.soon as he was able he began to assist in its
work. In [885 he went to work for himself
as a farm hand in the vicinity of his home.
Three years later he determined to gratif) his
longing to enlist in the great army of industry
which was conquering the western wilderness
of our land and converted it into comfortable
and productive homes and so in 1888 he emi-
grated to the United States ami, coming at
once to Colorado, he located at Gypsum, E->gle
county, beginning life here indebted to the
kindness of friends for the price of his passage
and the means of living until he could earn
something for himself. He worked a year for
wages on a ranch, then leased one for himself
which he farmed until 1891. In that year he
took up a homestead on Brush creek, of which
he still owns one-half, having soil eighty acres
of it. He has since acquired the place of one
hundred and twenty acres on which he lives,
two miles and a half east of Eagle. Nearly
all of each ranch is under cultivation, and they
yield large annual harvests of hay, grain, vege-
tables and small fruits. His main reliance is.
however, on hay and cattle, and in these lines
he is one of the leading and most successful
producers in his neighborhood. The hard-
ships and privations, the struggles and delayed
returns of his earlier years here, while thev
were grievous and hard to bear in passing
through them, now serve only to heighten his
pleasure in his present comfort and prosperitv
and make him thankful for the determined
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
spirit which brought him hither and sustained
him until his hopes began to yieid a generous
fruitage. While building his fortunes with in-
dustry and continued labor well applied, his
uprightness, public spirit and general worth as
a citizen have established him high and firmly
in the regard and good will of the people
around him, and he is now one of the popular
and influential men in this section of the
county. In political affairs he supports the
principles and candidates of the Republican
party, and in fraternal life he is actively con-
nected with the Woodmen of the World. Al-
though not married, he maintains a domestic
establishment which is always open to the
worthy wayfarer for shelter and good cheer
dispensing with liberal hand the hospitality
which the country tendered to him in his first
years of labor on its prolific soil. In thrift,
frugality and enterprise he is a commendable
example of his countrymen; and in all the
elements of manhood, progressiveness and in-
terest in public affairs he is an exemplar of an
elevated American citizenship.
GEORGE SUMNF.R WILKINSON.
The old. old story of a youth leaving his
parental roof-tree and starting out m life for
himself armed with nothing but his energy,
determined spirit, native ability and what little
education he has been able to snatch from a
few brief terms of attendance at one of our
country schools, and seeking his fortune in the
wilderness of our vast unsettled domain, brav-
ing the dangers and enduring the hardships of
an overland journey in the wake of the setting
sun into the wilderness, then bravely entering
upon the work of clearing that for his pur-
poses, and while drawing out its venom extort-
ing benefit from the vanquished enemy, making
its mischievous torrents drudge for him. its
wild beasts useful for food, or dress, or labor,
its stubborn forces and rocks into habitation,
and thus from a small beginning building up a
comfortable estate and bringing the unpruned
and hitherto unoccupied landscape into at-
tractiveness and fruitfulness as a comfortable
home, is repeated and well illustrated in the
memoir of George Sumner Wilkinson, of Eagle
county, Colorado, who started to make his own
living at the age of nine years, and has ever
since done so. He was born near Hiawatha,
Brown county, Kansas, on August 24, 1863,
the son of Balaam and Mary (Coil) Wilkin-
son, natives of Indiana, who were among the
early settlers of eastern Kansas, where they
farmed and raised stock to the end of their
lives. the father dying there in 1864 an d tne
mother in 1873. They had five children, but
two of whom are living. Mrs. Hiram J. Ful-
ton and George S. The latter left his parents
in 1877, when he was but fourteen years old,
and came to Colorado, finding employment for
that summer on the ranch of William Brown
at Florissant, Teller county. His journey to
this state was made overland with horses and
wagons through Ellsworth. Kansas, to Colo-
rado Springs, then through Ute Pass to Breck-
enridge, where the teams and wagons were de-
posed of. The trip lasted twenty-seven days,
but the train encountered no hostile Indians
and the jaunt was uneventful. In the summer
of 1878 Mr. Wilkinson worked for wages in
the placer mines, and in the fall moved to Park
county. Afterward he spent three months in
the employ of Borden Brothers, who conducted
a feed stable on the road between Weston and
Leadville, his duty being to sell feed. He next
returned to Park county and devoted the sum-
mer of 1880 to logging and saw-milling, and
in the fall migrated into Brush Creek valley
in company with Webb Frost. Here the next
spring he pre-empted and homesteaded three
hundred and twenty acres of land, which he
PROGRESS! I'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
improved and sold, then bought his present
ranch of two hundred acres, which has water
sufficient for the cultivation of one hundred
and fifty acres, and is well adapted to hay and
vegetables, with some grain. He raises cattle
extensively and is one of the leading ranch
and cattle men of the neighborhood. When he
located here there were but three settlers in the
valley. He has made good improvements on
his ranch, which was all in wild sage when he
purchased it, and raises profitable crops. Of
course, his progress has not been one of un-
broken success. In the unusually severe win-
ter of 1890 he lost at least half of his stock.
But nothing daunted by the disaster, he has
gone on prosperously and is now well fixed and
has a place of steadily increasing value and a
business of growing magnitude. On May o.
[889, he was married to Miss Minnie Mc-
Kenzie, a native of New York state. They
have two interesting children. Clarence Ed-
mund and Edna Lillian.
MARTIN CAVANAUGH.
Born in the state of New York of [rish
parentage, and inheriting from his ancestry a
disposition to go forth into the unknown parts
of the world and conquer new kingdoms of ma-
terial and industrial wealth. Martin Cavan-
augh. who is popularly known as "Mat." one
of the enterprising and prosperous ranch and
cattle men of Eagle county, has wandered from
his parental fireside many longitudes ami
worked out his desire to win a home and a
place in the public esteem for himself. His
life began on January t. 1862. in Onondaga
county. New York, near the city of Syracuse,
and he is the son of John and Ann ( McDonald)
( "a\ anaugh. who were born in Ireland and emi-
grated to the United States soon after their
marriage, moving later to Michigan and lo-
cating in Ottawa county, where the mother
died on November 17. [901, and the father is
still living. The latter is a farmer and does
grading work under contract. He is a Demo-
crat in political connection and usually deeply
interested in the welfare of his party. Four
of the children survive the mother. James. Mrs.
Ellen J. Buswell, Mrs. Mary Bidlack and Mat.
The last named attended the common schools
near his home and the business college at Grand
Rapids, meanwhile working on the home farm,
where he remained until he reached the age of
eighteen. He then devoted several years to
railroad work as engineer and yard master in
Michigan at Grand Rapids. In 1881 he came
to Colorado, arriving at Puebloon March 13th.
and there he served as yard master for one
of the railroads until 1890. He then moved
to Custer county, where he engaged in the
cattle industry three years, or nearly that length
of time. Late in i8<)2 he moved to Mesa and
two years later to Whitewater, Mesa county,
at both places continuing his connection with
the stock industry, which he afterward con-
tinued further in Rio Blanco county, enlarging
his interests and his operations in the neighbor-
hood of Rangely until [898. In that year he
sold out there and changed his residence to
the vicinity of Carbondale. on Cattle creek.
Garfield county, where he remained until iqoo.
and then purchased his present ranch in the
Gypsum valley. This comprises three hundred
and twenty acres of tillable land, owning also
another ranch of one hundred and thirty acres,
of which ninety-five are under cultivation. His
principal products are hay and cattle which he
raises extensively in good qualities. Since be-
coming possessed of these properties he has
made many improvements on them, building
on the home place a comfortable and attractive
modern dwelling, new corrals and other neces-
sary structures. He lives four miles south of
the town of Gypsum and is one of the leading
citizens of the section, taking an active part
no
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
in matters of local improvement as a man of
progress and breadth of view and in polities
as an ardent Democrat. He was married on
November 22, 1887. to Miss Anna Brady, a
native of Galesburg, Illinois. They have had
two children. Mat and James, both of whom,
have died. Mr. Cavanaugh has mingled freely
with the Ute Indians in his wanderings and
speaks their language fluently.
SAMUEL 1'. OLESEN.
This substantial and leading citizen of the
Gypsum valley, where he carries on a prosper-
ous and profitable ranch and stock industry,
came to Colorado from his foreign home across
the ocean with about ten dollars in capital, al-
most his only worldly possession except the
clothes on his hack, and by his own industry,
frugality and capacity has advanced himself to
his present comfortable estate in this land
where opportunity is wealth if properly seized
and used, and where no artificial boundaries of
privilege restrain the aspiring spirit. He is a
In-other of Hans P. Olesen. in whose sketch on
another page the family record will be found,
lie was born on July 12. 1863. at Nordschles-
wig. Germany, where he was educated at the
state schools and learned the shoemaker's trade.
He remained in his native land working at his
trade until 1883. then emigrated to the United
States, making his headquarters at Gypsum,
Eagle county, this state. During his two years
of hard labor on the Rio Grande Railroad im-
mediately after his arrival, in which he saved
his earnings, he secured sufficient means to
join his father as a partner in ranching in the
Gypsum valley, and the partnership continued
until 1892. when he purchased the interest of
his father, who then returned to Germany.
He m >\v owns two ranches, the home place c< .111-
prising one hundred and twenty acres and the
other eighty, with sixty-five acres in each under
cultivation, the latter being located within the
town limits of Gypsum and the former two
miles south of the town. The home ranch is
well improved with a good modern dwelling
and other needed buildings, and the land in
both has been brought to a high state of de-
velopment. Hay, grain and vegetables are the
staple products, with cattle as the main reliance
for revenue. He has been very successful here
and is classed among the most enterprising
ranchmen of the region, giving close and care-
ful attention to his own affairs and taking a
serviceable interest in the affairs of the com-
munity. He is one of the stockholders in the
Eagle County French Coach and Percheron
Horse Breeders' Association, is independent in
politics and connected with the Woodmen of
the World in fraternal relations. The land he
owns was covered with wild sage when he took
possession of it. and much of it was rocky and
rugged.. He has redeemed it from this con-
dition to one of fruitfulness and value, and it
stands to his credit now among the best in the
vicinity. On October 22. 1894. he was mar-
ried to Miss Bettie Oleson. a native of Sweden.
They have been blessed with three children.
Julius. Albert and Frederick.
PETER BARTH.
Coming into the world on the banks of the
historic Rhine, in a region so beautiful that in
its midst one can almost feel the celestial soul
that lights the smile on nature's lips, l\-tcr
Barth was vet born to a destiny of toil and
poverty in his early life, and obliged to take
upon himself at the early age of fifteen the
task of making his own way in the world.
This he has done so successfully that he is
now one of the most prosperous and respected
citizens of Eagle county, with a comfortable
estate in worldly wealth and an influential voice
in all the affairs of the section in which he-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
lives. He was born on .March 14. 1847. and
after a short and irregular attendance at the
common schools, was apprenticed to a black-
smith and learned his trade with such care and
attention to its every detail that he is now con-
sidered by many persons the best blacksmith
in Colorado. He is the son of Peter and
Katharine (Barth) Barth, natives and life-long
residents of Germany, where the mother died
in 1888 and the father in 1897. They were
farmers and members of the Evangelical
church, lived useful and upright lives and at
their close were laid to rest with every demon-
stration of public esteem. The son worked at
his trade in his native land until 1871, then
hearing responsivefy the call from this coun-
try for volunteers in her great army of in-
dustrial progress which was clearing her un-
occupied lands, draining- her marshes, develop-
ing her farms and building her marts of busi-
ness and highways of travel, he emigrated to
the United States and after a residence of five
months in New York, found a more congenial
field for his enterprise in Colorado, locating
at the corner of Larimer and Thirty-fourth
streets in Denver in 1872, and there doing rail 1
road blacksmithing five months and after that
general blacksmithing until 1874. In that year
he moved to Hall's Gulch, and for a short time
smithed for the smelter, then moved on to
Middle Boulder, where he worked as a jour-
neyman in a shop of his craft until the spring
of 1X75. At that time he took up his residence
at Montezuma and opened a general black-
smith shop of his own, also building the second
hotel in the town. He remained there until
April 1. 1880, succeeding well, then moved to
Breckenridge, at that time a new and busy
camp so overcrowded with seekers for wealth
that he was obliged to sleep on the floor in a
shoemaker's shop owing to the scarcity of beds.
Here he made some money speculating and
working at his trade and remained until 1SS0.
when he came to his present location, being the
third settler in the Gypsum valley and pur-
chasing a tract of land rocky and covered with
wild sage. This he has improved and culti-
vated until it is one of the most fruitful and
attractive ranches in the valley. It comprises
one hundred and fifty-seven acres and yields
good crops. In politics he is a Republican and
in fraternal life a member of the order of Red
Men. lie was married in October. 1884, to
Miss Katharine Straundt, a native of Hanover.
Germany. They have had four children, of
whom three are living, Charles, Willie and Mrs.
George Mullen. A son named Peter was re-
moved by death some years ago.
JULIUS P. OLESEN.
This prominent business man of Eagle
county, who is the leading merchant of Gyp-
sum, is a brother of Hans P. and Samuel I'.
Olesen. sketches of whom will he found on
other pages and in them the family record ap-
pears. Me was horn in Germany on February
to. [876, where he was educated in the state
schools, being graduated in their higher
courses. In his native land also he learned his
trade as a bookbinder and worked at it until
[889, when he came to the United States ana
joined his brothers in this state. After his ar-
rival here he did all kinds of work that came
his way in order to get enough money to pur-
sue a course of business training at the State
Agricultural College, located at Fort Collins,
where he was graduated in due course. In
[892 he became associated with J. E. Mulligan
at Leadville as bookkeeper, and after remain-
ing with him seven months assumed the man-
agement of the extensive general merchandis-
ing business of F. M. Belding at Eagle, \fter
leaving that engagement he became the man-
ager for the Riley Company at Gypsum, and
conducted its affairs two years and a half. In
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
1903 he bought a store for himself at Eagle,
and on March 15, 1904. he started another at
Gypsum, conducting them separately until the
15th of the following September, when he con-
solidated them at Gypsum, where he has since
given his whole attention to the business. He
carries a complete stock of general merchan-
dise, groceries and fresh and salt meats, and
by studious attention to the needs of the com-
munity meets the requirements of a large and
growing trade in the town and throughout a
large extent of the surrounding country. On
June t<). 1904. he was married to Miss Iva
Beck, a native of Iowa, a cultured lady who
was principal of the schools at Gypsum two
years, and two years a teacher and two prin-
cipal at Poncho Springs. Mr. Olesen is em-
phatically a self-made man and his friends are
proud of the job. He meets all the require-
ments of the best American citizenship 111 a
manly and masterful way. and gives to the com-
munity in which he lives an excellent example
in all the relations of life. On all sides he is
highly respected, and in every element of
progress for the people around him he is wise.
active and helpful, deeply devoted to the in-
terests and institutions ,,f his adopted country
and doing his part in promoting their welfare.
Politically he is a Republican and fraternally
a Woodman of the World.
WILLIAM CHAPMAN.
William Chapman, the junior partner in
the ranching and cattle firm of Chapman & Son,
doing business near Glenw 1 Springs, is a
native of Michigan, born near Saginaw on
January 14. 1862. and the son of Simpson and
Julia ( Mc Wpiti ) Chapman, natives of Canada.
the father being born and reared near Niagara
Falls. They farmed in their native land with
moderate success and. thinking to better their
condition, moved to Michigan where the father
turned his attention to the lumber business, lie-
coming a contractor, with saw-mills in the
woods. He was thus engaged four years, then
passed five in association with the Otto bake
Lumber Company. In these engagements he
was successful and prosperous. In 1880 he
came to Colorado and at Golden City pros-
pected and worked as a laborer, and went
broke. He then made his way to Glenwood
Springs in 1883, at the time when the town
was being laid out and consisted of one house
and some sixty tents. He had but twenty cents
in money and his rifle was his only other pos-
session except the clothes he wore. But he
found credit and bought a supply of ammuni-
tion and started out for game. It was plentiful
then and he had no trouble in getting it in large
quantities, often making as high as twenty
dollars a day hunting for the markets. A year
and a half was passed in this way. his' success
being all the time exceptionally good. He then
opened the first livery barn at Glenwood, which
he conducted four years. At the end of that
time he rented the barn at fifty dollars a month
for a few months, then sold it at a good price
and purchased the improvements on a portion
of the ranch on which the business of the firm
composed of himself and his son William is
carried on. The first purchase covered one
hundred and sixty-six acres and one hundred
and twenty acres have been added since. < >f
the joint tract one hundred and forty acres arc
under cultivation, with good water rights to
the place, and the yield in hay. grain and other
farm products is abundant in quantity and su-
perior in quality. Cattle are also raised in
numbers, and a nourishing and profitable dairy
business is conducted during the summers. In
political matters both father and son are in-
dependent, having more regard for the general
welfare of the county and state than for al-
legiance to any parry
mother of William, di
Mrs. Chapman, the
in 1876. Five chil-
PROGRESS! I ~E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
119
dren were born in the family. A daughter
named Mary is deceased, and the four living
are: Florence, the wife of George McFail, of
Flint, Michigan; Charles, a resident of Al-
berta. Canada; Monroe, living at Denver, and
William, the immediate subject of this sketch.
All are members of the society of Friends.
William Chapman was educated in the public
schools 1 if Michigan and Canada, and after
leaving school remained in Canada until [881
working on farm- and in the lumber woods,
In the year last named he came to Colorado
and located at Golden, where he found employ-
ment on a ranch. Some time afterward he
went to Wyoming and from there to Cali-
fornia, devoting three and one-half years to
profitable employment on ranches and fruit
farms. Being pleased with Colorado, he re-
turned to the state and settled at Glen wood
Springs and soon after entering into partner-
ship with his father in business. On May jo.
1893, he was married to Miss Mabel Haff, a
native of Colorado, born in Jefferson county,
and the daughter of John and Matilda Haff
Her father was a carriage-maker and also a
carpenter and miner, lie now lives near Dil-
lon on the Blue river. His wife died on June.
t6, 1881. They had seven children. One son,
William, has died. The living are George, a
resident of Gold Hill. Oregon : Abbie, now Mrs.
Lafayette Cox. of Garfield county, this state;
.Mabel, the wife of Mr. Chapman; Harris, at
Alma. Colorado; Horace, at home with his
father; and Charles, a resident of Fairplay,
this state. Mr. and Mrs. Chapman have five
children. Eunice. Floyd. Bessie, \mos and
Nellie. The careers of the Chapmans, father
and son. forcibly illustrate the value of thrift,
industry and courageous perseverance in effort,
with clearness of vision to see and alertness to
seize opportunities, and capacity to make the
nn (St of them.
JAMES NEEDHAM.
Twenty-five years of the useful life of this
excellent citizen, prosperous ranchman, helpful
promoter and strong civic force have been
passed in Colorado, and in that period he has
met almost every form of adversity and con-
tended with almost every species of difficulty
and danger, but he has triumphed over them
all, and now, when approaching the evening
of life, and suffering from an accident which
disabled him from active pursuits, he has a
competency for all his needs, a substantial es-
tate for his heirs, and a well fixed hold mi the
esteem and confidence of his fellow men. Al-
though a Canadian by birth, he was reared in
Pennsylvania, and is thoroughly imbued with
the spirit of American institutions and ardently
devoted to every element and manifestation of
the greatness, power, uprightness and glory of
his country. His life began on April 4, 1839,
at Kingston, in the province of Ontario, where
Ins parents, Isaac and Ann Needham, located
on their arrival from their native England early
in their married life. Not long after his birth
they moved to Erie county. Pennsylvania,
where they passed the remainder of their days
engaged in the peaceful vocation of farming.
They were members of the Methodist church
and the father supported the Republican party
in politics from the time of its formation. Both
have long been dead, and eight of their nine
children survive them. These are William.
John, Hiram K.. James, living in Chicago;
[saac, at Cattle Creek, Colorado ; Silas in
Kansas City, Missouri; Elizabeth, the wife of
Hiram Weckerly, and Armantha, the wife of
Frank Heald, both also in Kansas City. James
had but little opportunity for schooling. l>eing
obliged to assist his parents on the farm from
an early age. He remained with them until
he was eighteen and worked verv hard in their
PROGRESSIVE MUX OF WESTERN COLORADO.
interest. He then began to learn the trade of
a tinsmith at Erie, Pennsylvania, and after
completing his apprenticeship moved to
( )regon, but after a short residence in that state
went east again to St. Louis. Missouri, where
he followed his trade until 1866. In that year
he changed to Wyandotte, Kansas, then went
to Texas. In the places named he was engaged
in selling implements, and losing heavily in
Texas, the general result of his operations was
poor success. On June 12, 1879, ne located at
Leadville in this state, and at once began min-
ing, first purchasing a boarding house which
he exchanged for a saloon, and then traded that
for mining property. He had a partner from
Texas named Harry Bussick, of whom he
thought well enough to give hint a one-half
interest in this property. It was a bad case of
misplaced confidence, for Bussick sold the prop-
erty tor seven thousand dollars, and immedi-
ately disappeared, and the money went with
him. Mr. Needham then sold the greater part
of some property he had at Red Cliff, and soon
after pre-empted a portion of his present ranch.
To this he added other land until he owned
f< lur hundred and eighty acres, but he has since
disposed of all his land. On this he secured ex-
cellent returns for the labor expended in hay,
grain, potatoes and other vegetables, and in
connection with his farming raised cattle and.
horses. In 1886 he met with an accident that
so disabled him that he was obliged to give up
active work, and he rented his farm. Since
then he has resided at Carbondale. Mr. Need-
ham has been an Odd Fellow since 1873, and
a firm and unwavering Democrat since the
dawn of his manhood. He was married on No-
vember 27. 1876, to Miss Cyrene Underwood,
who was born at St. Louis, Missouri, on Janu-
ary 25, 1845, the daughter of Jesse B. and
Nancy (Walton) Lnderwood, the former a
native of North Carolina and the latter of Mis-
souri. The maternal ancestors were Virgin-
ians, Mrs. Underwood's father removing to
Missouri at the age of nineteen, and passing
the rest of his life with that state as his home,
lb- made two trips across the plains in [849
with Colonel Sublett. ami on one return was
obliged to go by way of the isthmus of Panama
on account of the hostility of the Indians. He
had previously been engaged in trading in the
western counties of Missouri, and after his
second trip turned his attention to farming and
raising stock extensively and with good profits.
He and his wife were Methodists and he was a
faithful and active Democrat. The mother
died in 1867. and the father on April 20, 1876.
They were the parents of twelve children, of
whom but five are living: James W. ; Eliza.
now Mrs. William Maunder, of Kansas City;
Mrs. Xeedham : anil Charles and Joseph, also
residents of Kansas City, Missouri. Mr. and
Mrs. Xeedham have had three children. Annie
died on May. 31, 1894, and Jesse and Guy are
living.
WILBERT E. LEWIS.
Spending the earlier years of his life in the
( ireen mountains of Vermont and his later ones
in the more rugged and ambitious ones of Colo-
rado, and reared on a farm in the one state and
now conducting one in the other, a casual ob-
server would conclude that there has been but
little change in the surroundings and pursuits
of Wilbert E. Lewis, an enterprising and pros-
perous ranchman of Garfield county, located
eight miles northeast of Carbondale. But while
there is similarity in both surroundings and
occupation, the conditions in detail are widely
different. In his native state the unit of
measure for landed estates of magnitude is
small compared with that in Colorado, and the
soil, climate and other circumstances affecting
the business of farming are by no means the
same. Mr. Lewis was born in Rutland
county, Vermont, on January 20, [843. His
PROGRESSIVE MEN OE WESTERN COLORADO.
parents. Ethelbert and Pauline (Goodspeed)
Lewis, were natives of Connecticut, and set-
tled in Vermont soon after their marriage.
The}- remained in that state engaged in farm-
ing until death ended their useful labors, the
father dying in [885 and the mother in [891.
They were loyal members of the Congrega-
tional church for many years, and the father
was a stanch Republican from the foundation
of that party. Their offspring numbered four,
Oscar, of Salt Lake City; Cornelia, a resident
of Vermont, and Wilbert E. are living. An-
other son, Janus, died some years ago. Wil-
bert was educated in the public schools and at
tlie Troy Conference Academy in his native
state. After leaving school he remained at
In Hue and worked on the farm in the interest
of his parents until he reached the age of
twenty-three. He then started out to make a
way for himself in the world, and coming to
Colorado, passed two years at Blackhawk and
■Central City, working in quartz mills at five
dollars a day. He then returned to Vermont
and began manufacturing wagons, which he
continued nine years with success and profit.
Disposing of his interests in this enterprise in
1880, be came back to Colorado and settled at
Leadville. Here he started a hay and grain
business which he conducted a year and a half
with gratifying prosperity, then sold out at a
good profit. On July _'8, 1882. he moved to
bis present location and took up a pre-emption
claim, to which he has since added land and he
has also disposed of some. He now owns two
hundred acres, of which he has fifty acres under
good cultivation. The water right to the land
is of good proportions and the yield from the
tillage is abundant in quality and excellent in
quality. Hay, grain, potatoes ami hardy vege-
tables are raised and a flourishing cattle in-
dustry is carried mi. Air. Lewis is a Republican
in politics, of pronounced convictions and earn-
est activity in the sen-ice of his party. He was
married on February 6, 1886, to Miss Anna
Ellis, a native of Iowa county. Wisconsin, the
daughter of Joseph and Mary (Davis) Ellis,
the father born in Xew York state and the
mother in Wales. They settled in Wisconsin
in early life, and were successful in farming
and trading. The father was a strong Demo-
crat in political affiliations. They had four
children, of whom Mrs. Lewis is the only sur-
vivor. The father died in i860 and the mother
in [901. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis have two chil-
dren, their daughter Pauline M. and their son
Oscar W. The parents stand well in social
circles and the general estimation of their com-
munity; and they are well pleased with the sec-
tion and state in which they have cast their
lot.
ANDREW WEIR.
This progressive and enterprising business
man. successful rancher and public-spirited
citizen, who has been very prosperous in his
ranch industry and has greatly surpassed his
achievements in that line of his operations in
real estate, has had a varied career, pursuing
many lines of business and occupation and win-
ning almost unbroken success in all. He first
saw the light of this world in Minnesota on
January 4, 1856. but was reared near Kansas
City, Missouri, where his parents settled not
long after his birth. His father, William Weir,
was born in Xew York and his mother in Ohio.
The father moved to Ohio as a young man. and
after his marriage dwelt a short tune 111 Min-
nesota, then took up his residence at Kansas
City, Missouri, where he became prosperous as
a cabinetmaker and lumber merchant. Later in
life he turned his attention to farming. He
supported the Republican party in politics, and
he and his wife were members of the Methodist
church. Their family comprised nine children,
of whom a daughter named Rebecca died in
1874. The parents are both dead. The eight
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
children living are: Elizabeth, now Mrs. John
Bradley, of Oklahoma ; Sarah, now Mrs. Wil-
liam Henry- Tawney. of DeLeon. Florida; An-
drew, the subject of this sketch ; Margaret, now
Mrs. Los Brown, of Yates Center, Kansas;
Alary, now Mrs. James Rogers, of Pawnee.
Oklahoma; Cora, now Mrs. William Reed, of
Amoret, Missouri; Henry, of Stillwater, Okla-
homa; and Fred, of Louisburg, Kansas. An-
drew attended the public schools during the
winter months of a few years, and assisted his
parents until he reached his twenty-third year.
In the meantime he started to learn the black-
smith trade, but after working eighteen months
at it gave it up because he did not like the
work. He then went to work on a farm at
seventeen dollars a month and his hoard, and
continued at this until he determined to come
west in company with his brother-in-law, Wil-
liam H. Tawney. They bought some mules in
Missouri and started for Denver, where thev
arrived in due tune and without incident
worthy of note. They then took a load of flour
overland to Gunnison, where they sold the flour
and all the mules hut one team which thev re-
served to haul supplies. Their first purchase
was a ranch of two hundred and forty acres,
which adjoined the town limits and which Mr.
Weir sold at a satisfactory profit, then they
prospected for three years but without success.
At the end of this experience they returned east
to Louisburg. Kansas, and there until 1888
conducted a livery business and stock shipping
on an extensive scale. Tn this venture the suc-
cess was pronounced and the profits were large.
Mr. Weir sold out in the livery business at a
good advance on his investment, but retained
the -lock interest. Tn r88o. lie purchased laud
at Nelson, Nebraska, in partnership with T. C.
Rogers, which he held until 1893. then sold it
and moved to Cameron, Missouri, and engaged
in the real-estate business from [894 to [896.
Tn the year last named he returned to Nelson
and began feeding six hundred head of cattle
and cribbing thirty thousand bushels of corn.
He continued in this line until 1899, when he
came to Colorado a second time and bought the
Chatfield ranch near Emma. Here he followed
ranching until 1892, then sold the ranch to its
present owners. X. ( ',. Coall and W. I). Phil-
lips. He has recently purchased land near
Louisburg, Kansas, and intends to make that
his future home and farming his future occu-
pation. He belongs to the Knights of Pythias,
the Odd Fellows and the UJnited Workmen, and
in political action ardently supports the Demo-
cratic party. On June 16. tXXq. he married
Miss Lou M. Athey, a native of Farmer City,
De Witt county, Illinois, the daughter of
Daniel and Elizabeth Athey, who were born
and reared in Virginia and moved to Illinois in
early life, remaining there until death, prosper-
ously engaged in farming. The mother died in
October, 1889, and the father in May, 1893.
They were members of the Methodist church
and the parents of ten children, nine of whom
are living, one haying died in infancy. The
living are William. Henry B.. Jacob, George.
Mice. Fannie, Annie. Sallie and Mrs. Weir.
Mr. and Mrs. Weir have one child. Clyde Wil-
liam, who was horn on February 4. 1S90. Mr.
Weir is well pleased with Colorado and sees
for the state a great future. His change of
residence is due to no dissatisfaction with it.
PETER WALD.
Peter Wald. of Garfield county, a portion
nf whose ranch is within the corporate limits
of Carbondale, and who is extensively engaged
in general ranching and raising cattle, is a na-
tive of Switzerland, horn on May 28, 1834, and
descended from long lines of ancestors who
bore well their part in the history of that in-
spiring little republic in peace and war. I lis
parents were Conrad and Ursula (Margreth)
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
i-*:,
Wald, who were born and reared in Switzer-
land also. They emigrated to the United
States in 1852, and after a residence of six
years in Grant count}-, Wisconsin, moved to
Buffalo county, in the same state, and there
passed the remainder of their days in peaceful
and prosperous husbandry, and as devoted and
zealous members of the German Reformed
church. They had a family of five children,
three of whom are living- and survive their par-
ents, who departed this life, the father in 1874
and the mother in iqoo. The living children
are Jacob, and Katharine, the wife of Wieland
Allemann, both living in Buffalo county, Wis-
consin, and Peter, who is the subject of this
review. Peter was educated at the state schools
and remained with his parents assisting in the
work of the farm until be reached his thirtieth
year. He then began farming for himself in
Wisconsin, where be remained until [888,
when he came to Colorado, which at that time
was very wild and undeveloped. Me bought the
improvements on a pre-emption claim, which is
his present ranch, and has greatly developed it.
Of the two hundred acres seventy can be easily
cultivated and are in alfalfa, hay. potatoes and
other farm products and the cattle industry is
also carried on extensively. Pie is thrifty and
progressive in bis business and controls it in
such a way as to make every hour of time and
every ounce of energy count to its advantage,
and he carries the same spirit into his connec-
tion with the local affairs of the community, in
which he takes a deep and intelligent interest.
In the fall of 1863 be was married to Miss
Wary Leonhardy, and they have bad seven
children, one of whom, a son named Paul, died
on May [9, [895. The six living are : Ursula,
wife of Olaf Larsen, of Xew Castle. Colorado;
Edward J. : Anna, wife of H. C. Jessup ; Frank,
Oscar and Conrad. All the members of the
family belong to the German Reformed church,
and all the voters are independent of party con-
trol in politics.
HYRCANUS STATON.
Although made an orphan at the age of
seventeen by the death of his father. Mr. Staton
did not experience the hardships often incident
to that condition, for his father had been
thrifty and was able to leave enough for the
support and education of his children, and so
they were properly prepared for the battle of
life, and he received careful rearing at the
bands of his mother. He was born in Wayne
county, Illinois, on March 14. 1S44, and is the
son of Wesley and Elizabeth (Cisna) Staton.
the former a native of Kentucky and the latter-
of Ohio. They settled in Illinois while the In-
dians were still numerous there, and suffered
many of the privations and dangers of early
frontier life. The father was a manufacturer
of hats during the earlier portion of his life,
but in later years devoted bis energies to farm-
ing and operating a grist-mill. He was suc-
cessful in business and stood well in his com-
munity. In political relations be was an un-
compromising Democrat, and in religious faith
: Methodist, his wife also belonging to tint
church. He died in 1N51 and she in [893*
They had a family of nine children, four of
whom survive them: Elizabeth, wife of Samuel
Ellis, living near Arlington. Illinois; Hyrcanus,
living near Glemvood Springs, this state; Caleb
L., living at Oklahoma: and Franklin P.,
living at Eagle. Colorado. Hyrcanus was edu-
cated at the public schools and the Southern
Illinois College, and secured enough book-
learning to qualify him to teach school. He
began work in this line in his home county,
and continued it there thirteen years. He then,
in 1880. came to Colorado, and during the next
two years was engaged in the same pursuit at
Golden and Malta. The next three years were
passed by him in conducting a dairy at Lead-
ville. which he found to lie a profitable business,
the average price of milk during the period
being eighty cents a gallon. In 1885 he pur-
124
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
chased the squatter's right to the ranch he now
owns and operates, and which he has improved
and brought to productiveness. It is located
seven miles south of Glenwood Springs, in Gar-
field county, and comprises one hundred and
fifty-three acres, one hundred and twenty acres
being under cultivation. The water right is
g 1 and the supply sufficient, and hay, grain
and potatoes of excellent quality are produced
in abundance, and cattle are also raised ex-
tensively. Mr. Staton has, in addition to his
ranching and cattle industries, been the local
representative of the National Mutual Fire In-
surance Company of Denver for the last six
years, and has also served for a number of
years as the school furnishing agent. He was
married on November J, 1873, to Miss Mar-
garet M. Holmes, a native of Carroll county.
< )hio, but reared in Wayne county, Illinois, the
daughter of William and Martha ( Wisman )
Holmes, the father born in Pennsylvania and
the mother in Ohio. They located in Illinois in
the early days of its history and there became
prosperous farmers. The father was a man of
public-spirit and took great interest in the af-
fairs of the community in which he lived. In
Ohio he served a number of years as county
clerk and auditor. In politics he was an ar-
dent Democrat, and both were members of the
I 'resbyterian church. Four children were born
to them, Eli, Mrs. Staton, Mary, wife of Wil-
liam Westfall. of Glenwood Springs, and
George, of Canon City. The mother died in
1 Xi»7 and the father in 1885. They were Pres-
byterians. Mr. and Mrs. Staton have bad eight
children. One died in infancy and a son named
( liarles C. in more advanced life. The six
living are William F., Gertrude, wife of Mar-
cus L. Shippee. living at Emma, Colorado;
Herbie G, residing at Franklin, California;
Elbert Forest; M. Leta, a school teacher, and
( 'ana Ivan. As a business man, a public official,
a good citizen and a promoter of every com-
mendable enterprise for the advancement of
his country and section of the state, Mr. Staton
has been faithful and serviceable, and on his
demonstrated merit he has attained to a high
standing in the regard and good will of his fel-
low men. He has won success and consequence
in Colorado, and is loyal to every interest of
the state and every proper ambition of her
people.
ROBERT L. SHERWOOD
Robert 1.. Sherwood, of Carbondale, Gar-
field county, this state, is a product of the West,
and be has tried many of its various lines of
usefulness with varying success, sometimes on
the crest of an advancing wave of prosperity
ami again in the trough of a sea of deep ad-
versity. But by persistent effort and natural
ability he has at length steered his barque to
a safe harbor and is securely anchored to a sub-
stantial prosperity and an elevated place in the
regard of his fellow men. He was born at
Helena, Montana, on April r_i. 1865, where
his parents had settled a number of years lie-
fore. He is the son of Anson and Meda 1 keg-
gett) Sherwood, the father a native of Cold-
water. Michigan, and the mother of New
York state. During the Civil war the father
served as a captain in the Union army, and
was injured in the service. On his return to
Helena he conducted a hotel until bis death,
in 1S0S. After that sad event bis widow
moved her family to Georgetown, Colorado,
where she carried on a millinery business from
[869 to T872. She then removed to Denver
and opened an establishment of the same kind.
which she conducted until 1876, when she sold
out. and took up her residence in r88i at Buena
Vista, this state. Here she once more started
in the millinery business, which she carried on
until her death in January. 1882. There were
two children in the family. Clara, wife of Frank
\. Moore, of Florence, and Robert I.. The
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
son was educated to a limited extent at the pub-
lic schools, and at the age of twelve became a
helper in the clerical department of a leading
drug' store at Denver. He was next a sacker
111 a (touring-mill in the same city, and was
then in the employ of Dr. Muggins, of Denver,
and while working for bun was able to attend
school a portion of the time. Three years were
spent in his service, and at the end of that
period Mr. Sherwood engaged in market gard-
ening and found a profitable trade in the city.
In 1879 be moved to Leadville and. in part-
nership with P. J. liall and L. J. Cella, con-
ducted several peanut stands. This also
proved a profitable venture and at the end of
a year he sold his interest in the business for
six hundred dollars, lie next opened a restaur-
ant at Durango, but as the population was at
that time largely composed of outlaws who
were bad pay. be was obliged to close his doors
in a short time. Moving on. be went to Silver-
ton, but not being pleased with the outlook, he
went farther to Rico where he worked in the
mines at a compensation of three dollars and
a half a day. Here he got a financial start
again, then continued working in the mines at
Georgetown, but on bis own account. At the
end of a year be moved to Routt county and
located a ranch and devoted a year to raising
cattle. In 1884 he disposed of his interests for
two bronchos and a note for the sum of thirty
dollars, then moved to Hut Sulphur Spring-.
Here he secured a contract to carry the.
United States mails between that place and
Steamboat Springs, which he continued to do
for eighteen months. He then returned to
Georgetown and leased a mine which he
worked with moderate success until be changed
bis residence to Aspen, where he dealt in
grain and hay for a period. After that be
rented a ranch two miles and a half northwest
of Aspen, and after conducting its operations
some time, bought one of two hundred and
forty acres, which he managed until 1900, when
he sold it to Charles Wise. Soon after this he
bought the business he now owns and runs, a
livery and transfer enterprise, making the pur-
chase of H. C. Jessup. This has been very
profitable and continues to be. .Mr. Sherwood
was married on February 28, 1888, to Miss
Emma Cruikshank, a native of Chicago and
daughter of Alexander and Margaret Cruik-
shank. the former born in New York state and
the latter in Scotland. They located in Illinois
in early life and in 1S70 moved to Colorado.
The father was a carpenter and contractor, and
followed his business at various places. In
r88o they moved to Aspen, and here he con-
tinued in the industrious pursuit of his voca-
tion until be accidentally met his death in 1886.
lie belonged to the Masonic order, being the
oldest member of Aspen Lodge, and was a
Republican in politics and a Presbyterian in
church affiliation. The mother was a Congre-
gationalist. 'They were the parents of seven
children, of whom four are liAing; : .Minnie A.,
wife of Clifton Warren, of Chicago; Lottie B.,
wife of Josiah Dean, of Denver: Nellie, wife
of Mortimer Flack, of Lake Geneva, Wiscon-
sin; and Mrs. Sherwood. Mr. and Mrs. Sher-
wood have bad eight children, four of whom
have died, two passing away in infancy, Meda
on August 15, 1902, and Stella on July 10.
1900. The four living are Lottie. Robert.
Clara and Eloise.
PHILIP H. VAN CLEVE.
Born and reared on the rich alluvial soil of
Indiana, and learning the art of agriculture in
Illinois, and now practicing it successfully in
Colorado fields made fertile and productive by
his own vigorous and skillful efforts. Philip H.
Van Cleve. of the Glenwood Springs region of
Garfield county, has between the two sections
been tried by both extremes of fortune, enjoy-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
ing at times a brave and comely prosperity and
at others sounding all the depths of abject and
oppressive adversity. His life began on
August 5, 1841. in Orange county of the
Hoosier state, where his father, James Van
Cleve, also was born. His mother, whose
maiden name was Lucretia Holcomb, was a
native of Yadkin county, North Carolina.
Some time after the birth of this son the fam-
ily moved to Clay county and a year later to
Richland county, Illinois, and two years after-
ward took up their residence in Morgan county.
Illinois. There they remained until 1864. then
moved to Scott county in the same state. In
1885 the father joined his son in Colorado, the
mother having died in 1853. He followed her
to the other world on March 20. 1891.
Throughout his life he was an industrious man,
and down to the Fremont campaign in 1856
supported the Democratic party, but then he be-
came a Republican and remained one to the end
of his days. He and his wife were members
of the Methodist church. Of their children one
died in infancy, George K. was killed in 1878,
as a soldier in the regular army, and Nancy J.,
then Mrs. Fielden Gibbins, died in [892;
Perry L., of Rluemound, Illinois, Philip H..
and Marv E.. wife of David Farnam, of Zen-
obia, Illinois, are living. Philip was educated
to a limited extent at the public schools and at
an earlv age began to make his own way in
the world. At Jacksonville, Illinois, he farmed
and conducted a butchering business for a num-
ber of years with good returns for his enter-
prise and labor, lie then engaged in shelling
corn and shipping it to St. Louis, with head-
quarters at Virden, Illinois, remaining there
until t86q. when he moved to Kansas, and
after devoting some time to fanning in that
state, went to Indian Territory. From there he
made a trip to Texas, from whence he returned
to Illinois and settled in Macon county. Here
he served as clerk for his brother and Mr. ( 'lav-
pool, who were carrying on a general country
store under the firm name of Van Cleve &
Claypool. and at the end of six months bought
Mr. Claypool's interest, the firm name then be-
coming Van Cleve Brothers. In 1879 he sold
out to his brother and came to Colorado, buying
an outfit at St. Louis and making the journey
overland to Pueblo, where he arrived on May
8th. After his arrival in this state he did
various kinds of work, mining, wood-chopping
and prospecting, for a few months. The net
result of his labor in November was the sum
of twenty cents ; so he quit prospecting and
went to Leadville where he found work in the
smelter and afterward in the mines for a com-
pensation of three dollars and fifty cents a day.
In 1880 he trapped and hunted on Cattle creek
in Garfield count}', a short time, then moved to
Aspen where he served as a cook in a saw-mill
camp belonging to Andrew M. McFarland, and
received for his work sixty dollars a month and
his board. In the summer of 1881 he formed
a partnership with (ins Carlson and took a con-
tract to furnish wood for the smelter owned by
Shepard & DeWolf. The profits in this un-
dertaking were good, and the work, although
hard, was not otherwise unpleasant. In the
spring of 1882 he located one hundred and
sixty acres of his present ranch as a pre-emption
claim, to which he has since purchased addi-
tion-- until he now owns six hundred and forty
acres. On April 15, 1882. when he located on
this land all he owned was comprised in a
pony, a bridle and saddle, some blankets, a
batching outfit and an order on Mr. Cowen-
hagen for the sum of fifteen dollars. He has
prospered here and made extensive improve-
ments on his land, is sole owner of the ditch
which irrigates it. and raises good crops of the
usual farm products of this section. He has
also a flourishing cattle and dairy industry,
from which the returns are large and steadily
on the increase. The ranch is nine miles south-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
east of Glenwood Springs, in a hue agricultural
region and a delightful climate. In politics
Mr. Van Cleve is a Republican and in fraternal
life belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic,
having served over three years in Company I.
Fourteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, dur-
ing the Civil war and participating in several
important battles. In addition to his ranch he
owns real estate at Glenwood Springs.
CHARLES H. HARRIS.
Charles H. Harris, of near Carbondale,
who owns and manages one of the largest am!
richest ranches in Garfield county, is a native
of Clintonville. Clinton county. New York,
and the son of William and Catherine (Jayne)
Harris, whose history is given more at length
on another page of this work. He was born on
April r. 1852, and was four years old when
the family moved to Wisconsin. He was
reared on the paternal homestead to the age of
nineteen, assisting in the work on the farm and
attending the public schools in the neighbor-
hood when he could. In 1871 he moved to
Howard county. Iowa. He labored four years
as a farm hand for wages, then in 1S75 mi-
grated to the Black Hills in South Dakota,
where he put in five years prospecting and
mining hut without success. In [880 he came
oxer the Independence pass to Colorado, and in
partnership with Thomas Cannon built a cabin
at Aspen which was used as a supply house.
In June of that year he squatted on his present
ranch, or a portion of it. on which he after-
ward proved up as a pre-emption claim. It
comprises one hundred and fifty-eight and
three-fourths acres and was at that time a part
of the Ute reservation. He has since acquired
six hundred and forty acres additional, and
now has one of the most productive and valu-
able ranches in this whole section of the state.
It yields every variety of farm products, but is
particularly prolific in hay and potatoes of the
finest quality. In 1881 he received one hun-
dred and sixty dollars a ton for his hay crop
alone. He also raises superior cattle and
horses extensively. Owning his own water
rights and having an interest in a large out-
side ditch, he has abundant means of irrigating
his land as far as necessary, and can conduct
his farming operations with full success and
vigor. He was one of the earliest settlers in
this region and has been one of the most poten-
tial factors in its development and progress.
He brought the first wagon and the first cook-
ing st, ive into the valley, packing the latter on
horseback in sections for transportation. In
1884. in company with sixteen other men, he
built in six weeks the wagon road around the
mountain near Emma, which the builders af-
terward donated to the count)'. The men who
aided actively in this enterprise were William
H. Harris. Riece Brown, Newton Lantz.
Timothy Carey, Frank Dalton, John Cox, Pat-
rick Meeney. Edward St attacker. John Rudie,
the two I.uxinger brothers. John Cummings.
Cyrus Reed. William Hopkins and Walter
Vance. This highway has been of inestimable
service to the section and is today a gratifying
and impressive monument to the enterprise
and public spirit of its builders. At the first
election held in the region known as the Sum-
mit Mr. Harris and James Landers acted as
the judges, and the check for two dollars and
fifty cents issued to Mr. 1 [arris as compensation
for his services is still in his possession. The
election was held at Glenwood Springs. In
political thought and action Mr. Harris is in-
dependent. He was married on January to.
1886. to Miss Rosetta Noble, a native of Iowa
and the daughter of George and Marietta
(Woolsey) Noble, the former a native of
Pennsylvania and the latter of Iowa. The
father was a blacksmith and a preacher. For
a number of years he wrought at his forge
128
PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
during the week and preached on Sundays, but
later turned his attention to farming, first at
Rifle and later at Plateau, Mesa county. Five
nf their six children survive the mother, who
died in February, t862. Mr. and Mrs. Harris
have four children living, Xettie. Dora, Am-
brose V. and Clara B. Another daughter
named Ruth died some years ago.
WILLIAM W. MOORE.
As a leading and public-spirited editor of
various newspapers in different parts of the
country, William \Y. Moore, of Routt county,
now a prominent and enterprising ranch and
cattle man en Williams Fork; near Craig, has
made valuable contributions to the awakening,
direction and concentration of public sentiment
for the good of the country, and as a laborer
in various fields of enterprise in Colorado he
has been of considerable service in helping to
develop the stated resources and building up
her material interests, lie was horn at Green-
field, Indiana, on August 2, 1853, anil was edu-
cated at the graded schools of that city. \t the
aye of fourteen years he was apprenticed to
the trade of a printer, serving his apprentice-
ship in the office of the St. bonis Globe-Demo-
crat, where he worked four years. Then, in
partnership with his father, he started a paper
at Wheatland, Hickory county, Missouri,
known as the Wheatland Mirror. They were,
measurably successful in this enterprise and
sold the plant and business at a fair profit,
after which they moved to Sedalia, in the same
state, and for a year hail charge of the daily
there owned by J. F. Leach. Mr. Moore, the
younger, serving as foreman. Then father and
son together boughl the Democratic paper at
Nevada City, winch they conducted together
for a year and a half. At the end of that period
failing health induced the son to move to I iolo
rado, 1 1c to,.k up his residence at ( Georgetown,
where lie remained until rSj5 engaged in a
number of different pursuits. In that year be
formed a partnership with A. Fisk in conduct-
ing saw-mills at Georgetown, in which he con-
tinued with good success until March 16, 1879.
At that time Mr. Moore journeyed on snow-
shoes to Kokomo and frotn there moved on to
Leadville. Here lie was employed for a short
time on the Reveille and Chronicle, then he
moved to the Arkansas river and took charge
of a saw-mill owned by May & King. In No
v ember, 1880. he became manager of two
saw -mills belonging to Bull & Harrison, and.
moving litem to Durango, he continued in
charge of them until August, 1881. From
Durango he went to Pueblo where he carried
a hod until October [Oth. At that time he
joined in business again with Mr. bisk and
purchasing a four-mule outfit, they moved to
Bear river. In the autumn of [882 be locate. 1
a pre-emption claim of one hundred and sixtv
acres near 1 layden. which he improved. In
the winter of [883 he moved to the vicinity of
Carbondale, where for awhile he prospected
without success. Next starting from Glen
wood Springs, he traveled on snow-shoes to
Carbondale, but be soon afterward returned to
Glenwood Springs where he passed some tune
cutting cord wood for use in burning brick. The
company for which he and eight others worked
was unable to pay its employees and thev
started for Leadville with a joint capital >>i
four dollars. At the last named town he
was variouslj employed until 1887. Fromthen
until [895 he was once more in partnership
with Mr. bisk, their enterprise during this
period beui- the slock business. In 1805 he
bought Mr. Fisk's ranch interest, and on Me
cember -'8th of that year he met with an ac-
cident while prospecting for coal, by which he
lost his left leg. lie sold the ranch he then
had in [902 at a good profit and the next year
bought the one In- now owns on Williams fork.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
This comprises three hundred and twenty acres,
of which two hundred and fifty acres are under
advanced cultivation. Here he conduct!- a
flourishing cattle industry on a large scale, in
which he finds congenial employment and ex-
cellent returns for his lahor. He takes an active
interest in puhlic affairs as a Republican and
gives the principles and candidates of his party
loyal support. He is the son of William and
Amanda (Woodworm) Wood, the former a
native of Edinburgh, Scotland, and the latter ■ f
the state of Indiana. The father was a promi-
nent physician, a graduate of the medical de-
partment of the University of Edinburg, and
at times was connected with newspaper work
in an editorial capacity. He was a man of
great public-spirit and a zealous Republican in
political faith. Both parents have been dead f< »r
a number of years. Their living children are
Edwin R.. Pinckney M., William W.. Mrs.
Belle Snyder, Mrs. Florence Agune and Mr<.
Laura S. Morris.
THE WILLIAMS BROTHERS.
This firm of leading Garfield county ranch-
men and stock-growers doing business on a
well improved and highly cultivated property in
the neighborhood of New Castle, is composed
of Seth and David H. Williams, natives of
Clinton county, Ohio, and sons of Ennion and
Scythia J. (Paris) Williams, who were born
in Kentucky and after a short residence of a
few years in Ohio after their marriage, moved
to Iowa while it was yet a territory. They
lived in Warren county, that state, until 1865
when they came overland from Plattsmouth,
Nebraska, to Denver, this state. The train
had no positive conflict with the Indians, but
was frequently threatened and obliged to line
up for defense. They heard of numerous par-
ties in their front and rear being attacked, and
as the country was full of danger they were
9
not allowed to go beyond a United States mili-
tary post unless they had at least fifty well-
armed men for their protection. They were
on the road from June to August. On arriv-
ing in this state the parents bought a ranch and
during the remainder of their lives they were
engaged in ranching and raism- stock, the lead-
ing pursuits of this section in those days. They
had eight children, four of whom are living.
William. Seth. David H. and Martha, wife of
Lash Bottom, of Black Mountain. Park county.
The father died in e88i and the mother in [89 1.
He was a prominent man in the early history
of the section and an active Democrat in.
politics. Owing to the circumstances of the
case the children had but little opportunity to
attend school and were obliged to get their
preparation for the battle of life from their
own experience. After reaching years of ma-
turity Seth. who was born on February [4.
1838. went east to Bowling Green, Clay
county. Indiana, then in 1861. the Civil war
having begun, he enlisted in Company I.
Eighty-fifth Indiana Infantry, in which he
served until he was honorably discharged on
account of sickness in 1864 and returned to
Iowa. When he arrived at Denver with his
parents he located a ranch on Cache La Poudre
ri\er. near Greeley, which comprised one hun-
dred and sixty acres, and here for a period of
sixteen years he was engaged in ranching and
raising cattle: and in connection therewith he
freighted from point to point in that portion
of the state. At the end of the time mentioned
he deeded his ranch to his mother and moved
to Breckenridge in Summit county and turned
his attention to freighting across Snowy Range.
being interested also in the Bed Rock placet-
claims. The enterprise was not profitable in
either case and. moving to Red Cliff, he de-
voted his time for a year and a half to hauling
supplies to mining camps. He then rented a
ranch and during the next two and one-half
3°
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
years was occupied in working it. In 1890 he
took up a pre-emption claim of one hundred
and sixty acres on Garfield creek, the nucleus
of the ranch of two hundred acres which he
owns in partnership with his brother David.
They have one hundred and forty acres of their
land under cultivation and produce good crops
of hay and raise large numbers of cattle. They
also raise fruit and vegetables and some horses
fur market. The ranch is nine miles southeast
1 if Xew Castle in a good agricultural and graz-
ing region and is a valuable property. Mr.
Williams belongs to the Grand Army of the
RejYublic and is a Democrat. He was married
in 1865 to Miss Margaret Richard, a native of
France. They have one child, Elmer.
David H. Williams, a younger brother
and partner of Seth, was born on July 10, 1841,
and after his arrival in Colorado in 1865 be-
came a ranchman in partnership with his
brother William at Breckenridge, and con-
tinued the relation until 1870. The partner-
ship was then dissolved by mutual consent and
David freighted for a time, after which he re-
turned to Iowa and was occupied in farming
and dealing in cattle there from the spring of
1 87 1 to 1879. In the year last named he came
to Colorado and located at Leadville. and here
he was engaged in freighting until 1886. In
1887 he sold his farm in Iowa, and in com-
pany with his brother Seth did contract work
on the Loveland and Greeley canal, and fol-
lowed various other lines of productive activity.
They made a trip to the Black Hills with a
freighting outfit, being ninety days on the
road. They also hauled railroad ties for Sar-
gent & Montrose, then to Silverton, to Breck-
enridge and to Red Cliff. Since locating the
ranch which they now own in partnership on
Garfield creek, he has been an equal partner
with his brother in all its interests. He was
married in 1864 to Miss Miriam Higgins. a na-
tive of Missouri. Thev have had six children.
four of whom died in infancy. The two living
are : Clara, wife of Asa Starbuck, of Garfield
county, and Ira, living at Des Moines, Iowa.
Mr. Williams is a zealous Democrat in political
allegiance, and both he and his brother find the
conditions of life and the opportunities for
business enterprise satisfactory in Colorado
and are devoted to the welfare of their state
and county. They are held in high esteem as
progressive men and good citizens on all sides.
RICHARD J. DUNSTAN.
This valued and extensively useful citizen
of Colorado, who is a younger brother of
Thomas Dunstan, and was for many years his
active partner in various productive enterprises
(see sketch of Thomas, elsewhere in this
work), was born in Australia on May 29, 1863,
and accompanied his parents to this country in
1872. The family lived in Kansas for a num-
ber of years, and the parents died in that state.
Richard remained at home with them until
1878, then came to Colorado and located at
Denver, where he entered into partnership
with his brother Thomas, as has been noted.
They were engaged in railroad contract work
until 1885, when they separated and Richard
conducted a hotel for two years. In 1887 he-
moved to the Williams Fork country, in Routt
county, and squatted on a claim which he pre-
empted after the survey was made. He ha-
sh-ice purchased one hundred and thirty acres
additional and now has a good ranch of two
hundred and ninety acres, of which one hun-
dred acres produce excellent crops of hay,
grain, vegetables and small fruits. His chief
resources is his cattle industry and he has an
extensive range of good grazing ground. The
improvements on the place were made by him-
self, and their character and the general con-
dition of the place show him to be a man of
good judgment, enterprise and skill. From
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
1886 to 1892 he was associated with his brother
Thomas in the ranching and stock industry, but
since the latter year they have conducted
separate industries in these lines. Richard has
been very successful in his undertakings, has
risen to prominence in the community and has
a commanding influence in the councils of the
Republican party, of which he is a devoted
member. On May 29, 1884, he was united in
marriage with Mrs. Josephine (Ferris) Hauck,
a native of Oswego, New York, and a daughter
of Norman F. and Harriett ( Simons ) Ferris,
the former a native of Canada and the latter
of New York state. They first settled in the
state of New York, having been married in
Canada, and afterward moved to Illinois, and
in 1859 to Wisconsin, where they ended their
days, the father dying in 1889 and the mother
in 1892. The father was a sailor on many
seas and the mother reared the family. Their
offspring- numbered eleven, five of whom died
in infancy or early life. The six living are
Elizabeth, Josephine, Charles, Julia. Mary and
Lucias. By her former marriage Mrs. Duns-
tan had two children. Mary and John W.. the
daughter having cTiecl in infancy. From her
marriage with Mr. Dunstan there are also two,
Augusta M. and Thomas H. The latter was
the first white boy bom en the Williams
fork. Augusta M. was one of the particularly
bright pupils at the Grand Avenue high school
in St. Louis. Missouri. She there pursued a
special course in Latin and science, and made
a high reputation as an essayist, six of her pro-
ductions being placed on exhibition at the St.
Louis World's Fair in 11)04. The subjects were
"People We Meet." "History Note Books."
''Greek Gymnastics," "Private Life of the
Greeks," "French Examination Papers," and
"Geometry Exercises." As a Colorado product
she is highly honored in this state for her
scholastic attainments anil literary ability.
DAVID C. CROWELL.
Born in Pulaski county, Virginia, on March
1, 1 84 1, at a time when the differences between
the North and the South were taking definite
form and an inevitable tendency toward the
arbitrament of the sword, by which they were
afterward settled, David C. Crowell, of Craig,
one of the enterprising and progressive
merchants of that community, grew to the age
of nineteen years in his native county amid
indications of approaching turbulence which
overshadowed every other consideration and
left him but slender opportunities for attend-
ing school or preparing himself for business.
He secured a limited education at the district
schools and remained at home with his parents,
Joseph and Mary (McLaughlin) Crowell, like
himself native Virginians, and assisted in the
work on the farm until the war cloud burst on
our unhappy country. Then, joining his for-
tunes with those of his section, he enlisted in
the Confederate army as a member of the
Fourth Virginia Infantry. Stonewall Brigade,
in which be served until April 0, 1865, when
he was mustered out as a first lieutenant. Dur-
ing bis army experience he was in almost
constant active field service, participating in
many of the leading engagements of the war
and many of its most trying marches, taking-
food when he could get it and snatching often,
at long intervals a few hours of repose from
the exacting duties in which his command
was continually occupied. He saw all forms of
hardship incident to the war except wounds
and imprisonment, and. was called on to per-
form all kinds of hazardous service. Prior to
entering the army he passed a year as fireman
on the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad, a service
also oftentimes, at that period and in that sec-
tion, fraught with peril and privation. After
the war he returned to his home and went to
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
work as a carpenter, continuing- until 1870.
when he moved to Denver, this state. Here he
spent nine years contracting- and building, then
moved to Leadville and soon afterward located
at Fen Mile, where he opened a general store
which he conducted with good success until
the fall of 1 88 1. He then sold out his interests
there and took up his residence at Frisco in
Summit count}-, where he carried on a hotel
and livery business and also served as clerk
and recorder until 1883. In that year he moved
to Bear River and located the ranch now owned
by Cary Brothers, and which they purchased
from him in 1888. After the sale of this he
changed his base of operations to Steamboat
Springs. There he ranched and devoted his
time to contracting and building with good re-
turns until 1894, then sold out and moved to
a ranch on Fortification creek, which he pur-
chased in 1893 and which he occupied until
[903, when he sold it to Charles Ranney. Since
then he has been in active personal charge of
his confectionery store at Craig, which is one
of the leading- mercantile enterprises of the
place. He was married on June 6, 1865, to
Miss Mary J. Hawthorn. They had three chil-
dren, of whom Mary E., wife of William Ger-
rish. and Walter W. are living, and .Mrs. J. D.
Ashley has died. Mr. Crow-ell is an Odd Fel-
low , a Republican in politics and belongs to
the Christian church. His parents died in Vir-
ginia some years ago.
ROBERT KIMBLEY.
The early life of Robert kunblev, now one
of the enterprising and successful ranch and
cattle men of Routt county, with two ranches
in the vicinity of Craig, was clouded over with
toil and privation. He is the son of a coal
miner and from his childhood was obliged to
work at or in the mines. It was inevitable
that there was no chance for him in the higher
walks of learning, but it seemed very hard in-
deed that he could not get an opportunitv to
secure even the rudiments of an education in
an enlightened and progressive country which
boasts of the freedom and cultivation of its
people. He was born on April 15, 1847. at
Staffordshire, England, and at the age of
seven was obliged to go to work as a helper
outside of a coal mine in which his father
worked, and two years later began to assist his
father inside the mine. Here he worked with
diligence until 1881. when he came to the
United States, without much money but with
a complete practical knowledge of coal min-
ing. He located at Casey ville. Illinois, and for
five months worked in the coal mines at that
place. In the autumn of that year he moved
to Colorado and took up his residence at Coal
Creek. Fremont count)', where he worked in
the coal mines six years for wages. In 1S87
he moved to the vicinity of Craig. Routt
county, and took up a homestead of one hun-
dred and sixty acres. lie has since bought
another ranch of the same size, ami on the two
he has two hundred and fifty acres under good
cultivation, from which he realizes first-rate
returns 111 the ordinary farm products of the
region ,iuA runs large herds of cattle. He has
put up good buildings on these places and
made each complete in equipment for ranching
and the cattle industry and comfortable as a
home. llis knowledge of coal mining has
been oi great service in this state as he has
opened well and wisely several mines of value
wherein coal is found in abundance. In 1 S f >t
he was married to Miss Jane Holder, a native
of England. They had nine children, five of
whom survive their mother, who died on Au-
gust to. [893. They are Nancy ( Mrs. Zar-
zoeter), Thomas, Jennie 1 Mrs. Martin Early),
Fannie and James. On February 3. [902, Mr.
Kimble) contracted a second marriage, being
united on this occasion with Miss Patience
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
'.V*
Holder, a sister of his first wife. Starting
with less than nothing in life, and having no
opportunities for advancement except what
he made or hewed out for himself, Mr. Kim-
bley enforces in his life work and success the
value i >f self-reliance, thrift, industry and fore-
sight in all human existence, and their especial
importance in a land like ours wherein oppor-
tunity for usefulness and progress are always
at hand when there are clearness of vision to
see them, alertness of action to seize them and
tenacity of purpose to hold on to and make
tine most of them. Among the progressive
men of western Colorado he is entitled to a
high rank, and as a worthy and serviceable
American citizen he should enjoy the respect
and good will of the people among whom he
lives and labors.
ROWLAND W. FINLEY.
The settlement and growth of Routt
county, which began scarcely more than
twenty years ago, has been rapid and in many
respects surprising in volume and vigor, and
as well in the productiveness of its forces.
But the features of the case, however conspic-
uous and striking, are in large measure easily-
explained. The county has been generously
Messed by nature in the fertility of the soil and
its adaptability to certain lines of industry, and
when the fullness of time had come it was oc-
cupied by an unusually fertile, enterprising
and capable class of people. The}' came from
many sections of our own country and many
portions of other lands, and they have assimi-
lated harmoniously and blended their merits
into a civilization at once progressive and con-
servative, combining potency and flexibility in
a marked degree, and thus preparing to meet
all requirements and conquer all difficulties.
That great hive of industry and varied wealth
of production, the state of Pennsylvania, con-
tributed its quota to the army of occupation
and conquest, and in that quota the subject
of this sketch is entitled to honorable mention,
although he is a late comer. He has at least
well maintained the reputation and standard
of the earlier arrivals, and met with proper
spirit the demands of his day as they did those
of their day. He brought to the performance
of his duties here not only a good scholastic
education, but a wisdom ripened by a fund of
general information and an experience gath-
ered in varied occupations in a number of dif-
ferent places under circumstances of great di-
versity. Mr. Finley was horn at Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, on June i. 1851. His parents
were James and Catherine (O'Neal) Finley.
the former a Pennsylvanian by nativity and the
latter horn in Vermont. The father was a
prominent merchant and miller. In the early
pari of Ins career, in company with two other
merchants, he went to Europe to purchase silks
and other fine dress goods for his trade, and
while the}' were returning with their purchases
on hoard, the ship was wrecked. The goods
and the other merchants were lost, and the
elder Finley was one of the very few of the
passengers rescued. He continued his mer-
cantile operations many years, rose to promi-
nence in business circles and in politics as a
Whig, had a high social standing, and occupied
an elevated post in the councils of the Presby-
terian church, to which he and his wife be-
longed. He died in February, 1858, and his
widow in October. i<)00. Four of their seven
children are living. John B., Byron S., Row-
land W. and Florence E. The son. Rowland
\Y.. received a good district school and college
education, a part of which he paid for out of
his own earnings, which began to accumulate
at an early age of his life. When he was thir-
teen he left his native state and came west to
Iowa, arriving at Ottumwa with but fifty
cents in money and no settled occupation in
34
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
prospect. He made his way into Marion
county, that state, and there secured employ-
ment as a farm hand, which was very wel-
come although the wages were small. In due
time he became a farmer on his own account,
remaining in Iowa until 1878, when he moved
to Kansas. During the twenty years of his
life in that state he farmed, raised stock, con-
ducted mills and became prominent in local
politics 'in the Democratic side, serving as
county commissioner, count)' clerk and as a
member of the hoard of regents of the State
Agricultural College. In 1890 he built the
City Rolling Mills at Goodland, and had also
an interest in the Colby Mills there. These
he helped to conduct with vigor and success
until the financial crash of 1893, which, to-
gether with successive droughts, occasioned
severe losses. Mr. Finley, however, continued
milling until the spring of 1897. At that time
he came to Colorado to live and located 111
Routt county. Until [900 he lived on the
ranch located by Hulett & Torrence in the
early days, and on which still stands the first
1 g 1 abin built in this part of the county.
This ranch he bought and still owns. In 1900
he purchased the ranch on which he now lives,
which adjoins the other one, the two compris-
ing two hundred and sixty acres, of which two
hundred are under cultivation. I lav and cat-
tle are his principal products, but he also raises
good crops of the other farm products grown
generally in the region. In the fraternal and
political life of the county he has taken an ac-
tive and prominent part, being a Knight-Tem-
plar Mason, and having served as county com-
missioner since J002. He was married on
December 24, 1874, to Miss Laura E. White,
a native of Licking county. Ohio, the daughter
of William W. and Levina (Hewitt) White,
the father born in Richland county. Ohio, and
the mother in Washington count). Pennsyl-
vania. They were farmers and members of
the Baptist church. Politically the father was
a Republican. He died on October 29. 1891,
and the mother is now living in Cass county,
Iowa, where they settled a number of years
ago. They had eleven children, of whom nine
are living, Daniel, Mrs. Finley, Robert E., Lin-
coln. Alice, Margaret, George T., Emma E.
and John 11. In the Finley household five chil-
dren have been born. Lavina M. died on May
9. (879, while James W.. William 1'.. Robert
I), and Mrs. Catharine Woolley are living.
LEMUEL L. BREEZE.
Lemuel L. Breeze, scholar, school teacher,
lawyer, and now a progressive and success-
ful ranch and cattle man of Routt county, living
near Craig, who has tried his h md at several
vocations and won success m greater or less
degree in all, was born in Jefferson county, Il-
linois, on June 18, 1852. He received a good
scholastic and professional education, attend-
ing the public schools, the Southern Illinois
Agricultural College, Butler University in In-
diana, Hanover College in the same state, and
the State University of Iowa, being graduated
from the law department of the last named.
In order to get this full measure of collegiate
education he taught school in Illinois and tin-
state of Washington, and after completing the
law course at the Iowa University he prac-
ticed his profession in Illinois, in [88] he be-
came a resident of Colorado, and here he prac-
ticed law in Summit county three years. In [883
he located his present ranch, three miles south-
east of Craig. The water supply is sufficient to
make a large acreage tillable, and he raises good
crop- of the usual farm products in the neigh-
borhood, lie takes an active interest 111 the
fraternal life of the country as a Freemason and
an Odd Fellow, and in its political life as an
earnest working Republican. On May [8,
[891, he united m marriage with Miss Rosella
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
35
Teagarden. They haye one child, Willard L.
Mr. Breeze is the son of Robert and Martha J.
(Downs) Breeze, who were born in Indiana
and were among the earliest settlers in Jeffer-
son county, Illinois, locating there when almost
the whole county was a wilderness. There the
mother died on April 14, 1882, and soon after-
ward the father moved to Colorado, taking up
his residence in the vicinity of Craig, Routt
county. He was an ardent Democrat until the
beginning of the Civil war. He then became
a Republican and followed the fortunes of that
party to the end of his life, which came on
February 19, 1897. He was a man of promin-
ence and influence in Illinois and also in this
state. Both parents were members of the
Christian church. They had nine children, of
whom Charles, Nancy, Robert and Mrs. W. W.
Wayman are dead, and Lemuel L.. John M.,
Lewis H., Mrs. Henry Lucas and Mrs. Sallie
C. Jackson are living.
HIRAM VAN TASSEL.
The early settlers of the West and North -
wesl of this country have been for the most
part men who were born to poverty and pri-
vation and wlic 1 learned early in life the lessons
of self-denial and self-reliance, and by taking-
care of themselves acquired readiness in
emergencies and resourcefulness under all cir-
cumstances. To this type belongs Hiram Van
Tassel, an influential citizen of Routt county,
conducting a large and profitable ranching and
cattle industry five miles east of Craig. Mr.
Van Tassel was born on March 15, [859, in
Antrim county. Michigan, and is the son of
Andrew and Adeline Van Tassel, the father a
native of Pennsylvania and the mother of Eng-
land. They became residents of Michigan in
early days and in that state they passed the re-
mainder of their lives, the mother dying in
1859 and the father on January 20. iNqo. The
father was a gunsmith and carpenter, and work-
ing at these crafts he achieved a gratifying
success. He was a Democrat in political faith
and an Odd Fellow in fraternal relations. Five
children were born in the family, only two of
whom are living, Hiram and his older brother
Charles. Hiram was obliged to look out for
himself at an early age and consequently his
opportunities for education at the schools
were very limited. Until he reached the age
of twenty years he was variously employed in
Michigan, Pennsylvania and Illinois. • In [879
he became a resident of Colorado, and, locating
at Lake City, he furnished supplies for the John
J. Crook mines under contract, continuing in
the business until he "went broke" at it in [881.
He then turned his attention to raising cattle
near the boundary line between Gunnison and
Saguache counties, and remained there so oc-
cupied until September, 1903. He then sold
the ranch of one thousand acres which he had
acquired, getting a good price for it, and moved
to the one he now occupies, which he bought.
It comprises three hundred and sixty acres .n 1
he has one hundred and fifty acres in a good
state of fertility and productiveness, raising
hay, grain, small fruits and vegetables in
abundance, but finding cattle and hay his mosi
prolific and profitable products. He is an en-
terprising and progressive citizen, and shows
an earnest interest in every phase of the de-
velopment and growth of his community. Fra-
ternally he belongs to the Woodmen of the
World, and politically he is independent. Mr.
Van Tassel was married on February 3, [887,
to Miss Lydia J. Lovell, a native of Will county.
Illinois, born on January 4. i860. They have
had four children, of whom one daughter
named Pear! died on April 3, 1896, and Olive
F.. Earl A. and Blanche P. are living. In his
long life in this state Mr. Van Tassel has had
many trials, endured many hardships and taken
part in many thrilling incidents. He witnessed
t36
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
the capture of Packer, the noted cannibal, and
helped to build the scaffold on which he was to
have been hanged. He also witnessed the
hanging of Betts and Downing, two notorious
outlaws. The last words of Downing were.
"Give me a chew of tobacco." While at work
at the smelter Mr. Van Tassel also witnessed
the shooting of his partner. George Young.
GE< >RGE VV. BOONE.
\ self-made and very successful and pros-
perous man. George VV. Boone, of near Craig,
Routt county, furnishes in his career a stirring
tribute to the value of self-reliance and perse-
vering industry, and illustrates forcibly what
it is possible for these qualities to accomplish
in such a fruitful field for effort as Colorado,
lie is a native of McMinn county. Tennessee.
born 011 July 10. [86l. The Civil war, which
was then already in progress, left that portion
of the country with all its industries paralyzed,
its commercial forces stagnant and its people
without the means to resuscitate and revitalize
its creative and productive energies at once.
It was not possible therefore for him to secure
much of an education, as family necessities de-
manded the utmost work of every able hand,
and he had therefore only a few terms of short
duration at the district schools, and these were
irregular. Until he reached his nineteenth
year he remained at home and assisted his fa-
ther on the farm. Then, seeking a better out-
look for himself, he made several trips to dif-
ferent parts of the West, in the hope of finding
a suitable location for the employment of his
energies to his own advantage. In 1885 he
took up his residence near Rawlins. Wyoming,
\\ here he found employment as stock tender for
the Overland Stage Company. The next year
he came to Colorado and homesteaded a por-
tion of his present ranch, purchasing since one
hundred and eight} acres additional, s, , that his
ranch now comprises three hundred and forty
acres. While the land at the time was wholly
wild and unimproved, he was not deterred
from the expectation of securing good results
from continued effort, and he went to work
with a will to make his property habitable In
erecting a dwelling and other necessary build-
ings, and by reducing the land to productive-
ness and increasing fertility. He has so far
succeeded that a considerable acreage brings
him good annual crops of hay, grain, vege-
tables and small fruits, and he has a main reli-
ance in a large cattle industry which thrives
on the place. While taking an active and help-
ful interest in public local affairs, and with-
holding no effort of his needed to promote
good enterprises fur the welfare of his com-
munity, he is independent in politics. On June
o. [889, he united in marriage with Miss Mar-
garet Walker, a native of Georgia. Mr.
Bi k 'lie's parents were Allen and Anna ( Hardy)
Boone, natives of North Carolina, who be-
came earl}- residents of Tennessee and passed
the remainder of their lives there, the father
dying in that state in 1885, and the mother
being still a resident thereof. Fourteen chil-
dren were born to them, five of whom died.
The nine living are Thomas. James. John. Rob-
ert. George W., Susan. Martha. Mary and
Julia. The father was an extensive farmer
and stood well in his community.
BYRON B. COOPER.
The 'subject of this brief review who is
one of the successful and progressive ranchers
and cattle men of Routt county, was born at
Des Moines. Iowa, on April T4. 1857. and is
the son of Peter and Amanda Cooper, the for-
mer a native of Delaware and the latter of Ohio.
They lived for awhile in Indiana, then moved
to Iowa when it was still a territory. Here
the father was engaged in running a stage line
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
37
for a time and afterward devoted his atten-
tion to farming. He was a member of the
•Masonic order and belonged to the Democratic
party. He died in 1858, leaving two children
to be reared and supported by his widow. The
children are Eugene E. and Byron B. At the
time of his father's death the latter was but
one year old. The circumstances of the family
and the struggle of the mother in rearing her
young family made it impossible for the son
to receive educational advantages of any magni-
tude or duration. When he was twelve years
old he began to work in his mother's interest.
and he is still doing so. He left Iowa in
1880 and came to Leadville, this state, where he
prospected without success until the fall of
1885. He then moved to the Bear river
country, in Routt county, and took up a home-
stead which is part of his present ranch. To
this he has added forty acres by purchase and
now has two hundred acres. In connection
with working this he farms his mother's ranch
of one hundred and sixty acres, which adjoins
his. They have one hundred acres under culti-
vation and use the rest for grazing purposes,
carrying on an extensive cattle business. Mr.
Cooper is very enterprising and progressive,
and manages his affairs with vigor and close
attention, seeking by all means that are proper
to secure the best returns for his labor. To the
affairs of the community in which the welfare
of its citizens is involved he gives the same
energetic and broad-minded attention. He is
a Democrat in politics and for four years
served as deputy under Sheriff Dug Eee. On
September 25, 1902. he was united in marriage
with Miss Ossa L. Haughey. who was born in
Iowa. They have one child. Maud R.
ALLEN G. WALLIH \X.
During the last twenty-two years the sub-
ject of this brief memoir has been a resident 1 if
Routt county, and during that neriod he has
borne his full share of labor and responsibility
in the development and advancement of the sec-
tion. He is a progressive and far-seeing ranch-
man, a photographer of live game of wide re-
nown and a writer of note. In each branch of
his business and in all his sports and pleasures
his wife is an active assistant and an enthusi-
astic partner with him. she being the only lady
widely noted as a successful photographer of
wild game. Mr. Wallihan was born at Fort-
ville. Rock county. Wisconsin, on June 15.
[859, and is the son of Pierce and Lucy L.
(Flower) Wallihan, natives of the state of
Pennsylvania. The father was a tailor and
farmer. In 1870 he brought his family to Colo-
rado and located at Denver. He engaged in
ranching near the city, but owing to the rav-
ages of the grasshoppers was obliged to aban-
don this venture, and then returned to his old
Wisconsin home, where he died in i8q8, hav-
ing survived his wife twenty-one years. The
father was a Republican politically, and both
he and his wife belonged to the Methodist
church. Six of their eleven children are living,
Orlando F., Dr. Samuel S., Sylvanus !•"..
George P.. Allen G. and Mary K. Allen re-
ceived his slender education in the common
schools, supplementing the lessons learned there
in the subsequent school of experience and by
general reading. He remained at home work-
ing in the interest of his parents until 1876.
then began operations for himself, working
on farms in the vicinity of his home until 1879,
when he came to Colorado and took up his resi-
dence at Leadville. Here he expended his time
and money to prospecting and mining without
success. In the fall of 1880 he moved to Colo-
rado Springs, and after passing nearly a year
there in a variety of occupations, in 1881
changed his residence to Alpine, where he again
engaged in prospecting and mining, with al-
ternate success and failure. In July. T882. he
located on a ranch in Routt county, which he
'3?
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
took up on a pre-emption claim and on which
he lived until 1885, engaged in raising horses
for market. He then homesteaded on the one
he now occupies, and in addition, in the years
1885, 1886 and 1887, leased the Ora Haley
ranch. His location is at Lay, on Bear river,
twenty-two miles west of Craig, and his ranch
comprises one hundred and sixty acres. Ac-
tively interested in the success of the Repub-
lican party, to which he yields a loyal support
and recognized as a man of force and useful-
ness in its councils, he has been the postmaster
at Lay continuously since 1885, and is said to
lie the oldest postmaster by continuous service
in the state. In addition to his ranch property
Mr. Wallihan owns an interest of magnitude
in a tract of ten thousand acres of bituminous
coal land in which the deposit is two hundred
feet thick. When he settled in this region the
whole of it was in its primeval condition of
wildness and game was very abundant. This
inspired him and his wife to cultivate their taste
for photographing and they acquired great
skill in taking pictures of wild animals in their
various attitudes and movements. They have
a fine collection of such photographs which has
so high a rank that at the Paris exposition in
1900 it secured a diploma as the finest col-
lection ever exhibited, and was awarded a
bronze medal at St. Louis in 1904 Mr. Walli-
han also published a book entitled "Camera
Shots at Big Game," an introduction to which
was written by Mr. Roosevelt, now President
of the United States. On April 11, 1885, Mr.
Wallihan was married to Mrs. Mary \. Farn-
hani. a native of Milwaukee county, Wiscon-
sin, and credited with being the first white
child born in that county. She is the daughter
of Elisha and Eliza Higgins, natives of Berk-
shire county. Massachusetts, who moved to
Milwaukee in T83;. The father, a Methodist
minister, was a carpenter in early life, and Ins
the credit of building the first house in Mil-
waukee. He served there as a justice of the
peace for many years, and in other ways was
serviceable in the local public life of the com-
munity, actively supporting the principles and
candidates of the Whig party until its dissolu-
tion. He and his wife were the parents of five
children, of whom four are living. Martha,
wife of W. H. Gildersleeve: Dr. C. W. Hig-
gins, Thomas R. Higgins, and Mrs. Wallihan.
A son named Franklin died in rqoj. The
father died in 1874 and the mother in 1883.
HENRY KITCHENS.
To keep a good livery stable, equipped with
everything required for its work, and conduct
it properly, is to be. not only a valuable serv-
ant of the public, but a real public benefactor,
s.i numerous and various functions of utility
such an institution can fill, and so necessary to
the general business and economy of the com-
munity in which it is established. In this role
Henry Kitchens, of Hayden, has served the
section of country in which he lives during the
last ten years, and his service has been esj>e-
cially necessary and valuable there, for it is far
from railroads and other means of transporta-
tion and in a sparsely settled region where
private teams are seldom available for public
use. Mr. Kitchens is a native of Clay county.
North Carolina, born on December m. [861,
in the midst of the troublous times of the Civil
war. He therefore was obliged to fore-- the
usual advantages of school training common
to Southern boys of his condition and pros-
pects, for all the industries of the section
were crushed by the iron heel of war. all the
available men were in the field where "red
battle stamps his font." the ordinal \ pursuits
of life were largely suspended for want of die
necessary force to carry them on, and the en-
ergies :it hand were taxed to their utmpsl to
feed, clothe and equip the armies and supply
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
39
the commonest necessaries of life for the wo-
men ami children left at home. After the war
the paralysis continued man}- years, and every
hand was called into service for useful labor,
so that during the childhood and youth of Mr.
Kitchens the work of the schoolmaster was
almost wholly suspended in the region of his
nativity. He had, however, closeness of ob-
servation and wisdom of application, and was
able to secure, in a measure, in the school of
experience the mental development denied him
in academic shades. Accepting with alacrity
the destiny that had befallen him, lie went to
work on farms for wages at an early age and
thereby supplied bis own wants and rendered
assistance to his parents. In his young man-
hood, and after the death of his parents left
him free to cheese a future for himself, the
West wore a winning smile to his hopes, and
in [884 he came to Colorado and. in partner-
ship with his brother, Lemuel E. Kitchens,
bought land on White river in the neighbor-
hood of Hayden. on which he lived two years
and which he helped to improve. There were
but few; settlers in this section at the time and
every man was largely dependent on himself,
without the aid of the community of effort
possible in thickly populated regions. So the
work was arduous and its returns were neces-
sarily small. In 1880 he sold his interest in
the ranch and stock to his brother, and during
the next seven years was in the employ of Wil-
liam II. Hayden. In 1894 he started the liv-
ery business at Hayden which he is now con-
ducting, and which he'has steadily enlarged in
range and patronage until he has made it one
of the leading enterprises of its kind in north-
em Colorado. He has not. however, aban-
doned the stock industry, but is actively en-
gaged in raising well-bred shorthorn cattle and
Poland-China hogs. Politically Mr. Kitchens
is a stanch Republican, and fraternally, a Free-
mason. On May 21, [893. he was married to
Miss Sarah A. Walker, a native of Georgia,
the fruit of the union being one child, Perry
W. His mother died on December 30, 1897,
and on January 31, 1901. the father married
a second wife, Miss Amanda M. Tiger, a na-
tive of the same county as himself. They
also have one child, William G. Mr. Kitchens
is the son of John and Elizabeth ( Hooper 1
Kitchens, who passed the whole of their lives
in North Carolina. They were prosperous
planters there until the war ruined everything,
and after that were able to maintain only a
moderate prosperity. Their family comprised
eleven children and nine of these are living,
Mrs. Margaret Sellars. Lemuel E., James I).,
William P., Mary A., Sarah G., Haseltine,
.Mrs. Lama Woods and Henry. The two who
died are Monroe and Mina J. The parents
were devout members of the Baptist church,
highly respected citizens of their locality, and
attentive to every duty in life. The father
died on June 24, 1865. and the mother on July
3, [874. The business done by Mr. Kitchens
with his livery outfit covers a very large ex-
tent of territory, and throughout it all he is
well known and well thought of. He is also
esteemed for his energy and wisdom in local
affairs and his earnest efforts to promote the
development and progress of his county and
all its interests.
ABRAM FISKE & SON.
This firm of enterprising and progressive
lumbermen, who are pioneers in the business
in the neighborhood of Hayden. where they
carry on extensively both in sawing and hand-
ling the products of other mills, have a large
trade and a well established reputation for cor-
rect business methods and energy and fore-
sight which meet all requirements. The
father, Abram Fiske. was born in St. Law-
rence county, New York, on December 24.
140
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
1832. He was educated at the common schools
and remained at home until he was sixteen
years of age. He then was apprenticed to the
blacksmith and machinist trades, and after com-
pleting his apprenticeship worked at his craft
m his native state until the beginning of the
( ml war. When the cloud of that sanguinary
conflict, which had long hung over our un-
happy land, enveloped it in strife, he enlisted
in defense of the Union as a private soldier.
and at its close was mustered out as a sergeant.
In 1867 he came to this state and located in
Clear Creek county. Here he helped to build
a quartz mill For the St. John Company, and
as a machinist worked in the construction and.
interest of the Burley tunnel. In 1869 he en-
gaged in the saw-mill industry, in which he
continued until 1878. He then turned his
attention to the hotel business, keeping the
Half-way House between Breckenridge and
( Georgetown. In this venture he found profit
as well as congenial employment. In 1880 he
came to Hayden, one of the three first per-
manent settlers in the region. Adair. Fiske and
I '.rock. He pre-empted a claim which he af-
terward proved up as a homestead, and on this
he ranched and raised cattle until [902, when
he sold his interests there and began to devote
all his energies to the business in which he is
now engaged. Enterprising and a leader in
all things which engage his attention, he is
credited with planting- the first successful gar-
den, building the first irrigating ditch and
reservoir, and sowing the first alfalfa seed in
Routt county. He has also successfully raised
wheat and hogs here, being among the first to
make the attempt. He continued his efforts
w ith very gratifying and profitable results in
these lines for six years. His early work in
ditching led others to follow his example and
lie may be justly considered the originator of
tin svstem that has been so extensively carried
out and has been of such great value to the
county. Oh his arrival in the county he had
in thing in the way of capital, and for a time
followed trapping foxes to get a grub stake.
and. as wild game was plentiful, he found this
enterprise very satisfactory in results. His
nearest trading point in those days was Raw-
lins, Wyoming. Fraternally Mr. Fiske is a
Master Mason, and politically he is a Repub-
lican. He is the son of Hiram and Diantha
Fiske, the former a native of Vermont and the
latter of New York. The father was a farmer
in occupation and a Whig in political alliance.
I le died in the state of New York in 1835. and
the mother reared the family. They had six
children, four of whom are living, Simon J.,
Hiram, Abram and Mrs. L. L. Hebbern, Mr
Fiske was married on July 4. 1855. to Miss
Adelaide Leonard, a native of New York.
They also had seven children, two of whom
died in infancy, and a daughter named I in-
trude at a later age. The five who are living
are DeEtta, Mrs. Nellie ('lark. Mrs. Leniiie
Ralston. Hiram and Charles. The mother died
mi November t8, 1903. Charles, who is his
father's partner in the lumber business, is a
native of St. Lawrence county. New York,
born on May 20, 1859. lie received a good
common school education, and after leaving
school began at once to take an active part in
Ins father's business and other interests. He
was married, on December 25, 1894, to Miss
Etta Frary, a native of this state, born in Doug-
las county. They have four children. Lloyd.
Rose, Veva and Hampton. Their father, now
a man of forty-three and in the full maturity <^'
his powers, is a gentleman of fine business
capacity, strict integrity and progressive ideas.
He is one of the leading citizens of his gener-
ation in his neighborhood, and has a voice of
potency and wisdom in all matters involving its
best interests and enduring welfare.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
FRANK L. HEUSCHKEL,
Tempest tossed by wind and wave on al-
most every sea, tried by almost every form of
hardship and privation, laid under conditions
of hard labor to make a living in many places.
and finding for years every sky frowning upon
him, Frank L. Heuschkel, of Garfield county,
this state, who is living near Glenwood
Springs, finds himself at last comfortably fixed
for life, owning a line property, conducting a
profitable business of magnitude, with a world-
ly competence that secures him against adver-
sity, and firmly established in the regard and
g 1 '.'.ill of the community which, during the
last nineteen years, he has helped to build up
and develop. He was born in Saxony, Ger-
many, <m December 2j, E853, and is the son of
Carl Ferdinand and Annestina ( Wedeman )
Heuschkel, of that country, where the father
was fur thirty-nine years game and wood
keeper in the employ of the government. In
r88o the parents came to the United States
and settled 0:1 the island of Saplo. near Savan-
nah, Georgia, where they soon after died
They were members of the Lutheran church,
and in business the father was very successful.
Three of their five children survive them.
Frank, .Minnie and Carl B., the last a resident
of Clarksville, Missouri. Frank L., the oldest of
those living, was educated in the state schools
of his native land and at a high grade semin-
ar}- there. < )n leaving school he desired to en-
ter the German navy, but his parents objecting
to this, he ran away from home and for three
years served as a sailor, visiting in the time
man\- countries. He then passed an examina-
tion at South Shields. England, for the position
of mate, in which capacity he afterward served
nine years. During nine months he had entire
charge of Blackbird island in the interest of
the government, his duty being to prevent ne-
groes from firing the timber used for shipbuild-
ing. He next turned his attention to fishing
and in connection with this pursuit carried
the mails between the islands of Dubois and
Blackbird, the latter being used as a quarantine
station under Dr. Elliott. In those days the
mail pouch was strapped to the back of tin-
carrier and could not be taken off until he
reached his destination. In this service he suf-
fered many hardships and confronted many
dangers I lis next engagement was as a boat-
keeper in the interest of Clancy near Dubois
island, and at the end of a year passed in that
service be concluded to come to Colorado,
and reached Leadville in 1880. He remained
in the vicinity of that town and in the adjoin-
ing county of Park until 1885, engaged in vari-
ous occupations, among them leasing mining
properties and prospecting, but without suc-
cess. He also worked at the Cummings & Fin
Company Smelter at Leadville and did some
teaming. In the spring of 1885 he located a
portion of his present ranch, a pre-emption
claim of one hundred and sixty acres, to which
he has since added by purchase until he has an
excellent property, of which about two hun-
dred and ten acres are fit for cultivation. Since
taking possession of this property he has de-
voted his energies to its development and im-
provement, and has brought much of it to an
advanced state of cultivation, producing large
crops of hay, grain and vegetables, and raising
cattle on an extensive scale and some horses
for market. In connection with his ranching
and stock industry he runs a dairy business
which is highly profitable. His success in his
latest venture has been exceptionally good and
he ranks in the general estimation as one of the
best and most prosperous ranchmen on the
Western slope. In fraternal life he belongs to
the United Workmen, in politics supports the
Democratic part}-, in official circles has been
a member of the school board, and in reference
to the general affairs of the community is one
142
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
of the most enterprising and forceful of its
citizens. On September 18, 1880. lie united
in marriage with Miss Josephine Ann Roberts,
a native of Cornwall. England, and daughter
of John and Josephine A. (Andrews) Roberts,
also natives of that country. The father fol-
lowed mining from the age of seven years to
the end of his life. He brought his family to
the United States, and after reaching New
York determined to come to Colorado. He
traveled all the way in a stage coach to Cen-
tral City, this state. In 1878 he moved to Lead-
ville, and here he entered the employ of Ting-
ley S. Woods and Judge Ward, who were pro-
moters of the Florence mine, in which Mr.
Roberts served as shift boss. He was a Re-
publican in politics, and the father of eight
children, five of whom are living: Josephine
A. (Mrs. Heuschkel); Mrs. Thomas Black-
well, of Aspen; John, living at Leadville;
James R., a resident of Garfield county; and
Elizabeth, the wife of Mr. Westbury, of Liver-
pool, England. The father died on December
15. r886, and the mother at Cornwall. Eng-
land, in April, 1901. Both were members >>\
the Methodist church. Mr. and Mrs. Heusch-
kel have had eight children. Of these. Francis
L. died on March 25, 1895; ail(1 Ellen I Mrs.
Gilmore), Joseph A., William ( )., John R.,
Bertha H., Thomas H. and Alta E. are living.
The opportunities offered them here to win
fortune and standing among the people, the de-
lightful climate, the progressive spirit of the
citizens, and the general conditions of life have
made them all well pleased with Colorado as
a place of residence.
THOMAS P. HOOKER.
Thomas P. Hooker, who is now a peaceful
and progressive ranch and cattle man of Routt
county, with a pleasant home in the vicinity
of Hayden, has been active and prominent in
the public life of this state and an energetic par-
ticipant in some of the tragedies incident to
the unsettled conditions of its earlier history.
He was born on July 4, 1849, at Bi g Flats, New
York, and is the son of Joshua and Margaret
(Reser) Hooker, natives of Delaware, who,
while living in the state of New York, were
engaged in mercantile pursuits, the father
being a lumber dealer there. He was an earn-
est Republican until 1866, then became a
Democrat and remained one until his tragic
death in 1877, in Elber county, this state, when
he was killed by desperadoes whom he was as-
sisting his son, Julius A. Hooker, then sheriff
of the county, to arrest. There were live chil-
dren in the family, three of whom are living,
Thomas P., Virginia, wife of James Whet-
stone, and Patrick H. One of the deceased,
Julius A., who died in 1901, was a prominent
man in Elbert county, serving with credit to
himself and satisfaction to the people as
sheriff, county assessor of Elbert county and
county treasurer of Routt county, holding the
last named office six years. He was a Re-
publican in politics, forcible and fearless in ad-
vocating the cause of his party, as he was in
the discharge of his official duties. A daugh-
ter named Mary died in 1864. The mother
resides with her son Thomas P. He received
a common-school education in his native state,
remaining there with his parents and working
in their interest until he reached the age of
twenty-one. From New York he moved to
Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Wisconsin in suc-
cession, and in all those states worked at his
trade as a carpenter. In 1869 ' ,e c;l|lu ' to Colo-
rado and located a ranch which he occupied and
farmed until 1877. working at his trade also
during that period. He then moved to Lead-
ville and devoted two years to mining and pros-
pecting, but without success. In 1879 he be-
came a resident of Routt county, and after
improving a ranch which he then sold to A.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
143
Pain, he bought the one on which lie now lives.
comprising eighty acres, all of which is under
cultivation in hay, grain and vegetal lies, hay
and cattle being his chief productions and main
sources of revenue from the place. Although
an old-time citizen, he is a progressive one
and his example is well worthy of emulation
by the 'younger generation. He is a Repub-
lican in political allegiance and as such served
seven and one-half years as deputy sheriff of
Elbert county. Having seen some of the
sterner features of western life, which he con-
fronted with a manly spirit, he has enjoyed
all the more the quieter fields of productive
industry in which he is now engaged, and to
them he has devoted his energies and his fund
of general information to good advantage for
himself and for the section in which he has
cast his lot, taking an active part in its develop-
ment and improvement and performing with
zeal and intelligence all the duties of good
citizenship, thereby winning an enduring hold
on the regard and good will of his fellow men.
JACOB YY. RIDER.
facob W. Rider, the first settler in the lo-
cality of his present residence, whose excel-
lent farm of one hundred and sixty acres is
wholly the result of his own continued indus-
try and skill, was born in Seneca county. Ohio,
on September 7. 1847. and is the son of Jacob
and Cornelia (Vannatta) Rider, natives of
New York, who moved early in their married
life to the virgin prairie of Ohio, and there
wrought out of the wilderness a good farm
and a comfortable estate, remaining there until
death ended their labors and rearing seven of
their nine children to maturity. Of the nine.
James and Marietta died, and Zilpaha, Electa,
Joseph D.. Jacob W., Eliza, Naomi and Eu-
phemia are living. The father died in 1864
and the mother in 1883. Jacob was reared on
the paternal homestead, educated at the public
schools, and entered on the work of making
his own living in his native county. But being
of an adventurous disposition and filled with
a desire to do wholly for himself and see some
of the world in making the effort, he left home
at the age of twenty-two- and moved to Iowa,
making his home in Tama county, with head-
quarters for business at Tama City in what is
now Tama county, remaining there until 1871,
when he moved to Kansas, where he lived ten
years. In both these states he was busily en-
gaged in farming and witli varying success.
While residing in Kansas he saw many Indians
and buffalo, but by prudence he avoided the
hostility of the former and escaped the vio~
lence of the latter. At one time, through fear
of the Indians all the other settlers in his neigh-
borhood left, he being the only white man to
remain and dare the dangers of his situation.
Rut he preserved peaceful relations with the
savages and prospered in their midst by treat-
ing them fairly. In 188 1 he disposed of his in-
terests in Kansas and became a resident of
Colorado. Locating near Evergreen, twenty-
five miles west of Denver, he engaged in min-
ing, prospecting and other occupations incident
to the time and locality until 1887. In that
year he pre-empted one hundred and sixty-
nine acres of good land in Williams Park, one
hundred and thirty acres of which he has re-
duced to abundant productiveness, raising
large crops of hay and grain and comfortably-
providing for a valuable herd of cattle of in-
creasing numbers. When he moved here his
land was without the sign of human habitation
or the ordinary conveniences of cultivated life,
and there was not a neighbor within many
miles. He planted his adventurous foot lit-
erally in the wilderness and began to make
it blossom and bear fruit for the sustenance
of man and thus opened a way for the coming
of others who looked upon the land and found
144
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO
it good, so that now he sees all around him the
firm establishment and the pleasing products
of a civilization in this region of which he was
the founder. Accepting the conditions which
he found, he became a mighty hunter and fish-
erman, and as time passed his renown in these
lines was spread and his skill increased. In
ranching also he has a wide and well fixed
reputation, many of the predominant qualities
of the soil being discovered and noted by him
in his experience for the benefit of others. As
the patriarch of the community he has been
influential in shaping its public lite and work-
ing out its development. He is a zealous work-
ing Democrat in politics, and without seeking
any of the honors or emoluments of party suc-
cess for himself. On September 29, 1868. he
was united in marriage with Miss Eliza Sheets,
a native of Seneca county. Ohio. They have
seven children. Weldon. Ephraim, Anna, Ada.
William H.. Nellie and Mabel. Thus a pioneer
in three states, beginning in the first blush of
his young manhood to mingle in the wild life
of the plains, and continuing until now when
he is approaching the shady side of human
existence, he has become thoroughly imbued
with the spirit of the frontier, and in his vig-
orous, versatile and self-reliant maturity is es-
sentially its product. And with an experience
more varied and interesting than that of the
dwellers in the East, who witness without no-
tice unless the facts are called to their atten-
tion the expansion of old and long established
cities, counties or states, he has seen the very
wilderness rise from its sleep of centuries and
come forth clad in homeliness and beauty at the
command of the lord of the heritage, civilized
man armed with the intelligence, the authority
and the equipment of a master. In the trans-
formation he has borne his full share, and is
honored by his fellows in the advance as a
leader and a man of many parts, always faith-
ful to his duty and ready for whatever emer-
gency might arise.
WILLIAM J. MOYER.
Of William J. Mover, proprietor of the
Fair department store and vice-president of
the ( irand Valley National Bank at Grand
Junction, it might almost be said that in mer-
cantile life he was born in the purple, for from
his childhood he has been connected with this
line of business and to it he has devoted all
the years and energies of his subsequent life.
He was born on a farm near Reading, Pennsyl-
vania, on August 21, 1859, the son of William
H. and Elizabeth ( Kissenger) Mover, who are
themselves natives of Pennsylvania and be-
long to families resident for generations in that
state, both sides of the house being of Holland
Dutch ancestry. They are still living on the
old homestead near Reading, and farming it
with success. When their son William was
ten years old he accepted employment in a
country store in his native county, and being
continually occupied in that department of in-
dustry thereafter, he had but limited oppor-
tunities for schooling', and is therefore prac-
tically a self-made and self-educated man. He
remained near his home until he reached the
age of twenty-one, then migrated to Indiana.
Minnesota and Kansas in turn, finding employ-
ment in stores in various places. In 1885 he
became a traveling- salesman for a wholesale
dry-goods house at Atchison. Kansas, and dur-
ing the next three years he was on the road
in its service. In the fall of 1888 he came to
Colorado and became manager of a general
store at Coal Creek for the Colorado Trading
Company. In 1890 he changed his residence
to Grand Junction, and soon after his arrival
founded the Fair store in a room twelve by
twenty, with a stock of seven hundred dollars.
Under his vigorous and judicious management
the business has grown greatly and now occu-
pies three rooms, seventy-five by one hundred
and fifteen feet each, with a general Mock of
goods of all kinds. Fourteen person- are em
PROGKESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
H:
ployed in conducting it and they are among
the best paid employes of their kind in Grand
Junction, it having been Mr. Mover's policy
from the start to secure good help and pay good
wages, and he now attributes a large measure
of his success to the loyalty shown by his em-
ployees to his interests and the excellent assist-
ance they have rendered in promoting them.
He was one of the organizers of the Grand
Valley National Bank and is vice-president of
the institution, which is one of unusually good
management and successful operation. In
pditics Mr. Moyer is a Democrat, but he is not
an active partisan, although firmly attached to
the principles of his party. On February 26.
1894. he was united in marriage with Miss
Ida Shantz, a native of Pennsylvania who ac-
companied her parents to Kansas in her girl-
hood, and was living at the time (if her mar-
riage at Atchison, where the ceremony was
performed.
PHIDELAH A. RICE.
P. A. Rice was torn near Glasgow, Barren
county, Kentucky, on January 22. 1845. ■'"'"'
is the son of David and Selina H. (Bender)
Rice, the former a native of Kentucky, of
Welch descent, and the latter of Indiana, of
German descent. His paternal great-grand-
father was one of the early settlers of Ken-
tucky and the first Presbyterian preacher in
that state. He rose to eminence in his profes-
sion and the general influence and duties of
good citizenship. Mr. Rice's father, who was
a teacher, died in 1850, when the son was but
six years old, and eight years later the mother
moved to southwestern Missouri, taking with
her three sons and one daughter, and some
years afterward she died there. Phidelah. the
oldest of the children, received a limited public
school education in his native state, and after
reaching Missouri had the benefit of a two-
TO
years course at the State University. After
leaving that institution he entered the ministry
of the Presbyterian church, in which for two
or three years he was employed in traveling
mission work. His duties were arduous and
impaired his health. He was then called to the
pastorate of the First Cumberland Presbyterian
church at Spring-field. Missouri, one of the most
important appointments in the synod. After
one successful year he was obliged to quit his
post, owing to the state of his health, and ^eek
an outdoor life. He carrie to Colorado and
located at Canon City. Here he engaged in
the cattle industry, and as he regained his
strength he returned to the ministry at various
times, only to be forced out again by failing
health. In 1883 he came to Grand Junction
and. in partnership with his brother, William
A. Rice, established the lumber business which
he is now conducting, his brother having re-
tired in 1896. This enterprise has grown to
great proportions and been a very successful
venture. In addition to it Mr. Rice has ex-
tensive saw-mill interests in the San Juan
country, and he also is engaged in raising fruit.
having developed an extensive and valuable
ranch. He is still recognized as a minister,
and is frequently called upon to officiate at
funerals and other services. He is a regular
attendant at the presbyteries, and alwavs is
deeply interested in church work of every kind,
giving freely of his time and money to all
forms of its usefulness. With his late brother
William he started the prohibition movement
in Mesa county, and from time to time has been
its candidate for public office, twice for the
office of secretary of state. Tn the fall of 1870
he was married to Miss Annie M. Bernard, a
native of Baltimore. Maryland, the daughter of
Joab and Arabella (Biers) Bernard. Marv-
landers by nativity who located in Westport
in 1856, when Kansas City was known as West-
port Landing. The father was engaged in
'4"
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Freighting and did an extensive business. Mr.
and .Mrs. Rice have five children. .Mary B.,
Bernard L.. Phidelia 1>.. William O. and Ralph
I I The oldest son has taken the Bachelor of
Arts course at Colorado College and spent one
year at the Theological Seminary of Cumber-
land University in Tennessee. The second son
is also well educated, having graduated in the
class of [904 at Colorado College.
HON. JAMES S. CARNAHAN.
The legal profession, which draws to its
inspiring and highly intellectual fields of la-
bor many of the best minds among our people,
has a fine representative in Hon. James S.
Carnahan, senior member of the law firm of
Carnahan & Van Hoorebeke, of Grand Junc-
tion, who has exhibited marked ability both in
the active practice of his profession and in of-
fices of trust and importance incident thereto.
Me was born in Pennsylvania on March 2S.
[859, and is the son of Thomas and Sarah
i.Moore) Carnahan. also natives of Pennsyl-
vania, as were their parents. The father is a
farmer, and. being of Scotch-Irish descent,
has all .the thrift and resourcefulness of that
wonderful combination of nationalities. He is
now living at York. Nebraska, having moved
there in 1882. after the death of his first wife,
Judge .Carnahan's- mother, who departed this
life in 1875. Their offspring numbered five
sons, of whom the Judge was the last born,
and all of whom are living. The father has a
daughter by each of two subsequent marriages.
Judge Carnahan was reared in his native state
and there received a district school and aca-
demic education. When he was twenty years
old he came to Colorado, and locating at
Georgetown, engaged in mining until the fall
of 1884. He was moderately successful and.
with a commendable ambition for a higher
sphere in life, saved his earnings in order to
apply them to the gratification of a long cher-
ished desire to enter the legal profession. At
the time last mentioned he went to York. Ne-
braska, and read law with his brother, J. C.
Carnahan. a prominent attorney of that place,
and after finishing his course passed .1 year in
Valparaiso, Indiana. In the. spring of 1SS7 he
was admitted to the bar in Nebraska, and at
once located at Julesburg, this state, and was
admitted to practice in the Colorado courts.
On the organization of Sedgwick count}- in the
spring of 1889, with Julesburg as the county
seat, be was appointed county judge, and in the
ensuing fall he was elected to the same, position
for a term of three years. In the fall of [892
he was elected as a Republican to the lower
house of the legislature, representing Logan.
Sedgwick and Phillips counties, and in the fall
of 1894 be was re-elected. He was active in
the service of his constituency and the state
in the body and was identified in a prominent
way with a number of measures of important
legislation. One bill in particular of consider-
able public utility which he introduced and se-
cured the passage of provided for the purchase
of all count)- supplies by contract. In the sec-
ond session he served with credit and advant-
age to the state as chairman of the judiciary
committee. In the summer of [895 he moved
to Grand Junction and renewed the practice of
his profession, in which be has been very suc-
cessful and continuously occupied since that
time. At present he is the city attorney, hav-
ing been once appointed and twice elected to
that office. In January. 1003, he formed a part-
nership with < 1. Van Hoorebeke, under the
firm name of Carnahan & Van Hoorebeke. and
this has become one of the leading law firms
of the county. < )n December 10, 1880. he was
married to Miss Rose E. Veager. a native of
Fulton county. Ohio, and daughter of Henry
and Elizabeth Yeager, also natives of that
state. Thev are still living in Fulton county,
PROGRESSIVE MEN OP iVESPPRX COLORADO.
nalian hi
B. and C
Elks and
The Judge and Mrs. Car-
ren, their si ins Law rence
rhe Judge belongs to the
en of the World.
the Wooi
HON. JAMES W. BUCKLIN.
A renowned and active tribune of the peo-
ple, whose life has been stormy and full of con-
tests because of his ardent advocacy of their
interests in every forum wherein public opinion
is made or directed, Hon. James W. Bucklin,
of Grand Junction, one of the leaders of the
bar m the state, has won commanding promin-
ence and influence throughout Colorado and is
widely and favorably known elsewhere in this
country and in portions of many others. He is
.1 product of rural life, having been born on a
farm in Kane count}'. Illinois, bis lite begin-
ning on November [3, [856. 1 lis parents were
George and Arethusa (Winch) Bucklin, the
former a native of Vermont and the latter of
New Hampshire, both of English descent and
belonging to families that have been in the
United States more than three hundred years,
their American progenitors having come to this
country in early colonial times. Air. Bucklin's
paternal grandfather and maternal great-
grandfather were Revolutionary soldiers. His
father was a farmer and in the early 'fifties
moved to Illinois, settling first in Kane county
and later in De Kalb, where he ended bis days
in 1875. his wife dying in t868. Their son
James was reared in that state and educated at
the district schools, finishing his scholastic
training with a two-years course at Wheaton
College, hi 1875 he entered the law depart-
ment of the State University of Michigan, and
was graduated there in (S77 before be was
twenty-one. He then came to Colorado ami
was admitted to the bar at Denver, also before
he reached his legal majority. At that time
what is now Mesa county was a part of the Ute
Indian reservation, and as it was to be opened
to settlement at an early date. Mr. Bucklin.
after practicing three years at Denver, deter-
mined to locate in this section. He proceeded
as far as Gunnison, but owing to Indian mas-
sacres and delay in opening the reservation, he
remained there two years practicing bis pro-
fession. In the fall of 1881 the reservation was
opened and. with a party of friends, be was
among the first to make an effort to locate, fol
lowing the Indians as they were removed by
the soldiers. They met Governor Crawford at
Delta, where lie bad located a townsite, but
the}' persuaded him to join forces with them
and move on to the site of the present Grand
Junction. The company winch organized this
town comprised the Governor. Mr. Bucklin and
Messrs. Mobley, Warner. White and Rood.
Mr. Bucklin is the only one of the number now
living. The next spring he located permanently
here and has lived here ever since. There were
at the time of his arrival about sixty or sevent\ r
persons living within the present county limits.
and there was not a frame building or floor or
glass window in Grand Junction On Febru-
ary 28, 1882. he opened the first law office in
what bad been the Ute reservation, and soon
afterward put up a log building on Main street
winch be used as an office for a number of
years. Lumber then sold at one hundred and
fifty dollars per one thousand feet and no frame
buildings were possible. The nearest post-
office and trading point was Gunnison, one
hundred and fifty miles away. The first post-
office name of Grand Junction was Ute. but
that lasted only three months, when the present
name was adopted. A week after Mr. Buck-
lin's arrival a stage line was established be-
tween Gunnison and this point. On this he
made a trip to Gunnison which kept him nine
days on the road and he was obliged to walk
part of the way. He was the bearer of a pack-
age of money to Montrose for the establish-
. 4 8
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
ment of the First National Bank there as a
branch of the San Miguel Bank of Gunnison.
The package was sewed in his overcoat, and he
afterward learned that it contained ten thou-
sand dollars. His, first law case in his new
home was conducting the defense of an Indian
arrested for stealing blankets. He volunteered
his services and cleared his client. In laying
out the town a liberal policy was pursued, lots
being reserved for churches, schools, public
parks and public buildings, while every settler
who was willing to build a home for himself
had a lot given to him for the purpose. In
the nature of the case a man as liberally en-
dowed by nature and as ripened by study as
Mr. Bucklin was in demand for public service.
In the fall of 1884 he was the Republican can-
didate for the legislature from Gunnison, Pit-
kin, Montrose, Delta and Mesa counties and
carried all of them. One of his principal acts
in the ensuing session was the introduction of
a bill to secure an appropriation of forty thou-
sand dollars for the construction of a bridge
over the Gunnison at Grand Junction, the pro-
vision being to take the money out of a govern-
ment fund for public improvements which
seems to have been overlooked and forgotten
until recalled to notice by him. Another
measure which he introduced was for the es-
tablishment of a labor bureau. This failed at
the first session but was passed at the next,
and provided for the establishment of one of
the first bureaus of the kind formed in the
United States. In the spring of 1886 he was
elected mayor of the town, and while in office
secured the repeal of the poll tax, and there has
l>een none since. He also inaugurated the plant-
ing >>f trees in the parks and throughout the
city. For two years he was county attorney
and for one year city attorney. In the latter
post he revised the ordinances and established
a system of city legislation which has since
been followed here, and has been copied by
other cities of this and other states. His legis-
lative experience attracted his attention to the
subject of political economy, which he studied
thoroughly, making a specialty of the single
tax theory, which he studied for the purpose
of refuting the arguments of Henry- George:
but his investigation of the subject convinced
him that Mr. George was right and, leaving his
old party affiliation, he became an ardent ad-
vocate of that theory, organizing a movement
in Mesa county for securing its adoption. In
1896 he was elected to the legislature as the
advocate of this theory, and during the next
few years he labored arduously in both
branches of the legislature to get his theory
passed into law. but through machinations of
one kind or another his purpose was defeated
until T901, when a bill for the purpose was
passed. Immediately afterward vicious attacks
were made on it, an anti-Bucklin League was
organized, large sums of money were raised
and a special session of the legislature was
called to repeal the law. The movement failed,
however, and in the fall of 1902 the question
was submitted to a vote of the people as an
amendment to the constitution, and it was de-
feated at the polls, although receiving a large
vote and carrying eight counties. Another bill
of which he was the father was the public utility
bill, which aimed to give the people of different
sections of the state the right to acquire by
purchase or condemnation water works, gas
and electric light plants, and similar utilities at
the actual cost of their construction. This
measure was bitterly opposed by the corpor-
ations and the contest became one of the most
noted in the history of the legislature. After
the passage of this bill it was stolen and
recovered in time for the signatures of the
presiding officers only through his herioc ef-
forts. The speaker of the house signed it just
one minute before the final adjournment. In
the session of 1899 ne had a commission ap-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
pointed to investigate for the benefit of the
state the tax system of Australia. Mr. Buck-
lin was made chairman of the commission, and
going to Australia made his investigation so
thorough and his report so masterful that in
February, 1901, the matter was taken up by
congress and his report was printed in the
Congressional Record. In the trip to Australia
and for the work of his investigation he de-
frayed his own expenses, declining to be re-
imbursed by the state. In the session of 1901
he also secured the passage of a law reducing
the rate of interest on state warrants from six
to four per cent. In all his legislative experi-
ence he has been an active, working, fighting
member, serving on important committees and
as chairman of some. He is an ardent advo-
cate of municipal ownership, and the law firm
of Bucklin, Staley & Safley, of which he is the
head, has carried on legal and political war-
fare for thirteen years to secure the application
of such ideas to the affairs of Grand Junction,
finally resulting in a fine water-works plant
owned and managed most successfully by the
city. As a lawyer he has been very successful,
building up a large and representative prac-
tice. He has been married twice, first in 1884,
to Miss Margie Champion, a native of Eng-
land, who came to America with her parents
when she was two years old. She died in
March, 1885, and on January 1, 1895. he mar-
ried a second wife. Miss Mary Lapham, a na-
tive of Canada but reared and educated in
( 1 >i( irado, her parents being among the pioneers
of Mesa county. They have two children.
James W., Jr., and Louis Lapham. Mr. Buck-
lin is a member of the Masonic order, holding
the rank of past master in his lodge, and being
also a Knight Templar. He has been an active
member of the Methodist Episcopal church
from his boyhood. He was one of the founders
of the church at Grand Junction and helped to
organize the Sunday schools at that place and
Gunnison. He also read the first funeral
service at Grand Junction. In business he has
been very successful, acquiring considerable
property and adding much by his improvements
to the value and beauty of the town.
CHARLES B. MASSER. M. D.
Dr. Charles B. Masser was born in St. Jo-
sef)]! county, Michigan, on October 1, 1839,
the son of William and Rachel ( Boone) Mas-
ser, who were natives of Pennsylvania, and
were reared, educated and married in that
state. Soon after their marriage they became
pioneers in St. Joseph county. Michigan, where
they bought four hundred acres of government
land which they developed and improved into
an excellent farm. The father also kept a store
at Three Rivers for a number of years, and
both parents died there. Their offspring num-
bered eight, of whom only two are living, the
Doctor and a brother who still resides in Michi-
gan. The Doctor grew to manhood in his na-
tive county, and received his early education
at its primitive country schools of that day.
After leaving school he engaged for some
years in farming and railroading, and at the
age of twenty-five began the study 1 >f medicine,
pursuing it a number of years and practicing
in Michigan. In 1872 he removed to Kansas
and, locating in the county of Republic, again
devoted his attention to his profession. Prior
to this time, in 1869, he was graduated from
the Kansas City Medical College. He re-
mained in Kansas actively engaged in practice
until the spring of 1888, when he came to
Colorado and settled in Mesa county, at the
town of Fruita, where he has since made his
home and the seat of his active professional
work. He has taken several post-graduate
courses at the medical schools of Denver, and
by a close and judicious study of the literature
of his profession has kept abreast with its
[ 5o
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
most advanced ideas. In 1891 he established
a drug store which he has since conducted in
connection with his practice, and in both he
has been very successful. He was married on
January 15, 1S68, to Miss Gertrude A. Pow-
ers, of St. Joseph county, Michigan. They
have had eight children, five of whom are liv-
ing. James, Henry, Gertrude, Mary and Lulu.
Those deceased are Marta, Bonita and Lillie.
Tn political faith the Doctor is a Prohibition-
ist, and he is firm in the support of the prin-
ciples he espouses.
HON. GEORGE A. CRAWFORD.
The strong, true men of a people are ever
its most priceless possession. They are po-
tent for good not only in what they accom-
plish by their own immediate work, but by the
forces they inspire and vitalize in others
through their influence, and by the example
they give, which acts as a stimulus while they
live and after they are gone. To this class
belonged the late Hon. George A. Crawford, of
Grand Junction, whose record is written in
pleasing and enduring phrase in the city he
built and the spirit of enterprise and progres-
siveness he implanted in its citizens. Small in
stature and frail in physique, and waging a
life-long war with sickness and bodily weak-
ness, his transcendent will and mighty spirit
triumphed over all obstructions and made him
great in both undertakings and achievements
— the most forceful man of his time in this
section. The story of his life in many places
and amid a great variety of pursuits, would
be intensely interesting, every part of it, and
would epitomize in brief the struggle of ad-
vancing civilization in this western world with,
first the savage denizens of the wilderness, men
and beasts, and later its more insidious and
dangerous foes, outlaws and fugitives from
justice in the older sections of the land who
deemed the hardy and industrious pioneers of
a new and unsettled country the legitimate
pny of their unbridled lust, rapacity and law-
lessness. It is, however, with Governor Craw-
ford's career in Colorado that we have now
mainly to do. Whatever else of his heroic life
it may be found necessary to narrate is only
incidental and illustrative. George Addison
Crawford was born in Clinton (then a part of
Lycoming) county. Pennsylvania, on July 27.
1827. His parents were Judge George and
Elizabeth (Ouigley) Crawford, the ancestors
on the father's side being Scotch-Irish Presby-
terians and on the mother's German Luther-
ans. His scholastic education, begun in the
primitive district schools of his day and local-
ity, was continued at Clinton Academy on
Pine Creek, of which his father was president,
and Lockhaven Academy, and was finished al
Jefferson College. Sent home from the col-
lege for a time on account of feeble health, he
yet kept up with his class and was graduated
with it in 1847, standing among the first, al-
though the class numbered sixty-seven mem-
bers. After his graduation he went South with
other students and taught school at Salem.
Kentucky, among the relatives of President
Taylor. Later he joined his room-mate. Col.
Samuel Simmons, in the management of a se-
lect school at Canton. Mississippi. After one
winter in this enterprise he returned to his na-
tive state and began the study of law in the of-
fice of Messrs. Allison & Ouigley. In [850,
still pursuing his law studies, he liecame the
editor and proprietor of the Clinton Demo-
crat, the organ of his party in Clinton county,
lie at once became active and effective in poli-
tics, both 111 the editorial columns of his pa-
per and on the hustings showing unusual ca-
pacity and force, and there evincing an ascend
ancy and control over men which was through
life one of his salient characteristics. From
then on until he left Pennsylvania he was one
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
151
of the influential men in the councils and con-
ventions of his party in the state, rendering
such signal service in harmonizing differences
and strengthening the cause that he received
personal letters of thanks from Presidents
Pierce and Buchanan. In 1856 he was a mem-
ber of the firm of Dillon. Jackson & Company,
which had a contract to build a railroad from
Superior City to Hudson. Wisconsin, the com-
pany being obliged to cut sixty miles through
a dense forest in the deep snows of winter.
The road was completed on time and to the sat-
isfaction of its promoters, and then Mr. Craw-
ford determined on a visit to Kansas. That
child of turbulence and strife was then in the
agonies of its border warfare and needed such
men as he to calm its fevered pulse and quiet
its contending factions, and he concluded to
remain there. While at Lawrence on the way
to Lecompton, he fell in with a party going to
Fort Scott to secure the townsite, and at once
accepted an offer of transportation by mule
team and partnership in the town project. On
arriving a t the fort, then an abandoned mili-
tary post occupied by pioneers, Mr. Crawford
and his companions bought claims to five hun-
dred and twenty acres of land and organized
the Fort Scott Town Company, of which he
was elected president. He served in that ca-
pacity nearly twenty years, and in arranging
for the development of the place marked on a
plat two prospective lines of railroad, and the
two leading railroads of the state have since
been built on almost those very lines. His ac-
tive mind and genius for leadership soon made
him prominent in the stirring political activities
of Kansas, and led to his nomination for the
office of governor in [861. In the election he
secured a clear majority of the votes returned,
but the state canvassers refused to canvass the
returns, and under mandamus proceedings the
court declared the election due to a miscon-
struction of the constitution and therefore il-
legal. The next year his friends determined
to nominate him again for this office, but ov\ in-
to complications in the convention he refused
to submit his name for governor and was unan-
imously nominated for secretary of state.
This nomination he declined to accept. After
some fifteen or sixteen years more of strenu-
ous activity in Kansas politics, during which
he filled a number of important positions and
rendered numberless important services, he
turned his face toward the setting sun and took
in a survey of Colorado. This was at that time
a frontier country full of dangers and infested
with the acolytes of lawlessness and violence;
Inn Ins experienced eye told him it was a land
of promise, and acting on his excellent judg-
ment, he came hither and founded Grand Junc-
tion, deeming this the proper place for the large
city that would inevitably be the commercial
center of the mighty empire latent in the re-
gion. He located and named the town, and
from that time until his death he was its stead-
fast, untiring and liberal friend. The first year
he organized a company and built a ditch to
supply his bantling with water, erected cabins
as homes for newcomers and put up a hotel
for the accommodation of the traveling public.
The next year he planted shade trees in front
of all public property and all lots belonging to
the town company, and encouraged all citizens
to follow his example. He organized a corn-
pan) for the manufacture of pressed brick and
supplied the railroad company with all the
brick it needed at the Junction and as far west
as Provo. He also built many cottages, and
advertised the town and valley all over this
and in many foreign countries, winning friends
for the section wherever lie made its virtues
known. A man of nerve, tact, education and
resources, he pushed the work of improvement
forward, kept down all opposition, and infused
into the people a spirit of progress wonderful
in its immediate results and its continuing:
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
power. Nor is it to be interred that he neg-
lected the more spiritual and elevating con-
comitants of the civilization he was planting in
these western wilds. Schools, churches and
the public press received his earnest and unre-
mitting attention. Sustained by a will power
remarkable in intensity and an intellect won-
derful in scope, force and resourcefulness, he
never gave up, but commanded circumstances
to his purposes and made even difficulties his
ministrants. And through- all he was ever the
same bland, cultivated, courtly and obliging
gentleman. On Monday. January 26, 1891,
the life that was the most earnest and useful
ever known in western Colorado, ended. And
n<>\\, when men seek his monument, it is
enough to say, here is Grand Junction, here is
Mesa county, here is the Western slope — they
proclaim the 'energy, the manliness, the mighty
creative spirit of Governor Crawford, what
more can be desired !
.MARCUS L. SHIPPEE.
Born and reared to the age of seventeen
in the Green Mountain belt of Vermont, and
coming from there as a youth to the mountains
of Colorado, Marcus L. Shippee, a successful
and progressive ranchman and cattle-grower
■ •I' Pitkin count)-, living in the neighborhood of
Emma, has not greatly changed his surround-
ings, as far as natural appearances go, but finds
himself in a very different state of the farming
interest from that which he was used to in his
native section of the country. Still, his general
ability and adaptiveness, coupled with his self-
reliance and intelligence in observation soon
made him as successful and capable as a farmer
here as he could ever have been in the East.
His life began near Bennington. Vermont, on
August 22, 1862, where his parents, James S.
and Mary (Calista) Shippee, the former a na-
tive of New York and the latter of Massachu-
setts, located early in their married life, and to
the time of the father's death in 1880, they
were profitably engaged in farming and raising
stock. The father was a stanch Republican
in political faith. Their children numbered
ten, five of whom are living: James H., city
marshal of Delta, Colorado; William, a resi-
dent of Vermont; Marcus L., of Pitkin county,
this state ; Albert, of New York state ; and Al-
mond, living in Massachusetts. Marcus, who
is one of Pitkin county's most prosperous and
enterprising ranchman, is essentially a self-
made man. His opportunities for attending
even the public schools were few and of short
duration, as while he was yet a mere boy he
was obliged to go to work on his father's farm
as a regular hand, and at the age of twelve was
able to do a man's work. He remained with
his parents until he was twenty-one, then, in'
1873, went to New York state and followed the
same occupation for a number of years. In
1879 he came to Colorado and located at
Georgetown where he worked in the mines for
wages. The next year he moved to Leadville
and became connected with the coal trade un-
der contract with the Malta Smelter Company.
Six months later he quit this trade and started
a dairy business which he conducted six
months, then sold out. In this he made good
profits as the price of milk was one dollar and
twenty-five cents a gallon at retail, and he had
ready sale for all he could supply. He next
freighted between Leadville and Red Cliff, con-
tinuing in the business until 1882; then, selling
out at a good profit, he purchased a ranch in
the vicinity of Emma. This he sold a year la-
ter and then bought the one he now owns and
manages. It comprises one hundred and sixty-
two acres, one hundred acres of which are un-
der cultivation in hay, grain and other ordinary
farm products. He also raises numbers of cat-
tle anil horses, live stock and hay being his
principal products. He belongs to the Odd
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Fellows, the Elks and the Woodmen of the
World, and supports the Democratic party.
On November 29, 1899, he was married to Miss
Alma G. Staton, a native of Illinois, the daugh-
ter of Hyrcanus and Margaret (Melissa) Sta-
ton, the former a native of Illinois and the lat-
ter of Ohio. Soon after their marriage they
located in Illinois where they remained until
1879. They then came to Colorado and set-
tled at I.eadville, and there they carried on a
profitable dairy business until 1885. In that
year they changed their residence to Glenwood
Springs where they now live, the father being
engaged in farming and giving a share of his
time and energy to building up socialism, in
which he is an ardent believer and worker. He
and his wife are members of the Methodist
church. Their children number eight, two of
whom are deceased. Those living are William
F., Herbert G., Elbert F., Merriam L. and Ca-
ney I., of Glenwood Springs, and Mrs. Ship-
pee, the second in the order of birth of those
who are living. She and her husband have had
three children, of whom Ivan Elster died on
January 9, 1901, and Leta Luella and Lois Ca-
lista are living.
WILLIAM R. K. HOOK.
William R. K. Hook, the oldest settler 111
the neighborhood of Emma, Pitkin county,
this state, where he located in 1882, on a pre-
emption claim of one hundred and fifty-seven
acres of good land, one hundred and forty acres
of which are naturally tillable, and where he
has since conducted a prosperous and expand-
ing stock industry and carried on general farm-
ing operations, is a native of Fayette county,
Pennsylvania, where he was born on March n.
T842. His parents, Peter U. and Elizabeth
( Herman) Hook, were also natives of Penn-
sylvania, and passed the earlier years of their
married life in merchandising, conducting- an
extensive trade in dry goods and groceries, and
their later years in conducting a good hotel,
winning prosperity in both lines of activity.
Both are now deceased, and of their nine
children only three are living : George, the post-
master at Grand Ridge, Illinois ; Mr. Hook, of
Pitkin county, Colorado; and Julia, the wife of
J. B. Marshall, of Uniontovvn, Pennsylvania,
where he is the editor of the Genius of Liberty,
which was established in 181 5 by John Irwin.
Their mother died in 1864 and their father in
1869. Mr. Hook's educational advantages
were few and limited in scope. At the age of
seventeen he began to leant steamboat engineer-
ing at Brownsville, Pennsylvania, on the Mo-
nongahela river, devoting a year to the business
at a compensation of two dollars and fifty cents
a week, scarcely enough to pay his board.
When the Civil war began he enlisted in the
Union army as a member of Company F,
Eleventh Pennsylvania Infantry, enrolling on
May 8, 1861, and being mustered into the
service at Washington, D. C, on July 29th fol-
lowing. He served three years, and was dis-
charged at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on June
6, 1864, with the rank of first lieutenant. Soon
after this he went to work as fireman on the
Pittsburg & Connellsville Railroad, and at the
expiration of fourteen months was promoted
engineer. In this capacity he served the road
until 1 87 1. when he came west, and after pass-
ing some time at South Bend. Indiana, and
Ottawa. Illinois, located at Marshall. Michigan,
just after the great Chicago fire. There he re-
mained seven years employed in the Wind
Engine Works. In April, [879, he came to
Colorado and located at Leadville, where he
worked at engineering and installing machin-
ery, remaining until 1881, then moved to As-
pen. Here he continued engineering in saw-
mills for a year, then in 1882 took up his
ranch as a pre-emption claim. Since that time
he has lived on his land and given himself
154
PROGRESSIFE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
up wholly to its development, improvement and
cultivation. His principal product is live stock,
but he also raises good crops of hay and grain
and other ordinary farm products. He is an
active Republican in politics, and for years
was an earnest working Odd Fellow. In 1880
he was married to Miss Olive M. Ausborne,
a native of Wisconsin and daughter of John
Ausborne, a native of Kentucky, his wife being
a native of Vermont. They settled in Wiscon-
sin in early life, and there for a number of
years the father worked at his trade as a mill-
wright, but later turned his attention to farm-
ing. The mother died in [865 and the father
in 1896. Mrs. Hook is a graduate of the Jack-
sonville, Illinois, high school. She taught
school in that city and in Chicago in the East,
and also at Leaclville and Emma in this state-
lier husband at one time conducted a dairy
business at Aspen for a period of nine years.
Approaching now the evening of life, they are
comfortably fixed to pass their remaining days
pleasantly, and are secure in the respect and
good will of their fellow citizens wherever they
are known.
STERLING PRICE SLOSS.
Born in St. Clair county, in western Mis-
souri, where his parents were among the very
first settlers, and passing the reft of his life
there and in Colorado, so far Sterling P. Sloss
has lived almost wholly on the frontier, and
has well learned its lessons of thrift, self-re-
liance, manly courage and consideration for the
rights and feelings of others. Taking its op-
portunities for advancement as they come and
making good and timely use of them, he has
been one of the forceful factors in pushing for-
ward the advance of civilivation and holding
the ground it has gained from the wilderness
and its savage denizens. His life began on
October 25, [862. and his parents were Joseph
and Margaret (Coulthard) Sloss, the former
born in Kentucky and the latter in England.
They located in St. Clair county, Missouri.
among its first settlers, and in 1866 they moved
to Arkansas, settling in a region as new and
wild as that they left. They farmed with
moderate success, and the father rose to promi-
nence by his breadth of view and public spirit
in local affairs and by his ardent support of the
principles of the Democratic party. Both
were members of the Presbyterian church. He
died in 1874 and his wife in (895. Five of
their seven children survive them. Sterling,
who is one of the most respected and influential
citizens of Eagle county, and one of the most
extensive and popular cattle men in this whole
region of country, had but little opportunity
for schooling. At the age of twelve years he
took his place regularly among the hands on
his father's farm, and when he was fourteen
be was able to do a man's work there and com-
mand a man's wages, thus making his own liv-
ing from that early age. In 1880 he came to
Colorado, and locating at Silver Cliff, worked
as a ranch hand for a compensation of twenty-
five dollars a month and his board. At the end
of a year he moved to South Park, where he
drove cattle for A. J. Bates until the spring of
1882. He then formed a partnership with
George W. King ( see sketch elsewhere) to con-
duct a dairy business at Ashcroft, which later
was moved to Aspen. Milk sold at fifty cents
a gallon and the enterprise flourished vigor-
ously. After some time he bought Mr. King's
interest and took his own brother John W. in
as a partner. They continued the business un-
til [885, and at the same time conducted a
ranch on Sopris creek. At the end of six years
the partnership was harmoniously dissolved.
In [902 he bought a ranch on the Frying Pan,
nine miles east of Basalt. On this land good
crops of hay. grain and vegetables are raised,
but cattle form the most important product and
greatest source of revenue. Mr. Sloss is con
nected with the order of Odd Fellows, tin-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
55
Daughters of Rebekah. the Woodmen of the
World, the Women's Circle of Woodcraft, and
the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
In political allegiance he stands firmly by the
Democratic party. On February 5, 1889, he
united in marriage with Miss Edith A. Bogue,
a native of Harrison county. Missouri, born on
February 3, 1870. and the daughter of Josiah
and Permalia (Cox) Bogue. Her father was
a native of Ohio and her mother of Indiana.
They were prosperous farmers and the father
supported the Republican party. He died on
December 10. 1896, leaving eleven of his
twelve children to survive him. They are
Newton H., who lives at Maywood, Nebraska :
Sarah, wife of Charles Redding, also living in
Nebraska; Sytha, wife of Thomas Lawrence,
of Carbondale, Colorado; Charles F... a resi-
dent of Arkansas Junction, this state: Joseph
T.. of DeBeque. Colorado; Viola J., wife of
Albert Bell, of Dayton, Iowa: Allen C. of Salt
Lake City. Utah: Alfred T.. of Cherokee
county, Iowa; Louis W. of Griswold, Iowa;
and Emma E., of Glenwood Springs. Colorado.
In the household of Mr. Sloss two children
have been born. Alfred M. and Alvin J., twins.
The parents are members of the Methodist
church. In the public affairs of his section Mr.
Sloss takes an active and intelligent interest at
all times, and is at all times ready to aid in
the promotion of its welfare. He is chief cattle
inspector for the districl between Leadville and
Glenwood Springs. Mr. Sloss has recently
been appointed a member of the live stock in-
spection board by Gov. Jesse F. McDonald for
two years. Mr. Sloss was county commissioner
of Pitkin county. Colorado, from [895 to [898.
R< )BERT \Y. DWYER.
R. W. Dwyer is a native of Ross county.
Ohio, born on Ma)- 14. 1855. and the son of
lolin M. and Elizabeth (Duncan) Dwver, the
former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter
of Ohio. The father was a farmer and stock
dealer during the whole of his mature life and
was successful and prosperous at the business.
He also took an active part in public affairs.
serving as county assessor of Ross county.
Ohio, for a period of eighteen years, being
elected to the office on the Republican ticket as
he was an ardent supporter of that part)' in
political matters. In middle life he moved to
Iowa, where he continued fanning and stock-
growing until his death, in 1896. His wife
preceded him to the other world more than
twenty-five years, she dying in 1870. They
were Presbyterians in religious affiliation, and
had a family of six children, four of whom are
living: James, a resident of Alaska; Frank,
living in the vicinity of Aspen; Robert W. the
immediate subject of these paragraphs; and
John, who lives in Ohio. Robert remained at
home assisting on the farm in Iowa until 1878.
the family residence being near Sidney in Fre-
mont county, that state. In the fall of 187s he
came to Colorado, and during the next ten
years prospected in various parts of the state
along the Western slope. In 1887 he located at
Aspen, and for nine years thereafter he was
engaged in dairying, getting fifty cents a gal-
lon for milk, and sometimes more. In 1896
he sold his business and purchased a portion of
the ranch he now owns and occupies, buying
one hundred and sixty acres, to which he has
since added eighty acres by another purchase.
About one hundred and eighty acres of the
tract are under cultivation and yield abundantly
to the persuasive industry of the husbandman.
Mr. Dwver supports the Republican party in
political contests, and in fraternal life he is con-
nected with tlie W linen of the World. He
was married on April 26. 1876. to Miss Dora
Pepple. a native of Ross county. Ohio, and a
daughter of James and Emma ( Middleton )
Pepple. who are also natives of Ohio. They
56
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
have always been farmers and have prospered
in their industry. The father is a Democrat
in political allegiance, and both are Methodists
in church relations. They have been the par-
ents of five children, and of the number Abra-
ham L. is deceased, and these are living: An-
nie, the wife of Frank Dwyer; Gertrude, who
is engaged in merchandising at Riverside, Wyo-
ming; Robert \Y., and Melissa, the wife of
Alexander Higgins, of Bainbridge, Ohio. Mr.
and Mrs. Dwyer have two children, Ernest, and
Roberta, the wife of Edmond Limbach, of Gilt
Edge, Montana.
NORMAN G. CROALL.
Norman G. Croall is a native of Edinburgh.
Scotland, where he was born on May 30, 1869.
He came to the United States in 1900, locating,
at Colorado, where he was actively engaged in
the stock industry and general farming in the
Plateau country in Mesa county. In 1903 he
purchased the ranch on which he is now lo-
cated, near Emma, Pitkin county, and which
formerly belonged to Mr. Chatfield. It com-
prises two hundred and forty acres, all of which
can be profitably cultivated, and produces hay,
potatoes and fruit in abundance. One of its
special features of interest and value is an ex-
cellent orchard of eighteen acres set out in fine
fruit trees now in good bearing order. The
ranch has a first-class water right appertaining
to it, and is considered the best in the valley in
which it lies. It is known as the Hermiston
ranch and has a wide and well-earned reputa-
tion for the excellence of its products and its
vast resources of productiveness.
ENOCH G. MALLORY.
This enterprising and progressive ranch-
man and cattle breeder of Eagle county, this
state, with a fine property in the neighborhood
of Basalt, comes of a sturdy strain, with a fam-
ily record for longevity in years, prodigious
energy in youth, manhood and middle life, and
great clearness of mind and endurance of body
even in very old age. Pie is a native of New
Brunswick. Canada, horn on May 29. 1837,
the son of William N. and Jane (Snow) Mal-
lory, the father born at Yarmouth, Massachu-
setts, and the mother in Nova Scotia. In his
young manhood the father moved to Canada,
and there during the remainder of his life he
was actively and successfully engaged in farm-
ing. Both he and his wife were members of
the Baptist church, and he was known as Dea-
con Mallory. They had a family of eleven
children, five of whom are deceased: Eliza-
beth died October 3, 1850; Josiah, who died
on February 22, 1903. at the age of eighty-
four; Margaret, then Mrs. Elijah Osser, who
died in Carlton county. New Brunswick, on
October 30. 1903; Elisha, who died in Florida,
on January 13, 1894; and Harriet, in 1904.
The six children living are: John, who resides
in Carlton county. Canada, and was born at
Wakefield on November 20, 1820; Anna K.,
born on February 8. 1822 ; Hilkiah, born on
June 1, 1825; William A., born on March 4,
1829; Ezekiel, born on March 29, 1833; and
Enoch G., born on May 29, 1837. The father,
who was born in July. 1705. died in March.
1885. and the mother, born on September 1.
1801, passed away on August 15, 1847. They
were married on November 12. 1818. Their
son Enoch attended such schools as were avail-
able at the time, and when hut a boy began to
make a hand on the farm in the assistance of
his parents. He remained with them until he
reached his twentieth year, then rented his fa-
ther's farm and farmed it until 1874. At that
time he gave up farming and became propri-
etor of saw and grist-mills which he operated
two years, then moved to Xess county. Kan-
sas, where he was engaged in farming nine
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
157
vears. In the meantime, however, during this
period, leaving his farm in the care of his fam-
ily, he came to Colorado, and after spending
seven years in this state had his family join him
here. After a short residence at Leadville he
moved to Ashcroft, then some time later to
Aspen. Mining was his principal occupation
during these years, hut he also devoted some
attention to lumbering and milling. In Octo-
ber, 1887. he took a squatter's right to one
hundred and fifty-five acres of land which he
afterward converted into a pre-emption claim,
and which is the ranch he now owns and occu-
pies. Here he has quietly pursued the vocation
of a western farmer and cattle-grower, improv-
ing his property and bringing it to productive-
ness, until he has one of the choice country
homes in his neighborhood, cattle being his
main resource. He was married on June 21,
1857. to Miss Levicy A. Hoyt, a native of New
Brunswick, born on October 16, 1831, and the
daughter of Orlo and Phoebe (Wood) Hoyt,
also Canadians by nativity, and successful
farmers in that country. They were members
of the Free Baptist church and the father was
a 1 imminent Orangeman. They had three chil-
dren, two of whom are living, Emma, wife of
Lawrence Mersereau, and Mrs. Mallory.
Their mother died on April 26. 1837, and their
father on August 28. 1875. In the Mallory
household eight children were born, and six
of them are living. Marshall N. lives at Sump-
ter, Oregon; Ezekiel at New Chicago, Mon-
tana; Joseph F., at Otter, Kansas; Carrie S.
Mrs. William Smith), at Niles, Kansas; Mur-
ray C. in Indian territory and Sarah (Mrs.
Frederick Stiffler), at Basalt. Colorado. The
parents belong to the Baptist church.
WILLIAM D. PHILLIPS.
William D. Phillips, who was formerly in
partnership with Mr. N. G. Croall in conduct-
ing the ranch and stock business on the Her-
miston ranch, is a native of Ivegill, county
Cumberland, England, born on December 18,
1869, and the son of Thomas and Elizabeth
Phillips, who were also born ami reared in that
country. The father was a clergyman of the
church of England, and is now canon of one of
the cathedrals there, which position he has
held for five years. His family comprised seven
children, two of whom, James R. and Edward,
have died. The former of these was consul
general for Great Britain on the gold coast of
West Africa, and was murdered by the natives
near the city of Benin in January, 1897. Ed-
ward died in London in April, 1903. The
living children are: Ella, the wife of the late
Nigel Buchanan, of Carlisle, England ; Charles
W., a clergyman of the church of England,
living at home; Katharine, residing at North-
wood near London; Agnes, at the abbey of
Carlisle, England; and William, the only mem-
ber of the family resident in this country.
Mr. Phillips, after a preliminary scholastic
training in other schools, attended the Sod-
bergh school in Yorkshire in his native land.
At the age of nineteen he began life for himself
as a farmer, and after two years of valuable ex-
perience under instructions, assumed the man-
agement of a farm for himself, which he con-
trolled five years, raising, in connection witli
his general farming operations, fine strains of
horses in which he took especial pride and
pleasure. In this branch of his business he
was eminently successful, raising one draught
horse in particular that took the championship
prize and sold for a fancy price. He was also
very successful with saddle horses, producing
many prize winners in this line. In 1895 he
made a business and pleasure trip to Australia
which consumed a year and a half. He then
returned to England, and entered the army for
a term of nine months, but owing to sickness he
only served eight months. Soon afterward he
came to the United States, and at the end of ten
months, passed in West Virginia, in 1902
;8
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
joined Mr. Croall in Plateau valley. The
mother of Mr. Phillips died in August. 1899.
His father, as has been noted, is still living in
his native land.
LEE R. W I LI. ITS.
After residing and practicing productive
interest in several states, and finding the condi-
tions of life more or less agreeable in all, Lee
R. Willits, of Eagle county, Colorado, a pros-
perous and progressive ranch and stock man
living near Basalt, finds this state the best of
all and is ardently devoted to its interests and
the enduring welfare of its people. He is a
native of New Boston, Mercer county, Illi-
nois, born on December 23. [848, and the son
n\ John E. and Mary C. (Frick) Willits, the
father born in Indiana and the mother in Penn-
sylvania. In the early years of their married
life they located in Illinois, where for a num-
ber of years the father was engaged in the drug
business at Xew Boston and Keithsburg, but
on account of the state of his health he found
it necessary to have an outdoor life, and ac-
cordingly he turned his attention to farming.
fie thereupon moved to Kansas, and after liv-
ing in that state seven years changed to Texas,
where he continued in the same occupation,
and where his death occurred on December 1,
[890. He was a Royal Arch Mason in frater-
nal life, and a strong Democrat in politics.
lie took an active part in local affairs and at-
tained prominence in the public life of his com-
munity, serving as county commissioner in Illi-
nois and also in Kansas a. number of years,
lie was a Presbyterian in church connection.
< M his seven children six are living: Lee R. ;
Clarence W., of Seaton. Illinois: Ada H.. wife
of the late A. J. Robinson, of Aspen, this state:
Katie, wife of George Loomis, of La Porte,
( Iklahoma; Frederick E.. of Canon City, Colo-
rado: and Edith, wife of Dr. Virgil Clark, of
Basalt, with whom the mother makes her home.
Her father, Frederick ['"rick, helped to make
the state constitution of Illinois 111 [848, and
took a leading part in public, affair-, in other
ways. Lee R. Willits attended the district
schools near his homo, as country boys do who
have to work on the farm, and there received
a limited scholastic training. He remained at
home and worked in the interest of his parents
until he became twenty-two years of age, at
which time" in [870, he began farming inde-
pendently in Kansas, where he remained until
[873, then moved to Texas, where he lived
fourteen years engaged in farming and raising
stock. In [887 he came to Colorado very much
handicapped by circumstances, and secured
employment as foreman on the ranch of Gilles-
pie & Robinson on the Roaring Fork, seven
miles and a half east of Carbondale. After
passing some years in this engagement he
bought the ranch on which he now lives, which
comprises one hundred and sixty acres, one
hundred and forty-five acres being under culti-
vation. Here he raises enormous crops of hay
of excellent quality and potatoes in abundance,
and also carries on a thriving business in cattle
and horses. He is a stanch Democrat in politi-
cal allegiance, and as such has served six years
a- county commissioner He was also a mem-
ber of the thirteenth legislature of the state,
ami is now and has been for years a member of
the Eljebel school board, a capacity in which he
also served in Texas. Fraternally he belongs
to the order of Odd Fellows. On February 25,
1874, he was married to Miss Cornelia A.
Robinson, a native of Henderson county. Illi-
nois, and daughter of Llhanen and Phoebe A.
(Moore) Robinson. Her father was born in
Kentucky and her mother in Indiana. They
located in Illinois when young and later moved
to Kansas, then to Texas and finally to Colo-
rado, settling in the vicinity of Basalt. They
were farmers and members of the Methodist
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
L59
church, and the father gave a steadfast and
loyal support to the Democratic party. Their
offspring numbered seven, four of whom are
living : Emma, wife of D. S. Shehi, of Taylor
Park, Colorado; Sarah, wife of II. 1',. Gillespie,
of Denver; Mrs. Willi ts. of Eagle county; and
Charles M.. of Pendleton, Oregon. The
mother died in (886 and the father in Novem-
ber. 1898. The Willits household has been
blessed and brightened with four children:
I 'earl E., wife of William Shanks, of Leadville;
Irene 1'.. living at home; Mama E., wife of
1. II. Mitchell. of Basalt; and Bramlett, living
under the parental roof.
CHARLES E. JACOBS.
l'.orn in Wood county. Ohio, on September
3, [871, and now living and prospering in Colo-
rado. Charles E. Jacobs, of Eagle county, a
successful ranch and cattleman living near
Basalt, has come to his present location and es-
tate h\ progress through two or three interven-
ing states and industrious effort for advance-
ment m them all. His parents. Oliver and
Lavina (Locy) Jacobs, were also natives of
( )hio. and in 1K73 moved to Iowa, then to Fort
Scott. Kansas, afterward t < > Joplin, Missouri,
and from there in 1878 to Colorado, locating
at Leadville. where they lived until 1881, when
they moved to Gunnison county. In bis youn-
ger life the father was engaged in farming, and
his later years were devoted to the drug busi-
ness. In this state he occupied himself in min-
ing, sometimes in the employ of others, some-
times independently fur himself. He supported
the Republican party in political matters and
fraternally was connected with the order of
( )>\<\ Fellows. Three of the five children born
in the family are living. Charles E.. Oliver G.,
and Luetta, wife of James Bowles, of New-
castle, this state. The father died on July 3.
1885, and since then the mother has made her
home with her son Charles. He was educated
at the public schools, with meager advantages,
and while vet a mere boy began to assist in the
farm work in the interest of his parents. He
remained with them until 1892, then rented a
ranch for himself in Eagle county, which he
farmed three years, at the end of which he
took charge of the home ranch. This com-
prises one hundred and sixty acres, of which
ninety can he cultivated. Large crops of ex-
cellent hay are produced, with grain, vegetables
and fruit in abundance, and cattle are raised for
market and horses for use on the place. Mr.
Jacobs conducts his business with vigor and
success and stands well in the estimation of
the people around him. He belongs to the
order of Odd Fellows, and is independent in
politics. The ranch is well located five miles
west of Basalt ami has many natural advant-
ages for farming and the stock industry. Mr.
Jacobs was united in marriage June r, 1904.
with Miss Marian Pearson, a native of Cleve-
land. Ohio, and a daughter of George and
Anna ( Ghent ) Pearson, the former a native
of England and the latter of Frankfort. Indiana.
They now live at Rifle. Colorado.
Oliver G. Jacobs, a younger brother of
Charles, and also an Eagle county ranch and
stock man. was horn on February 4. T873. in
Joplin. Missouri, and came to Colorado with
his parents in 1878. In 1888 he located his
present ranch, and on it since that time he has
built up a good business in raising cattle and
horses, along with a general ranching industry.
He is wide-awake, enterprising and progres-
sive, fully in touch with the spirit of his neigh-
borhood, and one of its most esteemed citizens.
In political matters he is independent, and in
local affairs is warmly interested in a practical
way in the advancement and improvement of
the community, the county and the state. On
September 29. 1893. he was married to Miss
Marion Patterson, who was born on August
iOo
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
1 6, 1884, and is the daughter of John and
Mary (Beggs) Patterson, a sketch of whom
appears elsewhere in this work. Mr. Jacobs
has been fairly successful in his operations and
his place is improving in character and increas-
ing in productiveness. Both he and his brother
find Colorado a good state to live in and are
well pleased with it, fervently devoted to its
interest and always willing to promote its wel-
fare and the comfort and conveniences of its
people.
M. H. McKEE.
M. H. McKee, of near Collbran, Mesa
county, presents in his interesting and varied
career, in which he has tried both extremes of
fortune, a striking illustration of the versatility
of American manhood and the wonderful
variations of American life. He was born at
Etna. Pennsylvania, June 5. 185c), and is the
son of Matthew and Ann (Wilson) McKee.
natives of 'Ireland and of Scotch parentage,
who came to America in childhood with their
parents and found a home at the place of his
nativity, where they grew to maturity and
were married. The father was foreman in a
nail factory there and died at the age of
seventy-seven. The mother died at the same
place, at the age of eighty-one. She was a
relative of James Wilson, of Pennsylvania, one
of the signers of the Declaration of Independ-
ence. Their family comprised six children, and
their son M. H. was the fifth. He remained at
home until he was twenty-one and was edu-
cated in the district schools. In 1880 he came
to Pueblo, Colorado, and there was employed,
in the steel works about five months. He then
moved to Bonanza. Saguache county, where
he remained two years engaged in prospecting.
In 1883 he took up his residence at Grand
Junction and during the next two years con-
ducted a barber shop and bath house at that
place. hi the fall of [88<; he moved to the
ranch he now occupies, which comprises three
hundred and twenty acres of excellent land and
is very pleasantly located along Kimball creek
in Plateau valley. On this ranch Mr. McKee
carries on a flourishing stock industry which
he has built up wholly by his own industry
and business capacity. He came to this region
a poor man owning almost nothing, and now
owns his ranch and about three hundred and
eighty thrifty and well-conditioned cattle. ( In
his ranch he also has a fine orchard of choice
fruit which yields abundantly and for which
he finds a ready and profitable market. He is
a Republican in politics, and takes an active
part in the campaigns of his party, as he does
in all phases of the public life of the com-
munity. In December. 1883, he was married
to Miss Addie E. Jones, who was born near
Denver, Colorado. They have five children.
John W., Aaron, Clarence C, Alf C. and their
daughter "Matt, all living at home and assist-
ing him in running the ranch.
JOHN NURNBERG.
Although born and reared far from his
present home, and recollecting with pleasure
the scenes and associations of his native land,
loyal too to its history and the aspirations of
its people, John Nurnberg, of near Carbondale.
Garfield county, this state, is well pleased with
Colorado, preferring it to all the states of
which he lias knowledge, and not now willing
to exchange it for the older civilization, more
populous conditions and historic aspirations of
his native Mecklenburg. Germany, where he
was born on February S, 1831. and where also
his parents, George and Eliza Nurnberg, first
saw the light of this world, descendants of long
lines of ancestors born and reared in the father-
land. The parents came to the United States
soon after their marriage and located in Miclii
gan. being among the earlv settlers of that
PROGRESSIVE MEX OF WESTERN COLORADO.
in-
state. Some time afterward they removed to
Wisconsin, and there they passed the remain
der of their days, contentedly occupied in the
peaceful pursuit of agriculture and living in
the lasting respect of all who knew them.
They bad eight children, of whom only four
are living, Frederick, Christopher, Barbara and
John. The last named attended the common
schools near his home from the age of six to
that of fourteen, then during the next two
years assisted his father on the home farm, af-
ter which he began to make his own living by
working on other farms for wages awhile and
later as manager for himself. He continued his
industry in this line for a period of thirty years.
and raised live stock in connection therewith.
In 1887 he came to Colorado and located bis
present ranch, a pre-emption claim of one hun-
dred and seventy acres, purchasing the im-
provements already made by a former tenant.
Of this tract one hundred and forty acres can
be cultivated with profit in hay, grain and
other ordinary farm products, and of these Mr.
Nnrnherg raises good crops. He also carries on
a flourishing industry in cattle, that commodity
and bay being bis principal resource and both
being extensively produced. He also raises
sonic fruit for market. The ranch is well sup-
plied with water and arrangements have been
made for its judicious distribution over the
land according to need. The improvements
are sufficient in magnitude and comfortable in
character, and the appliances at hand for the
business of farming and giving proper attention
to the stock are ample and of the latest pat-
terns. -Although independent in politics, Mr.
Nurnberg is deeply interested in the welfare of
his community, and heartily supports all its
elements of growth and prosperity. He is es-
pecially active in the cause of public education,
having served six years as a member of the lo-
cal school board, following a similar service of
several years in Wisconsin. On December 11.
[861, he was married to Miss Fannie Harris, a
daughter of William and Catherine (Jayne 1
Harris and a sister of William and Charles H.
Harris, sketches of whom are elsewhere in this
work. Mr. and Mrs. Nurnberg have had nine
children, of whom four have died, twins in
infancy, and Julia in 1867 and Gertrude in
[871. The five who are living are: Annie
(Mrs. August Sunnicht), of Carbondale; Es-
tella ( Mrs. Samuel Weber), of Fruita ; Eugene,
who conducts the home ranch for his father ;
Mabel (Airs. Edward Xevitt), of Aspen; and
Maud ( Mrs. Arthur Ward), of Pasadena, Cal-
ifornia. While independent in polities, the fa-
ther has a decided leaning toward the Republi-
can party.
Eugene Nurnberg, a son of John, who
conducts the operations of the paternal home-
stead, was born on January I, 1868, in the
state of Wisconsin, and when he was nineteen
years old accompanied his parents to this state,,
where he has since resided. He was married
on May 12. 1802, to Miss Rose Smith, a daugh-
ter of Adam and Mary (Duerst) 1 Smith, na-
tives of Wisconsin, where she also was born
and reared. They are now residing at Troy,
South Dakota, and are engaged in farming.
in connection with which they carry on a thriv-
ing dairy business. While living in Wisconsin
the father served as treasurer of his county
three terms, being elected to the office on the
Republican ticket. He is a prominent member
of the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
Eleven children were born in the family, two
of whom, Adam and Wilhelm. have died. The
nine living are: Nicholas, of Green county,
Wisconsin: Catherine, the wife of Charles
Kundert, of South Dakota: Matthew, also a
resident of that state: Alary, the wife of Fred-
erick Legler, of Pocatello. Idaho; Theodore,
living at Monroe, Wisconsin ; Rose, the wife of
Mr. Nurnberg: Annie, the wife of James
Budge, of Rio Blanco county : Bertha, the wife
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
of Nicholas Grenfell; and Clara, the wife of
Peter Wells, of South Dakota. The parents
and must of the children belong to the Meth-
odist church. Mr. Nurnberg the younger is a
popular man in his community, and is rising
rapidly to prominence in business circles and
in public esteem.
JOHN PATERSON.
Almost the only schooling received by the
subject of this brief sketch was had under the
exacting but effective taskmaster Experience,
and it is due to his own indomitable energy,
pluck and perseverance that he has succeeded
in life and won a comfortable estate from hard
conditions and under adverse circumstances,
lie belongs to the great democracy of the
United States, which works in its shirt sleeves
where work will pay. and by persistent effort
and undaunted courage builds up great in-
dustries, mighty marts of commerce, fertile
farms in the wilderness and rich common-
wealths fruitful in all the blessings of cultivated
life. Mr. Paterson was born in Scotland on
September 8. 1855. and is the son of James and
Jane P. (Stewart) Paterson, of that country,
where their forefathers lived and labored for
many generations. The father was a farmer
and also engaged in other occupations. He
was a loyal member of the Presbyterian church.
as was also his wife, and gave intelligent and
manly attention to all the duties of citizenship.
The family comprised eleven children, of
whom two died in infancy and one at a more
advanced age. The living are Jane. James.
Margaret, Alexander, William, John and Bar-
bara. When John was but seven years old he
began to make his own living by herding cattle,
in which he was occupied in his native land,
until r88o, in connection with various other
kind- of work. In that year he came to the
United States, and located in Colorado on his
present ranch, eighty acres of which he bought
with the improvements out of money he had
saved from his slender earnings. He after-
wards bought fifty acres additional, and to the
development, improvement and cultivation of
his land he has since continuously devoted
himself. He has ninety acres of the tract in a
good state of productiveness and raises fine
crops of bay. grain, potatoes and fruit, owning
his water rights and having an abundant sup-
ply of water for necessary irrigation. He is a
man of public-spirit and helpful in all com-
mendable undertakings for the advancement of
the best interests of his community, but is in-
dependent of party control in political activity.
On January 20, 1882, he was married to Miss
Mary A. Begg, a native of Scotland and the
daughter of Peter and Mary (Ross) Begg, of
that country, where the father was overseer for
John Forber, a great land owner and sheep
breeder. He was a Presbyterian in church re-
lations, and died in 1884. The mother is still
living in Scotland and, like her husband, she
is loyal and devoted to the king. Four of their
five children are living. Jane. Mary A., George
and Margaret. Mr. and Mrs. Paterson have
five children: Helen, the wife of S. Geigel.
living in the vicinity of Carbondale: .Marion,
the wife of Oliver Jacobs, living in the vicinity
of Emma; Gladstone E., Clara and Hugh. The
parents are Presbyterians. Mr. Paterson'-
father died in r88i and his mother in 189T.
GUSTAVEUS GRACE.
Orphaned at the age of eleven year- by the
death of his father, who enlisted in the Union
army for the Civil war and was never seen
again. Gustaveus Grace, now one of the suc-
cessful and progressive ranch men of Eagle
county, has had a struggle in life from his
boyhood, and what he has is the result of his
own energy, capacity and thrift. Tic was horn
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
163
at Hinesburg, Chittenden county, Vermont, on
July 16, 1854. the son of Harrison B. and
Miranda (Mosier) Grace, the former a native
of Bangor. Maine, and the latter of Hinesburg,
\ ermont. In 1850 the family moved to the
state of New York, and at the beginning of
the Civil war the father joined the volunteers
in defense of the Union, and. as has been stated,
that was the last ever seen of him by his fam-
ily. There were four children in the family.
of whom three are living. Gustaveus, Benjamin
D., of Courtney at Bonner's Ferry. Idaho, and
Lorenzo F., of Glenwood Springs Their
mother died on July 30. [902. Gustaveus, the
oldest of the living children, received a very
limited common-school education, the absence
of his father making it necessary to aid in sup-
porting the family at an early age, and he re-
mained at home in this laudable work until he
reached the age of twenty-one. Then he started
out to farm for himself and later turned his
attention to saw-mill work, his wages being
very small. In 1876 he came to Colorado.
reaching Denver on April 8th, en route to
Hamilton, now called Como. From there he
moved on to Breckenridge and then to a min-
ing camp known as Park City, where he de-
voted six months to mining for wages. He
then made a short visit to his old home in New
York, and on his return to this state, after a
short stay of six weeks at Breckenridqe. took
up his residence at Lincoln gulch, where he
worked in the mines until September 15. [877,
for a compensation of three dollars a day. On
the date last mentioned he moved to Leadville,
and there he wrought in the smelters until
[881, when he returned to Breckenridqe. and
there and at Holy Cross passed six months,
after which he went back to Leadville. For
some time then he teamed and freighted be-
tween that town and Aspen and Glenwood, he
and his brother. L. F. Grace, being the first to
move groceries into Glenwood. This was in
1882, and they continued their joint operations
two years, at the end of which he sold his in-
terests in the enterprise to his brother. In
February, 1885, he settled on the ranch which
is now his home, taking up one hundred and
sixty acres as a pre-emption claim. Of the
tract he has ninety acres in hay, grain, vege-
tables and fruit, lie is a firm supporter of the.
Republican party, and a valued member of the
Woodmen of the World. On October 5. [882,
he was married to Miss Minerva Case, a native
of Plattsville. Wisconsin, the daughter of
Austin and Elizabeth A. (Wright) Case, the
former born in Connecticut and the latter in
New York. They moved to Wisconsin as
young people, and in 1880 came to Colorado.
The father was engaged many years in burn-
ing lime and railroad grading under contract,
but for some time has lived retired from active
pursuits. He is a Democrat in politics and a
Freemason in fraternal circles. He is now liv-
ing near Watson with his daughter. Mrs. Wil-
liam Dobson, his wife having died on Decem-
ber 13, 1887. O f their eight children Lafayette
was killed in the Civil war and Mary died in
Wisconsin. The six living are: Almeda.
wife of Edward Gilkey, of Spokane. Wash-
ington: Minerva. Mrs. Gustaveus Grace:
Charles, of near Snow Mass: Truman, of Gun-
nison; Gilbert, of Aspen; and Georgia, wife of
William Dobson, of Watson. Mr. and Mrs.
Grace have six children. Claude M.. Mabel E..
Georgia G., Nina. Gerald and Austin. The
parents attend the Methodist church and take
an active interest in the development and im-
provement of the community in which they
live, in which they are highly esteemed and
have a host of admiring friends.
ALEXIS ARBANEY.
From far-away and sunny Italy, near Vosta
on the Baltea and under the shadow of the
Appenines, came Alexis Arbaney to the L T nited
States, when he was a young man of twenty-
104
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
nine, and here he has given his time and energy
to developing a ranch and building up thereon
i flourishing stock and general ranching in-
dustry. He was born on November 27, 1 861 .
and is the son of John B. and Margaret Ar-
haney. natives of that country and belonging
to families long resident there. They were
prosperous farmers, .according to the ways of
the country, and devout members of the
Catholic church. After long lives of usefulness
death ended their labors, the mother dying on
September 17, 1896. and the father in March,
1901. Five of their thirteen children survive
them. Demiticus. Egyptian. Baslease, Alexis
and one other. Alexis had but few and scant
opportunities for education in the schools, being
obliged to assist his parents on the farm from
an early age. When he was twenty lie entered
the Italian army and served four years. Then
returning home, he devoted four years more to
manufacturing cheese. In 1890 he emigrated
to the United States and made bis first location
at Delray, Wayne county. Michigan. Here
he engaged in lumbering for a time and later
in foundry work. On October 10, 1890, be
arrived in western Colorado, and soon after
went to work as a ranch hand for Charles Har-
ris, who paid him twenty-six to thirty dollars
a month. At the end of a year he rented the
ranch belonging to Samuel Cramer, and during
the next four years he conducted its operations
with gratifying success. While so engaged he
wintered at Aspen and lived on the ranch in
summer. In 1892 be worked ten months in the
P.ride of Aspen mine for wages, then sold
some interests he had acquired to his brother
Henry and purchased the ranch on which he
now lives, making the purchase in partnership
with his cousin. L. C. Clavell. The ranch
then comprised three hundred and twenty
aire--, and after buying his cousin's interest
after a partnership of seven years, he bought
forty acres more, so that he now has three hun-
dred and sixty. ( >ne hundred acres of the tract
can be cultivated and yields abundantly of hay,
grain and potatoes, hay and grain being the
principal crops. The ranch is two miles east
of Basalt and is considered one of the best
in this whole section of the state. In political
matters Mr. Arbaney is independent, but he-
is cordially interested in the welfare of his
country and state, and devoted to the institu-
tions of In.-, adopted land. He was married on
June 17, 1880, to Miss Felicity Gerbaz, an
Italian like himself and horn on Jul)- 2, [862.
She is a sister of Jarry Gerbaz. a sketch of
whom will be found in another part of this
work. Mr. and Mrs. Arbaney have two chil-
dren, Flalin. horn on February 28. 1888, and
Isabelle, born on December 4, 1890. The par-
ents are members of the Catholic church ami
are well esteemed as good citizens and enter-
prising, progressive farmers.
KILBURN C. VOORHEES.
One of the active and progressive business
men of Glenwood Springs, where he conducts
a prosperous livery business, Kilburn C. Voor-
hees has aided materially in promoting the
growth and development of this section of the
state and building up its interests. In addition
to his business in town he carries on a flour-
ishing and profitable ranching and stock indus-
try in the county, and is active in every worthy
enterprise tor the advancement of the commu-
nity and the benefit of its people. He was torn
in Wisconsin on September 10, 1862, and is
the son of Tunis V. and Maria (Clifford I
Voorhees, the father a native of New York
state and the mother of Canada. The pater-
nal ancestors of the family came over in the
"Mayflower" and have been zealous and promi-
nent in the history of the country at every
stage of its progress since early Colonial times.
Mr. Voorhees' immediate parents settled in
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
[6s
Wisconsin in their early married life, but not
long afterward moved to Iowa, then to Ne-
braska and afterward to Illinois. Down to
[880 the father was a farmer, but he is now
receiver for the hoard of trade in Chicago, and
is doing well. He is a Republican in politics,
and from time to time has held local offices in
the place of his residence. His fraternal rela-
tions are with the Masonic order and the Royal
Arcanum, and in religious affiliation he is con-
nected with the Congregational church, as is
also his wife. They have had seven children.
' hie, May D., died in 1890. The six living are
Kilburn C, Perry F.. Franklin V., James M.,
Emma and Wright. Kilburn attended the pub-
lic schools and assisted his father on the farm,
remaining at home until he was nearly eigh-
teen years old. In 1879 he came from Ne-
braska to Colorado, arriving in the summer,
and after passing six months in Denver occu-
pied in various employments, in the spring of
tRRo he moved to his present locality and be-
gan prospecting and mining, which he con-
tinued for ten years. Some of the mines dis-
covered and located by him during that period
have since proven to be good properties. With-
in this time be also conducted a ranch four
years at Delta. In 1893 he sold all his prop-
erty and coming to Glenwood, engaged in the
livery business, buying out F. A. Enoch and
forming a partnership with A. F. Yewell,
which continued five years from July 1, 1893,
in. I was then harmoniously dissolved, he pur-
chasing his partner's interest. Since then he
has conducted the business alone. He is also
interested in a large ranch located near Glen-
wood which produces good crops of hay, grain.
fruit and the best quality of potatoes. He
takes an active and helpful interest in public
local affairs, and has served four years as a
member of the board of aldermen. Frater-
nally he is connected with the Masonic order
and the Eagles, and politically is an ardent Re-
publican. On November 25, 1898. he was
married to Miss Minnie L. Young, a native of
Ouincy, Illinois, and daughter of James Young.
Her father was a steamboat captain for many
years, and both he and his wife have paid na-
ture's last debt, dying some years ago.
JUDGE ARTHUR L. BEARDSLEY.
The courts in this country are the last ref-
uge of liberty for the citizen and the ultimate
bulwark of defence for his life and property;
and it is well for an} - community when its
judges are men of proven probity, extensive
legal learning, patriotic devotion to the public
good and unyielding force of character in
standing up for essential justice in the admin-
istration of the important trusts which they
have in charge. In nothing, perhaps, have the
states of the farther West been more fortun-
ate and distinguished than in the uprightness
and capabilty of their courts in general. Their
judges have dignified and adorned their juris-
prudence by a wealth of legal lore, and in
cases where this has been in some measure
lacking, the force of character and triumphant
sense of fairness of the judges have made suf-
ficient amends for the deficiency to subserve
the ends of justice in their decisions and make
the rights and interests of the citizens secure.
In the particular instance of Judge Beardsley
both the legal learning and the force of char-
acter are present, and there is besides a wide
and accurate knowledge of men gathered in
experience with them in the toilsome avoca-
tions of life. The Judge was born in Newark.
Essex count)-. New Jersey, on January 26,
i860, and is the son of Theodore and Henrietta
E. (Baldwin) Beardsley. the former born in
Sussex county, that state, and the latter in Es-
sex. • The father was a merchant and besides
being successful in business was prominent in
the councils of the Prohibition party in poli-
[66
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
tics, being at one time its candidate for mayor
of his home city. He and his wife were Bap-
tists in religions affiliation. Their offspring
numbered six, of whom five survive them, the
mother having died on January 16th, and the
father on November 2, 1895. The living chil-
dren are Arthur L., Grace, William, Mabel and
Theodore. The Judge began his scholastic ed-
ucation in the public schools and finished it at
the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, his
own industry and frugality furnishing the
money for the more advanced courses of in-
struction. In 1873 ' le came to Colorado, and
here he devoted four additional years to school
in special courses, in June, 1878, he took a
position on a cattle ranch in the employ of \V.
L. Beardsley. of Huerfano county, living near
the present town of Walsenburg. He re-
mained with .Mr. Beardsley until January,
[879, then turned his attention to merchandis-
ing at Leadville. From there he moved to Tin-
cup and began the study of law. After pursu-
ing the study the required time and attending
the schools belonging to the profession, he be-
gan to practice at Glenwood in 1887, remain-
ing there one year, at the end of which he
moved to Newcastle, where he passed eleven
tice, nine of them as city
attorney. En [898 he was elected county judge
of Garfield county, and in 1901 and in 1004
lie was re-elected, being each time the candi-
date of the Republican party, the first time of
the Silver Republicans and the second and third
of tin- regulars. The last election was for a
term of four years. In the administration of
his exalted and important office he has given
great satisfaction to all classes of the people
and made a high and enduring reputation for
himself. He is active and prominent in the
VEasonic order, belonging to the lodge and the
Royal Arch chapter, in the latter body holding
the office of captain of the host. lie also be-
longs to the Knights of Pythias. On Ma\ 21.
1902, he was married to Miss Rhoda Belle Mc-
Donald, a native of Valeene, Indiana, her fa-
ther born in Kentucky and her mother in In-
diana. Almost the whole of his mature life
was passed in the latter state, where he was
for many years a miller and later a farmer.
He died in 1897, at the age of seventy-five.
Mrs. Beardsley was at one time a school
teacher in Kentucky and afterwards at Car-
bondale, this state. She and the Judge became
the parents of one child, which died in infancy,
and Mrs. Beardsley died June 16. 1904. in giv-
ing birth to a daughter, who survives her.
THEODORE ROSENBERG.
Thoroughly educated in some of the best
technical schools of his native land and ac-
quiring breadth of knowledge and artistic skill
through practical experience in his work, Theo-
dore Rosenberg, of Glenwood, has been a valu-
able assistant to the people of his locality in
developing its resources, building up its in-
terests and promoting its conveniences and
public improvements. He was born in Vienna.
Austria, on May 10. 1845, and is the
Paul and Fannie (von Stein) Rosenberg, the
Father native at Landau and the mother at
Duerkheim. The father served in the Austrian
army. He died in 1863, as a retired general,
and the mother is still living at her old Vienna
home. They had a familyof eleven children,
six of whom are living. Their son Theodore
received an excellent education, both general
and technical. He attended the common
schools, a Latin school, the military academy
four years and the Vienna University and the
Polytechnic School. In 1871 he began practice
as a civil engineer, and since then has followed
this line of work in connection with architect
lire, first at Vienna, then in England, where
he passed eighteen months, and afterward in
the United States, one year in Xew York, two
PROGRESSll'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO .
>"7
in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts and one
in Ohio. Meanwhile he made a trip to Colo-
rado, and being pleased with the country, ar-
ranged his affairs in the East and returned
to this state to remain in 1886, locating at
Colorado Springs where he was engaged as ar-
chitect for the Colorado Midland Railroad, and
later in a similar position until 1889 was em-
ployed by the Glenwood Hot Springs Company.
He was in charge of construction of the im-
provements made by that company and de-
signed and constructed a number of long span
bridges for the state and several counties. In
politics he is a Democrat. He has been three
times elected county surveyor, holding that po-
sition at this time (1904). On September 8.
1880. he was married to Miss Theresa Dietrich,
a native of Massachusetts and daughter of
Peter and Theresa (Franzen) Dietrich, who
were born in Germany. The father was a mill-
wright and contractor, and he died in 1900.
The mother now lives at Northampton, -Mas-
sachusetts. Mr. and Mrs. Rosenberg have four
children, William, Karl, John and Helen.
They are well pleased with Colorado and the
opportunities for advancement it has furnished
them, and having made good use of their time
here, they stand high in the public estimation
and have a host of cordial and admiring friends.
WILLIAM STEPHEN COPELAND.
Prominent and serviceable in the industrial,
commercial and educational life of Pitkin
county, proprietor of the Glendale Stock Farm
oi fourteen hundred acres four and one-half
miles west of Aspen, and of the extensive
stock business conducted thereon, active in so-
cial and church circles, and giving intelligent
attention and hearty support to every good en-
terprise for the benefit of the community. Wil-
liam Stephen Copeland. of Aspen, is one of the
leading citizens of this portion of the state
and an ornament and an inspiration for good
to the people among whom lie lives and la-
bors. As manager of the large and highly de-
veloped sample works of the Taylor & Brun-
ton Sampling Works Company, in which is
employed, by common repute the finest and
most complete system of sampling ores in the
world, he has made an excellent reputation as
an expert sampler and become an authority on
all subjects connected with the business: as a
stock man with interests of magnitude in the
business in his charge, he has established him-
self in public opinion as one of the most pro-
gressive and capable men engaged in the in-
dustry and as president for a number of year-.
and now secretary of the local school board he
has been a potential stimulus to the educational
forces of the town and surrounding country,
and he has done a vast amount of good for the
school interests around him. Mr. Copeland
was born in the province of Ontario, Canada,
on August J, 1861, and is the son of George
and Sarah (Smith) Copeland, the father of
the same nativity as himself and the mother
born in New York state. The father was dur-
ing the vears of his early manhood a machinist,
and in later life a farmer. He supported the
Reform party in politics, and belonged to the
United Workmen in fraternal circles. He be-
longed to the Methodist church, as his widow
does now. Since his death, which occurred
several years ago, she has been living at Nor-
wich in the province of Ontario. They were
the parents of six children. A daughter named
Lottie has died : the five who are living are :
William, the subject of this review; Lewis A.,
manager of Taylor & Brunton's interests in
Utah; Carrie, the wife of Rev. Joseph Culp.
of Toronto, Canada; George E., manager of
Taylor & Brunton's interests at Cripple Creek :
and Nellie, the wife of Edward Butler, of St.
Thomas, Ontario. William was well educated
in his native land, attending the primary and
[68
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
high schools, the Teachers' Training School,
the Brantford Collegiate Institute at Brant-
ford, and the Toronto Normal and Art Schools,
of which he is an honor graduate. He was
also thrifty in early life, at the age of ten be-
ginning to earn money and saving it for future
use ; and the habit thus formed has been his
mainstay through his subsequent career. In
r8g] he came to Colorado and located at As-
pen where he l^egan work as a clerk in the
sampling works of the Taylor & Brunton Sam-
pling Works Company. After serving the
company six years in that capacity he became
manager of its works and is still creditably
filling that position. From his advent into this
section of the country he has taken an active
and useful interest in educational matters. He
served several years as president of the local
school hoard and is now its secretary. He has
also been for a number of years president of
the board of examiners. His enthusiasm in
school matters and his influence on others in
this behalf secured for the city the donation
i >f its present excellent high school. All inter-
ests i if the town, county and state have his
earnest and effective support. He is treasurer
of the Commercial Club and one of its most
active members. In fraternal life he is con-
nected with the Odd Fellows, the United Work-
men, the Woodmen of the World and the
Mi idem Woodmen of America, and in political
allegiance he is a stanch and zealous Republi-
can. On December 21, 1887, he united in mar-
riage with Miss Aggie F. Brunton. a daughter
of William and Agnes (Flowie) Brunton, of
Scotland, who came to Canada in early life and
settled in Ontario, where they were success-
fully engaged in farming until death ended
their labors. Mr. and Mrs. Copeland have four
children. Fred Brunton, Charles William, Maud
Marie and Norman Reid. The parents are
members of the Presbyterian church. While
Mr. Copeland's position as manager of the
sampling works is his chief business engage-
ment, his stock industry is by no means a
small part of his commercial enterprise, and
is worthy of special consideration. He owns
the Glendale stock farm, near Aspen, which
comprises fourteen hundred acres, one thousand
acres of which are under cultivation and yield
hay, wheat, oats, barley and potatoes in abun-
dance. On this farm he also conducts a large
and profitable cattle business and produces a
high grade output for an extensive market.
He owns the water rights appertaining to the
ranch, and these are extensive and well devel-
oped. Many thousands of acres of public land
surround him and give him a wide range for
his cattle, so that he is able to carry on this
branch of his business with vigor and expand-
ing profit. He is also interested in mining at
Leadville and Aspen. In every line of his ex-
tended usefulness he exhibits excellent judg-
ment, great enterprise and admirable breadth
of view. In naming over the leading, most
representative and most highly esteemed citi-
zens of Pitkin county, his name would be one
of the first pronounced.
WILLIAM CARDNELL.
The character, stamina and aspirations of a
community are often fully typified by its public
officials, and, tried by this standard, Garfield
county, this state, may claim a high place in
the public estimation if its clerk and recorder,
William Cardnell, be taken as the standard of
judgment. In enterprise, progressiveness.
breadth of view and public-spirit in reference to
commercial, industrial and public affairs, in
scholarship and general capacity, in knowledge
of men acquired in a long and varied ex-
perience among them under widely different
circumstances, and in uprightness and fidelity
to duty, he is easily one of the first men in the
county and a representative of its best citizen-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
i6g
ship and most worthy ambitions. And what
he is may be accounted all the more to his
credit because he is largely a self-made man.
the product of his own natural abilities and
characteristics without extraneous aid of mo-
ment or the help of fortuitous circumstances.
He was born in Essex county, England, on
December u, 1842, the son of William and
Emily G. (Waters) Cardnell, the former bom
in Essex county and the latter in Kent, Eng-
land. The father was a baker and confectioner
and made a. good living for his family at the
business. His wife was what is known as
a "Hard Shell Baptist." They were the par-
ents of seven children, five of whom are living.
William being the oldest son. Both parents
are dead. William attended the common or
national schools two years, then was for a
short time at an academy and a private school.
At the age of thirteen he shipped as a cabin
boy on a trading vessel and passed two years at
sea on ships hailing from various ports in Eng-
land, and to ports on the continent. Afterwards
he made his home with his uncle, Robert Wa-
ters, manager for W. H. Smith & Son, of Lon-
don, prominent publishers and printers, who
employed one thousand men, the son becoming
subsequently the well known first lord of the
admiralty, some of whose characteristics were
depicted in the burlesque "His Majestv's Ship,
Pinafore." Mr. Cardnell serve! three years
as an apprentice in the mechanical part of the
printing department, then came to New York
and enlisted in the Fourteenth New York-
Cavalry, and served one year under Generals
Butler, Banks and Canby on the Red River
expedition and other parts of the South, but
being ill and incapacitated from service in con-
sequence of hardships endured on the memor-
able retreat he was honorably discharged, and
returned to New York. He next appeared at
Leavenworth, Kansas, where he conducted a
printing business. In 1872 be first came to
Colorado and located at Denver. Here he had
a printing plant on Blake street and carried on
the same business. Soon after starting the en-
terprise in the capital city, he left the business
in charge of his foreman and joined the
memorable diamond and gold expedition to
Arizona and New Mexico. In this success was
alternating, but not satisfactory, and he es-
tablished the first newspaper published at Sil-
ver City, New Mexico, and remained in the
territory ten years. Since the Civil war h •
has passed the whole of his life on the frontier.
In his experience as gold hunter in Arizona he
acquired a knowledge of Indian customs and
languages and became acquainted with Cachise,
Victoria and other chiefs of the great Apache
nation. This acquaintance was of value in pre-
venting hostilities between the Apaches and the
gold hunters, as. though encounters were
many times threatened by the Indians under
him, a compromise was always effected through
Mr. Cardnell. The party with which he went
into Arizona was the first large one that entered
that territory. It had six months' supplies and
a large outfit of mining tools, which were car-
ried on thirty-six pack animals, and no white
men were seen in several months' time. After
eight months' hard labor on this expedition he
started the newspaper in Silver City. After this
he learned the profession of a metallurgist in
one of the reduction works and became super-
intendent of a mill for reducing ores, located
in Silver City, eight hundred miles from the
nearest railroad station. In this position he
was employed five years, then returned to
Denver and from there moved to Glenwood
Springs in 1886, arriving on April 6th. He
at once became manager and editor of the
Glenwood Echo. In 1890 he bought the Daily
Republican. The publication of this he con-
tinued four years as a weekly paper, changing
its name to the People's Herald, a weekly
People's party paper, severing his connection
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
with it in 1896, by sale of the plant to the Car-
bondale Item. During this period he had some
mining interests and served as an assayer, win-
ning a high reputation in the business as an
expert. In 1899 he was a candidate for county
clerk and recorder on the Populist ticket and
was elected to the office by a large majority,
and in 1901 he was re-elected as the candidate
of the Democratic and Populist parties. He
was again re-elected on the Democratic ticket
for a third term November 8, 1904. In 1872
he was married at Denver to Miss Fannie Cris-
pin, a native of London. Ontario, Canada.
They had four children, three of whom are
living, Emily, the wife of F. C. Ewing, drug-
gist of Glenwood Springs ; William G. and
Herbert E. This wife died in 1882, and on
June 14, 1S83, he married her sister, Mrs.
Susan (Crispin) Korn. They were daughters
of George and Annie (Frost) Crispin, who
were born in England and soon after their
marriage moved to Canada, where the father
was a promoter and builder. Both are now
deceased. They belonged to the Episcopal
church and stood high in their community.
EDWIN S. HUGHES.
Starting in life with nothing, and by steady
industry and thrift, coupled with skill and in-
ventive genius, building his own fortunes to
good proportions and permanent substance of
magnitude. Edwin S. Hughes, of Glenwood,
is not only a self-made man but one of the lead-
ing business men on the Western slope of this
state. He was born on April to. 1856, at
Remington, Hunterford county. New Jersey,
the s<m of Tared and Rhuhama (Hartpence)
Hughes, natives of Pennsylvania who passed
their lives in farming and the father was also
engaged in shipping stock to market. lie was
successful in his business, and died after many
years of usefulness and prosperity. His wid-
ow is still living and makes her home at Croy-
ton, New Jersey. The father was an active
Democrat in politics and held a number of local
offices. He belonged to the Odd Fellows ami
was a member of the Baptist church, as his
widow is now. They had eight children, two of
whom are dead and six living. Those living are
Lambert, Josephine. Edwin S., Bishop. Fred
and Hiram. Edwin S. attended the country
schools until he was seventeen, then began to
make his own living, moving to Bushnell. Illi-
nois, wdiere he conducted a butchering business
and also clerked in a hotel, remaining there un-
til 1879, when he came to Colorado and located
at Leadville. Here he opened a bottling estab-
lishment, which he conducted five years. He
then moved to Aspen, this state, where he
opened another establishment of the kind, con-
ducting it in the interest of Charles Lang. It
was the first enterprise of this character in the
section and be remained in charge of it as
manager one year and a half. At the end of
that time he changed his residence to ( ilen-
wood Springs, but continued the same line of
work, starting a plant of his own. To this
in 1894 he added a wholesale liquor business,
and of the two he has made a great success,
building up his business to great size and ac-
quiring considerable real estate comprising
ranch and mining lands. He has the finest
bottling works in the West, and his operations
therein are rendered much more effective by
a number of devices for the business which he
has invented and patented himself. Much of
his property is located at Glenwood Springs,
and some of it is considered among the very
best. In the fraternal life of the community
Mr. Hughes is connected with the Elks and the
Knights of Pythias. In politics he is an ar-
dent Democrat, and has been chosen a member
of the town board at Glenwood Springs, serv-
ing when the streets and sidewalks of the town
were constructed. On January 18. iSSS, he
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
was united in marriage with Miss Helen
Heichmer, a native of Pennsylvania and the
daughter of Martin and Annie Heichmer, na-
tives of Germany who came to Pennsylvania
in early life and remained in that state until
1879, when they moved to Colorado. They
are the parents of nine children. Henry, Tony,
Helen, Eva, Fred, Lizzie, Annie. Joe and Char-
lie. Mr. and Mrs. Hughes have two children,
Charles A. and Helen L.
HIRAM BRUCE IKELER.
This enterprising and progressive business
man, with a plant at Aspen and one at Glen-
wood Springs, this state, whose citizenship is
an honor to the commonwealth and whose busi-
ness activity has been an important factor in
developing its commercial and industrial inter-
cuts, is a native of Bloomsburg, Columbia
county, Pennsylvania, born on September 11,
[865, and is the son of Eri and Caroline
(muse) Ikeler. also natives of Pennsylva-
nia, where the father is still living and en-
gaged in farming and raising stock. He sup-
ports the Democratic part}- in politics, and
stands well in his community. Of the eight
children born in the family, one. Bradley, has
dud. The other seven survive their mother.
who passed away on March 2$, 1895. The
living children are Annie, the wife of Amos
Traulpin, a resident of Pennsylvania ; Oscar,
who lives in the same state; Hiram B. ; Philip.
who resides in Mississippi: Boyd, living in
Pennsylvania; Ida, the wife of Freese Ferter,
and Mary, the wife of Moss Elder, both resi-
dents of Pennsylvania. Hiram attended the
public schools, and at the age of seventeen be-
gan the battle of life for himself, going to
< iec irgia for the purpose, and there being occu-
pied in saw-mill work, running a locomotive
tramway. Five years were passed in Georgia
in this and other pursuits, and in 1887 Mr. Ike-
ler came to Colorado and after devoting a year
to stationary engineering, found employment
in plumbing for the S. F. Sloss Plumbing Com-
pany. After that engagement terminated he
worked two years in diamond drill work, then
returned to plumbing, opening an establish-
ment in this business for himself. He located
first on Mill street and in 1900 changed to Hop-
kins street. He began operations on a small
basis,, but by industry and close attention to
business he has made his place the leading
plumbing establishment at Aspen, in fact he
is one of the most enterprising and progressive
men in the business in Pitkin and ( iarfield coun-
ties, he having opened a branch house at Glen-
wood Springs on May 15. 1904, which he
intends to develop to large proportions. At
both places he makes a specialty of putting
in heating and plumbing plants and has a high
reputation for skill and ability in the work.
He also has interests in mining claims and owns
the Mill street sewer at Aspen. In fraternal
life he is connected with the Masons and the
Knights of Pythias. On December 24. [892,
he united in marriage with Miss Alary B. Bai-
ley, a native of Youngstown, Ohio, and daugh-
ter of Joseph and Elizabeth ( Dore) Bailey,
the former born in England and the latter in
Wales, but both reared in Ohio, where Mrs.
Ikeler's grandparents settled in early life. They
moved to Colorado and settled at Aspen in
1S87, and here the father has devoted the
whole of his time to mining with fair success.
There were seven children born in the family.
Three of these have died, and the four living
are : Abel, who lives at Platte River, Missouri ;
Mrs. Ikeler; Lacey, of Canon City; and Annie,
the wife of Charles Yerkes. of Colorado
Springs. Both parents are Methodists and
the father belongs to the Odd Fellows and the
Knights of Pythias. Mr. and Mrs. Ikeler have
two children, their sons Lamar and Bruce.
The parents are Presbyterians.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
WILLIAM R. LEE.
Air. Lee, who is one of Colorado's most
active and prominent promoters, conducts a
ranch of two hundred and forty acres located
eight miles west of Rifle, and also is proprietor
of the Glenwood Hotel, is a native of Dresden.
Muskingum county. Ohio, where he was born
on September 9, 1856, and is the son of John X.
and Eliza (Rittenhouse) Lee, the father born
in West Virginia near Harper's Ferry and the
mother in Ohio, hut both descended from Vir-
ginia families. The parents located in Ohio in
early life and remained there to the end of their
days. The}- were members of the_ Christian
church, and the father was a successful mer-
chant in business and an active Democrat in
politics. They had eight children, four of
whom have died, George in 1866, Charles A.
in 188 1, Frank M. in 1888, and Edward in
infancy. The three of these who grew to ma-
turity all fought in defense of the Union in
the Civil war. The father died in 1864 and
the mother in 1865. The four living children
are: John J., who lives at Leeton, Missouri:
Albert, a resident of Colorado: William R.. the
immediate subject of this paper; and Howard
T., who lives in Denver and is interested in the
Daily Sentinel which is published at Grand
Junction. William R. Lee was educated at the
public schools, and had but limited advantages
in them, as at the age of thirteen be was obliged
to make his own living, which he did by work-
ing on the farm at eight dollars a month and
his board. In 1875, at the age of nineteen, he
came to Colorado, and after passing a short
time at Las Animas, wintered at Pueblo. In
the spring of 1K70 he moved to California
Gulch, now Leadville, where he followed min-
ing and engaged in other pursuits for two
years. He was then interested for a time in
real estate deals, and in 1887 settled at Glen-
wood Springs, where he occupied himself in
ranching and raising stock, especially cattle.
which proved both interesting and profitable.
Here he also dealt in real estate to an extent,
buying and selling several properties. He
now owns a fine ranch of two hundred and
forty acres, of which one hundred and twenty-
five acres can be easily cultivated and the rest
is good grazing ground. His principal crops
are hay. grain and fruit. He owns the water
rights to his land, and has excellent springs
near the dwelling for domestic purposes. The
ranch is on the south side of Grand river,
about eight miles west of Rifle, as has been
stated, and is admirably located for its present
uses. Mr. Lee, however, lives at Glenwood
and is the proprietor of the Glenwood Hotel.
But prosperous and well-to-do as he is now,
his life in the West has not been wholly free
from privations and hardships. He made the
journey to Aspen on foot with his blankets
packed on his back. There he located a num-
ber of mining claims which he subsequently
sold, but was not very successful in mining.
On February 2. 1878. he was married to Miss
Otelia Grant, a native of Ottumwa. Iowa, the
daughter of John M. and Lucinda L. (Lew-
ellyn) Grant, the former a native of Cincinnati.
Ohio, and the latter of Bowling Green, Ken-
tucky. The mother died at Colorado Springs
on September 12. 1876. and the father at Lead-
ville in 1880. The father was a civil engineer
and came to this state with the Horace Greeley
colonists, lie assisted in laving out Colorado
Springs, and was a successful man in all his
life work. In politics he supported the Repub-
lican p.irt\. Three children were born in the
family. One of them. Mrs. Alice Pomeroy,
died in 1880. The two living are Mrs. Lee and
her sister Jane, the wife of Henry Guyll, who
lives in Newcastle, California. Mr. and Mrs.
Lee have had eight children, three of whom
died in infancy. The five living are Francis A..
of Glenwood Springs: Vera M., the wife of
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
William J. Toepfer, of Glenwood Springs;
Alice. Ethel and Gladdys. Mr. Lee has been
an active member of the order of Odd Fellows
during the last twenty-five years. He also be-
longs to the Elks and the Woodmen of the
World. He is an active man in Republican
politics and one of the leading factors in the
progress and development of the Western
slope, being earnest and zealous in every com-
mendable enterprise involving the welfare of
the section or the comfort and convenience of
its people. Coming among this people an un-
known boy, with almost nothing in the way of
worldly wealth except the clothing on his back,
he has shown an enterprise and public spirit
that have raised him to consequence and given
him a high place in the regard of every element
in the community, of which he is an honored
and much esteemed citizen, widely known on all
sides for breadth of view, wisdom in counsel,
energy in action and a genial and gracious man-
ner which helps to soften the asperities of life
for others and add to its sunshine.
HENRY HASLEY.
For a full quarter of a century this pro-
gressive and successful business man has been
a resident of Colorado, and during the whole
of that time he has been prominent in business
and devoted in thought and serviceable activity
to the progress and development of the state.
He is a native of Allegheny. Pennsylvania,
horn on September 3. 1857. His parents were
Jacob and Anna Hasley. natives of Switzer-
land who came to this country in early life and
settled in Pennsylvania, where the father be-
came prominent as a successful manufacturer
of soap and speculator in oil. Later in life he
turned his attention to butchering, and in 1804
retired from active pursuits. He is now liv-
ing at Allegheny and with his wife enjoying
the fruits of his long and useful labors. They
are the parents of six children: John, a resi-
dent of Denver, Colorado; Margaret, the wife
of Charles Frazier. of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania;
Henry, the subject of this writing; Anna, the
wife of Charles Neiss, of Pittsburg; Rose, the
wife of Charles Walters, of the same city; and
Katharine, the wife of William Fetter, of
Washington. 1). C. At the age of fifteen
Henry Hasley was apprenticed to a butcher
at Allegheny City, in his native state, and re-
ceived for his work eight dollars a month and
his board, the money compensation being in-
creased to twenty-rive dollars a month by the
end of his three years' service. In 1879 be
came to Colorado and took up his residence
at Leadville. Here be engaged in mining and
prospecting for a short time, then became asso-
ciated with Reef & Nuckolls, wholesale butch-
ers, as the foreman of their slaughter house.
He passed five years in their employ, and at
the end of that period be formed a partnership
with a Mr. Mulock under the style of Mulock
& Hasley, for carrying on the same line of
trade. In 1889 Mr. Reef purchased Mr. Mu-
lock's interest in the business, and during the
next two years the firm name was Hasley &
Company, then a consolidation of the three
large firms engaged in the butchering business
was made and the name of the new firm was
Hasley. Pierce & Company. After this Mr.
Hasley was also associated with Mr. Reef in a
similar enterprise at Ogden, Utah, which con-
tinued for a year with only moderate success.
Having severed his connection with the Utah
house. Mr. Hasley returned to Leadville and
became the leading man in the Leadville Live
Stock Company, witli which be continued his
connection ten years, owning a one-half inter-
est in the concern. He also owned and oper-
ated mining properties of value. He and Mr.
Reef still own the land on which the live stock
company operated principally, and have leased
it to Tucker & Company. Mr. Hasley now
174
PROGRESSIJ'E VEX OE WESTERN COLORADO.
conducts a wholesale meat business in Grand
Valley and runs a ranch of two hundred acres
at Silt, between Rifle and Xewcastle. which he
bought in 1899. His land is well supplied with
water rights and is all capable of easy cultiva-
tion. It yields large crops of hay, grain, vege-
tables and fruit. His potatoes are of particu-
larlv fine quality and took the first prize at the
state fair. He also raises cattle extensively
and finds the business profitable. In the local
affairs of the county he is active and influen-
tial, in politics he is a Republican on national
questions, and in citizenship he is faithful, up-
right, enterprising and progressive. On No-
vember 8. 1888, he united in marriage with
Miss Zona McCurdy, a native of Ohii >. wh< 1 was
reared at Muscatine. Iowa, where her parents
settled early in their married life, and re-
mained until the end of their days, which came
some years ago. Her father was a prosperous
gram merchant there. Mrs. Hasley died on
November 13, 1898, and in May. 1902, Mr.
Hasley married a second wife, Mrs. Berdette
Gutchel, a native of Xew York state and a
widow with two children. Mildred and Leslie
( mtchel.
ALOXZO HARTMAN.
Following in the footsteps of his worthy
and esteemed father, who was a pioneer in three
states, Alonzo Hartman. of Gunnison, who
owns and operates the largest and best cattle
ranch in the county and carries on one of the
most extensive ranching and cattle industries
on the western slope of this state, boldly strode
into the wilderness when what is now Gunnison
county was a part of Lake county and an In-
dian reservation, with no white men within
fifty miles of where he "stuck his stake," and
there challenging fate list, determined to meet
her on almost equal terms. During the first
winter of his residence in the benighted region
the snow was almosl continuously four feet
deep, and hardships and privations were ever
present and pressing. True, he had a position
under the United States government at the
Los Pinos Indian agency to look after cattle,
but that was a post of danger and difficulty,
and he had, even in performing its duties, to
rely largely on his own resources and meet the
conditions around him with courage and de-
termination. His career in that new country-
has demonstrated his fitness for the task he
selected for himself, and justified his self-
reliance. Mr. Hartman was born on Septem-
ber 3. 1850, on a farm near Iowa City, Iowa,
where his parents, Thomas and Mary ( Boone)
Hartman. settled in early life and were reared
and married. The former was a native of
1 Canada and the latter of Pennsylvania, she
being a descendant of the renowned Daniel
Boone. The father as a pioneer in that part of
Iowa took up the paternal homestead and be-
came one of the prosperous and extensive farm-
ers of the section. The family afterward moved
to Kansas and later to Colorado, being pioneers
in each state. The father died at Denver in
1885, and the mother now lives at Montrose.
They had a family of five sons and one daugh-
ter, all of whom are living but the daughter
the -oils being residents of western Colorado.
Alonzo was reared on farms and received a
limited common-school education in the primi-
tive and incomplete country schools of a new
country. He was eight years old when his
parents moved to Kansas, and thirteen when
they became residents of this state. They took
up their residence at Denver, the father giving
his attention to mining in the neighborhood.
The son was then able to attend for a time the
Denver Seminary, the first high school in that
city. The principal business part of the city
at the time of his arrival was on the West
Side, and soon afterward Blake street became
the chief business center. As a boy and young
man he worked in the mines ami at whatever
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
else he could find to do, being two years at
Golden and two at Central City. In 1865 his
father entered the cattle industry, and the son
remained with him until seventeen years of age.
During the next three years he was employed
on a range and in buying and selling cattle. In
1870 he moved into the San Luis valley with a
herd of cattle and started a cattle and ranching
business of his own. Two years later be ac-
cepted the government position already alluded
to in what is now Gunnison county a1 Los
Linos Indian agency, arriving at his post of
service on Christmas day. T872. The region
was remote, uninhabited by settlers and devoid
of roads and the other conveniences of life, and
all who were there had to "rough it" in heroic
style. The life was strenuous enough to satisfy
the most adventurous and the outlook was suf-
ficiently unpromising to deter all but the most
determined. Mr. LTartman remained in the
government service nearly four years, then in
T876 started a trading post and small st<>re for
dealings with the Indians. Soon afterward the
postoffice at Gunnison was established and be
was appointed postmaster, but was obliged to
hire a man to cany the mails once a week, or
oftener as occasion demanded. This was one
mi' the first postoffices on the Western slope and
be had charge of it a number of years. His
store was on a part of his present ranch, am!
having his operations concentrated, as the town
grew and the number of settlers in the sur-
rounding country increased, he soon found him-
self with a flourishing and steadily increasing
trade. When Gunnison count)' was organized
be and James P. Kelley, who were partners,
bought one hundred and twenty acres of land
and laid out the townsite of Gunnison in i8t(j.
Not long after this he built a store on the town-
site, and from that time bis rise in prosperity
and consequence in the community was rapid.
As an indication of the rapid growth of the
place and development of the region, it should
be noted that when the postoffice was estab-
lished he could carry all the mail in bis vest
pocket, but after the railroad was built through
bis salary as postmaster was three thousand
dollars a year and he was obliged to employ
several clerks and other help. He continued
merchandising until 1885, ami since then he has
been giving his attention almost wholly to his
ranch and cattle interests. His start in this was
one hundred and sixty acres of land, which he
took up in 1877, it being one of the first home-
steads and be one of the first settlers in the
county as it is now. That tract is still a part
of the ranch, which now embraces two thou-
sand acres and is one of the most highly de-
veloped and best improved in the county. He-
has a fine modern brick dwelling, with brick-
barns, sheds and other needed structures, and
equipped with all the conveniences of life
known to the progressive man at this period.
The ranch yields fifteen hundred to sixteen
hundred tons of good hay a year and with this
and its extensive pasture lands supports in com-
fort the fifteen hundred to two thousand cattle
which are regularly fed on it. Mr. Hartman is
now one of the most extensive cattle dealers on
the Western slope, buying and selling in large
numbers in addition to what be raises. The
ranch is beautifully located in the valley of
the Gunnison and Tomichi rivers, which form
a confluence on it, and it has eight miles of
mountain streams running through and fertiliz-
ing its expansive domain. These streams af-
ford the finest trout fishing in this part of the
country, and incidental to his other pursuits,
some years ago the proprietor built ponds and
a fish hatchery and paid considerable attention
to the propagation of trout. This industry is
not now in active operation, but the structures
for it are still intact and good condition. But
the dairy which he started at nearly the same
time he still conducts, keeping thirty milch
cows of chosen breeds to supply its trade.
, 7 o
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Politically Mr. Hartman is a Republican, but
he is seldom active in party contests, although
he has served one term as county commissioner.
Fraternally he belongs to the order of Odd
Fellows at Gunnison. On January 29, 1882,
he was married to Miss Anna Haigler, a native
of West Virginia, a daughter of William P.
and Mary (H inkle) Haigler, who moved from
their native state, West Virginia, and located
near Olathe. Kansas, in i860, and were
pioners in that part of the state. The father
died in Colorado in 1888, and since then the
mother has made her home with her .laughter.
Mrs. Hartman. In the Hartman household
three children have been born, Hazel H,
Alonzo Bruce and Leah L., all of whom are
living at home. Their father has the distinc-
tion of being the oldest settler in Gunnison
county, and in addition is one of its most re-
spected citizens.
JOHN M. ALLEN,
Bom and reared in Ayrshire. Scotland, the
region so highly honored by the poetical genius
and the sterling manhood of Robert Burns, and
losing his mother by death when he was but
mx years old, then coming to this country at
the age of nineteen, and trying his hand at a
number of different occupations in various
places, in which he traversed over many parts
of this great land, John M. Allen, of Gunnison
county, living on a fine ranch six miles north
of Gunnison, on which he conducts a flourish-
ing general ranching and stock business, has
found after the trials and difficulties of numer-
ous pursuits and many wanderings a peaceful
anchorage in a safe harbor, where he has a
pleasant home and an occupation pleasing to his
tastes and profitable in its returns for his labi >r.
His life began on February 20. 1847. anc l ne
is the son of John and Jennie ( NichoD Allen.
like himself natives of Scotland, where the
mother died in 1853 and the father is still liv-
ing, at the age of more than ninety-two years.
retired from active work after a long, honor-
able and prosperous career as a contractor and
builder. Nine children were born in the house-
hold, of whom four are living, John V. being
the sixth born. At the age of fourteen, after
receiving a limited common -school education,
he was apprenticed to the tailor trade and after
serving an apprenticeship of five years and
ninety days, he went to Glasgow to complete
his trade by qualifying himself as a professional
cutter. In 1868 he emigrated to this country,
arriving in Xew Vork city on July jth. The
booming of cannon in celebration of the day
alarmed him with the fear that another civil
war was in progress, the echoes of the sanguin-
ary contest of 1S61-5 having scarcely died out
of the world's recollection. He soon afterward
took up his residence at Pittsburg. Pennsyl-
vania, and there worked at his trade as a cutter
and tailor, and also attended the Iron City Busi-
ness College. In addition he engaged in busi-
ness for himself as a merchant tailor, but on
account of the failing health of a sister whom
he had brought with him from Scotland, gave
up bright prospects, sold his business and
moved to Denver, this state, arriving there in
March. 1870. The great metropolis of the
state was then a thriving little city of some five
thousand inhabitants, but bad already shown
signs of its marvelous growth and in a small
way struck the pace of progress which has
made it a modern wonder of the world. He
became cutter for the tailoring establishment of
Messrs. I.cnnan & llanna, the latter of whom
is now president of the City National Bank,
and he remained at Denver about two years.
In the summer of 1872 he went on the first
regular passenger train on the Rio Grande Rail-
road to Colorado Springs, then a lusty little
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
^77
bantling but recently baptized into municipal
life. There he erected a building, bought a
stock of goods and opened a flourishing mer-
cantile emporium. The business prospered
and he carried it on three years, then, impelled
by his own failing health, sold out and during
the next five months traveled through southern
Colorado and portions of New Mexico, never
sleeping under a roof in that period, making
his conveyance and his lodging place in a
wagon. Regaining his health and vigor by
this heroic treatment, he returned east to
Illinois and passed a year at Mendota, that
state, clerking in a store. There he met the
lady whom he afterward married, "when love
took up the harp of life and smote on all its
chords with might." In the spring of 1876 he
came again to Colorado and, going to the San
Juan country, passed the season in mining,
and he still has some interests in that region,
where his partner in the venture still lives.
Lake City started that year and late in the fall
Mr. Allen transferred his energies to that
promising camp. In January. 1877, he went
back to Illinois and was married. That sum-
mer he opened a store at Lake City. This he
sold a year later, and returning to Mendota,
Illinois, remained three years clerking for his
former employer. Intending to make that
place his permanent residence, he procured for
himself a fine home there, furnished with all
the modern conveniences ; but the western fever
was still running in his veins and would not
be reduced. This brought him to Colorado
again in 1882, and on his arrival he opened a
general store at Gunnison in partnership with
Mr. Latimer under the firm name of Latimer
& Allen. The great boom was on the town and
section at the time, and the business grew to
proportions of magnitude, making a very large
extent of the surrounding country tributary to
its trade and its proprietors well known all over
the Western slope of the state. In 1898 he
bought Mr. Latimer's interest in the business
and carried it on alone thereafter until March
30, 1902, when a disastrous fire destroyed more
than half of his forty thousand-dollar stock of
goods. In the meantime, in 1886, he had
bought one hundred and sixty acres of land of
the present congressman from Colorado, Hon.
H. M. Hogg, who had built a cabin on the
land but had made no other improvements on
it. Mr. Allen purchased more land from time-
to time, and at the date of the fire owned six
hundred and forty acres. This he improved
from a totally wild condition to one of great
productiveness, and enriched it with a good
dwelling and other buildings, and on it since
the fire he has been carrying on a large and
prosperous stock and ranching industry with
cumulative profits, having now about five hun-
dred cattle of superior grades, and everything
about him to indicate a vigorous management
of an extensive undertaking and a state of ad-
vanced prosperity. In politics he is a staunch
Republican, and fraternally is connected with
the order of Odd Fellows, with membership in
the lodge of the order at Gunnison. On Febru-
ary 20, 1877, ne united in marriage with Miss.
Lucia Ella Clark, a native of Mendota, Illinois,
and a daughter of Warren and Juliaette ( Al-
drich ) Clark, the former a native of Massachu-
setts and the latter of Vermont. Their mar-
riage occurred in Vermont and soon after they
moved from Massachusetts to Mendota, where
the father was a contractor and builder
and very successful in his business affairs.
He died in 1888, while on a visit to his daugh-
ter, Mrs. Allen, the mother passing away at
the old Illinois home. Mr. and Mrs. Allen
have had four daughters and a son. Ruth R..
now the wife of H. F. Lake, Jr., of Gunnison,
Ralph R.. Florence M., and Winona and
Naomi, twins, the latter of whom died in 1889:
at the age of sixteen years. The other four
are living.
t 7 8
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
JACOB D. MILLER.
Jacob D. Miller, the pioneer meat merchant
of Gunnison county and the oldest by continu-
ous connection with the trade in the business,
is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, born on August
3. 1855, and the son of Jacob and Mary ( Paul)
Miller, who were born in Alsace-Lorraine, the
province wrested from France by Germany in
war. and were of French-German ancestry.
They emigrated to the United States when
young and located at Cincinnati, where they
were married.. The father was a gardener and
died at Hamilton. Ohio, in 189 1. and there the
mother still makes her home. They were the
parents of six sons and four daughters, Jacob
D. being the first born of the sons and the third
in order of birth in the family. He was edu-
cated in the common schools of Hamilton, re-
maining at home until he was seventeen, when
he started to learn his trade as a butcher in
Hamilton. Later he worked in packing houses
there and at Middletown, in the same county..
acquiring a thorough knowledge of the meat
business in all its branches. In February, 1880.
be started west, and after working at his trade
a short time at Lincoln, Nebraska, arrived at
Gunnison in the latter part of March, and
here he has lived ever since. At that time there
was no railroad to Gunnison and he came by
way of Leadville, walking from that city to his
destination in company with three other men
with burros as pack animals. Soon after reach-
ing Gunnison he opened the Elk Horn meat
market, the first enterprise of its kind in the
country, which then extended to the Utah line.
He began business on a small scale, and by in-
dustry, thorough knowledge of his craft and
the needs of the community and close attention
to his work he has built up the largest estab-
lishment and trade of its kind on the Western
slope, carrying a large body of wholesale pa-
trons in all parts of this section and conducting
a very extensive retail trade locally. In 1897
Mr. Miller's brother Lewis bought an interest
in the business and since then the firm has been
J. D. Miller & Brother. As a feeder to their
trade the firm has for years carried on a flour-
ishing ranch and cattle industry on their ranch
of four hundred acres, which is devoted ex-
clusively to fattening beeves for the store. The
excellence of the meats and the integrity of the
business methods have laid all the mining
camps and other aggregations of people and
large interests of the region under tribute to
their dealings, and caused a steady stream of
profits to flow into their coffers. Mr. Miller
and his brother are also interested in valuable
mines, all their properties being in Gunnison
county. Firm and constant in his support of
the Republican party in political affairs, Mr.
Miller has not declined to serve his party as its
candidate for mayor of the city on two oc-
casions, and to foster and promote the interests
of the people in this office, which he filled dur-
ing the vears 1893 and 1894. When he retired
from the office one of his home papers said:
"The best mayor Gunnison ever- had retired
Wednesday after holding the office two term-.
He reduced the town debt over fifteen thou-
sand dollars. Through his efforts the annual
rental for light and fire privileges was reduced
about one thousand three hundred dollars. And
by an economical system of conducting the
finances the town has for the past twelve
months been on a cash basis, besides paying the
interest on the bonds and creating a small sink-
ing fund to apply on the payment of the prin-
cipal." In fraternal life Mr. Miller i- con-
nected with the order of Odd Fellows with
membership in Lodge No. 39. Encampment
No. 36 and Canton No. 4. at Gunnison, and
with the Woodmen of the World in Cam]) No.
39 at the same place. He was married on
April 21, [881, to Miss I.aura Riley, a native
of Mount Pleasant, Iowa. They have had four
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
79
children, Joseph J., Charles E., Alonzo and
Louis, the last named being deceased. Mr.
Miller has made his own way in the world
from youth, being rather stimulated by his
difficulties than restrained by them, and has
ever been guided in his upward march to suc-
cess and widening public esteem by rectitude
and devotion to his calling, which has so
largely been characteristic of the pioneers.
along with their unwavering faith in the sec-
tion in which they have cast their lot and then-
ability to develop its resources and make it
progressive. He is essentially and emphatically
a self-made man, and wherever he has lived has
commanded circumstances to his service and
made even privations minister to his growth
and advancement. He is a representative citi-
zen of his county and one of its brightest and
best business men.
GEORGE W. LIGHTLEY.
The interesting subject of this article, who
is one of the most prosperous, progressive and
prominent ranch men and stock growers of
Gunnison count)-, and owns and operates a
ranch of one thousand acres on Ohio creek,
eight miles north of the county seat, was horn
on March 3. 1850, at Buffalo. New York,
which was then a city of some forty thousand
inhabitants and is now a mighty mart of com-
merce of nearly ten times that number, its
growth in population, industrial wealth and
commercial enterprise in the little more than
half a century since his birth having been
phenomenal. His parents were John and Louie
\nna (Maltbyl Lightley, the former a native
of England and the latter of Vermont. The
father came to the United States a young man
and located at Buffalo, at the time a village on
the lake front, insignificant in size and import-
ance. There he was married and engaged in
farming until 18^5, when he moved to Wis-
consin, changing his residence in 1861 to b'ree-
horn county. Minnesota, where he became an
extensive farmer, raising enormous crops of
wheat after he reduced his wild land to pro-
ductiveness and succeeded in gathering around
him the appliances and conveniences of hus-
bandry- on a large scale, which were wholly
wanting in the section when he settled there
as a pioneer. His wife died at Austin, in the
adjoining county of Mower, in 1899, at the
age of eighty-eight, and he at the same place
in tool at that of ninety-three. They were
the parents of thirteen children, nine of whom
are living, their son George being the eighth
in the order of birth. His love of travel and
adventure was horn in his childhood as he saw
the expanding shipping of the growing mart
come and go on the lake and the Erie canal, and
quickened by his trip at the age of five from the
city of his birth to the wilds of Wisconsin.
This was made on the lakes to Milwaukee and
from there overland to Beaverdam through a
country devoid of railroads and but scantily
supplied with wagon roads. He grew to man-
hood on the paternal farm and received such
scholastic training as could be furnished by the
primitive country schools of a new and un-
settled country, remaining at home until he
reached the age of twenty-one. He then went
to northern Wisconsin, where he worked in the
lumber woods ten years. In r88o he came to
Colorado, and located in Gunnison count}-.
walking from Buena Vista, the last railroad sta-
tion on the way. with his blankets on his back-
He was attracted to this part of the state by
the mining boom of the time, but on his arrival
in Gunnison county did not engage in mining.
On the contrary, being trained to farming, and
seeing with prophetic eye the agricultural pos-
sibilities of the region, in the ensuing autumn
bought three hundred and twenty acres of land.
which is a part of his present ranch and was the
best improved tract of land at the time on
i8o
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Ohio creek, although it had no buildings on it.
having been taken up and brought to an ad-
vanced stage of cultivation by Henry Furrier.
I [ere Mr. Lightley has since resided, increasing
his ranch to one thousand acres, enriching it
with first-class buildings and improving it with
ditches and other works necessary to its proper
development. He has his land now practically
all under good irrigation and raises on it an-
nually about eight hundred tons of hay. Of
this he bales an average of five hundred tons of
excellent timothy for which he finds ready sale
at good prices at Cripple Creek and Leadville.
Soon after his arrival here he began to engage
in the stock industry, handling cattle prin-
cipally, and gradually enlarging his herd until
he now owns about five hundred head. His
dwelling is one of the most attractive and com-
pletely furnished in the neighborhood, and Ins
barns and other outbuildings are also first-class
in every respect. Tn political faith lie is a Re-
publican, but he takes no active part in party
contests locally, devoting his time wholly to
his business and the general improvement and
welfare of the county without regard to par-
tisan considerations. On August 20. 1890, he
was united in marriage with Mrs. Delia M.
(Harris) Moore, who was born at Marion.
Indiana, and is the daughter of Z. M. ami
Sarah J. (Beatty) Harris, natives of Indiana
and members of old and long established fami-
lies in that state. They are now living at
Manitou. Colorado. Mr. and Mrs. Lightley
have two children, their daughters Lena, aged
thirteen, and Lou, aged seven.
SAMUEL C. FISHER.
Born at Greenfield, New Hampshire, on
January 4. 1846, and reared on a farm in that
neighborhood, then teaching school in New
Jersey for a time. Samuel C. Fisher who is
now a prosperous and progressive ranch and
stock man of Gunnison county, with a well de-
veloped and highly improved ranch of seven
hundred and sixty acres on Ohio creek four
miles north of the county seat, for a period of
nearly twenty-five years turned his back upon
the vocation of his father, to which he was well
trained, and devoted his energies and the
special knowledge he acquired by industrious
study to the development and enlargement of
the mining and other industries of Colorado
suffering in the venture many reverses,' but at
the same time keeping his courage up and his
determination to win out in the race in its
pristine strength and youthful freshness. He is
the son of Samuel and Rhoda (Robinson)
Fisher, whose lives also began in New Hamp-
shire, where they were nearly all passed on a
farm in Hillsboro county. In 1855 the father
made a trip to Osawotamie, Kansas, with the
intention of locating in that then unsettled sec-
tion, where he was a pioneer, and while there
he fought in the border warfare under old John
Brown. The outlook was not promising for
a peaceful and prosperous career there, and in
the latter part of 1856 he returned to his native
state, and there both he and his wife died in
the course of years. Three of their five chil-
dren are living, Samuel being the third in the
order of birth and the older of the two living
sons. His education was begun in the public
schools at North Cambridge, Massachusetts,
and concluded at the State Normal School in
New Jersey, where he was graduated in 1865.
After teaching school in New Jersey a short
time, he became a student in the metallurgical
department of Rutgers College at New Bruns
wick, that state, and on completing his course
came to Colorado in 1867. and was soon after
his arrival made foreman of a quartz mill at
Buckskin above Alma, Park county, in the em-
ploy of W. H. Stevens. In the ensuing fall he
moved to Central City and the next spring to
Georgetown, operating a number of mills at
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
[81
these places for about two years. In 1869 nt
looked once more toward the rising sun and
went to Butler county, Kansas, where he took
up land intending to farm and raise cattle. But
in 1870 he came again to Colorado and, locat-
ing at Georgetown, engaged in milling and
freighting with headquarters at that place until
1878, during this period also doing some
freighting between Colorado Springs and
Leadville. In the summer of 1879 he built a
toll road between Gunnison and Crested Butte,
which he owned and managed thirteen years
finding the enterprise very profitable, especially
in the earlier years of its history. In the mean-
time he became interested in placer mining and
sunk about twenty-five thousand dollars in this
captivating but uncertain pursuit, at Dallas.
Ouray county. In 1890 he took up a portion
of his present ranch on Ohio creek, four miles
north of Gunnison, on which he has since lived,
and which he has increased to seven hundred
and sixty acres, all of which is now practically
well irrigated. The land was raw and un-
watered when he settled on it and he has been
forced to make his own improvements and
build his own ditches. The last of the latter, a
high-line ditch twelve miles long, has but re-
cently been completed at a considerable outlay.
and is proving of the greatest benefit to his
ranch, which has a capacity of one thousand
tons of hay a year and is always a sure reliance
for at least six hundred. Since 1880 he has
also been extensively interested in live stock.
horses and cattle, but now runs cattle prin-
cipally, and has about three hundred, mostly
well-bred Shorthorns. Politically he is a firm
but not an actively partisan Republican, taking
a general and effective interest in the local
affairs of his section, but with a view to the
best results for the people without special refer-
ence to' party considerations. On January t.
1878, he united in marriage with Miss Carrie
H. Gleason. a native of New Hampshire who
came to Colorado with her mother in 1876
They have two daughters, Marjorie A. and
Augusta M., the latter the wife of P. B. Ander-
son, and their son Andrew M. Miss Marjorie
has won a commendable reputation as an artist
in oil and possesses remarkable ability with the
brush. She is particularly proficient in nature
studies of wild animals of the Colorado hills.
A recent life size painting of a coyote has added
to her laurels and will no doubt prove a master-
piece. In the various pursuits in which Mr.
Fisher has engaged, in this state and elsewhere,
he has faithfully done his best for the general
weal, and he has to his credit a long record
of permanent usefulness and elevated citizen-
ship, for which he is widely and favorably
known in many parts of the state.
AUGUSTUS G. BIEBEL.
The late Augustus G. Biebel, of Gunnison
county, whose death on April 16. 1888, at the
early age of forty-nine, took from the neigh-
borhood in which he lived one of its most active
and useful citizens, and left his widow and chil-
dren with the care of an extensive ranching and
cattle business which his industry and good
business ability had built up. was a native of
Bavaria, Germany, born on August 29, 1840.
His parents, George and Sophia Biebel, were
also born and reared in Bavaria, and passed the
whole of their lives in that country. They were
well-to-do and gave their son a liberal educa-
tion. He remained with them until he reached
the age of twenty-one. and then determined to
come to the United States in search of larger
opportunities for advancement than he deemed
open to him in his native land. He landed in
New York city in i860, just before the ominous
cloud of the Civil war, which had long threat-
ened the peace and prosperity of our unhappy
countrv. and espousing warmly the cause of
the Union entered the army in its defense
[82
PROGRESS I TE MEN OE WESTERN COLORADO.
among the first in response to President Lin-
coln's earliest call for volunteers. He and his
kinsman raised a company of Germans for the
service, and at the end of their term re-enlisted
in the Fourth New York Cavalry after its con-
solidation with the Ninth. Mr. Biebel was in
many hard-fought battles and saw all the hor-
rors of war on a scale of great magnitude and
fatality. He was with Sheridan in his re-
nowned and spectacular campaign in the Shen-
andoah valley and took part with him in the
battle of Winchester. After that battle he was
sent with dispatches to Winchester, and while
on this duty was cut off from his command with
a companion, and they were surrounded by
the Confederates under Colonel Mosby, who
took his companion prisoner and shot him in
the left knee. He continued fighting, however,
until exhaustion from loss of blood caused him
to fall from his horse in sight of the Union
lines. The Confederates overtook him as he
lay on the ground unconscious, robbed him of
his dispatches, his money and his watch, and
were about to kill him when a troop of Union
cavalry rescued him. His wounded limb was
amputated first below the knee and afterward
above it, and after being confined for a long-
time in a hospital at David's Island in Xew
York, he was mustered out of the service there
on October 21. 1865. He then became a book-
keeper in Xew York city and later engaged in
merchandising at Newark, Xew Jersey, in part-
nership with a younger brother. In the spring
of iSj() he came to Colorado, and after look-
ing over the country around Gunnison, where
he had a brother then living, he took up a
homestead which is a part of the ranch now
owned and occupied by the family, and re-
turned to Xew Jersey, where In- disposed of
his interests and came back to Gunnison county
to make it his permanent home, bringing his
family with him. and arriving in the fall of
the year last named. They located on the land
four miles north of Gunnison on Ohio creek.
and gave almost their whole attention to the
improvement and development of their prop-
erty, which has since been increased by pur-
chases to three hundred and sixty acres, two
hundred acres having been acquired by Mrs.
Biebel since her husband"s death. Here he soon
became well and favorably known as an enter-
prising and public-spirited citizen, and here he
died in the midst of his usefulness on April 16,
1888, leaving a widow and two daughters.
Mrs. Biebel at once, after his death, took hold
of the business vigorously and she has ever
since conducted it with industry and success.
winning commendations from all the country
side for her good management and wise atten-
tion to its every detail. She has educated her
daughters and made steady progress in her
ranching, increasing the value of the property,
adding to its improvements and enlargirig its
arable acreage from year to year. Her maiden
name was Louisa Grotz, and she was born in
Wurtemberg, the daughter of John and Eliza-
beth ( Plick) Grotz, who were life-long resi-
dents and members of old and long established
families in that country. When Mrs. Biebel
was about fifteen her mother died, and she soon
afterward came to this country to make her
home with an uncle in Xew York city. There
she met Mr. Biebel and they were married.
They had two daughters, Elizabeth Sophia and
Ida Anna. The latter is now the wife of R.
Rominger and lives in North Carolina. The
older daughter. Elizabeth, who still lives at
home, has been of great help to her mother in
the trying and multitudinous duties of the
ranch, bearing her full share of its labor- and
manifesting a lively interest in all its interests.
JAMES R. ESTES.
With his childhood darkened and' all his
early prospects blighted by the awful shadow
of our (i\il war, which had for him a por
tentous meaning as during four years of tin-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
183
struggle his father was a soldier in the Union
army and at the front in the midst of the hottest
fighting, James R. Estes was horn in Wright
county. Missouri, on April 15, 1857. and when
he was nine years old the family moved to
Jasper county in the same state. His parents,
Richard and Caroline (Tatum) Estes. were
native, respectively, in West Virginia and Ten-
nessee. They were married in the latter state
and soon afterward moved to Wright county,
Missouri, where they were pioneers. The
father was a farmer, and lived a number of
years in Jasper county, Missouri. In 1878 the
family moved to Colorado and settled in Delta
county, where he was extensively engaged in
business as a merchant, farmer and miner. The
father died in February, 1903, and the mother
is now living, making her home on the farm
which they located there. James R. was reared
in his native state, and in 1878 came to Colo-
rado with his parents, and during the next two
years freighted between Canon City and Lead-
ville and other points, and also did some pros-
pecting and mining. In the spring of 1880 he
moved to Gunnison county and located the Lee
Taylor mine, at what was then Ruby camp in
the Elk mountains, but is now the town of
Irwin. He worked this mine vigorously and
developed it into a good property, remaining at
Irwin until the spring of 1882, when he took up
one hundred and sixty acres of land on the
Gunnison river, northeast of the county seat.
On this land he lived about fifteen years, de-
veloping and improving the property and mak-
ing it productive and valuable. At the end of
that period he sold this ranch and bought the
one on which he. with his family consisting of
wife and daughter, now lives on the Gunnison,
four miles and a half west of the city. Here he
owns three hundred and twenty acres, which is
all well irrigated and highly productive, yield-
ing annually three hundred to four hundred
tons of good hay and producing ample suste-
nance for his herd of cattle, he having started
his stock industry soon after he began ranching.
In politics he is a Republican and fraternally
belongs to the order of Odd Fellows and the
Woodmen of the World, being a charter mem-
ber of the camp of the latter at Gunnison.
J. VERNON MONROE.
To progress from a condition of obscurity
and poverty, beginning with no capital except
his natural endowments of a hopeful dis-
position, a clear head, an honest heart and a
determined and resourceful spirit, to a large
landed estate with great herds of cattle, is to
make a long stride in success and prosperity,
but it is one that has been made by many a man
in this western land of great opportunities and
boundless resources that can be had by dili-
gently searching for them and fully deserving
them through earnest and persistent efforts to
secure them. Among this number J. Vernon
Monroe, one of the leading ranchers and stock-
growers of Gunnison county, is entitled to a
high rank in public estimation for the efforts
he has made and the success he has won. Mr.
Monroe was born in Muskingum county, ( )hi<..
on November 2, 1852, the son of parents in
moderate circumstances, and he lost them both
by death when he was but three years old. I [is
father, D. B. Monroe, was also a native of
Ohio, and his mother, whose maiden name was
Margaret Veitch, was born in Scotland and
came to this country when a girl with her
mother, her father having died in her native
land. Vernon was the second of their three
sons, and was reared from the age of three
years to that of twelve by relatives. From the
age of twelve he has made his own way in the
world, with but little education gained outside
of the great and thorough school of experience,
beginning his career as a farm hand at five dol-
lars a month, the wase he received for hard
t8 4
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
and earnest work for a period of two years.
He then clerked in a country store in his native
county about ten years, and in the spring of
1876 moved to Missouri and during the next
two years kept a grocery store at Richmond,
Ray county, that state. Then, lured by the ex-
citement over the rich discoveries of gold in
the Black Hills, he sold his business and went
to that promising region in search of a better
fortune. After passing about two years in
various occupations in the neighborhood of
Deadwood, he returned to Richmond, Missouri,
a somewhat wiser but it cannot be said a sadder
man. The experience was valuable and he so
accounted it. In 1883, in the spring of the
year, he again turned his steps westward, com-
ing to Colorado, where he spent the first year
nil the plains east of Denver. The next spring
he moved to North Park and took up a ranch,
starting without money, but gradually working
himself out of debt and into possession of a
good herd of cattle, at the same time improving
his property and increasing its value by vigor-
ous and systematic cultivation, having nothing
for a time to depend on but nature's bounty
and his own energy and skill ; for his land was
all in wild sage brush when he took hold of it
and without improvements of any kind. He
sold it to good advantage in the fall of 1900,
after which he moved at once to Gunnison
o >unty and bought the ranch of nine hundred
ami forty acres three miles and a half east of
Doyleville which he now owns. This he has
all under irrigation and in a high state of pro-
ductiveness, cutting on it annually an average
of seven hundred tons of excellent hay. and
feeding six hundred to seven hundred cattle
of good grades. It is one of the really superii >r
ranches in the Tomichi valley, beautifully lo-
cated in the shadow of Tomichi Dome, a lofty
and majestic mountain which is one of the
well known landmarks of the region, visible
for many miles from every part of the sur-
rounding country. Here enterprise and busi-
ness tact, and a wise application of the lessons
of experience, have paid and prospered him
handsomely, and his manliness and sterling
worth, and his energy and prudence actively
employed in the development of the section of
his home, have made him one of the best known
and most esteemed men of the county. In po-
litical affairs he always actively and effectively
supports the Republican party, but ever without
ambition for a share in the honors or emolu-
ments of public office, which he has never had
and never sought. In fraternal life he belongs
to the Odd Fellows' lodge at Gunnison, and he
is zealous and appreciated in the benevolent
activity of the order and useful in the service
of his lodge. His first marriage occurred in
Missouri on June 30, 1880, and was with Miss
Julia Warinner, a native of Richmond in that
state. She died on March 17, 1882, leaving
one son, J. Vernon Monroe, Jr., now a resident
of Denver. On July 11, 1898, the father con-
tracted a second marriage, being united on this
occasion with Miss Rose McMurtry, also a na-
tive of Missouri and bom in Calloway county,
a direct descendant of Daniel Boone. They
have one child, their son Allan Miller, now
four years old ( 1904") .
PALMER H. VADER.
This prosperous and enterprising ranch-
man, who lives on a fine property of four
hundred and eighty acres on Tomichi creek,
nine miles east of Gunnison, has been a resident
of Colorado since 1876, and during the almost
thirty years of his life in the state has seen all
the phases and confronted many of the dif-
ficulties, dangers and hardships of the frontier.
He was born in Chautauqua county. New York,
on November 14, 1857, the son of Isaiah and
Lodema (Rider) Ramer. the former a native
of New York state and the latter of Vermont.
PROGRESSfl'E MEX OF ll'ESTERX COLORADO.
They were married in New York and farmed
there until 1868. The father served during
three years of the Civil war in the Twelfth New-
York Sharpshooters in the Union army. After
the close of the contest the family moved, in
1868, to Greene county, Iowa, and there the
father became one of the extensive farmers of
the Mississippi valley, owning large farms in
Greene and the adjoining county of Carroll.
His first wife, the mother of the subject of this
review, died in 1880, and he married again, the
second wife surviving him May. 1901. when
he died at Glidden. Carroll county, Iowa, aged
eighty years. Of the first marriage six sons
and three daughters were born, five of whom
are living. Palmer having been the third of
the nine. He was eleven years old when the
family moved to Iowa, and he grew to man-
hood on die parental estate in that state, receiv-
ing his education in the common schools, which
in the newness and unsettled condition of the
country in which they lived during his mi-
nority were crude in character, meager in
facilities and very limited in scope. He re-
mained at home until the spring of 1876. when
he came to Colorado, and during the first two
years of his residence here he was employed
on a ranch near Longmont. From there he
moved to Denver and in that city he worked
two years in a feed and sales stable. In X> -
vember, 1880, he became a stage driver on the
line between Canon City and Silver Cliff, and
the next spring became a resident of Gunnison
county and was employed in driving a stage
from Parlin east over Alpine Pass to connect
with the Denver & South Park (now the Colo-
rado Southern) Railroad, which was then in
course of construction. He continued to be so
occupied until June. 1882. when the road was
completed to Pitkin. He then worked for a
time on a ranch, after which he kept a boarding
house and later was in the employ of the Den-
ver & Southern Pacific Railroad. In the mean-
time he had got together a number of cattle and
bought one hundred and sixty acres of land, a
part of his present ranch, and in 1887 he
located on this land and began to improve it
as a home and make it productive for his fam-
ily and the maintenance of his stock. He has
made additional purchases until he now owns
five hundred and twenty acres, and kept on im-
proving until he has his ranch well watered,
supplied with first rate buildings of even- kind
necessary for its purposes, and in an advanced
state of cultivation. It yields an average of
three hundred and fifty tons of hay per annum
and furnishes ample feed for his four hundred
cattle. While his prosperity has been great
and very gratifying, it is all the result of his
own efforts, heroically made in the face of dif-
ficulties and adverse circumstances, and has an
additional value to him and his numerous
friends because of the fact. In political affairs
he supports the Democratic party warmly, and
in fraternal life is connected with the Odd Fel-
lows and the United Workmen at Gunnison.
On July 11. 1882, he was joined in wedlock
with Miss Maggie Stanton, a native of Mus-
catine. Iowa, a daughter of John and Catherine
(Rush) Stanton, who were born, reared and
married in Ireland, and came to the United
States soon after their marriage, first locating
at St. Louis. Misouri, and afterward moving
to Iowa. The mother died at Muscatine, in the
latter state, and the father in St. Louis. Mr.
and Mrs. Vader have had ten children, seven
of whom are living. Francis W.. Hattie M..
Richard I.. Margaret E.. Joseph D. H. Henry
D. and Julia. Those deceased are Katie. John
and Grace. Through all the obstructions to his
progress which he has encountered Mr. Vader
has steadilv hewed out his way. holding firmly
all the ground he has gained in his onward
march to success and prosperity, and at the
same time has had a far-seeing eye and ready
hand for the advancement and improvement
c86
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
of the section in which he cast his lot. He has
been constant in service to his community, and
by all classes of its people he is highly respected
for his sterling worth and usefulness.
HAMLIN L. EDGERTON.
Hamlin L. Edgerton, of Carbondale, who is
known far and wide as one of the enterprising
manufacturers and promoters of the Western
slope of this state, was born on January 12,
1 86 1, in Ashtabula county, Ohio, and is the
son of Daniel G. and Mary (Brewer) Edger-
ton, the former a native of Vermont and the
latter of Connecticut. In 1856 the parents
moved to Ohio, and after living there a number
of years took up their residence in Illinois.
The father was a skillful manufacturer of
cheese and built one of the finest factories for
the purpose in the state of Ohio. This he con-
ducted successfully until it was destroyed by
fire with a heavy loss to him. In 1880 he came
to Colorado and located at Leadville, his wife
and children having preceded him hither two
years. After his arrival here the father en-
gaged in the saw-mill business on Tennessee
pass. Two years of successful prosecution of
his enterprise there enabled him to sell out the
business and plant to his sons. He then moved
to Glenwood Springs, and in the autumn of
1883 he bought a ranch five miles northwest of
< Carbondale, where for some years he conducted
a dairy and manufactured cheese. He and his
wife are now living retired from active pur-
suits at Carbondale. They are zealous mem-
bers of the M. E. church, and in political affilia-
tion he is a Republican. They were the par-
ents of four children. Of these one. Louise,
then the wife of Eugene Thomas, died on July
20,1899. The living- children are: Julius B.,
of Leadville; Irvin N., a Methodist minister
at Montrose; and Hamlin L., of Carbondale.
The last named remained with his parents un-
til he reached his legal majority, aiding in
whatever enterprise his father was carrying on
and attending the public schools when he had
opportunity, thereby securing a limited educa-
tion, but learning practical usefulness in serv-
iceable labor. He accompanied his mother to
this state in 1878, and in 1882 became a mem-
ber of the firm of J. B. Edgerton & Company,
engaged in saw-milling, a business which the
sons purchased of their father. In 1884 Ham-
lin disposed of his interest in this business and.
located a ranch six miles west of Carbondale in
Jerome Park. He continued ranching here
until 1899, then sold out at a good profit and
bought his present home at Carbondale. He
has since been successfully engaged in manu-
facturing cheese, and in addition is interested
in raising cattle. His ranch comprises one
hundred and twenty-three acres, forty of which
can be cultivated and the rest is given up to
grazing. The water supply is good and the
land produces hay and grain in abundance. In
political activity Mr. Edgerton is a stanch Re-
publican, and in the public local affairs of his
community and county he is a man of influence
and enterprise. He was married on November
6, 1887, to Miss Mary Brown, a native of
Whiteside county, Illinois, but reared in Iowa,
where her parents, Charles and Ella ( Hard-
ing) Brown, settled when she was young.
Her father was born in Pennsylvania and her
mother in Illinois. The}- were fanners in their
earlier married life, and in later years the fa-
ther became associated with a street car com-
pany at San Jose. California, He is a Repub-
lican in political affiliation. They are the par-
ents of three children, Rosa M.. William, of
Duluth. Minnesota, and Mrs. Edgerton. Mr.
and Mrs. Edgerton have eight children. Ernest
E, Bessie E, Lloyd G., Iva G., Mary L., Wes-
ley, George 11. and Ruth M. Mr. Edgerton is
successful in business, useful in citizenship, and
generally esteemed.
PROGRESS! VE MEN OE WESTERN COLORADO.
t8 7
OZIAS D. SEBREE.
Ozias D. Sebree, of Carbondale, one of Gar-
field county's most wide-awake, enterprising
and successful cattle-growers, whose life in this
state has been full of usefulness in developing
its resources and promoting the interest of its
people, was born at Canton, Fulton county,
Illinois, on February 18. 1839, and acquired
business capacity and enterprise in a store con-
ducted by his father in that city, and strength
of body and independence of spirit on a farm.
His parents. Robert T. and Elizabeth (Ryan)
Sebree, were natives, respectively, of Ohio and
Kentucky, but reared in Virginia. They set-
tled in Illinois in 1836, and there the father
was a successful merchant and also connected
with other enterprises in which he was prosper-
ous. Both were members of the Baptist
church. They had seven children, five of
whom have died. The two living are Georg'e
and Ozias, both residents of Colorado. The
mother died in 1863 and the father in 188 1.
Their son Ozias received a good public-school
education in his native town, and when he was
fourteen took a position in his father's store,
but he was unable to continue long at the con-
fining work, and in order to restore his failing
health went to work on a farm. After a few-
years of the exhilarating life in the open air
thus available to him, he accepted another mer-
cantile position as traveling salesman for an
omnibus line at Kansas City, serving with sat-
isfaction to the company from 1S69 to 1 &74-
In the year last named he came to this state,
and after a short stay at Denver, moved to Col-
orado Springs, where he was connected with a
transfer company two years and a half. He
then moved into the Arkansas valley and be-
came interested in the toll road on Cottonwood
pass in partnership with Charles Holmes. Not
Ion;; afterward he sold his interest in the en-
terprise at a go,.d profit, and going to Free
Gold, where Buena Vista now is, he opened a
grocery which he sold after operating it profit-
ably a year, disposing of his interest to his
partner, Charles Holmes. He then began
freighting between Leadville and Canon City
and Colorado Springs, and in this enterprise
was very successful ; but he sold his outfit a
year and a half later and became interested in
a saw-mill business conducted by the Fasson
Company. In the spring of 1880 he quit this
company and located at Aspen, where he de-
voted some time to prospecting. In the autumn
of 188 1 he located a homestead nine miles
northwest of Aspen, and two years later he sold
the improvements he had made on it and aban-
doned it. In the meantime he was conducting
a feed store at Aspen, which he continued to
carry on until 1888, then rented it until 1892,
giving his attention to training horses for the
race tracks. In 1893 ne so 'd the feed business
and began devoting his entire time to training
horses and raising cattle and ranching on a
place which he now owns and which is two
miles and a half southeast of Carbondale. This
comprises one hundred and fifteen acres and
yields excellent crops of hay, grain and pota-
toes, and gives a generous support to his herds.
which are profitable. He is a man of public-
spirit and a Republican in politics. On Novem-
ber 7, 1903, he was married to Mrs. Alberta
(Grubb) Winters, a native of Pennsylvania
and daughter of Edward and Sarah Jane
Grubb, also born in that state. They moved to
Mankato, Minnesota, in 1867. and there the
father followed his trade as a tanner. Four of
their nine children survive him. he having died
on April 20, 1899. The mother now makes
her home with Mr. and Mrs. Sebree. Her liv-
ing children are Lloyd. Eugene, Alberta and
Josephine, the last named being the wife of
Eugene Silvester, of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Mrs. Sebree has been during the past ten years
the postmistress at Carbondale. and during the
i88
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
last five the town clerk. She is an accomp-
lished lady and a popular official, discharging
the duties of her two offices with skill and fidel-
ity, and in a manner that is creditable to her-
self and satisfactory to the patrons of both.
Mr. Sebree is highly esteemed as a business
man and a good citizen, and has the confidence
and good will of the whole surrounding coun-
try in the midst of which he has for a num-
ber of years lived and labored.
daxiel McCarthy.
Daniel McCarthy, of near Carbondale, one
of Garfield county's most enterprising, success-
ful and esteemed ranchmen and cattle-growers,
brought with him to his present location and
business the native resourcefulness and adap-
tability of his race, fortified by the wisdom
gained in a varied experience and many con-
tests with difficulty and hardship. He was born
on December n, 1859, in county Limerick,
Ireland, where his parents, Dennis and Cath-
erine (Barry-) McCarthy, were also born and
reared. Coming to the United States in 1889,
they made their way at once to this state and
settled at Aspen, where they followed farm-
ing until the death of the mother, on March r,
T898, since which time the father has made his
home with his son Daniel. Both belonged to
the Catholic church, and were devoted in atten-
tion to their religious duties. Seven children
were born to them, one named Mary being de-
ceased. The living six are Daniel, of Garfield
county; Nora, the wife of Anton Galina;
John, living at Cripple Creek; Lizzie, the
wife of Alexander Crook; Dennis, a resi-
dent of Telluride; and Michael, a citizen
of Leadville. Daniel received but little
schooling, and that at the common schools
which he attended for short times at
irregular intervals. He remained with his
parents, working in their interest, until he
reached the age of twenty-one, then in 1880
came to this country to make his own living and
embrace the opportunities held out here to thrift
and enterprise. His first location was at Gal-
veston, Texas, where he followed milling for a
year. In 188 1 he came to Colorado, and after
working as a laborer on railroad construction
for a year, was promoted foreman, in which ca-
pacity he remained in the employ of the Rio
Grande and Colorado Midland railroads ten
years. In 189 1 he began ranch life, purchasing-
one hundred and sixty acres of land of Newton
Lentz, and. succeeding in his venture, in 1903
he bought five hundred acres adjoining this,
known as the Lloyd Grubb ranch. Of these
properties he is still profitably engaged, raising
the best crops of hay, grain and potatoes, which
are produced in abundance and of excellent
quality. He also raises stock in numbers which
have a high rank in the markets. As a side is-
sue he invents improvements in machinery, and
in this branch of his industry he exhibits unus-
ual skill and ability. He is actively interested in
the welfare of his section of the state, support-
ing with ardor and enterprise every commend-
able project for its' promotion and advance-
ment. In politics he is independent, and in
fraternal life belongs to the Odd Fellows, the
Modern Woodmen of America and the Wood-
men of the World. He was married on July
24, [882, to Miss Maria Wills, a native of
Queens county. Ireland, where her parents.
Thomas and Ann (Malone) Wills, were also
born. Her father was a merchant after pass-
ing a portion of his life as a laborer. He and
his wife were members of the Catholic church.
They had two children. Annie, who resides in
her native county in Ireland, and Mrs. McCar-
thy. The father died in t86o and the mother
in iS<j8. Mr. and Mrs. McCarthy have had
six children. A son named Arthur is deceased.
The five living are Mar) J.. Annie F... Ida C.
Flla Nora and Grace Frances.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
[89
ZACHARIAH B. KIGGINS.
Having come to his present prosperity in a
worldly way, and his high standing in the good
will and confidence of his fellow men through
many hardships and trials, with a dreary suc-
cession of triumphs and adversities, and
through all having made his own way from his
youth, without the aid of favorable circum-
stances or outside aid, Zachariah B. Kiggins,
of near Carbondale,' one of the successful and
prosperous ranchmen and stock-growers of
Garfield county, and in many ways one of the
earnest promoters of the welfare of the sec-
tion in which he has cast his lot, can greatly
appreciate the struggles of young men in the
battle of life and the value of unwavering cour-
age, personal enterprise, judicious thrift and
persistent effort. The story of his life is an
oft-told tale in Western United States history,
and it illustrates hot only the opportunities af-
forded by this portion of the country, but as
well the price of endurance and continued en-
deavor at which they are held. He was born
on May 11, 1870, in Madison county, Iowa,
where his parents, Samuel J. and Rebecca
( Bertholf ) Kiggins, settled early in their mar-
ried life. In 1884, when he was fourteen
years old, they moved to Colorado and located
in the Plateau valley, on a pre-emption claim
over which the town of Plateau has since
grown. Here they lived as western pioneers
were obliged to in those days, eking out a living
from the reluctant soil and contending with the
privations and absence of conveniences inci-
dent to the time and locality. They were,
however, industrious and frugal, and although
the family was large and the means for its sup-
port was for years scant and not easily attain-
able, they made steady progress toward sub-
stantial comfort and a growing competence.
The father was a ranchman and became an ex-
tensive cattle breeder and dealer. He and his
wife are Methodists in church affiliation, and in
reference to political questions the father is a
stanch Republican. Fourteen children were
born tu them, and of these nine are living:
John, a resident of Oregon : Zachariah, the sub-
ject of this sketch; Ezra, deceased; Rose, the
wife of Leland Crosier, of the Plateau valley;
Lillian, the wife of George Salisbury; James;
Delia, the wife of Earl Wendell; Hattie. the
wife of Leon Rassmussen ; Oliver and Robert.
The nne with whom we are at present most
concerned had brief and irregular attendance at
the public schools, and at the age of seventeen
began the race for supremacy among men for
himself. Ten years were passed in Utah and
other states handling cattle, and encountering
all sorts of hardships and dangers. The next
hve were devoted to arduous labor on a farm
in the interest of Richard Swann. Then he
rented a ranch and ran it two years, after
which he purchased the one hundred and sixty
acres which he now owns and operates. He
cultivates one hundred and thirty acres of this
in hay, grain, potatoes and fruit, and also
raises numbers of cattle and horses. His crops
are excellent in quality and generous in quan-
tity, and his stock commands a high price in
the markets. The ranch is ten miles east of
Glenwood Springs in a specially rich and pro-
gressive region. Mr. Kiggins's interest in the
welfare of his section has been manifested in
many ways, notably in his extended service as
road overseer and the unusually good roads he
built during his tenure of the office. He is an
ardent Republican in political matters, but a
public-spirited man in reference to local affairs,
in which he takes an active part without refer-
ence to politics. On May 11, 1898. he united
in marriage with Miss Mary J. Weaver, who
was born in Colorado and is the daughter of
Philip E. and Mary A. (Heiter) Weaver, who
came from their native Pennsylvania to this
state in 1866 among the early settlers and lo-
[90
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
rated at what is now Colorado Springs. There
the father conducted a grist-mill, 1 me of the
first in that section. He was prosperous in
business, and earnestly interested in the local
affairs of the community. In political action
he was a firm and steadfast Democrat. The
family comprised five children, all of whom
survive the father, who died on August 6, 1899.
They are: Ella, wife of Charles Lehno, of
Carbondale; Sarah, wife of George Conrey, of
the same place; George, living at the home of
Mr. Kiggins ; John, a resident of Bayfield, Col-
orado; and Mrs. Kiggins. Tn the Kiggins
household there are two interesting children.
Fstella and John Homer.
COLLINS 1). FULLER.
For more than thirty years a resident of
Colorado, and well pleased with the success he
has achieved in the state, Collins D. Fuller, a
prosperous ranchman living on a fine ranch of
one hundred and sixty acres, of which he cul-
tivates ninety acres, is devoted to the welfare of
the state, and has made essential contributions
to its growth and development. He is a native
of Allegany county. Yew York, where his life
began on October 16, 1845, at tne v '11age of
Hume, fifty miles from Buffalo, the nearest
city of any size. His parents. Milo C. and Dor-
othy S. (Barnard) Fuller, were natives, respec-
tively, of Vermont and New York state. They
located in Iowa in 1852, at Davenport, where
the father abandoned his former occupation of
shipbuilding, which he had carried on at Buf-
falo, and became a nurseryman. Tn time he
removed to Platteville. Wisconsin, where he
turned his attention to the insurance business,
but still retained his interests in Iowa. In
1879 ' lc c;mu> to Colorado, and after a residence
of two years at Leadville, returned to Iowa,
and assisted his son in farming until 1902,
when he came back to this state and settled at
Carbondale, where he is now living retired
from active pursuits. His wife died in 1900.
She was a member of the Baptist church, as
he has long been. They had four children.
Eugenia, a daughter, died in infancy, and Col-
lins. Lizzie and Arthur, of Omaha. Nebraska.
are living. Collins was educated at the pub-
lic schools and at the Platteville ( Wisconsin )
Academy. While he was pursuing his stud-
ies at this institution the Civil war broke out
and be joined the Union army as a member
of the Seventh Wisconsin Infantry, although
at the time he was only sixteen years old. In
the memorable contest lie saw active and ardu-
ous service, facing death on main- a bard-
fought field and being wounded and taken
prisoner at the battle of the Wilderness. He
was confined in the notorious Andersonville
prison at Richmond, and suffered his share of
the hardships of the place. But he escaped af-
ter a time and made his way to the Union lines
at Wilmington. North Carolina, making his
escape on February 22, 1865. After complet-
ing his term of service in the war he returned
to the academy at Platteville and renewed his
studies; and on leaving the institution took a
course of business training at Eastman's Com-
mercial College in Chicago. He then taught
school 111 Wisconsin and northern Illinois in
the winter and worked at his trade as a carpen-
ter in the summer until 1873. "'ben be came to
Colorado and located at Georgetown, here pass-
ing three years in mining and building. The
next three years he lived at Lake City and was
engaged principally in building. From there
he went to Leadville. where, notwithstanding
the temptations of the place for a different
course, he gave up mining and devoted himself
wholly to building. Tn this craft he did well,
but in mining he never accomplished much.
Tn 1885 he secured the ranch on which he
now lives by purchasing the improvements from
its former owner and settled on it as a perma-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
[91
nent residence. To its cultivation and improve-
ment he has given his whole attention ever
since, and his success in the enterprise has
been steady and very gratifying. He raises
large emits of excellent hay. grain, vegetables
and fruit, and finds himself prosperous and 1
contented in his occupation. The supply of
water for the ranch is abundant, and belongs
to the ranchmen under the ditch. He has been
a member of the Odd Fellows and the Grand
\rmv of the Republic for a number of years,
and has supported the Republican party all of
his mature life. His first marriage, which oc-
curred on March 26, 1871. was with Miss Kate
Snyder, a native of Illinois. They had one
child, their daughter Kate L., now the wife of
1 [arry ( iardner. of Carbondale, this state. 1 ler
mother died on December 29, 1871 , and on
fune 4. 1876. he was married to Miss Lavina
Relcher. a native of Bates county. Missouri.
Milo. one of their three children, died in 1879.
The other two are Charles H. and Chester L.,
the former living at Omaha. Nebraska, and the
latter remaining at home.
GEORGE SIEVERS.
The native persistency and productive en-
ergy of the German people, which never flags
in its efforts, and never fails in accomplishing
worthy results, which has made their land
great at home and respected abroad, and has
done so much for other lands where they have
settled, especially the United States, in whose
development in times of peace and defense in
times of war have been so materially aided by
them, is well illustrated in the career of George
Sievers. of Garfield county, this state, where
he is universally recognized as one of the lead-
ing stock-growers and ranchmen of the county
and one of its inspiring forces in promoting
progress and the general weal. He came to
this country at the age of twenty-four, with
almost nothing in the way of worldly wealth,
and now, almost entirely through his own ef-
forts, owns one of the largest and best ranches
in his section of the state, and conducts on it
one of the most extensive and profitable ranch
and cattle industries to be found on the West-
ern slope. Mr. Sievers was born at Holstein,
in the fatherland, on September 17, 1855. and
was reared and educated in that part of the
country. His parents. Max and Katharine
1 Rathjen) Sievers. were natives of the same
place, and for many generations their forefa-
thers lived and labored there. They were mem-
bers of the German Lutheran church, and pros-
pered as farmers, rearing to maturity seven of
their ten children, who are still living and are
Claus. Elsabe (Mrs. Peter Doosa), and Mar-
garet (Mrs. Peter Claussen), all of whom live
in Germany; and Henry, of San Francisco,
( ieorge and Timm, of Garfield county, and
John, of Gunnison, this state. Their mother
died in 1876 and their father in 1895. George
was educated in the common state schools and
trained to habits of useful labor on the farm.
He also saw military service, serving from
1874 to 1877 in the German arm}'. He re-
mained at home working in the interest of his
parents, except during this interval of three
years, until he reached the age of twenty-four,
then in 1880 came to the United States, and
after passing a short time at Valparaiso. Indi-
ana, came to Colorado and located at Denver.
Soon afterward he moved to Granite, where he
passed four years in placer mining during the
season for such work, in the employ of the
Twin Lakes Hydraulic Mining Company. In
the fall of 1885 he secured a portion of his
present ranch by purchasing the improvements
on it made by its previous owner. These con-
sisted of two little cabins, and as his brother
was his partner in the enterprise, there was one
for each. They made many improvements and
reduced the land to productiveness, buying
1 9 2
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
more as they prospered until the place now
comprises six hundred and forty acres. In
1894 the partnership was harmoniously dis-
solved, George purchasing his brother's inter-
est, and since that year he has been conduct-
ing the business alone. He has three hundred
and fifty acres under cultivation in hay, grain
and potatoes, which are produced in large
quantities and first-class quality. Cattle are
also raised on an extensive scale and some
horses for market. The ranch is well sup-
plied with water, having its own ditch, and is
in every respect in fine condition. It is nine
miles southeast of Glenwood Springs and four
north of Carbondale. Mr. Sievers is also in-
terested in other enterprises, and both in busi-
ness and in all the elements of good citizenship
is one of the leading men of the county. He be-
longs to the Modern Woodmen of America,
the Woodmen of the World and the order of
Odd Fellows, and in national affairs supports-
the Republican party. He was married on
April 30, 1894, to Miss Johanna Sass, who also
was born at Holstein, Germany, and is the
daughter of John and Dora Sass, of the same
nativity and well-to-do farmers there, the fa-
ther being in addition a manufacturer of wag-
ons. They are members of the German Luth-
eran church, and highly respected citizens.
Their offspring numbered five, four of whom
are living. Christopher, Henry and Mary, now
Mrs. Theodore Burmahl, all in Germany; and
Mrs. Sievers, of this state. Mr. and Mrs. Sie-
vers have two children. Katharine, born on
April 15, 1895. and John M., born on the iotli
day of November, [896.
MARTIN HOTZ.
Martin Hotz, who is one of the extensive
and successful stock-growers and ranchmen of
Garfield county, and who lives on a rich and
well-tilled ranch of eight hundred acres eight
miles north of Basalt, was born and reared at
Baden, Germany, and is the son of Valen-
tine and Elizabeth Hotz, of that portion of the
fatherland, and is the only surviving member of
his family, both of his parents and the rest
'of their six children having died, the father
on March 31, 1858, and the mother on March
t8, [866. The father was a prosperous and
skillful farmer, being accounted, before he lost
his eyesight, the best farmer in his whole
neighborhood. The parents were members of
the Catholic church and had a family of six
children, five of whom died at various ages.
They were Yincense, Mary A.. Barbara, Kath-
erine and Theresa. Martin attended school
nine years in his native land and between the
terms aided his parents on the farm. At the
age of nineteen he began to learn the trade of a
cooper, and in 1872 came to the United States,
locating at St. Louis, Missouri. He worked
there at his trade until 1889, at which time he
came to Colorado and at once pre-empted a
claim of one hundred and sixty acres of land.
the nucleus of his present ranch, which he has
increased by subsequent purchases to eight hun-
dred acres, seven hundred of which are under
cultivation and yield abundantly of hay, grain
and vegetables. I le also raises large numbers
of cattle and enough horses for his own use.
During the past four years his sons have oper-
ated a threshing outfit and found it a profitable
enterprise. In political matters Mr. Hotz is a
zealous Republican, and in fraternal life be-
longs to the St. Joseph and the St. Nicholas ben-
eficial societies, lie was married on September
3. 1874, to Miss Mary Hunt, of St. Louis. Mis-
souri, the daughter of Anton and Frances
Hunt, who were horn at Baden. Germany, and
came t<> this country soon after their marriage.
The father was an industrious and skillful la-
borer, and made a good living for his family.
They were members of the Catholic church,
and devoutlv attentive to their church duties.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
m
Six children were born to them. Of these two
died in infancy and a son named George on
July 3, 1893. The children living are John A.,
of Salt Lake City; Frances, the wife of Mr.
Hotz; and Bernhardt, of Rosette, Utah. The
mother died on August _>-, 1886, and the fa-
ther on March 3. 1901. Mr. and Mrs. Hotz
have eight children, whose names are Clara,
Elizabeth, George, Bernhardt, Joseph, Mary.
Theresa and Augustine.
CHARLES W. STRINGFIELD.
The subject of this brief review is a prod-
uct of the West and all his life he has been
identified with its interests and occupied in
its industries. He was born in Fremont count) ,
Iowa, on January 26, 1854, and reared and ed-
ucated in Nebraska. His parents were natives
of Kentucky and removed to Missouri in the
early forties where they lived until the begin-
ning of the Civil war, when the father, being
in the ministry of the Methodist church, went
with the anti-slavery branch of the church, and
moved North, all the rest of the family ex-
cept his immediate household going with the
South in the struggle. In the early days of the
history of Kansas, when the border troubles
were prevailing, the father was an intimate
friend of old John Brown and Gen. Jim Lane,
who were prominent in the stirring events of
that day. From Iowa the family moved to
Nebraska, settling in the southeastern county
of the state, where the father built the first
flour-mill in that section. This he continued to
operate until his death, on July 15, 1869. His
widow survived him twenty-five years, dying
in 1896. In politics he was an enthusiastic
Whig and Republican and took great interest
in the success of his party. The immediate sub-
ject of this sketch was educated at the public
schools and at the State Normal School at
Peru and the State University at Lincoln. Ne-
'3
braska. After leaving school he worked for
a time on the farm and in 1883 came to Colo-
rado, where he at once went to riding the range
in the cattle industry. In 1886 and for several
years thereafter he was engaged on the cattle
trail between Wyoming and Canada. Return-
ing to Colorado in 1890 he secured employment
at railroad work in Pueblo. From there he
came to Aspen in 1892 as chief inspector of the
Colorado car service bureau, resigning that
position in January. 1901, to become clerk of
the district court of Pitkin county, succeeding
J. F. McEvoy, who had served in this capacity
twelve years. Mr. String-field is still filling this
office and discharging his duties in a manner
that reflects credit on himself and gives satis-
faction to all who have business there. He be-
longs to the Masonic order, to the lodge, chap-
ter, council and commandery, in Aspen and is
a member of the Order of High Priesthood of
this fraternity at Denver. He is also a Wood-
man of the World, and in politics is an active
and serviceable Democrat, warmly attached to,
his party and zealous in securing its welfare.
I'. F. IRVING.
A Canadian by birth and rearing, and thor-
oughly imbued with the spirit of the political
institutions of his native county. 1'. F. Irving
has nevertheless lived long enough in the
United States to imbibe the genius of our peo-
ple and become thoroughly attached to the in-
stitutions and interests of the land of his adop-
tion. His life began on Prince Edward Island
on November 20, 1854, and he is the son of
Philip Franklin and Sophia (Forrest) Irving,
natives of Scotland. The father passed his
years of earlier manhood as a sea captain and
his later life as a farmer, achieving success in
both pursuits. Both parents are Presbyterians,
and in politics the father is a Tory. They had
eleven children, three of whom died in infancy
194
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
and eight are living', P. F. being the youngest.
He received a limited education in the public
schools, his opportunities for attending being
few and of short duration, as he was obliged to
go to work on the farm at an early age. This
he continued until he was twenty-five, when he
came to Colorado and settling at Central City.
Gilpin county, went to work at mining and
teaming. He continued at this employment
ten years, and in 1889 located at Aspen. He
kept on mining and also was engaged in team-
ing- until 1899, except during the year 1897
when he was captain of the Aspen police force.
In 1899 he was elected sheriff of Gilpin county,
and in 1902 went into the livery business as
the successor of Mr. Themer, whom he bought
out. In this enterprise he was successful, sell-
ing out to good advantage in the latter part
of 1904. In politics he is an active Demo-
crat, always loyal and serviceable to his party,
and always earnestly anxious for its success.
In fraternal life he is a Freemason, a Knight of
Pythias and a Woodman of the World, and
also a social member of the Fraternal Union.
On June 17. 1805, he was married to Mrs.
Frances V. ( Wootton) Fitzgerald, a native of
Pueblo, Colorado, and a daughter of Richard
and Frances (Smith) Wootton. In his young
manhood the father was one of the early pio-
neers of California, having gone thither from
his native Virginia, where his Scotch ancestors
settled many years before. Both of Mrs. Irv-
ing's parents are deceased. They were mem-
bers of the Presbyterian church and active in
its works of benevolence. The mother passed
away while her daughter was young.
JOSEPH M. 1'.. PARRY.
No man is better educated than he who
knows how to do. when to do and where to do.
and who stands ready with a hearty will to do,
whatever may be incumbent on him to do. per-
ilous though it be. and apart from a sense of
duty repulsive. Such as this is the education
for life's duties shown by the record and ca-
reer of Joseph Mellard Bibby Parry, of Aspen,
manager of the Honnybel mine near the town.
When he has been unable to get employment
in his chosen line of activity and in consonance
with bis special abilities, be has cheerfully ac-
cepted what he could get and has performed
bis service in that with all his energy and ca-
pacity ; and when disaster and privation have
been his portion be has risen superior to them
and made even adverse circumstances minis-
ter ultimately to bis advancement. He is a na-
tive of Fngland. born at Barnoldswick in York-
shire, on July 17, 1856, and the son of Dr.
Hugh and Elizabeth (Lord) Parry, both na-
tives of England, born in Lancashire, the fa-
ther of Welch descent and belonging to fam-
ilies long resident in Flintshire in that coun-
try. Both parents were members of the
church of England. During the Civil war in
this country the father was a volunteer sur-
geon and rendered efficient service to the Union
army. He was a Freemason in fraternal rela-
tions, and in politics supported the Conserva-
tive party. Their offspring numbered eight,
two of whom died in infancy and a son named
Thomas in tqoo. The living are Ellen, Sarah.
Joseph M. B., Arthur and Hugh. Joseph M-
P... the immediate subject of these paragraphs,
was graduated at Liverpool College in his na-
tive land in 1872, and his technical knowledge
acquired in the class moms was supplemented
by practical work and experience in the con-
struction of roads, docks and batteries in vari-
ous parts of Great Britain. In the spring of
1880 he emigrated to America and settled in
Canada, where he passed a year in various en-
gineering projects and three in a vain attempt
to find the route to wealth by raising cattle in
the vicinity of Buffalo, New York. He soon
found, however, that chasing cattle through the
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLOR. IPO.
'95
cranberry swamps of western New York, al-
though exciting at time, had not enough of
-nap and liveliness in it to suit his active tem-
perament, and accordingly the opening of 1884
found him on one of the large cattle ranges of
northern Colorado and southern Wyoming.
Two years of cow-boy life satisfied him that
the fruits of his labor in that line were not com-
mensurate with its magnitude and danger, and
so he turned his attention to the mineral fields
of Colorado with higher hopes. From 1886 to
r888 he dug and sweated and swore in the
gulches and among the rocks of Colorado with
much the same success that attends the average
lessee of mines or prospector for lodes, — that
is to say. rumor credits him with showing up
at Aspen in 1888 broke and hunting a job. An
experienced observer has remarked that a man
never fully appreciates life in Colorado until a
turn of fortune's wheel leaves him penniless,
sick and practically friendless. Then what-
ever of manliness there is in him comes to his
aid and carries him through his difficulties.
There is reason to believe that Joe Parry, as
everybody calls him. experienced almost every
vicissitude incident to the improvident, semi-
vagabond life of a genuine prospector ; and it
is known that his cheerful, sanguine disposi-
tion never wavered or faltered, and that no
thought of discouragement was ever enter-
tained by him. His philosophy was that condi-
tions not theories confronted him, and his man-
hood dictated that those conditions must
change. So when he applied to the superin-
tendent of the Bonnybel mine for employment
and was told there was nothing there for him.
he insisted that there must be something at
which he could work. His persistencv won
and he was set to tending the masons in the
construction of an assay furnace. It soon be-
came apparent through his efficiency and dili-
gence that he knew more about building assay
furnaces than did the masons he was tending:.
and it was not long before negotiations were
under way which resulted in a switching of
jobs. This was the turn in Joe's fortunes, for
the superintendent appreciated the value of the
man who had thus come to him. and Parry's
promotion was rapid and in full accord with
his talents and capacities, he becoming miner,
foreman, assayer, superintendent and finally
manager of the mine in turn, and filling each
place with conspicuous ability. He still holds
the post of manager of the Bonnybel mine,
where he was once a mason's helper, and the
owners of the mine are proud of him because
of his strict integrity and his successful man-
agement of their interests. On February 6.
iX()o. lie married with Miss Nancy Little, a
native of Carroll county. Illinois, the daughter
of Joseph and Mary (Drollinger)' Little, na-
tives of Pennsylvania who migrated to Illi-
nois in [853 and a few years later moved to
Cedar county, Iowa. She was one of their
ten children, one of whom died in infancy. Her
mother died in 1891 and her father in t8gj.
Mr. and Mrs. Parry have three children. Jo-
seph M. I 1 ,.. Jr., Margaret (i. and Helen W.
The parents are members of the Episcopalian
church, and the father belongs to the Wood
men of the World, the Royal Black Knights
and the Brotherhood of St. Andrew. Since
T894 he has been president of the Citizens 1 los-
pital Association.
HENRY TOURTELOTTE.
A prominent prospector and mining man of
the Aspen fields, and having located in that
section in the early days of its history when
the population was scant and the develop-
ment scarcely more than begun, Henrv Tour-
telotte knows the whole history of the region
and has been one of the principal agencies in
promoting its growth and development and
bringing its wealth to the knowledge of the
196
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
world. He was born on September 2j, 1839,
at Downer's Grove, Dupage count}-. Illinois,
where lie was reared and received a limited
education by short and irregular terms at the
public schools. He assisted his parents on
the farm until he reached the age of nineteen,
then in 1858 went to Minnesota and secured
employment from the Indian traders at the
Winnebago agency, with whom he remained
until i860 at a compensation of twenty-five
dollars a month and his board, being part of
the time a clerk and part a teamster. Tu i860
he came to Colorado, at that time an unorgan-
ized territory and attached to Kansas for ju-
dicial purposes. He located at Clear creek,
where he passed one season in placer mining
without much success. At the end of the
season he returned to Minnesota and enlisted
in defense of the Union for the Civil war in
the Second Minnesota Infantry, but after a
service of one year was sent home on a fur-
lough because of sickness and while at home
was discharged. He was ill a year, and when
he had partially recovered his health he went
to southwestern Minnesota and engaged in
hunting and trapping with good success for
three years, then began merchandising at Man-
kato, .Minnesota, which he continued twelve
years. The grasshoppers had their sway at
the end of that period and closed his business
by stripping the country of its productions and
depriving the people of the means of trading.
In 1879 he came to Colorado to remain and
located at Leadville, but in the latter part of
that year moved to Aspen. This section of the
state was then an almost unbroken wilderness,
with few inhabitants and few of the conven-
iences of life. He took up his residence in
what is now known as Tourtelotte Park and
began prospecting and mining, passing a por-
tion of his time down to i8<>4 at Cripple Creek,
where he leased mines independently and
worked them. He was on his own ground
when the Indian troubles started on White
river, the Indian reservation being but twelve
miles from his present location. During his
residence here he has located many claims, a
number of which have turned out to be very
profitable. While the conveniences of culti-
vated life were few and hard to get in his
early days in this section, wild game of every
kind was abundant and no one was obliged to
go hungry. Mr. Tourtelotte is a stanch Re-
publican in politics and many years ago was
initiated into the Masonic order. He was mar-
ried in 1865 to Mrs. Mary J. (Andrews)
House, a native of Dupage county, Illinois, and
daughter of F. C. and Jerusha Andrews, na-
tives of Massachusetts who moved to Illinois
in early days and there became prosperous-
farmers. In 1859 they moved to Missouri and
engaged again in farming in connection with
stock-raising. When the Civil war began they,
being Northern sympathizers and radical Re-
publicans, were obliged to leave their farm and
returned to Illinois, settling near Kankakee,
where they farmed until death. Mr. and Mrs.
Tourtelotte had three children, all of whom
died in youth. Mrs. Tourtelotte was a mem-
ber of tlie Universalist church. She died in
1869. In 1872 Mr. Tourtelotte married a
second wife. Miss Josephine Grubb, who was
horn in Pennsylvania and the daughter of Ed-
mond H. and Sarah Jane Grubb, also native
in that state. They moved to Minnesota after
the war, in which Mr. Grubb was a soldier and
order!}- sergeant in a Pennsylvania cavalry
regiment. For disabilities incurred in the serv-
ice he drew a pension to the end of his life,
and since that event his widow gets it. I le con
ducted a tanner}- and manufactured fur goods
at Mankato, Minnesota, and was a stanch Re-
publican in politics. The family consisted of
six children, twoof whom are deceased. Those
living are Eugene H., William L. and Joseph-
ine. Mrs. Tourtelotte. By his second mar
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF IVESTERN COLOR. I in i.
Li-
nage, to Mrs. Seebree, Mr. Tourtelotte had
two children, Maud, who died in infancy, and
Henry Lee, now a captain in the Third Regi-
ment of the Minnesota National Guard. He
was born in Mankato, Minnesota, and reared
and educated at Aspen. He is now associated
with the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad
as contracting freight agent, and has been
since 1897.
ANDREW E. MULQUEEN.
A native of the province of Ontario. Can-
ada, where he was born on November 30, 1856,
and of Irish ancestry, but educated in the
United States and living and working in this
country during almost the whole of his mature
life, the nationality of Andrew E. Mulqueen,
one of the leading business men and representa-
tive citizens of Aspen, presents variety enough
in suggestiveness to fitly illustrate the wealth
of opportunity afforded to the world by our
country, and the conglomerate nature of our
population, which is one of its great sources
of strength and enterprise. His parents were
Patrick and Dora (Hayes) Mulqueen, natives
of Ireland who emigrated to the United States
and located in New York while they were chil-
dren. The father was a successful and well-
known lake captain, an independent in politics
and a Catholic in religion. Eight children com-
posed their family, four of whom died in in-
fancy. Those living are Andrew E., Margaret
E., Dora M. and Daniel M. The mother died
in 1866 and the father in 1901. Andrew E.,
their first born, was educated at the public
schools of Oswego, New York, and after com-
pleting their course attended commercial
schools in New York city and Toronto. He
also was employed as a clerk from 1872, when
he was sixteen, until 1883. when he was twen-
ty-seven, and during this period devoted a por-
tion of his time to theatrical business. In the
spring of 1884 he came to Colorado, locating
at Aspen where he engaged in mining. In the
fall of that year he was appointed assistant post-
master and held the position until 1889. In
1890 and 1 89 1 he was county clerk of Pitkin
county, and after leaving that office began his
present business in real estate, money loaning
and silver and lead mining in Colorado, Utah
and Nevada. In the fall of 1903 he was elected
a member of the lower house of the state leg-
islature, and served as chairman of the county
central committee of his party, the Democratic,
and had the gratification of seeing his entire
ticket elected. He was re-elected to the legis-
lature in the fall of 1904. In fraternal rela-
tions he is connected with the Elks, the Wood-
men of the World, the Modern Woodmen of
America and the Fraternal Union. On No-
vember 10, 1885, he married with Miss Mary
Tuttle, a native of New York city. Mr. and
Mrs. Mulqueen have two children, Cicily and
Howard. Just in the full maturity and vigor of
his powers, and firmly established in business
and in the regard and good will of his fellow
men, the future holds out bright prospects be-
fore Mr. Mulqueen. and his past record and
achievements are proofs that he will not dis-
appoint the expectations of his friends and the
general public.
WALTER S. CLARK.
One of the founders of Aspen, and promi-
nently connected with its history from the start,
Walter S. Clark, of that town, has been a very
influential factor in building it up. developing
its resources, adding to its commercial impor-
tance and giving substance and shape to its
governmental affairs. Locating here in 1879,
he was one of the four original prospectors in
the camp and helped to locate its principal
mines, the Smuggler, the Durant. the Thou-
sand and One, Monarch, the Hoskins and the
198
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Iron. He wrote the first location certificate,
built the first cabin and helped to survey the
first claim in the camp. Mr. Clark is a na-
tive of Connecticut, born on November 12,
1850, and was reared in Wisconsin, whither
his parents moved in his childhood. They
were Griffith C. and Sarah T. (Tillinghast)
Clark, New Englanders by nativity, the father
born in Connecticut and the mother in Massa-
chusetts. They conducted a hotel in Connecti-
cut, and after they moved to Wisconsin en-
gaged in farming. They were Presbyterians
in church connection, and in politics the father
was an unwavering Democrat. Nine children
were horn to them, two of whom died in in-
fancy. A son named James M., who was a
member of Company I, Second Wisconsin In-
fantry, in the Civil war, was killed at the siege
of Vicksburg at the age of eighteen; another
named George T. died at Denver in November,
1SS4. and John H. passed away at Madison,
Wisconsin, in September, 1902. The living
children are Mrs. S. L. Sheldon, of Madison,
Wisconsin, and Walter S., of Aspen. The fa-
ther died in 1876, at the age of seventy-six, and
the mother in 1878. at the same age. Their
son Walter's educational advantages were very
limited, as he was obliged to begin earning his
own living at the age of fourteen by clerking
in a drug store, and through practical exper-
ience he became a well qualified druggist in
Wisconsin. In 1872 he came to Colorado and
located at Denver, where he was employed by
Bucklin & Clark, at the corner of Fifteenth
and Larimer streets. After two years of suc-
cessful trading in this line they sold out to
Solomon Bros., and then Mr. Clark became the
traveling representative of Daniel Hurd &
Sons at Twentieth and Blake streets, Denver,
lie remained with them one year, at the end
of which he turned bis attention to mining,
prosecuting this business in Georgetown, Lead-
ville, Aspen, Old Mexico. British America,
Montana, Idaho and Utah, following it thir-
teen years and experiencing all the vicissitudes
of the miner's life of uncertainty. On July 8,
1879, he located permanently at Aspen, and
here followed mining and prospecting until
1887, when he again turned his attention to
mercantile pursuits, becoming a wholesale and
retail grocer, and continuing in business as such
until the financial crash of 1894 closed his es-
tablishment. In June, 1897, he was appointed
postmaster of Aspen by President McKinley,
and at the end of his term was re-appointed
by President Roosevelt. He is an Elk and a
thirty-second-degree Mason, and also an active
Ribab. On October 10. 1901. he united in
marriage with Miss Rosa A. Tonard, a native
of Hartford. Connecticut.
ROBERT SHAW.
Robert Shaw, one of the leading business
men of Pitkin county, this state, carrying on
a general trade in hay, grain and feed, and con-
ducting a prosperous coal business at Aspen, is
a native of Ireland, born on June 15, 1855. and
is the son of William and Bessie (Long) Shaw.
also native there. The father came to the
United States and located in the Sacramento
valley of California during the great gold ex-
citement in that state, and devoted two years
to mining, at which he was very successful.
He then moved to Canada and remained four
years, at the end if which he crossed to Eng
land, and two years later returned to his former
home in Ireland. Three children were torn in
the family, William J.. Catherine and Robert.
The parents are members of the Episcopal
church. Their son Robert was educated at
the common schools, and when he was eigh-
teen years old began life for himself working
on farms. In 1873 ne rame to tne United
States and settled in Middlesex county, Massa-
chusetts, where for five years he worked on
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
i<><>
farms for wages. In 1878 he moved to Iowa,
and locating- in Page count}', continued his
farming operations. The next year he came
to Leadville, Colorado, and went to prospect-
ing, devoting one year to this work with but in-
different success. He then moved to the por-
tion of what was then Gunnison county that is
now Pitkin, stopping at Crested Butte where
there was great excitement over new discover-
ies of gold. Soon afterward he moved on to
Silverton and continued mining independently
for a year, then changed his residence to Du-
rango, where he engaged in blacksmithing for
a short time in partnership with Dennis
Hughes, a sketch of whom will he found on
another page of this work. Retiring from this
engagement, he purchased some teams and
went to Arizona where he contracted to haul
matte to the railroads from the smelter and
coke to the smelter from the railroads, contin-
uing his industry in these lines until the smel-
ter closed in 1883. He then went to Flagstaff,
in that territory, and for a short time wrought
in the lumber regions. Returning to Colorado
in 1885, he located in the neighborhood of As-
pen and began freighting between that town
and Granite, an enterprise fraught with diffi-
culty and danger. The country was wild and
uninhabited, Indians and road agents were not
wanting to add to the hazards, and wild beasts
still stubbornly contested the right of man to
invade their domains. But he continued his
operations until the advent of the railroads
through this section rendered them unprofit-
able. At that time he settled permanently at
Aspen and started the business in which he is
now engaged, and at which he has been very
successful, building up one of the most exten-
sive trades in his special commodities in this
portion of the state. He also represents the
Continental Oil Company and does a consid-
erable business for that corporation. In polit-
ical matters he is independent, and in fraternal
life is a prominent member of the Woodmen of
the World. In November, 1888. he was mar-
ried to Miss Dora Kline, a native of Indiana
and the daughter of Daniel and Mary Kline,
who located in Colorado in the early days and
have been continuously and successfully en-
gaged in ranching. Mr. and Mrs. Shaw have
one child. William D. R. Mr. Shaw has been
successful in all his undertakings, and enjoys
an enviable reputation as a wise, upright and
useful citizen.
WILLIAM OSWALD ZAUGG.
One of the prosperous and progressive men
of the Western slope of this state, who seems
ti 1 have tbe touch of Midas without his sor-
didness, touching everything he takes hold of
to gold but using his gains for the promotion of
his section and the development of its re-
sources and the expansion of all forms of its
industrial, commercial and moral life. William
Oswald Zaugg, of Aspen, has had an interest-
ing and instructive career. He is a native of
Independence. Kansas, where his life began on
November 7. 1871, and where his father still
lives, the mother having died there on August
1. 1885. His parents. Peter and Elizabeth
t Ruegsegger ) Zaugg. were born, reared and
married in Switzerland, and emigrated to the
United States soon after their marriage, locat-
ing at Independence. Kansas. There the fa-
ther has since been successfully engaged in
farming and loaning money. Both parents
were Presbyterians, and the father is an ar-
dent Democrat in political faith and allegiance.
They had eight children, four of whom are
deceased. Fred, Benjamin. Mary and Emma.
The four living are William O.. Peter. Otto
and Rosalie. William O. the eldest of these.
attended the district schools of his native place,
and was graduated at the high school there
and later at the State University. While vet a
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
boy he assisted his father on the farm and
took full charge of the books in the money
loaning business. In 189 1 he came to Colorado
and located in the vicinity of Aspen. He at
once began leasing mines and grub staking men
to work them. Among the number he thus
started on the highway to success and prosper-
ity was W. C. Bates, who went to Cape Nome,
Alaska, where he located some excellent claims,
five of them afterward being sold for a large
figure. Mr. Zaugg still owns a number of the
claims and has refused to sell them at the same
rate. He is prominent in the social and frater-
nal life of his community as well as one of its
leading business and mining men, belonging to
the Fraternal Order of Eagles and taking an
active part in the proceedings of the aerie to
which he belongs in the order. In politics he
is an independent voter, and in church rela-
tions is a Presbyterian. With youth, health,
enterprise and an already well-established suc-
cess in his favor, and having the cordial good
will and esteem of his fellow citizens of all
classes, there would seem to be no limit to his
achievements and his working out an honor-
able and very serviceable career but his own
desires. He belongs to the type of men who
command circumstances to their service and
make all conditions minister to their will.
And such men have made this country great
and respected, pushing forward all the ele-
ment^ of its progress in peaceful industry, and
Stubbornly defending its rights and interests
when assailed by hostile forces or unjust ag-
gression. Among the citizens nf Pitkin county
none stands higher and none is more deserving
of the public regard. For although he has been
fortunate beyond most men is his undertakings,
his success is not the result of accident. He
has chosen his opportunities with judgment
and used them with capacity, and what he has
accomplished is due to merit.
DR. WARREN HUGH TWINING.
Dr. Warren Hugh Twining, of Aspen, Pit-
kin county, is one of the leading and most
highly esteemed professional men and citizens
of his section of the state, having a high rank
in his profession and holding an elevated and
enviable place in the regard and good will of
his fellow men. He is a native of Dane county,
Wisconsin, where he was born on January 12,
1875, and is the son of Hugh A. and Elmira
A. (Field) Twining, the former born in Buf-
falo, New York, and the latter at Mount Ver-
non, Vermont. At an early age the father mi-
grated to Wisconsin where he was engaged in
farming with success until 1880, when he came
to Colorado and located on Clear creek, near
the town of Georgetown. Here he was occu-
pied in the real-estate business and mining un-
til his death, in 1898. He was a prominent
Freemason and a Patriotic Son of America,
holding the office of state master of forms and
ceremonies in the organization of the latter or-
der. In religious affiliation he was an Episco-
palian. His widow survived him two years,
passing away in 1900. They had three chil-
dren. Sarah L., Florence A. and Warren Hugh,
the Doctor, all of whom are living. The last
named was educated at the public schools, tak-
ing an elementary and a high-school course.
After leaving school he served as assistant
postmaster at Georgetown, and in 1896 entered
the Gross Medical College at Denver, where
he was graduated in 1900. He served a year
as house physician at St. Joseph's Hospital in
Denver, and afterward as assistant surgeon at
the Rock Springs (Wyoming) Hospital. Tn
the latter part of toot he located at Aspen,
and since then has been actively engaged in
the practice of his profession in and around
that city. Although the time of his residence
and work at this point has been short, he has
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
built up a good patronage and won an excel-
lent reputation as a physician and surgeon. He
is secretary of the United States board of ex-
amining surgeons of Pitkin county, and in all
professional lines is energetic and diligent. He
is also interested in mining and owns a fruit
ranch of great productiveness at Montrose. In
the fraternal life of the community he takes a
zealous and helpful interest, being connected
with several of the benevolent associations. He
was married December 31, 1903, to Miss Lula
B. Goodson, a native of Hopkins, Missouri,
and the daughter of the late Dr. Goodson, a
well known physician and public spirited citi-
zen of that place.
DR. ANDREW J. ROBINSON.
This prominent professional man and ex-
emplary and influential citizen of Aspen, over
whose municipal interests he now presides as
mayor, is a native of Washington county, Vir-
ginia, where he was born on June 1, 1846, and
the son of James and Mary A. (McKee)' Rob-
inson, also natives of the Old Dominion, where
the father was a successful planter and promi-
nent citizen. While the war with Mexico was
in progress he raised a troop of volunteers for
the service, and was chosen its captain; but be-
fore the troop took the field the war was ended
and so he never got into active service. He
was an earnest and zealous Democrat in polit-
ical faith, and he and his wife were active
members of the Baptist church. Both are now
deceased, the father passing away at the age
of eighty-two and the mother at seventy-
seven. Their offspring numbered seven, one
of whom, named Charity, is dead. The liv-
ing are Sarah M., Andrew J., Alexander L.,
Thomas J.. Elizabeth and Virginia. Andrew
J., the second born of the survivors, was edu-
cated at the district schools near his home and
at Friendship Academy in his native county.
In 1869 he moved to Bureau county, Illinois,
and engaged in farm work during the summer
and teaching school during the winter to earn
the necessary money to take him through med-
ical college. After his graduation he began
practicing at Cambridge, Illinois, in 1878.
Two years later he came to Colorado and lo-
cated at Gunnison, where he remained until
1885. He then moved to Aspen, where he has
since lived and been energetically engaged in a
general practice with a growing body of pa-
trons and a widening reputation for skill and
good judgment as well as extensive profes-
sional learning. During the past six years he
has served as hospital physician, and his in-
terest in the affairs of the town and his wis-
dom in promoting the welfare of its people
have been such that in 1903 he was named by
citizens of all parties as their choice for mayor
and was elected to the position by a large ma-
jority of the voters. He is also interested in
raising cattle on White river on an extensive
scale. In fraternal life he is a Master Mason,
a Woodman of the World, a Knight of Pyth-
ias and a member of the United Workmen.
On April 9,1873. he was married to Miss Ber-
tha Parks, a native of Virginia who was reared
and educated in Illinois, where her parents set-
tled in 1855 and were prosperous farmers. They
were Baptists in .church relations and the fa-
ther was a stanch Republican in politics. They
had ten children, of whom all are living but a
sun named James and Mrs. Robinson, the lat-
ter dying on April 6. T8Q7. and leaving one
child. Dr. Oliver T. Robinson, a prominent
dentist of Aspen.
JOHN M. WILLIAMS.
One of the active and enterprising mem-
bers of the mercantile firm of Tagert & Wil-
liams at Aspen, and thus connected in a lead-
ing wav with the commercial interests of the
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
community, John M. Williams has been a po-'
tent factor in building up the community and
bringing its resources to the notice of the out-
side world. He was born on July 2, 1873, in
Mercer county, Pennsylvania, where his par-
ents, John Rosser and Celia (Simpson) Wil-
liams, were prosperously engaged in farming
at the time. They were also natives of Penn-
sylvania, the father being born in Mercer
county, that state, on February 22, 1850. He
was the son of Timothy T. and Elizabeth Wil-
liams, natives of Wales who settled in Penn-
sylvania in early life. The father was a con-
tractor in coal mining and successful at the
business. He was a Republican in politics from
the foundation of the party, and he and his
wife were Baptists in church affiliation. Two
children were born to them, John R., the father
of the immediate subject of this sketch, and a
daughter named Ruth, who died in her youth.
Their mother died in 1874 and the father now
resides in Mercer county, Ohio. Their son,
John Rosser Williams, attended the public
schools at intervals and assisted in the labors
of the home until he was twelve, when he went
to work with his father in the mines. In 1873
he went to Tennessee for the winter and in
the following spring moved to Nebraska where
he passed three years on the plains. In 1877.
lured by the gold excitement then at its height,
he moved to the Black Hills, and there he pros-
pected for a year with fair success. From there
he wandered to the Yellowstone and through
the Big Horn country of Montana until the
fall of 1879. He then came to Colorado, lo-
cating at Leadvilk'. and there prospected until
1880, when he moved to Roaring Forks, and
pre-empting a claim of one hundred and sixty
acres, engaged in ranching and raising cattle,
also continuing his operations as a prospector
and miner. His pre-emption claim was north
of Aspen and in addition he located a home-
stead claim twelve miles west of that town. In
all his undertakings he has been moderately
successful and is now in a comfortable condi-
tion of worldly prosperity, and his profits are
still increasing. The principal products of his
ranch lands besides cattle are hay, grain and
potatoes, and he harvests large quantities of
each. In politics he is a Republican and in fra-
ternal life a Freemason. In 1871 he was united
in marriage with Miss Celia Simpson, like him-
self a native of Mercer county, Pennsylvania,
and they are the parents of five children, John
M., William W., Mary and Harry C. and
Emma, twins. The first born. John M., was
educated in the district schools at the various
places of his early residence and at the age of
nineteen engaged in the ice business on his
< iwn account. This he continued one year, then
from 1894 to 18Q7 was busily and hopefully
occupied in prospecting. In the year last
named he started an enterprise in the feed
trade, but soon afterward he abandoned all
other business, and in partnership with his
brother William devoted his time and energies
to ranching on a property thirteen miles west of
Aspen. This, however, did not satisfy his as-
pirations, and at the end of a year he purchased
his present interest in the firm of Tagert & Wil-
liams, with which he has since been actively
connected. He is an earnest and active Repub-
licas in politics, and a Freemason and an Elk
in fraternal life. His success in all lines of
business has been good, and he is esteemed as
one of Pitkin county's best and most useful
and popular citizens.
WILLIAM C. TAGERT.
Beginning life for himself by arduous and
continued labor even in his childhood, and from
that time on building his own fortunes without
the aid of favorable circumstances or friendly
interest in his welfare. William C. Tagert has
made of himself one of the leading business
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
203
men and citizens of his section of the state, and
the fiber of his manhood, toughened by adver-
sity, is such as to withstand all enervating in-
fluences and resist all importunities to be less
than it should. He is a native of Salt Lake
City, born on June 5, 1873, anc * tne son °f J°~
seph R. and Mary A. (Gates) Tagert, the for-
mer a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of
Illinois. They migrated to the Black Hills in
1858, and for several years thereafter the fa-
ther was engaged in contract work for the
United States government. In 1862 he moved
to Denver, this state, and at once engaged in
mining, continuing his operations until 1870,
when he changed his residence to Salt Lake
City, where he traded with the Mormons for a
number of years. In 1874 he went to St. Louis
and in that city was occupied in the livery
business for a few years. In 1879 ne moved to
Leadville, and after prospecting there three
years transferred his energies in 1882 to As-
pen. Here he passed six years in prospecting,
then in 1888 made a trip through portions of
South America and Alaska, but his search for
better opportunities in those countries being
unavailing, he returned to Colorado and located
at Cripple Creek, where he prospected two
years. His final location was at Seattle, Wash-
ington, where he has conducted a profitable
lumber business ever since settling there. He
is an active Republican and a zealous member
of the Masonic order. The mother is a mem-
ber of the Presbyterian church. Their off-
spring - number eight, Lincoln J., Cora L.. Ma-
bel, William C, Joseph R., Frederick S.. Frank
and Olive L. The fourth born, William C,
had very limited educational advantages.
While yet a mere boy he worked on a ranch
in order that he might attend night school, and
this was almost his only schooling. At the age
of five he was brought west and, being ambi-
tious, engaged in selling newspapers and such
other work as a boy of his age could do, being
then at Leadville. In 1883 he settled at Aspen
with his parents and went to work on a ranch.
Later he drove a wagon for a feed store for
two years, and at the end of that time went
into the feed business for himself in partnership
with Frank Bourg, who was at that date en-
gaged in the business alone. In 1879 Mr. Ta-
gert's present partner, John M. Williams,
bought Mr. Bourg's interest and became a
member of the firm, which still continues in the
style it then assumed. The establishment deals
generally in hay. grain and other feed, coal,
farming implements and vehicles of all sorts.
These gentlemen also own one of the finest cat-
tle ranches in Pitkin county and are extensively
engaged in the stock industry. Their success
in both lines of enterprise has far surpassed
their largest expectations, and they are among
the leading business men in this portion of the
state. In politics Mr. Tagert is independent,
and in fraternal relations is connected with the
Woodmen of the World and the Fraternal Or-
der of Eagles. On December 15, 1895, he was
united in marriage with Miss Cora A. Torrance,
a native of Kansas and daughter of Edwin K.
and Louise Torrance. In 1890 her parents
came to Aspen and the father began an enter-
prise in the feed trade, which he is still conduct-
ing'. They are the parents of two daughters.
Mrs. Tagert and her sister Lulu. Mr. and
Mrs. Tagert also have two daughters. Nellie
and Wilma. The parents stand well in social
circles, and are universally esteemed as among
the most representative persons of the town.
ROBERT MICHAEL RYAN.
Robert M. Ryan, of Aspen, clerk and re-
corder of Pitkin county, has during almost
the whole of his life in the county been promi-
nent and influential in its politics and public af-
fairs, and is esteemed one of its best and most
representative citizens. He was born on March
204
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
9, 1862, at St. John's, Clinton county, Michi-
gan, and is the son of William and Catherine
( O'Connor) Ryan, natives of Ireland who em-
igrated to this country and settled at Boston,
Massachusetts, in 1850. The father has been
an ardent Democrat during all of his residence
in the United States, and is an industrious and
well-to-do shoemaker. He and his wife are
members of the Catholic church. They now
reside at St. John's, Michigan. Nine children
were born in the family, of whom seven are
living, Moria, Honora, Anna, Robert M., Ellen,
Kate and Sarah. The only living son, Robert
M., was educated in the public schools of his
native town, finishing his course at the high
school there. At the age of eighteen he began
teaching school, which he continued for a num-
ber of years. In 1882 he came to Coloralo and
located at Durango where he devoted his time
to prospecting' and mining for three years with
varying success. In the fall of 1885 he moved
to Aspen and was here engaged in mining un-
til 190T, when he was elected clerk and recor-
der of Pitkin county, and in fall of 1904 was re-
elected to that office on the Independent ticket.
He is an active Democrat in political faith and
in fraternal circles belongs to the Elks, the Odd
Fellows, the United Workmen and the Eagles.
On November 10. 1889, he was married to Miss
Lida W. Young, a native of Missouri and
• laughter of James and Harriett ( Coryell)
Young, the former born in Scotland anil the
latter in Iowa. The father is a blacksmith,
successful and prosperous in his business, and
;i firm and loyal Democrat in politics. They
are the parents of eight children and now live
at Memphis, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Ryan
have seven children. Bertha M.. Frances E.,
\mia I.., Robert T., James W., Estella I. and
an infant son. In the performance of his offi-
cial duties Mr. Ryan is eminently careful and
attentive, and is winning golden opinions of
commendation from all classes of citizens who
are interested in the welfare of the county. In
social life he stands high and in all the ele-
ments of good citizenship his example is an in-
citement and a stimulus. No citizen, of the
county is held in higher regard, and none de-
serves the confidence and good will of his
fellow men in larger measure.
HARRY G. KOCH.
Successful in business, although at times
suffering the reverses that may always be ex-
pected in mercantile life, and with breadth of
view and public-spirit in promoting the general
interests of the community in which he lives
and operates. Harry G. Koch, of Aspen, this
state, is recognized as one of Pitkin county's
most worthy and useful citizens, and enjoys in
a marked degree the confidence and esteem
of his fellow citizens throughout the county
and a much larger scope of country. He was
born on May to, T865, at Toledo, Ohio, and is
the son of Edward W. E. and Anna M. (Mark-
scheffle) Koch, natives of Germany, the former
born in Brunswick and the latter in Hanover.
In 1852 they came to the United States, at the
time when Hon. Carl Schurz came over, and
settled in Wood county, Ohio. There the fa-
ther became a professor of languages and su-
perintendent of the public schools. Afterward
the family moved to Lexington, Kentucky, and
there he continued teaching for a year and a
half. Returning to Toledo at the end of that
time, he passed a number of years in that city
as editor of the German Express. The later
years of his life were devoted to the culture of
fruit and the manufacture of wines. In 1879
be came to Colorado and located at Aspen. He
helped to build the first log cabin in the vil-
lage and was one of the party of four in com-
pany with Walter S. Clark and others who
were the original prospectors in this region and
located a number of its most valuable mining
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
205
claims. After remaining at Aspen sixty days
he returned to Toledo, but later made several
trips between the two places. He was very
successful in all his undertakings, ardently sup-
ported the Republican party in political matters
and with his wife gave earnest allegiance to
the Lutheran church. They had twelve chil-
dren, five of whom died in infancy. The fa-
ther's life ended on July 25, 1903, and the
mother is now living at Toledo. The seven
living children are Mrs. E. K. Reinhardt. of
Toledo ; William C. E. Koch, a lumber mer-
chant at Nelson, British Columbia ; Edward E.
Koch, in the same business at Sandusky, Ohio;
Charles L.. lumbering at Perrysburg, Ohio;
and Harry G. Koch and .Mrs. B. C. Feast, of
Aspen, Colorado. Harry, after attending the
public schools until he reached the age of six-
teen, worked on his father's farms until he was
nineteen, then went on the road as traveling
agent for his father, selling fruit and other
products of the homestead, tn 1885 he came
to Aspen, and after working four days digging
ditches at ten cents a foot for the water com-
pany under contract, he became foreman of the
construction gang and later superintendent and
general manager of the company, remaining
in its service from 1885 to 1902. a period of
seventeen years. \\\ 1900 he made a trip to
Europe, and since his return has been contin-
uously engaged in the lumber trade. From
1888 to 1892 he also conducted a stock-
brokerage business, and in 1896, 1897 and
1898 he was in the grocery trade as a member
of the Mesa Mercantile Company. This ven-
ture was not successful owing to bad manage-
ment, and he soon retired from connection
with the company. In 1899 he purchased the
interest of S. H. Finley in the lumber business
of Finley & Rose, and changed the style of the
firm to the Koch Lumber Company. Later he
purchased the interest of William E. Kelley.
and baptized the establishment Koch Lumber
Company, the name it still bears. In connec-
tion with his lumber business Mr. Koch manu-
facture boxes and deals in wood, coal, hay and
grain. He is also interested in the Glenwood
Lumber Manufacturing Company in Glenwood
Springs. In political matters he is a silver
Republican, and in fraternal circles a Modern
Woodman and Elk. He is also a notary public
in and for Pitkin county. On April 30, 1884.
lie was married to .Miss Anna C. Liebold, a
native of Gena, Germany, who came to the
Cnited States with her parents when she was
six years old. The parents located at Toledo,
Ohio, where they are still living and where
the father is a successful architect. He is an
active Republican in politics, a member of the
order of Foresters and the Cnited Workmen.
Both parents are devoted Lutherans. Mr. and
Mrs. Koch have had five children, of whom
two, Dorothy and Edward, are living, the other
three having died in infancv.
HAROLD W. CLARK.
Harold W. Clark, of Aspen, one of the best
known and most prominent and highly es-
teemed attorneys and counselors of western
Colorado, is a native of Iowa City, Iowa, where
he was born on October 10, 1861. He began
his scholastic education in the public schools
and later was graduated from the collegiate
department of the Iowa State University with
the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy in 1885.
He pursued the regular course in the law de-
partment of the Cniversity and became a grad-
uate of that in 1888. The same year he came
to Colorado and locating at Aspen in 1889 at
once entered on the practice of his profession,
soon afterward forming a partnership in the
business with the late W. W. Cooley. which
continued until the death of the latter in 1894,
since which time Mr. Clark has been practicing
206
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
alone. From 1896 to 1902 he was city attor-
ney of Aspen, and in 1899 was appointed
county attorney of Pitkin county, a position
which he is now filling (1904). He is also in-
terested is mining and is an owner in a large
ditch and land enterprise in Delta county. In
fraternal circles he belongs to the order of
Elks and the Phi Delta Theta college frater-
nity, and in politics he is a stanch and unwav-
ering Democrat, serving now as chairman of
the county central committee of his party. His
parents were J. Warren and Sophia M.
( Clapp) Clark, natives of Ohio who moved to
Iowa City, Iowa, in early life. The father died
in 1866 from the effects of service in the war
of the Rebellion. The mother died in 1884.
Of their four children one. Mrs. Florence Gilli-
land, of Glenwood, Iowa, is deceased. The
three living are Charles C. a leading lawyer of
Burlington, Iowa, partner of his brother-in-law,
John J. Seerley, a representative in con-
gress in 1892; Mrs. Elizabeth Seerley.
wife of John J.; and Harold W. In
his practice Mr. Clark has been very
successful, rising to a high rank in his
profession and winning an elevated place in
the regard and confidence of the people of the
county and state in which he is well estab-
lished. He was married on November 20.
1889, to Miss Mariette Vincent, a native of
Monona county. Iowa, the daughter of Mitchell
and Mary J. Vincent, natives of Pennsylvania,
who moved to Iowa when young. The father is
a relative of Bishops Vincent of the Protestant
Episcopal church and John H. Vincent of the
Methodist Episcopal church, lie is a civil en-
gineer and railroad contractor. In the family
of Mrs. Clark's parents there are eight chil-
dren : Edward D.. a lieutenant and civil engi-
neer in the United States army, now engaged
in government work at the Yellowstone Na-
tional Park: Hobart. a civil engineer at Dead-
wood, South Dakota, where he is also interested
in mining and in the service of the Northwest-
ern Railroad, as consulting engineer ; Mrs. Eflfa
Bernard Freeland, of Onawa, Iowa; Blanche
(Mrs. Sewell Allen) ; Louise, Margaret, Lou-
ise (Mrs. Howard Woodman), Thayer and
John, a civil engineer in Arkansas and manager
of a mine. Mr. and Mrs. Clark have three chil-
dren, Vincent, aged eleven; Catherine, aged
eight, and Helen E., aged six. Mrs. Clark is
a member of the Episcopal church. Mr.
( lark's brother, Charles C. Clark, is grand
master of Masons of the state of Towa.
HON. JOHN T. SHUMATE.
To many men in this country, where the
citizens are the sovereigns, the capacity for
wise and serviceable administration of public
trusts and performance of official duties is
given in such large measure, and is so readily
adaptive to conditions, that it is recognized
without difficulty by their fellow men. and as
long or as often as circumstances will permit it
is gratefully employed in behalf of the general
welfare. The career of Hon. John T. Shumate,
of Aspen, Pitkin count}-, now judge of the dis-
trict court for the ninth judicial district of this
state, embracing the counties of Pitkin, Gar-
field. Routt and Rio Blanco, affords a striking
illustration of this fact. He became a resident
of Colorado in 1877. and during the twenty-
seven years of his subsequent life here he has
served the people well and wisely in important
official stations nearly all of the time, all
of the offices to which he has been chosen being
in the line of his profession as a lawyer. Judge
Shumate was born in Fauquier county. Vir-
ginia, on September 22. 1852, and is the son
of Dr. Bailey and Ann E. (Weaver) Shumate.
who were also natives of the Old Dominion.
The father was descended from independent
and liberty-loving families of French Hugue-
nots who. after the revocation of the edict of
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Nantes by Louis XIV in 1685, sought in Vir-
ginia an asylum from persecution in their na-
tive land on account of their religious belief.
The fugitives soon became prominent in colo-
nial affairs, and when the iron hand of Eng-
land began to weigh heavily on the land of their
adoption, they ardently espoused the cause of
American independence and fought valiantly
in the war of the Revolution. Dr. Bailey Shu-
mate was born in Clarke county in the beauti-
ful and historic valley of the Shenandoah, and
after receiving a good academic education en-
tered the Jefferson Medical College at Phila-
delphia, from which in due time he was gradu-
ated with the degree of Doctor of .Medicine. He
then practiced his profession in Fauquier
county, Virginia, for many years, retiring at
length to his plantation there, on which he
passed the remainder of his days. Me was
prominent in public affairs and frequently rep-
resented his county in the legislature, being in
the course of this service several times a mem-
ber of each house of the assembly. His wife,
the daughter of William Weaver, a prominent
planter, was descended from German ancestors
who, in the seventeenth century, founded Ger-
mantown, Virginia, a settlement now extinct.
On her mother's side the Judge's mother was
related to John Marshall, chief justice of the
United States, and her paternal ancestors were
also soldiers in the Revolution. Of the off-
spring- of Dr. and Mrs. Shumate three sons and
one daughter are living: W. B. G. Shumate,
formerly probate judge of Fauquier county.
Virginia, but now a planter residing on a part
of the old family homestead; Edward J. Shu-
mate, manager of the freight department of the
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at Washington, D.
C. ; Bettie. the wife of Lucien Holtzclaw. also
living on a portion of the old homestead ; and
the Judge. The last named was graduated
from Norwood College in Virginia in 1873, and
then completed the law course in the University
of that state. In July, 1877. lie became a resi-
dent of Denver, Colorado, and entered the law
office of Hon. Thomas W. Patterson. Within
the same year he was admitted to the Colorado
bar and began the practice of his profession at
Denver. The next year, to serve his turn in
one of the leading industries of the state, he
moved to Leadville and engaged in mining. In
March. 1880. he began mining at Pitkin in
Gunnison county, and in the spring- ( if 1 8X4 t< « ik
up his residence at Ouray, where he served
some fifteen months as clerk of the district
court under Judge M. B.Gerry. In July, 1885,
he again turned his attention to mining with
headquarters at Aspen, and in 1886 moved to
Glenwood Springs, then a hopeful hamlet of
tents clustered around the wonderful healing
springs and amid the rare natural beauties and
vast mineral resources which have made it re-
nowned throughout the world as a resort for
tourists anil transformed it into a progressive
city of growing industrial activities and beauti-
ful homes. Soon after his arrival at the
Springs Mr. Shumate was appointed deputy
county clerk and recorder, but a little later he
resumed the practice of law. In 1887 he was
elected city attorney of Glenwood Springs and
also county of Garfield ; and during the same
year he was appointed receiver of the United
States land office at the Springs, but declined
the position. From 1888 to 1890 he served as
a member of the city council, being elected as
the candidate of the Democratic party, to which
he has always given a firm and faithful alle-
giance. Again in 1895 he was chosen county
attorney for a term of three years ; and in 1896,
while still holding this office, which he filled to
the end of his term, he was elected to the lower
house of the state legislature as the candidate
of his party, endorsed by the National Silver
party and the Populists. The next year he was
chosen by the Democrats and Silver Republi-
cans district attorney of the ninth judicial dis-
208
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
trict, which comprises Pitkin, Garfield, Routt-
and Rio Blanco counties, and in 1900, as the
candidate of the Democratic party, he was
chosen judge of this district, an office he still
holds. In the early part of the year last named
his increasing practice at Aspen obliged him to
move to that flourishing center, and there he is
now living. In the fraternal life of his section
he takes an active and helpful interest as a
Freemason and an Elk. He was married in
1887 to Miss Sara E. Churchill, daughter of
Samuel Churchill, formerly a prominent mer-
chant of Avon, New York, but later a resi-
dent of Aspen, Colorado. Mrs. Shumate also
comes of old Colonial and Revolutionary stock,
some of her ancestors having come over in the
"Mayflower." Her father was a direct de-
scendant of Josias and Elizabeth (Foote)
Churchill, of Weatherford. Connecticut, who
were married in 1638. He was a Union sol-
dier in the Civil war. His wife, whose maiden
name was Jemima Duell Jackson, was of
Quaker and Huguenot descent. Four children
have been born to the Judge's household,
Churchill, Ruth and Bailey, who are living,
and John Edward, who died when nearly seven
years of age. In his long professional and offi-
cial career the Judge has won a high reputa-
tion as an able attorney and counselor and a
public servant of exceptional ability and fidel-
ity. He and his wife move in the best social
circles and in all the relations of life exemplify
the best attributes of American citizenship.
JOSEPH BOGUE.
Breeder of high grade Hereford cattle, with
many registered in the best circles of that breed
in the world, and handling some forty or fifty
work and saddle horses. Joseph Bogue has a
thriving business which is a help to the com-
mercial and stock industries of the county in
which he lives and to the whole section wherein
it is conducted. His ranch is in Mesa county
near the village of Mesa, and is a fine property,
well improved, highly cultivated and thor-
oughly equipped for its business; and Mr.
Bogue brought to his enterprise a knowledge
of the industry acquired in long and varied
practical experience elsewhere. He was born
January 15, i860, in Warren county, Iowa, and
is the son of Josiah and Parmelia | Cox 1
Bogue, natives of Terre Haute, Indiana. After
their marriage they moved to Iowa, and the
father died in Colorado in 1897, at tne age of
sixty-four. The mother is now living in Pit-
kin county, Colorado, and is more than seventy
years old. Their son Joseph remained with his
parents until he reached the age of sixteen,
then began to make his own living, coming
west to Nebraska and remaining there two
years engaged in riding the range as a cowboy.
In 1879 he moved to Leadville, and there for
six years he worked for a thriving cattle and
dairying outfit, his services being appreciated
by frequent raises in wages. The next two
years were passed in Pitkin county, this state,
and in 1887 he removed to his present resi-
dence and has since resided there. His ranch
is considered by many capable judges the best
in Mesa county. It comprises six hundred and
forty acres and supports more cattle and other
stock than is bandied by any other individual
stockman in the county and within a much
larger range of the surrounding country. His
Hereford herd have many cattle related to some
of the best of that strain in the world, as has
been stated. In [884 Mr. Bogue was married
to Miss Lucinda Pritchett, and they arc tin-
parents of five children, Jasper, Aha, Yelma,
Pearl and Venie. He is a leading and repre-
sentative man in his community and is highly
esteemed by all classes of its people. In its
public life and its development he has been
an important factor. In politics Mr. Bogue
is a Democrat. Fraternally, he is a charter
JOSEPH BOGUE.
PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF. WESTERN COLORADO.
_'09
member of Rhone Creek Lodge, No. 125, In-
dependent Order of Odd Fellows at Debeque.
while he also belongs to the Woodmen of the
World at Debeque and the Masonic lodge at
Mesa.
EDWIN POWELL.
Beginning at the age of ten to earn his
own living, and since then making his own way
in the world, and having to fight not only the
hard conditions of poverty and want of help.
but one disaster after another in fire which
swept away in a few hours the accumulations
of years, Edwin Powell, of Pitkin county, one
of the progressive and enterprising stock and
ranch men of the Western slope in this state,
has steadfastly persevered in his efforts fi ir ad-
vancement, and as one point of vantage has
been taken from him, has with resolute courage
and persistent self-reliance sought another, un-
til he has planted his feet firmly on stable
ground and gathered around him a substantial
and enduring prosperity. The story of his life,
if it could be told at length and in detail, would
furnish stimulus and incitement for main- a
struggling worker combating adverse circum-
stances, and show impressively that in the bat-
tle of life steadfast nerve, unyielding endurance
and continuous effort are after all the best weap-
ons of both aggression and defense. He is a
native of Llerefordshire, England, born on Jan-
uary 7, 1842, and the son of Joseph and Eliz-
abeth (Watkins) Powell, also natives of that
country, who emigrated to the United States
and settled in Ontario county, New York, in
1868, he having come over three years previ-
ously. The father has devoted his life in this
country to farming and fruit culture and has
been fairly successful in his work. He is an
active Republican in politics, and a member of
the Episcopal church, as is also his wife. Both
are living, the father at the age of ninety-six
and the mother at that of ninety-eight. They
14
were the parents of eight children, eight of
whom are living: James, a resident of Cross-
wall, England; George, living in Ontario
county, New York ; Joseph, a citizen of the
same location ; Charles Benton, of Yates
county, Xew York; Edwin, of Pitkin count).
Colorado: Phebe, wife of John Donohue, of
Southampton, England; Celia J., wife of Griff
Thomas, of Hailey, Idaho; and John, living
at Sacramento. California. Those who have
died are Philip and Elizabeth and two who
passed away in infancy. Edwin, the fifth in or-
der of the living, had a few brief terms at the
common schools of his native land, and at the
age of ten began the battle of life for himself
by working on farms in the neighborhood of
his home. In 1865 he came to the United
States and located in New York state, in On-
tario county. There he was occupied in farm-
ing until the latter part of 1867. when he made
a visit to his native land and remained some
months. On his return to this country he took
up his residence at Canandaigua. New York.
and found employment in a spoke factory, first
as engineer, next as sawyer, then at the end of
a year as one-third owner of the plant and busi-
ness. A few days after purchasing a one-
third interest in the establishment, he bought
half of another third, and at the end of three
years bought all the rest of the interests besides
what he already owned. The factory was
known as the Canandaigua Spoke Works, and
in connection he conducted a saw-mill and
dealt largely in farm wagons, buggies and other
vehicles, employing about fifteen men in the
summer months and thirty in winter. In 1877
the factory burnt down and be lost fifteen thou-
sand dollars' worth of property, on which he
had an insurance of only three thousand dol-
lars. He at once opened a new establishment
of the same kind at Chapinville. in the same
county, and a year later was again burned out.
He then became proprietor of the Irondequoit
PROGRESSI]' E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
flour mill, which he conducted two years suc-
cessfully, selling out at the end of that period.
He moved to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and
during the next five years conducted a planing
mill in that city, but was again burned out and
suffered a new loss of seven thousand dollars.
In the meantime, on January 26, 1886. he pat-
ented a machine for sawing hoop poles, and on
September 7th of the same year one for cut-
ting hoops. From these he realized a good sum
of money, and afterward passed a year at
Williamsport, working as a millwright and pat-
tern maker. In 1888 he came to Colorado and
located at Aspen with his wife and three chil-
dren, and two dollars in money. In a little
while he accumulated some property, and soon
afterward traded it for the ranch on which he
now lives, which once belonged to the late Gov-
ernor Waite. This comprises one hundred and
twenty acres, with one hundred acres of it in
a good state of productiveness, yielding timo-
thy hay of excellent quality in abundance. He
also raises some grain and vegetables for mar-
ket, and numbers of cattle, horses and hogs.
The first money he made in Aspen was from
the sale of a mule purchased by the Denver &
Rio Grande Railroad. Having good spruce
timber on his ranch, in the years 1901. 1902
and 1903 he conducted a saw-mill with suc-
cess and profit. In politics he supports the
Republican party, and fraternally he is con-
nected with the Masonic order. On February
8, T875. he was married to Elizabeth J. Perr,
a native of East Bloomfield, New York, daugh-
ter of Andrew and Ellen (Splann) Perr, who
were born in Ireland and settled at East Bloom-
field early in their married life, afterward re-
moving to Rush and from there to Canandai-
gtta, the father being a shoemaker, and in addi-
tion to working at his trade, conducting retail
stores at a number of places. He died some
years ago, and the mother now- lives at Victor,
New York. Thev had twelve children, one
of whom died in infancy, and two others have
since died. Mr. and Mrs. Powell have four
children, Edwin J., Franklin A., George A.
and Frederick W. Of these Edwin J. and
George A. are residents of Aspen. The par-
ents are members of the Protestant Episcopal
church and active in its work.
MILES CARROLL.
Miles Carroll, one of Pitkin county's most
prosperous and progressive ranch and cattle
men. who lives not far from Aspen, is a native
of Ireland horn in 1848, and the son of Miles
and Anna I Christian) Carroll, of the Emerald
Isle, who were prosperous farmers, devout
Catholics and highly respected citizens. They
had a family of eleven children, all now de-
ceased but Miles and his brother John. The
father died in i860 and the mother a few years
later. Their son Miles was not allowed much
in the way of educational advantages. His fa-
ther was a stern and unyielding believer in work
as a preparation for life's duties and put his
theories into practical operation with all his
children as soon as they were able to do any-
thing of yalue. But their mother had more lib-
eral views, and after the death of the father she
hired a teacher to come to the house three
evenings in each week for a time to teach the
children. Miles remained at home until
he was sixteen, then began to earn his own liv-
ing, later conducting the farm at home for a
period of two years. In 1865 ne came to the
United States and, locating at New Entry on
Long Island, farmed for wages three months,
then went to Philadelphia, and from there a
short time later to Marine Square, Pennsyl-
vania, where he quarried stone for two years.
From there he changed his base to the coal re-
gions and passed some time digging soft coal,
living also and doing similar work near Pitts-
lung and Allegheny a portion of the time. In
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
the summer of t868 he moved to Kentucky,
and after a short residence in that state went
to Point of Rucks in Maryland and assisted in
the construction of the tunnel there for the
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. In the latter part
of that year he located at Lemont, Illinois, and
there wrought in the stone quarries, getting
out gray marble for large buildings in Chicago,
remaining until 1871. The winter of 1873 was
passed at Streator, Illinois, in coal mining, and
there he met with an accident in the mines
which laid him up for a number of months.
In 1878 he came to Colorado and settled near
Canon City, where he was employed in railroad
work. He next appeared at Leadville and de-
voted his time to burning brick, of which he
made a great success for his employer, being a
first-rate hand at the work of burning and
pressing the product of the yards. He also
passed some time in that vicinity working in
the mines for wages. In company with James
McKinney, Edward and John Ward. James
McEvoy and Frank Kelley. he started mining
and prospecting, continuing this until l88r,
when he located a part of his present ranch of
five hundred acres in the vicinity of Aspen.
Of this tract two hundred acres yield grace-
fully to tillage without artificial aid. and pro-
duce excellent crops of hay and grain, and he
raises in addition horses and cattle in goodly
numbers. In all the lines of his activity he
is successful and prosperous, and as his work
is to his taste, he finds great enjoyment in life.
He is independent in politics, a member of the
Order of Wolf Tones in fraternal relations and
a Catholic in religious affiliation. In 1871 he
was married to Miss Maria Larkin. a native
of Cook comity. Illinois, daughter of William
and Bridget Larkin. who were born and reared
in Ireland and came to this country soon after
their marriage, locating in Illinois, where they
farmed successfully. The father was a Demo-
crat politically and both were members of the
Catholic church. They were the parents of six
children, only two of whom are living, William
and .Margaret. Airs. Carroll died in 1889,
leaving six of her fourteen children to survive
her. Alary. .Miles, James. Charles, Martha and
Nellie. In June, 1893, Mr. Carroll married a
second wife, Miss Maggie Askins. wdio was
horn at Streator. Illinois. She is the daughter
of .Michael and Katherine (O'Garra) Askins.
a sketch of whom will he found elsewdiere in
this work. Three children have been born of
the second marriage, Margaret. Bessie and
John E., all still at home.
BENEDICT B( >URG.
Although the Parisian may miss the gay
salons and other attractions of the heautiful
city when absent from it. the ordinary native
of France has an adaptability of nature and vi-
vacity of disposition that make him feel at
home anywhere, and an energy of industry and
force of character that win success in life from
almost an}' circumstances. It is so with Bene-
dict Bourg, one of the most prominent and
progressive ranchmen and stock-growers of
Pitkin county, whose beautiful and fertile
ranch of eight hundred acres, located nine miles
northwest of Aspen, is considered the best in
the valley. He was horn at Privas, Ardeche,
France, on December 17. 1842. and is the son
of Victorian and Ursule (Chalaye) Bourg. also
French by nativity. The father was a skillful
and successful ditcher and mine shaft
sinker, working for the greater part un-
der contract, and both parents were ar-
dent Catholics in religious faith. The
mother died in 185 1 and the father in 1893.
Their family comprised eight children, five of
whom have died. Victorian, Louis. Matilda
and two infants. The three living are Eliza,
Leopold and Benedict. The last named at-
tended the state schools for short periods at-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
intervals, being obliged to go to work in the
mines near his home at the age of nine years.
He remained with his parents until the death
of the mother and after that with his father
until 1865. then came to the United States and
located at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where he
was employed in mining coal. He remained
in that locality until 1867, then moved to
Broadtop in the same state, and during the
next eighteen months he did the same kind of
work there. At the end of that period the
mines closed operations and he returned to
Pittsburg and mined until 1871. In that year
he moved to Trumbull county. Ohio, and the
next nine years were passed in the coal mines
there. In 1880 he came to Colorado, and. set-
tling at Leadville. mined silver under contract
until 1884, in the meantime, in the year 1882,
locating a portion of his present ranch, a pre-
emption claim of one hundred and sixty acres.
To this he has since added by purchase and
otherwise until he has eight hundred acres,
much of which is as good and productive land
as can he found anywhere. Tn 1903 he was
one of the organizers and principal stockhold-
ers of the Salvation Ditch Company, which was
incorporated for twelve thousand dollars, for
the purpose of building a ditch eleven miles
long, taking water out of the Roaring Fork
river two miles above Aspen in order to irri-
gate some of the high mesa land. The ditch
was recently completed, at a cost of over twen-
ty-two thousand dollars, and Mr. Bourg is con-
structing an extension of eight miles of ditch
to furnish water for one hundred and twenty
acres of land owned by him. lie has six hun-
dred acres under cultivation in hay. oats and
other grain and vegetables, and he raises num-
bers of good cattle and horses for market. In
his early manhood after coming to this coun-
try he was an ardent supporter of the Repub-
lican party, but of late years he has been a
Populist. \s a candidate of the Populist party
he was elected county commissioner of Pitkin
county in 1892, and is now serving his third
term in the office. On April zy, 1867, he
united in marriage with Miss Eulalia Raroux,
a native of Paris, France, and daughter of
Frank and Mary (Guay) Raroux, who were
also born and reared in France. In 1S65 the
father came to America and the mother and
children followed in 1866. They lived at
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, the father engaged
in mining, until 1883, when they came to Colo-
rado and took up their residence on a ranch
near the one occupied by Mr. Bourg, a prop-
erty now owned by Thomas Gannon. In 1898
they sold their ranch and moved to Youngs-
town. Ohio, where the mother died in 1899.
and the father is now living. In politics, while
living in this state, he was a Populist. They
had sixteen children, only two of whom are
living. Mr. and Mrs. Bourg have had thir-
teen children, twelve of whom are living and
one dead, Anthony. The living are Frank B..
of Seattle; Nettie A. (Mrs. True Smith, of
this county); Louis. I'rsule. Lilly O.. Paul.
Eulalia, Victor, Alexander, Eliza D.. Mamie
L. and Evangeline. Their mother died on De-
cember 9, M)(>.v aged about fifty-five years.
MICHAEL ASKINS.
For a period of twenty years Michael As-
kins has been a resident of Colorado, and dur-
ing the whole of that time, up to the full
measure of his capacities and opportunities,
lie has contributed to the growth and develop-
ment of the state and the expansion of its in-
dustries. He was born in Ireland in 1833.
the son of Edward and Katharine Askins, also
natives of Ireland, where their forefathers had
lived for mam generations, and where the fa-
ther was actively and profitably engaged in the
shipping trade, lie and his wife were mem-
bers of the Catholic church, and both died
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
**3
sarrie years ago, leaving five of their eight
children to survive them, the father's death oc-
curring in 1881 and the mother's in 1897.
Their son Michael attended the common
schools of his native land at intervals until
he reached the age of fourteen, then began to
help his father in his shipping business, in
which he was employed eight years. At the
age of twenty-two he went to Scotland, and
during the next five months worked at rail-
roading at a compensation of fourteen shillings
a week. In 1863 he came to the United
States and located at Scranton, Pennsylvania,
where he engaged in coal mining. Six months
later he moved to Schuylkill county, and two
years afterward to Northumberland, where he
was still employed in coal mining, and he con-
tinued this line of useful activity at Welch-
berry until 1872. In that year he moved to
Illinois, locating at Fairbury in Livingston
county. Six months afterward he moved to
La Salle county, where he remained ten years.
In 1884 he came to Colorado and took up his
present ranch, a homestead claim of one hun-
dred and sixty-four acres, one hundred acres
of which he has under cultivation, producing
hay. grain and other farm products, and rais-
ing cattle and horses. The business is pros-
perous and the profits are increasing, and Mr.
Askins is regarded as one of the successful and
up-to-date farmers of the county. He is a
member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians
and the Order of Wolf Tones, and belongs to
the Republican party. In July, 1866, he united
in marriage with Miss Katharine O'Garra, a
native of Ireland, daughter of Patrick and
Maty O'Garra, also native there. Her father
was a merchant and farmer and both parents
were members of the Catholic church. They
died sometime in the 'sixties. Mr. and this
Mrs. Askins had eight children, but five of
whom are living, Katharine, Margaret, Patrick,
Sarah and Anna. Their mother died in No-
vember, 1885, and on November 10, 1897, the
father married a second wife, Mrs. Rebecca
(Davidson) Brown, a native of Ontario. Can-
ada, and daughter of John D. and Mary
(Quick) Davidson, who were born and reared
in Scotland. The father was a shoemaker and
farmer, and he and his wife were Wesleyan
Methodists. She died in 1863 and he in 1884.
Six of their eleven children are living, Rose,
John, Isaac, James, Rebecca (Mrs. Askins)
and Alice, all respected and honored citizens.
LOUIS BOURG.
The third in order of the living children
of Benedict and Eulalia (Raroux) Bourg, a
sketch of whom will be found elsewhere in this
work, and himself a progressive and prosper-
ous ranchman of Pitkin county, the subject of
this sketch was born in Mercer county, Penn-
sylvania, on January 17. 187 1, and when he
was nine years old accompanied his parents
to Colorado. He remained at home with the
family through its wanderings until 1902, se-
curing in his boyhood and youth a good com-
mon-school education, and assisting his father
as soon as he was able in the work in which he
was engaged. In 1902 lie leased a ranch of
True Smith, his brother-in-law, a sketch of
whom is also in this volume, and after operat-
ing it for a time, purchased one of his own
comprising one hundred and sixty acres of ex-
cellent land, and also homesteaded eighty acres
adjoining, on which he raises good crops of
hay, grain and vegetables, and carries on a
thriving and expanding cattle industry. It is
high praise, but just, to say that he is a worthy
follower in industry, thrift and public spirit
of his father's notable example, and is re-
garded as one of the most promising and ca-
pable young men engaged in agricultural pur-
suits in the county. He takes an earnest in-
terest in every commendable enterprise for the
214
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
benefit of his community and county, aiding to
direct public sentiment along lines of whole-
some and profitable development and giving
substantial support where that is needed. In
political affiliation he is a Populist, but does
not let his party zeal overbear his genuine de-
sire for the promotion of every good element
of progress. In business he is energetic, capa-
ble and successful; in social life companionable
and entertaining; and in reference to public
affairs broad in views and determined and
forceful in action. No young man in the county
stands higher in the general regard of the
people, and none deserves a higher place.
JERRY GERBAZ.
Born in sunny Italy on September 20.
[864, Jerry Gerbaz is far from the scenes and
associations of his nativity ; and reared to hab-
its of industry and thrift on his father's farm,
he came to Colorado well prepared for the life
of peaceful labor and prosperity he has here
found in the same line of active effort. His
parents, Clement and Felicity (Letey) Gerbaz,
were also Italians by birth, and both belonged
to families long resident in that historic coun-
try. They were prosperous farmers and had
a family of twelve children, five of whom
they reared to maturity, and all are living.
The} are Clement, Oyen, Jerry, Victorine and
Felicity. Jerry received a slender education in
the common schools of his native land, and at
the age of fifteen took his place regularly as a
hand on his father's farm. He remained home
until he was nearly twenty-eight, then, heark-
ening to the voice of America pleading for
volunteers to come and help conquer her wil-
derness and make it fragrant with the bloom
and fruitful with the products of cultivated
life, he came to this country in [892. Locat-
ing at Detroit, he wrought diligently in a ^'la^s
factory fur a period of four years in order to
get a sum of ready money wherewith to put
into effect his cherished design of becoming a
ranchman and stock-breeder in the farther
West. In 1896 he came to Colorado for this
purpose, and purchasing the excellent ranch of
three hundred and forty acres in the neighbor-
hood of Watson, Pitkin county, he began at
once to devote himself to the practical reali-
zation of his hopes. He has improved his
ranch with substantial and comfortable build-
ings, equipped it with all the necessary appli-
ances for its proper management, and brought
a body of one hundred and fifty acres of it to
an advanced state of cultivation, producing
on it a goodly quantity of grain and large re-
sults in hay and cattle, also some horses.
Earnestly devoted to the welfare and lasting
good of his adopted land, he is zealous and
energetic in his support of all commendable
enterprises for the benefit of his county and sec-
tion, and performs all the duties of good citi-
zenship with fidelity and manliness. In politi-
cal action he favors the Democratic party, and
in religious affiliation he and his wife belong to
the Catholic church. On March 24, 1892, he
was united in marriage with Miss Cecilia Cuaz,
a native of the same country as himself, and
daughter of Baptist and Felicity (Net) Cuaz.
also native there, where the father is profitably
engaged in farming. They were the parents
of eleven children, ten of whom are living,
Peter. Alexander, Jerry. Anthony, Victorine,
Ciserine, Lottie. Mary and Cecilia. Mr. and
Mrs. Gerbaz have had five children. One son
named Oman died in 1903. The four who are
living are Auzel, Esther, Alice and Orist. Mr.
Gerbaz is one of the most progressive and suc-
cessful ranchmen in the portion of the county
in which he lives, and one of its most respected
and useful citizens. The mother of Mrs. Ger-
baz died on June it. 1003. and was mourned
by a large circle of admiring and devoted
friends.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
ELBERT H. GRAY.
Elbert H. Gray, a progressive and success-
ful ranch and cattle man of Eagle county, liv-
ing in the vicinity of Basalt, is a native of New
Jersey, born in Morris county on August 6,
1852, and the son of George and Sarah (Cor-.
win) Gray, natives of the same state. The
father was a millwright and wrought at his
trade with industry and profit. He supported
the Democratic party in national politics, and
was a well esteemed man in his home neighbor-
hood. Six children were born in the family,
Elbert, Theodore' T., Annie E., Frederick,
George E. and Joseph, all residents of New-
Jersey except the first born. The parents be-
long to the Methodist church and are promi-
nent in its works of benevolence and also in
local social circles. The oldest child, the sub-
ject of this review, on completing his edu-
cation in the public schools, learned his father's
trade under the instruction of that estimable
gentleman, spending three years in his ap-
prenticeship. He then engaged in farming in-
dependently in his native county, and continued
this line of industry until 1881. when he came
to this state and located at Longmont in Boul-
der county. Here he passed four years work-
ing on ranches for wages, during which time
he spent six months attending the State Agri-
cultural College at Fort Collins. After leav-
ing this institution in 1S85 he came to the
vicinity of Aspen and worked on the ranch of
G. W. Gillespie a year for wages, then bought
a ranch for himself at Emma, which he farmed
two years, then sold it at a profit. He re-
mained in the neighborhood, however, and
during the next two years conducted the af-
fairs of a ranch which he rented. He then
gave up farming and turned his attention to
merchandising, acting as clerk seven years for
C. H. Mather. At the end of that period he
came to his present location and purchased
the ranch of two hundred acres on which he
now lives, and of which one hundred and
seventy-five acres are under cultivation, pro-
ducing good returns for his labors in hay,
grain, vegetables, cattle and horses. He be-
longs to the Odd Fellows, and the Woodmen
of the World in fraternal life, and in political
allegiance is a firm and loyal Democrat. On
May 15, 1887, he was married to Miss Anna
E. Gillespie, a native of Kansas, and daughter
of George W. and Belle (Hull) Gillespie, who
were born and reared in Kentucky and moved
from there to Kansas in early life, coming soon
afterward to this state where the father fol-
lowed mining instead of farming as he had
done in former residences. He supports the
Democratic party in politics and he and his
wife belong to the Christian church. They
had a family of four children, Cora, wife of
William Tennis, of Aspen; Annie (Mrs.
Gray), now deceased; Ollie. wife of Peter Mc-
Cave, of Aspen, and Gertrude, wife of Frank
Allen, of Wyoming. The parents of this Mrs.
Gray reside at Boulder. In the Gray house-
hold three children were born of the first mar-
riage, Ernest, Harold and Beulah. Their
mother died on May 31, 1898, and on May 20,
1902. Mr. Gray married with Mrs. William
(Scott) Tierney, a widow with five children,
Bertha, Gladys, Mabel, William and James.
The second Mrs. Gray is the daughter of
Timothy E. and Isabella (Birthwick), Scott,
and was born near Boston, Massachusetts. Her
parents live at Halifax, Nova Scotia, and are
engaged in farming. The father supports the
Liberal party in Canadian politics, and both
belong to the Methodist church. Seven of their
nine children are living, Mrs. Gray, Ida I Mrs.
Daniel Greenmyer), of Kansas City. Mis-
souri; Jennie (Mrs. Elmer Shryock), of Chi-
cago; Eliza 1 Mrs. John Ridington), of New
Mexico ; Alexander, of the Woody Creek vi-
cinity, this state: Martin, of the same vicinity.
2l6
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
and Walter, living in British Columbia. Mrs.
Gray's first husband, William Tierney, was
born at Toronto, Canada, in 1850, and died in
Colorado on April 18, 1897. Both of his par-
ents died when he was but a small boy, and he
was obliged to begin the battle of life for him-
self at an early age. He became a sailor and
followed the sea for a number of years, visit-
ing many lands but confining his voyages
mostly to places on the Atlantic and Pacific
coasts of this country. When he quit the sea
he went to Alaska, British Columbia, Cali-
fornia. Arizona and South Dakota in search of
gold. In 1879 he came to Colorado and lo-
cated at Leadville in time to have the benefit
of the boom at that place in its early days. In
1883 he moved to Independence and became
assayer and amalgamator in the mills of the
Farewell Consolidated Mining Company.
From 1884 to 1890 he lived in the neighbor-
hood of Woody, where he devoted his time to
ranching and raising stock. In December.
1890, he took up his .residence at Basalt and
started a mercantile business, a line of com-
mercial activity of which he was the father in
that locality. His success was unusually good
and he became the most prominent man in that
section of the state. He was energetic in every
good cause for the promotion of its interests,
and in its fraternal and social life was a recog-
nized leader, being an active member of the
Odd Fellows lodge, the only fraternal or-
ganization in the region in those days. On
February to, 1881. his marriage to Mrs. Gray
occurred. He died on April 18, 1897.
FRANK JOSEPH EBLER.
This enterprising and progressive Aspen
merchant, ranchman and cattle-grower, who
owns a fine ranch of six hundred and forty
acres of excellent land in Rio Blanco county,
is a native of Karlsruhe, Baden. Germany,
where he was horn on March 24, 1863, an d tne
son of Frank Joseph and Philippine (Yeager)
Ebler, both of the same nativity as himself.
In his early manhood the father was a passen-
ger conductor on a railroad, and in later life
was engaged in a profitable transfer business.
His success was moderate but steady through
life. He and his wife were devout Catholics
in religion, and had good standing in their
community. The father died in February,
1867, and the mother in June, 1872. Of their
six children, William, Man,- and Annie have
died, and Adolph, of Altoona, Pennsylvania,
Julius, of Newark, New Jersey, and Frank J.,
of Aspen, Colorado, are living. The last
named, of whom this sketch is written, at-
tended the public schools until he reached the
age of fourteen, then began to learn cabinet-
making. After completing his apprenticeship
he worked at the trade two years and a half in
his native land, then came to the United States
and located in New York city, where he
served as janitor in a large building two years.
After passing another year selling oysters and
liquors, he sold out his business and came to
Colorado in 1882. He settled at Leadville and
secured profitable employment as a carpenter
and timberman in the mines. In April, 1883,
he met with an accident there which disabled
him for a year, and when he was able to work
again, he, in company with George Gilmore
and George O. Rise, conducted a toll road in
Pitkin county, remaining connected with this
enterprise until the spring of 1885, when he
disposed of his interest, and during the next
two years worked for the parties he sold it to.
Tn 1887 he took up a pre-emption claim of one
hundred and sixty acres in Rio Blanco county,
and has since added by purchase to his land
until he has an entire section, six hundred and
fort) acres, in the vicinity of White river. On
this he carries on an extensive cattle industry
and raises large quantities of hay, grain and
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
other farm products. In 1893 he opened a
grocery and meat market at Aspen, in which
he has built up a large and profitable trade, be-
ing successful in this venture as he has in all
others. It is not only the oldest business in
this line in Aspen, but is also the most exten-
sive and is widely and popularly known as the
Blue Front Market. He belongs to the Wood-
men of the World and the Fraternal Union,
and is a charter member of the lodge of United
Workmen at Aspen. In politics he is an earn-
est and active Democrat. On April jo, 1889,
he united in marriage with Miss Belle Benson,
a native of Sweden, and daughter of John and
Anna (Germanson) Benson, also Swedes by
birth, who in their life were farmers in their
native land. The father died on September
12. 1880, and the mother on October 4, 1903.
They had five children, Mary, John, Christina,
Ingrad and Belle. Mr. and Mrs. Ebler have
four children, Frank A., Frederick J., Philip-
pine and Geneva.
JOHN D. STERNER.
Beginning life for himself at the age of ten
by working hard as a common laborer in the
copper mines of Michigan, yet performing his
daily duties with fidelity and skill, John D.
Sterner, of Aspen, this state, learned early the
lessons of self-reliance and the use of all his
faculties in promoting his own interests, les-
sons which have been of great value to him in
all of his subsequent career. He was born on
November 9, 1854, in Keweenaw county,
Michigan, where his parents, John and Bar-
bara (Ennis) Sterner, natives of Germany,
settled soon after their marriage. The father
was a skilled mechanic and helped to build the
International Canal at Sault Ste. Marie. The
family lived four years in Wisconsin, and the
rest of the time the parents were residents of
Michigan until their deaths, that of the father
occurring on July 5, 1880. and that of the
mother in 1890. The former was a Catholic
in religion and a Democrat in politics. The
mother was a Presbyterian. Annie, one of
their seven children, is deceased. The other
six are living, John D. ; Lizzie, wife of Anthony
Watzling, of California; Mary, wife of Charles
Paul, of Aspen, Colorado; Anthony and Annie,
living in Routt county, this state ; and Frances,
wife of Thomas Garlan. of Aspen. The oldest
of these, John D., attended the public schools
of Michigan until he was ten years old, then
went to work in the copper mines as a com-
mon laborer, remaining there and so employed
until he was seventeen. He then became fore-
man of the mine in which he was working,
and continued in the position six years. In
1877 he came to Colorado and located at
Georgetown, where he mined for wages three
vears. In 1880 he moved to Breckenridge,
and there conducted a hotel and saloon during
the next five years, but met with very little suc-
cess in the business. On February 10, 1885, he
arrived at Aspen, and in that region he fol-
lowed mining until 1800, when he purchased
his present ranch, or a portion of it, increasing
it by later purchases to three hundred and sixty
acres. On this he raises hay and cattle ex-
tensively, and some grain and horses. He also
conducts the largest dairy in the county, and
in all his undertakings he is very progressive
and enterprising. He has a good citizen's in-
terest in the welfare of the community, but in
politics he is independent of party control. On
April 15, toot, he united in marriage with
Mrs. Florence (Lockwood) Corbett. a native
of Jewell county, Kansas, and daughter of
Henry and Sarah Lockwood, the father a na-
tive of New Jersey and the mother of Ohio.
The father was a prominent and successful
bridge builder for many years, but is now liv-
ing retired. The mother is a member of the
Methodist church. They are the parents of
2l8
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
three children, Lillian, the wife of Norman
Rice, of Aspen ; Mrs. Sterner : and Edna, the
wife of Herman Klann, of Springfield, Mis-
souri. Mrs. Sterner has three children by her
former marriage. Flora, Mark and Fay, the
last named the wife of Albert Cox, of Du-
rango, this state. Mrs. Sterner is a Christian
Scientist. Both she and her husband are
much esteemed in Pitkin county, and are rec-
ognized as among its best citizens.
JOSEPH D.,NEWMAN.
One of the leading mine superintendents of
Colorado, and an acknowledged authority on
all subjects connected with the industry in
which he is engaged, Joseph D. Newman, of
Aspen, occupies a high place in the confidence
and regard of the people and has been of great
service in developing the mining resources of
the state. He was born in Scioto county, Ohio,
on March 16, 1857, the son of David and Mary
(Dever) Newman, who settled in that state in
early life. The father devoted his earlier years
to the hotel business, but later became and re-
mained a farmer. He was an ardent Democrat
in political faith, and served as a justice of the
peace for a period of twenty years. He and
his wife were members of the Methodist
church. They were the parents of six children,
only three of whom are living, Newton, who
lives at Canton, Ohio, and is connected with
the American Bridge Company ; Lena, also liv-
ing at Canton, Ohio; and the subject of these
paragraphs. Both parents are now deceased.
Joseph received only a limited common school
education, beginning work as a farm hand in
order to earn his own living at the age of
seventeen. Afterward he served as clerk in a
store at Burlington Junction. Missouri, for a
time, and in the spring of 1880 came to Colo-
rado and settled at Leadville. Here he was oc-
cupied for awhile in mining, then became con-
nected with the Denver & Rio Grande Express
Company, in whose employ he remained until
1882. The next two years were passed in
Montana, Idaho and Utah in various occupa-
tions, and on his return to Colorado in 1884 he
located a pre-emption claim at Debeque, near
Grand Junction. He remained there two years.
and in those days venison was the only meat
procurable in the section. After improving
this ranch he sold it at a good profit in 1900.
Prior to this, however, he had come to Aspen
in 1886 and purchased another one of two hun-
dred acres in Eagle county, two miles and a
half south of the town of Eagle. All the land
in this ranch is naturally tillable, and on it Mr.
Newman raises large crops of hay and num-
bers of excellent cattle. Since 1888 he has
been connected with the Durant Mining Com-
pany, beginning in its employ as a miner and
rising on demonstrated merit to the position
of superintendent, a position he has held for
twelve years and in which he has exhibited
unusual capacity and intelligence. He is mas-
ter of every phase of his business and an ac-
knowledged authority on all matters involved
in the mining industry. Aside from his busi-
ness he enjoys the regard and confidence of
the people because of his enterprise and breadth
of view in promoting the welfare of the com-
munity and his engaging social qualities. In
fraternal relations he is an enthusiastic mem-
ber of the order of Elks. On September 28.
T883, he united in marriage with Miss Emma
Odd, a native of London, England, the daugh-
ter of Charles and Margaret Odd, who were
also natives of that country. On emigrating
to the LJnited States they located at Ogden.
Utah, hut for a number of years they lived at
Salt Lake City. They were loyal members of
the Mormon church, and the parents of ten
children, six of whom survive them: Eliza,
wife of Charles Robinson, of Blackfoot. Idaho;
Alice, wife of Tohn Mitchell, of Boise. Idaho;
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
219
Ellen, wife of Alfred Williams, of Salt Lake
City; Ada, living at Eureka, Utah; Charles,
living near Salt Lake City; and Mrs. Newman,
of Aspen, this state. The mother died on Janu-
ary 13, 1875, and the father is also deceased.
In political matters Mr. Newman is altogether
independent of party control, but he takes an
active and intelligent interest in all public
affairs.
SAMUEL CRAMER.
A soldier in the Civil war. a farmer in Iowa,
a pioneer in Colorado, and here a miner, a
ranchman and a valued public official. Samuel
Cramer, of near Basalt, Garfield county, lias
borne the duties of citizenship with fidelity
and courage however the line of life have
fallen for him, and is justly entitled to the
esteem and regard in which he is held by his
fellow men. He is a native of Linn county,
Iowa, born on April 28, 1847, an ^ the son of
Solomon and Mar}- A. (Billiter) Cramer, the
father born in Pennsylvania and the mother in
North Carolina. They settled at Muscatine,
Iowa, in 1840, and in 1843 moved to West
Libert}-, Linn county, the same state. The fa-
ther was a blacksmith and for many years
wrought industriously at his trade. The later
years of his life were devoted to farming with
good returns for his labor. He was a Repub-
lican in politics, and both he and his wife were
Methodists in church connection. He died on
April 10, 1863. and his widow on February
15. 1887. Two of their nine children died in
infancy and five in later life. The other two
are living: Samuel, of this review; Matilda,
wife of William Kester, of Pagosa Springs,
Colorado, whose husband is an architect and
builder. Samuel attended the public schools
and Western College in his native county. In
the Civil war he was a member of Company F.
Sixteenth Iowa Infantry, and served one year,
being- mustered out honorablv at Louisville.
Kentucky. He remained with his parents and
assisted them in the work on the farm until
he reached the age of twenty-two, then en-
gaged in farming for himself in the same
county for ten years. In 1880 he came to Col-
orado, and for six months mined and pros-
pected in Chaffee county. From there he
moved to Pitkin county and on April 7, 1881.
located a ranch at the mouth of Sopris creek,
later selling his right to the claim of one hun-
dred and sixty acres at a profit. He was a
pioneer in that section and in 1882 built a
half-way house where Emma now* stands, be-
tween Aspen and Glenwood. He then contin-
ued prospecting and mining until 1884, and
during the next three years served as county
commissioner, elected on the Republican ticket.
At the end of his term he located a part of the
ranch he now owns and afterward bought one
hundred and fifty-five acres additional and sold
one hundred and fifty. The place is near Ba-
salt on the line between Garfield and Pitkin
counties, along the Roaring Fork river. From
1888 to 1893 he was also engaged in the com-
mission business, but now devotes his entire
time to ranching. One hundred acres of his
land can lie easily cultivated and produces
abundant crops of hay. grain and vegetables.
Cattle and horses are also raised in good num-
bers and superior grades. He belongs to the
United Workmen and the Grand Army of the
Republic. On January 5, 1870. he united in
marriage with Miss Amerzette Ammerman.
who was horn in Linn count} - . Iowa, and is
the daughter of Stephen and Martha Ammer-
man. natives of Indiana. The father was a
wagonmaker and followed his craft success-
fully in Iowa. He was a Republican in poli
tics and a man of local prominence in his
county. He died in 1865. Two children were
born to Mr. Cramer's first marriage. Frank
and Maud, who live in Iowa. Mr. Cramer's
second marriage occurred on November 5.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
1893, and was with Airs. Lutie R. (Gardner)
Binning, a native of New York and reared in
Jackson count}'. Michigan, and the daughter
of William and Catherine (Tumor) Gardner,
the former a native of Massachusetts and the
latter of Wales. They passed their earlier
days in New York state, but for a long time
have been living and farming in Michigan.
The father is a Democrat and both parents are
members of the Methodist church. Four of
their six children are living: Jennie, wife of
Harry Graham, of Buffalo, New York; Cora,
wife of William McCay, of Jackson, Michigan ;
Mrs. Cramer, and Earl, residing in Jackson
county, Michigan. By her first marriage Mrs.
Cramer had three children. Albert died on
February 15, 1897, a "d Ernest and Richard
survive their father, who passed away on Au-
gust 21, 1889. The marriage took place on
November 21, 1878. Mr. and Mrs. Cramer
are the parents of one child, Clementine Alice,
who is in her ninth year.
FREDERICK A. NAEFE.
In the case of the interesting subject of
this brief review the natural thrift and persist-
ency of effort of the German has been stimu-
lated and quickened by the vivacity and rush
of American conditions to a largely increased
activity and productiveness, so that he has not
only won a substantial competence for life for
himself on the soil of this country, but has
exhibited the attributes of its best citizenship
and an elevated patriotism in love for its insti-
tutions and honest energy and intelligent appli-
cation in promoting its welfare in every com-
mendable way. He is a native of Saxony,
( iermany, where he was born on October 6,
1831, and the son of Frederick W. and Chris-
tina (Rudolph) Naefe, also natives of the fa-
therland. His father was a skillful weaver of
fabrics, and had an interest in a factorv de-
voted to the business in which he was engaged.
He and his wife were Lutherans in church rela-
tions, and they had a family of twelve children,
five of whom are living, Carl and Augusta,
who are residents of Germany, and Julia, Her-
man and Frederick A., who live in this country.
The mother died in 1863 in Germany and the
father in 1862, at Elmira, New York, where
he had been living for a number of years.
Their son Frederick received a common and
high school education in his native land, but at
the age of ten years began to learn the business
of weaving under instruction from his father.
He continued at this work until 1846, then be-
gan patenting devices for its improvement.
Three years were passed in this occupation,
then in 1849 ne joined an uprising against the
king of his native country, which lasted six
days. At its close he took refuge in Russia,
where he remained until the storm blew over,
then he returned to his home. In 1850 he
came to the United States and located at Buf-
falo, New York. Two years later he moved
to Elmira, the same state, and in the fall of
the year went to Panama, where he remained
until January, 1855. employed in painting rail-
road engines and cars. He was a painter of
artistic merit, and his work was in great de-
mand and well paid for. In 1855 he returned
to England on a visit, and while there was im-
pressed into the English army for a year and
a half. In 1856 he came back to this country
and took up his residence at Elmira. New
York, from where he removed soon afterward
to Hamilton, Canada. There he became a
boss painter in large works, but being enam-
ored of New York, he returned to that state
and remained until i860, when he once more
went to Canada. At the beginning of the
Civil war he enlisted in defense of the Union
in the Twenty-third New York Infantry, and
in this regiment he served to the close of the
memorable contest. Returning to Elmira, he
PROGRESSIVE MEN OP WESTERN COLORADO.
again took up painting as an occupation, and
conducted the business successfully in that city
until 1869. He then moved to Newark, New
Jersey, where he remained until 1874. when
he came to Colorado and settled at Denver.
Ten years were passed in that growing and
enterprising city, then after wintering in 1884-
5 at Grand Junction, he moved in the spring
to Aspen. In 1886 he located a ranch near
Emma, on which he has since lived and which
he has converted into a very valuable and pro
ductive fruit farm. Here he raises fruit of all
kinds, large and small, in great quantities ami
of superior quality, his output having so good
a reputation in the markets that his place is
known far and wide as the Pioneer Fruit, Bee
and Honey Farm. He has not. however, been
wholly absorbed in his own affairs, exacting as
they have been, but has given active and serv-
iceable attention to local public matters, being
the oldest justice of the peace and humane so-
ciety officer on the Western slope by continu-
ous service. He is an earnest and loyal Demo-
crat in politics, and in fraternal circles belongs
to the Knights of Pythias, in which he holds
the rank of past chancellor, and the Order of
Odd Fellows, being a past grand in the latter
order. In January, i860, he united in marriage
with Miss Caroline Beck, a native of Pennsyl-
vania, and the daughter of Henry and Ro-
sanna (Scherer) Beck. Her father was a na-
tive of Baden and her mother of Wurtemberg.
Germany. He died in 1852 and she in 1898.
Mr. and Mrs. Naefe have had three children,
but only one. August Frederick, Jr.. is living.
The two who have died were Annie and Julia.
The parents are members of the Christian
church, and are active in all its good works.
GEORGE W. KING.
George W. King, of near Basalt. Garfield
county, was born on January n, 1854. at
Huntsville, Alabama, ami grew to maturity
there with his young life overshadowed by the
momentous issues of the Civil war. He is the
son of Joseph and Sarah J. (Johnson) King,
who remained in Alabama until 1885, then
moved to Arkansas, and later on to Texas.
The father was a physician and farmer, and
met with fair success in both lines of useful-
ness. He was an active Democrat in politics
and a Freemason and an Odd Fellow in fra-
ternal relations. Both he and his wife were
Methodists. The mother died on February 5,
1890, and he on February 5. 1899. Seven of
their ten children survive them: John
H., of Dallas, Texas; James E., of
Greer county. Oklahoma; William H., of
Mt. Vernon, Missouri; Joseph H. and Clara 1..
(Mrs. E. H. Curtis), both of Dallas; George
W., of Garfield county: Mattie. wife of John
S. Routt, of Fannin county. Texas : and Le-
( Ionia, of Basalt, this state. George W. King
is a self-made man. He attended school very
little, being obliged at an early age to aid his
parents on the home farm, which he did until
he was twenty years old. He then rented a
farm for himself and worked it two years.
In 1877 he located in Washington county.
Texas, where he was given the entire manage-
ment of a large plantation in the interest of
John S. Smith, who was an extensive cotton-
grower. In 1878 he moved into Indian Ter-
ritory, and soon afterward into Law-rence
county, Missouri, where he farmed until 1879.
He then started across the plains to Colorado
with mule teams, and after his arrival in this
state he freighted until 1880, then traded his
outfit for cattle, and while developing his stock-
industry worked as a ranch hand for W. H.
Berry at the head of Current creek, remaining
in his service until June, 1882. when he formed
a partnership with Sterling P. Sloss (see
sketch on another page) under the firm name
of King & Sloss, and started a dairy business
that they continued until October of that year.
At that time Mr. King moved to South Park
PROGRESSIVE MEN OP WESTERN COLORADO.
and later to Pueblo, devoting the greater part
of his time to painting. He next located at
Ashcroft, where he conducted a dairy until
October 6, 1883. From there he moved to
Aspen and continued his dairy business at that
point until the summer of 1884. Disposing of
his interest to his partner, in June of the same
year he purchased a ranch on Sopris creek and
was occupied in ranching and raising cattle
until November, 1900, on this place. He sold
it at that time and moved to the one be now
occupies, which he bought on October 23. 1902.
This ranch is near Basalt and comprises one
hundred and fifty acres, and on it crops of hay,
potatoes, corn and other grain are successfully
raised, but cattle are the chief product and main
source of profit. The ranch is conceded to
be one of the best in the region, and his man-
agement of it is first class. He belongs to the
Woodmen of the World and the Odd Fellows,
and in political affiliation is an unwavering
Democrat. On November 5, 1882, he mar-
ried Miss Sophronia M. Martin, a native of
Marshall county, Alabama, and daughter of
Asbury and Martha (Pogue) Martin, who
were born and reared in Georgia and moved to
Alabama soon after their marriage. The
father was a planter, and in the Civil war gave
his life in defense of his convictions, being
killed in the Confederate army in 1863. He
was an earnest and zealous working Democrat
and prominent in the councils of his party in
his section. Five children were born to them,
all of whom are living: James H. resides in
Pitkin county, this state, on Sopris creek;
William T. on Frying Pan creek, Fagle
county; Emanuel C. at Santa Ana. California;
Mrs. King in Garfield county; Josephine, wife
■ >f W. H. Barker, at Fruita, Mesa county; and
her mother lives with her there. Mr. and
Mrs. King have had six children. Everett
died on October 31, 1897, and Geneva, Joseph
S.. Sallie, Ella and Lizzie B. are living. The
parents are members of the Methodist church.
Being prosperous in their business, well es-
teemed by the people around them, and in full
view of the progress and development of the
state, they are well pleased with Colorado, and
loyal to its interests in every way.
CHARLES DAVIS.
Born on April 10. [848, in Howard county,
then on the edge of civilization, and afterward
living in the wilds of Kansas until be reached
the age of fifteen, when he came overland to
Colorado, Charles Davis, of Pitkin county,
«ine of the progressive and successful ranch
and stock men living in the neighborhood of
Emma, lias passed the whole of his life on the
frontier, and is thoroughly inured to its priva-
tions, hardships, dangers and achievements,
the graver part of which have passed away
forever, but linger in bis memory vividly as
portions of bis personal experience, when at
almost every step there lurked a peril for the
adventurous pioneer, and his own resources
were nearly his whole reliance for safetv and
the means of living. His parents, Sylvester
and Louisa (Pulliam) Davis, were natives, re-
spectively, of Kentucky and Missouri. The
father moved to the latter state in his early life
and remained there until 1854, when he took
up his residence in Kansas, where the family
lived until 1863. In that year thev came to
Colorado and began farming near Colorado
Springs, being fairly successful in their work.
The mother was a Baptist and died in the com-
munion of the church on April 24, 1895. The
father was an active Democrat in politics dur-
ing bis life, and took an earnest interest in
the welfare of his party. He died on April 25,
[899. Of their twelve children five are living.
Frankie, the wife of Robert Gaddis, of Delta,
Colorado; Charles, the immediate subject of
this sketch ; Wade, livine at Trinidad, this
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
223
state; Laruah, the wife of John Gibbons, of
Canon City; and Annie, living at Canon City.
Charles received a slender common school edu-
cation, and at the age of fifteen accompanied
the rest of the family to Colorado, making the
trip overland from Kansas to Denver. Seven
weeks were consumed in the journey, and it
was fraught with hardships and dangers. Hos-
tile Indians disputed the advance of the train
and engaged the party in frequent skirmishes ;
wild beasts harassed and threatened them ;
wood was limited in quantity and variety ; and
the way was rugged at best and many times
for weary miles was unbroken. But they kept
their courage up and persevered, landing at
last in the rude village of uncanny log cabins
which was destined to become the metropolis
of the state. After his arrival here, boy
though he was, Mr. Davis engaged in driving
a freight team, and received a compensation
of sixty dollars a month and his board fur his
work. He made seven trips across the plains
with this team, two trips a year being the av-
erage accomplishment, and in the intervals be-
tween the journeys he did other work. From
1868 to 1875 he was employed in teaming and
driving cattle, with headquarters in the Black
Hills of South Dakota. The next three years
were passed in freighting on his own account,
and in them he had many more Indian troubles
and other perils. In 1878 he moved to Lead-
ville, this state, and some little time afterward
to Denver. Here he was again occupied in
driving cattle and later in railroad work as
foreman for I. W. Chatfield. In the autumn
of 1879 he returned to Leadville. and there he
opened a feed store and carried on a freighting
business. In both he had excellent success, but
in the midst of it he was stricken down with
rheumatism which disabled him fur active work
fi ir a period of two years. When he recovered
his health he once more drove cattle, remaining
in this business until 1884, when he moved to
Aspen, where he passed the rest of that year
and the winter of 1885. Beginning in the
spring of 1885, he spent three years driving
cattle for Mr. Chatfield in Bent county. In the
fall of 1888 he bought a ranch of one hundred
and forty-one acres in the vicinity of Emma,
Pitkin county, and at once began to improve
and develop it and make it productive. He has
now one hundred acres of it under cultivation,
and raises good crops of hay. grain, vegetables
and fruit, and also numbers of cattle and
horses. He belongs to the Democratic
party in political affiliation, and gives to the
support of its principles and candidates his
best efforts. On March "4, [888, he was mar-
ried to Miss Gladdis I. Nutting, a native of
Linn county, Iowa, the daughter of Eugene
and Sarah ( Burtis ) Nutting, natives, re-
spectively, of New York and New Jersey.
They settled in Iowa in early life and the father
passed the remainder of his days there in peace-
ful and prosperous farming. Both he and his
wife were members of the Baptist church, and
in political faith he was a Republican. He died
on March 6, 1898, leaving his widow and five
nf their eight children as his survivors. The
living children are : Burtis. who lives at Delta,
Colorado ; Charles, who lives in Pitkin county ;
Harry E., who lives at Littleton; Drusilla B.,
who lives at Leadville; and Rupert E., who
lives at Littleton. Their mother lives at Canon
City. The father was a member of the An-
cient Order of United Workmen. Mr. and
Mrs. Davis have five children living, Lona,
Irena. Sylvester. Thelma and Merrick. A
daughter named Madg-e died some years ago.
OTTO METZGER.
Otto Metzger was born in Wurtemberg,
Germany, on March 24. 1851. He was edu-
cated at the state schools and a polytechnic in-
stitute, and after leaving school he learned the
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
trade of a blacksmith, at which he wrought
until he was eighteen years old. He then came
to the United States and located in Madison
county, Illinois, where for a time he worked in
a brewery. He afterwards became owner of
the plant and also of one at St. Louis, Missouri,
and these he operated until 1880. In that year,
he came to Colorado and turned his attention
to brewing at Leadville, where he remained
until 1885, at which time he located his present
home, pre-empting one hundred and sixty acres
of land and at once starting the improvements
which it now contains. He has added to his
domain until his ranch comprises four hun-
dred and forty acres, of which two hundred
and sixty acres can be cultivated. His general
ranching yields good results, but his main in-
dustry is raising cattle, which he produces in
numbers and of good quality. He has been
successful in his undertakings and ranks
among the leading and most progressive ranch-
men in his neighborhood, and lie is well es-
teemed throughout the community for his
manhood, his enterprise and his faithful atten-
tion to all the duties of citizenship. Politically
he supports the principles of the Democratic
party, yet, while taking an active interest in its
welfare, he is devoted to the advancement and
development of the section in which he lives
without regard to party considerations. His
parents were John and Caroline ( Kicherer)
Metzger, natives of Germany, where the father
was a successful and well-to-do manufacturer
in iron, owning a plant of his own. He also
was occupied in farming and milling. Both
parents were members of the Episcopal church.
The father died in March. 1874, and the
mother in the spring of 1885. They had eleven
children, of whom nine are living. Charles.
Gottlieb, Robert. Otto. Frederick, Mary,
Amelia, Elise and Emma. On March 13
1877. Mr. Metzger united in marriage with
Miss Bertha Mever. a native of St. Louis,
Missouri. They have had thirteen children.
One died in infancy and the others are living :
Emma, wife of John Marshall; Rosa, wife of
Joseph Baldauf; Gertrude, Clara, Robert,
Elsie, Otto, Rubie, Carl, Florence, Frank, and
Ida. wife of Fred Baldauf. The parents be-
long to the Episcopal church.
ELIJAH SALMON.
Elijah Salmon, of the vicinity of Meeker.
Rio Blanco county, owner of three ranches,
two of which are in Routt county, is a native
of Somersetshire. England, and has made his
own way in the world from boyhood, with no
favoring circumstances and with scarcely any
schooling outside of experience. In his native
land he was variously occupied until 1861.
when he moved to Wales and ]>ecame a coal
miner. Two years later he emigrated to the
I nited States and located at Sharon. Mercer
county, Pennsylvania. He devoted his ener-
gies to mining coal in that state and Ohio
until 1874. He then came to Colorado and.
making his home at Coalcreek. near Canon
City, continued mining until 1876. At that
time he moved to Nevada, where he remained
a year and a half. At the end of that period
he returned to Coalcreek, in this state, and
since then he has been connected with the stock
industry- In 1886 he located on Bear river,
in Routt county, taking up a pre-emption and
a homestead claim, which he developed and
worked until T893. when he bought the ranch
on which be now lives. He now owns three
ranches, all of which he manages vigorously
and from which he gets good returns. The
home ranch comprises two hundred acres, of
which he cultivates one hundred acres. Hay
and cattle are the principal products, both being
of good quality and produced on a large scale.
He is a Knight Templar of the Masonic order
and also a member of the Odd Fellows, and
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
225
politically he is a stanch Republican. J lis par-
ents are Alfred and Harriet (Smith) Salmon,
both natives of England and both now de-
ceased. The father was a miner in his native
land through the greater part of his life. In
the local life of his community Mr. Salmon
is heartily interested and among its people
he is highly esteemed. He was married July
31, 1884, to Annie Edwards, a native of Wales,
who was brought to the United States by her
parents when three years old.
JOSEPH RALSTON.
Born and reared on a farm in Richland
county, Ohio, Joseph Ralston has passed the
whole of his life in agricultural pursuits and
the stock industry. His life began on Febru-
ary 1, 1840. and in his native county he re-
ceived a common-school education, remaining
with his parents and working in their interest
until 1861. In that year he moved to Wash-
ington county, Iowa, and in 1862 he enlisted in
the Union army as a member of an Iowa in-
fantry regiment. He saw active service in the
war, but received no injury and was never
taken prisoner. On July 15, 1865, he was mus-
tered out of the service and returned to his
Iowa home, where he farmed until 1869. He
then moved to Osage county, Kansas, and
there he was engaged in farming until 1871.
At that time he moved cattle for Millett & May-
berry from the Red river in southern Texas
up the Missouri river to Kansas, suffering
great hardships and privations on the trip and
undergoing trials which he will never forget.
From 1877 to 1884 he farmed in Kansas. He
then sold his interests in that state and moved
to Colorado, but owing to the heavy snows
was compelled to remain at Rawlins, Wyo-
ming, until late in the fall, when he reached
Meeker, at that time a small place. He
squatted on a claim which he afterward sold
15
to J. L. McHatton, disposing of it in 1877,
after which he leased a ranch in Powell Park,
which he fanned until ,1903. He then came
to his present ranch in the same locality,
which comprises one hundred and twenty
acres, eighty-five acres of it being under culti-
vation. Hay, grain, vegetables, cattle and
horses are the principal products, and the in-
dustry in both farm products and stock is
profitable. He runs his business vigorously,
farms his land with industry and skill and
omits no effort needed on his part to secure the
best results. His parents were Joseph and
Mary (Moore) Ralston, who were born and
reared in Ireland and emigrated to the United
States soon after their marriage. They were
well-to-do farmers in Ohio. The mother died
in 1867 in Kansas, the father having died in
California in 1849. He was an ardent sup-
porter of the principles of the Democratic
party. They had a family of seven children,
four of whom are living, John, Robert, Mar-
garet and Joseph. On May 16, 1879, Mr. Ral-
ston was married to Miss Bertha Goff, a sister
of John B. and William H. Goff, sketches of
whom are to be found elsewhere in this work.
Mr. and Mrs. Ralston have four children,
Ethel C. Clarence A., Frances E. and Clyde B.
ADAM SMITH.
From his childhood Adam Smith, of Rio
Blanco county, living on a well-improved and
highly cultivated ranch of one hundred and
eighty acres in the vicinity of Meeker, has been
engaged in or connected with farming and rais-
ing stock; and bringing to the enterprise in
these lines which he is now conducting the wis-
dom acquired in his long experience elsewhere,
and acquiring by close observation an accurate
knowledge of the conditions and requirements
of the business in his present location, and ap-
plying with intelligence the knowledge thus
226
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
acquired, his success has been very good and
his progress steady and continuous. He was
horn in Fulton county. Illinois, on Novem-
ber 25, 1834, and was educated at the district
schools in the neighborhood of his home. Re-
maining at home until he reached the age of
twenty-three, he worked on the farm in the
interests of his parents. Then, desiring to
make a living and a record for himself, he
moved to Douglas county, Kansas, where he
was occupied in farming and raising stock two
years. In 1859 he came to Colorado and until
1884 lived in Douglas county, engaged in lum-
bering and ranching. He also served two
terms as sheriff of that county and at various
times took an active part in fights with the In-
dians. In 1884 he moved to Rio Blanco county
and located on his present ranch, one hundred
and sixty acres of which he took up as a pre-
emption claim, the other twenty acres being
since added by purchase. He has sufficient
water to make the cultivation of one hundred
and twenty-five acres profitable, and this tract
he has in grain, hay, vegetables and fruit. He
also raises cattle to a limited extent and with
good results. In political faith he is a loyal
Democrat, and in the success of his party he
takes an active part and an earnest interest.
His parents, Jacob R. and Jane ( Hearsey)
Smith, were natives of Ohio, like himself, and
migrated to Kansas in 1855. The father was
a successful farmer, a Democrat in politics and
a public-spirited citizen with the best interests
of his community ever foremost in his mind
and action. Twelve children were born in the
family, eight of whom are living, Adam, Ed-
ward, James, Joseph, William. Louisa, Mary
J. and Elizabeth. The mother died in August,
[855, and the father in 1863. Mr. Smith was
married on February 14, 1855, to Miss Re-
becca Cameron, a native of Fulton county, Il-
linois. They have had nine children. Kath-
arine, Joseph, Eliza and Thomas have died,
and James, Mary E., Dora A., Frank and Eva
are still living.
ALBERT M. PIERCE.
Albert Pierce, one of the Pierce Brothers,
extensive cattle and ranch men, with large
ranches in Rio Blanco and Routt counties, and
in charge of one of the largest and most pros-
perous businesses in their lines in this portion
of the state, is a native of Missouri, born in
Mercer county on October 8. 1852. He was
born on a farm and on this he grew to man-
hood, attending the common schools and tak-
ing his place in the farm work at an early age.
as is the custom of country boys in all parts of
this land of great agricultural wealth and pro-
ductiveness. When he reached his legal ma-
jority he came to Colorado and settled near
Canon City, where for ten years he was en-
gaged in raising cattle on the open range. In
1882 he moved to Maybell, on Bear river in
Routt county, where he took up a ranch which
he increased in size until he now owns eight
hundred acres in that county, all of which can
be cultivated. The land is adaptable to all the
ordinary products of the soil in this region
and yields abundant harvests. In 1895 ne P ur "
chased the ranch on which he now lives, six
and one-fourth miles east of Meeker, which
comprises three hundred and forty acres, the
greater part of which is under cultivation. He
is a part owner of the Highland and the Miller
creek ditches, and has plenty of water for the
proper irrigation of the ranch; and' as he
pushes its cultivation with due enterprise and
commendable skill, he reaps results of magni-
tude and profit from his labor on it. He also
owns a ranch of three hundred and twenty
acres on Coalcreek, which is all hay land and
given up to the production of horses and cattle
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
227
in large numbers. Mr. Pierce is associated in
the ranch and stock business with his brother,
■J. M. Pierce, of Routt county, and the firm is
widely known as one of the most enterprising
and successful as well as among the most ex-
tensively engaged on the Western slope. Mr.
Pierce is independent in politics and active in
local affairs and all undertakings for the benefit
of the western part of the state. He is a lead-
ing citizen in this section and well worthy of
the high regard in which he is universally held.
HIRAM W. TOMLINSON.
Hiram W. Tomlinson, of Rio Blanco
county, now one of the enterprising and pros-
perous ranchmen of the Western slope in this
state, came into the world under auspices that
were by no means favorable, and has since had
adversities numerous and weighty to contend
with and difficulties of magnitude to overcome.
Yet he has met bis responsibilities faithfully
and, with steady industry and worthy fru-
gality, has triumphed over every obstacle and
won a substantial estate for himself and by
his own efforts. He was born in Washington
county, Virginia, on December 8, 1850. At
that time and during his boyhood the section of
the country- in which he had his home was
disturbed by the conditions preceding and
overshadowed by the gathering clouds of the
Civil war and the opportunities for business
and education alike retreated before the com-
ing storm. In addition he lost his mother by
death when he was but three years old and his
father's household was broken up. He found
a new home with his grandparents, and with
them he lived until he reached the age of four-
teen. His parents were Jabez and Eliza
( Robinson) Tomlinson, also natives of the * )ld
Dominion, where the father was a shoemaker
and where the mother died
S;
The
father became a soldier on the Confederate side
in the Civil war and served with fidelity as
color bearer in the Great Spring Company. He
died in 1876, a faithful Democrat in political
faith and devoted to the welfare of the section
in which his life was passed. There were six
children in the family, three of whom are liv-
ing, Alexander, James and Hiram. The last
named, at the age of fourteen, entered the
employ of Claibourn Kelley, who taught him
to work and allowed him to attend the com-
mon school near his home. When he was
nearly nineteen he left Mr. Kelley and moved
to Illinois, locating in Stark county. There
he farmed for wages three years, then rented a
farm for himself which he managed one year.
In 1873 he came to Colorado and took up his
residence at Monument, on the divide between
Colorado Springs and Denver. He passed a
year raising hay and grain on a rented ranch,
then, trading a horse for a yoke of oxen, he
turned his attention to baling hay. In 1875
and 1876 he worked as a ranch hand, then, in
partnership with a Mr. Augustine, he fur-
nished ties for the Denver & Rio Grande Rail-
road under contract. In 1879 he quit this
work and went to Leadville, where he engaged
in mining until 1882, when he moved to the
vicinity of Meeker and located the ranch now
owned by Adam Smith. In partnership with
Al. E. Lloyd and Harry Rock, he floated two
thousand one hundred logs down the White
river, his share being three hundred of the logs,
which he received as compensation for Ids
labor and out of which he made one thousand
feet of lumber for sale and enough for the
construction of the home he now occupies. His
ranch comprises one hundred and eighty-six
acres of land, one hundred and twentv-six
acres of which can be cultivated, the water sup-
ply being sufficient for this purpose. He is in-
terested in the Highland ditch, one that he
aided in building. He 'also helped to construct
the Mitchell ditch, but as the enterprise was
_>j8
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
not a success financially he lost all the time and
labor he devoted to it. His ranch is eight
miles east of Meeker and on it he raises num-
bers of good cattle and horses in connection
with his general ranching business. Mr. Tom-
linson has always been earnestly interested in
the local affairs of his community. He car-
ried the ballot box from GJenwood Springs to
Meeker for the first election held in Garfield
county, and in many other ways has been ser-
viceable to the section. In 1895, 1896 and
1897 he acted as a tourists' guide under Solon
Patterson and the Wells Brothers at the Mar-
vin Club House, and found the work both
pleasing and profitable. He is an unyielding
Republican in politics and is always active in
the service of his party. On March 1, 1899, he
was married to Miss Jennie Phalen, a native of
Kansas, reared near Kewanee, Illinois, the
daughter of James and Ruth (Clement) Pha-
len, well-to-do farmers. The father was a
Democrat in politics. He died in 1867 and
the mother passed away a short time afterward.
Five of their eight children are living, Robert,
Susan. Mary, Mrs. Tomlinson and Mattie. Mr.
and Mrs. Tomlinson have one daughter,
Helen E. When the war against the hostile
Utes was waged Mr. Tomlinson served in the
conflict nine days, during which time the ra-
tions consisted chiefly of buckskin and salt.
He then returned home and took care of the
crops on the T. T. ranch. He was soon called
into the service again, and moved with the
troops under General Reardon to Rangely.
He is very popular in his county and well
worthy of the high and general esteem in which
he is generally held.
ROBERT E. THOMPSON.
Robert E. Thompson, one of the early
pioneers and frontiersmen of Rio Blanco
county, who helped to make the trails into this
part of the state and blaze the way for the set-
tlement of the region, is a native of Macon.
Missouri, where his life began on October 15,
1 86 1. He is the son of Harvey and Sarah
( Ballard ) Thompson, who were Southerners
by nativity, the father having been born in Vir-
ginia and the mother in Kentucky. They lo-
cated in Missouri in their early life, and the
father, who was a contractor and builder, put
up the first house for a residence in Macon.
He was also a manufacturer of tobacco and
prospered in his business. In political faith
he was a Democrat and in church affiliation
both he and his wife were Methodists. Both
have been dead for a number of years, and
of their ten children only seven are living.
They are John W., Richard A.. Thomas J..
Fannie (Mrs. William M. Watson). Mattie
and Robert. The last named had the usual ex-
perience of boys in his locality and station, a
common-school education, a term or two at a
good academy, and a life of useful industry in
work assigned him by his father. At St. James
Academy he received a good business educa-
tion, and after leaving it learned his trade as
a tinner at his native town. After completing
his apprenticeship he worked at his trade in
Iowa, Kansas. Missouri and Colorado. In
1883 he went to Indian Territory and Texas
and passed three years riding the range, re-
turning to this state in 1886. But prior to
going south he had valuable experience in
service as a scout for the Second Cavalry dur-
ing the suppression of the Navajo outbreak.
On arriving in this state on his return he con-
tinued his occupation as range rider, first in the
neighborhood of Trinidad and afterward in
various parts of the Western slope from Wyo-
ming to the gulf of Mexico. In 1898 he pur-
chased a ranch on Fawn creek, which he soon
afterward sold at a profit, then again turned
his attention to riding the range, which he
followed until the fall of 1899. At that time
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
he located his present ranch, taking up a pre-
emption claim of one hundred and sixty acres
and adding as much more by purchase. He
has two hundred and fifty acres under culti-
vation and raises numbers of good cattle, many
of them being registered Durhams. The ranch
is forty-two miles west of Meeker on White
river, and is well located for the ranching and
stock industries and pleasantly for a residence.
Mr. Thompson has been one of the public men
of the county, with a continuing interest in its
welfare and capacity for the service of its peo-
ple. He has been county assessor since 10,02,
elected to the office as a Democrat, and has
made a record of unsurpassed usefulness and
good judgment in the management of his
office. On November 1, 1899. he united in
marriage with Miss Cora Kivett, a native of
Howard county. Missouri, and daughter of
Maranda A. and Roscilla (Miller) Kivett.
farmers born and reared in Missouri, Method-
ists in church membership, and in sympathy
with the Democratic party in politics. Mr. and
Mrs. Kivett have four children. Cora, Henry,
Luman and Guy.
JAMES L. RILAND.
Thrown on his own resources at the age of
thirteen years, and since then accepting his op-
portunities with alacrity and using them with
industry and good judgment, James L. Riland,
editor and publisher of the White River Re-
view, at Meeker in this state, is living a useful
life, and, although denied all but the most
meager educational advantages, has through
his own efforts and the lessons of experience
become a well-informed man and capable force
in directing and disseminating the best public
opinion in his portion of the state. He first
saw the light of this world at Pine Grove,
Somerset county, Pennsylvania, on May 5.
1857, and in 1870 assumed the burden of pro-
viding for himself as a farm hand in Iowa,
where his parents settled in 1858. Soon after-
ward he learned to weave wire cloth, which
was then done by hand, and from the time
when he was sixteen years of age he earned
good wages at this work until his skill and that
of others in the same line was superseded by
machinery driven by steam. When the
change came he was working at Dubuque,
Iowa, and he then entered the office of the
Dubuque Herald to learn the trade of a printer.
After two years' service at his apprenticeship
there his health failed, and for its improve-
ment he came to live in Colorado, locating in
Summit county in 1876. For a year he fol-
lowed mining, then moved to Colorado Springs
and until 1879 worked as a compositor on the
Gazette of that city. Then changing his head-
quarters to Leadville, he served as foreman
and a reporter for the Leadville Herald and
also the Democrat at that place and also
worked on other papers at various places on
the Western slope until 1885. During this
period he grub-staked many prospectors on
shares and by means of this generosity he se-
cured a number of mining claims of more or
less value. In 1885 he established at Glen-
wood Springs the Echo, the first newspaper in
Garfield county, and managed it for B. Clark
Wheeler. On February 22, 1901, he founded
the White River Review at Meeker. Since
then he has been in active ownership and man-
agement of this paper, and by intimate knowl-
edge of his business and close attention to its
requirements as well as to popular taste and
the needs of the county, he has built up a large
patronage and fixed his enterprise on a firm
foundation financially and in popular esteem.
He is always a great booster of the interests of
the county in his columns, and uses every
proper means to make its resources' and busi-
ness opportunities known to the public. He
is an ardent supporter of the principles of the
230
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Republican party and his paper is a party or-
gan in his section of the state. Fraternally he
belongs to the Knights of Pythias, the Wood-
men of the World and their auxiliary organiza-
tions. His press is in continual demand for
job work, which he does in good style, at the
same time raising the standard of taste in the
community in this line of work and meeting its
most exacting requirements.
OWEN O. JONES.
Between mining slate from the bowels of
the earth in Wales and Pennsylvania and con-
ducting a flourishing ranch and cattle industry
on the fertile soil of Colorado there is a wide
difference in employment and conditions, and
it is a tribute to the versatility and adaptive-
ness of a man when he can easily and success-
fully turn from the one to which he has been
long accustomed and engage in the other.
This has been the experience of Owen O. Jones,
of Rio Blanco county, whose well improved
and highly cultivated ranch of three hundred
and fifty-one acres in Powell Park is a gratify-
ing evidence of his energy, skill and foresight
as a husbandman. Mr. Jones was born in
Wales on March 17, 1846, and is the son of
Owen and Margaret (Williams) Jones, also
natives of that country, where the father de-
voted his time to a number of different occu-
pations. He was the father of three children,
Thomas, deceased, Owen and Robert O., both
of whom are living, the latter being a son by a
second marriage of Mr. Jones. The mother
died in 1848 and the father in 1875. The
death of bis mother when he was but two years
old and the circumstances of the family limited
the educational advantages of Owen within
very narrow bounds and placed upon him at an
early age the burden of making his own living.
At the age of fifteen years he went to work as
a regular hand epiarrying slate in his native
land, and after four years of active industry in
this occupation there he emigrated to the
United States in 1866, and locating in Penn-
sylvania, pursued the same calling there in
Lehigh county until 1872. He then came to
Colorado and located a homestead in the San
Luis valley, making his residence at Golden
City. He began to improve his ranch and at
the same time engaged in mining in many
places on the Western slope. In 1878 he dis-
posed of his ranch and bought another in
Sagauche county, and this also he sold, then in
September, 1883, he moved to the White river
valley and soon afterward bought the ranch on
which he now has his home in Powell Park.
This comprises three hundred and fifty-one
acres and three hundred and forty acres of it
are under cultivation. He raises general farm
products in abundance, especially grain, hay
and vegetables, and always runs a large band
of cattle. He has been successful in his under-
takings here and is looked upon as one of the
substantial and representative men of the com-
munity in which he lives. He raised the first
crop of oats in the White river valley, thus
adding a new product to its range of commodi-
ties, and also was the father of the first white
child born in the section. He was married on
July 6, 1883, to Miss Margaret Jones, a native
of Columbia county. Wisconsin, a daughter
of David and Anna ( Roberts ) Jones, who were
born and reared in Wales and emigrated to
this country soon after their marriage, locating
in Wisconsin, where they passed the rest of
their lives. The father was a prosperous
farmer, and in political affairs supported the
Republican party. Their living children are
William, David, Griffith, Thomas, Winifred
and Mrs. Jones. The mother died on Febru-
ary 5. 1893, an d the father on April 12, 1898.
Mr. and Mrs. Owen Jones have bad five chil-
dren. David died on October [2, 1886; Anna,
Margaret, Owen and Levi are living. The
family are Methodists in church connection.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
233
PRIOR W. HOCKETT.
The thread of individual effort which
runs through the great web of human life, and
which forms one of the strands of its most ma-
terial substance, fashioned for the wear of
daily duty without reference to the special
adornment of the pattern, is one of the most
useful and enduring factors of the fabric, and
it is this relation to the whole structure that
the career of Prior W. Hockett, of the West-
ern slope in this state, a resident and pro-
gressive ranch and cattle man of Rio Blanco
county, is to be considered. Without ostenta-
tion or self praise, without aspiration to a posi-
tion of leadership among his fellows, but with
the laudable desire to do his whole duty in the
station to which nature has assigned him and
do it well, he has labored at whatever his hand
has found to do, he lias passed his years from
boyhood, providing for himself from an early
age and making steady progress in the effort
over obstacles and in spite of difficulties. He
came into the world on August 73, 1850. m
Montgomery county, Indiana, and-is the son of
Nathan and Hulda ( McAllister) Hockett, na-
tives of South Carolina, who were earlv set-
tlers in the Hoosier state. The father was an
industrious farmer, a loyal and zealous Demo-
crat, a good and useful citizen. He died in
1880 and his wife in 1872. Their children
numbered nine, five of whom are living. Wil-
liam A., Sarah E., Prior W.. Etta and James
M. Prior, the third in order of birth of the liv-
ing children, attended the district schools in
the vicinity of his home and worked on the
farm with his parents, as country boys are
wont to do all over the country, remaining at
home until he reached the age of twentv-one.
He then left the paternal roof-tree, and after
passing three years in various occupations in
Kansas City, Missouri, came to Colorado in
1874 and took up a tract of land on Williams's
fork in Routt county. This he occupied and
worked for two years, making desirable im-
provements, then sold it and bought the ranch
which he now owns and lives on. In addition
to his original purchase of one hundred and
sixty acres, he has taken up a desert claim of
one hundred and twenty acres, and, with water
sufficient for the cultivation of one hundred
and ninety acres of the whole body, he carries
on a prosperous and profitable general farm-
ing and cattle business. The ranch is eight
miles west of Meeker, pleasantly located, well
improved and steadily increasing in value.
Since 1892 F. N. JoHantgen. a sketch of
whom will be found elsewhere in this work. In-
been associated with him in his enterprise. Mr.
Hockett is an Odd Fellow in fraternal life and
an earnest Republican in political affiliation.
He has one child, Jessie B. The success he has
won in this state has been very gratifying to
Mr. Hockett, and has made him a firm believer
in the commonwealth as an excellent field of
opportunity for proper effort and also as a
place of residence. He looks forward to a
great future for it and it- people, who know it-
wealth and are imbued with the spirit that will
develop it. In his community he stands well
as a man of integrity, a progressive citizen and
a useful and respected man.
DAVID UTLEY.
The parents of David Utley, one of the pro-
gressive and enterprising ranch and stock men
and leading citizens of Routt county, who lives
on a fine ranch of three hundred and twenty
acres located in the neighborhood of Hamilton.
Benjamin B. and Rebecca (Stevens) Utley.
were born and reared in Indiana. Soon after
their marriage they moved to the vicinity of
Bushnell, Illinois, where their son David was
born on April 30. 1861, and later they moved
to Christian county, that state. The parents
232
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
have followed farming all their lives so far,
and are engaged in that occupation now in
Bates county, Missouri, where they settled in
1S71. They have had eleven children, six of
whom have died. The five living are Rebecca,
.Miranda, David, Joseph and George. David
was reared on the farm and educated at the dis-
trict schools. He remained with his parents
in Bates county, Missouri, until he reached his
nineteenth year, then, in 1880, became a resi-
dent of Colorado. In this state he first located
at Gunnison and there he followed mining and
prospecting three years. In 1883 he moved to
Leadville, where he mined for wages and pros-
pected for a period of eight months. In the
spring of 1885 he took up by pre-emption a
portion of the ranch which has since been his
home, and subsequently added one hundred
and sixty acres more by purchase. The ranch
is located on Williams fork and is one of the
best in that highly favored region. Mr. Utley
has a large acreage under cultivation and raises
excellent crops of hay and grain, but his main
dependence is on cattle and hay. These he
produces on a large scale and of superior qual-
ity. He is a very progressive and public-
spirited citizen, and is highly esteemed
throughout the whole section in which he lives,
being always foremost in matters of public im-
provement and moral questions in which the
best interests of the community are concerned.
He was married on October 26, 1891, to Miss
Anna Miller, a native of Cooper county, Mis-
souri, but who grew to maturity in the border
county of Bates, that state. She is the daugh-
ter of Daniel and Mary (Moore) Miller, the
father born in Wurtemberg, Germany, and the
mother in the state of Indiana. They made
Missouri their final home, and here the father
was a prosperous blacksmith. They had eleven
children. Thomas and Daniel died, and Wil-
liam, John, Joseph, James, Carl, Augusta,
George, Gertrude and Anna are living. The
father was an ardent Republican in political
faith and took a cordial interest in public local
affairs. He died in 1878. Mr. and Mrs. Utley
have one child, Ralph. Having lived now
nearly twenty-five years in this state, and all
the while actively engaged in some of its lead-
ing industries, Mr. Utley has contributed es-
sentially and substantially to its growth and
development, and is deeply and serviceably in-
terested in every element of its greatness,
wealth and power. Throughout the section in
which he lives be is held in high esteem and
looked upon as one of the influential and rep-
resentative men.
JAMES LYTTLE.
Coming to Colorado nearly twenty-five
years ago, and continuously since his arrival in
the state actively engaged in promoting its wel-
fare through the public press, of which he is
an honored representative. James Lyttle, owner
and editor of the Meeker Herald, is well es-
teemed in the community wherein lies the scene
of his greatest activities, and is favorably
known in other parts of the state as a vigor-
ous and fearless advocate of the best interests
of the commonwealth, ever giving words of
encouragement to all good undertakings, and
inspiring hope of the best results even in times
of depression and trouble, at the same time
and all the while by his example of business
energy and confidence in the future of the state
spurring others to renewed efforts. He was
born on July 28, 1858, in county Tyrone, Ire-
land, and soon afterward accompanied his par-
ents. Joseph and Mary Lyttle, who were of
Scotch-Irish ancestry, to the United States,
where they found a new home of hope and
promise in the fruitful fields of industry in
Pennsylvania. In his native land the father
was a farmer, but after coming to this coun-
try he became foreman of a large steel mill
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
^33
and rendered g'ood service to his employers in
thai capacity until his death. The son attended
the district schools as he had opportunity.
which was seldom and for only short periods
at a time, and at the age of thirteen years was
apprenticed to the printer's trade in the office
of the Pittsburg (Pennsylvania) Gazette. He
served three years on that paper, then moved
to Chicago where he worked at his trade as
a journeyman until 1880. Before that year
was ended he was a resident of Denver, this
state, and later he became a resident of Lead-
ville. In those two cities he was employed as
a printer until 1S85, when he took up his
residence at Meeker, and on August 15th
founded the Meeker Herald, of which he has
ever since been the owner and editor. He has
wisely developed his enterprise and improved
his plant, and now has one of the most in-
fluential papers and best printing establish-
ments on the Western slope. Other business
undertakings have engaged his attention, es-
pecially such as have involved the promotion
of the county's progress. He aided in organiz-
ing the Union Oil Company and from its start
has been one of its leading stockholders and
promoters. He was a member of the first city
council of Meeker and later was mayor of the
town and superintendent of the public schools.
He also represented the county in the state
legislature several terms. At all times and in
all conditions he has been potential in instruct-
ing and directing public opinion to the best
ends, through the columns of his paper, and in
official station of every kind has endeavored to
put into practical operation the lessons he has
elsewhere tried to teach. Incidentally he has
followed the common course of the western
people in devoting a share of his time to min-
ing and prospecting, following these lines of
industry in Summit and Park counties. Po-
litically he is an ardent advocate of Demo-
cratic principles, and fraternally he belongs to
the Masonic order, the United Workmen and
the Modern Woodmen of America. On
August 28, 1895, he united in marriage with
Miss Lelena Doak. They have three children.
Hugh D., George H. and Richard G.
OSCAR F. MORSE.
For a period of seventeen years, more than
half of his life. Oscar F. Morse, of Rio Blanco
county, has been a resident of Colorado and
lived, on the ranch which is now his home,
two miles and a half south of Meeker. He is
therefore in full sympathy with the aspirations
and interests of the people of this neighbor-
hood, and has proven it by his active support
of every commendable enterprise for their
progress and the development of the country.
He was born in New Haven county, Con-
necticut, on March 4, 1868, and is the son of
Riley and Hannah Morse, industrious farmers
of that state whom he assisted in their labors
until he reached the age of nineteen, and under
whose direction he received a limited education
at the common schools near his home. In-
heriting the spirit of industry and thrift and ac-
quiring the habits of useful diligence char-
acteristic of the New England people, he came
to his new home in the far West in 1887, a
young man of nineteen, well prepared for
whatever destiny of toil and privation its un-
settled condition might lay before him. Two
vears after his arrival in the vicinity of
Meeker he pre-empted a tract of one hundred
and sixty acres of land about two miles and a
half from the town, and at once gave himself
wholly to the task of improving it and mak-
ing it habitable and productive. In the course
of a few years he bought another quarter sec-
tion and now has three hundred and twenty
acres of arable land, all of which is under culti-
vation and yielding good returns for the time
and energy he devotes to tilling it. All the im-
234
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
provements on the place in the way of build-
ings and advanced husbandry he has made,
having taken the land in its state of natural
wildness and transformed it into a comfortable
home, fruitful in all the products of cultivated
life suitable to its character and ministrant to
the swelling tides of commerce and the aggre-
gate wealth of the land. Like other good
American citizens Mr. Morse takes an active
and serviceable part in the public life of his
section and the country generally, earnestly
supporting the Republican party in politics and
lending his aid in many ways to the advance-
ment and enrichment of his county and state.
He is highly respected as an upright man, a
useful citizen and a'stimulating force in the de-
velopment and direction of a healthy public
sentiment in the community.
FRANK E. SHAVER.
Frank E. Shaver, of near Axial, one of
Routt county's most successful and prominent
ranch and cattle men, came to the state at the
dawn of his manhood and at once entered into
the spirit of its industries and became an active
working force among its people. His life be-
gan in Chautauqua county, New York, on Oc-
tober 17, 1866, and there he received a good
education, especially for business. In 1887 he
left his father's home and all the blandishments
of social life to make his way amid the wilds
and discomforts of the far western plains of
Colorado, courageously braving the hardships
and privations and daring the dangers of the
lot he had chosen. He reached the neighbor-
hood in which he is now living in the spring
of the year and. although a young man just
past twenty-one years, soon afterward entered
into partnership with John A. Hall in the cat-
tle industry. 1 [e was associated with Mr. Hall
in this great business until [890, when he
bought all the interests of the company which
he did not then own. Since that time he has
conducted the enterprise alone and by his vigor
and skill of management, his close attention to
every phase of the work and his excellent busi-
ness capacity, he has built up one of the lead-
ing cattle trades of the section. His ranch
comprises one thousand acres and seven hun-
dred acres of the tract are under good culti-
vation. He has in addition to this six hundred
and forty acres under lease. The ranch, which
is located twenty-two miles northeast of
Meeker, yields large crops of the general farm
products suitable to the region and generously
supports a cattle industry of commanding pro-
portions. It follows as a matter of course that
a man so successful in the management of his
own affairs, and so prominent in the business
circles of his county, cannot escape taking a
leading part in the public life and local affairs
of his portion of the state; and in this respect
Mr. Shaver has never sought to shirk his re-
sponsibility or fall short of his due service to
the people around him. Although a firm and
loyal Republican in national politics, he gives
attention to the material, moral and educa-
tional interests of the county without regard to
political considerations; and while influential
and helpful in all undertakings wherein those
interests are vitally involved, be is held in high
esteem for the wisdom and public spirit with
which he uses his influence.
Mr. Shaver was married on November i_\
1892, to Miss Belle Wilkinson, a native of
Minneapolis. They have had four children,
one of whom, a daughter named Frances, died
in January, 1894. The other three. Margaret,
Florence and Harold F., are living and still
brighten the homestead with their presence.
The parents of Mr. Shaver. Edward and
Louisa (Van Gaasbee) Shaver, were natives
of the state of New York, where the father
died on February 23, 1904, and the mother is
still living, making her home at Jamestown.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
235
There were four children in the family, Flor-
ence, wife of E. H. Sherman, who died in
1897; Martha, wife of Lynn Mead; Jessie M.,
wife of W. K. Cooper; and Frank E. Their
father was for many years profitably engaged
in the lumber and oil industries.
WALTER SPENCER.
As owner and editor of an influential news-
paper in Routt county, as one of the leading
teachers and superintendents in the public
schools for a number of years, as agent of a
Strong and well patronized fire insurance com-
pany, as deputy county assessor and as post-
master of his home town since 1902, Walter
Spencer, of Craig. Routt county, this state, has
been and is now of signal service to the people
of Colorado in several useful lines of public
service and private effort, and has won the re-
ward of his fidelity in the high standing and
lasting esteem which he enjoys among them.
Wherever his services have been required he
has been found ready and capable, and in per-
forming them he has shown commendable en-
terprise and breadth of view. He is a native
of Dickinson county. Kansas, horn on Novem-
ber 19, 1S74, and there he received a good
common school education, which was supple-
mented by a high school course at Las Animas.
this state, and one at the State University at
Boulder. He taught school in Routt county
nine years and served several as principal of
the schools at Hayden. In 1903 he took charge
of the Routt County Courier at Craig as editor
and has since conducted it with vigor and en-
terprise, earnestly advocating at all times the
best interests of the county and state and con-
tributing to the awakening, concentration and
direction of a healthy public sentiment in favor
of their advancement. His office has a good
jobbing outfit which does a large business and
has a high reputation for the character of its
work, it being considered by many the best of
its kind in the county. Mr. Spencer also repre-
sents the Liverpool & London Globe Fire In-
surance Company, which has a considerable
patronage in the surrounding country. For
some time he has served the people of the
count\- well and wisely as deputy county as-
sessor and since 1902 the citizens of Craig as
postmaster. In political affiliation he is a Re-
publican and, being a man of strong convic-
tions, he gives his party earnest and helpful
support. His interest in the fraternal life of
his community is shown by an active and ap-
preciated membership in the Masonic order,
the 1 n'der of Odd Fellows in lodge and encamp-
ment, and the order of Woodmen of the World.
On September T3. 1S99. he was united in mar-
riage with Miss Elizabeth Brown. They have
two children, John N. and Dorothy A. Mr.
Spencer is the son of Sylvester X. and Lydia
J. (James) Spencer, who passed many years
in profitable farming. The mother died on
February 28. T899. and the father now has his
home at Craig. He is a stanch Republican
and a highly respected citizen.
IRWIN h INNMAN.
After receiving a good education in the
common and high schools of Illinois and at-
tending an excellent academy in that state. Ir-
win I. Innman, of Routt county, this state,
came west and for a number of years was em-
ployed in the hazardous occupation of a fire-
man at Denver and Leadville, in which he
gained vigor of frame and flexibility of func-
tion, combining as the result of his training in
this trying field of heroic effort alertness of
mind, force of nerve, suppleness of body and
readiness in action. These qualities have been
of great service in his subsequent career as a
ranch and stock man and proprietor of a lead-
ing livery business. Mr. Innman came into the
23 6
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
world on March 26, 186S, in Union county,
Illinois, the son of Murphy M. and Martha F.
(McCurddy) Innman, natives of Georgia who
moved to Illinois in early life. The father
prospered as a carpenter and farmer in that
state until advancing age obliged him to retire
from active pursuits, and he is now living in
St. Louis, Missouri. The mother died on No-
vember 14, 1903. Ten children were born to
them, of whom five are living, Mollie J., Eliza-
beth F., Emma F., Zora and Georgia having
died at various ages. The living children are
Ira F., David H., Murphy M., Iva C. and Ir-
win I. The last named grew to manhood on
the paternal homestead in his native state, and
there learned the business of -farming thor-
oughly under favorable circumstances. He at-
tended the public schools in the neighborhood
of his home, was graduated at a high school,
and afterward passed several terms at Union
Academy in his home county. In 1SS7 he
started out to seek his fortune in the farther
West, and coming to Colorado located at Den-
ver, where he became a member of the city fire
department. In this branch of the public
service he did good work for a period of eight
years, part of the time as a private and the rest
as captain. In 1896 he was sent to Leadville
to re-organize the fire department there, and
when the re-organization was completed he
was placed at the head of the department as
chief, he having also been the purchasing agent
of a new outfit for the service. He held the
position of chief four years, then resigning in
1900, he moved to Routt county and, in part-
nership with Dr. J. H. Cole, engaged in raising
cattle for two years. At the end of that period
he sold his interests to his partner and bought
the Thomas E. Ferguson ranch on Williams's
fork, which comprised two hundred acres at
that time. After greatly improving the place
and bringing it to an advanced state of pro-
ductiveness he traded it in May, 1904, for the
livery business owned by E. B. Thompsi in at
I raig. To this enterprise he has since given
his attention with good results, building up a
large and increasing trade and equipping- his
stables with every needed appliance for a first-
class business. Politically Mr. Innman is a Re-
publican in national affairs and fraternally he
is a member of the Masonic order. He was
married on March 20, 1894, to Miss Maud A.
Hodson, a native of Wichita, Kansas. They
have had four children, of whom two died in
infancy and Raynetta S. and Adella are liv-
ing. Mr. Innman has made good use of his
opportunities in this state and has prospered
in all undertakings. He is a well esteemed and
influential citizen, wise in counsel and vigor-
ous in action for the general good of the com-
munity in which he lives.
ARCHIE McLACHEAN.
Mr. McLachlan, who is one of the pros-
perous and progressive ranch, cattle and busi-
ness men of Routt county, is a Canadian by
nativity, born in the province of Nova Scotia
on February 28, 1847, anf l tne son °f William
and Jane McLachlan, who were born in Scot-
land and emigrated in early life to Canada. The
father farmed in the land of his adoption until
the discovery of gold in California led him to
that land of promise in 1849. He made a good
strike there and while on his return home in
1852 was murdered for his money. The
mother came to Colorado with the subject and
died near Golden, this state, on October 10,
1893. Both parents were members of the
Presbyterian church. Their son Archie had
almost no opportunity for schooling. From
the age of eight to sixteen he worked on
farms and then was put to work to learn his
trade as a millwright, and he worked at this
until he reached his legal majority. Then, in
1868, he moved to Boston and later to Chicago,
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
237
and in these cities he did carpenter work and
contracting until 1872, when he became a resi-
dent of Colorado. Locating then at Golden
City, he established a saw-mill nine miles west
of the town, which he conducted with varying
success for a period of ten years. In 1883 he
moved to Bear river, a region at that time
wholly unsettled, and here he located a home-
stead of one hundred and sixty acres, one of the
first six ranches taken up in that section. He
now owns also another ranch of one hundred
and sixty acres in the same vicinity, and on the
two has two hundred and forty acres under
cultivation. He raises cattle and horses ex-
tensively, and has good crops of hay. grain,
vegetables and small fruit. He lias in addition
valuable real estate at Craig and runs a saw-
mill on a tract of fine timber land twenty-five
miles northeast of the town. This engages
him in an extensive and profitable lumber busi-
ness which gives him prominence in commer-
cial circles as well as in the stock industry.
He is a chapter Mason in fraternal life and an
ardent and active Democrat in politics. On
May _'f>. [895, he was married to Miss Cora E.
Ranney, a native of Michigan, born in [onia
county. They have four children, Audrey,
Archie H.. Cora A. and Edwin. When their
father came to Colorado he was without capi-
tal and wholly unacquainted with the people.
He accepted with cheerfulness and alacrity the
opportunities for useful labor and advance-
ment which came to him, and by bis own ef-
forts he has risen to good financial and busi-
ness standing, prominence in local public af-
fairs and a well established position in public
esteem. He has been successful in all bis
undertakings here and, being by his long resi-
dence in the state thoroughly imbued with the
spirit of its people and sympathy with their
interests, he is generally regarded as one of
the most useful and representative citizens in
his community.
FRANK B. RANNEY.
The parents of Frank B. Ranney, Edwin
and Eliza (Button) Ranney, were natives of
Massachusetts and New York respectively,
and were reared amid the scenes and inspir-
ations to industry and thrift characteristic of
New England and the adjoining country.
Soon after their marriage they moved to
Michigan, and there they became prosperous
and respected citizens, accepting cheerfully the
hardships of frontier life and doing their part
faithfully in developing and building up the
new country in which they had cast their lot.
The father was a cooper during his earlier
manhood but passed his later life in farming,
(lying on the place which was hallowed by his
labors and improved by his diligence and skill,
where his wife also died, she passing away in
1865, and he thirty years afterward in 1895,
They had a family of seven children, all of
whom are living, Charles, Albert M., Frank
B., Cora, wife of Archie McLachlan. of this
state (see sketch elsewhere in this work), Ed-
win J., Mareia A. and Lowden. Their son
Frank B.. the fourth born of their offspring,
came into the world on September .21, 1854, in
Kent county, Michigan, confronted with a
destiny of toil devoid of much apparent oppor-
tunity for seeing any of the world beyond the
confines of his home neighborhood, and no real
chance for extended schooling. The situation
of the family, in an undeveloped country
wherein the conveniences of life were scarce
and difficult of attainment, and even the neces-
saries were not always easily procured, laid
upon every able hand the burden of its own
support, and accordingly at an early age he
took his place in the ranks of useful labor and
began to earn his living. He assisted his par-
ents in whatever they found for him to do
until he reached the age of eighteen years,
then, learning the trade of a carpenter, he
2 3 8
PROGRESS!]' E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
worked at it and in a sash and blind factory
until 1883. In that year he came to Colorado
and located in the vicinity of Craig, where he
pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres of
land, taking up one of the first six ranches set-
tled upon in the region. This ranch has ever
since been his home, the object of his attentive
and skillful care and the seat of his expanding
ranches and stock industry. The improve-
ments on it have all been made by him and
the state of productiveness in which it is now
is the result of his labors and wise manage-
ment. It is considered one of the best ranches
in the country, and its excellent crops of hay,
grain, vegetables and fruit justify the opinion.
His cattle industry is not extensive, but is suf-
ficient in volume for his own needs, farming
being his main reliance, and in this hay is his
principal product. He is a prosperous and pro-
gressive man, a stanch Republican in national
politics and a Master Mason in fraternal af-
filiation. On May 1. 1898, he was united in
marriage with Miss Agnes Sturdevant, a na-
tive of Fort Collins, this state. Both are held
in great respect and good will by the people
throughout a large extent of country around
them and have a widening influence in the in-
dustrial, commercial and social life of their
home community.
THOMAS A. FORKNER.
The Civil war in this country, which left
the states that seceded from the Union crippled
in all their industries, poor in finances and
awfully prostrated in their civil institutions,
was vet not an unmixed evil, since those con-
ditions impelled many of their best and bright-
est men to seek new homes in the still unde-
veloped West, and thus open new sources of
wealth to the country and of opportunity to in-
dividual men and women. And this tide of
migration toward the setting sun, where there
were untrodden fields and vast rewards for en-
terprise, was not stayed until succeeding
generations followed the first and filled up in
some measure the mighty domain then await-
ing occupation and development. Thomas A.
Forkner, of near Craig, Routt county, one of
the enterprising and successful ranch and cat-
tle men of that neighborhood, was among the
men thus indicated, who although born South,
in the midst of the war, grew to man's estate
before its trail of horror was wholly over-
grown by the beneficent products of a later
time. His life began in Monroe county, Ten-
nessee, on June 17, 1863, and he is the son of
Thomas and Julia A. ( McGuire) Forkner, of
that state, where the father has throughout his
mature life been a prominent planter and manu-
facturer of tobacco, this being the principal
crop raised on his plantation. He supports the
Republican party in politics and belongs to the
Masonic order in fraternal circles. The
mother died in her native state on May 2, 1898.
They had seven children, six of whom are liv-
ing, John, Lawrence, Stephen, James. Nancy
and Thomas A. The last named received only
a common-school education, and worked on
the paternal homestead until he reached the age
of twenty-one years. He then engaged in
farming for himself, and continued to be so oc-
cupied in his native state until 1891, when he
came to Colorado and for a time after his ar-
rival here he worked as a hired hand on
ranches. He was desirous, however, of con-
ducting a business for himself, and to this end
fie leased a ranch and began raising cattle. In
1898 he bought the one he now owns and
farms, which was one of the six taken up in
1883, the first ones occupied in the neighbor-
hood of Craig. He has one hundred and sixty
acres and from the time of settling on the
land he has been making improvements
and increasing bis arable acreage until
he now lias a comfortable and well-equipped
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
2 39
home, with one hundred acres under good
cultivation, yielding abundant supplies of hay,
grain and vegetables. He also raises cattle in
numbers and considerable quantities of small
fruits. In the ranching and stock industries he
is prominent and successful, in the public life
of the county he is influential and helpful, and
in fraternal circles he has an appreciated mem-
bership in the Masonic order and its adjunct,
the order of the Eastern Star, and also in the
Woodmen of the World. Politically he is an
earnest and active Republican. On December
28, 1887, he was united in marriage with Miss
Mary E. Norvell, a native of Tennessee. They
have three bright and interesting children,
Bessie M., Rosie M. and Clifton E.
SAMUEL C. MISEMER.
The only child of his parents, and losing
his mother by death at the dawn of his young
manhood, his mother dying in 1882, when he
was twenty years old, and his father twenty
years later, Samuel C. Misemer is the last sur-
vivor of his family, and has had to make his
own way in the world without the aid of for-
tune's favors of any kind. He was born in
eastern Tennessee on January 22, 1862, tin-
son of William B. and Mary A. Misemer. also
natives of Tennessee. The mother died in
Tennessee and the father in Missouri. The
father was a merchant and farmer, a Democrat
politically, a Freemason fraternally, and a citi-
zen of standing and influence in his com-
munity. The son received a slender education
at the district schools and made himself service-
able to his parents on the home farm until he
reached the age of twenty-one years. In
1884 he came west and located at Dixon. Wyo-
ming, where he was employed in range riding
by the Pottock Cattle Company and others,
and after some years of service in this capacity
as a stage driver between Rawlins and Meeker,
Colorado, by C. F. Perkins. In 1891 he home-
steaded on the ranch which is now his home,
twelve miles north of Craig, and which com-
prises one hundred and sixty acres, one hun-
dred of which can be cultivated. The place
has been improved by him, there being nothing
in this line on it when he located on it, and all
its fertility and productiveness are due to his
systematic and well applied labor. Hay and
horses are his principal products, and in addi-
tion to his ranching he has done considerable
freighting. Although now comfortablv set-
tled on a good place and with an abundant
living, his early years in this state were full
of hardships and dangers, the country being
almost wholly unsettled and very sparselv in-
habited. Since 1900 he has also done a great
deal of work in engineering and carpentering.
He is enterprising and progressive, always
ready to accept a favorable opportunity for his
profit and zealous in promoting every under-
taking for the benefit of the community. He
is a Democrat politically and a Modern Wood-
man fraternally. On July 1, 1891, he was
married to Miss Salina Romjue, a native of
Oregon. Their hearthstone has been bright-
ened by two children, one of whom died in
infancy. The other. Hazel, is living.
ROBERT V. BR VAX.
Robert V. Bryan, now a valued public of-
ficial of Routt county, where he has also been
connected with the ranching and stock in-
dustries and worked at his trade as a carpenter,
has had a varied and interesting career, having
been engaged in a number of occupations at
many different places. He is not one of the
men who abandon one plan and go earnestlv
to work on another, which is fresh from the
forge of his imagination, or had at some for-
mer time been cast aside half finished, but one
who has clearness of vision to see and alert-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
ness of energy to seize his opportunities ana
made the most of them, and so has never been
long without profitable employment, and has
made a substantial success of his chances. He
was born on February 8, 1855, near Hillsboro,
Montgomery county. Illinois, and is the son of
Daries and Elizabeth ( Hamilton) Bryan, the
former a native of Virginia and the latter of
Illinois. The father moved to the Prairie state
in early life, and there he was married and
carried on farming successfully until 1867,
when the family moved to Arkansas, where the
parents passed the remainder of their lives.
The father was a faithful Republican in po-
litical life and fraternally belonged to the Ma-
sonic order. The children in the family num-
bered ten, eight of whom are living. Roxie,
Lorenzo Dow, Amputus, Algeernon, Alonzo
N., Robert V., Belle Z. and William E. Robert
received a common and high school education
and also attended a commercial college as a
preparation for business. In 1867. when he was
twelve years old, he accompanied his parents
to Arkansas, and there finished his scholastic
education and took the commercial course al-
ready mentioned, the college being located at
Little Rock, that state. He also assisted his
father on the farm here until 1877 and in the
hotel at Russellville, which was also owned by
his father. He then returned to Illinois and
began to learn his trade as a carpenter. In
this he made such progress that at the end of
a year he came to Colorado prepared to do
journey work. Settling at Silver Cliff, he
helped to build some of the first houses
erected in the town. In 1879 and 1880 he
freighted between Colorado Springs, Canon
City and Leadville. This occupation was be-
set with hardships but was profitable. Moving
to Pueblo in 1881. he there became agent for
the Pueblo & Silver Cliff Stage Line Company,
and after a time changed his residence to Wet-
more, where he engaged in getting out props
and ties under contract for the coal mine- at
Coal Creek. In 1882 he rented a ranch near
Wetmore, on which he passed two years, then
rented one on Doby creek which he farmed for
a year. In July, 1885, he became a resident of
Routt county. After wintering at Maybell he
moved in the spring of 1886 to Newcastle,
Garfield county, and there he worked at his
trade for some time, helping to build the first
house in the town and many other structures.
Returning to Routt county, he took a contract
to build the fence around Lily park, being en-
gaged in the work two years. The next two
were passed in freighting between various
points, and at the end of that period he moved
to Boise, Idaho, and in the spring of 1891 he
located his home at Craig, where he has since
resided. He has been much occupied in range
riding and is considered a typical cowboy. He
has also done considerable contracting and
building at Craig. In 1900 and 1901 he was
deputy cousty assessor, and since 1902 has
been county assessor, having been elected to
the office on the Republican ticket. Fraternally
he is connected with the Freemasons, the Odd
Fellows, the Daughters of Rebekah and the
Woodmen of the World. On November 29,
1882, he united in marriage with Miss Lucy
A. Goodwin, who was born in Iowa, and who
died on August 26, 1886, leaving two daugh-
ters, Nellie M. and Maud E. These are living
and have been carefully reared by their father.
THOMAS H. WISE.
Belonging to the great Wise family of
Virginia, Thomas H. Wise, of near Craig,
Routt county, this state, a prominent rancher
and cattle man, has well sustained in the new
fields of enterprise, which he sought as a young
man of twenty-three, the traditions and fame
of his ancestry in the Old Dominion. His
father. William H. Wise, was a native of that
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
241
state, where his forefathers lived and took a
prominent part in public affairs for gener-
ations; and his mother, whose maiden name
was Caroline Smith, was born and reared in
Ohio. They were- prosperous farmers in the
latter state for a number of years, then moved
to Illinois, where their son Thomas was burn
on March 11, 1863, the place of his birth being
Galesbnrg. Knox county. The father was a
Democrat in national politics. He died in
1869 and the mother in 1871. They had nine
children, two of whom, Thomas H. and his _
older brother John M., are living. Thomas re-
ceived very little education in the schools, his
wisest and best teacher being experience. Even
in his boyhood he earned his own living by
working on his father's farm, removing with
his parents to northwestern Missouri in 1870.
Here he learned lessons of useful industry on
the paternal homestead located near the city of
St. Joseph. He remained in Missouri engaged
in farming until 1884, then became a resident
of Colorado, and ranched in Boulder county
until 1886. In that year he moved to Routt
county and. in partnership with his older
brother, took up a fine ranch of five hundred
and sixty acres on Williams fork, which has
since been his home. Since the death of his
brother Francis M., in 1895, he has had entire
management. He found his land full of
promise, but with all its possibilities as yet un-
developed and containing nothing in the way
of a human habitation or other necessary build-
ings or appurtenances for the business which it
was his purpose to carry on there. He has
made extensive improvements and has brought
two hundred acres of his domain to an ad-
vanced state of cultivation. The cattle industry
is his principal dependence, but he also raises
good crops of grain, hay and vegetables. In
the public life of his neighborhood Mr. Wise
has taken an active interest from the start, and
he is universally regarded as one of the lead-
16
ing citizens of the county. Fraternally he is
connected with the Masonic order, and in
political faith he is a firm and zealous Demo-
crat. He has found excellent opportunities for
advancement in Colorado and is a loyal citizen
of the state, ardently devoted to its every in-
terest and in every commendable way earnest
in the work of promoting the welfare of its
people. He carries into the affairs of his
county in which the progress and enduring ad-
vantage of his fellows are involved the same
breadth of view, commanding energy and pro-
gressive spirit which he applied to the manage-
ment of his private business, and helps to sub-
serve the public interest without stint to the
best of his abilities.
GEORGE E. PITCH FORD.
George E. Pitchford, of Routt county, who
owns and occupies a good ranch of three hun-
dred and twenty acres, which is located on
Williams .fork, and which he took up in its
state of primitive nature and has redeemed
from the waste, improving it with good build-
ings and making it one of the attractive and
profitable country homes of the section, is a
native of Bates county, Missouri, born on
March 26, 1874, and the son of William and
Mary (Utley) Pitchford, who were born and
reared in Illinois, where they were successfully
engaged in farming for a number of years,
after which they moved to Missouri, and there
carried on the same business until death ended
their labors, the mother dying in 1877 an d tne
father in 1878. It does not appear who cared
for the helpless young orphan, the last born
of the three living children of the family, but
at the age of nine years he began the battle of
life for himself and had almost no schooling
for the struggle before him. having attended
the common schools but a very limited time.
Six children were born to the parents, of whom
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
only Naomi, Charles and George E. are living.
George E. began life as a youthful hand on
the farm and has adhered to the vocation of
the patriarchs ever since. In 1886, when he
was but twelve years old, he moved to Kansas,
and there he continued farm work until 1892.
when he came to Colorado and joined the great
army of farmers and stock men in this state.
He was employed on a ranch until 1900, when
he located the ranch he now occupies, taking up
a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres
and afterward adding one hundred and sixty,
more by purchase. His principal industry is
raising cattle, but he also raises first-rate crops
of hay, grain, vegetables and small fruits, and
he conducts even- phase of his enterprise with
close attention to details, vigorous management
and an enlightened intelligence. In political
affiliation he is a Democrat and in fraternal
life belongs to the Masonic order. On October
29, 1902, he united in marriage with Miss
Phoebe Frame, a native of Illinois. They have
one child, Ruth E. By his sterling worth as
a man. his energy and progressiveness in busi-
ness and his enterprise and public spirit in
matters of interest to the community. Mr.
Pitchford has won the cordial regard and good
will of his fellow citizens, among whom he is
generally accounted one of the most represent-
ative men in his portion of his county. Start-
ing in life with nothing, he has secured a com-
fortable competence for himself, and through
his own struggles has learned to properly ap-
preciate the difficulties and misfortunes of
others. Grateful for his opportunities, he has
shown at all times a willingness to multiply so
far as lay in his power the chances for his fel-
lows who are striving to work their way up-
ward, at the same time endeavoring to make
all the industries of his adopted state not only
worthy of her greatness and power, but as
fruitful of good to her people as possible.
CHARLES CASTER.
Born to a destiny of privation and toil, and
for many years employed in humble capacities
of various kinds, Charles Caster, now a pros-
perous and progressive ranch and cattle man of
Routt county, this state, living on his own
ranch of one hundred and twenty acres of good
land near Hamilton, has met the requirements
of his position with a brave and manly spirit,
a productive enterprise and a cheerful willing-
ness for every duty that has brought him suc-
cess and secured for him. even in his boyhood,
the confidence and esteem of all who knew him.
His life began in St. Clair county, Missouri,
on October 11. 1872. In 1880, when he was
eight years of age, he moved with his parents
to Colorado and, locating with them in Denver,
he became a cash boy in the employ of the Mc-
Namara Dry Goods Company. Here he was
also a news boy and a messenger for the West-
ern Union Telegraph Company. His oppor-
tunities for attending school were very limited,
but he was able to get one year's good instruc-
tion after moving to Morrison in 1883. The
next year he became a resident of Routt county,
and from then until 1897 worked on the ranch
with his parents. During a portion of this in-
terval, however, he did cooking at ranches and
for cowboys. In the year last named he
bought the ranch he now occupies, of which he
has sixty acres under first-rate cultivation and
on this part of his ranch he raises good crops
of the usual farm products common in the
neighborhood. He also carries on a stock in-
dustry of a size suitable to the extent of his
land. Throughout his early struggles and his
later life he has been cheered and inspired by
music, of which he is an ardent devotee and a
cultivated practitioner, being considered one of
the best performers on the violin in Routt
county and being in frequent requisition on
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
243
short notice to furnish the music for all sorts of
entertainments. Thus he has also been able
to contribute greatly to the enjoyment of
others, while pleasing himself. The lessons of
his early life have not been lost upon him.
He conducts his business with enterprise and
vigor, by his industry, frugality and capacity
making it profitable and winning a substantial
estate from hard and unpromising conditions.
In political affiliation he is an earnest working
Republican. On June 19, 1898, he was united
in marriage with Miss Bridgie Kelley, a native
of Leadville, this state. They have one child,
John Harold. Mr. Caster's parents are Ben-
jamin F. and Amelia (Stevens) Caster, the
father born in Iowa and the mother in Indiana.
The father is a shoe and harnessmaker, and,
being well educated, having been graduated at
a good college in Keosauqua, Iowa, has devoted
some years to teaching school. He has also
been engaged in ranching at times in this state.
In pnlitics he was a Republican in his earlier
manhood, but for some years has belonged to
the Democratic party. Both parents belong to
the United Brethren church. Two children
were born to them, of whom one, a daughter
named Lutie, died a number of years ago.
RILEY S. HAMILTON.
Riley S. Hamilton, a prominent, progres-
sive and highly respected citizen of Routt
county, who is extensively engaged in the stock
industry in the neighborhood of Hamilton,
was born in Carroll county, Ohio, on February
i, 1862, and is the son of Henry S. and Mary
A. (Slates) Hamilton, natives of Ohio, who
moved to DeKalb county, Missouri, in [869,
and there engaged in farming, an occupation
which they are still following, with their home
near Maysville, that state. The father was a
shoemaker in Ohio, but, with a longing for
agricultural pursuits, he determined to devote
himself to them and found his choice wise and
his enterprise profitable. His death occurred
there June 18, 1904. Their offspring numbered
nine. One died in infancy and Riley S.,
Thomas H., Hannah (Mrs. William H. Mil-
ler), Fred E., Edward. Elizabeth, and James
and AVilliam, twins, are living. Riley, the first
born of the children who are living, grew to
manhood on the home farm in Missouri and
was educated at the common schools with
rather meager opportunities. He remained at
home assisting his parents on the farm until
he reached the age of nineteen, then, in 1881,
came to Colorado and located at Breckenridge.
Here for a few months he worked in the mines
for wages, then moved to South Park and
found employment until winter on a ranch.
During the winter he was employed in hauling
lumber at Last Resort, after which he leased
a ranch in the vicinity of Fort Collins which
he farmed two years. In July, 1885, he be-
came a resident of Routt county, and in May
following took up a pre-emption and a timber
claim, the two amounting to three hundred and
twenty acres. These he has added to until he
now owns five hundred and twenty acres, two
hundred of which he has under productive culti-
vation. His principal industry is raising cat-
tle, however, and this he conducts on an ex-
tensive scale. His was the first ranch located
on Moore Rapids creek, and when he settled
there the whole section was wild and un-
broken, without roads, bridges or other con-
veniences of a public nature. He gave himself
with ardor and energy? to the improvement and
cultivation of his property, and found steady
and increasing rewards for his labor. Soon
other settlers located in the neighborhood and
the rapid progress and development of the re-
gion followed. As a pioneer there Mr. Hamil-
ton was an important factor in building up the
country and the village which grew up near
him was named in his honor. He is a very
244
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
broad-minded and enterprising man. with a
keen desire for all improvements involving the
general welfare of the community, and takes an
active and serviceable interest in every phase
of its public life. In fraternal relations he is
a Freemason, and in political matters is inde-
pendent. On April 1 6, 1892, he united in mar-
riage with Miss Clara Duse, a native of Ken-
dall county, Illinois, and the daughter of Wil-
liam and Sophronia (Watkins) Duse, the for-
mer born in Germany and the latter in the state
of New York. They settled in Missouri at an
early day and located near Maysville, where
they are still living and are successfully en-
gaged in farming. Both are members of the
Methodist church. The father is a Republican
in politics. Seven of the eight children of Mr.
and Mrs. Duse are living, Hattie, Mary J.,
William A.. Herbert M. and Henry M.
(twins), Edward and Clara E. A daughter
named Tina died on May 30, 1902. Mr. and
Mrs. Hamilton are the parents of two children,
Earl L. and William Henry.
JOHN T. JARVIS.
Mr. Jarvis belongs to an old and highly
respected Virginia family, and was born in
Doddridge county, in what is now West Vir-
ginia, on October 8, 1849. His parents were
Granville D. and Sarah M. (Chapman) Jar-
vis, both natives of Virginia and belonging to
families long resident in that state. In 1852
they moved to Missouri and located in Knox
county, where they farmed with success and
profit to the end of their lives. They had
eleven children, and of these seven are living.
Mrs. Louisa Brunick, John T., Mrs. Virginia
Burk, Mrs. Angeline Houghtaling. Frank.
Mrs. Laura Sanders and Edward. Three of
die others died in infancy and Mrs. Margaret
Brunick jn 1898. Their son John T. received
a common-school education and learned habits
of useful industry and frugality on the pa-
ternal homestead, remaining with his parents
until he reached his twenty-fourth vear. He
then turned his attention to mining, going to
California and locating for the purpose on the
Middle fork of the American river. He fol-
lowed mining and prospecting in that state
from 1880 to 1886, with the too frequent luck
of the men engaged in these enticing but un-
certain pursuits, securing nothing of value for
his labors. In the year last named he moved
to Leadville, this state, and here he met with
better success both in mining for wages and
working leased properties. In 1891 he deter-
mined to devote his time and energies to ranch-
ing, and with this purpose in view moved to
his present location on Williams fork, where he
pre-empted one claim and homesteaded an-
other, securing in all two hundred and eighty-
acres. He also owns a one-fifth interest in
fi >rtv acres of bituminous coal land. His ranch
yields abundantly of the usual farm products,
but his main reliance is raising cattle. He takes
an active and helpful interest in public local
affairs, withholding his support from no
wi irthy enterprise in which the general wel-
fare of his community is involved. In political
matters he supports the Democratic party with
ardor' and stands high in the counsels of his
party. On May 8, 1902, he was joined in mar-
riage with Mrs. John Kellogg, a widow whose
maiden name was Susan Peirson, a native of
Tompkins county. New York, and a daughter
of Albert and Julia A. (Rhodes) Peirson, the
former horn in Orange county, New York,
and the latter in Luzerne county. Pennsylvania.
In their early married life they became resi-
dents of Illinois, locating at Harvard Junction.
Mcllenry county. There the father, a pros-
perous farmer and an earnest Republican, died
in 1874. At present the mother, who is past
ninety-one years old, makes her home in Yel-
low Medicine county, Minnesota. They had
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
245
thirteen children, eight of whom are living,
Mrs. William II. Bowen, Schuyler J.. James
A., Mrs. Jarvis. Frank S., John M.', William
P. and Mrs. George W. Conn. Three died in
infancy and Hattie E. and John in later life.
Mrs. Jarvis owns three hundred and twenty
acres of land on Deer creek and also has a
homestead in another place — four hundred and
eighty acres of good land in all. Both Mr. and
Mrs. Jarvis are highly respected and have a
wide and wholesome influence throughout all
the country surrounding them.
LEAXDER X. BOXER.
Although horn and reared t< > the age of six-
teen in a town of good size, and habituated to
its occupations and modes of life, none the less
successful as a ranch and cattle man is Leander
X. Boner, of Rio Blanco county, living six
miles west of Meeker, his native ability and in-
dustry and thrift enabling him to turn his at-
tention to new fields of labor with readiness
and enter into the spirit of his work and meet
the requirements thereof without hesitation or
difficulty. His life began at Kalamazoo, Michi-
gan, on April 21, 1S53. and there he lived with
his parents until he reached the age of sixteen,
receiving a common-school education, and at
the age of twelve devoting himself regularly to
useful labor. In 1869 he journeyed toward the
Pacific coast in search of better opportunities
than he deemed available at home, and locating
in Nevada, worked for a number of years as a
ranch hand. In 1880 he bought a ranch of his
own and during the next six years he gave this
close and profitable attention, carrying on there
a flourishing ranch and cattle business. In
1886 he disposed of all his Nevada interests ex-
cept his cattle, and these he moved to Muddy
creek. Wyoming, where he purchased a ranch
and conducted a road house and stage line be-
tween Rawlins, that state, and Slater, Routt
county, Colorado. He kept at these lines of
employment two years and a half, then in 1900
sold his Wyoming property and bought the
ranch on AYhite river in Powell Park which has
since been his home. He has three hundred
and twenty acres in one body and cultivates
three hundred acres of it. The land is well
watered, very fertile, and yields abundant crops,
liberally supporting large numbers of cattle.
The improvements made on the place by Mr.
Boner render it very comfortable as a home
and add much to its beauty and attractiveness.
He is one of the progressive and enterprising
men of the neighborhood, taking an earnest in-
terest in the development and improvement of
the country as a public-spirited citizen, adding
to its industrial and commercial wealth by his
business, giving inspiration and vivacity to its
fraternal life as a Woodman of the World, and
keeping in close touch with its government and
political interests as an ardent Democrat. His
parents were David and Eleanor Boner, the
former born in Pennsylvania and the latter in
the state of New York. They were early set-
tlers in Michigan, where they ended their days,
the father dying in 1865 and the mother in
1898. The father served three and one-half
years in defense of the Union in the Civil war.
being a member of Company K. Twenty-
eighth Michigan Infantry. At other times he
was a farmer. In political faith he was a
Democrat. Two children were born in the
family, Leander N. and Ella, wife of Press Na-
tion.
JAMES A. BENNETT.
The ancestry of James A. Bennett, one of
the most enterprising and successful ranch and
cattle men of the Williams Fork region in
Routt county, were of the sturdy Scotch race,
his parents, Robert and Agnes ( McCrery >
Bennett, having been natives of Scotland and
descendants of families living in that country
246
PROGRESSIVE MEN OP WESTERN COLORADO.
for many generations. They came to the
United States in early life, and after living at
several different places, finally settled in Wis-
consin, where they passed the remainder of
their days, the father dying there in 1886 and
the mother on December 31, 1903. They were
well-to-do farmers in this country, and had a
family of six children. Of these Margaret died
and James A., Anna, John, Andrew and
George are living. Their son James was born
at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on July 30, 1857.
He attended the common and high schools of
his native city and assisted his parents in the
work of the farm until he was twenty years
old. In 1877, leaving the scenes and associ-
ations of his childhood and youth, he started
out to make his own way in the world, with
almost nothing beyond his ardent spirit, high
hopes, willingness for useful labor of any kind
that he could make profitable and earnest re-
solve to succeed by his own efforts. Devoting
himself to this resolve with all his energy, from
1877 to 1885 ne engaged in mining and pros-
pecting and also did some contract work at
Georgetown, Leadville and Breckenridge. His
success was moderate but gratifying until the
state of his health took him to the Williams
fork region and changed his occupation and
the course of his life. After seeking a renewal
of his vigor and energy in various portions of
this highly favored section of the state, in
[887 he homesteaded on one hundred and sixty
acres of his present ranch and went to work-
in earnest to improve his property, get his
land into productiveness and make a home in
what was then almost a wilderness. He suc-
ceeded from the beginning in his undertaking,
and as time passed he was able to purchase ad-
ditional land until he now owns six hundred
and forty acres, of which two hundred and
seventy-five are under an advanced stage of
cultivation, yielding good crops of hay, grain
and vegetables. He also carries on an ex-
tensive cattle industry, and this, with his large
annual yields of hay, furnishes the main source
of his revenue. In the political and fraternal
life of his neighborhood he takes an ardent in-
terest, being an earnest Republican in political
faith and an enthusiastic third-degree Mason
in fraternal connection. As showing his inter-
est in local public affairs, he has served his com-
munity as postmaster at Pagoda, his home
office; since 1889. But his interest in the wel-
fare of the people around him is not shown only
by the efficient and satisfactory discharge of
his official duties. Every worthy project for
the advancement and improvement of the com-
munity and county has his cordial sympathy
and his active help. Among the men of his
section none is more highly esteemed and none
is more worthy of high regard.
JOHN R. SMITH.
Building his own fortunes by bis unaided
efforts from an early age, and while he was
yet a youth providing a home fur his brothers
and sisters who, like himself, were orphaned
by the death of both parents before they
reached maturity, John R. Smith, of Rio
Blanco county, has met life's responsibilities
and calls to duty with a manly spirit and shown
a degree of fraternal devotion that is worthy of
all praise. And in the measure of his exhibi-
tion of that devotion he has won regard in re-
turn from the community around him. who
have found in him the same consideration for
his kind in a general way which has character-
ized him in the special cases of his own family,
and the same attention to public that he has
to private duties. Mr. Smith was born in
Larimer county, Colorado, near Fort Collins,
on November 15, 1875, and is the son of Henry
R. and Frances L. (Hardin) Smith, the former
a native of Ohio and the latter of Missouri.
Thev became residents of Colorado in 1860 and
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
247
located near Fort Collins, where the father en-
gaged in farming and freighting until his
death in 1894. He was a Democrat in political
affiliation, an Odd Fellow in fraternal life, and
a man of deep and earnest interest in the wel-
fare and progress of the section in which he
lived. When the Civil war began he promptly
answered the call of his country to her de-
fense, and enlisted in the Union army as a
member of a regiment of Colorado infantry,
and he served with fidelity to the end of his
term. The mother died in 1890. Seven of the
nine children born in the family are living:
John R., May (Mrs. Al. Ellison), Rebecca I.,
Effie M., Samuel A.. Burnaham and Guv L.
The parents belonged to the Christian church,
Their son John R., who was the first born of
their living children, was obliged to aid in the
work on the paternal homestead from his boy-
hood, and had therefore opportunity for only
a common-school education. When his mother
died he was but fifteen and when his father
died but nineteen years of age, and thus on the
very threshold of his young manhood be found
himself with a family much dependent on him
for support and guidance. He assumed the
work of caring for and rearing them with
cheerfulness and carried it on with energy, so
that their comfort was well provided for and
their training for life's duties was not neglected.
He leased a ranch, which he managed until
1897, then secured employment as a hand on
ranches belonging to various persons in the
neighborhood. This occupation he continued
for only a few months, as he was eager to get
a home of his own and devote his energies to
its development and improvement. Accord-
ingly he pre-empted a claim of one hundred
and sixty acres on White river in 1898, the
land lying eleven miles southeast of Meeker.
He has about sixty acres under cultivation and
gets good crops of the products usual in that
region. He also raises cattle in numbers, and
finds both lines of his ranching industry profit-
able. He takes an active part in politics as a
Republican, and in fraternal life as a member
of the order of Odd Fellows. In the improve-
ment and progress of the community he is al-
ways earnestly interested and actively service-
able.
S. C. PATTERSON.
Having acquired a goodly store of worldly
wisdom in the thorough school of experience,
which has quickened his natural abilities and
given knowledge of himself and of others, S. C.
Patterson is well equipped for the pursuits in
which he is engaged and might without dis-
advantage turn his hand to many others. He
is a native of Vermont, born on December 5.
1854, and in his native state he secured a slen-
der education at a preparatory school which he
attended a few terms. At the age of eleven he
was called into the great field of human action
to earn his own living, and since then he has
been one of the producing toilers, farming and
working at the trade of carpenter in Vermont,
and migrating to this state while young. He
located at Greeley and secured employment in
ranch work, which he continued four months,
then turned his attention to range riding in the
service of Ouillett & Lusk for a drive to Run-
ning Water, Wyoming. The rage of the ele-
ments often oppressed him. snow storms and
blizzards endangered his life and his herds,
savage hostility threatened him with peril, and
many other forms of hardship made his task-
difficult to perform at times and his lot hard
to endure. But he did his duty faithfully and
won thereby the commendation of his employ-
ers. He also held cattle on the Cache La
Poudre for old Mr. McClellan one year, and
from that time for three years he was in the
employ of the Union Pacific Railroad as head
axman and level runner. Where Rustic now
stands on Cache La Poudre he traded for a
248
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
ranch, which he sold a year later, then moved
to his present location in the White river
country in 1885. Here he took a squatter's
claim, which he sold in 1887, and next he en-
gaged as a ranch hand in the employ of T. B.
Ryan & Company. After leaving their em-
ployment he became a trapper and hunter for
big game and also served as a guide for h jurists
and hunting parties, continuing these occupa-
tions until 1890. In this time he killed about
ninety bears and two hundred and fifty
mountain lions. From 1893 to ^98 he con-
ducted the Marvine Lodge, in partnership with
William Wells, and during the time served as
forest ranger. In the year last named, in
partnership 'with W. L. Parrott, he purchased
a portion of his present ranch, a tract of one
hundred and sixty acres, which they have since
increased to seven hundred and twenty. Of
this body five hundred acres can be cultivated
and much is under vigorous tillage. The ranch
is thirty miles east of Meeker and in the midst
of a region well supplied with wild game. Cat-
tle is the principal resource of the industry, but
general farm products are also extensively
raised. The place is improved with a fine lodge
and other necessary buildings and all its oper-
ations are conducted on an elevated scale of
magnitude and skill. Mr. Patterson is a son
of Phineas and Maria Patterson, natives of
Vermont, where the father was a well-to-do
carpenter. He died in September, 1899, and
the mother in July, 1897. They had four chil-
dren, two of whom are living. S. C. and Ai.
Two other sons, Philo and Hosea, died some
years ago. "
JOHN B. ELROD.
John B. Elrod. of near Rifle, Garfield
county, this state, who has won success in
business and the confidence and good will of
the people all around him by his industry, ca-
pacity and sterling manhood, is a native of
South Carolina, born on January 12, 1845. and
moved from there with his parents to Kansas
in 1856. His early life was therefore filled
with the ominous forebodings of the coming
struggle between the sections of our unhappy
country soon to be rent by civil strife and bap-
tized in the blood of its best and bravest sons.
He can therefore all the more appreciate the
blessings of the peace and prosperity which we
have since enjoyed, and rejoice in the com-
manding greatness of a re-united and more
harmonious land, the different portions of
which now understand one another better than
they did before and are more disposed to work
in harmony for the common good. When the
strife burst forth he bore his part in it in ac-
cordance with the traditions and teachings of
his section, and has nothing to regret on that
account. His parents were Allen and Amanda
Elrod, descendants of old South Carolina
families, and in 1856 they moved to Kansas,
carrying with them the faith of their fathers
which found expression in the border troubles
of that state which were unmistakable heralds
of the greater contest that was to come. They
passed the remainder of their days in Kansas
engaged in farming, the father as a loyal
Democrat taking part in all public affair- and
exerting a decided influence on their trend in
his locality. Eight children were born in the
family, three of whom have died. The five liv-
ing are George F., of Aspen ; John B.. of Rifle;
Sarah, wife of J. W. Cunningham, of Kansas
City, Missouri ; Harvey H., of Oswego, Kan-
sas, and Maria J., wife of a Mr. McArthur,
of Victor, Colorado. The father died in 1856
and the mother in 1899. John was educated at
subscription schools with good results. At the
age of fourteen he went to work as a farm hand
011 plantations in the neighborhood of his home
fi >r '-mall wages, and near the close of the
Civil war. when he was about nineteen, he
joined the Confederate army under Colonel
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
249
Condiff in Shelby's brigade, in which he served
about a year to the close of the war. He then
returned home and apprenticed himself tp a
blacksmith to learn the trade. lie acquired a
thorough knowledge of it and devoted five
years to its various branches in Texas and at
Kansas City, Missouri. In 1874 he came to
Colorado, reaching Denver on April 1st.
Three months later he moved to Central City
and there wrought at his trade until 1882. He
then sold out at a good profit and returned to
Denver for a year. At the end of that period
he moved to Leadville where he opened another
shop and worked at his trade until the winter
of 1883, when he went to Twin Lakes and took
charge of the shop for the stage line belonging
to J. C. Carson. In this position he remained
two years and a half, then in October, 1887,
purchased a squatter's right to a tract of one
hundred ami sixty acres of land, the ranch he
now owns and occupies. Of this he can culti-
vate one hundred and fifty acres and he finds it
very fertile and productive. He raises good
crops of hay, grain, vegetables and fruit, but
cattle form his main reliance. The water right
to the land is good, and the markets are within
easy reach, the ranch being five miles southwest
of Rifle. Mr. Elrod is an Odd Fellow in fra-
ternal circles and a zealous Democrat in na-
tional politics. Locally he is devoted to the
welfare of his community without regard to
party considerations, and has rendered it valu-
able and appreciative service as a member of
the school board during the last nine vears.
On July 1. 1875, he was married to Miss Sarah
F. Richmond, a native of Greene county. Il-
linois, and daughter of William O. and Mary
A. Richmond, the father born in Indiana and
the mother in Pennsylvania. They located in
Illinois in 1865 and later moved to Kansas.
Eighteen months afterward they changed
their residence to Independence. Missouri, and
after living there eight years moved to Central
1 ity. this state, in 1876. Since 1879 they have
been living at Leadville. The father is a
Democrat in political allegiance. The family
comprised twelve children, of whom but six are
living, the others having died in infancy. The
living six are: Sarah F. ; Jasper, living at
Tombstone, Arizona: Naomi, wife of Herbert
Corwin, residing in the vicinity of Ride: Wil-
liam, at Aspen; and Ottis, at Leadville Their
mother died on June 17, 1873. Mr. and Mrs.
Elrod are in genuine sympathy with the un-
derlying principles of the Christian religion,
though they are not actively affiliated with any
religious denomination.
RALPH H. WHITE.
Born and reared in the midst of all the
blandishments of the highest civilization, and
trained carefully for a mercantile career, with
the inheritance of a large business, old and
well established, in view, it would seem that
Ralph H. White, of near Rifle. Garfield county,
has. like Esau, parted with his birthright and
sacrificed all that most men hold dear in social
and business circles in coming to the wild- of
the far West and settling down on a ranch to
herd and traffic cattle and become a tiller of the
soil. Yet so nicely does nature balance her
gifts that to the eye of a true discernment the
fate we often repel turns out in the experience
to be the best and most agreeable for us. It
is so in this case, Mr. White finding both
profit and enjoyment in his present occupation,
and what is better than either, good health and
strength of body as well as elasticity of spirits
and cheerfulness of disposition. He is a direct
descendant of Peregrine White, horn on the
"Mayflower" in Plymouth harbor, the first
child born of English parentage in New Eng-
land. Ralph was horn in Suffolk county, near
Boston, Massachusetts, on October 17. 1873,
and is the son of R. H. and Ellen M. (Tucker)
250
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
White, also natives of that state. His father
has from his early manhood been an extensive
wholesale and retail merchant, with dry goods
as his special commodity, his house being one
of the largest in his portion of the country. He
has been very successful in his career and has
prominence and influence among his people
both in mercantile and political circles. He is
a stanch Republican in politics and takes an
active interest in public affairs, local and na-
tional. The children born to the family num-
ber four. One daughter is deceased, Anna C,
and the other three children are living, Emily,
at Boston, Edith, at Newton, and Ralph, in this
state. The mother is also deceased, having
passed away in 1894. The one son, Ralph, was
educated at private schools and was well pre-
pared for business by proper instruction and
training. After leaving school he passed a few
years in his father's wholesale house, but a
threatened failure of his health brought him to
Denver, Colorado, to overcome the disaster.
He remained there four years, then realizing
that this was the climate for him to retain his
health in, he bought the ranch which is now
his home, and on which he has since conducted
an active and profitable ranch and stock in-
dustry. It comprises two hundred acres and
ninety acres of the tract are under cultivation,
two of them in a prolific and improving orch-
ard. An independent water right appertains to
the place, and in addition there is an abundant
supply for his cattle from springs. There is
a fine modern dwelling on the land, which is
ecpiipped with hot and cold water and all the
other* desirable conveniences of a first-class
home. The crops raised are chiefly hay and
potatoes, and the cattle industry is extensive
and up-to-date in every respect. Mr. White is
a devoted and earnest Republican in political
activity, and a zealous and serviceable promoter
of every good enterprise for the welfare of his
community. On August 28, 1903, he married
with Miss Edith M. Apted, like himself a na-
tive of Suffolk county, Massachusetts, and a
daughter of William H. and Ella F. (Wood)
Apted, also natives of Massachusetts. Her par-
ents have been dead for a number of years, the
father passing away on September 8, 1885, and
the mother on January 15, 1896. She and her
brother Herbert, who lives in New Jersey, are
the only survivors of the family. She is as
well pleased with Colorado as is Mr. White.
WILLIAM CHADWICK.
The life story of this enterprising and suc-
cessful stock-grower and ranchman of Garfield
county, if told in detail, would differ little in
incident and feature from that of thousands of
others who came into this western wilderness
when the territory was young and unsettled,
and with strong and sinewy hand grappled with
its hard conditions and bade them stand ruled
and deliver up their resources for the benefit
of mankind and the onward march of civiliza-
tion. Yet, trite and well worn as the recital
might seem, it is of enduring interest as a
part of human history essentially spectacular
and thrilling in a high degree, which has passed
away forever, or still lingers only in its types
and actors who are yet among us, although
their theater of action has greatly changed since
they entered upon it. Mr. Chadwick was born
in Mahaska county, Iowa, on May 20, 1 S 5 7 ,
and is the son of Oliver and Katharine (Carr)
Chadwick, who were born in Illinois and moved
to Iowa when that state was as frontier as was
Colorado when he came hither. They broke
the virgin sod there with their advancing plow-
share, as he did here, and hewed out of the
wilderness a home and a comfortable estate.
The mother died on September 7, 1902, and but
six of her children survive her. William at-
tended the district schools near his home, and
also one term at the State Agricultural School
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
2 5 r
connected with Manhattan College. He re-
mained with his parents, working in their inter-
est, until he reached the age of twenty-one,
then moved to Kansas and settled near Holton,
Jackson county, where he worked for wages
from the spring of 1879 to the fall of 1883.
From Kansas he came to Colorado, selecting
Aspen as the scene of his first activity in this
state. He next, on January 13. 1884, located
a claim on the Grand river near Rifle, the im-
provements on which he sold the next year,
and changed his residence to Mam creek, Gar-
field county. Here he took a squatter's right
to a ranch. In the spring of 1888 he pre-
empted a claim of one hundred and sixty acres,
which is a part of his present home. He has
since purchased forty additional acres and now
has a body of two hundred acres of good land,
one-half of which can be cultivated and on
which he raises good crops of hay. corn, vege-
tables and fruit. His principal resources are
hay and cattle, and these he produces in large
volume. The ranch has good water rights and
can be well irrigated, and the soil is of such
character that its response to husbandry is
generous. Mr. Chadwick is interested in works
of public benefit in his neighborhood, notably
the High Line Ditch, off Divide creek, and the
Garfield County Telephone Company, being
president of the latter. He has given the dis-
trict excellent service as water commissioner
during the past five years ; and while associated
with Mr. Deveraux built the trail from Rifle
to the top of Brook cliff. Thus throughout his
residence in this region he has been a man of
progress and enterprise, and contributed in
large measure to the development of the sec-
tion. In politics he is a Republican and in fra-
ternal life an Odd Fellow. On November 29,
1899, he was married to Mrs. Millie C. ( Mc-
Intyre) Nevitt. a native of Le Claire, Iowa, the
daughter of Sidney and Almira Mclntyre, the
father a native of New York and the mother of
Ohio. They located in Iowa not long after
their marriage and there they passed the re-
mainder of their lives. The father was in the
saw-mill business, sawing lumber for market,
and found his enterprise moderately profitable.
He was a man of prominence and public spirit,
and in political matters supported the Repub-
lican party. Both parents were members of
the Methodist church. The father died on No-
vember 6, 1865, and the mother on October 3,
1894. Of their three children Mrs. Chadwick
is the only survivor. Mrs. Chadwick's first
husband died on November 25, 1894. He was
a Union soldier in the Civil war and rendered
valiant service to the cause he espoused.
JOSEPH YULE.
Joseph Yule, considered generally the lead-
ing and most substantial ranchman in the
county of Garfield, and living on a fine ranch
of five hundred and twenty acres on the creek
of the same name not far from Newcastle, is
essentially a self-made man and a good product
of his own energy and capacity. He was born
in Ashland county, Ohio, on December 13.
1846, and is a brother of George Yule, of this
county (see sketch elsewhere). He received a
very limited education at the public schools and
aided his parents in their farm work until he
was twenty-two, then began the battle of life
for himself. In the meantime, however, he de-
voted three years of his young life to the de-
fense of the Union in the Civil war, enlisting
when he was seventeen in Company I, Fortieth
Iowa Infantry. At the close of the war he was
discharged at Davenport, Iowa, and soon after-
ward came with his brother George to Colo-
rado, and worked with him until 1880, spend-
ing his summers for the most part at Gunnison
and his winters at Denver. He passed con-
siderable time in mining, but without success,
and camped one year on the Roaring Fork
252
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
river. In 1880 he entered into partnership
with John .Murray in ranching and raising cat-
tle. The partnership continued five years and
was then harmoniously dissolved. Since then
Mr. Yule has been ranching and raising cattle
for himself, having located a squatter's claim
mi what was then an Indian reservation. When
the land was surveyed he pre-empted his claim
of one hundred and sixty acres, and he has
since added to it by purchase until he now owns
five hundred and twenty acres, of which he has
one hundred and eighty acres under advanced
cultivation with increasing productiveness and
profits, bringing forth all the usual products of
the neighborhood, with fruit in addition, and
hay and cattle as his main reliance. He has
shown great and intelligent interest in the de-
velopment and improvement of the section from
the time of his settlement here, giving close
attention to local affairs and bearing cheerfully
his share of the burdens incident to public im-
provements and every undertaking for the good
of the community. In political affiliation he is
an active Republican, but he works for the wel-
fare of his district without regard to party in-
terests. He served nine years as a member of
the school board, and was once elected road
overseer, but declined the position. He is a
valued member of the Grand Army of the Re-
public and is full of energy in behalf of the
post to which he belongs in the organization.
In April, 1889, he was united in marriage with
Miss Maggie Allen, a native of Jasper county,
[owa, the daughter of James and Johanna,
Allen, who were also natives of that county.
Her father was a carpenter but has developed
the later years of his life to farming. He is a
Democrat in political faith and both lie and his
wife are members of the Congregational
church. Eleven children were born to them,
several of whom are living: John, William,
Fred, Lizzie ( Mrs. Charles Davie) and Jesse,
all living in Iowa; and Mrs. Yule of this state.
In all the relations of life and with reference-
to all the duties of citizenship Mr. Yule has
borne himself creditably, and the universal es-
teem in which he is held is but a just meed to
his personal merit.
SAMUEL BOWLES.
Coming from historic old Loudoun county.
Virginia, which has given to the service of the
Cmited States the wisdom, valor and progres-
sive statesmanship of many distinguished men,
and to the social life of the nation the personal
charms and intellectual culture of many noble
ladies, Samuel Bowles, of Garfield county, this
state, who is comfortably settled on a fine ranch
in the neighborhood of Carbondale, has in ad-
dition to his own force of character and native
abilities the incentive to enterprise and breadth
of view furnished by a long line of prominent
and productive ancestors. His life began on
May 19, 1844, and he is the son of Samuel and
Amelia Bowles, natives of that state who set-
tled in Buchanan county, Missouri, when it
was on the far frontier and all the conditions
of life were vet wild and uncomely. There they
followed farming and won from the generous
soil a good estate. The father was a Democrat
in political belief and became a leading man in
his new home. He died in 1855 and his wife
in 1859. They had a family of six children,
three of whom are living: Rachel, wife of
Howard Story, of St. Louis. Missouri : Alcinda,
wife of William Payne, of Idaho; and Samuel.
The last named attended the public schools
when he had opportunity, which was not often
for long periods, and assisted his parents on the
farm, remaining with them until they died.
Afterward, in partnership with relatives, he en-
gaged in farming in Missouri with profit until
[880, when he came to this state and located at
Leadville. Here he drove freight teams and
did other work that he found to do until Christ-
PROGRESSirE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
'S3
mas of that year, then made a visit to his old
Missouri home. On his return to Colorado
he settled at Aspen and engaged in teaming for
wages, his compensation being fifty dollars a
month and his board. He continued this occu-
pation until March, 1882, then came to his pres-
ent locality, where he worked two years for
wages on a ranch. At the end of that time he
bought a pre-emption claim of one hundred and
sixty acres, on which he afterward proved up
and which is the ranch he now owns. This he
has greatly improved and brought to product-
iveness in the usual crops of the section, hay,
potatoes and cattle being his chief reliance. It
must not be supposed that his life has been all
sunshine and free from danger and disaster. He
was in all the troubles at Julesburg and along
the Platte river in the early sixties; and while
in partnership with Jesse Moore in keeping up
the roads, had numerous encounters with the
Indians, in which one of his men was killed
and several were wounded. He was married
on February 28, 1867, to Miss Sarah Jane
Jones, a native of Buchanan county, Missouri,
and the daughter of John and Annie Jones,
both born and reared in Tennessee. They were
among the earliest settlers in that part of Mis-
souri in which they lived, and there, redeem-
ing a good farm from the wilderness and de-
fending it from savage fury, they grew to pros-
perity and prominence. The father supported
the Democratic party on all questions of public
policy, and was a member of the Masonic order
and the Methodist church. Seven children
were born to them, one dying in infancy. The
six living are William, James. Mary K. ( Mrs.
Robert Dietz ), John and Nathaniel, all residing
in Buchanan county, Missouri; and Mrs.
Bowles, who is the second in numerical order
of the six. The father died on September 29.
1 90 1. Mr. and Mrs. Bowles have hail eight
children, of whom a son named John W. is
deceased. The seven living are: Robert l\. of
Canon Creek. Colorado; Alcinda, wife of Den-
ver R. Van de Venter, of near Carbondale ;
James, of the Elk Creek region ; Mary, wife of
Olaf Johnson, of near Glenwood Springs;
Samuel. Grafton and Efne Jane. Mr. Bowles
has found Colorado much to his taste as a
place of residence, a fruitful country in good
opportunities, and settled by a people appreci-
ative of ability and force of character; and is
well pleased to be numbered among the pro-
ductive energies which are making it one of
the greatest states of the great West. He is
highly esteemed as a business man and good
citizen.
THOMAS WATERS.
Left an orphan in boyhood by the death
of both his parents, and compelled from that
time to make his own living, Thomas Waters,
a prosperous rancher living on a good ranch
in the neighborhood of Glenwood Springs, has
come from poverty and obscurity to a condition
of substantial comfort and consequence in his
community through arduous effort, continued
frugality and a willingness to do as well as
he could anything he found to do. He was
born in county Wicklow, Ireland, and is the
son of Patrick and Anna ( McDonald) Waters,
also natives of the Emerald Isle, where their
forefathers lived from immemorial times. The
parents were devout Catholics, and had a fam-
ily of four children. Of these Henry and Phil-
lips are deceased and Thomas and John are
living, both being residents of Garfield county,
near Glenwood Springs. The parents died
when Thomas was a boy, as has been stated,
and he therefore had almost no opportunity for
education in the schools. As a mere boy he
went to work on a farm at meager wages, con-
tinuing this occupation in his native land until
1880, when he came to the United States and
made his way to Leadville, this state. Here he
254
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
worked four years in the mines for a wage of
three dollars a day. In 1886 he located his
present ranch, a pre-emption of one hundred
and sixty acres, and since then he has been
diligent and faithful in his efforts to improve
and develop his property. Sixty acres yield
gratefully to intelligent tillage and produce fine
crops of the usual farm products in this sec-
tion. Hay, grain, potatoes and other vege-
tables are raised, also cattle and horses. Mr.
Waters has thriven in his industry and is now
a well-to-do and prominent ranchman, and as a
citizen he is held in high esteem by the whole
community. On May 1, 1864, he was united in
marriage with Miss Catherine Kennedy, like
himself a native of Ireland but reared and edu-
cated in England. She is the daughter of
Dennis and Ann Kennedy, who were born in
Ireland and soon after their marriage moved to
Cumberland county, England, where the father
engaged in mining with moderate success until
his death in 1871. The mother died at Lead-
ville, this state, on February 5. 1899. They
were Catholics and attentive through life to
their church duties. Of their ten children, five
died in infancy. The five living are Mrs.
Waters, Mary, Patrick, John and Annie. Mr.
and Mrs. Waters have had eight children, and
six of them are living, Patrick Henry, Ann.
Mary Katharine, Andrew, Thomas and
Bridget. Dennis and .Anna are deceased. The
parents are Catholics, and the father supports
the Democratic party.
JAMES W. CURTIS.
A' Canadian by birth and education and
reared in lofty devotion to his native land,
lames W. Curtis, of Garfield county, this state,
with a pleasant home and profitable ranch five
miles northeast of Carbondale, is nevertheless
fervently loyal to the land of his adoption and
the particular state in which he lives. His life
began in the province of New Brunswick on
April 22, 1842, and he is the son of Charles
and Jane (Caneer) Curtis, the former born
in Nova Scotia and the latter in New Bruns-
wick. In 1870 they moved to Maine and some
time afterward to Massachusetts. In the
latter state they remained to the end of their
days, the father being profitably engaged in the
manufacture of boots and shoes. He was a
Republican in politics, a Baptist in church re-
lation, and a Freemason and an Orangeman in
fraternal life. He died in 1873. His widow,
also a Baptist in religious faith, survived him
twenty-three years, passing away in 1896.
They were the parents of ten children, of whom
Sarah, Ellen and John are dead. The seven
living are James W., Charles, of Los Angeles,
California; Sophie, the wife of Ellis Hall, of
Oakland, California; Christopher P., a resi-
dent of Boston, Massachusetts; Catherine and
George, living in New York city ; and Clarence.
James attended the public schools a short time,
and at the age of ten began to earn his own
living by working on farms and in the lumber
woods of New Brunswick. Quitting these em-
ployments, and gratifying a desire to see more
of the world, he shipped as a cabin boy at four-
teen dollars a month, but a few years later re-
turned to farm work at six dollars a month and
his board. When he reached the age of twenty-
one he joined the United States navy, and after
serving two years learned cabinetmaking, at
which he worked eleven years. In 1873 he
moved to Minnesota in the hope of finding a
suitable location for a permanent residence and
good business opportunities, but in 1879 came
to Colorado and located at Leadville. Here he
followed carpenter work, taking contracts for
building shaft houses and timbering the
mines. He had two years of profitable employ-
ment in these lines, but wasted most of his
earnings in mining speculations. lie then
opened a boarding or road house near Aspen.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
255
which he conducted with considerable profit for
seven years. In 1887 he located on his present
ranch, taking up a pre-emption claim of one
hundred and sixty acres, to which he has since
added two hundred and forty acres. Of the
four hundred acres he now owns, two hundred
and forty are under cultivation and yield
abundant crops of alfalfa, grain and potatoes.
He also carries on an extensive cattle industry
and is prosperous in every line of his business.
In politics he is a Socialist of strong convic-
tions, and in fraternal life was for years an
active Freemason and a member of the Grand
Army of the Republic. On May 15, 1872. he
was married to Miss Lizzie McCausland, who
was born at Waterville, Maine, the daughter
of Samuel and Elizabeth (Erskin) McCaus-
land, natives of the same state as herself. Her
father was a contractor and builder, and- died
in i860. The mother now lives at Aspen, this
state. They had two children, the son William
dying some years ago. The father was a
Universalist in church faith, and an ardent
Know-Ndthing during the life of that party,
afterward becoming an equally ardent Re-
publican. Mr. and Mrs. Curtis have had five
children. One daughter, Bessie, died in in-
fancy. Tbe four living are Hattie, the wife
of George Wathen, of Aspen; Alice, the wife
of Ralph Huntington, Rex and Judith, the last
three living at home.
HORACE- GAVIN.
This enterprising and progressive ranch
and stock man of Pitkin county, whose farm is
a model of thrift and foresight, and whose
career is a forcible illustration of the benefit of
industry and perseverance in the struggle for
supremacy among men. is a native of the
province of Quebec, Canada, where he was born
on March 31, i860, and the son of Alfred and
Percis (Rice) Gavin, of the same nativity as
himself. In 1880 they crossed the line into the
United States and came west to Colorado, lo-
cating at Blackhawk, where he passed seven
years working at his trade as a carpenter. He
then moved to Tennessee Park, and from there
to Leadville, where he engaged in burning
charcoal. His next move was to open a board-
ing house at Redcliff, which he conducted two
years, at the end of which he took up his resi-
dence at Glenwood Springs. There he was
variously employed until 1885. In that year
he changed his base of operations to the vicinity
of Snow Mass, twelve miles west of Aspen.
There he pre-empted a claim, and after im-
proving the property traded it for live stock,
and in raising horses and cattle he passed the
remainder of his days, dying on December 13.
1903. Five of his eight children survive him,
Climenia, the wife of Albert Chester, of
Canada ; Warren, of Denver, Colorado ; Hor-
ace, the subject of this sketch ; Heber, living at
Catskill, Xew Mexico; and Cordelia, of Devil's
Lake, North Dakota. Horace attended the
public schools for a short time, at the age of
seven driving an ox team to the plow for his
father, and remained at home until he reached
the age of fourteen. He then began to make his
own living by working on farms in the neigh-
borhood of his home for very small wages. In
1880 he came west and located at Leadville,
this state. For awhile he freighted between
that town and Redcliff, and later between Lead-
ville and Aspen and Ashcroft. At the end of
a year he entered into partnership with Mar-
cus L. Shippee to conduct a ranching and
stock business. This partnership continued
four years and was then harmoniously dis-
solved. After that Mr. Gavin pre-empted a
claim of eighty acres near the village of Emma,
and after improving the property sold it and
purchased another in the vicinity of Snow
256
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Mass. Two years later he sold this and leased
a ranch of Mr. Dalton near Emma. Here he
suffered a severe loss, but soon afterward
bought a ranch, which later he sold at a good
profit. It was three miles west of Watson, on
the south side of the Roaring Fork river.
Finally he bought the ranch which he now owns
and operates. It comprises two hundred and
thirty-three acres, one hundred and seventy-
five acres of which are under cultivation, pro-
ducing abundant supplies of hay of superior
quality, and grain and other farm products.
Here he also raises numbers of first-class horses
and cattle, and hauls timber under contract.
He is a Republican in political allegiance and
belongs to the order of Odd Fellows fraternally.
On April 26, 1879, he united in marriage with
Miss Theresa Dawson, a native of Quebec,
Canada, the daughter of George and Martha
E. (Wallace) Dawson, the former born in
England and the latter in Massachusetts. For
awhile they lived in the province of Quebec,
and afterward moved to Massachusetts, where
they followed farming to the end of their days,
the father being dead aud the mother dying on
September 22, 1894. Seven of their ten chil-
dren are living: Matilda, the wife of Benjamin
Osgood, of Canada; Frederick and William,
living at Dudswell, Canada; Samuel, of Cleve-
land. Ohio; Martha, the wife of Gardner
Kingsley. of Wyoming; Mary, the wife of a
Mr. Adams, of Wyoming ; and Mrs. Gavin.
JOHN F. SPENCER.
The cultivation of fruit is one of the most
pleasing of all occupations within the range of
agricultural effort, giving enjoyment to those
who engage in it and also to the many who
are its beneficiaries as t consumers of its
products. And if it be true that he who makes
two blades of grass grow where one grew be-
Fore is a public benefactor, much more is he
one who produces in abundance some of na-
ture's delectable and wholesome gifts, which
she does up in the most attractive forms, and
places them within the reach of thousands who
might otherwise be unable to enjoy them. To
this class belongs John F. Spencer, whose orch-
ards, lying about two miles distant from Grand
Junction, are among the proud possessions of
Mesa county and an essential addition to her
commercial and industrial wealth. Mr. Spen-
cer had a long and useful experience as a prep-
aration for the work in which he is so suc-
cessfully engaged and which he conducts with
so much skill and intelligence. He was reared
on an excellent Wisconsin farm, in a locality
where nature is so generous that the faith of
the husbandman is always rewarded bounteous-
ly if his efforts deserve it, and was there trained
in habits of close observation and careful in-
dustry; and after leaving his home began life
for himself as a nurseryman, an occupation in
which he has been occupied more or less ever
since. He was born in 1848. at Vernon, in
the state named, and is the son of William and
Marian (Dee) Spencer, the former a native
of Kentucky and the latter of Vermont. Flis
father was an early settler in Ohio, and also
of Grant county, Wisconsin, where he died in
1875, at the age of eighty-three years and
seven months. He was a man of prominence
and influence in bis section, a Republican in
politics, filling with credit a number of local
offices, and a successful and up-to-date farmer,
winning a substantial prosperity from the
cultivation of the soil. His wife survived him
ten years, dying in 1885, at the age of seventy-
nine. Their offspring numbered nine, of whi >m
John F. was the last born. He remained at
home until he reached his legal majority, as-
sisting in the work of the farm and attending
when he could the public schools near at hand.
Then be went to Illinois and engaged in the
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
257
nursery business near Elmwood, Peoria county,
that state, remaining there about two years.
From Elmwood he came to Colorado and fol-
lowed farming" a year, after which he conducted
a mercantile business for two years at Gunni-
son. At the end of that period he moved to
Grand Junction, which was then a small and
crude country village of some three hundred
inhabitants, but rapidly outgrowing its swad-
dling bands as a village and striding forward
to a more ambitious and metropolitan exist-
ence. Here he served two years as under
sheriff by appointment of the sheriff, William
Innis. He then once more entered the nursery
business, locating at Grand Junction and con-
ducting the second industry of the kind estab-
lished at that point. One of his chief efforts
was in the line of propagating the seedless
apple, in which and the general nursery work
be was occupied a number of years at his first
location. He bought the place which he now
owns and operates, containing one hundred and
sixty acres of unimproved land, and determined
to devote his energies to the production of su-
perior grades of fruit, planting an orchard of
thirty-five acres for the purpose, chielly in
peach, pear and apple trees, with a preference
for peaches. He also started a nursery busi-
ness on the new site, and both that and his fruit
culture have grown to large proportions and
firing him in profitable returns. In addition to
being a good business man he is an enterpris-
ing and progressive citizen, fully alive to the
best interests of the community, and ever ready
to perform his part of the labor necessary to
advance them. In politics he is a Republican,
but without ambition for public office, yet
giving his party consistent and serviceable sup-
port. He was married in 1880 to Miss fda M.
Gould, a native of Illinois, daughter of Alonzo
and Elsie (Cooper) Gould. They have two
children living, Mabel and Ethel, and one, a
daughter named Myrtle, deceased.
1/
WALTER WINTER.
The life story of Walter Winter, of Mesa.
county, who is conducting a valuable and
profitable ranching and stock business on the
George mesa, in Plateau valley, is neither long
in ir eventful, but is a continuous narrative of
devotion to duty and good use of opportunities,
elevated citizenship and faithful performance
of every useful task which it* was properly his
lot to do. He was torn on August 22, 1875.
in the state of Kansas, and is the son of J. T.
and Mary (Clark) Winter, now living in the
vicinity of Plateau valley, where they are com-
fortably fixed on an excellent farm which yields
abundant crops suitable to the region and
furnishes them sufficient occupation to employ
their time and faculties pleasantly and to ad-
vantage. The parents were born, reared, edu-
cated and married in Indiana, and there they
were profitably engaged in farming for a period
of twenty years. At the end of that time they
moved to Kansas and later to their present
home in this state. Their son Walter grew to
manhood in his native state, remaining at
home with his parents and assisting on the
home farm until he reached the age of twenty-
three year?, when he was married and set up in
life fur himself. His marriage occurred in
1900 and was with Miss Amy Cyphers, of Mesa
county. They have two children, Ruth and
Berdine, who help to make their home bright
and cheerful, and afford entertainment to their
numerous friends who find their hospitable
roof an agreeable shelter from the cares and
toils of life from time to time. Mr. Winter is
one of the younger farmers of his section and
is fully impressed with the responsibility rest-
ing upon him as a representative of that class.
He is doing what he can to meet his obliga-
tions in this respect by conducting his own
business along the lines of wholesome and
profitable development and aiding to guide the:
2 5 8
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
general affairs of the community to their best
and highest good for the welfare of the whole
people. With youth, health and energy on his
side, and impelled by lofty ambition to continu-
ous and systematic usefulness, his career
promises to be honorable and full of service t< i
the people among whom he has cast his lot.
GEORGE W. MASTERS.
A prominent and successful farmer in two
of the great states of the West, and a close
observer of his vocation in each, George W.
Masters, of Mesa county, Colorado, with a
fine ranch and a comfortable home near the
village of Snipes, is familiar with all phases of
agricultural life and requirements in this part
. of the country, and has been one of the sub-
stantial contributors to the development and
improvement of the industry where he has
lived and been engaged in it, as he has all of
his mature life. He is the son of Isaac B. and
Mary S. (Deits) Masters, and although born
in Illinois where they now reside, he passed his
boyhood, youth and earl}- manhood in Kansas,
and entered upon the business of productive
work for himself in that state. His parents
were horn and reared in New Jersey where they
married and lived and farmed until 1845. They
then moved to Illinois where their son George
was born on April 26, 1855. The father died
in Kansas in February, 1004, where he was a
pioneer of 1859, and was well known and
widely esteemed among its people, being com-
fortably located on an excellent farm and tak-
ing a leading and serviceable part in all the
public and social life of the community in
which he lived. The mother now lives with
her son George in Messa county. George W\
Masters was educated in the public schools of
Kansas, and when he was twenty two wars of
age started out as an independent farmer for
himself in that state, applying to his work the
lessons he had learned in a valuable previous
experience under the direction of a careful
farmer. He remained there two years, then
came to this state and settled at Leadville,
where he remained two years engaged in team-
ing and prospecting. At the end of that period
he returned to Kansas and continued his farm-
ing operations there until 1892, at which time
he came again to Colorado and located on the
land which is now his home and the seat of
his flourishing business as a farmer. In 1876
he was married to Miss Zula M. Wilson, of
Osage county, Kansas, who has borne him two
children, their daughter Jennie and their son
Ralph. Both parents are highly esteemed in
the community and render good service in
every line of usefulness among their fellow
men.
JOHN H. JENSEN.
John H. Jensen, of Mesa, Colorado, who.
in partnership with his brother Lee. owns and
operates the only grain-threshing outfit in this
part of the state, is a product of the farther
West, having been born in Utah in 1877, and
after living in that state nearly seven years,
became a resident of Colorado, where he was
educated and married and has devoted his ener-
gies to the development and improvement of
the country, aiding j n its growth, helping to
multiply and expand its agricultural and com-
mercial wealth, increase its population and
bring its resources to fruitfulness and the
knowledge of the active markets of the coun-
try. He is the son of 11. II. and Elizabeth
(Norstrom) Jensen, the father a native of
Denmark and the mother of Sweden. They
came to this country in early life and settled
in Utah, where they were married. Some years
afterward they moved to Grand Junction, tin's
state, and they are still highly respected citi-
zens of that -row ing and promising city. Their
son John was seven years old when they
PROGRESSIVE MEN OP WESTERN COLORADO.
259
moved to Colorado, and his life has been wholly
passed in the state since that time. He re-
mained at home assisting in the work on his
father's ranch until he bought the one he now
owns himself; and when he was yet a young
man, seeing the need of greater facilities for
harvesting and threshing the abundant crops
of grain produced in this section, he and his
brother Lee bought a complete outfit for the
purpose which they have been successfully
operating throughout this and adjoining coun-
ties for a number of years. Their enterprise
has greatly extended the acreage devoted to
cereals and thereby largely increased their pro-
duction in this region. They have also been
diligent and energetic in helping to provide the
means of irrigation for the community, to-
gether being one-fourth owners of the Jensen
Lake Reservoir, constructed for that purpose.
In 1899 Mr. Jensen was married to Miss Alice
Barnwell, a native of Colorado, and at the
time of her marriage a resident of Grand
Junction.
R. E. FLETCHER.
R. E. Fletcher, head of the firm of Fletcher
& Peugh. owners and operators of one of the
leading flour-mills in Mesa county, this state.
and a man of influence and prominence in the
commercial, industrial and public life of the
community in which he lives, was born in
Pennsylvania in 1844, ami is the son of William
ami Sarah (Hague) Fletcher, who were also
born and reared in the Keystone state. The
father was a skillful blacksmith there, and
wrought at his craft until late in life, laying,
down his trust at the age of eighty-four years.
The mother died in 1880, aged about sixty
years. They were the parents of eight children,
and did the best they could to prepare their
offspring for the battle of life, giving them all
a good district-school education as far as cir-
cumstances permitted. At the age of twenty-
two, their son who is the immediate subject of
this writing, having learned his trade at Eliza-
bethtown, Pennsylvania, started a business of
his own as a blacksmith in Illinois, where he
remained and prosecuted his work successfully
for a period of three years. He then moved
to Kansas, and after eleven years of successful
and profitable blacksmithing in that state, came
to Colorado, locating in 1883 in Grand Junc-
tion, where he was engaged in the hotel busi-
ness 1 >ver a year, being among the pioneers of
the place. Later he engaged in the agricultural
implement business and in 1899 came to the
Plateau valley, where he has ever since resided.
In partnership with Mr. Peugh, he started the
enterprise in which they are now- engaged, in-
augurating it in 1899. The venture has been
more successful than they expected, and they
entered on it with good hopes of profit; lint it
has been conducted with skill and vigor, laying
all means of vitality under tribute and using
every force at the command of the proprietors
to meet the demands of its resources. Mr.
Fletcher has been active and forceful in public
affairs, and served the county with ability and
fidelity four years as treasurer. He was mar-
ried in 1867 to Miss Ellen Peltman, of Salem,
Illinois. They are the parents of five children.
George, Ollie, Archie. Alvin and Nonie. Mr.
Fletcher is widely known throughout the
county and is everywhere highly respected, as
he well deserves to be. being one of the leading
men of his section.
WILLIAM DITMAN.
William Ditman. of near Mesn. Mesa
county, one of the commissioners of the county
who is rendering to the people valuable and ap-
preciated service in the office to which they
chose him, and whose past life has been a suc-
cession of trials and triumphs in which he has
made his way by his own pluck and capacity, is
26o
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
a native of Erie county, Pennsylvania, bom
April 29, 1849. He is the son of August and
Rose (Forest) Ditman, the former a native of
Germany and the latter of Pennsylvania. The
father came to the United States in 1846 and
lived for a short time in New York. From
there he moved to Pennsylvania, where he met
and married his wife, and where he made a
good living for his family as a millwright and
railroad bridge builder. He died in 1856, at
the age of forty. The mother lived eight years
longer, dying in 1864, and leaving two chil-
dren, of whom William was the older, he then
being nearly fifteen. Not long before the death
of the father the family moved to Michigan,
and there the subject of this review grew to
manhood, attending the country schools as he
could and working to support himself at
various occupations until he was old enough to
join Rankin's Lancers, a military organization
which was soon afterward disbanded, where-
upon young Ditman enlisted in the regular
United States army as a member of the Nine-
teenth Infantry, for a term of three years, serv-
ing till the close of the Civil war and after-
ward in Arkansas and Indian Territory. On
being discharged at the end of his term, in
1867, he returned to Michigan, and there he
remained two years. In [869 he went to Cali-
fornia, and in that state he worked in a saw-
mill for about ten years. From there he came
to Colorado and settled in Elbert county, where
he resumed operations in sawmilling and con-
tinued his work in this line for eight years. He
then turned his attention to ranching and rais-
ing stock, and for this purpose settled in 1883
on the ranch he has since occupied and which
he has raised to a high state of productiveness
ami great value. He was one of the pioneers
of Mesa county and the Plateau valley. He
was married in 1876 to .Miss Julia Rinnert and
they are the parents of six children, Gertie,
Edward, Cora. Roy and Ray, twins, and Earl.
All are living and in good health. Mr. Dit-
man is at this time ( 1904) one of the county
commissioners of Mesa county. In politics he
is a Republican, taking an active interest in
public affairs. In the fall of 1901 lie was
elected county commissioner, for a term of
three years, and is now chairman of the board.
He is a charter member of Mesa Lodge, N< >. 55,
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Grand
Junction, now- retaining his Masonic member-
ship in Plateau Lodge, No. 101, at Mesa, being
a charter member of this lodge also. He also
belongs to the Odd Fellows at Mesa and the
Elks at Grand Junction.
• JOHN WOLF.
John Wolf, of Mesa county, Colorado, a
prosperous and successful farmer living near
the village of Snipes, who has been a resident
of the state for thirty-one years and of the
county in which lie now resides for ten years
of the time, was born in Fayette county, Ohio,
in 1827, and is the son of Absalom and Re-
becca ( Ireland) Wolf, the former a native of
Ohio and the latter of Maryland, where her
family had lived from colonial times. When
their son John, who was the first born of their
six children, was about five years old, the fam-
ily moved to Indiana and engaged in farming,
the occupation in which the father had been
engaged in his former home. He died in Indi-
ana when he was about forty years of age. The
mother lived until about 1880, when she passed
away at the age of eighty years. John grew
to manhood and was educated in Indiana, re-
maining with his mother until he was twenty-
one, then starting out in life for himself as a
farmer, the pursuit to which he had been bred,
and following this until the beginning of th6
Civil war. He then enlisted in the Union
army as a member of the Ninth Indiana In-
fantry, Company G, for a term of three years.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
261
He saw active service during most of this term
and at its end, having escaped unhurt amid
the deluge of death in which he was often
placed, he obeyed the last call for volunteers
and again enlisted, this time in Company H,
One Hundred and Fifty-first Indiana Infantry.
his term of service being for the war, as it was
manifest it could not last a great while longer.
After the close of the awful conflict, he took
up his residence in Nebraska, and during the
next seven years was one of the progressive
farmers of that state. He then came to Colo-
rado, and for fifteen years was engaged in the
same pursuit in Larimer county, this state.
From Larimer he moved to Mesa county in
1894 and located where he now lives, where
he has since resided. He was married in 1854
to Miss Maria King, and they have had eleven
children, Hannah, Jackson, Marian. Lizzie,
Myrtle, Sadie, Ida, Henry (deceased at the age
of two years), Ernest and Emory.
GEORGE CORCORAN.
Coming to Colorado when he was thirteen
or fourteen years of age, and during the first
four years of his residence in the state occupied
in herding cattle on the range, thus learning the
stock industry by beginning at the bottom of
it. George Corcoran, of Mesa county, pleas-
antly located on an excellent ranch four miles
northeast of Grand Junction, is well qualified
for his business and is making a gratifying suc-
cess of it. He was born in Sullivan county,
Pennsylvania, in 1870. and is the son of
Michael and Katie (Beregan) Corcoran, the
former a native of Lockhaven, Pennsylvania,
and the mother of another part of that state.
They were prosperous farmers in their native
state, and there the mother died in 1874, leav-
ing two children, George and William. In
1883 the father brought his sons to Colorado
and settled in Grand valley, where he followed
ranching until his death, in 1897, at tne a £ e OI
sixty-four years. George began his education
in the public schools of Pennsylvania and com-
pleted it in those of this state. He started out
in life for himself at the age of twenty, taking
charge of his father's ranch, which he still
lives on and operates. He has pursued the
policy of careful and systematic industry which
his father began here, and has made it tell
impressively in the improvement of the place
and its increased productiveness. He was mar-
ried in 1903 to Miss Maggie Purcell, a native
of Wisconsin, but living at the time at Grand
Junction, where the marriage occurred. Mr.
Corcoran has bravely and cheerfully accepted
all the conditions of frontier life as he has
found them. During the first four years of
his residence here he rode the range with the
most daring, boy as he was, and found the life
exhilarating and full of wild enjoyment, even
though it was dangerous and often very ex-
hausting. He was repaid for all it cost him in
hardship and hazard by the vigor of body and
clearness of mind it gave him and the independ-
ence and self-reliance it engendered and de-
veloped in him.
SAMUEL L. PURDY.
Samuel L. Purdy, manager of the Mt. Lin-
coln water-power house near Palisades, Mesa
county, is a native of Pennsylvania and was
born there in 1843. He is a son of Eli and
Marantha (Haveland) Purdy. His father was
a native of New York and a stone mason by
trade. He invented the first screw propellor for
boats, and applied his device to a small boat on
the canal, which was washed away at the time
of the great break. And he. being poor and not
knowing the value of his discovery, made no
effort to recover the boat or equip another, and
so the credit for the invention went to another,
although there was doubtless no connection be-
262
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
tween the two, as Mr. Ericsson never heard of
this case. The father died in Pennsylvania
and the mother, who was a native of Ohio, died
in that state in 1879, when she was seventy-
five years old. Their son Samuel passed his
boyhood and youth in his native state, and
about the beginning of the Civil war he enlisted
in the One Hundred and Tenth Pennsylvania
Volunteer Infantry and was later transferred
to the Sixth United States Cavalry, regular
army, and he saw three years of the memor-
able contest, being in active service all of that
time and participating in several of the noted
engagements between the opposing armies.
After the war he came west to Iowa and in
1878 removed to Kansas. From there he came
to Colorado and settled at Grand Junction. He
is a carpenter and mason by trade, and for a
time wrought at these crafts in this section ; but
he is now superintendent of the Mt. Lincoln
water-power house, which controls the flow of
water into the irrigation canal of the High
Line Mutual Irrigation Company, that has done •
so much for the improvement of this section of
Mesa county. In 1865 Mr. Purdy was mar-
ried to Miss Eliza Sheeder, a native of Penn-
sylvania. They have had nine children, Man',
Elmer, Lottie, Carrie, Pearl, Willie, Effie ( de-
ceased), May and Harry. Mr. Purdy has been
active and industrious through life, living ac-
ceptably among his fellow men and winning on
li i -> merit their respect, which he enjoys in a
marked degree.
LEWIS H. EASTERLY.
While Lewis H. Easterly is prominently
identified with and actively engaged in the
ranch and stock business of western Colorado,
and is winning a substantial prosperity in it,
that line of activity does not constitute the
whole of his title to esteem and consideration
as one of the essential factors in the develop-
ment and progress of the section in which he
lives. His interest in the cause of public edu-
cation here and elsewhere has been of prime
importance to the people around him and has
resulted in the establishment of the educational
forces of his community on a broad and stable
basis. His life began at Murphysboro, Illinois,
in November, 1852, and he is the son of Philip
and Sarah (Jones) Easterly, the former a na-
tive of Greenville, Tennessee, and the latter of
Columbus, Ohio. The father was a blacksmith
and machinist by trade and also followed farm-
ing. He died in 1897, aged eighty-two. His
wife preceded him to the better world nearly
thirty years, dying in 1868, aged thirty-seven.
Their son Lewis remained at home until he
reached his twenty-second year, aiding on the
work of the farm and in his fathers shop, and
eagerly employing the limited opportunities for
education at his disposal. On starting out in
life for himself he taught school for six years
and attended the Illinois State University in
the intervals between the terms of his teaching
to secure a higher degree of efficiency. In 1878
he came to Colorado and during the next three
years taught school in Douglas and El Paso
counties. At the end of that period he settled
on the ranch of three hundred and twenty
acres which he now owns and occupies, located
about seven miles north of Gunnison. Here
he at once began to take an active interest in
the affairs of the community and to give his
attention especially to the enlargement and im-
provement of the school facilities of the neigh-
borhood, building the first schoolhouse on Ohio
creek, along which his ranch is located, and
becoming secretary of the local school board,
a position he has held for twenty-five years.
Being a practical teacher, he has been able to
see the needs and find the means of providing
them to make the school system effective, and to
his enterprise and breadth of view as well as
his technical knowledge in this respect the
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
263
community is greatly indebted for much that
is valuable in its schools. He has not, how-
ever, been wanting in attention to other in-
terests wherein the welfare of the people is in-
volved. He is secretary of the Gunnison Stock-
Growers' Association, which has been largely
augmented in usefulness and power through
his intelligent efforts, and has been connected
with other enterprises of value in the industrial
and commercial circles in which he moves. In
politics he is a Populist and Socialist, being in
favor of the better principles espoused by the
parties so named, and having broad views on
public questions generally, and is a man of in-
fluence in all matters of public interest. On
September 15, 1881, he was married at Salina,
Kansas, to Miss Cynthia Husband, a great-
granddaughter of Col. Herman Husband, of
the First Colonial Regulators of North Caro-
lina. The great-grandfather of the subject,
Conrad Easterly, was with Washington at Val-
ley Forge and in the campaigns before and after
that winter of terrible suffering.
J. H. PARTON.
With his childh 1 and youth darkened by
the awful shadow of our Civil war, and a press-
ing necessity upon him from an early age to
take care of himself and make his own way in
the world, J. H. Parton, of Palisades one of
the substantial and progressive citizens of Mesa
county, had a long and hard struggle to reach
the position of comfort and consequence that
he now occupies. He was born at Roseville,
Arkansas, in 1859, and is the son of Wil-
loughby and Miranda (Ground) Parton, the
former a native of France and the latter of
Arkansas. The father came to America when
he was a small boy and grew to manhood in
the middle West. He was shot to death by
bushwhackers in Arkansas in 1861, and was
buried in that state. The mother survived until
1886, then died, aged fifty-eight years. Their
son, J. H. Parton, was early thrown on his
own resources, beginning life for himself as a
cattle herder in Wyoming when a mere boy.
As he grew older he sought more ambitious
pursuits, first going to Leadville and freighting
in and out of that place during 1879 and 1880.
From there he moved to Gunnison, and two
months later to Denver. Soon after he began
work with a bridge gang on the Denver &
South Park Railway from Gunnison to Grand
Junction. In 1885 he located on a ranch in
Mesa count}' on Kannah creek, ivhere he car-
ried on stock raising until 1892, when he sold
his ranch interests and located at Grand Junc-
tion. In 1893 ne located at Palisades, where he
has since resided. He was employed by the
Mt. Lincoln Land and Water Company until
1899 and then engaged in carpenter work until
190 1, when he engaged in business at Palisades.
He was married, in 1885, to Miss Lottie Purdy,
of Grand Junction. They are the parents of
four children. Efhe, Millie, Irena and Louie.
Mr. Parton is a good business man, with an
abundance of energy and push, and he has lost
no ground in the battle of life that he has once
gained. His ventures have not all been as suc-
cessful as he could wish, but all have been
measurably so, and the present one is yielding
very satisfactory returns.
R. C. WISE.
The progressive and enterprising citizen of
Mesa county, Colorado, to whom this brief re-
view is dedicated, and who lives on a good
farm which he has brought to a high state of
cultivation and enriched with comfortable
buildings, located twelve miles east of Grand
Junction, is a native of Ohio, born at Ashta-
bula in 1846, and the son of Cornelius and
Betsy (Chatfield) Wise. The father was a na-
tive of Pennsylvania and a carpenter by trade,
264
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
and lived a life of useful industry, portions of
which were passed in his native state, Ohio,
Illinois and Missouri. He died in the last
named state in 187 2, at the age of sixty-four.
The mother, a native of Connecticut, died in
1868, at the age of forty-eight. Their son,
R. C. Wise, passed his boyhood in Ohio and
Illinois to the age of thirteen. In 1859 ne aG "
.companied his parents and the rest of the fam-
ily to Missouri, where he remained until 1862,
when he enlisted in Company D, Twelfth Mis-
souri Infantry, in defense of the Union, and in
that regiment he served to the close of the war.
He then went to California and for a number
of years was employed in driving stage in that
state. Returning to Nebraska, he conducted a
butchering business and meat market for seven
years, then moved to Leadville when the gold
excitement was at its height over that place.
Some little time later he left there and took
up his residence in Grand valley on the ranch
which has since then been his home. During
the Spanish-American war he enlisted for the
Philippine campaign in Company L, First Colo-
rado Volunteers, for a term of two years, and
at the end of his term returned to his old Mesa
county residence. He was married in 1884 to
Miss Lizzie Wallace, of Nebraska. She died in
1S88, leaving four children, Anna M.. Laura
B., James C. and Walter F., her age being
thirty-two years at the time of her death. Fra-
ternally Mr. Wise is connected with the Odd
Fellows (Lodge No. 58, at Colorado Springs),
the Red Men (Neago Tribe, No. 38, at Lake
City, Colorado), and the Knights of Pythias
(Lodge No. 8, at Salt Lake City. Utah).
JOHN T. GAVIN.
John T. Gavin, living near Fruita, nine
miles northwest of Grand Junction, is one of
the enterprising, progressive and broad-minded
citizens who have aided in pushing forward the
growth and development of Mesa county at its
rapid pace, and in building up its works of
public improvement. He is a native of Texas,
born in 1848, and the son of James H. and
Sarah (Colville) Gavin. The lather was a
native of Ireland and came to the United
States while he was yet a young man. After
his marriage he settled in Texas, and in 1849
joined a party of the argonauts of that year in
a trip to California. On the way he was
drowned in Green river, being at the time about
forty years of age. After his death his
widow removed with her family to Ar-
kansas, and there she died in 1898. aged
eighty-five. She was a native of Tennessee and
a woman of heroic spirit. When she lost her
husband she assumed the task of rearing her
family with a determination to lose no time
in repining, but by every honest effort to make
her work a success. She lived to see them all
well established in life and blessing her in daily
benedictions for her early sacrifices and tri-
umphs in their behalf. John T. passed his boy-
hood in Arkansas, receiving his education in
the public schools and at Ozark Institute at
Fayetteville, that state. At the beginning of
the Civil war he enlisted in Cavalry Company
C, of the Indian department of the Con-
federate army, and he served in that command
until the close of the war, surrendering to the
Federal forces at Marshall, Texas. He then
returned to Arkansas, and after teaching
school there two years, began to look toward
the farther West for his future opportunities.
In 1873 he came to Colorado, and settling in
Wet Mountain valley, engaged in farming and
prospecting for ten years. He then moved to
where he now lives in Grand valley, and where
he has a fine ranch with good improvements.
He was married in 1877 to Miss Sarah Duckett,
and they have three children, Orlando, Harry
Edward, the first white child born in Grand
valley, and Estella. In politics Mr. Gavin is
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
_•<;.=
an uncompromising Democrat. He was the
chief inspiration in the construction of the In-
dependent Ranchmen's Ditch through this
section.
EDWARD HEXRY.
Almost every clime and tongue on the face
of the globe has contributed to the growth
and development of this country, all in fact ex-
cept the benighted savages of several parts of
the world which are still under the dominion
of absolute barbarism. Edward Henry, a pros-
perous and enterprising stock-grower and
farmer of Mesa county, living seven miles
northwest of Grand Junction, is a contribution
from Persia, where he was burn in 1843. He
is the son of Frederick and Eliza Henry, of
that country, who were occupied there in till-
ing the soil. In 185 1 they emigrated to the
United States and settled at Sheboygan, Wis-
consin, where the father was engaged in farm-
ing until his death, in 1891, at the age of
seventy-four. The mother died three years be-
fore him, passing away in 1888, at the age of
seventy-two. Their offspring numbered eight,
of whom Edward was the third. He was eight
years old when he accompanied his parents to
this country and became a resident of Wiscon-
sin. He remained in that state until he was
thirteen, beginning to earn his own living when
he was eleven by working in the copper mines
and continuing this occupation for two years.
At the beginning of the Civil war he enlisted
in the Union army as a member of Company I,
Thirty-seventh Illinois Infantry, and in that,
command he served five years and three
months. After the close of the war he was
employed as a sailor on the great lakes for
five years. In 1874 he went to Alaska in search
of gold and was successful in his effort, re-
maining in that country three years and finding
a goodly store of the precious metal. From
Alaska he went to California and for three
years in that state was occupied in raising sheep.
He then came to this state and settled on a
ranch nine miles east of Grand junction. On
this property he lived and prospered for a
period of twenty years. At the end of that time
he moved to where he now lives and has since
made his home. In 1883 he was united in
marriage with Miss Eliza E. Bussall, and they
have four children. Dollie M.. Laura E., Fred
and Eddie. Mr. Henry is a Republican in
politics and is earnestly devoted to the inter-
ests of his adopted land.
WILLIAM O. CARTMEL.
Notwithstanding the enormous output of
the mines of Colorado and the great amount
of capital and number of persons interested in
the mining operations of the state, the stock
business continues to be one of the leading in-
dustries in these parts, and the men who are
engaged in it are important contributors to the
general weal in a number and variety of ways.
One of these is W. O. Cartmel, of Mesa county
whose ranch is located seven miles northwest
of Grand Junction, and is the seat of a thriving
and profitable cattle business which he has built
up from a small beginning. Mr. Cartmel was
born at Wabash, Indiana, in 1852, and is the
son of R. T. and Viola (Gibbs) Cartmel, the
former a native of Kentucky and the latter of
Ohio. In the childhood of their son William
O. they settled in Vernon county, Missouri, and
in the election of i860 the father was the only
man in that county who voted for Lincoln
for President. He was a merchant during
the greater part of his mature life, and died in
Missouri in 1892, aged seventy-three years.
His wife died in 1878, at the age of fifty-eight.
William O. Cartmel passed his boyhood and
early manhood in Missouri, receiving a good
common-school education there, and remaining
266
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
at home until after the death of his mother.
In 1879, when he was twenty-seven years old,
he came to Colorado and settled at Eaton, where
he remained about two years on a cattle and
sheep ranch. In 1882 he transferred his ener-
gies to Grand valley and there took up a pre-
emption claim of one hundred and sixty acres,
mi which he is still living and of which he has
made a fine, productive and attractive farm.
In 1887 he was married to Miss Jennie Davis,
a native of Pennsylvania. They have six chil-
dren, Jean, Albert, Gertrude, Zena, John and
William O., Jr. Mr. Cartmel is comfortable)
and prosperous, and in public affairs, as in his
own business, is enterprising and progressive.
He has been a potent factor in the development
of his portion of the county and had an in-
fluential voice in reference to all local matters
of importance. He is generally respected and
has many warm friends.
JAMES PAGE.
Station agent for the Denver & Rio
Grande Railroad at Whitewater, Mesa county,
since June. 1886, secretary of school district
No. 3 during the last fifteen years, and for
about twenty-one years postmaster here and
elsewhere, James Page has been of material
service to the people and the public utilities of
the county and this portion of the state. He
was born in Williams county, Ohio, in 1856,
and is the son of John and Margaret (Murray )
Page. The father is a native of London, Eng-
land, and came to the United States in 1840,
settling in Williams county, where since that
time he has been profitably engaged in farm-
ing, and where he still resides. His mother
was a native of Ireland and came to this coun-
try with her parents in childhood. They also
settled in Williams county, and there she was
reared and educated and married. There also
she died in 1864, at the age of thirty years.
They were the parents of four children, of
whom their son James was the second. He
grew to manhood on the paternal homestead
and was educated at the neighboring district
schools, remaining at home until he reached the
•age of twenty. He then started the business of
life for himself, farming for a year, at the end
of which he moved to Iowa, where he again en-
gaged in farming and studied telegraphy of
evenings. After completing his course and ac-
quiring facility in the art, he went to work for
the Chicago ,& Northwestern Railroad and re-
mained in its employ five years in Iowa. In
1882 he came to Colorado and for four years
resided at Riverside, Chaffee county. In June.
1886, he settled at Whitewater as station agent
for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad and has
served the great corporation in that capacity at
this point ever since. In the public life of this
community he has been active, zealous and
serviceable, applying to its every interest all
the force of a vigorous mind and the wisdom
acquired in a wide experience. He has been
secretary of his school district for fifteen years
and postmaster of the village almost ever since
his advent into it. In 1882. before leaving
Iowa, he was married to Miss Ella Park, of
Fairfax, that state. Their children are John,
Janet, Arthur and Fred.
R. A. BLAIR.
R. A. Blair, one of the successful merchants
of Mesa county, conducting an extensive trade
at his large and well-equipped store eleven
miles south of Grand Junction, near the village
of Whitewater, is a native of Pennsylvania,
born in Beaver county in 1829. His parents,
Joseph ami Mary 1 Henry) Blair, were also na-
tives of that state and of Scotch ancestry. The
father died at Centerville, Michigan, in 1885.
at the age 'if eighty-five, and the mother in
1891 at the same age. At nine years old the
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
267
subject moved to Delaware county, Ohio, and
there he grew to manhood and received his
education. When he was about twenty-three
years of age he started in life for himself, own-
ing a sawmill in Iowa. This he continued until
the second year of the Civil war. when he
joined the Union army, enlisting on August
8, 1862, in the Thirty-third Iowa Infantry for
a term of three years or during the war. At
the close of the contest he was honorably dis-
charged, and during the next two years was
engaged in railroading on the Union Pacific,
doing heavy contract work. From there he
went to Galveston, Texas, where he remained
four years and was occupied in building rail-
roads. From that period until 1880 he owned
a sawmill in Indian Territory and in 1880 he
came to Colorado and settled in Telluride, San
Miguel county, where he became busily occu-
pied in raising stock. In 1895 he sold out this
business and bought the store which he now
conducts and which is carried on with enter-
prise and vigor, having a large stock of gen-
eral merchandise especially adapted to the
needs of the community and supplying the
wants of an extensive trade. He was married
in 1856 to Miss Margaret McLain, and they
have two children, Charles B. and Lillian B.
In politics Mr. Blair is a zealous and loyal Re-
publican, but although taking an active part in
the campaigns of his party, he is not an office-
seeker or desirous of political preferment of
any kind. He is a citizen of public-spirit and
breadth of view, enterprising and progressive
and has contributed well to the advancement
and development of the county.
DELOS W. SAMPSON.
The stock industry of this country is in-
teresting as a subject of contemplation from
even- point of view. Its magnitude and com-
mercial importance strikes the imagination
forcibly, involving as they do the comfort of
millions on two continents, in those whom it
feeds and those who it employs and all who are
dependent on them. The food products and
the climatic conditions required for its support
and continuous growth as the demands on its
resources increase, involve another wide sweep
of vision embracing the physical features of
many latitudes and innumerable practical de-
tails of a business character. The elements of
comedy and tragedy which make up its daily
record and the lives of those who are engaged
in it, the cattle as well as the men. are other
features of engrossing interest on which the
whole world hangs enthralled, as is proven by
the universal and unceasing popularity of the
various wild west shows that are on the road
for purposes of entertainment, especially that
of "Buffalo Bill," whose fame is commensurate
with the boundaries of civilization and numbers
among its admiring patrons all classes and con-
ditions of men, women and children. Of this
great industry Delos W. Sampson, of Gunnison
county, this state, living three miles north of
the town of Gunnison, is an enterprising and
progressive beneficiary and representative. He
began his connection with it in one of its
humblest capacities, and has passed through
all its gradations to the rank of a master. Mr.
Sampson was born in Illinois in 1861. and is
the son of James T. and Anna ( Mumphord)
Sampson, natives of Pennsylvania and now liv-
ing retired from active pursuits at Canon City,
this state. The father was for years actively
occupied in the stock business himself, and
it was near the place of his present home that
the son began his apprenticeship, starting in
life for himself at the age of sixteen as a cow
puncher, from which position he gradually rose
to such consequence that he now owns and
operates a ranch and stock business of his own,
and has raised it to a high state of development
with augmenting profits. The limited com-
268
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
mi ►n-school education which he received was
obtained before he left his native state of
Illinois, for since coming to Colorado he has
been busily employed all the time in the cattle
interest, with neither opportunity nor inclina-
tion to quit it for more advanced schooling.
He remained near Canon City until 1890, then
moved to the vicinity of Gunnison, where he
has since resided and been engaged in ranch-
ing on his own account. He knows his business
from the ground up through practical ex-
perience in every phase of it, and is therefore
able to manage it with success and vigor in a
way that makes every investment of time,
energy and money tell. Mr. Sampson was mar-
ried in 1884 to Miss Ella Kimmel, a native of
Illinois, and three children have blessed their
union, their sons Guy J., Claud C. and
Charlie W.
J. S. HOLLINGSWORTH.
J. S. Hollingsworth, one of the progressive
and enterprising fruit men of Mesa county,
living in the vicinity of Grand Junction, is a
Southerner by birth and training, and has all
the independence of thought and action and the
self reliance characteristic of that section.
He is a native of Raleigh, North Caro-
lina, bom in 1832, and the son of John and
Araminta (Hobbs) Hollingsworth, the fifth of
their twelve children. His boyhood and youth
were spent in his native state and he received
his education in its district schools. At the
age of twenty-one he crossed the plains to
Sacramento, California, driving ox teams for
McCord & Company from St. Joseph. Missouri.
to that city. Most of the intervening country
was wholly unoccupied by white men, and the
Indians, always crafty and treacherous, were
at the time hostile too, and the expedition with
which lie was connected had a great deal of
trouble with them, a number of the men in the
outfit being killed and wounded. He remained
in Lassen county, California, until i860 en-
gaged in mining and prospecting, then moved
to Silver City, Idaho, where he passed a year,
after which he was occupied for four years
prospecting in the British possessions. From
there he came again to the United States, and
purchasing a band of horses at The Dalles in
Oregon, drove them to the Green river coun-
try in Wyoming, where he sold them at a good
profit. He then went to Fort Laramie, in
that state, and secured a contract to put up hay
and wood for the United States government.
At the conclusion of this engagement he made
his way to the Black Hills in Dakota, and there
spent some time mining and prospecting at
Deadwood and Custer City. In the autumn of
1879 he took up his residence at Salida, this
state, where he remained until 1882 when he
came to Grand Junction. Here he followed
farming on the plateau for three years, then
moved down on Grand river and lived in the
canyon until the railroad trains killed his cat-
tle. This forced him to move again and he pur-
chased the place he now occupies, comprising
about fifteen acres of land and devoted to rais-
ing apples. He has been successful in this en-
terprise, the soil and other conditions being
well adapted to the business, and has secured
,1 good rank among the producers of choice
fruit in this part of the country. He has also
been active and serviceable in aiding the de-
velopment and improvement of the section,
serving as road master while living on the
plateau and in other capacities then and since.
He is a Democrat in politics, and gives the
principles and candidates of his party loyal
support at all times. In 1875 he was united in
marriage with Miss Mary Conway, a native of
Canada, who aids greatly in making his home
attractive to his numerous friends and dispens-
ing the generous hospitality for which it is
widely known.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
HENRY G. WURTZ.
Henry G. Wurtz, of Mesa county, who lives
on a fertile and well improved farm not far
from the city of Grand Junction, is actively en-
gaged in the cultivation of hue fruit, an in-
dustry that is a leading one in its way in that
section, and has helped to make it well and
widely known in all parts of a large so
territory. Ami while his effort:; in this line
are of comparatively recent origin, they have
been rewarded with a very gratifying success
and prosperity. He brought to the business
an intelligence and technical knowledge gained
in an extensive and judicious observation, and
has followed it with a vigor and judgment
bound to command success under almost am
conditions at all favorable to the work. Mr.
Wurtz was born in 1845, at Louisville, Ken-
tucky, the son of Godfrey and Elizabeth 1 Bas-
ler) Wurtz, natives of Germany, who came to
the United States soon after their marriage and
settled at Louisville, where they had a family
of four children, their son Henry being the first
born. His mother died when he was about
six years old. and he was thus early left to
himself for training and proper preparation for
the battle of life, in which he was also obliged
to engage at an early age. He grew to man-
hood in his native city, and after brief and ir-
regular attendance at the public schools owing
to the circumstances of the family, was ap-
prenticed to learn the carpenter's trade, which
he mastered and then followed it in connection
with contracting and building at Louisville
until 1880. He then moved to Kansas where
he remained a year working at his trade. At
the end of that time he came to Colorado and
went into the employ of the Santa Fe Railroad.
remaining in that service three months until
the line was completed to Pueblo. A few days
later he joined the force that was building the
road to Bridgeport, and after that was finished
came to Grand Junction and went to work for
the VIormons to aid in building a road for
them to State Line: This contract being com-
pleted, he settled down at Grand Junction and
began to work regularly at his business 3 .,
contractor and builder, finding his services
much in demand under the spirit of progress
and development then pushing forward the
growth of the town. He also engaged in the
ice business and in bottling soda water, which
he fi >llowed for eight years, at the end of which
he leased his plant and good will and retired
from active commercial life in all those lines
and began to devote himself to the occupation
in which he is now pleasantly engaged, settling
for the purpose on land located on the bank of
Grand river, and there winning from the waste
his present attractive and fruitful home called
Grove Park Orchard, on which he has de-
veloped a fruit industry of good proportions
and high grade. His place is well improved,
and all that it shows as the result of careful
and skillful husbandry is the work of his own
enterprise. His products are peaches, apples,
apricots, pears and cherries, but he also pro-
duces in large quantities excellent varieties of
cantaloups. Mr. Wurtz was married in 1892
to Miss Louisa La Gard. a native of Louisiana.
He has been active in advancing the interests
of fruit culture in every way. combining for
mutual benefit the efforts of those engaged in
it by organizing the Fruit Growers' Assi iciation
through which the literature of the industry
has been brought prominently to the attention
of the members, and their own experience and
observations have been made serviceable in a
forceful way.
W. A. KENNEDY.
Prominent and successful as a fruit-grower
'Hi a small farm located one mile and a half
north of Grand junction, which is as far re-
270
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
nowned for the quality of its output as for the
quantity, W. A. Kennedy lias contributed by
his industry and skill much to the comfort and
enjoyment of the people of his section and has
added a new commodity to the marketable
produce of its soil. He was born at Rockford
in Blount county. Tennessee, in the year 1854.
the son of A. A. and Sarah E. ( Martin) Ken-
nedy, also natives of that state. They moved
from there to Dallas, Texas, where the father
remained until his death in 1883, aged about
sixty-five years. His wife died in Colorado
in 1 89 1 at about the same age. They were the
parents of seven children, their son W. A. being
the third. His boyhood to the age of twelve
was passed in his native state. He then ac-
companied his parents and the rest of the fam-
ily to Texas, and after leaving school was en-
gaged in keeping a hotel in connection with
his father at Dallas for a number of years. In
1885 he came to Colorado and settled at Grand
Junction where he kept a restaurant and short-
order house for about a year. He then pur-
chased five acres of unimproved wild land and
began to put it into condition for the production
of fruit. He has since brought it to a good
state of productiveness for this purpose and
added another purchase of four acres, which is
also rewarding his industry with good returns.
Both properties are well improved and yield
abundantly and he is an acknowledged au-
thority in the business. At first, while his trees
were growing, and before they began bearing,
his plan was to plant the ground between them
in strawberries which brought him in a good
income until the larger fruit became available.
In [082 he was married to Miss Josephine Pay-
ton, a native of Missouri, where her parents
spent their lives. They have two children,
Lynn and Kay. In addition to his business,
which has been a means of improving the
general conditions and commercial wealth of
the community, Mr. Kennedy has actively con-
tributed his time and energy in support of every
commendable undertaking for the advancement
and improvement of the section in which he
lives, proving himself to be a man of public
spirit and enterprise in public affairs as well as
in his private interests; and while not an active
partisan or office seeker, has given loyal adher-
ence to the principles of the Democratic party
and faithful and helpful support to its candi-
dates. He is well esteemed also in social cir-
cles, and has a host of friends who appreciate
his worth and admire the uprightness and force
of character exemplified by him.
ROBERT A. ORR.
Residing in a fine home one mile north of
Grand Junction, where he is actively engaged
in raising excellent fruit and superior grades
of stock, and connected with several of the lead-
ing commercial ami mining industries of the
country. Robert A. Orr is one of the promi-
nent and successful business men of Mesa
county and a representative citizen of high
standing and general esteem in his community.
He was born on February 1 1. 1855, in the cen-
tral part of Kentucky, the son of Oscar F. and
Elizabeth (Evans) Orr, natives of Kentucky
and descendants of some of the early pioneers
of the state. The father was reared on a farm
in his native state and remained there until
1873. He then moved to Missouri and set-
tled in Cooper county, where he is still living at
the age of seventy-eight. The mother is also
living and her age is seventy-six. They are
the patents of nine children, of whom Robert
was the third. He passed his boyhood on his
father's farm in Kentucky, and received his
education in the district schools of the vicinity.
At the age of eighteen lie moved with his par-
ents to Missouri where he remained until
t88o, when he came to Denver, this state ar-
riving: on the morning" when the excavation
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
work for the Union depot was begun. After a
residence of three years in Denver, during
which he was employed in the nursery of Hal-
lock & Grimes and in planting trees for the city
around the court house and other public build-
ings, he came to Grand Valley in April, 1883.
at which time he purchased the Grand Junction
interests of the Denver Nursery Company, and
here took charge of the same, rearing the first
fruit trees grown in this section. Three years
later he moved to his present site cm what was
then unimproved land through which the old
Salt Lake road lay, cutting between his house
and where his packing house now stands, and
which was then a dry, barren sand hill. Here
he has been successfully engaged in fruit
culture, raising apples, pears and peaches for
an extensive and exacting market. He is an
experimenter as well as a grower, and has pro-
duced a choice variety of apple known as "Orr's
Long Keeper," which is in great demand. He
was one of the organizers of the Grand Junc-
tion Fruit Growers' Association in 1892 and
has been a director of the same since its for-
mation and at present is serving as vice-presi-
dent. The association is one of the strongest
and most prosperous in the United States and
did nearly three hundred and fifty thousand
dollars' worth of business in 1903, earning
profits to the stockholders of more than thirty
per cent. He is also interested in the stock in-
dustry with the ambition to produce fine
horses and other stock, and is president of the
Mesa Lumber Company. He has stock in valu-
able oil wells and coal mines, and is a director
of the new Union Bank and Trust Company
at Grand Junction. To all the business in-
terests which he has in charge he gives care
and intelligent attention, and he makes the rm >-t
of his opportunities in this way. being a man
of excellent business capacity and great energy.
In 1886 he was married to Miss Minnie Ken-
nedv. a native of Knoxville, Tennessee, and
they have two children. Pern and Kenneth.
Their home is one of the most attractive in this
part of the county, and all its appurtenances and
features are in good taste and bespeak the cul-
ture and refinement of its inmates. Mr. Orr
is one of the highly respected and representative
men of the county, with an influence always
used for the best interests of his portion of
the state and its people.
JOSEPH P. SWENEY.
Justice of the Peace and Police Magistrate
Joseph P. Sweney, of Grand Junction, whose
official record is clear and strong, and who has
been an effective force for good in the preser-
vation of the peace and order of the community,
and has aided materially in sustaining the dig-
nity and power of legal authority among the
people, is a native of Milton. Northumberland
county, Pennsylvania, where he was born in
[846. His parents were Montgomery W. and
Clarinda ( Penney ) Sweney, also natives of
Pennsylvania. The father was a merchant and
carried on a successful business in his native
state f< >r years ami afterward in Illinois and Ne-
braska at different times. The family moved
to Illinois in 1853, and during the Civil war
the father was a captain on a Mississippi river
steamboat. His last days were passed in Ne-
braska, where he died in 1875. at the age of
seventy. The mother passed away three years
earlier, aged sixty-five. They were the parents
of five children, of whom their son Joseph was
the third in the order of birth. He spent his
boyhood and youth in Pensylvania and Illinois,
and after leaving school filled the position of
bookkeeper ami paymaster in the coal regions
of the latter. In 1886 he came to Grand Junc-
tion and opened a hardware store, which he
conducted until the spring of 1889, having
varying success. He was always active in the
affairs of the community and displayed execu-
2-72
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
tive and administrative ability of such an order
that in 1887 he was elected mayor of the town,
and in the discharge of his duties in that office
he won commendation from all classes of the
citizens. In 1893 he was appointed United
States commissioner, and was elected a justice
of the peace and has been continuously re-
elected ever since. He has also been police
magistrate for the last eight years. His ju-
dicial knowledge and temperament, his love of
justice and his clearness of vision in discern-
ing the true inwardness of cases, and more-
over, his general devotion to the interests of
the community, make him an exceptionally fair
and capable official, and all good citizens feel
that the welfare of the city is safe in his hands
as far as he has control of it, while the turbu-
lent and lawless elements fear and respect him.
He is in private life a genial and companion-
able gentleman, adding to the social features
of the town an element of value through the
courtesy of his manner, the variety and extent
of his information and the felicity of his ex-
pression on all topics of current thought. In
all the constituents of good citizenship he has
a high rank in the public estimation, and as a
man he enjoys the respect and good will of
all who come in contact with him.
JOHN B. MANN.
John P.. Mann, of Grand Junction, the ef-
ficient and accommodating clerk of Mesa
countv, came into being in the midst of our
Civil war, having been born in 1863, in Fre-
mont county, Iowa, the son of Archibald and
Drucilla Ann (Williamson) Mann, natives of
Virginia. The father while yet in his child-
hood moved with his parents to Indiana where
he was reared and educated, attending the pub-
lic schools and also the college at Greencastle.
Ik- remained at home, occupied in tin- work on
the paternal farm until 1859, when he located
a place of his own in Iowa, and there by in-
dustry and thrift he prospered and reared a
family of children numbering nine, seven of
whom are living. He was endowed by nature
with force of character and self-reliance, and
with a commendable independence of thought
and action ; and these qualities have made him
successful in life's battle and given him promi-
nence and influence among the people of his
community where he is generally respected after
a long life of usefulness. He is still a resident
of Iowa and retired from active pursuits, hav-
ing reached the age of seventy-six. His wife
is also living, at the age of seventy-two. Her
birth-place was the historic old town of Lynch-
burg, Virginia, where her family have been
people of consequence from colonial days. Her
parents were Henry and Drucilla (Best) Wil-
liamson, and they emigrated from their native
state to Missouri and later to Iowa where they
died at venerable ages. John B. Mann is the
fifth child of his parents and passed his boy-
hood and youth and received his education in
Iowa, being graduated from the Indianola
Commercial College in that state in 1886. In
the spring of 1887 he came to Colorado, and
after living a few months at Salida, removed to
Grand Junction and accepted employment as
a clerk and salesman in the grocery store of
his brother, A. G. Mann. Being a young man
of energy and ambition, he found a fruitful
field for his capacities in politics, and became
an ardent worker in the Republican ranks, in
which his services have been so effective and
so highly appreciated that in T902 he was nomi-
nated as the candidate of his party for the office
of county clerk, and he was elected by a good
majority at the ensuing election. Since taking
charge of the office he has been performing its
important duties with assiduity and skill, giving
its patrons general satisfaction by his prompt-
ness, ability and courtesy, and looking well to
the interests of the countv. lie was not. how-
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
2 73
ever, without experience in public office, hav-
ing- served as deputy assessor under G. W.
Caldwell in 1896 and 1897. ^ n fraternal re-
lations he is .active in the Masonic fraternity,
in lodge and chapter, in the Odd Fellows and
the Woodmen of the World. In 1898 he was
married to Miss Sarah 1). McCarry, a native of
Virginia and daughter of C. P. and Mary
(Wiggan) McCarry, of Denver. Mr. Mann
is a young gentleman of unusual promise and
ability, and with his enterprise and zeal and
the popular qualities which he possesses in
large measure, he would seem to have a future
of prominence and influence in the rising sec-
tion of the country in which he has cast his lot.
He enjoys the confidence and esteem of the
people on every hand, and is well worthy of
their highest regard.
JOHN E. WHIPP.
John E. Whipp, deputy county treasurer of
Gunnison county, is a native of Iowa, born in
1859. He was reared to the age of twenty-one
in his native state and Kansas and received
a common-school education there. In 1S80, de-
siring to see something of the world, and also
to find enlarged opportunity for the employ-
ment of his energies, he came to Colorado in
company with a brother and located for a short
time at Georgetown, Clear Creek county.
From there he came to Gunnison and the fol-
lowing spring, 1 88 1, moved to Crested Butte,
where he engaged in mining for others, at the
same time prospecting for himself. He fol-
lowed these exciting but not always remuner-
ative occupations until January, 1804, when he
qualified and entered upon his official duties as
county assessor, an office to which he had been
elected in the previous fall as the candidate of
the Populist party. He served in this position
two years, and at the end of his term bought a
newspaper called the People's Champion, which
he conducted until the spring of 1898, when he
went to Alaska, remaining till November of
the same year prospecting through the Copper
river country. He then returned to Gunnison
and soon after was appointed deputy count)
treasurer, a position which he is still holding
and in which he is exhibiting a capacity and
faithfulness to every trust that is gratifying to
his friends, satisfactory to the people of the
county and highly creditable to himself. He
knows the county well and is loyal to its every
interest. At the same time his official career
has been marked by considerate regard for the
rights and the feelings of every individual citi-
zen, omitting nothing of the most exacting re-
quirements on the one hand, and avoiding every
form of oppression and discourtesy on the
other. Mr. Whipp was married in August,
1891, to Miss Fannie Bray, a native of Illinois
and daughter of Andrew and Celes (St. Cair)
Bray, residents of Gunnison who came here to
reside in the spring of 1,881, and have since
been among the most respected and popular
citizens of the place.
WILLIAM WATSON.
Inasmuch as the human family is not yet
thoroughly harmonized in feeling, exalted in
purpose or convergent in effort, and knaves
and dastards and midnight brawlers are still
among us, necessitating multitudinous police.
tipstaves, sheriffs and other officers of the law
to keep men from plundering or throttling one
another, or otherwise disturbing the peace of
the community, it is always a comfort to know-
that the men selected for the administration
of the important functions of restraining the
lawless and preserving the peace are men of
courage and resourcefulness, of high character
and capability, and of unrelenting fidelity to
duty, as is the case in Gunnison county, this
state. And anions: the number none stands
2 7 4
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
higher or more deservedly secure in the public
regard than the present sheriff, William Wat-
son, on whose official record the people have
set the seal of their approval by a second elec-
tion to the office in which he has rendered
them such signal service. Mr. Watson was
born in 1867 in Trumbull county, Ohio, where
his parents, James and Elizabeth (McFarlan)
Watson, settled about the year 1840. They are
natives of Scotland and emigrated to America,
settling in Canada in early life. In 1837 they
became residents of Pennsylvania, where they
remained about three years, then moved to
Ohio, and during the next ten years they lived
and flourished in that state. Still having a
taste for the frontier, and seeing brighter
hopes and larger opportunities in the wake of
the setting sun, they moved in 1850 to Iowa,
and for twenty-seven years contributed by their
industry and inspiring example to the progress
and development of that section of the country.
In 1877 they took another flight toward the
Pacific, settling at Trinidad, this state, from
whence they moved four or five years later to
Crested Butte, and from there came to reside
at Gunnison four years ago. They have
reached the age of seventy, and are now pass-
ing the evening of life in peace and comfort,
surrounded by respecting and admiring
friends, and in full enjoyment of the esteem of
the people among whom they live. Their
family consisted of six children, the Sheriff
being the fourth in the order of birth. His
childhood was passed in Ohio and Iowa, and he
began his education in the public schools of the
latter. In 1877, at the age of ten, he accom-
panied his parents and the rest of the family
to Colorado, where he finished his education
and grew to manhood. When he reached the
age of nineteen he started in life for himself
as a miner in the Baldwin coal fields, where he
was employed eight or nine years. Following
thai experience he was engaged in mining at
Crested Butte for five years and was then
elected marshal of that town. In 1899. while
serving as marshal of Crested Butte, he was
elected sheriff of the county on the Republican
ticket, and at the end of his first and second
terms was re-elected as the candidate of the
same party. The county is very large and
the most of its surface is broken up by mighty
mountain ranges, which make travel over it
dangerous and trying to an unusual degree,
and the duties of the sheriff are correspond-
ingly enlarged in volume and difficulty. But
Sheriff Watson has met the requirements in a
masterful way and won general commendation
by his fidelity, promptness and efficiency. He
is also engaged in the livery business, which
he conducts on the same high plane of business
capacity and successful management that char-
acterizes his performance of official duties. He
takes an active interest in the social and fra-
ternal life of the community, being himself a
g'ood entertainer and an appreciative listener to
the efforts of others. He belongs to the Ala-
sonic order, the Woodmen of the World, the
Redmen and the Knights of Pythias, with
membership in lodges of these orders at Gun-
nison. On December 4, 1887, he was mar-
ried to Miss Emily Gibson, a native of Scot-
land who came to the United States with her
parents while she was yet very young. Two
children have blessed their union, William J.
and John W., both of whom are living at home
and attending school. v
C. D. SEELEY.
C. D. Seeley, of Hotchkiss. who until two
years ago was one of the enterprising farmers
near the town of Gunnison, is a native of M.c-
Kean county, Pennsylvania, where he was born
in 1853. the son of William and Charlotte
(Springer) Seeley. lie remained a! home
until he was sixteen years of age, securing his
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
275
education at the public schools and being reared
to habits of useful industry on his father's
farm. In 1869 he came with his father to
Colorado, and in 1876 went to the country of
San Juan where he remained two years en-
gaged in prospecting. He then moved to Den-
ver, and after a residence of a year in that
city, located near Gunnison where he was en-
gaged in farming on his own account until
1894, when he came to Delta county, where
he has since resided. He was married in 1881
to Miss Martha Seaman, a native of Missouri.
They have had seven children, Laura, Lucetta,
Ada, Leonard, Virgie and Lula, the other being
now deceased.
HARTLEY A. METCALF.
H. A. Metcalf was born in 1849, in Cattar-
augas county, New York, the son of Zephi and
Harriet (Gould) Metcalf, who were natives of
New York and came West early in their mar-
ried life, living successfully in Wisconsin,
Minnesota, Missouri, Illinois and Kansas,
traveling to the last named state in 1807 by
teams. In i860 the father joined the Pike's
Peak stampede, but after a short time returned
to his home in Missouri. Their son Hartley
accompanied them in their wanderings, ami
after securing a limited education in the public
schools of the different localities in which they
happened to live from time to time, became in
his early manhood something of a wanderer
himself on his own account, leaving home in
T872 for Colorado and arriving at Denver on
October 11, 1873. He then drew a hand-cart
from that city to Del Norte, accompanied by
three companions, and in that neighborhood
prospected for a time. In 1874 he helped to
construct the toll road from Saguache to the
forks of the Las Animas river, a distance of
about one hundred and forty miles. The road
passed through Lake City, which at that time
had not been laid out. Later he entered the
employ of E. T. Hotchkiss in looking after
his interests in the road and continued in that
capacity several years. He also helped to build
the first house on the present site of Lake City
in 1874 and with his partner built and floated
the first boats on Lake San Cristobol. In 1882
he .came to Delta county and located at Hotch-
kiss, where he bought forty acres of unim-
proved land to which he has given his atten-
tion since, developing it into a fine little farm
and making it rich and productive.
Mr. Metcalf was married September 20,
1880, to Ella May Hotchkiss, who was born
near Denver, Colorado, and is a daughter of
Enos T. and Hannah (Seele) Hotchkiss. na-
tives of Pennsylvania, who were among the
pioneers of Colorado. The father was one of
the first settlers of the North Fork valley,
while it was an Indian reservation and a part
of Gunnison count}-. He took up the land on
which the village of Hotchkiss is now located,
in fact he laid out and started the town. He
was for many years actively identified with the
upbuilding of the place and died at his home
in Hotchkiss in January. 1900. His widow
survives him and resides here. Mr. and Mrs.
Metcalf are the parents of six children, four
of whom are living, as follows: Minnie L..
Bennett A., Roy Z. and Monett G Those de-
ceased are Verne II. and Lawrence, the former
dying at the age of eight years and the latter
at five months. Mr. Metcalf is independent
in politics.
JAMES M. BLAIR.
James M. Blair, of Delta, who as an active
town and county official in several places has
rendered valuable service to the community in
which he lived in helping to subdue the lawless
element and bring criminals to justice is justly
entitled to lie named in any record of the
achievements of enterprising and progressive
276
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
men of the section of his home, is now living
retired from active pursuits at Delta after a
long and varied career of usefulness in which
he has fearlessly faced clanger in peace and
war and met every responsibility in life with
a straightforward and manly spirit, whether it
involved patience in endurance or courage in
action. He is an Ohioan by nativity, born in
1837, the son of William and Phoebe (Atkins)
Blair, natives of Kentucky who settled in Ohio
soon after the close of the war of 18 12, in
which the father was a soldier and loyally
served the cause of his country. They were
married in Kentucky and when they settled in
Ohio located in Logan county where they were
engaged in farming for a few years, then
moved to Champaign county, where they re-
mained until the autumn of 1851, when they
moved to Iowa and took up their residence in
Wapello county. From there they removed in
1868 to Monroe county where they Spent the
rest of their lives, the father dying in 1874
aged eighty-eight, and the mother in 1876,
aged eighty-four. They had twelve children.
of w hi >m James was the eighth. The first four-
teen years of his life were passed in his native
state. He then accompanied his parents to
Iowa and there completed his education and
grew to man's estate. At the age of twenty-
one he started in life for himself, taking charge
of the home farm and caring for his parents
until the beginning- of the Civil war. In 1862.
011 August 15th, he enlisted in Company 1).
Thirty-sixth Iowa Infantry, and from then
until August 25, 1865, he was in active service
with his regiment and saw much of the hard-
ship and suffering of the war. Being mustered
out at Dubuque, he returned to his old home
and there followed farming until 1869. In
that year he came to Colorado, staging the
route from Cheyenne to where Longmont now
is. Here he stopped and remained until 1878.
working at his trade as a plasterer, which he
had previously acquired, and taking an active
part in the affairs of the settlement. He served
as town constable one term and was collector
the third year. In his official position he was
frequently called into service as an aid in up-
holding the peace and good order of the com-
munity, being one of the force that captured
the outlaw William Dubois, who killed Deputy
Postmaster Edward Kinney in 1S71, and in
many other hazardous and thrilling encounters
with evil-doers, notably the capture of the
man who committed a daring robbery of a
jewelry store in Longmont. bringing him in
within four days. He also helped to lay out
the first road between Longmont and Evans, a
distance of forty miles. He was not. however,
without official experience before coming to'
this state, having been elected county clerk of
Monroe county, Iowa, before leaving there.
In 1S79 he moved to Idaho Springs where he
worked at his trade and followed mining until
1800, discovering and locating, along with
1 ither valuable properties, the Douglas group
of mines. In 1890 he located at Salida and
during the next three years was occupied with
his trade and also in farming. He took up his
residence at Delta in 1893. a,1( l lint '' l 9°°
found plenty of profitable employment as a
plasterer, his craft being in almost continual
requisition in the progressive community in
which he had located himself. In the year last
named he determined to retire from active
business and move into the spacious and at-
tractive seventeen-room town house which he
owns and there spend the remainder of his
daws. He was married in 1874 to Miss Sarah
E. Ainsworth, a native of Belvidere, Illinois,
and they have had eight children, six of whom
are living. Mabel (Mrs. Smith). Harry, Min-
nie W., Guy. Ernest and Hazel. A daughter
named Cora died at Idaho Springs, and an-
other named Josephine at Delta. Mr. Blair has
lived a serviceable life in this community, and
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
277
has been actively identified with many of the
leading enterprises concerned in its develop-
ment and improvement, as he has elsewhere
where he has lived, and is highly respected by
the whole people.
JAMES H. SHIPPEE.
James II. Shippee displayed his courage
and patriotism on many a bloody field in de-
fense of the Union during our unhappy Civil
war and won high commendation from his
superior officers in that destructive strife and
a decoration from his native state for the valor
and other soldierly qualities he exhibited. He
was born in 1839 at Halifax, Vermont, the first
born of the nine children that composed the
household of his parents. James S. and Mary
A. (Roberts) Shippee, the former a native of
Saratoga county, New York, who moved to
Vermont when a young man and there engaged
in farming until his death, at eighty-five years
of age, in 1879, his summons coming while he
was temporarily in his native county. The
mother is a native of Vermont, born November
12, 1S01, and is still living at the age of more
than one hundred and three years, having been
for more than twenty years of the time a resi-
dent of Rowe, Massachusetts. Their son
James passed his minority at the paternal home-
stead and was educated in the district schools
in the vicinity. At the age of twenty-one he
enlisted in Company A, Second Vermont In-
fantry, in which he rendered gallant service
for a term of nineteen months, receiving a dis-
tressing wound at the battle of Savage Station
and being discharged on November 29, 1862.
He then returned to Vermont and was married
to Miss Eveline Voyce, after which he settled
down to farming, which he followed until Sep-
tember 14, 1863, when he again enlisted, be-
coming a member of Company M, Eleventh
Vermont Infantry, in which he served twenty-
three months, participating in many hard-
fought battles and being wounded three times.
He served until the close of the war. being
mustered out August 10, 1865. at Brattleboro,
Vermont. During his term of service in the
latter regiment he was wounded at Cold Har-
bor and at the last charge on Petersburg. In
addition to these engagements he took part in
the battles of Bull Run. Savage Station. An-
tietam, Williamsburg, Fredericksburg. Win-
chester, Gettysburg, Spottsylvania, Cedar
Creek, Fisher's Hill and Vicksburg. One of
liis cherished mementos is a memorial given
him by the state of Vermont on account of his
excellent military record in the war, which al-
though an unusual testimonial of appreciation
was but a just tribute to merit and unselfish
service in the midst of great danger and dif-
ficulties where human life was the stake and
death seemed ever eager to win it. At the close
of the war he again returned to his native state
and was prosperously occupied in farming
there until 1807, when he moved to Iowa.
Here for two years he followed the same pur-
suit, and at the end of that time sold out and
became a resident of Nebraska, remaining until
1876. In that year his wife died and he re-
turned to Vermont where he passed the next
two years. In 1878 he came to Colorado and
located at Red Cliff, in what is now Eagle
county. In that town he was one of the first
city marshals and gave the people excellent
service in helping to establish the municipal
government and in safely conducting it after-
ward. Subsequently he lived at different times
in various parts of the West, and in 1897 came
to Delta and purchased a farm one mile from
the town, on which he lived for a time, then
sold it and bought two houses in town and re-
tired from active business pursuits. He has,
however, taken an earnest interest in the good
of the place, and has accentuated his devotion
to its welfare by acceptable and appreciated
278
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
service as night marshal, resigning this position
to engage in business in January, 1904. His
family consists of seven children, all of whom
are living except one. He is an active and
prominent member of the Grand Army of the
Republic and in politics is independent.
STEPHEN A. BOYCE.
Stephen A. Boyce, of Delta, one of the
prominent and successful business men of
western Colorado, has had a varied and in-
teresting career in different parts of the South-
west and West, and although the lines of life
have at times been rugged and stern' for him,
he is of the fiber that does not shirk from en-
durance or shirk a duty because it may be un-
pleasant. He is a native of Texas, bom in
1865, and his parents were Isaac and Caroline
(Wilkinson) Boyce, the former a native of
Mississippi and the latter of Missouri. The
father emigrated to Texas in 1834 and became
one of the early promoters of the stock industry
which has grown to such great proportions in
that state. He aided in building the first resi-
dence in the now flourishing and beautiful capi-
tal of the state, and was one of the substantial
contributors to its early growth and progress.
In 1865 he crossed the plains with ox teams
to California, where he remained until 1871
engaged in the stock business. He then re-
turned to Texas and again became prosperous
and prominent in the stock industry and farm-
ing there, following these occupations until his
death in 1884, at the age of sixty. Tbe mother
also became a resident of Texas in 1834, mov-
ing there with her parents at that time from
her native state. She was married in her new
home and died there February 5, 1904, at tbe
age of seventy-six. They were the parents of
eleven children, Stephen being the seventh son.
His school days were passed in his native place,
and they were limited in extent and the proper
facilities for an education. At the age of
seventeen he began life's work for himself, en-
gaging in the general occupation of his section
at the time, and the one to which he had been
bred, the stock business. His first work of
magnitude was a journey by trail from Texas
to Dodge City, Kansas, which he made in 1882.
From there he traveled over a trail to the Big
Horn mountain in northern Wyoming, where
he remained until the fall of 1884, then went
to New Mexico, finding profitable employment
in that territory until 1889. At that time he
returned to his Texas home, and in the spring
of 1892 came again to Wyoming and later to
Colorado. In 1899 he settled at Delta where
he has since lived and been actively engaged
in raising stock and dealing on a large scale in
real-estate and the loan business. He has been
successful in his business and is one of the best
known and most prominent men of this section
in his lines. He has also had a gratifying
success in mining, being the discoverer and
owner of the Flossie B. copper mine and other
valuable properties in the mining regions. He
was married in 1897 to Miss Flossie E. Gaddis,
who is one of the ornaments to the social life
of the community in which they live, as he is
one of the pillars of its industrial and com-
mercial interests.
JOHN H. CROXTON.
The great state of Ohio, a busy hive of in-
dustry and enterprise, having been won from
the wilderness and redeemed from the savage
herself, by a race of heroic pioneers, at once
began the work of colonizing other portions of
the West and has contributed essentially and
forcibly to the settlement and development of
almost even- part of our common country that
has been opened to civilization since her own
career of prosperity and power began. One of
her valued and serviceable contributions to
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
279
Colorado whose life has been a benefaction to
the state and an ornament to its citizenship, is
John H. Croxton, of Delta, a prominent and
successful rancher and professional man. He
was born in Carroll county, Ohio, in 1830, the
son of William and Jane (McGee) Croxton,
who were like himself native in that state and
passed their lives there engaged in farming.
The mother died there in 1846 and the father
in 1889, at the age of eighty-nine, while on a
visit to his children in Kansas. They were the
parents of eight children, of whom their son
John H. was the second born. He was reared
on the paternal homestead and received his pre-
paratory education at the neighboring public
schools. After completing their course of in-
struction he entered Allegheny College, at
Meadville, Pennsylvania, and was graduated
from that institution in 1852. He then adopted
the law as his profession and read one year at
Carrollton, in his native county, and one year
in the office of Hon. John A. Bingham at
Cadiz. Ohio. He was admitted to the bar in
1854 and at once began practicing at Carrollton.
He remained there but a short time, however,
then moved to Nebraska, locating at Nebraska
City where he remained until the Civil war
began, when he returned to Ohio and was for
a time busily occupied in securing exemptions
from the draft for his former friends and
neighbors. After the close of the draft he set-
tled again in Nebraska, and practiced law in
that state until 1882. In that year he came to
Colorado and located in Denver where during
the next seventeen years he was engaged in
practicing his profession, having a large and
representative clientage and reaching promi-
nence at the bar. His health then began to
fail and he crossed to the western slope of the
mountains and took up his residence at Delta
in the hope of securing desired improvement.
Here he followed ranching with success and ,
pleasure until he was appointed police magis-
trate in 1902, and at the succeeding election he
was elected a justice of the peace, an office he
filled with credit to himself and advantage to
the community. In politics he is a firm and
loyal Republican with a strong devotion to the
principles of his party, and always willing to
assist materially in securing their supremacy.
In fraternal life he belongs to the Masonic
order, having been made a Mason in Ohio when
he was a young man. While neither vacillating
nor lukewarm in his political faith, he has at
times supported the People's party in local elec-
tions. But he is recognized as a man of' de-
cided convictions, deeply interested in the wel-
fare of his community, and performing with
fidelity all the duties of citizenship, holding a
high place in the esteem of his fellow men and
dealing uprightly and squarely with them all.
ELMER H. ROSS.
Born and reared on the western slope of the
Rockies, and passing the whole of his life so far
among its people and its activities, Elmer H.
Ross is properly to be considered a represent-
ative of the section and in his energy, enterprise
and progress may be found an indication of the
character of this people. Mr. Ross was born
in Humboldt county, California, in 1864, the
son of Moses and Eleanor ( Watkins) Ross, an
account of whose lives is given in the sketch
of his brother, Lewis E. Ross, on another page
of this work. He remained in the Sacramento
valley of his native state until 1882, when he
came to Montrose county, this state, and started
an enterprise in ranching and raising cattle, tak-
ing up a quarter section of land by pre-emption
for the purpose on Cole creek. It was wild sage
brush land when he located on it, but now its
products are those of systematic husbandry and
its harvests are abundant and reliable. To his
first tract he has added another of eighty acres
by purchase, and this also he has brought to a
28o
PROGRESSIVE MEN OE WESTERN COLORADO.
high state of development and cultivation. He
has a very productive orchard among the fruits
of his thrift and enterprise, and this yields
abundantly for the use of his family. In 1895
he married Miss Edna Gabon, of California, a
daughter of J. S. Gabon, of Oklahoma, who
settled on Spring creek in 1883. Mr. and Mrs.
Ross have two children, Lucille and Leland.
The principal industry on this ranch is the pro-i
duction of alfalfa and the feeding of stock, and
these are carried on to as great an extent and
on as liberal a scale as the circumstances will
admit of. Mr. Ross is a progressive and far-
seeing man in his business and is making a
gratifying success of it. He is also a citizen of
public spirit and breadth of view, seeing
clearly what is good for the community and
working diligently to secure it, no undertaking
of value in this respect going without his cor-
dial, earnest and intelligent support. In con-
sequence of his excellent business capacity, high
character and breadth of view he is generally
esteemed.
LEWIS E. ROSS.
From his boyhood Lewis E. Ross, a promi-
nent and progressive stock man and farmer of
Montrose county, living eight miles northwest
of the county seat, has dwelt on the western
frontier and been familiar with its various
phases of life, its trials and toils, its difficulties
and privations, its wild freedom and wealth of
opportunity. He was born in 1856 at Cedar
Springs, Michigan, and is the son of Moses
and Eleanor (Watkins) Ross. The father was
a native of New York and in his young man-
hood settled in Ionia county. Michigan, where
he worked at his trade as a shingle weaver until
1864, then moved his family to California by
the Atlantic and the isthmus route, and in that
state was successfully engaged in farming in
Humboldt and Solano counties until his death
in 1875, at the age of forty-six. He was a son
of Joshua and Hannah (Rounds) Ross, the
former a native of Vermont who settled in
Xew York and there married, then moved to
Ionia county, Michigan, in the early days of
its history. The mother of Lewis E. Ross was
a native of England who came to the United
States with her parents when she was three
years old. She died on January 14, 1905, at
her son's residence. She was the mother of
nine children, Lewis being the second. When
he was eight years old he removed from his
native state to California with the rest of the
family, and there grew to manhood. When his
father died he was nineteen years old and at
once took charge of the farm and aided his
mother to rear the younger children. About the
age of twenty-five he left California and came
to Colorado, and at Silverton followed mining
four months. He then settled in the Uncom-
pahgre valley, then a part of Gunnison county.
Montrose not having been thought of as yet.
He took up one hundred and sixty acres of
land by pre-emption and has since purchased
one hundred and twenty acres additional, and
has improved the place with care and labor,
bringing it from savage wildness to its present
highly fertile condition and furnished with
commodious and comfortable buildings of
every kind needed for the proper management
of the extensive fanning' and stock business he.
conducts there. In due time after his location
in this region Mr. Ross saw the need of a new
county organization and began the agitation
that ended in the formation of Montrose
county, circulating among the people a petition
praying the legislature to authorize the division.
Since then he has been an active worker for
the interests of the county, and as he is a firm
believer in the principles of the Democratic
party his public acts have been mostly in the
support of its candidates and an active partici-
pation in its primary elections and convention-.
at which he is a familiar figure and an earnest
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
28]
wi n-ker. Until seven years ago lie was in part-
nership with his lirother J. J. Ross in farming
ami the stock business, but since then he has
been alone. He has as a feature of interest on
his farm fine colonies of bees and produces
quantities of the most delicious honey. In [892
Mr. Ross was married to Miss May Dohl, a
native of Norway, the daughter of Lewis Dohl.
an esteemed citizen of Montrose where he set-
tled in 1886. Three children have blessed the
Ross household. Leila, Myrtle and Wilna. Mr.
Ross takes an active and serviceable part in all
works of improvement in his neighborhood,
and his counsel and assistance is much sought
and highly valued He is now a member of
the board which has in charge the Gunnison
water project.
COL. PHIL PETERS.
The life of peaceful repose now enjoyed by
Col. Phil Peters, in his neat cottage home at
Montrose, which is a model of tidiness, cosiness
and good taste in arrangement, furnishing and
adornment, would scarcely suggest to the casual
observer that his past has been a succession of
thrilling and intense experiences in many fi Tins
of action where danger was ever present and
the utmost resolution, readiness and self-
reliance were required: that his pulse has been
quickened by the war drum's throb where a na-
tion's life was the gage of battle; that his blood
has been chilled by the Indians' whoop of de-
fiance where the progress of civilization was at
stake; that his nerve has been tried in the deadly
brawl of the miner's camp where the worst pas-
sions of human nature are aroused to fury ; or
that he has felt both extremes of fortune and
has not been seriously disturbed by either. Yet
such has been the case, and his is but one of
many examples of the wonderful vicissitudes
of American life, especially in the West, and
the equally wonderful readiness of American
manhood to meet them. Colonel Peters is a na-
tive of Kentucky, born in Campbell county on
January 7, [842, and is the son of Sebastian
and Eva (Walker) Peters. His father was of
Russian parentage and born in Germany,
whither the family moved from St. Petersburg,
subsequently coming to the United States and
ending their days in Kentucky. On his arrival
in this country he located for awhile in New
York, and afterward lived in Pennsylvania.
Virginia, and finally Kentucky, where he was a
merchant and farmer. He died in [869, aged
sixty-six, being at the time on a visit to Erank-
lin county, Indiana, near Brookville, where he
was buried The Colonel's mother was a Ger-
man by birth and came to the United States
in childhood with her parents, who settled in
Kentucky, where she was reared and married
and where she died in 1866. aged fifty-six, and
was buried at Newport, Campbell county, near
her home. The family consisted of eleven chil-
dren, of whom the Colonel was the third son.
He remained in his native state until he was
nineteen, but began to make his own living at
the age of twelve, working on farms, his
father's and others, and in rolling mills. At
the beginning of the Civil war he enlisted as a
private in Company H, Third Kentucky Cav-
alry, of the Union army, and at the end of a
tbree-vears service he was mustered out as
first sergeant. His regiment was known as the
"Bloody Third" and he was with it in the thick
of the tight wherever it was engaged. At the
battle of Murfreesboro, where so many gallant
men on both sides sealed .their convictions with
their blood, he received a serious wound, but
it did not keep him long out of service. His
regiment was almost continually in the field and
lie participated in more than thirty engage-
ments himself. His title, however, his modesty
obliges us to state, was not derived from bis
military service in the war. but came from his
rank in the Stanford Guards, a militia or-
282
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COEORADO.
ganization of fine discipline and splendid pres-
ence at Louisville, Kentucky. After the war
he returned to his native county and engaged
in the sewing machine business with head-
quarters at Louisville, acting first as traveling
representative of the company which employed
him and rising by merit to the position of gen-
eral manager for the states of Kentucky and In-
diana. Later he was in business at Dayton,
Ohio, for some time in the piano and organ
business, where he employed a large force of
men selling throughout the state. From there
he returned to Louisville and bought the St.
Cloud Hotel and for five years conducted it.
He then sold out his hotel there and went to
San Antonio, Texas, where he was a funeral
director until 1879, when he came to Colorado
and, locating at Leadville, followed mining and
prospecting for seven years. He helped to
found the mining town of Irwin and filled
nearly all its local offices in succession in its
early history. Here he was occupied in buying
and selling mining properties in that region and
others, and in the business experienced all the
reverses of fortune to which the trade is liable,
sometimes being worth thousands of dollars and
sometimes not so much. In 1882 he abandoned
this hazardous life and coming to Montrose,
opened the Mears Hotel, the first hostelry in the
town, which he conducted for two years, then
engaged in farming and raising stock on his
homestead one mile east of Montrose. This
place which he took up as a wild body of land,
unimproved and uncultivated, he has raised to
the first rank in productiveness and made one
of the most beautiful and attractive in the
county by the good taste and elegance of its
improvements. It is particularly notable for
the cleanliness and tidiness of everything about
it, the freshly painted condition of the build-
ings and fences, and the general air of neatness
and quiet elegance that pervades it in every
part. The products to which he gives most at-
tention on this farm is a fine strain of Per-
cheron horses and some superior breeds of cat-
tle, also thoroughbred hogs, which have a wide
celebrity and a high rank in the markets. The
Colonel has retired from active business him-
self and has his farm, which is now the sample
sugar-beet farm of Montrose county, in the
hands of a manager and overseer. He is living
in a cottage at Montrose wherein the same neat-
ness and artistic atmosphere is manifest that is
found on the farm. He is a member of the
Grand Army of the Republic, Knights Templar,
Odd Fellows and Elks, and has been influential
in local affairs, holding township and municipal
offices at times, and always forceful and service-
able in promoting the general interests of the
community. He has ever been an ardent and
practical believer in the cogency of organiza-
tion, and has effected many combinations of
factors for business and pleasure to the advan-
tage of all concerned. His latest work in this
line is the Fair and Driving Park Association
of Montrose, which he has but recently formed
and of which he is secretary. In 1864 he was
united in marriage with Miss Christina Helbig,
a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, of German an-
cestry. They have three sons and three daugh-
ters, Phil C.,' Jr., George H., John C, Molly E.,
Rose M. and Alice M.
WILLIAM A. DOAK.
William A. Doak, of Montrose county,
comfortably located on his valuable and at-
tractive ranch about five miles south of the
county seat, a prominent and progressive
stock man and rancher, may not improperly be
said to have been born and bred to the stock in-
dustry. From his very cradle he has mingled
with its promoters and employees, witnessed
its exacting scenes, heard its picturesque and
striking language and imbibed its spirit. He
was horn at Pleasanton, Texas, in 1855, the
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
283
son of John M. and Mary (Zumwallt) Doak,
and the second of their seven children. His
father was a native of Mississippi and moved
to Texas at the age of nineteen where he at
once engaged in the stock business, with which
he was actively and prominently connected until
his death in 1889, at the age of sixty-four. He
was also prominent in the local affairs of his
county, taking an earnest interest in whatever
tended to promote its welfare. Fraternally he
was for a long time connected with the Masonic
order and was a devoted follower of its teach-
ings. With the ardor born of firmly established
convictions, he espoused the cause of the Con-
federacy in the Civil war and throughout the
sanguinary conflict backed his convictions with
his sword. His wife was reared in Texas from
childhood and they were married there. She
is still living and makes her home at
Pleasanton, having reached the age of sixty-
eight years. Their son William was reared in
his native state, and almost from the time when
he was first able to sit a saddle was more or
less busy in the care of his father's herds. He
received a district-school education, remaining
at home until he reached the age of eighteen.
He then started a cattle business of his own in
Texas, and from that time until the present
he has been connected with the industry in
various places. The first ten years of his in-
dependent operations in this line were passed in
Texas. At the end of that period he disposed
of his interests there and moved to Wyoming,
and during the next four or five years con-
ducted an extensive cattle business in that state,
with headquarters at Cheyenne. In 1887 he
transferred his headquarters to Montrose, this
state, and since then he has continued and en-
larged his business in the same field. He
bought the place on which he now lives, and
all the improvements on it are the fruits of his
enterprise and progressiveness. They include
a fine brick dwelling and other necessary struc-
tures, all of good size and well arranged and
provided. He also has a thrifty and profitable
orchard, from which he has abundant yields of
excellent fruit, and for the support of his cat-
tle he raises large crops of grain and hay. His
specialties in cattle are well-bred Durhams and
Herefords, and of these he has herds which are
among the best in this part of the state. An
active, energetic and progressive man, it is
inevitable that he should feel a deep and earnest
interest in the welfare of his community, and
with the public spirit and breadth of view for
which he is much esteemed, it is equally as
inevitable that he should show this interest by
practical aid of every commendable enterprise
in which that welfare is involved or may be
promoted. He is an uncompromising Democrat
in politics, not now and then, but every day in
the year, and with ready aid to the cause of
his party at all times; yet he has never sought
or desired political Office of any kind. He is
also in full and serviceable sympathy with
everything pertaining to the welfare of the
business in which he is engaged, being an active
member of the stock association and rendering
faithful service to its movements at times in
various official stations in its organization and
government. On his ranch he has one great
advantage over many cattle men in that he
owns his water supply for irrigation and other
purposes. In June, 1891, he married with Mrs.
Mary ( Ray) Robinson, widow of W. G. Robin-
son, who came in childhood to Colorado with
her parents, Thomas and Eveline Ray, and set-
tled near La Sal on the Utah state line. Her
parents are now living at Paradox, Montrose
county, where she was first married more than
twenty years ago. By her first marriage she
had two children, Walter and Ida Robinson,
and by the second she has one, her son Roy
Doak.
284
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
GEORGE R. SPALDING.
A resident of Colorado since he was eleven
years of age. and during the greater part of
the time actively engaged in its industries, aid-
ing in its development and witnessing its prog-
ress, George R. Spalding is rightly accredited
as one of the state's representative and pro-
gressive men, and is justly entitled to the re-
spect and good will in which he stands among
its people. He is comfortably and pleasantly
located on a ranch of one hundred and sixty
acres about five and one-half miles south of the
village of Cimarron, which he secured by pre-
emption when he first came to this part of the
state and on which he conducts an enterprising
stock and farming industry, and which by ju-
dicious tillage and well-arranged improve-
ments he has raised to a high value. Mr.
Spalding is a native of [Missouri, horn in Gas-
conade county in 1853, and is the son of Reu-
ben J. and Leevisa (Branson) Spalding. His
father was said to be the first white child born
within the present limits of Minnesota, and
came into being there in 1827. When he was
a year old the family moved to Missouri, and
there he grew to manhood in Gasconade
c< unity, attending the primitive schools of his
time and locality at irregular intervals for short
periods, and taking his full share of the labor
on the paternal homestead, and of the responsi-
bilities of citizenship when he reached the
proper age. He was a soldier in the Mexican
war, and after its close joined the argonauts
of 1849 m a trip to California, crossing the
plains with a pack train, but returned to Mis-
souri where he remained until the Pike's Peak
excitement in 1859 re-aroused his enthusiasm
as a gold-seeker and brought him to that fa-
mous region. After that time he was a resi-
dent of this state until his death, in 1902, at
Pueblo, where he lived from r868. He was a
successful prospector, panning the first gold in
the Blue river country and discovering the
Cashier mine at Montezuma at which his claim
was jumped after he located it. He was also
largely engaged in ranching and raising stock
at different times. His father was Stephen
Spalding, an American soldier for thirty-six
years, taking part in the Indian wars of his
early life, the Revolution and the war of 1812,
and rising by meritorious service from the
ranks to the post of major. His wife was Har-
riet Spalding, a native of Pennsylvania.
George R. Spalding's mother was a native of
Tennessee and moved with her parents to Mis-
souri while she was young. There she was
married and lived for years until she came to
Colorado sometime after the arrival of her hus-
band. In this state she died in 188 1. at the age
of fifty-three. Her offspring numbered four,
the subject of this review being the first born.
He lived in his native state until he was eleven
years old, then came with his father to Colo-
rado. Here he grew to manhood, beginning
life for himself in 1873 in the cattle industry
near Pueblo. He followed this occupation four
years and during the next six was a prospector.
In 1S89 he settled on the ranch he now occupies
near the western edge of Gunnison county and
started a stock business which he is still con-
ducting. For seven years he also worked for
the railroad company in the round house at
Cimarron. He was married in 1884 to Miss
Anna Shoemaker, a native of Missouri and
daughter of H. C. and Martha ( YYhitaker)
Shoemaker, who came to Colorado about 1880
and took up their residence near Carbondale,
Garfield county. Her father carries the mails
in this section, and stands well in the regard
of its citizens. Mr. and Mrs. Spalding have
had six children, four of whom are living. Reu-
ben Clarence. Laura, George and Marie, and
two dead. Earl and Pearly, both of whom are
buried at Cimarron. The family are highly re-
spected in their community.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
285
\\ . S. COBURN.
The subject of this memoir, who was the
pioneer nurseryman and fruit-grower on the
Western slope in this state, and who sowed the
first field of alfalfa in that section, has had an
interesting and eventful career, meeting many
calls to trying duty in a number of different
sections of the country, and having many ad-
ventures of imminent danger under a great
variety of circumstances. He was born on
June 4, 1838, near Lowell, Massachusetts, the
son of Anion and Nancy (Davis) Coburn.
The father was a blacksmith and died in 1844,
when the son was but six years old, although
the families on both sides of the house have or-
dinarily been lung-lived, the paternal grand-
father dying at the age of ninety-six, and the
mother's father at that of eighty-seven. At
the age of ten Mr. Coburn was taken to raise
by a family named Davis, with whom he re-
mained until he reached his legal majority. He
then, in 1859, came west to Wisconsin and si >< m
after went to Chicago. Six months later he
moved to Springfield, Illinois, where he had an
uncle who is still living aged ninety. In the
spring of i860 the young man changed his resi-
dence to Iowa, where he passed a year buying
furs for a Chicago house. I le then returned to
Illinois and tried to get into the Union army as
a volunteer, hut was rejected, the quota for
Illinois being full. He was, hi wever, a >m-
missioned a sutler in the spring of 1862. and
was with the Tenth Ohio Battery and the Thir-
tieth Illinois Infantry until after the surrender
of Vicksburg, attending them all through the
siege of the city. After its fall he conducted a
commission business in Vicksburg for eighteen
months, then sold out and returned to Spring-
field, Illinois. A short time afterward he
moved to Omaha, Nebraska, and started a gro-
cery and shoe business which he conducted a
few months, when lie sold all his interests there
and came overland to Colorado, " arriving at
Denver in July. 1865. Going out some dis-
tance east of the city, he opened a road house
and i railing post for travelers, who were nu-
merous in that section at the time, and this he
carried on until the fall of 1867. From there
at tint period he moved to Julesburg, and from
there a little while Later to where Cheyenne now
stands, arriving at the latter place before the
townsite was surveyed and laid out. Here he
went into the real-estate business with profit
and remained a year so occupied. At the end
of this period he turned his attention to sup-
plying the men who were building the Union
Pacific Railroad, continuing in this business
until the road was completed on May 10, 1869,
when he sold his interests there and went to
Kansas to start a cattle industry to handle
Texas cattle, which he did for four years. Re-
turning to Colorado in the spring of 1876, he
located at Pueblo and. with headquarters at
that place, passed a year in freighting, hauling
supplies to the mines and ore back to the city.
In the summer of 1877 ' le passed into Gun-
nison county, putting up hay which he sold at
Lake City, in the fall making that promising
camp his home and turning his attention to
prospecting and mining. In 187S he went to
Pitkin among the first arrivals there, and the
next year changed his residence to that place,
remaining three years. In the fall of 1882, as
soon as the reservation was opened to settle-
ment, he became a resident of the North Fork
valley, locating on the place on which he now
lives and which has since been his home. He
made rapid improvement of the place, setting
out a number of fruit trees, which were among
die first in this neighborhood. In 1884 he
started a nursery, the first on the Western
slope of Colorado, and soon found the demand
beyond the capacity of his grounds to supply,
and so in 1889 he started a branch nursery
near Montrose. He has the satisfaction of
286
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
knowing that all the older orchards in Mont-
rose and Delta counties were supplied in part
at least from his nurseries, and that he has by
this means contributed handsomely to inaugu-
rate and build up the great fruit industry
of the section. In 1896, finding the cares of his
multiform business greater than he wished to
carry, he sold his nurseries, and since then he
has devoted himself wholly to fruit culture with
abundant profits, selling his annual crop of Al-
berta peaches from an acre and a half of ground
at an average sum of one thousand and sixty-
two dollars an acre net, his four hundred to
five hundred boxes of apples at five hundred
dollars to seven hundred dollars per acre, and
his pears at three hundred to five hundred dol-
lars per acre. He has fifty acres of fruit in
bearing order on his home ranch, ten acres in
another part of Delta county and ten in Mont-
rose county. He has also taken a great interest
in the fruit industry in official capacities, serv-
ing as horticultural commissioner on the board
of world's fair managers in 1893, and collect-
ing and arranging the fruit exhibit at the fair,
for which he received a medal, and as president
of the state horticultural board of Colorado.
He was appointed to do the same for the state
at the St. Louis fair as he did for the one at
Chicago, but was obliged to decline the appoint-
ment on account of the demands of his private
business. Mr. Coburn was married on March
11, 1869, to Miss Hattie Acker, a native of
Naperville, Illinois. She died in 1882, leaving
a son and a daughter, both of whom are living - ,
the daughter being a resident of California
and the son of Lake City, this state. On Febru-
ary 26, 1884, the father married a second wife,
Mrs. Sarah Childers, a widow with four chil-
dren, and a native of Missouri born near St.
Louis. Her children are all living and are all
married and settled in Colorado. She came
with her four children alone to Colorado in
May. 1882, and first located at Pitkin, where
she lived until the fall of 1883, when she moved
to the North Fork valley, where she met Mr.
Coburn and was married to him. He arrived
in this section with almost nothing, and now
owns two hundred and twenty acres of land,
worth about fifty-five thousand dollars, and has
money besides. His wife owns one hundred
and twenty acres within a mile of their home
that is worth five thousand dollars. Mr. Coburn
is a Mason, and politically a Democrat.
JOSEPH J. PUTNEY.
The restless spirit of New England, which
will never rest while there is opportunity for
work, and is always seeking new worlds to con-
quer, has not only filled our land with industrial
enterprise in multiform variety but has over-
spread it with emigration and hardy pioneers,
has been potential in settling and civilizing the
Mississippi valley, and has also aided in colon-
izing the farther West and redeeming it from
barbarism and making it fruitful with the bless-
ings of cultivation. It is from this people that
Joseph J. Putney, of Collbran, in the Plateau
valley. Mesa, sprang, and he is a good type
of the section from which he hails, fie was
born in Merrimac county, New Hampshire, in
1837. and is the son of Benjamin and Lydia
( Page) Putney, of that state, where both were
born and reared, where they were married and
labored through life, and where, when their
labors were ended, they were laid to rest. The
mother died in 1853, and the father ten years
previous, in February, 1843. Their offspring
numbered nine, of whom Joseph was the
seventh. At an early period of his life he was
obliged to provide for himself, and during a
portion of his youth lie lived with a cousin.
In March, 1855, he moved to northern Illinois,
where for three years he was occupied in fann-
ing. He then went into southern Wisconsin,
and there followed the same vocation until Sep-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
287
tember, 1861. Then, in loyal devotion to the
Union, he enlisted in its defense in Company
K, Eighth Wisconsin Infantry, in which he
served until November 8, 1863. At that time
he was detached for recruiting duty and helped
to raise the Third United States Colored Cav-
alry, and in that regiment was a second lieu-
tenant until January 24, 1866. After his dis-
charge he settled at St. Louis, Missouri, where
he worked at various occupations for a year,
after which he was on the city police force from
1868 to 1873. At the close of his term he
moved to Hamilton, Minnesota, and a year later
to Spring Valley, in the same county. Here he
was employed as a carpenter until 1879, then
came to Colorado, and worked at his trade at
Leadville for some time. Fn >m there he moved
to Summit county, then to Gunnison county,
engaged in mining until 1883, and during the
next three years worked at day labor in Delta
county. From Delta he went to the mining
district of Aspen, where he remained until he
took up his residence at Collbran in Mesa
county. Here he was variously employed
from the time of his arrival in 1887 until he
was appointed postmaster in 1889, and since
then he has continuously occupied this office.
He was married in 1870 to Miss Adelaide
Gehrs, a native of Illinois. They have had two
children. Charles H. and Frederick, both of
whom died when about five months old. Mrs.
Putney died when she was twenty-two years
of age. and since then he has lived alone. Mr.
Putney is respected by the entire community
for his upright life and sterling worth, and
in official relations he is giving satisfaction
to the people without regard to party or class.
CHARLES SCALES.
Making his own way in the world from the
age of ten years, and by industry and frugality
steadily forging ahead since then. Charles
Scales, one of the leading fruit-growers of
Delta county, living on a fine and productive
ranch of twenty-two acres and a half one mile
west of Paonia, has built his fortunes well and
wisely, and what he has is wholly the product
of his own enterprise and business capacity. He
is a native of England, born on June 2y, 1851,
and the son of William and Celia (Cawsin )
Scales. His father was a soldier in the English
army thirty-four years, stationed a part of the
time in Canada. The parents then returned to
their native land, where the father died in
[869 and the mother in 1893. They had five
children, three of whom are living, two of them
in England. One son was born in Canada in
1843 an( l died vei T young. Another was born
on the Atlantic ocean in 1845, ar >d died before
the end of the voyage, living only five days. In
1 861 Mr. Scales began to make his own living,
serving as a butcher's boy, and maintaining his
connection with the trade for a period of thirty
years. In 1879 he started for San Francisco,
landing at New York city on July 4th, and at
his destination on the Pacific some time after-
ward. In April, 1880, he shipped as a butcher
on an Australian steamer, on which he made
ten trips between California and that country.
Afterward he located at Excelsior Springs in
Clay county, Missouri, where he followed his
trade for ten months, then moved to Kansas
City, in the same state, and there worked at
it six months longer. In the spring of 1883 he
came overland to Pitkin, Colorado, and on his
arrival here at once began butchering again,
living there fourteen years and carrying on a
prosperous business in his line twelve years of
the time. In the spring of 1897 he moved to
the North Fork valley, taking up his residence
ou the ranch which has been his home ever
since, and which he bought in 1894. and that
year settled his family on it. They began mak-
ing the needed improvements while he con-
tinued his business at Pitkin. Of the twenty
288
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
acres of which the ranch was originally com-
posed he has set out sixteen in fruit, and he
has -nice purchased two and one-half acres
mi ire, and new has five acres in alfalfa. The
greater part of his orchard is in apples, but he
has two acres in peaches, from which he gets
a net income of about six hundred dollars a
year, the apple trees being not yet in full bear-
ing order, but all are steadily enhancing in
value. Mr. Scales was married on April 14,
1887. to Mrs. Mary L. C. Johnson, a native of
Mississippi and the daughter of Zedekiah and
Sarah ( Frost ) Bassham, the former born in
Tennessee and the latter in Mississippi. They
moved to Arkansas in 1856, and there they
passed the rest of their lives, the mother dying
in [859 and the father in 1862. The latter was
a soldier in the Confederate army in the first
years of the Civil war. and was taken ill at the
battle of Springfield, dying from this illness in
September, 1862. They had eight children,
only three of whom are living. Mr. and Mrs.
Scales have one son. Charles B. I ., now fifteen
years old ( 1904). Mr. Scales belongs to the
order of Odd Fellows fraternally, and in church
affiliation is a Seventh-day Adventist. In po-
litical activity he is independent.
FRANK CURTISS.
Sprung from a martial strain, and ardently
devoted to the welfare of his county
in peace and war, giving special atten-
tion always to the section in which he
lives, Frank Curtiss, of Delta county, one of
the prosperous and progressive fruit-growers in
the neighborhood of Paonia, where he has
twelve acres of valuable orchards located about
three quarters of a mile northwest of the town,
has been a useful citizen and has demonstrated
in many ways his ability to meet the require-
ments of his situation in a manly and masterful
way. lie is a native of Ohio, born on the first
day of April, 1834. and the son of Samuel and
Lucretia (Brooks) Curtiss, who were born at
Durham, Connecticut, the mother on December
31. [786, and the father on July 17, \;Xj. The
father was a fifer in the war of 1S12, and Mr.
Curtiss still owns the fife he used in that contest.
In 1843 tne family moved to Illinois, and three
year- afterward to Wisconsin. The father was
a farmer all his life, and died in Wisconsin, on
November 26. 1846, where the mother also
died, passing away on March 20. 1869.
Their son Frank remained at home and
aided in the work of the farm until
he reached the age of fourteen, receiv-
ing a common-school education at the dis-
trict schools. In 1848, being eager to make his
own way in the world, he went to the town of
Berlin, Wisconsin, and there secured employ-
ment in a hotel. A little later the proprietor of
the hotel opened a store in the town and put
Mr. Curtiss in it as a clerk. He remained there
so employed three years, then in 185 1 returned
home and passed a year at school. During the
next three years he was on the road with a con-
cert company, then returning to Illinois, he
remained in that state until [861, when he en-
listed as a Union soldier in Captain Graham's
company of independent cavalry. In the en-
suing winter his company was consolidated
with the Eighth Kansas Infantry, and in that
regiment he passed the rest of his three years
of service, being discharged at the end on ac-
count of physical disabilities incurred in the
service and with the rank of captain, to which
he was promoted for meritorious conduct. He
participated in the battle of Shiloh, the battle
of Knoxville, and in fact, all the leading en-
gagements in that part of the country, and re-
ceived two slight wounds. After his discharge
from the army he went back to Illinois and en-
gaged in the lumber trade until 1N73, when fail-
ing health brought him to Colorado and located
him at Manitou, where he built a home and
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
289
lived until the autumn of 1875. Then the boom
having started at Lake City, he moved to that
enterprising camp and followed mining for a
year. In the spring of 1876 he was elected
town clerk and treasurer, and after tilling the
office creditably three years, mi ived in the spring
of 1879 to the site of the present town of Pit-
kin, where on the first day of March he drove
the first stake for the future city in three feet
of snow, camping under a spruce tree until he
could build a house. In the spring of 1S88 he
became a resident of the North Fork valley and
located a ranch on a part of which he now lives,
buying forty acres on Pitkin mesa, which was
so called because the first settlers there were
from Pitkin. During his residence at Pitkin he
served as postmaster from the establishment of
the postofnee until he moved away from the
town. In his new location he paid three hun-
dred dollars for his forty acres of land and
started to raise cattle. Some little time after-
ward sold bis live stock and turned his atten-
tion to raising fruit, then a new industry in
that section. His land rose rapidly in value and
having more than he cared for, he sold twenty-
eight acres to one man at eight dollars per acre,
then bought eleven acres, for which he paid
ninety dollars. The twelve acres of his original
purchase which be still owns he holds at twelve
tin >usand dollars, but has no desire to sell it. It
yields him an average' annual income of about
three hundred dollars an acre, and is steadily
increasing in value. Mr. Curtiss was married
on November 14, 1861, to Miss Martha M.
Goss. of Geneseo, Illinois, who was born on
July 24, 1840, at Chicago. Her mother died
while the daughter was an infant, and after
that sad event the father returned to his old
home in Boston, where he remained until 1851,
then again became a resident of Illinois, where
he died in November, 1898. Mr. and Mrs.
( mtiss have two sons, Horace L. and John G.
The former, who is thirty-eight years of age,
19
is living at home with his parents and caring
for them. The latter, aged thirty-four, is
married and has a ranch of his own. In politics
tbe father is a Republican, and fraternally he
belongs to the Masonic order and the Grand
Army of the Republic.
JAY F. SMITH.
Jay F. Smith, who is one of the prosperous
and progressive ranch and cattle men of Delta
county, Colorado, where be has also given
some attention to fruit culture, is a native of
Rock count}-, Wisconsin, where be was born on
I lecember 29, 1845. and the son of Isaac T. and
Nancy A. (DeJanes) Smith, New Yorkers by
nativity. The father was a farmer and dealt
lerably in agricultural machinery. The
family moved to Wisconsin in 1836, and there
the mother died in 1859. Three years after-
ward the father moved to Iowa and in 1874 to
Colorado. He remained in this state until 1898,
having his home near Fort Collins a pari of
the time and a part at Lake City, and being en-
iged most of the period in mining and pros
pecting. In 1898 he went back to his old Wis-
consin home, where he died in 1901. There
were nine children in the family and five of
them are living, two in this state. Jay F. Smith
remained at home until he reached the age of
nineteen, receiving in the neighborhood schools
a common-school education. In t 864 he began
the battle of life for himself as a laborer, work-
ing in bis native state until the fall of 1805,
and in Iowa from that time until the spring of
1866. At the period last named he came to
Colorado, making the journey overland with
Captain Tyler to Boulder. He arrived at his
destination with nothing in money, but soon
secured a position as a hand on a ranch, and
from then until 1881 he worked for wages. In
that year he took up his residence in Delta
county, pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres
290
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
of land for a home, which he improved and
brought into vigorous cultivation in hay, grain
and vegetables as rapidly as possible. He also
set out forty apple trees, which is all he ever did
in the way of fruit culture. He has given the
most of his attention to raising stock and hay,
and has prospered at the enterprise. When he
took up his ranch he had hut little more capital
than when he arrived in Colorado. He now
owns sixty acres of good land in a high state
of cultivation and well improved with good
buildings, the place being worth over ten thou-
sand dollars. In 1892 he was married to Miss
Nettie Morrow, who was born in Franklin
county, Missouri, and is the daughter of John
\Y. and Delilah (Funk) Morrow, the former
a native of Tennessee and the latter of Frank-
lin county, Missouri. The father was a farmer.
He went to California in one of the argonautic
expeditions of 1849, but never lived in Colo-
rado. His wife died on May 13. 18S7, in
Franklin county, Missouri, and he at the same
place on May 18, 1894. Mr. and Mrs. Smith
have had two children. One died in infancy,
ami the other, their daughter Fairy D., is liv-
ing, aged eleven. Mr. Smith supports the Re-
publican party in politics. During the Civil
war he served one hundred days in the Union
army as a member of Company G, Forty-
fourth Iowa Infantry.
DAVID S. STEPHENS.
David S. Stephens, who has been in this
state off and on since 1876 and permanently
since 1887, and who is now comfortably es-
tablished on an excellent ranch of fifty acres
well adapted to fruit, is a native of Howard
county, Indiana, born on March 14. 1804, and
the -on of David R. and Nancy J. (Scott)
Stephens, the former a natiw of Tennessee.
His mother died when he was six weeks old
and lie was reared to the age of twelve by his
grandparents, being taken to their home in Wis-
consin in his infancy. The father is a farmer
still living, at the age of seventy-three, in Indi-
ana, where he has passed the greater part of
his life. In 1866 Mr. Stephens' grandparents
moved to McPherson county, Kansas, and he
lived there until 1876. There his grandfather
died in 1873 and his grandmother in 1878. In
187(1. Mr. Stephens, then a boy of twelve,
started out in life for himself, came to Colorado
and located in Gunnison county, where he en-
gaged in mining two years. At the end of
eriod he returned to Kansas, remaining
in that state until May, 1880, when he came
again to Colorado, and making his home in
Denver, he went to school a few months. In
the ensuing spring he once more returned to
Kansas and engaged in farming, remaining
there until 1887. In that year he took up his
residence permanently in this state, purchasing
a ranch on the North fork, near the site of the
present village of Paonia. After improving
this he sold it for three thousand five hundred
dollars, the tract comprising one hundred and
sixty acres, seven of which he had set out in
fruit. Since then one-half of the place has been
s. ilil to another purchaser for ten thousand
dollars, the sale having heen made in 1902.
After selling his first ranch he bought another
tract of one hundred and sixty acres, on a part
of which he now lives. Since making the pur-
chase he has sold one hundred acres of the
tract, fifty of which was woodland with a water
right, for which lie pot five thousand dollars
and he has also allowed the railroad company
to have ten acres. Then he has bought an ad-
dition of ten acres so that he now owns sixty.
Forty acres of this have been well improved
and highly cultivated, and on the entire tract
he carried on an active cattle lni-in^ss until
[903, when he sold his stock and determined
to give his attention to fruit culture, for which
the land he has is well adapted. He ahead v has
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
291
tour acres in fruit in good bearing condition,
and it is his intention to plant twelve acres more
in standard trees, mostly peaches. On April
18. 1 87 1 , was born Miss Nettie Fawcett, of
Wilson county, Kansas, the daughter of George
W. and Nannie A. (Marshall) Fawcett, who
came to Colorado in 1873, and first located at
Sagauche, then moved to Lake City. The
father was a carpenter. Mrs. Stephens became
a resident of Delta county in 1882, where she
married the subject. Her father located what
is known as the Fawcett ranch three miles from
Paonia, which is a large fruit ranch and was
the first of its kind in this vicinity. His wife
died in 1892. but he is still living. In politics
Mr. Stephens is a Republican, and fraternally
he belongs to the order of Odd Fellows. He
was living on his ranch at the time of his mar-
riage, June 18, 1893. It is located a mile and
a half from Paonia.
ZEDEKIAH WATSON.
Zedekiah Watson, whose beautiful and
productive fruit farm of twenty-eight acres,
located one mile from Paonia on Pitkin mesa,
is . me 1 if the choice tracts of this prolific region,
lias been a resident of Colorado continuously
since 1803, and during the period of his life
in the state has seen the most of it and engaged
in mining and other work in many parts of it.
At the time of his arrival in the state it was new
and almost wholly undeveloped, and he jour-
neyed from place to place, trying his hand in
new locations successively, aiding in develop-
ing and building them up and meeting with
alternate successes and reverses in his oper-
ations, engaging in mining for a long time,
then turning his attention to farming and fruit
culture. He was born in Ohio on December
26, [§38, and is the son of Benjamin and Polly
A. ( Miller) Watson, also natives of Ohio and
life-long dwellers in that state. In 186 1 the
son, being then twenty-three years old, enlisted
in the Union army as a member of Company
I, Twenty-second Ohio Infantry, and in that
command he served three months. The term
of his enlistment having then expired, he was
discharged and did not re-enlist. In 1863 he
determined to become one of the army of in-
dustry that was endeavoring to settle, civilize
and develop the great western states, and came
to Colorado, arriving at Denver in July. He
at once began mining and during the next
twenty years he was connected actively and in-
dustriously with this business, and with gratify-
ing returns on the whole. In 1879 he joined G.
P. Chiles. Frank Curtis and Wayne Scott in
locating the town of Pitkin, where Mr. Scott
still lives, the other three being residents of
Delta county, where Mr. Watson took up his
residence in 1883, having accumulated about
four thousand dollars in mining in the neigh-
borhood of Pitkin. He and Mr. Curtis located
in the county together. Mr. Watson taking up
one hundred and twenty acres of land, of which
he sold Mr. Curtis twenty acres. He then
planted about thirty acres in fruit and after-
ward sold thirty-two, so that he now has
twenty-eight acres of fine orchards of apples,
peaches and prunes, which yield him a neat an-
nual revenue of some three hundred dollars an
acre, twenty-one acres being in good bearing
condition, and the whole tract worth about
fifteen thousand dollars. In 1898 he improved
the place with a first-rate brick dwelling, and
he has from time to time made other needed im-
provements, having now every convenience re-
quired for carrying on his business and finding
his own personal enjoyment in the work. Mr.
Watson has never married, but he has two
nieces who keep house for him. These young-
ladies he brought to the state with him in
1903. when he went back to his old Ohio home
to visit his parents, whom he had not seen or
heard from for forty years. In politics he sup-
292
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
ports the Democratic party, but he is seldom
an active partisan, finding enough to occupy
his time and energies on his ranch. Generally
esteemed for his sterling manhood and useful
citizenship, and taking an active and helpful
part in the growth and development of his
county, he is accounted one of the represent-
ative men of his section.
■ \RLES F. JOHNSON.
The present efficient and obliging county
treasurer of Chaffee o unity, who was elected on
the Republican ticket in 1899 and re-elected in
1901, and whose record in the office has been
a si mrce of great satisfaction to the people.
Charles F. Johnson, is a native of Ripley
county, Indiana, born on August I, 1856. He
received his early education in the public
school; of his native county, and finished his
course at an academy in Butlerville, Jennings
county. His father was a tanner and farmer,
and while assisting in the work of the farm the
son also learned the trade of tanning, spending
four years at it after leaving school. In [878
he came to Colorado, arriving at Canon City in
March. Soon after his arrival he found em-
ployment at the state penitentiary in the out-
side work of the institution, gardening and
similar pursuits, remaining there so occupied
six years. In January, 1884, he returned to
his Indiana home, and during the next five
years he was engaged in merchandising in his
native county. Selling all his interests there
in the spring of 1889. lie came back to this
state and took up his' residence at Salida, where
lie conducted a grocery until the spring of 1894
At that time he was elected city clerk and
water commissioner, holding the office four
years. From 1898 to 1900 he was again en-
gaged in the grocery trade at Salida. In the
fill i'f [899 he was elected county treasurer,
and at the close of his term in [QOI was re-
elected, being in each case the candidate of the
Republican party, which he has supported from
the dawn of his manhood. After his first elec-
tion to this important office he sold his grocery
and moved to Buena Vista, the county seat,
where he has since resided and been in the
active discharge of his official duties. Under
his efficient management many improvements'
have been made in the management of the
office and its operations have been made more
and more subservient to the convenience of the
people. Mr. Johnson has always been an active
paii\- worker, and his interest in the success of
the cause has been inspired by real and firm con-
viction of its righteousness, without primary
reference to his own political advancement.
Fraternally he is an Odd Fellow and a Wood
man of the World. On September 30. 1880,
he united in marriage with Miss Ella G. Ale-
Cafe, a native of the same county as himself,
where the marriage occurred, and Hying on the
farm adjoining his father's. They were school-
mates in early life. Five children have blessed
their union and brightened their domestic
shrine, their sons Lester, Lovell and Delbert,
,111: 1 their daughters Flora and Leola.
CHARLES ANKELE.
This worthy citizen and capable public
official, who is universally esteemed throughout
the county in which he lives, is the seventh
sheriff elected there and has filled the office
longer than any other. He was first chosen in
1897 as the candidate of the Silver Republicans,
who fused with the Democrats against the
Populists, and was the only candidate on their
ticket elected except one county commissioner
Having at that time a decided leaning to the
Republican part}', he intended at the close of
his first term to announce himself as its candi-
date for the next, hut being forestalled in tins
by another member of the party, he declined
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
293
to allow the use of his name in the convention
of that party. Then, without his knowledge.
the Democrats nominated him as their candi-
date for the office, and he was elected by a
large majority. At the close of his second term
he became the candidate of the straight Re-
publicans and was again honored with an elec-
tion and is now serving a fourth term. Mr.
Ankele is a native of Cleveland, Ohio, where
he was born on June 13, 1857. There he re-
ceived his education, and at the age of eighteen
went into the bridge department of the Lake
Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad. He re-
mained in the employ of this company nearly
four years, and then found a berth under the
United States government as overseer of im-
provement work, rip-rapping, etc., on the Mis-
sissippi river at Plum Point. Tennessee. After
about two years of this service, in 1881 he
moved westward to Kansas, making the trip on
a furlough. But liking the West, he deter-
mined to remain and resign his position under
the government, and went to driving cattle
from Texas to Montana over the trail, which he
continued to do three years. In 1885 he bought
a bunch of cattle which he brought to Chaffee
and settled on a ranch eight miles east of Sa-
lida. There he engaged in raising stuck until
1892, when he was appointed marshal of Sa-
lida. This office he held five years, and could
probably have had it indefinitely if he had not
been transferred by the votes of his fellow
citizens of the county to the sheriff's office. On
qualifying fur this latter office the first time
he changed his residence to Buena Vista, the
county seat, where he has since made his home.
He has made a very creditable and acceptable
sheriff and his name as such is spoken with
pride and pleasure by all classes of the citizens.
But his life has not wholly been given up to
politics here. He has large and valuable in-
terests in mining properties in various places
and other possessions of worth. In the fra-
ternal life of the county he takes an active and
earnest interest as an Odd Fellow, a Mason,
a Knight of Pythias, a Woodman of the World
and an Eagle, belonging to lodges of these
orders at Salida. He is also a member of the
order of Elks, holding his membership in that
fraternity in the lodge at Leadville. On De-
cember 23, r886, at Leadville. this state, he
was united in marriage with Miss Maggie
O'Neill, a native of Michigan.
GILBERT A. WALKER.
Starting nut in life at the age of sixteen
with nothing but his native capacity and de-
termined spirit, and since then steadily work-
ing his way forward by persistent energy and
close attention to whatever duty laj before him,
Gilbert A. Walker, one of the leading attorneys
and counselors of Chaffee county, this -late.
has neither found nor inherited, but has liter-
ally hewed out his opportunities, and has made
the most of them. He was born on April t.
[866, near Burlington, Iowa, and while he.
was yet a child his parents moved to Seward
county, in eastern Nebraska, and settled on a
farm. Here the son grew to the age of sixteen
assisting in the farm work and having almost
no chance to attend school. When he reached
the age mentioned he took his destiny in his
own hands and by working for a period ac-
cumulated enough money to give him the
longed-for opportunity for schooling, and after
a few years in the public schools in the winter
months was able to go through the State Nor-
mal at Emporia. Kansas, where he was gradu-
ated in 1892. During his vacations while at-
tending this institution he kept himself pro-
vided by teaching school, and after finishing
his course there he became a resident of
Chaffee county, this state. Here he taught
school at Granite until 1805, during one year
of the period being also time and bookkeeper
294
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
for the Twin Lake Placer Mining Company,
and in two of the summers was connected with
the United States geodetic survey in the state.
In the fall of 1895 he matriculated in the law
department of the State University at Boulder,
and he was graduated therefrom in the early
part of 1897. He then returned to Buena
Vista and began practicing his profession. To
this he has since sedulously devoted himself,
and by close attention to business and ability
in the discharge of it he has risen to the first
rank in the profession in his part of the state.
In the fall of 1901 he was elected county
superintendent of the public schools as the can-
didate of the Republican party, of which he
has always been an active supporter. He is also
interested in the mining industry and has valu-
able claims in very promising properties. On
September 13, 1892, he was married at Buena
Vista to Miss Debby Mosher, a native of
Illinois. They have four children, Vida, Verne,
Helen and Daisy. In politics Mr. Walker has
always been a firm and stanch Republican and
is now editing the Colorado Republican, a
weekly paper of considerable note.
WILLIAM W. ROLLER.
William M. Roller, one of the leading real-
estate men of Salida, and who has been one
of the most active and judicious promoters of
the city's welfare, sticking to it and believing
in its future through all changes and set-
backs in its progress, is a native of Erie
county, New York, born on November 1, 1841.
He passed his boyhood and began his education
in his native county, living there until after
the beginning of the Civil war. In September.
[861, in response to a call from President Lin-
coln for volunteers to defend the Union, he en-
listed in the Sixty-fourth New York Infantry,
in which he served until his discharge at the
end of his term in October, 1864, going in as
a private and rising by meritorious service and
gallantry to the rank of captain. He also re-
ceived a commision as lieutenant-colonel, but
quit the army before he rendered any service
under it. His regiment was a part of Han-
cock's fighting Second Corps in the Army of
the Potomac, and was almost continually in
active service, participating in many of the
great engagements of the war. After leaving
the service he returned to his New York home,
and there he taught school two years, then
passed two at Dartmouth College as a student,
intending to enter the medical profession. But
in 1868 he determined to come west, and in the
fall of that year took up his residence at
Ottawa, Kansas, where he was engaged in the
furniture trade ten years. Selling out in
Kansas in 1878, he came to this state and lo-
cated at Colorado Springs, where he again
carried on a furniture business, continuing it
there three years. In 1880 he disposed of his
business at Colorado Springs and became a
resident of Salida, which was then a new town,
just laid out by the Denver & Rio Grande Rail-
road. It contained only a few houses, and its
future was necessarily a matter of uncertainty.
But Mr. Roller had faith in it and at once
opened a furniture establishment and soon
found his business assuming large proportions,
and the town growing rapidly, although many
persons believed that Poncha Springs, six miles
west, would be the city of this region. In the
fall of 1881 Mr. Roller sold his furniture busi-
ness and turned his attention to dealing in real
estate, having the first business of the kind in
the place after the railroad company. That
organization laid out that portion of the town
between the railroad tracks and Haskell's ad-
dition. The latter was plotted by the Salida
Land Company, which was organized by Mr,
Roller and his partner in business. N. R.
Twitchell, and of which they for years had the
active management. The addition named now
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF IVESTERX COLORADO.
- 7 95
comprises the principal residence and much of
the business section of the city, and has proved
of great advantage in the spread of its dimen-
sions. The first name of the place was South
Arkansas, and was given to it by former Gov-
ernor A. C. Hunt, who was connected with
the railroad company and did its plotting here.
But two years after he gave it this name the
promising bantling was re-baptized and re-
called Salida. The company organized by Mr.
Roller has done an extensive business here and
contributed largely to making the city what it
is. That company planted the trees which so
plentifully adorn it, erecting many of the most
imposing buildings and provided for even-
necessity of the growing municipality as oc-
casion required. It also advertised the place
widely throughout the surrounding country
and offered inducements for new settlers to
make it their home. Mr. Roller has been from
the beginning the active and inspiration of this
company and he is almost wholly entitled to
the credit for the great volume of its operations
and the benefits it has conferred on the town.
In 1884 he with others organized the Edison
Electric Light Company of Salida, of which
he has been ever since the vice-president. And
in 1888 the Salida Opera House Association
was formed with him as one of the principal
Stockholders and the secretary. The opera
house is one of the finest buildings in the city.
Mr. Roller is its manager. In every way he
has been prominently and efficiently connected
with the growth and development of the city
from its birth. He is president of the board of
trade, and was one of the founders of the Fair-
view Cemetery Association. He is also ex-
tensively interested in mining in this section,
and owns valuable mining properties in addi-
tion to the large amount of real estate he pos-
sesses in the city. Although a stanch Repub-
lican in politics, he is not an active partisan.
Fraternally he is a thirty-second-degree Free-
mason, with an earnest enthusiasm for the good
of the order, serving one year as grand high
priest of the state, and also belongs to the order
of Elks and the Grand Army of the Republic.
On September 24, 1884. he was married to
Mis-- Xellie H. Arnold. They have four chil-
dren.
D. H. CRAIG.
Nature, who seems often reckless and in-
considerate in the distribution of faculties to
men, sometimes mixing them into a sort of
incongruous and inharmonious union in the
same subject, still, in the main, to the discern-
ing eve. pursues a general system in her bene-
factions, and along with endowments for cer-
tain lines of activity gives the spirit and de-
termination to engage in them with persistency.
\ t'( ircible illustration of this fact is furnished
in the career of D. H. Craig, cashier of the
First National Bank of Salida, who although
bom to a destiny of rural life, it would seem,
was well fitted by natural endowment for fiscal
and mercantile affairs, and has given to them
the whole of his energy and all his time since
he entered upon the great theatre of human
action as a young man. He is a native of
Woodford county, Kentucky, where he was
born on November 6. 1850. and where he re-
ceived a good common-school education, re-
maining there under the parental roof until he
reached the age of eighteen years. In 1868 he
moved to Missouri, and during the next thir-
teen years was engaged in mercantile business
at St. Louis and Linneus, that state. In March.
1881. he took up his residence at Salida. which
was then a municipal infant of less than a year
old. still wrapped in its swaddling clothes of
tents and uncanny wooden buildings, but full
of lusty life and promise. Early in its youth,
first in 1S86. and again in 1888. it passed
through baptisms of fire, and at once thereafter
assumed the more ambitious habiliments of a
296
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
city, erecting substantial brick and stone dwell-
ings and other structures in place of its canvas
and frame ones, and entering with vigor on
the progress and development it has since
shown. In this advance Mr. Craig, as one of
its interested and progressive citizens has taken
his part like a man and performed his duty with
unwavering fidelity. Soon after" his arrival in
the town he and his brother, L. W. Craig,
opened a dry-goods store under the firm name
of Craig Brothers, which they conducted until
[885, then sold the business and started a
private banking institution which they called
the Continental Divide Bank, they being its
sole proprietors. The next year Mr. Craig
bought back an interest in the former dry-
goods establishment, which then became the -
firm of Craig, Sandusky & Company, but he
retained his interest in the bank. In the latter
part of 1889 he and his brother converted their
bank into the First National Bank of Salida.
which was opened for business in January,
1X90. and is now the oldest bank in the city.
L. AY. Craig was president and F. O. Stead
cashier. D. H. Craig continuing to give his
attention to the mercantile establishment. In
1891 he sold his interest in this and united
with J. A. Israel in a real-estate business.
with which he was connected until 1X1)4.
lie then left the real-estate firm and went
into the bank, first as vice-president and some
little time later as cashier, a position which he
is still filling with profit to the institution and
credit to himself. Prior to this, in 1890, his
brother retired from the presidency, and since
then the brink has had several presidents,
Robert Preston, of Salt Lake, filling the office
since 1S97. Under the management of Air.
( Iraig as cashier, the bank, which has from its
start done an extensive business, has greatly
enlarged its body of patrons and volume of
trade, and has become one of the soundesl and
most valuable institutions of its kind in the cen-
tral part of the state. Mr. Craig is also con ■
nected with the real-estate interests of the com-
munity as a member of the firm of Jones &
Craig, and owns considerable property in the
town and county, houses, lands and mining
claims. Politically he supports the Democratic
part}-, but he has never been an active partisan,
finding plenty to occupy his time and faculties
in his extensive business operations. Frater-
nally he belongs to the Masonic order, which
he joined when he was but twenty-two years
of age, and the Knights of Pythias, holding his
meml ership in the latter in the lodge at Salida,
of which he is the only charter member living
in the city. On September 26, i 877, at Lex-
ington, Missouri, he was married to Miss
Laura S. Hollis, a native of that state. They
two daughters, Emily Wiles and Marie
Rose.
JAMES C. TAYLOR.
It is the trial through arduous experience,
facing danger and difficulty, where life is the
stake and manhood must be the reliance, or
where strong influences are confronted and
overborne by force of character and unflinch-
ing fidelity to duty, that often secures men the
enthusiastic approval of their fellows by dem-
onstrating that they possess the qualities
which all men admire and long for and which
only a few have. Something like this has been
the fate of James C. Taylor, now serving his
second term as sheriff of Montrose county. He
was elected the first time by a majority of
twenty-four votes after an exciting contesl
wherein every nerve was strained by all parties,
and scarcely an acre of ground escaped the
searchlight of political activity. At the end of
his term, so satisfactory had been his services
in the first, and so properly had he borne him-
self in his important position, he was re elected
l>v the largest majority ever given a candidate
in the county. Mr. Taylor is a native of
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
> 97
Graves county, Kentucky, born in 1862, and
the son of Joseph and Eliza ( Wade) Taylor,
and there alsi 1 his parents were b< >rn and reared,
both belonging to distinguished ancestry which
had met the call to duty in every field of
American life in its day and locality. The fath-
er, at the beginning of the Civil war, enlisted
in the Thirteenth Kentucky Infantry and must
have been killed in one of the early engage-
ments in which his command took part, as he
soon disappeared from knowledge and was
never heard of again. He was about twenty-
three years of age when he went into the war,
and with manly character and martial spirit of
his forefathers well developed in him, he ap-
peared to have a bright future before him. So
do the hazards of war mock human hopes full
often and lay men of promise in the dust. He
was a son of James Taylor, a native of Ala-
bama, and Polly Dawson, a Kentuckian, whose
lives from maturity were passed on a fine Ken-
tucky farm. This James was a son of John
Taylor, a veteran of the Revolutionary strug-
gle and the war of 1812, and one of the earlv
settlers of Kentucky, following fast in the foot-
steps of Daniel Boone, and ending his days in
that state. The mother of the Sheriff, ome
years after the death of his father, married a
second husband and thereby became the mother
of eight additional children, the Sheriff being
the only child of the first marriage. Her par-
ents were James and Dolly (Brown) Wade,
the father being the son of John Wade, a na-
tive of Ireland, who emigrated to the United
States as a young man and settled in Virginia,
from whence he moved a few years later to
Kentucky, and was there engaged in farming
until his death. The Sheriff's mother died in
1894, aged fifty-four years, and was buried just
over the state line in Tennessee. James C.
Taylor's childhood and youth to the age of
thirteen years were passed in his native state.
At that age he began life for himself, going
to Texas and locating near Meridian, the
county seat of Bosque county, where he herded
cattle from 1875 to 1881. Then after a visit
of a few months to his old Kentucky home, he
came to Colorado in the spring of 1882, and
until 1885 was employed in the cattle industry
in and around Pueblo. From Pueblo he re-
moved to Montrose county, and here he was
engaged in raising cattle on his own account
until 1892, He then took up a ranch of one
hundred and twenty acres near Fort Craw-
ford, which he farmed until 1900, when he was
elected sheriff of the county and moved to
Montrose. He has ever since been busily 1 c-
cupied in the discharge of his official duties
and, while finding them pleasant in the main,
has had many difficulties and dangers to en-
counter and many long and trying trips in all
sorts of weather. He has gone through all,
however, with a serene and loft}- spirit, meeting
every responsibility with fortitude and intel-
ligence, and seeking in every way he could to
fill his important position to the best advantage
of the whole people. In his second candidacy
he was on the Populist, Democratic and Fusion
tickets, and secured, as has been stated, the
largest majority ever given to a candidate in
the county. Soon after this election he started
a livery business at Montrose, and also helped
to form the Kyle & Taylor Grocery Company,
which is one of the leading mercantile institu-
tions of the place. He belongs to the Odd
Fellows, the Masons, the Knights of Pythias.
the Woodmen of the World and the Modern
Woodmen of America, with membership in
the lodges of these orders at Montrose, and
also in the Elks lodge at Ouray. He is also
an active member of the County Fair Associ-
ation. In 1886 he was married to Miss Flor-
ence Duckett, a native of this state and daugh-
ter of James and Martha (Taylor) Duckett.
In his family are five children. Minnie E.. Iva
E., Arthur M., Charles I. and lames C. Jr.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COEORADO.
GEORGE W. ARMSTRONG.
George \V. Armstrong, now one of the
leading merchants of Salida where he conducts
a large drug business, has had a varied and
interesting career since coming to Colorado
in 1864, seeing many ups and downs in west-
ern life, tried often by prosperity and adversity
and proving undisturbed by either, always
finding a place for a new start when business
failed and always making headway in the long
run whatever the obstacles or the odds against
him. He is a native of New York city, born
on December 27, 1843, anc l H1 that city he grew
to manhood and received his education. After
leaving school he served five years in the bank-
ing house of Brown Brothers & Company,
then, in 1864, started across the plains to Colo-
rado during an Indian war which was then in
progress. After a short residence at Denver
he moved to Central City, where he passed
nearly a year in mining, then returned to New
York. There he was engaged in mercantile
business until 1877, then returned to Central
City, this state, and once more engaged in min-
ing. He was unsuccessful and walked to Den-
ver to seek other employment, his total capital
on arriving in that city being ten cents. He
soon found employment with the wholesale
grocery of J. S. Brown & Company, and he re-
mained in their employ three years, having
risen to the position of traveling salesman be-
fore he left. In 1880, in partnership with De-
Witt C. Demurest, he opened a grocery in West
Denver, and within the same year was elected
to the city council. After two years of business
prosperity in Denver he moved to Cimarron,
Montrose county, in 1882, and there opened
a general store, with a branch at Sapinero,
fourteen miles distant in Gunnison county. At
the same time he started a similar enterprise
at Debeque and another at Parachute. The
Rio Grande Railroad was building through
this territory then and business was brisk all
along the line. But later Mr. Armstrong
found his interests too extensive and diffuse for
easy management, and he sold all his stores but
the one at Debeque, which he continued to
manage until 1900. He then sold it also and
gratified a long-felt desire by spending several
months in travel. While living at Debeque he
was prominent in local politics as a Republican,
and during most of the time he was either
mayor of the city or an alderman. He was also
for many years a justice of the peace. In
August. 1 90 1, he bought the drug store of E.
M. Thompson at Salida, and after enlarging
and remodeling the store engaged in the drug
business on a large scale, and is still engaged in
it. Fraternally Mr. Armstrong is a thirty-sec-
ond-degree Mason, with the rank of past mas-
ter in his lodge at Salida. He also belongs to
the Elks lodge there. On March 4, 1867, he
was united in marriage with Miss Annie E.
Mclntyre, a native of New York city, where
the marriage took place. They have one son,
Douglas Armstrong, who is a locomotive en-
gineer on the Rio Grande, and two daughters.
DR. ABIJAH JOHNSON.
Among the most useful and important call-
ings in life is that of the country physician,
and in proportion to its usefulness it is ex-
acting and trying to him who follows it. The
Doctor is an essential visitor to even- house-
hold at times, and a reassurance and sugges-
tion of safety at all except when extremities
are at hand. If he be cheerful by nature and
knows his patient as he does his profession, he
carries about with him an air of encourage-
ment and hope which is in many cases half the
battle for life. Who can tell to how many he
is health in sickness, solace in sorrow, hope in
gloom and even consolation in death! And it
is seldom that his services are unappreciated
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
299
however meagerly they may he rewarded, for
in all parts of our country the local physician
is among the most popular and generally well
esteemed of all citizens. To this class belongs
Dr. Abijah Johnson, of Montrose, who was
highly endowed by nature for his profession,
and has multiplied his capacity by judicious
study, observation and the cultivation of an
inspiring and reassuring presence. He was
born in 1837, in Wayne county, Indiana, the
son of Charles and Nancy (Beeson) Johnson,
His father was born in North Carolina, and re-
moved to Indiana with his parents when he
was young. There he grew to manhood and
remained many years engaged in farming, re-
moving toward the end of his life to Iowa and
dying there in 1872. at the age of seventy-five.
He was a Quaker in religious affiliation. His
wife was a native of Ohio and accompanied her
parents to Indiana in early life. There she
was married and there in 1849 she died, leav-
ing eight children, all of whom are living, the
Doctor being the fifth in order of birth. He
was reared in his native county, and educated
at its public schools, finishing at the high
school, after which he became a teacher and fol-
lowed that vocation for a number of years. He
then entered the medical department of Ann
Arbor University, and after a course of in-
struction at that institution, matriculated at
the Brooklyn (New York) Medical College in
1863, being graduated in due time. He began
practicing at Fairview, Indiana, remaining two
years, then located at Earlham, Iowa, and dur-
ing the next ten years was actively engaged in
a lucrative practice at that place. From there
he came to Colorado, settling at Castle Rock
in 1880, and five years later removing to Mont-
rose, where he has since resided and conducted
a busy and expanding practice, rising to
eminence in his profession in this part of the
state and becoming a forceful factor in its
public life. He is a Republican in politics and
has served as chairman of the county central
committee and a member of the state central
committee of his party, rendering good service
and giving material aid in the campaigns. He
belongs to the Masonic order through lodge,
chapter and commandery, and for twenty-five
years or more has been prominent in school
affairs wherever he has lived, during the last
fifteen being a leading member of the local
board of education at Montrose. He is also a
valued member of the library association. On
the last da\- of the year 1863 he was united in
marriage with Miss Sarah A. Street, a native
of Maryland, daughter of Jacob and Celia
( Wright ) Street, of that state. Three chil-
dren have blessed their union, Britomarte, who
is the wife of Olin Spencer; Carl, who is a
physician and now vice-consul of the United
States in China; and Ross, who is manager of
the Trading and Transfer Company of Cripple
Creek. I >r. Johnson was the efficient president
of the Western Slope Fair Association for
several years.
HON. CHARLES M. RYAN.
Hon. Charles M. Ryan, of Montrose, whose
valuable services to his country and the state
at large in the last state legislature indicated
a knowledge of the interests and requirements
of the state and an acquaintance with public
affairs in general and with men that could have
been acquired only in a long, varied and useful
experience, is a native of central New York,
born in 1S57, and the son of John and Helen
(Cahil) Ryan, who were born in Ireland and
came to the United States in early life, the
father coming as a young man and the mother
as a girl with her parents. The father located
on a farm near Syracuse at the village of
Navarino, and from there he was married near
his home on which he and his wife lived the
rest of their days, he dying in 1864, at the age
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
of forty-eight, and his wife in 1880, at that
of fifty-five. They were the parents of six
children, the subject of this review being the
third of the number. He remained in his
native county until he reached the age of
eighteen, and received a limited education in
the district schools near his home. When he
was thirteen, his own independent and self-
reliant spirit and the circumstances of the
family induced him to go out for the purpose of
earning his own livelihood, which he did there
for five years. In 1875 he came to Colorado
and located at Colorado Springs and in that
neighborhood he became attached to the stock
industry and for a number of years was a
range rider and cowboy. While neither frail
in physical health nor wanting in manly spirit.
his free out-door life was a source of great
advantage to him in every way. It gave him
increased bodily vigor, heightened and es-
tablished his courage, developed a broad and
readv resourcefulness, and taught him the best
of all lessons ever given in the school of ex-
perience, tn rely on himself in emergencies, giv-
ing him at the same time a wider knowledge of
and a firmer confidence in his own capabilities.
Thus nature is always balancing her gifts to
her children. Expatriating this gentleman
from the blandishments of cultivated life,
which might have been his portion had he re-
mained in his native state, and laying him
under tribute for almost every form of arduous
effort and confronting him with almost every
form of danger and privation incident to a
life in the wilderness, through this very means
she poured into his veins a strung and steady
tide of high vitality and intensified his spirit
with a daring and a comprehensiveness of
power that not only carried him safely and
successfully through the engagements then
upon him, but lilted him fur whatever might
come in future. Essentially and by nature a
man of high integrity, lie met Eaithfully every
draft then made upon him in the line of duty,
ami since then he has continued to do so, and
with the augmented force he acquired in the
discipline of trial through which he was then
passing. The summer of 1877 was passed in a
stamp mill on Summit mountain, above Del
Norte, and after that he was engaged in pros-
pecting until late in the summer of 1880, when
he went back to the saddle and occupied him-
self in buying and selling cattle. Prior to this
time, by thrift and business acumen, he had ac-
quired valuable property in Telluride, making
his purchases there about 1882. In 1885 he
sold out his holdings in that section and. mov-
ing to Montrose county, continued to deal in
stock and also prospected and located mining
properties, being. the original discoverer and
locator of the Tomboy mine. His principal oc-
cupation in this region, however, was dealing
in cattle, which he carried on extensively until
1892. In that year he was appointed superin-
tendent of the Sunnyside mine at Eureka gulch
by. the First National Bank, of Montrose,
which owned the property. He held this posi-
tion during the summer and passed the ensuing
winter in prospecting through the Lasalle and
Blue Mountain districts, returning in the early
summer of 1893 to again take charge of the
Sunnyside for a few months. In the fall of
that year he was appointed brand inspector for
the western half of the state and held the office
until relieved by a change of administration in
the state government in the spring of [894.
The summer following was consumed in pros-
pecting in the San Miguel region, and in
February. 1895, he bought a bankrupt stock
.if furniture in a store now kept by Messrs.
Frasier & Garrett. After disposing of tliis he
became live stock representative for the house
of Planchard, Shelly & Rogers, of Omaha,
whom he represented two seasons in this state.
I >uitting this employment at the end of that
period, he once more turned his attention to
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
3 ( ' ■
dealing in stuck, in which he has since been
extensively and successfully engaged, his head-
quarters being at his valuable and well-im-
proved ranch of four hundred and eight) acres
ten miles northwest of Montrose. He has been
energetic and very serviceable in connection
with all projects For building up and improv-
ing the county, developing its resource
tn g hening its commercial importance thai
have commended themselves to his judgment.
When the County Fair Association was or-
ganized he was one of its first dir :to an i
mainstays, and for a number of years he has
been president of the Livestock Association. In
politics he is an unwavering Republican, and
as the candidate of his party, to which he Ins
given the devoted loyalty and service of his
mature life, he was elected as count}- repre-
sentative in the last legislature. He is a Knight
of Pythias, with membership in Montrose
lodge of the order, which has also felt the
force of his intelligence, enterprise and capacity.
On Christmas day, [890, Mr. Ryan was mar-
ried to Miss Clara A. Land, a native of New
York city, daughter of John Scott and Susan
( Haden ) Land, the father, a Canadian, being
an extensive traveler in various part; of the
United States and a soldier in the Civil war,
losing his life on the battlefield. His widow-
makes her home with Mr. and Mrs. Ryan.
They have one child. Archie S.. aged seven
years.
A. E. BUDDECKE.
Whatever has already been or may here-
after be accomplished by Colorado and other
western states, whatever high examples they
may give to mankind, or deeds that stir the
blood may shine like stars in their future his-
tory, nothing can take away or abate the credit
due to the pioneers that explored them and
began their settlement, daring the dangers,
confronting the difficulties, suffering the pri-
vations of frontier life, cut off from society and
sympathy — almost from earthly hope — and
often dying in the midst of the vast wilderness
before any of the fruits of their labor?
to bloom or ripen around them. What
if many were rude men, all were vigorous and
daring; what matter if they were impelled to
enterprise by native restlessness or lured by
hope of gain, they blazed the way for the
march of civilization and empire, and opened a
storehouse of incalculable wealth for the benefit
of their kind throughout the world. To this
class, the pioneers of the great West of the
United States, belongs A. E. Buddecke, the
subject of this sketch, a veritable old timer in
Colorado and one of the first settlers at Mont-
rose, lie was born in 1840, in Franklin
count}-. Missouri, the son of William Bud-
decke, one of the pioneers and conquerors
of the waste. They were natives of German}
and brought their family to Missouri among
its first settlers after the Revolution, arriving
in America about the year 1.814. Fi what is now
Franklin county of the state of Mr. Buddecke's
nativity, they passed the residue of their lives,
both dying in 1850. the mother aged forty-
five and the father sixty. Their offspring num-
bered six, of whom A. E. was the youngest.
Passing his boyhood and youth in the wilds of
Missouri, it is not strange that lie imbibed a
love of adventure and conquest of untrodden
regions from his surroundings and his daily
life, and at the age of twenty joined the stam-
pede to Pike's Peak, making the journey by
team across the plains and arriving at Denver
in the summer of i860. Instead of only pros
pecting and digging for gold as others did, he
found a mine in using his team in the service
of miners and was engaged in freighting out of
that place until 1872, with some incidental min-
ing at limes. In that year he went to Indian
Territory and from there to Texas, and in
those places he was employed in the stock busi-
3 02
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
ness until 1882. He then returned to Colo-
rado and located at Montrose, one of the first
white men to settle on its site. He engaged in
the grocery and general merchandising trade,
and thus drawing people from the surrounding
country to this point, helped to found the town
and begin its life. He continued in business
until 1893, having a partner named Diehl, the
firm name being Buddecke & Diehl. In 1893
he si ild his interest in the business to his part-
ner and retired from active pursuits. He lives
alone in a neat cottage home, and enjoys the
respect and esteem of the whole community as
a sort of patriarch and father of the town. He
built the first brick structure within its limits
and was the builder of the Montrose Opera
House, of which he is still the manager. In
politics he is an unflinching Democrat, and al-
though averse to official life, served as one of
the first board of commissioners for the county.
No enterprise for the good of the town and
county has failed to get his active aid if he ap-
proved it, and when once his interest has been
enlisted his energy in behalf of the object that
engaged it has never flagged until the desired
end was accomplished.
THOMAS M. MOORE.
Thomas M. Moore, one of the successful
and progressive fanners of Montrose county,
Colorado, is justly entitled to the prominence
he has among the men of this part of the
state who are engaged in the industry which
he has reduced to a science and followed
through life with system and intelligence
worthy of admiration and sure to bring good
results. He learned the business in one of the
great grain states of the middle West that lie in
the arms of the Missouri and the Mississippi,
and practiced it there for more than a third of
a century. In that section of the country the
extent of the acreage devoted to cereals, the
volume of the harvests, the commercial im-
portance of the product, its far-reaching re-
sults and the mighty machinery devised to
gather and prepare it for market go far toward
making a modern world wonder. He was
horn in McMinn county, Tennessee, in 1832,
and is the son of Jabez and Alatha ( Baker)
Moore, natives of that state who many years
ago were laid to rest far from the place of their
birth in a region whither they had come to
find a new home of hope and promise in the
morning of its civilization and in which they
lived to enjoy its noonday splendor of ac-
complished results. They were born in 1800,
and in 1850 settled in Davis county, Iowa, re-
moving later to Taylor county, in the same
state, where they were prosperous and success-
ful farmers and where they passed the remain-
der of their lives, the mother dying in 1871.
in her seventy-first year, and the father in
1876, in his seventy-sixth. They were mem-
bers of the Missionary Baptist church. The
mother was the daughter of Love and Pris-
cilla (Tipton) Baker, who were horn and
reared in Tennessee and removed from there to
Georgia early in their married life, remaining
there until the death of the father, after which
the mother came to Iowa and passed the rest
of her days with her daughter. Mr. .Moore
was the fifth of the eleven children born to his
parents, and lived with them in his native state
until he reached the age of eighteen, then ac-
companied them to Iowa, where he soon after
engaged in farming on his own account, which
he continued in Davis and Taylor counties in
that state until 1886. He then rented his farm
there and came to live in Colorado, purchasing
the place on which he now resides, two miles
and a quarter west of Montrose. Here he has
since that time been actively 1 iccupied in general
farming and raising blooded stock and superior
qualities of fruit. In the stock industry he
lri> given attention specially to the production
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
303
of pure bred Norman horses, and in the fruit
industry to growing high grades of apples,
peaches and plums. He has thirty-five acres of
his farm in fruit trees and they reward his
attention with abundant crops of excellent
fruit. He was married in 1858 to Miss Mary
F. Mattix, a native of Park county, Indiana,
the daughter of John and Nancy Mattix, who
moved from Indiana, the state of their na-
tivity, when Airs. Moore was a young girl.
She grew to womanhood in Iowa and was mar-
ried there. Mr. and Mrs. Moore have had
ten children, eight of whom are living, Ida.
Wiley, William. Chester. Rosa, Arthur, Allie
and James. Charles, their first born, died in
infancy and was buried in Taylor county,
Iowa; and John Oscar, another son, died since
they came to Colorado and was buried at Mont-
rose. The parents are passing the evening of
life in contentment and comfort after many
struggles, and are secure in the general esteem
and good will of the community in which
their energy and worth have been so signally
displayed. Mr. and Mrs. Moore have for many
years been faithful and active members of the
Missionary Baptist church.
STEPHEN V. TAPPAN.
Born in LaPorte county. Indiana, twelve
miles northeast of the city of LaPorte and four
miles south of the town of Three Oaks. Michi-
gan, and growing to manhood there, Stephen
V. Tappan, of Montrose county, this state,
was reared in the midst of one of the most
fertile and prolific agricultural regions of this
country, and the lessons of rural life and its
leading industry he learned there have been
of inestimable benefit to him in all his subse-
quent career. His life began in 1847, and he
is the son of Julius and Philuria (Marshall)
Tappan, the father a native of New York and
married there, his wife also being native in
that state. In 1836, soon after their marriage,
they moved to Indiana and settled in LaPorte
county not far from the Michigan line, where
to the end of their lives they were engaged in
farming, except (luring the Civil war when the
father was at the front as a member of the
Forty-eighth Indiana Infantry. Company D,
and the mother managed the farm alone. He
entered the army on December 6, 1861, and
was not mustered out of the service until after
General Lee's surrender. Returning then to
his farm work he followed that until his death
in 1876, at the age of sixty years. He was
prominent in local affairs, filling various town-
ship offices, and after the war to the end of his
life was an enthusiastic member of the Grand
Army of the Republic. His parents were
Stephen and Betsey (Woodward) Tappan, na-
tives of Connecticut, who moved to New York
and settled near Syracuse in early days. The
father was a veteran of the war of 1812, a cap-
tain "in the service, and his son Julius, who
entered the service as a private in the Civil
war. rose to the rank of sergeant. The grand-
father of the subject of this sketch was a
farmer and surveyor, and was a prominent
figure in the military organization of his ti wn
of Baldwinsville, where he died in 1828. His
wife also died there, passing away in 1866.
The greater part of her life after the death of
her husband was passed in Berrien county.
Michigan. She was the mother of twelve chil-
dren. Stephen Tappan's mother was the
daughter of Noah and Ruth (Paddock) Mar-
shall. Her father was a native of Connecticut
and an early settler in the neighborhood of
Syracuse. From there he moved to Indiana
and later to Illinois. I lis last days were spent
in Indiana, where both he and his wife died
and were buried. Their daughter, the mother
of Stephen, died in 1X03. at the age of seventy-
four, having been the mother of ten children
of whom he was the fifth. He remained on
3 ;, 4
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
the paternal homestead until he was twenty-
four, and having the trade of a carpenter,
worked at that and farmed in Indiana until
[877, then engaged in the grocery business at
New Carlisle, St. Joseph count}, alone for a
time and later with a partner under the firm
name of Tappan & White.. He followed this
until 1S82 when he sold out and came to Giin-
ni "ii county, Colorado, where he prospected
and kept a store for two years. In 1884 he
turned his attention to farming, homesteading
on one hundred and sixty acres of sage brush
land five miles from the town of Montrose. A
few years later he bought the place he now
lives on of eighty acres one mile nearer the
town and has since made that his home. Here
he has five hundred fruit trees, apples, peaches
and others, and a large acreage of small fruits,
from which he has an abundant yield. He
also carries on a thriving stock business. In
politics he is an active Republican. In 1889
he was married in Montrose county to Miss
Mary Smith, daughter of M. W. Smith, the
subject of another sketch in these pages. They
have one son, Charley. In addition to his
farming and fruit industries Mr. Tappan is in-
terested largely in mining properties in western
Colorado. He had two brothers, Thomas Jef-
ferson and Noah M., in the Civil war. Thomas
belonged to the Ninth Illinois Cavalry and
Noah to the Twentieth Indiana Infantry. The
latter was wounded at the battle of Malvern
Hill.
ALBERT C. ELLISON.
After years of arduous labor in various
lines of activity, and suffering many hardships
and disasters, having more than the usual run
of ups and downs in life, yei meeting ever]
condition with fortitude and rising from every
reverse with renewed vitality, this popular and
influential ranchman who bis high standing
among the people of Rio Blanco county, is well
established as manager of the extensive and
productive stock ranch of B. M Vaughan, of
New York city, which comprises nine hundred
and sixty acres and is beautifully located on
Elk creek, twenty miles northeast of Meeker,
and is well supplied with water from the creek
which belongs to it. It is one of the choice
places in that part of th : -1 il ■. highly improved
with excellent ranch buildings, including a
lodge of fine proportions commanding a beau-
tiful and inspiring outlook over the surround-
ing country, and is equipped with every appli-
ance for the most successful management of its
affairs. It is one of the few places yet left in
the section which has a fine herd of elk among
its stock, in addition to the large herds of well
bred Hereford cattle and fancy imported
horses, which are the admiration of the whole
region. It is also well stocked with choice
breeds of poultry and the other animal life to
be expected on a breeding farm, and all its ele-
ments of interest are not only of the best, but
are looked after with the utmost care and skill-
ful attention. Of the large tract of land which
it includes three hundred acres are under cul-
tivation for its uses, and the products are as
various and their quality is as high as circum-
stances will permit. Mr. Ellison was born on
May 17, 1857, in Waupaca county, Wisconsin,
and is the son of Isaac and Elizabeth Ellison.
natives of Norway, who emigrated to this
country when young and were among the first
settlers in the part of Wisconsin where they
lived. Idle father was a farmer, butcher and
hotel-keeper, and was successful in each walk
of usefulness. He was a Republican in politics
and a man of influence in the councils of his
party. Both parents died in 1869. They had
five children. One son named Jack is deceased.
and Elias, John, Carrie and Albert C. are
living. Albert received a common-school edu-
cation and assisted his parents on the farm
until lie n- iched the age 1 if eighteen. Then,
4?c^.
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
305
in 1875. he came to Colorado and located at
Boulder, then a small village. Having no
money left, he went to work in the mines in
Four-Mile gulch. Six months later he engaged
in freighting in the employ of Ardale & New-
man, with whom he remained until 1884. The
labor in this employment was hard and full
of hardships, and as soon as he was able to do
anything better for himself he quit the service
and built a log cabin on the forks of White
river, the first one erected in that neighborhood,
and this was put up in the interest of the
Stock Irrigation Company, which located one
of the first ranches there. In the employ of this
company Mr. Ellison brought from Larkspur
to the ranch three hundred and ninety-eight
Texas mares and ten imported Norman stal-
lions for breeding purposes. One of the Nor-
mans was killed in transit by a silver tip bear
after a hard battle. The industry started by
this band of horses did not prove a success,
but Mr. Ellison remained in the employ of the
company until 1886, when he pre-empted one
hundred and sixty acres for himself. This he
improved and in 1889 he sold it. During the
next three years he devoted his attention to
raising horses on an extensive basis and pros-
pered in the enterprise. He then became a
tourists' guide and continued in the business
eight years. As he was one of the first guides
in the hills, so he was one of the most success-
ful and found the business very profitable. At
the end of the period named he secured the
position he is now so successfully filling. Al-
ways interested in horses, he still owns one of
the best, the celebrated stallion Haroldwood,
with a record of 2:31. When he located in this
section the country was wild and almost unin-
habited except by Indians and wild beasts, and
all hands were frequently required to put down
Indian hostilities. The Utes were very trouble-
some, and he was in all the fights with them.
On one occasion he was deputized as sheriff to
20
quell an uprising mid spent thirty-two daws in
the field against the savage foe of civilization,
many being killed in the campaign. The whites
suffered some losses too, among them the noted
Jack Ward and Frank Folsoni and a Mr. Curly,
all of whom Mr. Ellison helped to bury. There
were in those days no bridges, few roads and
scant supplies of the ordinary conveniences of
life. Supplies had to lie freighted from Denver,
a distance of three hundred miles, and the work
was one of great difficulty and danger, con-
ducted with pack horses. He also freighted
from Rawlins, Wyoming, to Meeker for
Hughes & Company, having the first contract
in the county, which was written by Judge
Hazen. Fraternally he is connected with the
order of Odd Fellows, and politically belongs
to the Republican party. On November 20.
1896, he was married to Miss May Smith, a
native of Fort Collins. Colorado. They have
four children, Francis. Alice, Annie and Ben-
jamin. His success in business here, and the
position of influence and general esteem in
which he is held among all classes of the peo-
ple, make Mr. Ellison well pleased with Colo-
rado and devoted to her best interests.
HARRY D. BOYLE.
The scion of an old family whose history in
various places on the Atlantic slope is alto-
gether creditable from early colonial times, and
whose record in peace and war. in public and in
private life, in Ireland where it was domesti-
cated from time immemorial, was among the
best of the prominent families in that country,
Harry D. Boyle, of Montrose, residing on the
old Chief Ouray ranch, is true to the traditions
and aspirations of his forefathers, and like
them has been a prospector in new territory
and a conqueror of the wilderness. The early
American members of the family helped
to colonize Maryland and to plant the
306
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
banner of religious liberty on the soil
of that state, and from there in time went
forth into the interior of the country, extend-
ing the blessings of the freedom and civiliza-
tion of which they were always strong and
prominent advocates. Some of them were
among the first settlers of Kentucky, and it is
to this branch of the family that Mr. Boyle
belongs. He was born in 1862, at Chillicothe,
Livingston county, Missouri, whither bis par-
ents moved from the Blue Grass state while
they were young, the father coming at the
dawn of his manhood and the mother with her
parents before she reached years of maturity.
They became acquainted in Missouri and were
married there, and there the father passed the
rest of his life engaged in bridge building and
other mechanical work, dying in 1883, aged
sixty-five years. He was an ardent Democrat
in politics and, like others of the family else-
where, was prominent in the local affairs of his
section. His widow is now a resident of Okla-
homa, and has reached the age of seventy-
seven. Their children number nine, of whom
the son Harry is the seventh. The first fifteen
years of his life were passed in Missouri, and
were in no respects worthy of special notice
different from those of other boys in his class
and locality. At the age of fifteen he took up
the burden of life for himself by making his
way to the pan-handle of Texas and joining
the army of daring men and boys who were
there conducting the stock industry. After an
experience of thirteen years in this dangerous
but exhilarating life be came to Colorado and
settled at Silverton, remaining there fur a year,
and thereafter going over the greater part of
the Western slope by easy stages and making
an extended trip through Arizona and the in-
termediate country into Washington and the
Mlierta. country in Canada. He also spent a
year in the livery business at Telluride. this
state, and did contracting and team work there.
He then came to his present location on the old
ranch made historic as the former home of
the Ute Indian Chief Ouray, on which the old
government supply house is still standing. The
residence of the chief in his day and now of
Mr. Boyle, on this ranch cost about ten thou-
sand dollars, all the lumber used in its construc-
tion being freighted from Pueblo. It was
built in 1876, and since then has sheltered manv
distinguished men and cultivated ladies, among
those who have brightened its chambers with
their cheer or darkened its portals with the
shadow of an ominous presence being soldiers
and civilians of high degree, cattle kings and
cowboys, lordly commanders and humble
servitors, and moist, merry men in moods of
mirth. Mr. Boyle here conducts a general
farming and stock industry of large propor-
tions, keeping the standard of his products high
and the breeds of bis stock pure. He also buys
and sells cattle extensively. In 1891 be was
married to Miss Cora Rhodes, a native of Colo-
rado, daughter of M. and S. J. Rhodes, and has
four children, Maud, Mellie, Susie, and Rosa,
who died May 20, 1904.
STILLMAN H. SCHILDT.
The wear}- tourist through the Big Cimar-
ron section of Montrose county, if he seek an
agreeable shelter from the weather or a hospi-
table and comfortable place of repose, will find
about five miles south of the village of Cimar-
ron an imposing dwelling at the edge of a
magnificent grove of stately cottonwoods and
fronted by a beautiful lawn. This is the home
of Stillman II. Schildt, a prominent man in
public and social life, a leading farmer and
citizen of this section and the first settler on
this portion of the Big Cimarron. He has the
most attractive place in this part of the county
and is known far and wide for his hospitality,
his public-spirit, and his enterprise in his
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
307
private business and in public improvements
for the benefit of the community in which he
lives. Mr. Schildt was born in 1855 at Platts-
burg, New York, the son of Henry and Mary
(Schriber) Schildt, the former a native of
Prussia and the latter of another part of Ger-
many. They came to the United States soon
after their marriage and settled in northeastern
New York, where they remained until 1850.
when they moved to Wisconsin, where the
mother died on December 26, 1900. at the age
of 'eighty-one, and where the father is still
living at that of eighty-three. He was a si ildier
in the Prussian army, and not long after he
settled in Wisconsin enlisted in the Sixth Wis-
consin Infantry for defense of the Union in
the Civil war. His people in Prussia were of-
fended at his enlistment and petitioned Presi-
dent Lincoln for his dismissal. The President
responded to the petition by promptly appoint-
ing him captain of Company F in his regiment.
His son Stillman was the fourth of the six
children born to the household. He moved
with the rest of the family to Wisconsin when
he was four years old. and in the village of
Mazomanie, that state, he grew to the age oi
twenty. He then started in life for himself,
emigrating to Kansas, where he remained three
years, then came to Colorado, and freighted
from Alamosa for two years. At the end of
that time he came to what was then Gunnison
county and was in the employ of Otto Meyers
on the toll road for two years, after which he
took up the ranch which is now his home, ac-
quiring the land by pre-emption of the first one
hundred and sixty acres and purchase of the
rest of the three hundred and thirty-five he
owns. His land has had careful and skillful at-
tention, and his stock industry has been made
to thrive and prosper by the application of the
best methods of conducting it and the most
commodious and comfortable provision for the
welfare of the stock. His specialty is pure-
bred Durham cattle, and he is steadily raising
the standard of his herds to the highest point.
His dwelling is a large and handsome one,
his grounds display excellent taste in their ar-
rangement and care, his improvements on the
farm generally are of a high order in char-
acter and conveniences, and the cultivation of
his land is carried on in the most approved
manner. Everything on and about the place
bespeaks the man of energy and culture, of
breadth and spirit, such as his genial manner,
entertaining conversation and considerate hos-
pitality show him to be. In 1879 he was mar-
ried to Miss Lucy A. Moore, daughter of S.
R. Moore, of Kansas, who moved from Illinois
to that state and passed the rest of his life
farming there. Mr. and Mrs. Schildt have
five children living, Pearl. William, Lorraine.
Lucy and Henriette. A son named Robert died
at the age of nineteen years and was buried in
the cemetery at Cimarron, and a daughter
named Mary, who was killed by accident at the
age of four, has the same resting place.
ROBERT ALBION WARD.
Born and reared on the soil of Saguache
county, this state, and educated in the common
and high schools of its seat of government,
Robert A. Ward is wholly a product of the
county, and all his years from the time when
he was first able to work have been devoted to
its welfare. It is to him, therefore, not only
home but the place of nativity, and as he has
drawn from its products his stature and his
strength, it is the embodiment of his loftiest
and most potential aspirations in civil and do-
mestic life, appealing to him as the worthiest
section of our common country for the expendi-
ture of his talents and vigor in the promotion
of its multiform interests, and awakening his
pride and patriotism by every phase of its
growing greatness and power. His life began
3 o8
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
here on February 10, 1878, and he is the son
of Nathan and Julia A. Ward, the former
born in England and the latter on an island in
the St. Lawrence river. The mother was
reared in Iowa where her parents settled in
1852. Nathan Ward was a farmer in Iowa
until 1859, then gathered his household goods
and effects about him and moved to this state,
coming overland in a train of teams with cat-
tle and other necessaries, and encountering all
the dangers, suffering all the hardships and
feeling all the apprehensions of the hardy ad-
venturers of those days, who took their lives in
their hands and boldly strode into the wilder-
ness to better their fortunes and aid in found-
ing new states. The train in which he traveled
met many -bands of Indians, but suffered no
damage from them. But when they arrived
at their destination, which was California
Gulch near the site of the present city of Lead-
ville. they found their own race more cruel
than the wild men of the plains. The father
remained at California Gulch until the begin-
ning of the Civil war in 1861, then, in
obedience to one of the first calls for volunteers
to defend the Union, he enlisted in Company
D, First Colorado Cavalry, and in this com-
mand he served to the close of the war. He
was in much active service, and almost con-
tinually exposed to danger on the march and
the battlefield, but he escaped without disaster:
and after the close of the mighty conflict, he
made trips to New Mexico, Texas and Mis
souri, prospecting for a suitable site for a per
manent location. He was also in the party
which for some time pursued the notorious
James boys, another engagement fraught with
hazard and full of exciting adventure. After
they were captured, he returned to Colorado
to live, as he had been here from time 1- time
aftei the war. and in this state he Ins since
made his home. He is now an honored resi-
dent of Canyon City, and one of the leading
men of that portion of the state. For a num-
ber of years he farmed in the vicinity of Den-
ver, raising large quantities of potatoes with
which to supply the mining camps near that
city. In 1868 he located in Saguache county,
in which he was the fifth permanent settler,
On homestead, timber culture and pre-emption
claims he secured four hundred and forty acres
of good land, and to the improvement of this
he devoted many years of his later life. On
his land he carried on extensive ranch and
stock industries, expanding in volume and
value from year to year, until he retired from
the place and left its management to his son,
the immediate subject of this article. The
father is a Republican in politics and a Free-
mason in fraternal life. He always took an
earnest and helpful interest in county affairs
while living in this county, and served the peo-
ple well as county commissioner for two terms.
While in that office he was indefatigable in his
efforts to secure good roads and similar public
improvements, and the pace he set in this re-
gard so impressed the people that it has never
been slackened since. During his early resi-
dence here Indian scares were not frequent,
and while game was plentiful, antelope seemed
to be more abundant than other forms of it.
There were four children in the family. Of
these Eva died, and William L., Robert A. and
Bertha N. are living. Robert has always lived
on the farm. After completing his education
at the Saguache high school he turned his at-
tention wholly to the interests of the home
place and to them he has steadily devoted it
( ver since. The ranch is well fenced, improved
with good buildings, abundantly supplied with
water, and wisely ami vigorously cultivated.
Its crops of hay and grain are large and ex-
cellenl in quality, and its widelj known herds
of Shorthorn cattle and well bred horse
among die most valuable in the county. The
son. like his father, is a stanch Republican, and
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
309
like his father too, he has been successful in his
undertaking's and risen to a high place in the
public regard, winning his way by demon-
strated merit and worthy attention to all the
duties of good citizenship. He was married
on February 8, 1902, to Miss Minor Belle
Harness, a native of Illinois reared in Wiscon-
sin. They have had two children, a daughter
Hazel who died, and one named Mildred who is
living. Young, capable, diligent and upright,
Mr. Ward may confidently look forward to a
career of increasing usefulness and honor.
LOUIS W. SWEITZER.
Although born and reared in this country.
and indoctrinated from his childhood in its
lessons of human equality and individual free-
dom, and witnessing all his life and participat-
ing from his youth in its civil institutions,
Louis W. Sweitzer. of Delta county, has many
traits of his German parentage and has put into
practice in his laudable endeavors for advance-
ment among his fellow men the sterling char-
acteristics of his race which make its people
conquerors in any field of enterprise and
worthy of all regard in all the elements of
good citizenship wherever they happen to cast
their lot. His life began in Ohio on July 22,
1859. His parents, Henry and Elizabeth
(Leonard) Sweitzer. were natives of Germany,
the father born on the banks of the river Lahn
and the mother at the town of Arbor. The
father came to this country when a young man
and settled in Ohio, where he is still living. He
is a wagonmaker by trade and has passed his
life so far in the industrious pursuit of his
craft. The mother died in the autumn of 1901.
Their son Louis was educated at the public
schools and remained at home until he reached
the age of nineteen years. Then in 1878 he
came to Colorado and until the spring of 1880
he made his home at Denver. That vear he
mi ived to Leadville and engaged in mining. In
1881 he transferred his energies to Telluride
but continued in the same vocation with pros-
pecting in addition, returning to Leadville in
the spring of 1882. Here he remained stead-
fastly with the mining industry until the spring
of 1887, when he began an enterprise in mer-
chandising at Leadville in which he still has an
interest. He moved to Delta county in 1894
and bought one hundred and sixty acres of
land on Garnett mesa, one mile and a half
from Delta, which is now and ever since has
been his home. On this tract he has erected a
fine dwelling and planted fifty acres in fruit.
The rest of his land is given up to alfalfa and
other general farm products, and both in the
agricultural and the orchard lines of his busi-
ness he is doing well. His orchard comprises
mainly apple and peach trees, and both yield
abundantly. In 1903 he sold upwards of five
thousand dollars worth of products from his
farm, among the yield being three thousand
boxes of apples, one car load of which brought
an average of one dollar and seventv cents a
box. The prospects for the current year
( 1905) are much better and his revenue is like-
ly to be largely increased over that of last year.
On September 19, 1889. Mr. Sweitzer was
married to Miss Elizabeth Morganstern, who
was born at Marietta, Ohio, on December 23.
1859, and is the daughter of Jacob and Kate
( Wagner ) Morganstern, natives of Germany
who settled in Ohio in youth. They
were married in that state and it is
still their home. Mr. Sweitzer has three
sisters and two brothers, all of whom
are living, and he is the only member of the
family residing in Colorado. In the Sweitzer
household six children have been born, and all
are living and at home. They are Leonard E..
Lewis M., Minnie E., Bernice E.. Paul F. and
Minnie M. The oldest is fourteen and the
youngest five and one half years of age. Mr.
3i°
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Sweitzer is a Republican in politics, a Wood-
man of the World in fraternal life and a Pres-
byterian in church membership. His wife also
belongs to the Presbyterian church. They
stand well in their community and are among
the prosperous and substantial citizens of the
county in which they live.
GEORGE H. CONE.
For nearly half his life George H. Cone
has been a resident of Delta county, living all
the while on the ranch which is now his home
on Ash mesa, eight miles from Delta, and dur-
ing all of this period he has been actively en-
gaged in farming and improving his property,
and also helping to build up and develop the
neighborhood in which so long ago and in
primitive times he cast his lot. The benefits of
his labor are seen around him on his own place
and in the general state of advanced cultivation
and improvement of the whole section of the
country in which he lives. He is a native of
Genesee county, Michigan, where he was born
(Hi August 2-j, 1850. His parents. Norman
and Sarah (Adkins) Cone, were born, reared
and married in Connecticut. They moved to
Michigan when young and there they lived on
one farm for over fifty years. Their family
comprised three sons and one daughter, of
whom only two of the sons are living. One of
these was a soldier in the Civil war and saw
plenty of hard service in the field and on the
march. George was reared on the Michigan
homestead and in the district schools near his
home lie received a limited education. When
he reached the age of twenty-one, in 1871, he
left home and went out into car shops to learn
the trade of car repairing. After working at
this three years he bought and settled on a
farm in Osceola county, in his native state, on
which he lived until 1881. In the fall of 1882
he became a resident of Colorado, and the next
fall settled on the place he now owns and occu-
pies and which has been his home continuously
since that time. It comprises one hundred and
forty-nine acres, which he took up as a pre-emp-
tion claim, and he has greatly improved it and
by judicious husbandry has brought the land to
a high state of productiveness. Five acres of
the tract are in fruit, his being the first orchard
planted on the mesa, and the rest is in alfalfa
and other general farm products. The land is
very abundant and he is quite prosperous in his
enterprise, every branch of it yielding good re-
turns for the time and labor expended on it.
He also stands well in the general estimation
of his fellow citizens as a progressive and pub-
lic-spirited man, a good neighbor, a faithful
friend and a sterling, upright citizen. On Feb-
ruary 7, 1886, he was married to Miss Parthenia
Kerr, who was born in Arkansas on June 18,
1850. Her parents were Wade and Nancy
(Reed) Kerr, natives of Kentucky. Mr. and
Mrs. Cone have one daughter, Ida. now sixteen
years old. Mr. Cone belongs to the order of
Odd Fellows, and in political belief he is a So-
cialist.
GEORGE J. NEWELL.
Almost from his childhood connected with
the culture and handling of fruit, and learning
by practical experience every phase of the busi-
ness, the substantial success won in this part
of the world in this profitable industry by
George J. Newell, of Delta county, was the
legitimate result of wide and accurate knowl-
edge on the subject and the diligent and skill-
ful application of his practical knowledge to
its various needs. He was horn in West Vir-
ginia on June it, \^~, and was the son of
John and Lydia (Edie) Newell, the latter born
in the same state as himself and the former in
Washington county, Pennsylvania. Both are
now deceased. The father was a tanner for a
number of years, then became a miller, and
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
later followed farming to the end of his life.
George was reared on a farm and received
his education at the country schools near his
home. He remained at home and took care
of his father until the latter died in 1883. In
1885 he came to Colorado, locating first in
Weld county, where he engaged in farming and
raising fruit, as he had done on his home place
in his native state, in this state managing his
brother's farm. In 1887 he took employment
with a large firm to sell flour and grain, and he
continued in this business until 1895 with head-
quarters at Leadville. The year before he
bought the place on which he afterward made
his home in Delta county, and in 1895 he set-
tled on it. The ranch comprises two hundred
acres, of which sixty are in fruit, forty acres of
a planting made soon after his arrival here and
twenty set out at a later date. The orchards
are principally in apples and they yield abund-
ant harvest of the finest fruit. The rest of bis
land is cultivated fur grain and hay. lie had
been very successful and the returns for bis
labor are correspondingly large. In 1903 be
sold two thousand five hundred dollars worth
of produce off his place. Mr. Xewell was
married on November 16, 1896, to Mrs. Laura
(Adams) Jackman, a native of Jefferson
county. Iowa, the daughter of Josiah Allen and
Elizabeth ( Welch ) Adams. Her father was
horn in West Virginia and her mother in Ohio.
They moved to Iowa when young and there the
father passed the remainder of his life, dying
there at an advanced age. The mother died in
California. To Mr. and Mrs. Newell was born
one son, William T., who is six years of age.
Mr. Newell supported the Republican party in
political affairs and be was a Presbyterian in
church membership, as is now Mrs. Newell.
While living in West Virginia on bis father's
farm. Mr. Newell handled apples as a com-
mercial commodity on a large scale during the
fall and winter. He also raised large quanti-
ties of fruit on the place and became one of the
leading men in the business in that section of
the country. After coming to Colorado, he
carried on the same lines of business exten-
sively in connection with his other farming
operations, and here too he became a leader in
the industry, and an authority on all questions
connected with it. Mr. Newell died July 13.
1903, deeply lamented by all.
JOHN PL ATT.
John Piatt, one of the progressive, indus-
trious and prosperous farmers of Delta county,
living on that favored elevation known as Ash
mesa, six miles from the town of Delta, and
one of the first settlers of this region, is a
native of Austria, born in 1852. His parents,
Nicholas and Mary (Garbles) Piatt, were also
natives of that country, as their forefathers
were for countless generations before them.
The father was a farmer there and also a miller,
conducting a large and busy flour-mill. He
brought his family to this country and settled
in Colorado in 1872. Their first location was
at Del Norte, where they lived until 1877. when
they moved to Montrose county. There the
father pre-empted eighty acres of land, on
which be and bis wife now live. Their son
John left home in 1876, when he was twenty-
four years of age, and going to Leadville, en-
gaged in freighting between that town and
( iunnison, following this occupation for three
years. At the end of that period he moved to
Delta county. wdiere he pre-empted the ranch
on which he has since made his home. His
arrival here was in 1882, just as the Indians
were leaving and while the country was yet in
its state of unbroken wildness. He was one of
the first settlers on the mesa, but the number
was increased by several new arrivals in the
first vear of bis residence here. Of his land
twenty acres are in hay and the rest is given
31-2
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
up to general farming and grazing. He bore
his part well in the first efforts to improve the
country and supply it with roads, bridges and
the other public conveniences of living, and
in all its subsequent progress and development
he has been forward and active in good works.
In October, 1882. he was marrie'd to Miss
Maggie Kessler, who was born in Germany.
They had two daughters, Carrie and May, the
latter being deceased. Their mother died in
December, 1897, and in 1899 he married Miss
Mary Connor, from whom he was afterward
divorced. His third marriage occurred on De-
cember 21, 1 90 1, and was with Miss Maud
Wixson, a native of Custer county, Colorado,
born on May 7, 1870, at Rosita. She is the
daughter of Solomon and Sarah (EasOn) Wix-
son, the former a native of Michigan and the
latter of Canada. By the third marriage Mr.
Piatt became the father of three children, W.
Clarence, John and Lawrence \Y.. one of
whom, John, has died. Mr. Piatt is a Repub-
lican in politics and is ever loyal to his party.
He has the regard and good will of his fellow
citizens all around him, and deserves the high
opinion they have of him.
EMELIXE BIVANS.
While in recent times public sentiment, par-
ticularly in this western country, has opened
almost every door of enterprise to women and
made them nan's equal in nearly every field of
labor in opportunity, it has not waited for this
change of view to develop the character and
capacity of some of the sex. In every age of
the world there have been resolute and force-
ful women who were able to take their own
part and occupy if necessary a man's place to
advantage in the battle of life and make good
their title to it. In this number clearly belongs
Emeline Bivans. the interesting subject of this
review. She was born in Franklin count v.
Ohio, on July 22, 1838, and is the daughter of
Josiah and Pauline D. (Neff) Bivans. The
family moved to Marion count}'. Iowa, in 1855,
where the father bought a farm of one hundred
and thirty acres on which he passed the residue
of his life, dying there in 1864 after years of
pronounced success in his business. The
daughter Emeline lived at home until 1856, and
was educated at the public schools. On August
28th, in the year last named, she was married
to Pius Flohr, and in the ensuing fall they set-
tled on a farm in Marion county, where they
remained thirteen years. In the fall of 1868
they moved to near Independence. Missouri,
and after nine years of successful farming and
stock-raising there they sold out and changed
their residence to the vicinity of Fort Scott.
Kansas. Here they engaged in the stock busi-
ness "'i a large scale and found it very profit-
able. In 1 88 1 domestic disagreements induced
the husband and wife to separate and secure a
divorce. They divided the property equally
between them, and Mrs. Flohr remained in the
neighborhood until she could dispose of her
stock and other property, which she did in a
short time for the sum of seven thousand dol-
lars. There were ten children born of the
marriage, George A., Josiah. Louisa. Charles
G., Michael, Caroline, Samuel. Ida, Harvey,
and Pius Benno. They are all living and five
of them are residents of Colorado. After sell-
ing her property in Kansas the mother came
to Colorado, arriving in 1883. Some time af-
terward she was married to Christopher All-
hush. Then she and her new husband went
back to Kansas, but a little later they returned
to this state and located at Crawford, Delta
county, where she bought a herd of cattle and
renewed her operations in the stock industry,
continuing in the business six years. Once
more the domestic cloud lowered upon her
house, and she was again divorced, at which
time she resumed her maiden name. After this
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
313
she sold her cattle, and in 1891 moved to Mont-
rose county where she bought a ranch and be-
gan farming on her own account. She has
continued the business since then, and has
added to the ranch until she now has three
hundred and twenty acres, all in one body. On
this she has three houses, in one of which she
lives, renting the other two out to tenants. She
carries on a general farming enterprise under
her own personal management and also con-
ducts a small stock industry, having some thirty
good cattle. During the greater part of her
residence here she has managed the ranch her-
self, and her success in the business is a high
tribute to her ability, shrewdness and good
judgment, as well as to her vigor and industry.
Her children are all grown and away from
home, and she is therefore sole mistress of the
ranch and all its operations. She is accounted
one of the progressive ranchers of the county.
Her sympathies are with the Democratic party
in political affairs, and she takes a great interest
in its success, as she does in all worthy and
beneficent movements.
MRS. JANE O. CRAIG.
The life of this self-reliant and resourceful
woman has been full of trouble and domestic '
discord, but through every disaster and danger
she has kept her courage up and done her part
in the struggle for advancement, being equip-
ped by nature with a firm and unbending de-
termination that no danger has daunted and
no difficulty has dismayed. She is a native of
New Jersey, born on September 14, 1848, and
the daughter of Andrew and Jane (Sackett)
Myers, the former a native of New Jersey and
the latter of Pennsylvania. In 1852 the family
moved to Illinois where they lived until 1859.
at which time they changed their residence to
Missouri. At the beginning of the Civil war
the father enlisted in the Union army, in which
lie served to the close of the contest. He was
injured in the service and fur a portion of the
time was laid up in a military hospital. After
the war he lived at his Missouri home until
1 So-, then moved to Linn count}-. Kansas.
Here he farmed and raised stock until 1902.
when he sold out and returned to Xew Jersey
where he is still living. The mother died in
1XX4 and the father married again. His sec-
ond wife died in February, 1902. Mrs. Craig
had four brothers, all of whom are living. She
remained at home until she was married in
1878 to David Beidler, a native of Ohio. 1 [e
also was a soldier in the Civil war, but only
served a short time towards its close. After
the war he located in Kansas and there they
were married. When they left that state they
came to Colorado and settled at Del Norte,
where her husband engaged in mining. In the
spring of 1879 they moved to Ouray and the
next fall to Rico, where they lived together un-
til the autumn of 1884. Then domestic trouble
brought about a separation and subsequently
a divorce. Five children were born of their
union, David A., Charles W., William L.,
John H. and Gertrude M. Three of them are
living, all in Colorado. On May 27, 1890, the
mother was married again, being united on this
occasion with Charles Pohle, a native of New
York city. They had one child, their daughter
Xellie C. who is living with her mother. Mrs.
Craig did not live long with her second hus-
band, and on being separated from him re-
turned to Rico and there kept a hotel and
restaurant for a few years. With the proceeds
of her business she bought another herd of
stock which she ran in the hills in summer and
wintered in Montrose county. In 1894 she
married Benjamin H. Craig, with whom she
lived three years, being divorced from him also
in 1897. Since then she has conducted her
stock industry alone. She has been engaged in
this industry for more than sixteen vears.
3 J 4
PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
starting after separating from her first hus-
band. She now has one hundred and fifty cat-
tle of good breeds and carries on her business
with vigor and close attention to every detail.
In the spring of 1900 she bought the ranch
of one hundred and sixty acres on which she
now has her home. It is all good farming land,
about one hundred acres being in grass for
hay. When she purchased it there was but
little improvement on it and she has made con-
siderable since. She summers her stock in the
hills and winters them under proper shelter on
the ranch. Mrs. Craig is a woman of great
enterprise and public spirit and takes an active
interest in the affairs of her community. In
politics she is independent.
ADDISON H. BAXTER.
Well fixed on a good ranch of an even one
hundred acres on Ash mesa, five miles from
Delta, on which he has lived in peace, content-
ment and prosperity since the autumn of 1896.
when he moved to this state from his native
Arkansas, Addison H. Baxter is prepared to
defy the storms of life and laugh at the threats
of adversity. His land is productive and he
tills it with care and judgment; his standing
in the community is good; his life is exemplary
and his reputation well established; and he has
strength of body, clearness of mind and cheer-
fulness of disposition. Mr. Baxter was born
in the state of Arkansas on February 16, 1849,
and is the son of William and Nancy (Hawk)
Baxter, both natives of North Carolina and
both now deceased. There were twelve chil-
dren in the family, six of whom are living.
The father was a farmer and followed the
business during his lifetime. Addison was
reared on the paternal homestead, received a
common-school education and remained at
home until he reached his legal majority, then.
in 1870, he went to farming on his own ac-
count in his native state, and he remained there
so occupied until the fall of 1896, when he came
to Colorado and located on his present home.
Here he has since dwelt continuously, busily
engaged in improving and farming his land
and building up a profitable stock industry.
His location is good and all the conditions for
an expanding business in general farming are
favorable. On September 19. 1870, he was
united in marriage with Miss Margaret Ram-
sey, like himself a native of Arkansas, and born
August 3, 1854. She is the daughter of Joseph
and Caroline E. (Morrison) Ramsey, indus-
trious and well-to-do farmers in Arkansas,
where they passed the whole of their lives. In
the mother's family there were seven children,
all of whom are living. Mr. and Mrs. Baxter
have had eleven children, Addison, Jr., Nancy
E., Susan A., Matilda B., Silas F., Clara M..
David E., Thomas I., Lola M., Lelia V. and
Pearl M. All but three are living, the oldest
being thirty-three years of age and the young-
est four (September, 1904). All are residents
of Colorado, and most of them live either at
or near their father's home. He is a Democrat
in political faith and a Baptist in church mem-
bership. His father was born in 1801 and died
in October. 1877. The mother came into the
world in 1807. and departed this life in Septem-
ber, 1879. In their neighborhood they were
highly respected in life and sincerely mourned
in death.
DANIEL M. KELLEY.
Daniel M. Kelley, of Montrose county, one
of the leading sheep men of the Western slope,
was bom in the state of New York on Novem-
ber 7, 1865. His parents were James and
Anna (Morrison) Kelley, the former a native
of New York and the latter of Scotland. The
father was a painter and divided the years of
his manhood between working at Ins trade and
keeping hotel. He died in Massachusetts on
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
3i5
March II, 1875. Four years later the mother
moved her family to Colorado and settled in
Boulder county, where she engaged in farming
until her death, on May 28, 1882. Their son
Daniel remained with them until death ended
their labors, receiving a common-school edu-
cation and acquiring a good practical knowl-
edge of farming. After the death of his
mother he remained a year in Boulder county,
and in 1883 moved to Montrose county, where
he took up a ranch as a homestead claim in
1885. This was wild, unbroken land at the
time, and in its present state of fertility and
fruitfulness it represents his industry and thrift
during the succeeding years. He has greatly
improved the place and transformed it into one
of the desirable country homes of the section
in which it lies. It is located on California
mesa, four miles west of Olathe, and is es-
pecially well adapted to raising sheep, in which
Mr. Kelley is largely engaged. For a few
years after settling here he gave his attention
to the cattle industry, but finding the region
better adapted to sheep he sold his cattle and
began raising sheep. In 1903 he ran about
eighteen hundred head and sold as their
product one thousand dollars worth of wool
and four thousand dollars worth of lambs. Mr.
Kelley was first married in 1887 to Miss Mary
Kane, the daughter of Patrick and Mary
( Welch ) Kane, who were born and reared in
Ireland. The mother died on February 20,
1900, and the father is now living in the state
of Washington conducting a nourishing mer-
cantile business. Mr. and Mrs. Kelley had
five children, Mamie, James F., William Ff.,
Daniel S. and Anna. The last named died on
March 19, 1903. The others are living at
home, the oldest being fifteen years old and the
youngest six. The mother died January 20.
1898, and is buried at Delta, and Mr. Kelley
was married October 13, 1902, to Mrs. Mar-
garet (Burnett) Clark, a native of Mercer
county, Illinois, and the daughter of Capt. F.
G. and Emaline (Campbell) Burnett, the for-
mer a native of New York and the latter of
Muskingum county, Ohio. The father of Mrs.
Kelley came with his parents to Mercer
county, Illinois, when young, where he was
reared and married. He enlisted in an Illinois
regiment and served in the Union army dur-
ing the Civil war, being mustered out as cap-
tain of his company. He and his wife are now
living on California mesa in Montrose county.
Mrs. Kelley is the mother of two daughters by
her former marriage, Emaline A. and Mabel
C. Mr. Kelley is a sixth-degree Odd Fellow
and a Modern Woodman of America. In
political allegiance he is a zealous Republican.
WILLIAM H. LINES.
To the peace and contentment and the sub-
stantial prosperity which he now enjoys this
enterprising and progressive ranch man has
come through long and dangerous journeying
by sea and land and through many trials and
difficulties after reaching his desired haven.
He is a native of England, born on August 31.
1839, and the son of John and Jane (Haddon)
Lines, the former born in that country in 1814
and the latter in 1816. The father was a gar-
dener in his native land, and in 1864 started
with his family to Utah. They reached Flor-
ence, Nebraska, by the usual routes, and from
there they started across the plains to their
destination. There were eight children in the
family and seven of them left England with
their parents, William having preceded them
three years to this country. While crossing
the plains with their ox teams, first one of the
children died, then the mother, and after her
two of the other children. ' Later a cousin of
the children also died, making five deaths in one
family on this fateful trip, which consumed
several months. The members of the familv
316
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
who lived to complete it reached a place called
Goshen, in Utah county of the Mormon state,
in October, and there they engaged in farming
until the death of the father in 1866. William
Lines grew to manhood in his native land and
there received a good common-school educa-
tion. In tS6i. when he was twenty-two years
of age, he left his home and emigrated to
the United States. On April 19th of that year,
after reaching this country, he started for Utah
and got to Florence, Nebraska, in May. Here
he was obliged to wait three weeks for an ox
train with which he could travel. When the
train came in it composed sixty-three four-yoke
teams of oxen. They left Florence in June and
reached the end of their journey in Salt Lake
City on September 15th, following. The only
trouble they had with the Indians was a slight
skirmish on Deer Creek, Wyoming, and the
train got through in good shape with but little
loss, it being considered the star train for the
season. Mr. Lines was sick a part of the time
on the way and came near dying. But he sur-
vived and reached Utah in a fair state of health.
He went to work on a farm soon after his ar-
rival and remained in that region until 1871.
He then went into the mining district at what
is now named Tintic, there being three
families that settled there. During the next
two years he followed mining and prospecting
in that region, and at the end of that period
went to work in the mill reducing ores. He
worked at this occupation ten years. In the
autumn of 1883 he came to Colorado and most
of the mill crew came with him. He pre-
empted a ranch on California mesa and planted
the first orchard on this now fruitful elevation.
He was also the first man to utilize the water
for irrigation that came through what is now
the ditch of the Montrose & Delta Ditch Com-
pany, using the first water that came through
the flume crossing Dry creek. In the erection
of this ditch he was <me of the principal con-
tractors, and did a large part of the work in its
construction. This was in the spring of 1885.
In 1890, after selling the place he had pre-
empted, he bought the one on which he now
has his home on the same mesa, four miles and
a half west of Olathe, in Montrose county. It
comprises fifty acres and has been much im-
proved by him. He has lived on it continu-
ously since buying it, and has farmed it wisely
and industriously, raising only what stock he
needed for his own use and could keep com-
fortably on the ranch. He has one acre and
a half in fruit, but gives his attention prin-
cipally to the production of cereals and hay.
His first crop was raised with water from Dry
creek, but the ditch has furnished him with
better facilities than he had from that stream.
On December 5, 1864, he was married to Mrs.
Caroline (Barber) Blunt, the widow of Charles
Blunt, with whom she came to Utah in 1861
and who died in 1863, leaving one child who is
living in Utah. Mrs. Lines is the daughter of
William and Eliza (Higgins) Barber. Mr.
and Mrs. Lines have had nine children, Eliza
J., John H., Alice A., Louisa, Carrie, Joseph
E., William, Thomas and Stephen. Seven of
them are living, five sons and two daughters.
all in Colorado. All the members of the family
belong, or have belonged, to the Mormon
church. In politics the head of the house sup-
ports the Republican party. His youngest child
is the only one now living at home.
HEAMAN S. BAGLEY.
Mr. Bagley, who is one of the leading ami
most enterprising sheep men in Delta county,
this state, was born in Jackson county, Iowa.
on December 29. 1851. His parents, Jesse and
Laura ( Evarts) Bagley, were natives, respect-
ivelv. of Rhode Island and Maine. They
moved to Minnesota and settled in Olmstead
county, where the father pre-empted the first
PROGRESSIVE AIEX OF WESTERN COEORADO.
tract of land ever taken up in this way in that
county. Two years later Heaman's grand-
father, who was one hundred and twelve years
old, came to the same county and pre-empted
another claim on which he lived two years,
dying there at the age of one hundred and
fourteen. The father farmed in that county
until (886, then moved to Pleasant Grove, in
the same state, and afterward to Minneapolis,
where he lived until [894. He then migrated
to Vancouver, Washington, where he lived
until his death in 1805. The mother died in
Minnesota in [884. Their son Heaman re-
mained at home until he reached the age of six-
teen and attended the public schools. In 1867
he left home and located on a farm in the
vicinity of Winona, remaining there until 1874,
at which time he moved to La Crosse. Wiscon-
sin, and there during the next two years he
worked on the river in summer and in the lum-
ber regions in winter. In 1876 he returned to
Minnesota and took up his residence at Spring
Valley, where he worked in a butcher shop for
four years. In [880, before there was a rail-
road in this part of Colorado, he came to the
state and settled in Gunnison county. 1 1 ere he
put in more than two years mining, and in the
spring of [883 moved to the ranch of one hun-
dred and sixty acres which is now his home,
taking up the land as a pre-emption claim. He
has improved the place and made it very pro-
ductive. About four acres are in fruit and the
rest in alfalfa and grain. For a time he car-
ried on the cattle business. He later changed
to sheep and out of them he made very g 1
profits. In 10,0.2 he raised an average of sixty-
six bushels of wheat to the acre, selling his
product for two thousand six hundred dollars.
On January 19, 1S77, ne was married to Miss
Jane Duncan, who was born at Decorah, Iowa,
on November 10. 1850, and is the daughter of
Samuel L. and Julia Duncan, the father born
in Ohio and the mother in Rhode Island. Thev
were fanners and lived in Minnesota many
years. The father was a Union soldier in the
Civil war and served to the end of the mighty
conflict. Their family comprised four children,
three of whom are residents of Colorado. The
father also lives in this state, but the mother
died on August 17, 1890. Mr. Bagley had
three brothers and four sisters. All are living
but one and live dwell in this state. In his
own household one child has been born, his
daughter Mabel M., whose life began in Gun-
nison county. In political matters Mr. Bagley
supports the Republican party with loyalty and
zeal. He is an influential and well esteemed
citizen, and his life in Delta county has been
of great service in the progress and general
development of its best interests.
JOSEPH W. SNODDY.
Joseph W. Snoddy, who has lived in Mont-
rose county, this state, since 1886. and on a
ranch of forty acres on California mesa, eight
and one-half miles from the town of Delta.
since [899, when he bought it, is a native of
Indiana born on February 18. 1858. Flis par-
ents were Burton and Elizabeth ( Pettit )
Snoddy, the former born in Tennessee and the
latter in Ohio. The father was a farmer and
moved to Iowa in [858, and to Coffey county.
Kansas, in [864. lie continued his farming
operations in all these places, dying in Kansas
in i860. The mother survived him two years
and passed away in 1871, when her son Joseph
was thirteen years old. Thereafter he made
his home with a neighbor until he reached
F age of twenty-eight years. He attended
the public schools and acquired habits of use-
ful industry and frugality on the farm. In
1886 he left Kansas and came to Montrose
county, this state, where he has since had his
home. He bought the place on which he lives
in 1899 and at once settled on it and began to
[8
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
improve it. It comprises forty acres and in
addition he farms some rented land, and is also
working in the employ of a large sheep com-
pany. Although engaged in the cattle industry
on his own account he has only a small herd
of cattle, being too busy with other interests to
give due attention to a large number. On his
place he has a small orchard, but it is n< it ex-
tensive enough to bring him in much revenue.
On August 6, 1889, he was united in mar-
riage with Miss Stella Chrisman. who was
born at Burlington, Kansas, on June 13, 1868.
and is the daughter of John S. and Zelah
(Furgson) Chrisman, the father a native of
Indiana and the mother of Ohio. The mother
died about thirty years ago and the father in
[894, both passing away at Burlington, Kansas.
Mr. Snoddy had four sisters and two broth-
ers. All are dead but one brother. In the
Snoddy family three children have been born,
Ethel M., Zelah E. and Stella R. They are
all living at home. While not an active
partisan, or in any sense an aspirant for public
office, Mr. Snoddy faithfully .supports the Re-
publicans in political affairs. In local matters
he considers mainly the best interests of the
community and aids materially in promoting
them. He is regarded as a useful and valu-
able citizen and has the regard and good will
of the people all around him.
JOSEPH W. PIERSON.
One of the earliest and longest dwellers on
the California mesa, in Montrose county, and
all the while one of the most enterprising and
progressive citizens of that portion of the state,
Joseph W. Pierson has played an important
part in bringing the region from its conditon
of primitive wildness and barrenness to its
present state of development and productive-
ness. He was born in Ohio on January 23,
[853, and is the son of Isaac and Maria L.
(McMahon) Pierson, both natives of Ohio.
The father was a farmer and passed his life on
the farm his father had taken up in that stat^
in the early pioneer days, dying there at the
age of eighty-four years. The mother is still
living on that place, and is also now well ad-
vanced in age. They had a family of four
sons and three daughters, all of whom are liv-
ing. In accordance with the customs of the
time and locality, their son Joseph attended the
public schools in the neighborhood of his home
and assisted from his boyhood in the labors of
the farm. He remained at home until he
reached the age of twenty-nine, then in 1882,
quitting the scenes and associations of his early
life and seeking a new home wherein his hopes
might expand and flourish, he came to Colo-
rado and established himself at Longmont. A
year later, however, he concluded that the
Western slope was better adapted to his pur-
poses and moved to Montrose county. In the
fall of 1884 he pre-empted the ranch on which
he now lives and which has ever since been his
abiding place and the seat of his useful and
productive labor. On this he settled and built
his dwelling and other necessary structures be-
fore the ditch which irrigates his land was
completed, but was unable to do much in the
way of farming until after that great utility
was put in operation. Since then he has gone
on increasing his acreage of cultivation and
improving his property in various ways until
he has one of the most productive and desirable
farms in his neighborhood. His principal
crop is hay. but he raises also other ordinary
farm products in quantities and has about eight
acres of orchard all in good bearing condition.
As a side issue he has given considerable at-
tention to the culture of bees and the produc-
tion of honey. His apiary comprises one hun-
dred stands of well-bred bees, and their yield
in [902 netted him four hundred dollars and
in [903 five hundred dollars. While deeply
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
319
and intelligently interested in the local affairs
of his section, and devoted to all means for its
improvement, he is independent in politics, and
takes no active part in partisan contests. On
October 15, 1885, he united in marriage with
Miss Addie Hatzell, a native of New Jersey
and a daughter of George and Sarah (Ribbel)
Hatzell, who were also natives of that state.
They moved to Longmont, Colorado, in [877,
and there they passed the rest of their lives,
both being now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Pier-
son have five children, Sadie L., May, Grace A.,
Albert M. and John S. They are all living and
at home, the oldest being seventeen and the
youngest six years of age. The ranch is eight
miles from Delta.
JOHN E. WHINNERY.
A pioneer in four states. John E. Whin-
nery. of Delta county, living five and one-half
miles up the Gunnison from the city of Delta
and one-fourth of a mile west of Read post-
office, has passed practically the whole of his
life on the frontier so far, except the portion
spent at his present residence since that sec-
tion of the state has been settled and civilized
through his labors and those of others. He
was born in Columbiana county, Ohio, on
June 6, 1829, when that section was vet in a
state of great wildness notwithstanding his
father and other settlers had been living there
nearly thirty years. His father, John Whin-
nery. who was born in Pennsylvania in 1785,
located on a farm in Columbiana county in
1801, when all the surrounding country was
an unbroken wilderness and still peopled with
Indians and infested with wild beasts. He had
one hundred and sixty acres of land which he
improved to a good condition and lived on until
his death, in 1852, at the age of seventy-seven.
Being a Quaker, and pursuing the peaceful
policy of that sect, he was able to get along
with the Indians without trouble, and it was
two years or more after he settled there before
they were removed in a body. In 180^ he
married with Miss Alary McBride, a native of
western Virginia and also an early settler in
the wilds of Ohio. They had eleven children,
of whom John E. was the last born and is the
only one now living. The last of the others-
died in 1903, at the age of eighty-two. The
elder Whinnery was an intimate friend of the
late Senator Mark Manna and was well known
to all the older leading men of the state. He
died on the farm on which he first located in
Ohio, and his wife died there also, having sur-
vived him ten years and passing away in 1862.
Their son John grew to manhood on the home
place and received his education in the district
schools in the neighborhood. In 1852, at the
age of twenty-three, he left home and moved
to Benton county, Iowa, then a new country
with pleasing prospects for enterprise and
thrift. Here he bought one hundred and sixtv
acres of government land, which he improved
and lived on for five years. At the end of that
period he returned to Ohio, and after a short
visit to his old home, traveled through various
parts of the country until the beginning of the
Civil war. He then enlisted in the Union army
as a member of Company A, Fourteenth Indi-
ana Infantry, and was soon after at the front.
He participated in the battle of Rich Mountain
under General McClellan, fought Stonewall
Jackson at Winchester, and was in a number
of active skirmishes. Being injured in a stam-
pede, he was laid up in a hospital ten weeks,
and after getting out of there was honorably
discharged on account of disability. He at
once returned to Ohio, and during the next
three years he was engaged in farming in that
state. In the fall of 1865 he moved to Lyon
county, Kansas, ami later to Wilson county,
where he farmed and raised stock until [874
In that year he came to Colorado and settled
3 20
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
in the San Luis valley. Where Lake City has
since been built he did some prospecting and
located several mines. The town was then a
rude hamlet of about ten log cabins, but showed
evidences of its increasing vitality and promise
of its subsequent growth. He started a dairy
there which he conducted six years, and dur-
ing that time he got together about one hun-
dred cattle. In 1879 he took up a ranch in
Gunnison county, and in 1882 he moved on it
with his cattle, living there until 1885, when
he changed his residence to Delta county and
the ranch of one hundred and sixty acres on
which he now has his home. It was all raw
and unimproved, and he entered with vigor
and despatch on the work of making it habit-
able and productive. The first fall he planted
two acres in choice fruit trees, and he has since
set out two acres and a half more in orchard.
The rest of the land is given up to other farm
products suitable to the soil and climate, his
principal crop being alfalfa. In the public af-
fairs 1 if the county he has taken an active part,
serving a number of years as a justice of the
peace. In political faith he is a zealous Re-
publican, and his party always has the benefit
of his work and influence. He was first mar-
ried in March, 1850, to Miss Emily Crew, a
native of Logan county, Ohio, and daughter of
Dr. James Crew. She died in 1855, leaving a
son and daughter. Josiah, now fifty-three years
old. and Louie J., now fifty-one. One of them
lives in Colorado and the other in Wisconsin.
Mr. Whinnery's second marriage occurred in
1862 and was with Miss Mary A. Fawcett, who
was born in Ohio in 1834. Her father. Samuel
Fawcett, is still living in that state, at the age
of ninety-two, having been born in 1812. He
is a carpenter and still works at his trade.
The mi ither died very young. In the Whinnery
household three children were born of the
second marriage, Webster S., Eva J. and Ralph
V. They also are all living. Mr. Whinnery
has belonged to the Masonic order for a long
time, and has always been somewhat enthusi-
astic in the work of the fraternity.
ALOXZO S. WRIGHT.
Leaving home at the age of twenty-three,
and then coming to live in Colorado, where
he has ever since resided, Alonzo S. Wright,
of Montrose county, living three miles and a
half northwest of Olathe on a good ranch of
two hundred acres, has given to the service of
this state the labor of nearly all of his mature
years, and has won from it not only a com-
petency in worldly wealth of increasing magni-
tude, but as well a high place in the lasting re-
gard of its people. He was born on April 19.
[849, in Morgan county, Missouri, where his
parents, Thomas and Martha (Baskerville)
Wright, the former a native of North Caro-
lina and the latter of Virginia, settled in child-
hood. The father was a carpenter and worked
at his trade until well advanced in age. He
then retired to his farm in Missouri, where he
died in 1878. There were three daughters and.
two sons in the family, and of these Alonzo and
his three sisters are living. He grew to man-
hood on the paternal homestead in his native
state, and secured his education at the public
schools. In 1872 he left home and came to
live in Colorado, arriving at Denver on April
7th. During the next eighteen years he was
engaged in prospecting and mining with good
results, ami he still owns some paying mining
interests at Lake City, among them a portion
of the Sweet Home mine. He came to the
valley in which he now lives in the autumn of
1SS4, and for five years thereafter continued
his mining operations. In T889 he bought his
presenl home, securing one hundred and sixty
acres by the first purchase and eighty in ad-
dition later, in the meantime having sold forty
acres. His land is principally adapted to hay
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
321
and of this he raises large quantities of first
rate quality. He is also largely engaged in the
stock industry and in bee culture. After buy-
ing the place he gave up active mining and de-
voted his energies to farming and his cattle
business. The latter he is steadily increasing
and its profits grow with its expansion. The
bees arc also profitable and bring him a con-
siderable revenue without much effort on his
part ; and he has a three-acre orchard from
which he gets good returns. In 1903 he sold
more than two thousand dollars worth of prod-
uce from his farm, the honey bringing four
hundred dollars and the fruit an equal amount.
While increasing the number he is also rais-
ing the standard of his cattle and thus enlarg-
ing their value in the markets. On February
17. [892, he was united in marriage with Miss
Mary Vezina, who was born in Iowa on No-
vember 3, 1868, and is the daughter of Nelson
and Emily (Roapell) Vezina, a sketch of
whom will be found elsewhere in this work.
There are five children in the Wright family
John, Alonzo, Jr.. Myron, Mary and Thomas
C, all living and at home. Mr. Wright be-
longs to the order of Odd Fellows and the
Washingtonians. In political affiliation he is
a pronounced Democrat. In the full maturity
of his powers, with comfortable surroundings,
engaged in congenial pursuits, and enjoying
in a marked degree the respect and confidence
of his fellow men, Mr. Wright has an enviable
lot at present and may confidently expect many
years of usefulness and happiness vet to come.
DR. WILLIAM S. WRIGHT.
The late Dr. William S. Wright, of Olathe.
who departed this life on February 10. IQ02,
in the midst of his usefulness, but after many
years of successful and serviceable practice of
his profession, was born in Jefferson county.
Iowa, on September 20. 1S40. and was the son
of Alfred and Nancy (Gabbert) Wright, na-
mes of Kentucky, the father born in 1807 and
the mother in 1809. They moved to Iowa in
1830, and there they passed the remainder of
their lives successfully engaged in farming.
Their family comprised four sons and six
daughters, six of the number being now alive.
William started out in life for himself in 1855
at the age of fifteen. He went to Missouri,
where he taught school and began the stud) of
medicine. Two years were passed in that state
and in these employments, then in 1857 he
returned to his native state, where he remained
until 1885, actively engaged in the practice of
medicine from the time when he was twenty-
three years of age. In 1863 he established an
office in Glasgo, Jefferson county, Iowa, and
there he practiced until 1882. He then moved
to Lockridge, in the same state, and during the
next three years he practiced there. From that
city he moved to Kansas in 1885, locating at
Dodge City for a short time and then moving
to Jetmore. The next year he came to Colo-
rado and took up his residence at Montrose.
At the same time he pre-empted a claim to a
tract of land on which he lived until June.
1892. At that time he changed his base of
operations to Olathe. where he practiced his
profession until his death. He was the first
physician in this section of the county, and
while he had the field to himself for years, he
also found his duties very arduous and exact-
ing, requiring long rides in all sorts of weather
and at all hours of the day or night. He was
one of the first settlers in the town, there being
only ten houses there at the time of his arrival,
and he aided largely in its subsequent growth
and development. The Doctor was first mar-
ried in 1857 to Miss Martha Gregg, a native of
Iowa ami the daughter of James and Margaret
Gregg. The fruit of their union was seven,
children, of whom but three are living. He
was divorced from this wife in 1883 and on
322
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
October 15, 1885, ne was married to a second
wife, Mrs. Nellie A. (Pratt) Scott, a widow
with three children. William E., Sumner
and Winfield Scott. She is the daughter of
Jefferson and Jane (Wightington) Pratt, the
former born in Massachusetts and the latter
in Jefferson county, Tennessee. The father en-
listed in the Union army for the Civil war as
member of Company C, Eleventh Illinois In-
fantry, and served through the contest. After
being discharged he was obliged to go to a
hospital and there he died. By his second mar-
riage Dr. Wright became the father of five
children, of whom Nellie, Earl and Frances W.
are living. Ruth died at the age of seven
months and the fifth died in infancy. He be-
longed to the Masonic order fraternally, was an
earnest Republican politically, and held mem-
bership in the Methodist church religiously.
Mrs. Wright is a faithful and consistent mem-
ber of the Presbyterian church.
THOMAS VICKERS.
Nearly half a century of useful life in the
United States has made the interesting subject
of this brief review well acquainted with and
strongly devoted to American institutions, and
enabled him to contribute materially to the
progress and development of the country. He
was born in England, at Brinsley, on January
5, 1831, where his parents. William and Eliza-
beth (Wharton) Vickers, passed the whole ot
their lives. The father was a lime burner
and actively engaged in this occupation all his
days from early manhood. There were seven-
teen children in the family, eleven of whom
grew to maturity and three are now living.
Of these Thomas is the oldest and the only
one who ever became a resident of Colorado,
lie was reared and received a common-school
education in his native land, and in 1857 came
to tins country, locating- first for ,-i few months
in Iowa. He then moved to Illinois and soon
afterward to St. Louis, Missouri, where dur-
ing the next twenty years he was engaged in
mining in the vicinity of that city. In 1878 he
transferred his energies to the Black Hills in
South Dakota, where he remained until fall,
then came to Colorado, locating at Florence.
Work was scarce there at the time, and a few
months later he moved to Trinidad and se-
cured employment with the Colorado Fuel &
Iron Company in the coal mines. It was not
long before he became foreman of the mine in
which he was working, hut at the end of a year
thereafter he resigned the position and tried
his hand for a brief period at Ruby camp in
Gunnison county. In the autumn of 1879 he
moved his family to Ouray for the winter and
went to the vicinity of Canon City where he
spent the winter usefully employed. In the
spring he started on a prospecting tour, which
he continued until the fall of 1881. when he
moved to Delta and bought the place on which
he now lives. The Indians left the country in
September and he arrived in November after
all the most desirable land had been taken up,
so he purchased the rights of a settler to one
hundred and sixty acres of land for the sum
of two hundred and fifty dollars. On this land
he riled and afterwards proved up. and found
himself in possession of a property steadily
growing in value. It adjoins the townsite of
Delta and the railroad is built across its eastern
side. From the time of his taking possession
be has devoted his energies to the improve-
ment and cultivation of the place, and now has
what he still owns of it in an advanced state
of productiveness and furnished with good
buildings. His principal crops are alfalfa and
potatoes, getting of the former an average of
six and of the latter six to eight tons an acre.
Some years ago he sold twenty-three acres of
the ranch at one hundred dollars an acre. This
tlie purchaser laid off into town lots and sold
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
3 2 3
to new comers in the town, and it is now cov-
ered with the homes of industrious citizens.
He also sold seventy-eight acres to a cousin
for about what it cost him, retaining for his
own use about fifty-four acres, all he felt he
could handle to advantage at his age. Mr.
Vickers was married on February 18, 1862,
to Mrs. Ann Nicholson, a widow burn in Man-
chester, England, and the daughter of John
Bent, of that city. Her mother died while she
was young and she herself passed away on
March 18. 1904. They had no children of
their own. but adopted a daughter in Illinois
whom they reared to womanhood, and who is
now married and lives on the home ranch.
Mrs. Vickers died in March, 1904. and is
buried at Delta. In politics Mr. Vickers is a
steadfast Republican. His long life in this
community has been without reproach, and by
all the people he is highly esteemed.
ALFRED S. LEWIS.
The late Alfred S. Lewis, of Delta county,
who came to this portion of the state in 1883
and died on his ranch three miles up the Gun-
nison from the town of Delta in 1897. was a
native of North Carolina, born in Cherokee
county on August 6, 1849. His parents were
Alfred and Sarah ( Merlan ) Lewis, natives
also of North Carolina. The father died when
the son was but two years old, and at the be-
ginning of the Civil war the mother moved die
family to Georgia, where she died in July,
1890. It was in this state that the son grew
to manhood, received the greater part of his
education and learned his trade as a carpenter;
and there also he started in life for himself and
worked at his trade until 1880. He then came
to Colorado, locating at Leadville, where for
a short time he was employed in the smelter
sampling ore. In August of that year he
moved to Lake Citv and mined coal for coke.
remaining until 1883. In that year he changed
his residence to Delta county and his occupation
to ranching and raising stock. For the first
year he rented a ranch in order that he might
learn how he liked the country before making
a purchase and establishing a permanent hi irae.
In 1884 he bought one hundred and sixty
acres of land staked off by another man, pay-
ing five hundred dollars for the rights to the
property and one hundred dollars worth of
ditch stock. The land was so dry at the tune
that there were great cracks in various places in
it. yet by close and continued industry and tak-
ing advantage of all favoring conditions, be
made it productive, raising good crops from
the start. He set out twenty acres in fruit.
but there are now only seven acres of the orch-
ard standing and its yield is used by the family.
The whole region was undeveloped, there being
but one bridge over the Gunnison at the time.
and that a Cottonwood structure subject to toll,
But accepting the conditions around him with
cheerfulness, he entered upon the task of im-
proving his property and aiding in the develop-
ment of the country with energy, and soon
had the satisfaction of seeing the neighborhood
advancing with gratifying rapidity to n state of
greater fruitfulness and comfort. To the end
of his life he devoted himself to the work be-
fore him, taking an earnest and helpful interest
in local affairs, and aiding as far as he could
in building up the section in which he had
cast his lot, being one of its useful citizens, and
leaving at his death the benefits of his practical
wisdom and continued industry. He was mar-
ried on January 10, 1867, to Miss Grace Led-
ford, who was born and reared in Union
county. Georgia, and is the daughter of Silas
and Elmyra (BollerO Ledford, the father a
native of North and the mother of South
Carolina. The mother died very young and
the father in 1890. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis were
the parents of twelve children, eight of whom
324
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
are living at or near the family homestead.
Since the death of the father the mother has
carried on the operations of the ranch with the
help of the children at home, and with the ten
thousand dollars insurance he had on his life
she has bought additional land and a number
of cattle. The father had sold one hundred
acres of his original purchase before his death
and the widow has purchased sixty acres, so
that she now has one hundred and twenty.
Her stock industry is thriving, and with the
fine yield of hay she gets from the land she
usually has enough feed for the cattle, raising
an average of about four hundred tons of hay
a year. Mr. Lewis was a Democrat in politics
and a Baptist in church membership.
DANIEL S. ROATCAP.
Born and reared in Page county, Virginia,
the parents of Daniel S. Roatcap, of Montrose
county, who lives on a good ranch of three
hundred and twenty acres five miles west of
Olathe, which he has redeemed from the waste
and made fragrant and fruitful with the prod-
ucts of cultivation and comfortable with the
appointments of a good home, were pioneers in
four states of the growing West, and added to
the productive energies which have aided in
the development of each. The father, John
Roatcap, and the mother, whose maiden name
was Rachel Coffman, were reared in their na-
tive county, and began their married life there
as prosperous farmers. They moved to Illinois
in 1843 an d settled on the virgin prairie of
that great state, and there they founded a new
home, which, however, they left in 1855 for a
still newer one on the frontier of Missouri. In
both states, they farmed and in the latter the
father also conducted a flour-mill until it was
I'd by lire, the disaster occurring in [868
The next year they moved to Kansas where
they remained until r88o, when they came
to Colorado. The first three years of their resi-
dence in this state were passed at Lake City,
and in 1883 they changed to Delta county,
where the father died 111 1888 and the mother
in 1898. Their son Daniel was fifteen years
old when the family settled in Missouri, and in
that state he finished his schooling and began
life for himself as a farmer. He remained
there until 1874, then moved to Kansas, where
he continued farming until 1 88 1. In that year
he became a resident of Colorado, and in the
neighborhood of Lake City found profitable
employment in the lumber industry until 1883,
when he located the place on which he now
lives and which has ever since been his home.
All the land in the region was then unculti-
vated, its chief product being wild sage brush,
and the conveniences of civilized life were tew
and hard to get. The soil was arid too, and
no systematic attempt at irrigation was prac-
ticable. The conditions for successful farming
were therefore very unfavorable and home com-
forts were of the most primitive and meager
character. But he persevered in his under-
taking, and combining with other determined
home-seekers like himself who had come to
stay, their united efforts were employed in con-
structing a ditch in 1884, and then the yield
of the land began to grow generous and profit-
able. In 1885 he set out a small orchard, to
which, he has added from time to time until he
now has fifteen acres of fruit trees in good bear-
ing order, which have never failed in a good
annual crop, especially the peach trees, since
they began bearing. The revenue from this
branch of his industry alone has been seven
hundred dollar:, to one thousand dollars a year
for a number of years, and it is steadily in-
creasing in amount. He also has one hundred
and twenty acres in alfalfa, and when there
is sufficient water lie gets from this three crops
a year, the yield being three hundred to four
hundred tons a year. On April 3. 1862. he
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
3 2 5
was married to Miss Barbara A. Smith, a na-
tive of Virginia, the daughter of Noah ami
Mary (Gouchenour) Smith, who were burn m
that state and moved to Missouri in 1856. The
father died there in 1870. and four years later
the mother came to Colorado, where she died
in 1888. Mr. and Mrs. Roatcap have had ten
children, David H., John W., Joseph S., Noah
D., Mary A., James A., Oliver M., Emma E.,
Archie H. and Charlie A. Of these the two
daughters and two of the sons are dead. Fra-
ternally the father belongs to the Odd Fellows
and the United Workmen, in political faith he
is a Democrat and in church membership he
and his wife are connected with the Church
of Christ in Christian Union.
GEORGE W. SHINDLEDECKER.
A Pennsylvanian by nativity, and the son
of parents born and reared in that state, but
who moved to Wisconsin in his childhood, and
having grown to manhood in their new home,
the subject of this sketch, who is one of the
progressive ranchmen of Afontrose county, saw
service in useful labor and acquired knowledge
from experience in two states before he came
to Colorado in 1869 at the dawn of his young
manhood. His life began on October II, 1848,
and he is the son of William and Sarah
(Drake) Shindledecker, who took up their
residence in the wilds of Wisconsin in T854
and remained there until the death of the
mother in 1892. Two years later the father
came to Colorado and in 1895 died in this
state. After leaving school their son George
worked on the home farm in Wisconsin until
he reached the age of twenty, then, in Febru-
ary, 1869, came to Colorado and located in
Boulder county, where he went to work on a
ranch for his brother-in-law. He remained in
that county until the autumn of T874, then
went to Iowa, and during the next four years
he was engaged in farming on his own account
in that state. In 1878 he moved to Wisconsin,
and in the spring of 1879 returned to this state,
selecting the vicinity of Boulder as his resi-
dence. Two years were passed in profitable
farming there, and at the end of that period
he moved to Denver, and soon afterward to
Pueblo, where for four years he ran an engine.
From there he changed his base of operations
to the St. Charles, and after fanning there for
a year moved to Delta county, locating on
Rogers mesa, where he bought one hundred
and sixty acres of land on which he lived until
1889, improving the property with buildings
suitable for his use, cultivating the land and
planting an acre of it in fruit. He sold the
place in 1889 and during the next three years
he rented property on California mesa, then
in 1892 he bought the place where he now re-
sides. This was unimproved when he. made
the purchase, and its present state of develop-
ment and fertility is the result of his continued
and systematic labor. He has eleven acres of
orchard, eight of which are of his own planting,
ami the yield from this branch of his enter-
prise is extensive and remunerative, he having
realized an average of six hundred dollars a
year for some years from it. His principal
crop besides the fruit is hay, and of this he
harvests about one hundred and fifty tons an-
nually. The ranch comprises one hundred and
sixty acres, of which sixty acres are in alfalfa.
Until 1903 he was also extensively engaged in
raising cattle for the markets, but since then
he has raised only enough for his own use. He
was married on January 7, 1875, to Miss
Eveline Rhyno, a native of Madison county.
Iowa, the daughter of William and Sarah
( Nunn) Rhyno, the father born in Virginia
and the mother in Indiana. The father died
on December 17, 1903, and the mother now
lives at Boulder. Mrs. Shindledecker died on
October 2, 1903, leaving two sons, William and
326
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Bert, who are both at home, the elder being
twenty-eight years old and the younger twenty-
five. The father belongs to the Knights of
Pythias and is a zealous Democrat in political
faith.
WILLIAM H. OVERBAY.
Assuming the burden and responsibility of
making his own way in the world at the age
of seventeen, and entering soon afterward for
the purpose the untrodden fields of the father
West, and here pursuing with industry and
steadiness of effort the various occupations
open to him with the alterations of fortune in-
cident to the situation, William H. Overbay,
of Delta county, this state, has met life's calls
to duty with a manly and resolute spirit and
won from the opportunities available to him a
good estate and a well established place in the
regard and good will of his fellow men. He
is a native of Virginia, born on January 6,
1833, and the son of Henry and Selvana ( Over-
buy) Overbay, natives of that state. The
father was a carpenter and small farmer, re-
spected by his neighbors and useful in the gen-
eral duties of citizenship. The family in
course of time moved to Tennessee and later
to Kentucky, where the father died in 1883 and
the mother in 1887. When the Civil war began
the father espoused actively the cause of the
North and entered the Union arm}-, in which
he rendered good service, escaping the terrible
ordeals incident to the memorable contest with-
out serious injury. There were eight children
in the family and all of them but William are
living in Kentucky. He left home in 1850, at
the age of seventeen, to work for himself, go-
ing to Kentucky for the purpose. Six years
later he moved to Missouri and soon afterward
to Kansas. In 1859 he came to Colorado,
reaching Denver in September. He at once
wenl to mining, and after working at this em-
ployment until February, i860, at Blackhawk
and elsewhere, he left Denver in company with
two other men, traveling through the Pike's
Peak country by teams and over the Blue
Range on snow shoes, leaving the teams in
South Park. He continued prospecting
through a wide extent of country until the win-
ter of 1 86 1, when he and eighty-five others
were snowed in for five months in what is now
Gunnison county, meeting no one and hearing
nothing from the outside world. They had
laid in provisions for a protracted stay, but
these were exhausted before the end came, and
they were near starvation, when Mr. Over-
bay and another man journeyed on snow shoes
in April to a gulch within their reach, and
there they found a more abundant supply of
food. He passed the time at various places
in this state until the spring of 1863, then
went to Montana, where he mined with profit
until 18(14, cleaning up good returns for his
labor. In the year last named he made a trip
to British Columbia, and on his return to Mon-
tana again engaged in profitable mining, mak-
ing over ten thousand dollars in eight weeks.
He leased mines and bought some, all of which
he worked with industry until 1866, then sold
his interests and bought other property in
Highland gulch which lie operated until 1868.
In the spring of that year he sold out and
moved to South Pass, Wyoming. In the fol-
lowing fall he changed his residence to Salt
Lake City, but after remaining there a short
time started on a tour of observation which
took him to various parts of Idaho. Oregon,
Nevada and Arizona, during which he was
prospecting. In the autumn of 1871 he re-
turned to Colorado and continued mining until
[881, when he settled on a portion of the ranch
which is his present home, pre-empting one
hundred and sixty acres; to which he added
afterward eighty acres by purchase. At that
time the section was not open to settlement, it
being vet a part of the Indian reservation and
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
3 2 7
in charge of the United States troops. They
denied his right to occupy the land and hunted
him with the determination of driving him out.
He had a secure hiding place to which he re-
turned from time to time, walking backward
through the snow so that the soldiers were
unable to track him to it. They got his horses,
however, but he afterward had these returned
to him, and sometime later, after a hard strug-
gle, secured peaceful and uncontested posses-
sion of his land. He has greatly improved the
place, set out ten acres in fruit and brought
about fifty acres into productiveness in alfalfa,
the rest being grazing land. He also has one
hundred stands of bees which do well and yield
a good revenue. He keeps enough cattle to
consume the feed he raises, and all lines of his
ranching and other industries are managed
with vigor and success. On January 14. 1885.
he united in marriage with Miss Sarah L.
West, a native of Canada and daughter of
Henry T. and Sarah ( Woodward ) West, both
of whom were born in England. The father
died in 1884 and Mrs. Overbay came with her
mother soon afterward to Colorado, where the
mother died in 1886. There were two children,
the son being now a resident of Aspen. Mr.
and Mrs. Overbay have five children. Dora M.,
William H., Lloyd W.. Leon J. and Ila E.
The father belongs to the Democratic party.
THOMAS McCOY.
Seeking even in his boyhood a freer life and
wider opportunities for advancement than were
offered in Ireland, the country of his birth, and
in that quest emigrating to the United States
when he was but seventeen years old, Thomas
McCoy, of Montrose county, this state, found
his first home and the beginning of his career
of usefulness in this country in Pennsylvania,
where he remained fourteen years. He was
born on September 2$, 1857. and is the son
of Thomas and Mary (Jones) McCoy, the
former Scotch by nativity and the latter born 111
Ireland. The father died in Ireland in 1881
and the mother in 1882. In 1864 the son
came to this 'country and located, as has been
stated, in Pennsylvania, where he remained
until 1878. working on farms and saving his
wages for future use. In the year last named
be came west to St. Louis. Missouri, and dur-
ing a short time worked on a fruit farm in
the vicinity of that city, then passed eight years
as a clerk in a store in the city. In 1883 he
came to Colorado, and locating at Denver, en-
gaged in the manufacture of brick for a year,
after which he did electrical wiring and car-
penter work until 1894. He then moved to
Delta county and bought a partially improved
ranch of one hundred and sixty acres on Cali-
fornia mesa, on which he lived and worked
until he sold it in 1899. During the next two
years he lived on rented land and in 1901
bought the place which is his present home.
This comprises eighty acres and is six and one-
half miles west of Olathe. He has thirty-five
acres in alfalfa, five in fruit and the rest de-
voted to grazing and general farming. On
March in. 1890. he was united in marriage
with Miss Amelia Young, who was born in
Pennsylvania in 1864. She is the daughter of
John and Sarah (Strayer) Young, both de-
ceased. Mrs. McCoy died in November. 1902,
leaving three children. Susie A.. George H. and
Ruth. The father is an Odd Fellow in fra-
ternal life, a Presbyterian in church fellow-
ship and a Republican in political allegiance.
He is a progressive and enterprising ranchman,
a zealous and public-spirited citizen, a capable
business man, and a good neighbor, firm friend
and serviceable force in promoting the general
welfare and progress of the community in
which he lives. He is held in cordial regard
by those who know him and highly respected
by all classes of his fellow citizens.
328
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
GEORGE P. CHILES.
No diligent and earnest search into the
arcana of nature has ever gone long unre-
warded- She is prodigal of her gifts when
properly besought although she may at times
hold them at a high price of effort and impor-
tunity. When the first settlers in the region of
Cory, Delta county, .this state, stuck their
stakes in the virgin soil, the question of what
products it might be best adapted to was yet
to be determined. By experiment and close
observation, comparison of notes and scrutiny
of results, it was soon learned that the region
was well adapted to fruit-growing, and the re-
wards of those who have here turned their at-
tention to this branch of husbandry have been
fully commensurate with the outlay of labor
and skill in the industry. Among the pioneers
of the section and of fruit-culture in it as well,
George P. Chiles is entitled to a high rank,
both for the vigor and efficiency with which
he has aided in developing the business and the
success which has crowned his efforts. When
he came to the neighborhood the family of
James W. Snelson was the only one living
there. The land was in its state of primeval
nature, its tendencies were unknown, its pos-
sibilities unestimated and the means of culti-
vating it to the best advantage unavailable. He
and others who came soon after him found,
however, by earnest attention to the problem
before them, in which the development of the
section was involved, that the soil would re-
spond generously in the culture of fruit trees,
and they devoted their energies largely to the
prosecution of this work. Of his ranch of
one hundred and sixty acres this leader in the
enterprise has thirty in trees of choice varieties,
and each year he reaps large harvests from
their prolific vigor. Air. Chiles also has fifty
acres in alfalfa and the remainder of his ranch
is given up to general farm products. The
revenue from his orchard averages nearly
three thousand dollars a year, and his hay crop-,
net him about twenty dollars an acre. Air,
Chiles is a native of Kentucky, born at Paris
011 August 1, 1844, and the son of Henry C.
and Maria ( Wilson ) Chiles, the father a native
of Virginia and the mother of Kentucky. The
latter died when her son George was but ten
weeks old. His father was a merchant and
farmer. He moved to Missouri in 1858. and
located at Lexington, where he passed tlie re-
mainder of his life, dying in 1898. At the be-
ginning of the war with Mexico he raised a
regiment of volunteers for the service, but be-
ing unable to take the field with it himself, he
turned the command over to his brother, but he
was known ever afterward as Colonel Chiles.
He was prominent in public affairs, serving as
a member of the legislature and filling other
offices of importance and responsibility. His
son George received a common-school edu-
cation and was trained to habits of useful
industry. In January, 1862, he enlisted in de-
fense of the Union for the Civil war in Com-
pany A, Seventh Missouri Cavalry, in which he
served to the end of the war. Although not
in man}' of the greatest battles of the war. he
received five wounds in the conflict, and was
obliged to pass three months at one time in the
hospital. He left the service as a second lieu-
tenant, and. proceeding to Warsaw. Missouri,
started a grocery business which he carried on
until 1868. He then sold out at Warsaw and
moved to Joplin, in the same state, where he
farmed until 1874. In that year he came to
Colorado and, settling at Lake City, engaged
in mining. In 1876 and the following year
he was elected marshal of Lake City and col-
lected the city taxes. In 1880 iie was again
elected to this office, in the meantime being
busily occupied in mining. While living at this
place he and three other men founded the town
of Pitkin, to which he devoted considerable at-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
3-9
tention until 1885, when he left the section and
located the ranch which is now his home. His
mining- ventures were successful and profitable,
and he still owns mining property of value in
the neighborhood of Lake City. His ranch is
about one mile from the postoffice of Cory.
Since settling on it he has given its develop-
ment his whole attention and he has one of the
best and most productive orchards in the
county, while his other ranching interests are
correspondingly flourishing. On February 9,
1864, he united in marriage with Miss Jennie
Taylor, born in St. Louis, Missouri, the daugh-
ter of William and Eliza (Earp), the father a
native of Indiana and the mother of North
Carolina. The latter died in i860 and the for-
mer in 1869. There were seven children in the
family and three are living. Mr. and Mrs.
Chiles have two children, Henry W. and Clara
B. Both are married and residing in Colo-
rado, one at Denver and the other at Delta.
The father is a member of the Washington So-
ciety and the Grand Army of the Republic. He
and his wife belong to the Christian church.
In politics he is a Populist. The local affairs
of the county have enlisted his warmest inter-
est. He served six years as county commis-
sioner and has rendered valuable service to the
people in various other capacities. In 1903 he
attended the grand encampment of the Grand
Army of the Republic in California, and at the
same time made a trip over most of the state.
He drove the first team of horses ever seen in
the Plateau valley into the section in 1883. On
the trip his party saw seven hundred deer and
many other very interesting sights. They passed
through the valley looking for a location to set-
tle in, and on reaching Grand Junction, where
they hoped to remain, they were not pleased
with the outlook, and returned to Lake City.
The Junction was then a rude and uncomely
hamlet with but feeble signs of life and to their
view gave almost no promise of its subsequent
grow th and progress. They therefore returned
to Lake City, where Mr. Chiles remained until
1885. Always an experimenter in any line of
thought or action which interested him, he has
in his orchard a few soft shell almond and
some English walnut trees, and they are re-
warding his hopes with abundant success in
growth and fruitfulness. In 1898 he raised
the largest apple ever grown in Colorado. It
measured nine inches in diameter and twenty-
seven in circumference, and took the fust prize
at the Delta county fair. With a deep and abid-
ing interest in the welfare of his portion of
the state and its. industries, he has omitted no
effort on his part needed for their promotion.
For several years he has been president of the
Delta County Fruit-Growers' Association, and
is at this writing (1904) one of its largest
stockholders. Through the medium of this
body he has aided in pushing the development
of fruit culture in the county to proportions of
great magnitude and value. Among the lead-
ing and most representative citizens of the
county he is always named and by its people he
is universally esteemed.
HENRY W. TEACHOUT.
From the peaceful pursuit of agriculture in
Vermont and western New York to a wild
mining camp in Nevada involves a fair flight
in distance and conditions but it is one that
man} - men have taken to their own advantage
and for the benefit of the country. Among the
number was Josiah Teachout, the father of
the subject of this brief review, who was born
in Vermont in 1804 and died at Austin.
Nevada, in 1864. His wife, whose maiden
name was Lydia Huskins. was also born in
Vermont, her life beginning there on Septem-
ber 20. 1812. She survived her husband thirty
vears. dying in Colorado on December 16, 1804.
The father was a tanner and early in his mar-
33"
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
ried life moved to Lyons in Wayne county.
New York, where he worked at his trade and
did some farming. In 1858 the family moved
to Alexandria, Missouri, and in 1863 to Austin,
Nevada, where the father ended his life. Their
son Henry, who now lives at Eckert, Delta
county, this state, ten miles from the county
seat, where he has a fine little fruit ranch and
is prosperously engaged in managing it to the
best advantage, started in life for himself in
i860, when he was nineteen years old, having
been born at Lyons, New York, on April 25,
1841. He was living in Missouri when he
began business working at his trade as a shoe-
maker and carrying on a store in the same
line. In 1863 he sold his business and started
overland for California, but concluded to stop
at Austin, Nevada, where he remained until
June, 1867, then returned overland to Missouri
in company with his three brothers. On the
way west the}- had a train of sixty-seven
wagons, but on the return trip only three
wagons and twelve men. On the way to Ne-
vada the party met Brigham Young, 'who
talked to them about his religious belief and
also the nature of the country through which
they were passing. On their return they had
three hundred horses. Some of these were
stolen by Indians, who, however, gave the train
ii< 1 farther trouble. When they arrived at Boul-
der, this state, they determined to remain there
awhile, and passed the winter of 1867-68 there,
going the next spring to Monument on the
divide, where they engaged in ranching. Here
Mr. Teachout and his brothers divided their
live stock and he took up a homestead of one
hundred and sixty acres of land, on which he
devoted his energies to raising grain and po-
tatoes, and also engaged in a dairy business,
making that place his home until 1870, when
he moved to Gunnison. Here he pre-empted
one hundred and sixty acres of land and con-
ducted a stock and hay ranch until the spring
of 1885. In that year he moved to Delta
county, buying a place on which he lived until
1 90 1, then sold it and purchased the ranch of
eleven acres on which he now lives, eight and
one-half acres of which are in thrifty fruit
trees which bring him in a comfortable income.
Mr. Teachout was married on November 22.
i860, to Miss Mary Edwards, a native of Il-
linois, the daughter of Joseph and Mary
(Reid) Edwards, the former born at Wheeling,
West Virginia, and the latter in Ohio. The
father was a soldier in the Civil war, belonging
to Company I of the Twenty-first Missouri
Infantry. He became ill in the service and
passed a few weeks in a hospital. At the end
of his term he returned to his family in Mis-
souri and died at Memphis, that state, on April
19, 1872. He was through life a farmer. The
mother died on February 28, t86o, also at
Memphis, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Teachout
have seven children, Minnie B., Annetta A.,
Frank, Leaf}-, Daisy. Mamie and Lucy, all liv-
ing in Colorado and all married but two. Fra-
ternally the father is a Freemason and politi-
cally he is a Republican.
JAMES W. SNELSON.
In the life of James W. Snelson. of Delta
count}-, who owns and operates an excellent
little farm of eighteen acres located seven
miles from Delta at the village of Cory, there
have been many reverses and difficulties, but he
has risen superior to them all and attained to
substantial comfort in a worldly way and se-
cured a firm hold on the regard and good will
of his fellow men. He was born in eastern
Tennessee on June 13, 1834, and is the son
of Thomas and Cynthia (Parker) Snelson. the
father a native of Tennessee and the mother
of Kentucky. The parents were farmers and
moved to Arkansas when their son James was
a small boy. There they continued their farm-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
33 J
ing operations on land which they bought, until
the death of the father, the mother also dying
in Arkansas in 1863. The son James aided his
mother in managing the home farm after the
death of the father, remaining with her until
1859. He then began farming for himself in
Arkansas, where he remained so occupied until
1884, when he came to Colorado and settled
where he now lives, buying a claim which an-
other man had already located. This com-
prised one hundred and sixty acres and he at
once went to work to improve it and make it
habitable and productive. Among the first
things he did was to plant a number of choice
fruit trees to start an orchard, intending to add
to the acreage so set aside as time passed.
The grasshoppers destroyed his trees then
and also those of several subsequent plantings,
but in spite of this disaster he now has an
orchard of six acres which is in good order
and yields abundant harvests, the average an-
nual revenue for several years being three
hundred dollars. At first he devoted the
greater part of the ranch to alfalfa, and for a
number of years was extensively engaged in
raising hay and general farm products. But
from time to time he has sold portions of his
land until he now has only eighteen acres,
which is all he cares to farm and makes him
a comfortable home and profitable occupation.
The postoffice of Cory is on land that originally
belonged to his place and there are many vil-
lage homes on the tract. His sales have been
in small parcels and the prices received have
been good, averaging fifty dollars an acre. In
1890 he bought a tract of one hundred and
forty acres nearer the river, which he sold at
a good profit after improving it with a com-
fortable dwelling and other suitable buildings.
Since settling in this neighborhood Mr. Snel-
son has had considerable sickness in his family,
loss of stock and other adversities, but he has
prospered and kept abreast with the times, get-
ting his little place into excellent condition and
prudently investing the fruits of his labor for
future use. On October 10, 1859, he was mar-
ried to Miss Margaret Black, a native of North
Carolina, and the daughter of Jesse R. and
Elizabeth (Burlson) Black, natives and farm-
ers of that state who moved to Arkansas in
1849, an d there passed the remainder of their
days, the father dying in June and the mother
in July, 1802. Five of their twelve children
are living. Mr. and Mrs. Snelson have had
thirteen children, Thomas R., George W., John
F., Mary E., James J., Cynthia' A.. William
\\\, Olive O., Columbus A., Hulda A., Leoni-
das J.. Walcie E. and Eli N. Nine of them are
living. Mr. Snelson was a soldier in the Civil
war, followed the fortunes of his section to the
field and serving three years in the Confeder-
ate army. He enlisted in i86t in Company A,
of Shaler's Arkansas regiment, and served to
near the close of 1864. During this time he
passed one month in the hospital. Fraternally
he is a Freemason and politically a Socialist.
SIMON E. HAVERSTICK.
The progress of civilization and settlement
over tin; untrodden wilds of this country, from
its earliest history to the present time, is one
of the most striking and interesting subjects of
thought, an oft-told but ever new story, full of
incident and adventure, and strong in proofs of
th'' master}- of mind over matter and every con-
dition or circumstance. The procession once
started has never halted, the most substantial
advance of one decade being but the beginning
of or stepping stone to the next, the goal of one
set of hardy adventurers the breathing spot or
night's shelter for the next, every conquest of
one day opening the way to more extensive
and beneficent conquests for the morrow. Al-
most within the memory of men now living the
earlier advances stopped on the banks of the
33^
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Ohio, the Wabash, the Illinois, then the Missis-
sippi stayed the eager, adventurous progress.
But still steadily following fast on the heel of
the flying buffalo, they have since swept over
eveiy- boundary and obstacle until the conquest
and occupation of the whole untrodden West
of a former day is almost accomplished. The
father of Simon E. Haverstick, of Delta
county, a pioneer of this state, was one in In-
diana, where he arrived from his native Penn-
sylvania about the year 1829. His name was
Isaac Haverstick and he was born at Erie,
Pennsylvania., in 182 1. He settled near South-
port. Marion county, and there he married with
Miss Sulla Smock, a native of that place, born
in [822. They were farmers and prospered in
their vocation, remaining at the home of their
early married life until death, the mother pass-
ing away in 1897 and the father in 1901.
Eleven children were born to them and all are
living, ten in Indiana and one in Colorado.
Simon was born on the paternal homestead at
Southport, Indiana, on February 23, 1857.
There he grew to the age of nineteen, receiving
a common-school education, gathering strength
oi body and independence of spirit and self-
1 chance on the farm, and in 1876, when well
equipped for the duties of life, he assumed
charge of a neighboring farm for himself,
which he managed four years. At the end of
that period he went to Indianapolis and found
employment there during the next four years in
the stock yards. In February, 1884. he moved
to Kansas, and six months later started over-
land with teams to Pueblo, in this state, where
he arrived in October and remained until the
ensuing May, engaged in (earning most of the
time. From Pueblo he changed his residence
to Ouray, where, after railroading three
months and teaming three months, he went to
farming, in which he was occupied in that
vicinity until the autumn of 1889. lie nexr
passed a year at Olathe, at the end of which
he again turned to farming, following this in-
dustry on Ash mesa and in the Gunnison valley
until 1902, when he moved to the sixty-acre
ranch on which he now lives one mile and a
half from Cory on the river. On this ranch
he has an orchard of two and a half acres in
fine bearing order, the rest of the land being
devoted to general farm products, principally
potatoes. His potatoes are among the largest
and best produced in the county, large num-
bers of them weighing over four pounds apiece
and many as much as seven, and the yield js
eight to ten tons an acre. The orchard is
near!)' all in peaches, and the crops are abund-
ant in quantity and excellent in quality. He
has prospered in his enterprise here and is held
in high esteem by the citizens of the valley
generally. On November 19, 1879, he united
in marriage with Miss Martha A. Pate, who
was born in Indiana on November 29, 1858,
and is the daughter of Edward and Mary
(Hubbell) Pate, early settlers in that state.
The father was a shoemaker and farmer, and
gave his attention to both pursuits with profit.
He also taught school for a number of years.
He is still living in Indiana, having never left
the state after once settling there. The mother
died in 1872. Mr. and Mrs. Haverstick have
had four children, Ethel. Myrtle, Floy and Es-
tella. The first born is dead, the others are liv-
ing and at home. The head of the house is a
Socialist in political faith and fraternally he
belongs to the Woodmen of the World.
WILLIAM J. BROWER.
William J. Brower is actively and profitably
engaged in ranching and raising stock on a
good ranch of two hundred acres one mile and
a half west of Cory. Helta co.unty. He was
born in Canada on September 2, 1868, and is
the son id" John and Matilda (Lapham)
Brower, the former born in the province of
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
333
New Brunswick, Canada, on March 8, 1824,
and the latter in Canada on April 23, 1835.
During the whole of his mature life the father
has been a farmer. He lived in Canada until
1S74, then came to Colorado and located in
Wet valley where he took up a homestead
which he improved and on which he engaged
in general ranching and raising stock until
1882. Selling it then, he moved to Delta
county and pre-empted land mi a part of which
he is now living, having sold eighty acres ot
the tract t<> his son William. He has a good
five-acre orchard and the rest of the land is in
alfalfa and general farm products. The mother
is also living. They have had six children, one
of whom is dead. The other five have homes
in Colorado. William remained with his par-
ents until he was twenty-two, then having a
fair common-school education and being well
prepared for a career of usefulness by his train-
ing 011 the home farm, he started out for him-
self freighting and packing about the moun-
tains near Silverton. He pushed his business
in this line during the summers and wintered
hi- teams on his father's ranch until igoo,
when owing to the advanced age of his parents
he took charge of the ranch and has since con-
ducted its operation. In [898 he bought eighty
acre - of his father's place and since then be has
been improving and cultivating the whole tr at
of two hundred acres as well as looking after
his lather's land. His principal crop is hay and
be Ins a good herd of cattle. On January 1.
1903. he was married to Miss Cora Samuel,
who was born in Missouri in April, 1877. and
is the daughter of William and Virginia ( Bal-
lengee) Samuel, life-long residents of that
state. They bad seven children, six of whom
are living and three are residents of Colorado
Mr. and Mrs. Brower have one daughter, Rose
Eugenia. Mr. Brower is earnestly interested in
the fraternal life of the community as a mem-
ber of the Masonic order, in its political af-
fairs as a Republican, and in its general ad-
vancement and improvement as a public-
spirited and energetic citizen. By the people
around him he is held in high esteem, and bis
influence among them is always felt in behalf
of every commendable undertaking.
WILLIAM J. GROW.
Orphaned by the death of his father when
the sou was but a few months old. and now
tot. illy blind, his eyesight having gradually
failed during the last few years, both the be-
ginning and the close of life for William I.
( rrow, of Delta county, have been shrouded in
gloom, yet notwithstanding the double affliction
he has preserved a cheerful disposition and met
bis responsibilities with manliness and courage.
I le was born in Pennsylvania on December 12.
1840. the son of William and Frederica
(Crow) Grow, who were born in Germany and
emigrated to this country soon after their mar-
riage, settling in Pennsylvania. The mother
married a second husband and passed the rest
of her days in Pennsylvania, dying there on
June 24. 11)03. When he was eight years old
William went to Allegheny, in his native state,
and secured employment in a butcher's shop
where he worked for a year. After that lit
found employment in private families until he
reached the age of thirteen, since which time
be has done a man's work in whatever engaged
his energies. In 1804, when be was about
fifteen, he enlisted in the Union army a- a
member of Company H, One Hundred and
Ninety-third Pennsylvania Infantry, and he re-
mained in that company until the close of the
Civil war. Two months of his term were
passed in the hospital on account of sickness,
bu! lie suffered no other casuality in the service,
never being in even a skirmish. \fter bis dis-
charge he returned to Pennsylvania and at the
clo e of a year's work in the oil fields moved
334
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
to Cincinnati, Ohio, and a year later went to
Pittsburg, where he was variously employed
until 1869. He then came to Colorado and
took up his residence at Nevadaville. Gilpin
county. In 1874 he went to San Juan county
and conducted a meat market until 1887, most
of the time at Silverton and one year at
Durango. In the fall of 1885 he bought his
present home and established his family there,
then returned to his meat business which he
carried on two years longer, then sold it and
settled on the ranch to which he has since de-
voted all his time. It originally comprised one
hundred and sixty acres, but he has sold all ex-
cept twenty-two. Of this four acres are in
fruit and the rest in alfalfa and other farm
products. In 1889 his eyes began to fail and
he gradually went blind. Since then his sons
have carried on the work of the farm. He was
married on October 20, 1878, to Miss Mar-
garet Donovan, who was born in Missouri on
December 3, 1859, and is the daughter of
Thomas and Margaret (Molampy) Donovan,
Trish by nativity and emigrants to America
early in their married life. The mother died
on a ranch near Mr. Grow's in January, 1S97.
which the father has since sold. They came to
Colorado in 1863 and the father mined in the
vicinity of Denver until 1885, when he ac-
companied the Grows to the valley in which
they live. He now makes his home with his
daughter and her husband. They have seven
children. William T., Margaret, John E., Rob-
ert C, Frederick T.. Edward J. and Thomas
P.. all living at home. Mr. Grow is a mem-
ber of the Masonic order and the Grand Army
of the Republic. He is a Democrat in political
faith, but while giving his party loyal and
earnest support, has never been desirous of
public office, being content to perform his part
in the promotion of his county's interests from
the honorable post of private citizenship.
FRANKLIN MANGES.
From the time of his birth in Somerset
county, Pennsylvania, on June 17, 1842, until
he reached the age of twenty years, the life
of Franklin Manges, of Delta county, two
miles from Cory, on the creek, was uneventful
and in no respects worthy of mention different
from the lives of other boys and youths in his
locality. He is the son of David and Susan
( Brant ) Manges, also born and reared in
Somerset county, Pennsylvania, where they
farmed until death ended their labors. The
son was reared on the farm, attended the dis-
trict schools, and prepared himself for life's
duties by the ordinary attention to whatever he
had to do. Soon after completing his twentieth
vear he left home as a volunteer in defense of
the Union, then threatened by armed resist-
ance, enlisting in Company D, One Hundred
and Thirty-third Pennsylvania Infantry, in
August, 1862, for a term of nine months. He
was discharged in May, 1863. and in February.
1864, he again enlisted, becoming a member of
Company B, Sixtieth Ohio Infantry, in which
he served until July 28, 1865. In the army he
saw active and dangerous service, participating
in the battles of Antietam. Fredericksburg
where he had a brother killed, Chancellorsville,
the Wilderness, and Petersburg, and also in
numerous skirmishes. He was never wounded
or taken prisoner, hut was obliged to spend one
week in the hospital on account of sickness.
During all the rest of the time he was at his
place and answered every roll call, unless absent
on duty. After his discharge he went to
Wayne county, Ohio, and two years later
moved to Richardson county. Nebraska, where
he farmed until 1875. then changed his resi-
dence to Kansas, and there followed the same
pursuit until 1898. lie came to Colorado that
vear and located the ranch on which he now
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
335
lives, then returning to Kansas he remained
until the ensuing spring, when he came to Colo-
rado to remain. His ranch comprises thirty-
seven acres of land, of which he has two acres
in fruit and the rest in alfalfa and other ordi-
nary products grown in the neighborhood. He
has made, good improvements on the place and
is still improving it, enlarging his crops by ju-
dicious husbandry and increasing the value of
his land. He has been for many years a great
hunter, and in the pursuit of the exhilarating
sport incident to the life of a Nimrod has had
numerous exciting adventures and narrow es-
capes from death. On October 24, 1902, when
hunting grouse in company with a neighbor,
he came upon a huge bear that had long been
the terror of the whole region because of its
killing stock and doing other extensive damage.
It had often been seen, and once was caught in
a trap from which it escaped with the loss of
three toes from one foot, but had always man-
aged to get away from its pursuers. A reward
of three hundred dollars had at one time been
offered by the stockmen for its capture, dead or
alive, and he was eager to kill it. although there
was no reward available then. It required
twelve thirty-thirty shots to finish the brute,
but Mr. Manges had the great satisfaction of
completing the job. He had the hide made into
a robe and the head mounted. This was ex-
hibited at the St. Louis fair in 1904, and at-
tracted a great ileal of attention. The bear
measured eight feet from tip to tip and weighed
over one thousand pounds. It was in prime
condition and yielded eleven gallons of fat.
This was the largest bear ever seen in the state.
The feat of killing it was one of -real prowess
and brought Mr. Manges man)- commendations
for his pluck and skill, and for ridding the
country of a very troublesome enemy. On
•August, 16. 1875. Mr. Manges was united in
marriage with Miss Margaret Schouse. They
had three children, two of them twins, and all
now deceased. Their mother died in 1878,
and in 1881 the father married a second wife,
Miss Mattie Hatfield, who bore him two chil-
dren, a son Ernest and daughter Mamie, the
former of whom is dead and the latter lives in
.Montana. He separated from this wife in
1SS4, and has since had a nephew living with
him. For many years he belonged to the
order of Odd Fellows, but he is not now in
active membership. His church affiliation is
with the Methodists and in political affairs he
supports the Republican party.
JOHN HICXSON.
John Hicxson, of Delta county, comfort-
ably settled on a ranch of one hundred and
twenty acres on the creek one mile and a half
west of Eckert, one of the respected citizens
of the Western slope, is a self-made man ami
has won his estate by his own efforts without
other help than what he has had from his wife
and children, and won it in Delta county.
When he left the railroad train with his wife
and two children on his arrival in the county
in 1889 he had only one dollar and fifty cents
in money and almost no other possessions. Mr.
Hicxson was born in Lee county, Iowa, on
February 1 S. 1857. and there grew to manhood
and received a common-school education. His
parents. Robert C. and Lorana (Millige) Hicx-
son, were natives of Indiana and Ohio, re-
spectively, and settled in Iowa in 1838. There
the father farmed until 1845. when he became
a minister and since that time he has been
engaged in that profession. His ministerial
duties have called him to many different parts
of the country, and he and his wife are now
living at Easter. Oregon. Their son John left
home in [877 and began life for himself as a
farmer in Missouri. He afterward learned the
carpenter trade, and after working at it for a
number of years in Oregon and Colorado left
336
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
that state in 1885 and moved to < >regon where
he farmed four years. In 1889 he came to
( iolorado and located in Delta county. Settling
his family on a rented ranch, he continued to
work at his trade until 1891. He then bought
the ranch which he now owns and occupies,
and from that time he has devoted himself
wholly to its improvement and cultivation. The
place originally comprised one hundred and
sixty acres, but he has sold twenty. He
has about sixty-five acres under cultivation in
grain, hay and vegetables, the same extent as
pasture land and the remainder of the tract in
fruit. He also has set out seven or eight acres
of fruit on another place. When he began to
improve his ranch he built a log dwelling, but
he has replaced this recently with a modern
frame residence which is one of the attractive
homes of the neighborhood. The house was
built in 1902, and his fruit crop that year more
than paid for its construction. Failing health
induced him to rent his ranch in 1903, with
the frequent result, abuse and neglect by the
tenant, and its yield that year was not very
abundant. He then took charge of it again
and since has had good crops and restored the
place to its former condition. His marriage
occurred on November 2j, 1877. and was to
Miss Emma Hoggs, who was born in Greene
county, Illinois, on December 28, 1863, and
is the daughter of James A. and Hannah
(Harrison) Boggs. the former born in West
Virginia and' the latter in Illinois. The
mother was a second cousin to the late Presi-
dent Harrison. The father was a soldier in
the Civil war and fought from the beginning
to the close of the contest. He enlisted in
Company I'.. Tenth Illinois Infantry, on the
same day with his brother-in-law. and si le by
side they went through the struggle, partici-
pating in many of the leading battles, including
those in Sherman's march to the sea and the
campaigns immediately preceding and follow
ing it, and neither was ever wounded, but Mr.
Boggs was taken ill just prior to his discharge
and died about two months after reaching his
home. The children in the Hicxson family are
James E., Mary E., George F. and Annie L.
They are all living and at home or on homes
of their own near the father's. The first and
second are married, and between them have
six children. Mr. Hicxson is an Odd Fellow!
a Baptist and a Republican.
FRED R. BURRITT.
The parents of Fred R. Burritt. of Delta
county, one of the respected citizens of Colo-
rado, who has lived and labored in the state
to good purpose since 1883, taking part actively
and serviceably in the industrial and political
life of the state, were eastern people, as were
their progenitors for many generations. His
father, Hiram Burritt, was born in the state
of New York in 1817, and his mother, whose
maiden name was Julia A. Ford, in Vermont in
r8i6. They became residents of Lake county,
Illinois, in early life, the father locating there
when he was but eighteen years old. and there
their son Fred was born on February 18, 1862.
Soon after his birth his parents left their farm
Mid tlie father engaged in the real-estate busi-
ness at Wauconda, in the same county. This
business received his attention until 1899 when
he retired from active pursuits and moved to
Chicago, where the mother died in April, 1002.
.nd the father in March, 1904. The father was
a self-made man, attending school but a few
months in one year, and acquiring the rest of
what learning he had by his own efforts and
from the teachings of experience. The son
remained with his parents until he reached his
legal majority, then, in 1883. cane to Colo-
rado with the determination to make his ,,wn
way in the world. Locating in Gunnison
county, he went to work in a meat market and
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
337
continued there two years. At the end of that
period he made a short visit to his old hi une,
and on his return to this state located in Delta
a iunt) . Here he worked a year for his brother,
then, in 1887. bought the place on which he
now lives and which has ever since been his
home. In 18S9 he was elected county assessor
for a term of two years, which he completed
in a manner creditable to himself and with
genera] satisfaction to the people. He has
never lost their regard and approval as a public
official, and is now serving them as a justice
of the peace, an office to which he was chosen
in 1901. His ranch in its present condition
of development, advanced cultivation and com-
fortable improvement, represents years of labor
and close application on his part, for it was all
wild and virgin to the plow when he bought it.
One hundred of its une hundred and sixty acres
are under cultivation, eight acres being in a
productive orchard and eighty in alfalfa, from
which he gathers annually an average of five-
tons per acre. This he feeds to his own cattle
( hi the ranch, and from them he realizes a good
return for his attention to them. He was mar-
ried on December 5, 1888. to Miss Belle
Brower, a sifter of William J. Brower, of the
same county, a sketch of whom will lie found
on another page. They have had seven chil-
dren, six of whom are living, Hiram. Frank.
John, Flora, Harold and Alfred. The one de-
ceased passed away in infancy. Mr. Burritt
belongs to the Odd Fellows and the Woodmen
of the World and in political affiliation he is an
earnest and zealous Democrat.
GEORGE FOGG.
George Fogg, of Delta county, lived con-
tinuously on his ranch of three hundred and
twenty acres two miles and a half northwest
of Eckert during the last twenty-two years,
and until recently was never out of the county
beyond some little distance into the adjoining
one of Montrose. He has devoted his time and
energies wholly and sedulously to the develop-
ment, cultivation and improvement of his
property and the management and expansion of
In- business. Mr. Fogg brought to his under-
taking here the characteristic ingenuity, thrift
and resourcefulness as well as the steady in-
dustry of the New Englanders, he having been
born at Bridgewater, Connecticut, on July 4,
1833. His parents were Joseph and Susanna
Quiner (Hilbert) Fogg, the father a native of
Berwick, Maine, and the mother of Marble-
head, Massachusetts. The father was a manu-
facturer of shoes at Bridgewater, Connecticut,
and conducted a factory there in which he em-
ployed an average of sixty persons. After his
death, March 5, 1838, his widow sold the
business and moved to New York city, and
died near there at Port Chester in 1852. They
had five children, all of whom are living.
George being, however, the only one residing,
in Colorado. When he was sixteen, three years
before the death of his mother, having com-
pleted his education according to his oppor-
tunities, he left home and apprenticed himself
to a carpenter at Waterbury, in his native
state, to learn his trade. He remained in that
city and worked at his craft until 1868, then
moved to Johnson count}-. Missouri, where he
bought three hundred and eighty acres of land
which he farmed until 1880. In the spring of
that year he came to Colorado, and taking up
ln> residence at Silver Cliff, found plenty to
do in his chosen line of employment. Being a
millwright as well as a general carpenter, he
was soon called upon to build a two-hundred-
thousand-dollar stamp mill at Ruby, Gunnison
county. On completing this he moved to what
is now Delta county, the territory being then
a part of Gunnison county, but erected into a
separate county in the following year. 1883.
Here he pre-empted one hundred and sixty
333
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
acres of land and bought as much more. His
thrifty and prolific orchards cover thirty acres,
and the other body of one hundred and fifty
acres which he has under cultivation is given
up mainly to the production of alfalfa. From
the orchards he has realized a net income of
one thousand dollars a year, and the hay from
the rest has brought three thousand dollars a
year for a number of years. The extent and
value of each of these products has steadily in-
ceased, the first general fruit crop yielding
about six hundred dollars. From 1884 to 1903
he was also in die dairy business at a profit of
about one hundred dollars a month, and dur-
ing that period he had in addition three hun-
dred stands of bees, from whose product he
received a revenue of one thousand three hun-
dred dollars in one year. He has recently sold
his bees and cattle and one hundred and twenty
acres of his land and located at Delta, where he
bought a comfortable home. Having labored
faithfully for many years, without evasion of
duty or effort at recreation, he has determined
to take life more easily in future, and among
the first pleasures he promised himself was a
visit to his old home in Connecticut during the
year 1904. Mr. Fogg was married on De-
cember 31, i8s6, to Miss Helen J. Allen, native
in the same state as himself, the daughter of
Noble and Sallie (Lambert) Allen, whose lives
were passed in useful labor as farmers in their
native state, Connecticut. They had eight chil-
dren, three of whom are living. The father
died in 1869 and the mother in 1883. Air. and
Mrs. Fogg have five children, Montford A.,
George F., Noble A., Howard C, deceased,
and Hilbert L. All are living in Colorado but
one. Mr. Fogg is a Republican in politics.
JAMES B. McIIUGH.
Leaving home at the age of eighteen and
since then making his own way with steady
progress and his own unaided efforts to a
worldly competence and general public esteem,
James B. McHugh, of Delta, who lives and
conducts a flourishing general farming and
cattle industry two miles and a half northeast
of Eckert, has found in Colorado a suitable
field for the employment of his native abili-
ties and business capacity, and has been quick
to see and alert to seize the opportunities here-
presented for his advancement. He is a native
of Pennsylvania, born on September 3, 1857
His father, John McHugh, was born in Ire-
land in 1 8 16 and emigrated to the Lmited
States when young. He located in Pennsyl-
vania, and there married with Miss Mary
Carlin. a native of Ireland born in 1834. and
she is still living in her old home, where her
husband died in 1880. He was a miner from
boyhood, and after spending his earlier years
in the mines of his native land followed the
same pursuit in those of his adopted country to
the end of his days. The son, whose life
opened on the unpromising outlook of a miner's
offspring, remained at home until he reached
the age of eighteen, and received such edu-
cational training as was available to a boy of
his station at the district schools. In the spring
of 1875 he left home and came to Colorado by
easy stages, reaching Denver in the ensuing
fall. From there he proceeded to Georgetown
and went to work in the mines. He was oc-
cupied in mining until 1886, when he bought
the ranch of two hundred and fifty acres which
has been his home since 1888. in which year
he settled on the property and took personal
charge of the improvements and cultivation al-
ready in progress there. He has mined at
intervals since then, and still owns valuable
mining claims, but he does nut now work them
himself. Having turned his attention to ranch-
ing and the acquisition of real estate as his
permanent occupation and business, he also
bought a live hundred-acre ranch in New
Mexico, which he still owns. On the home
place he has one hundred and fifty acres in
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
339
alfalfa and timothy, and on this he produces
five to eight tons of excellent hay per annum,
all of which he feeds to cattle on the place,
buying the stock in the fall and fattening them
in the winter for the market. He winters
on an average one hundred and seventy
head, and finds the undertaking very profit-
able. He also has a prolific orchard of two
acrc^. in which he raises an abundance of
choice fruit of several kinds. In every line of
enterprise on this and the other place he is pros-
perous and successful because he deserves to be,
giving all details of his work his close personal
attention, and applying to it the lessons learned
by intelligent study and close observation of its
needs. On March 7, 1886, he was married to
Miss Lola Beckley, who was born in Indiana,
the daughter of George and Martha ( Hurt)
Beckley, the former a native of Indiana and
the latter of Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. McHugh
have had ten children, Mary E., Florence P.,
Lola A., John B., Walter A., James J., Han-
nah L.. Regina F., Lawrence and an infant who
is dead. Mr. Mel high is a Democrat politically
and fraternally he belongs to the order of
Washington. There were seventeen children
in his father's family, of whom he was the fifth
born. Eleven are living and four are residents
of Colorado.
GEORGE BECKLEY.
An industrious mechanic and a progressive
farmer in times of peace, and a serviceable
soldier during a part of the Civil war, George
Beckley. of Delta county, living two miles
from Delta, has faithfully performed his duty
as a citizen in whatever form it has made its
call, and without looking for the showy re-
ward to fidelity that comes in men's praises or
positions of prominence or distinction. He is
a native of Indiana, born on September 6, 1840.
his parents having been Edwin and Polly (Tif-
fany ) Beckley, the former born in Connecticut
in 1806 and the latter in New York in 1815,
The father was a carpenter in Indiana, Ohio
and Michigan, and died in the last named state
on December 23, 1873, having survived his
wife twenty-two years, she having died on
May 22, 1S51. At the age of fourteen, after
receiving a meager education at the district
schools, their son George was apprenticed to
the carpenter trade, and after completing his
apprenticeship he worked at his craft in Ohio
until the fall of 1862. He then left that state
and moved to Indiana, where on July 18, 1863.
he enlisted in Company D. One Hundred and
Eighteenth Infantry. In this company he
served in defense of the Union until March 3.
[864, participating in a number of engage-
ments, among them those at Blue Springs.
Taswell and Walker's Ford, Tennessee. He
passed one night in the hospital, but at all other
times was in the line of duty during his term.
After leaving the army he returned to Indiana,
and in 1868 moved to Michigan, where he re-
mained until the autumn of 1881, at which time
he came to Colorado. For a year ami a half he
worked at his trade at Tincup, Gunnison
county, then, in the spring of 1883, he moved
to the town of Gunnison, where he passed three
years in the same occupation. In 1886 he
changed his residence to Delta county and his
employment to ranching, taking- up a home-
stead at the mouth of Tongue creek. On this
place he lived until 1895, and he improved and
cultivated it to the best advantage, planting
a portion of the land in good fruit trees and
devoting a large part of the rest to raising al-
falfa, also raising a number of cattle. In the
year last mentioned he sold this place and
bought the one of one hundred and twenty
acres on which he has since resided. Here his
principal crops are wheat and oats, which he
raises in good quantities, harvesting an average
of eighty bushels of oats and fifty of wheat to
34Q
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
the acre. He also produces potatoes of tine
quality in increasing volume and good crops
of alfalfa. On November 6, 1864. he was mar-
ried to Miss Martha J. Hart, who was born in
Ohio on May 2j, 1845, and is the daughter
of James and Margaret (Bowles) Hart, the
former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter
of Ohio. The father is living, but the mother
has been dead a number of years. In the
Becklev household twelve children have been
bom, Dora R. (deceased). Lola A., Cora E.,
James E.. Mary B., Walter H.. Morton S.,
Charles N.. Maggie E., George F. (deceased),
Carrie L. and Jennie E. The head of the house
belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic,
and in political allegiance is a Republican.
J. M. JOXES.
In that prolific region on the Western slope
of this state known as the fruit licit nature
has been prodigal in her bounty to the soil and
the thrift and enterprise of a progressive and
far-seeing people have done the rest to bring
about the advanced development and product-
iveness of the section. Among this people J.
M. Jones, who lives on a good ranch of eighty
acres three miles and a half west of Hotchkiss,
Delta county, where he has fifteen acres of his
land in fruit, ten in alfalfa and the rest de-
voted to grain, is accorded a leading place in
the public estimation as a progressive and
wide-awake farmer and useful citizen, showing
an active and serviceable interest in the wel-
fare of the region, and making use of even-
proper means to aid in its development. Mr.
Join, was horn on March 14. 1844, at Ligo-
nier. Westmoreland county. Pennsylvania,
where his parents, John and Jones,
were also horn. The mother died in the child-
hood of her son and the father in [869, at the
age of seventy-six. They were farmers and
passed the whole of their lives in their native
state. In 1863, when he was nineteen, the
son enlisted in the United States signal service
in Pennsylvania, and served in it until the close
of the Civil war. In the spring of 1866 he
moved to Anderson county, Kansas, and dur-
ing the next six years was engaged in general
farming there. In 1872 he came to Colorado
and located at Fair Play, Park county, and
there, at Leadville and in Gunnison county de-
voted his time to mining and prospecting until
the autumn of 1881. when, having accumulated
some money for the purpose, he turned bis at-
tention to ranching near the town of Gunnison,
where he lived three years, then, in the fall of
1884, purchased the place on which he now
makes his home, the ranch at the time of his
making the purchase comprising one hundred
and sixty acres. Of this he has since sold one-
half, leaving him eighty acres at present. The
country was new ,vhen he located here and in
need of vigorous industry to make it productive.
Mr. Jones united with four other farmers in
the construction of a ditch from Leroux creek
for the irrigation of their ranches, and during
the first three years of his residence here car-
ried on only a general farming enterprise.
doing nothing in fruit until the spring of 1887.
His farming operations were profitable from
the start, and since his orchard of fifteen acres
has become fruitful he gets a large revenue
from it also, averaging an annual income from
it of two hundred dollars to three hundred dol-
lars an acre. The ten acres of alfalfa on his
land yields about eight tons to the acre an-
nually, and the hay sells at five dollars a ton.
He also raises good crops of grain at a hand-
some profit. Mr. Jones was married in Kansas
on November jt, 1867, to Mi^s Mora Jacobs,
who was horn in Ohio. Her father was a shoe-
maker and bookbinder. The family moved to
Kansas in [865, where both parents died. Mr.
and Mrs. Jones have had four children, three
of whom are living, Perrv 1*'.. Myrtle IV and
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
34'
Minnie B. The other child died in infancy.
The son is married and the daughters are liv-
ing at home. Politically Mr. Jones is a Re-
publican, but he is seldom an active partisan.
G. A. RIEHL.
G. A. Riehl, of Delta county, who is con-
ducting an excellent ranch of one hundred and
sixty acres four miles and a half west of Hotch-
kiss. ten acres of which are in fruit and forty
in alfalfa, from all of which he gets abundant
crops of superior quality, is a native of Penn-
sylvania, born on .May 20, [861, and the son of
John A. and Minnie (Kremer) Riehl. who
were horn and reared in Germany. They set-
tled in Pennsylvania in early life, and there
the mother died in A lay, 1887. Two years
after her death the father came to Colorado,
where he died in 1894. He was a Union
soldier during the Civil war and took part in
many of its principal battles. He received in-
juries in the service which necessitated his
passing some time in a hospital. The son re-
ceived a common-school education in his native
state, and in July, 1880, came west to Missouri.
Here he was engaged about a year and a half
in cigar making, then returned to Pennsyl-
vania, where he remained until 1887, when he
became a resident of Colorado, locating first
at Sterling, Logan county, and there carrying
on the cattle business until 1893. In that year
he disposed of his interests in the eastern part
of the state and moved to Delta county, pur-
chasing the ranch of one hundred and sixty
acres on which he now lives, arriving here on
March 26th, and soon afterward making the
purchase. This place, which was wild and un-
developed when he located on it, he has greatly
improved and skillfully cultivated, making his
work on it profitable in annual crops and in-
creasing the value of his land by judicious erec-
tion of good buildings and other structures. He
set "lit ten acres m truit and
in alfalfa, and the yield from these sources
form his principal crops, although he raises
large quantities of potatoes also at considerable
profit. Mr. Riehl was married on the 1st day
of June, 1883, to Miss Catherine Deibel, a
native of Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, of par-
ents born in Germany and still living in Penn-
sylvania, where the father works at his trade
as a carpenter. Mr. and Mrs. Riehl have had
seven children, three of whom are living. Her-
man, Edgar and Minnie, and still at home with
their parents. Fraternally Mr. Reil is an Odd
Fellow, politically he is a Socialist, and in re-
ligious faith belongs to the Lutheran church.
Tried in several lines of active usefulness and
in different parts of the country, he has never
been found wanting in the faithful discharge of
duty, and wherever he has lived has had the
respect and confidence of the people around
him. His citizenship here and elsewhere has
been serviceable and of a character to c< >m-
mend him to the approval of all who know him.
THEODORE KOEHNE.
The subject of this brief memoir belongs
to that great body of German citizens of our
country which has done so much in many ways
for its development and improvement, and has
left the mark of his thrift and enterprise in
several localities. He was born in Saxony on
June 29. 1864, the son of Ferdinand and Julia
(Stolz) Koehne, both also Saxons by nativity.
The father was a farmer and became a resident
of Colorado in 1886, locating in the vicinity
of Paonia, Delta county, where he passed the
rest of his life, dydng there in 1899. Five chil-
dren were born in the household who are liv-
ing, and all in Colorado but one son. Mr.
Koehne emigrated to this country in 1882. and
after a residence of a few months in Texas
came to Colorado and made his home at Lake
342
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
City for a short time, then moved to Paonia,
buying forty acres of land. He then, for some
time, worked out on other ranches to earn
money wherewith to improve his own, on
which in 1887 he planted an acre and a half in
fruit, which he afterward extended to eight
acres. In 1892 he sold this place and bought
another which he improved and sold. He con-
tinued to buy and sell properties with good
results until 1902, when he purchased the ranch
mi which he now lives, which comprises eighty
acres of good land, twelve of which are in fruit
and twelve in alfalfa, the rest of the place not
being yet under active cultivation. He also
conducts a dairying business, supplying cream
and butter to the town trade, having a fine herd
of thirteen Jersey cows for the purpose. On
July 25, 1882, he united in marriage with Miss
Mertie M. Hollister, who was born in Iowa
on July 25, 1867, and is the daughter of
Isaac and Amelia (Staples) Hollister, natives
of Massachusetts, both of whom are now resi-
dents of Denver. Her father was a soldier in
the Civil war. and rendered good service to
the cause of the Union. Five children have
been born in the Koebne household, three of
whom are living, Ray, Marie and Zeta. Earl
and Irwin, twin brothers, died at the age of
eight months. Fraternally Mr. Koebne is con-
nected with the Woodmen of the World, and
politically he is a Republican. He devotes his
time mainly to his business, however, finding
in it congenial and profitable employment. His
ranch is located three miles from Hotchkiss,
Delta county, and is one of the most promising
and productive in its neighborhood.
A. C. ELLINGTON.
This younger brother of L. C. Ellington, a
sketch of whom will be found on another page,
and who is a man of similar characteristics,
progressive, broad-minded and full of enter-
prise, was born in Clay county, Missouri, on
February 20, 1855. and is one of the eleven
children born in the household of his parents,
Alpheus and Talitha (Oldham) Ellington, na-
tives of Kentucky who came to Colorado in
1865. The father was in early life a butcher,
but devoted his later years to ranching and
the cattle industry. At the time of his arrival
in this state and the start of his operations
here, flour was twenty dollars per hundred-
weight and labor five dollars a day. The son,
A. C. Ellington, was a boy of ten then and lived
with his parents until their deaths, that of the
father occurring in 1880 and that of the
mother in 1900. The territory was wild and
unsettled when they came, and they found
themselves confronted by many hardships and
dangers. But industry and perseverance
brought them prosperity. The son started in
business for himself in 187 1, and moved to
Delta county in 1885. locating on the ranch
which he now owns and occupies, which com-
prises forty acres and is located four miles and
a half northwest of Hotchkiss. He has fifteen
acres in fruit in full bearing vigor, and the
rest of his land in hay and pasturage. His
orchard yields abundantly and its product finds
a ready sale at good prices. The hay he raises
is nearly sufficient for his own stock, of which
he has a fine large herd, and every phase ot
his business is prosperous. On September 4.
1888, he was married to Miss Jennie Trues-
dale, who was born in Illinois. Her parents
were Eli and Elizabeth (Cramer) Truesdale.
natives of Ohio who first came to Colorado in
1872, but soon afterward returned to Missouri.
In 1885 they again moved into this state, lo-
cating near Hotchkiss. and are now living in
the vicinity of Montrose. They had a family
of nine children. Mr. and Mrs. Ellington have
three children, Glenn, Sidney and Rex, all liv-
ing and at home. Mr. Ellington belongs to the
order of Odd Fellows and in politics is a
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
343
Democrat. The success he has achieved in
Colorado is the logical result of his diligence,
energy and business capacity. He is looked
upon as one of the leading citizens of his sec-
tion, and enjoys a large measure of public
esteem and good will.
DR. WILEY F. SHEER.
A native of North Carolina, where his par-
ents also were born and reared, and trained in
the traditions and aspirations of his native sec-
tion, and afterward a professional man and a
prosperous rancher, living in several different
states, the late Dr. Wiley F. Sheek, of Hotch-
kiss, Delta county, showed in a marked de-
gree the versatility of the American mind and
character, which can mold a shapely destiny
out of any plastic conditions that Fate flings
before it. Dr. Sheek's life began in the Old
North state, in Yadkin county, on December
2, 1842, and he was the son of Ellis and Sarah
(Long) Sheek, who were farmers and moved
to Missouri in the "sixties and afterward
changed their residence to eastern Kansas.
Later they returned to Missouri, and there the
father died in 1875, the mother passing away
in the fall of 1880, while on a visit to Colo-
rado. Their son Wiley, after obtaining a good
common-school education and pursuing a
course in the study of medicine, began the
practice of his profession in 1869 at Farlinville,
Linn county, Kansas. In t8"o he moved to
Brooklin, in the same county, where he re-
mained eight years, then in 1878 took up his
residence at Sedan, that state, making that
place his home until 18S9 but being most of the
time in Colorado. In the year last mentioned
he sold his interests in Kansas and became a
resident of Delta county, this state, locating at
Hotchkiss in 1892. it being then a small place,
crudely built and with all its development be-
fore it. The Doctor built one of the first
houses in the town and practiced medicine
there until his death, on January 11, 1897. At
his death he was possessed of a good ranch in
Delta county and some town property, having
succeeded in life and made his way with steady
progress. He belonged to the Odd Fellows
fraternally and the Grand Army of the Re-
public, and was a Republican politically. Dur-
ing the Civil war he served in the Union army
as a member of Company K, Sixth Missouri
Infantry, and although he served throughout
the war and took part in many leading engage-
ments, he escaped without a wound or being
either taken prisoner or spending any time in
a hospital. On November 2, 1871, he was
married to Miss Mary P. Cheek, a native of
Dearborn county. Indiana, and a daughter of
John F. and Laura M. (Lucas) Cheek, both
born at Lawrenceburg, Indiana. There the
father died on June 21, 1869, the mother
passing away at Joplin, Missouri, on Christmas
day, [902. Dr. and Mrs. Sheek had one daugh-
ter. Brenhilda, who is now the wife of L. C.
Shoemaker. Since her husband's death Mrs.
Sheek has managed their property to advan-
tage, and being a lady of good business ca-
pacity, has prospered. She has recently sold
her ranch for a good price. Of the benevolent
societies she has joined two, the Daughters of
Rebekah and the Woman's Relief Corps, and
in politics she is a Republican with an active
interest in the success of her party.
JOSEPH S. ROATCAP.
Among the early arrivals in the North
Fork valley. Delta county, was Joseph S. R< >ar-
cap, of the vicinity of Paonia, who located there
in 1883. and has been a resident of Colorado
since 1878, during the whole of his life here
actively engaged in useful pursuits tending to
the development and improvement of the coun-
try and forming a volunteer in the great in-
344
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
dustrial army who are making the possibilities
of this mighty empire known to the world and
its resources ministrants to the comfort of mil-
lions of people. Mr. Roatcap was born on
January 25. 1849, m Illinois, and is the son of
John and Rachel (Kaufman) Roatcap. natives
of Page count)', Virginia, the former born in
1812 and the latter in 18 17. They were farm-
ers and moved to Illinois in 1843, remaining
there until March, 1854. then making another
flight in the wake of the setting sun, arriving
in Cooper county, Missouri, on the 5th day of
March of that year and remaining there until
1869. when they moved to Wilson county, Kan-
sas. Finding the conditions of frontier life
promising and not disagreeable overmuch, in
1878 they came still farther west and took up
their residence at Lake City, this state. Five
years later the father and his youngest son came
into the North Fork valley and pre-empted one
hundred and sixty acres of land, on which
the parents lived until death, the father pass-
ing away on September 12, 1880, and the
mother on September 26, 1898. They had a
family of ten children, six of whom are living,
four of them in Colorado. Their son Joseph
remained with them until 1880, then started in
life for himself, running a saw-mill for another
man, which he did until a few years later, when
he engaged in a similar enterprise for himself.
In 1883 he returned to Missouri, and after a
residence of six years in that state, returned
to Colorado and settled in Delta county with
a modern saw-mill which he brought with him
and operated for a number of years, sawing
lumber and making fruit boxes for the fruit-
growers in this section. He then sold the
outfit and turned his attention to ranching, in
1898 buying the land on which he now lives,
securing forty acres in the first purchase and
seventeen later from a neighbor adjoining him.
On this seventeen acres he at once built a large
dwelling and began the cultivation of his land.
He has about three acres and a half of his land
in fruit and the rest in alfalfa and grain. Hay
and fruit are his principal crops and he finds
them profitably and steadily increasing in their
returns. His land also has greatly increased in
value, being worth fifteen dollars an acre when
he bought it and now worth at least one hun-
dred dollars an acre. On November 24, 1880,
he was united in marriage with Miss Gertrude
Miller, who was born in Cooper county, Mis-
souri, on October 29, 1862, and is the daughter
of Daniel and Mary (Moore) Miller, the for-
mer a native of Germany and the latter off
Kentucky. The father died in 1874 and the
mother is now living in Kansas. Mr. and
Mrs. Roatcap have had five children. Joseph,
who died when only three days old, Constance
M.. Ina, Ora and Selma. The oldest is six-
teen and the youngest five, and all are living at
home. - The parents are members of the
Methodist Episcopal church, and the father is
a Republican in political affairs.
JOHN R. SMITH.
The late John R. Smith, of Delta county,
who passed the psalmist's limit of human life
by more than twelve years, was obliged to make
his own way in the world from an early age.
being orphaned by the death of his mother
when he was but eight years old, and finding
his father's home broken up after that sad
event. He was born in the state of New York
on December 26, 1820. the son of Robert and
Margaret (McCusic) Smith, the former a na-
tive of New York and the latter of Scotland.
Mr. Smith's early trials and struggles de-
veloped in him a spirit of self-reliance and
gave him flexibility of functions and steady
resourcefulness, and throughout his life these
qualities enabled him to push his way forward
with success in the contest for supremacy
among men. He received but little schooling
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
345
outside of the school of experience, but early
learned to be ever ready for any duty that came
to him and depend on himself in the perform-
ance of it. In i860 he became a resident of
Colorado, locating at what was then California
Gulch but is now Leadville, where he followed
mining about five years, then, in 1865, moved
to Jefferson county and bought a ranch, turn-
ing his attention to ranching and raising cattle.
From this time until his death, on January 26.
1903, he was actively engaged in the ranch and
cattle industry, and in these lines was always
successful, as he had been in mining. In 1876
he moved to Hinsdale county from Jefferson,
and there followed farming and raising stock
and also kept a road house for the entertain-
ment of the traveling public until 1882. when
he moved to the ranch on which his family now
live one mile southwest of Hotchkiss, Delta
county, buying another man's rights to a por-
tion of the place and pre-empting one hundred
and sixty acres in addition. The fruit industry
never interested him, and he turned his land
over to the production of alfalfa as soon as
possible in order to get feed for his stock. At
the time of his death he had it nearly all in
hay. On February 28, 1865, he united 111
marriage with Miss Agnes Mclntire, a native
of Canada, where her parents. Duncan and
Elizabeth ( Brush ) Mclntire, also were born.
Her father was a farmer ami lumberman. The
family moved to Colorado in 1861, locating in
Jefferson county. In T883 they took up their
residence in Delta county, where the father
died in 1884 and the mother in 18S7. .Mr.
and Mrs. Smith had six children, five of
whom are living, Hattie H., Stephen P.. Nellie
M., Enos M. and Maud E. They are all mar-
ried and three are living in Colorado. Since
her husband's death Mrs. Smith has carried
on the business he left and by judicious man-
agement and close attention to its requirements
has made it pay her well. She has eighty
acres of land, about half of which is in hay.
and from this she gets enough to support 111
comfort and good condition her large herd of
cattle. She is a member of the Church of
Christ and a Republican in politics.
HERVEY D. SMITH.
Hervey D. Smith, of near Grand Junction,
is one of the successful and progressive fruit-
growers of Mesa county, and came to the work
in which he is now engaged with due prepar-
ation made in varied and instructive experience
in many places and under a great variety of
circumstances, all of which tended to develop
his native capacity and force of character. He
was born at Adrian. Michigan, on March 8.
1845, ;nK ' ' s tne son °f Newton and Elvira
(Ives) Smith, natives of Chautauqua county.
New York, born near the city of Jamestown,
where they were reared, educated and married.
Soon after their marriage they moved to
Adrian, Michigan, which was at the time a
small hamlet. The father was a carpenter and
joiner, and found his skill as a mechanic im-
mediately in great demand, as the village was
ready for improvement and he was called on
to build many of its first houses of any im-
portance. He died young in 1847, leaving his
widow and two children, a daughter and
Hervey D., who was at that time about two
years old. The mother returned with her chil-
dren to her native state, and there sometime
afterward she was married to John Pitcher.
In 1853 they came west to Bremer county.
Iowa, where they were early .pioneers. She
died in Black Hawk county, Iowa, in 1877.
at the home of Mr. Smith. Of her second mar-
riage there were three children who grew to
maturity, but all are now deceased. Hervey
D. Smith, the younger of the two children of
the first marriage, remained with his mother
in New York until he was six vears old, then
346
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
spent three years with an uncle, a Methodist
minister, at Ashtabula, Ohio. At the end of
that time he joined his mother and step-father
in Iowa, and he remained with them attending
school until the beginning of the Civil war.
In August, 1 86 1, he enlisted in defense of the
Union in Company B, Thirty-eighth Iowa In-
fantry, and was assigned to the Department of
the Gulf. After three years' service he was
mustered out as a member of Company I,
Thirty-fourth Iowa, the two regiments having
been consolidated on account of the depletion
of their ranks. He was in the engagements at
Vicksburg, Port Hudson, Fort Morgan,
Spanish Fort and Fort Blakeslee, but escaped
without disaster of any kind. After the close
of the war he settled at Janesville, Bremer
county, Iowa, and there he learned the miller's
trade. On completing his apprenticeship he
moved to Manchester where he worked at his
trade, and did the same at Osage, LaPorte City
and Waterloo in the same state. At the last he
was foreman of a large mill for nine years.
In 1881 he moved to Sioux Rapids, Iowa,
and engaged in milling on his own account.
Here he bought a mill and operated it for a
period of about twenty years. The mill was of
the old style, with three run of stone and a
capacity of fifty barrels a day. He improved
it soon after he bought it, putting in the latest
toller process and increasing its capacity to
one hundred and twenty-five barrels. In 1893-4
he improved it, at a cost of fifteen thousand
dollars, and also put in an electric light plant
for the city. The hard times in r8o,6 were
particularly damaging to him, and in 1898 the
property was destroyed by fire, leaving him
almost penniless. In the autumn of 1899 ne
came to Colorado and, locating in Grand valley,
bought forty acres of wild land four miles east
of Grand Junction, on which be built a house
and made other improvements, and planted
fifteen acres of fruit trees. He then sold the
property at a good profit in the spring of 1903.
After that he bought the ten acres on which
he now lives, three miles east of Grand Junc-
tion. This tract is all in fruit trees in'good
bearing order which yield an abundant annual
harvest and a handsome revenue. Mr. Smith
was married on May 16, 1869, to Miss Lur-
anda Rinker, who was born in Ogle county,
Illinois, and is the daughter of Commodore
Perry and Louisa (Turck) Rinker, the former
a native of Louisville, Kentucky, and the latter
of Cayuga county, New York. Mr. Rinker's
father died when he was three years old, and
he was taken by his mother and step-father to '
Indiana in boyhood, and in 1836 to Ogle
county, Illinois, where the family were among
the earliest settlers. The parents kept a half-
way house between Dixon and Rockford on
the east side of Rock river, about two miles and
a half from what is now Oregon. Here Mr.
Rinker grew to manhood and received the
greater part of his school education. In 1848.
when he was twenty-two, he left home and
moved to Jasper county, Iowa, where he took
up one hundred and sixty acres of land seven
miles from Newton, being a pioneer in the
neighborhood. What is now Newton was then
almost nothing but a log tavern in the wild
country. Here he followed his chosen occu-
1 >at inn of fanning, varying its strenuous labor
with the pleasures of hunting. On one oc-
casion, while hunting on Skunk river, he pulled
up a cottonwood sprout for a whip, and when
he got home stuck it in the ground in front of
his house. It grew and flourished, and when
he visited the place fifty years later he measured
its circumference, requiring a string over four-
teen feet long for the purpose. Having im-
proved his farm, he sold it in 1856 and moved
to Janesville, Black Hawk county, where he
opened the first butcher shop in the town. He
afterward kept a hotel there for a number of
years, then traded the hotel property for a
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
347
farm near the town which he farmed for a
time. He then retired from active pursuits and
located at Sioux Rapids. Mrs. Rinker died on
March 22, 1895, and in 1897 Mr. Rinker came
to Mesa county, this state, and made his home
for a time with his grandson, Milton Smith.
He now lives with Milton's father, the subject
of this sketch. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have four
children, one of whom is an adopted daughter.
Their own offspring are Milton P., of Mesa
county; Edwin E., a physician at Sioux Rapids,
Iowa; and Aura L., a teacher in the Fruitvale
school. Emma, the adopted daughter, now
twelve years old, is a daughter of Mr. Smith's
half sister. In political faith Mr. Smith is a
stanch Republican. While living at Sioux
Rapids he served as a member of the city
council twelve years. He also served as a mem-
ber of the school board. In fraternal life he
belongs to the Masonic order in lodge, chapter
and commandery, and he is active in the work
of the several bodies.
WILLIAM J. S. HENDERSON.
One of the oldest settlers now living- in
Grand valley, he having come to this part of
the state and taken up one hundred and sixty
acres of land just after the Ute reservation was
opened for settlement, and while the whole
country was yet an unbroken wilderness, with-
out roads, ditches, dwellings or other con-
veniences of life. William J. S. Henderson, of
Mesa county, living three miles east of Grand
Junction, has been of great service in clearing
up and settling this section and developing its
resources, awakening its activities to vigorous
life and starting it on the march to full and
energetic beneficence. He was born in county
Londonderry, Ireland, on December 25, C839,
and is the son of Robert and Isabelle (Stone)
Henderson, also natives of Ireland whose lives
were wholly passed in that country, where they
were farmers. An uncle of Mr. Henderson,
James Nolan, was a soldier in the British army
and served under Wellington in the Peninsular
war and at the battle of Waterloo. Later he
received a pension from the government for his
services. Four children were born to the Hen-
dersons, two of whom are living, William and
an older sister who is now a resident of her
native county in Ireland. William was the
youngest of the family. He was reared and
educated in Ireland, having but slender oppor-
tunities for schooling, being obliged to work
hard and continuously as a boy. and being
mainly self-educated since coming to the
United States. He remained at home until he
was twenty-three, then in the summer of 1863
he came to this country. Landing at New
Y< irk, he went to Albany where he worked at
day labor and for a time drove on the Erie
canal. In March, 1864. he enlisted in the
Union army for the Civil war as a member of
Company D, Twenty-fourth New York Cav-
alry, and was assigned soon afterward to the
Army of the Potomac, joining General Burn-
side's command at Brandy Station. He took
part in the skirmish at Jemima Crossing and
the battles of the Wilderness and Spottsylvania
Courthouse. While on the skirmish line after
crossing the James river, he was shot in the
right hand, and soon after, during the same
day. had his right ear shot off. He was then
sent to Lincoln Hospital at Washington, and a
month later was transferred to Chestnut Hill
I [ospital in Philadelphia. Here two fingers of
the wounded hand were amputated, and as soon
as he was able he was transferred to the
Veteran Reserve Corps and sent to Newark.
New Jersey, where he did hospital duty. Later
his company was stationed at the Broome
Street barracks in New York, and there an
order came that all whose companies had been
mustered out could claim a discharge if they
wished. Mr. Henderson did not take advan-
348
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
tage of this privilege, but continued in the
service, and later was mustered out at David's
Island on August 31, 1866, he having been on
duty there for a number of months. After the
war he returned to New Jersey and engaged in
business at Paterson. but in 1867 enlisted in
Company G, Forty-third Infantry of the regu-
lar army, in which he served two years at Fort
Brady, Michigan, being discharged under the
Logan act in June, 1869, at Buffalo, New York,
with the rank of quartermaster-sergeant of his
company. He then came west to Fort
Leavenworth. Kansas, and from there moved
to Fort Hayes, where he served two years as
a clerk in the quartermaster's department. The
quartermaster, Major A. G. Robinson, was
transferred to Fort Sill, Indian Territory, and
Mr. I [enderson went with him and served two
years longer as his clerk. In the spring of
1876, in company with two other men, he left
Witchita, Kansas, in a spring wagon, for Colo-
rado, and on arriving at Lake City engaged in
prospecting, later working in the smelter. He
remained in that locality until the fall of 1881,
then started for the Ute reservation, which had
just been opened for settlement, reaching
Grand Junction, January T2, 1882. What is
now that thriving and busy little city then con-
sisted of one log cabin and two tents. The
tents were used as hotels, one being called the
Pig's Eye and the other the Pig's Ear. Thomas
Higgins, now deputy game warden and a resi-
dent of Grand valley, was the proprietor of
one. The same year he pre-empted a claim of
<me hundred and sixty acres of land on a part
of which he now resides three miles east of
Grand Junction. In the fall following he
proved up on his land, being one of the first to
do this in the valley. Here he determined to
remain and improve his land, which he did with
vigor and enterprise; and he has since sold a
portion of the place to good advantage. He
now has eighty acres in fine condition, making
one of the most desirable homes in his neigh-
In irhi x rd. ( )n Ni ivember 24, 1891, he was mar-
ried to Miss Charlotte M. McBurney, a native
of county Down, Ireland, and daughter of
William and Ann J. ( Anderson) McBurney,
also native in that county, where both families
lived for many generations. Mrs. Henderson
came to the United States with her parents in
i860. They located on a farm twelve miles
from St. Louis, Missouri, where they passed
the rest of their lives. One child has been born
in the Henderson household, a daughter named
Hessie D., now eight years old. In politics
Mr. Henderson is a regular Republican with
an ardent devotion to the welfare of his party,
and in fraternal life he is an Odd Fellow and a
member of the grand lodge of the order.
DAVID L. HOWARD.
David L. Howard, a prosperous fruit-
grower and ranchman of Mesa county, living
five miles east of Grand Junction, is a native
of near Louisville, Kentucky, born on Janu-
ary 15. 1849, and the son of James and Sarah
(Lee) Howard, also natives of that state.
The father was a gunsmith, and in i860 moved
his family to Illinois, locating on a farm near
Mount Vernon where he lived some six years.
They then moved to Missouri and settled near
St. Joseph, where the father died in 1894. The
mother died in Oregon in 1903, at the age of
seventy-eight years. David was about eleven
when the family moved to Illinois and is the
fourth of the eleven children born in the house-
hold, all of whom are living. The condition
of the country and the necessity for the use of
every available hand in the farm work gave him
but little opportunity for schooling, and he is
therefore largely a self-educated man. In 1871,
at the age of twenty-two, he left home and
went to Kansas, settling in Howard county,
where he farmed two years. Then, after a
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
349
short sojourn in Texas, lie came to Colorado
in the spring of [874 and located at George-
town, where he followed prospecting and min-
ing fourteen years, often making money
rapidly and frequently, with the usual luck of
a miner, losing it as rapidly. In 1888 he
moved to Aspen, then a booming silver camp,
and remained there three years, mining indus-
triously with varying success, after which he
prospected and leased in that vicinity and the
adjoining county until the slump in silver came
in [893. At that time he turned his attention
to farming and. moving to Grand valley,
bought forty acres of land three miles north of
Grand Junction, four acres of which had been
set out in fruit. He set out twelve acres more
in fruit and made other substantial improve-
ments in the property, then two years later sold
it and bought forty acres of raw land four miles
east of Grand Junction, on which he lived until
IQ03, planting ten acres of the place in fruit
and improving the property as a home. In
1903 he sold this and purchased the fruit
ranch adjoining it on the east, on which he now
lives. This ranch comprises seventy acres,
twenty of which are in thrifty fruit trees of
choice varieties in good hearing condition, and
also produces large yields of hay and other
farm growths. Mr. Howard was married on
November 16, 1878. to Miss Julia C. Bourquin,
who was born at Archibald, Fulton county.
Ohio, and is the daughter of Peter and Cather-
ine (Verbier) Bourquin, natives of France.
The father was twenty years old when he came
to this country from his native land, and his
wife was six months old when she came hither
with her parents. They were married in Ful-
ton county, Ohio, where the father was a mer-
chant for a number of years. In 1875 tHe>-
moved to Georgetown, this state, and there he
engaged in mining. He died at Pueblo in
January. 1883. and since then his widow has
made her home at Georgetown. Mr. and Mrs
Howard have four children, all sons, L. Ver-
nier, a student at the Denver-Gross Medical
College; Floyd B., a chef by profession; Ray
F. and Glenn D.. living at home. In politics
Mr. Howard is a Socialist and in fraternal
life a United Workman.
FRED C. JAQUETTE.
For more than fifteen years a prominent
contractor and builder in this state, carrying
on an extensive business in this line at Boulder
and Grand Junction, and building many of the
better houses at each place, while at the same
time he was busily occupied in improving the
excellent ranch on which he lives five miles
northeast of Grand Junction. Fred C. Jaquette
has many monuments to Ins skill and enter-
prise, and has been able to contribute most es-
sentially and valuably to the growth and de-
velopment of the state and the comfort and en-
joyment of its people. He is a native of Jack-
son countw Michigan, born on September 19,
[858, and the son of Samuel and Abigail
(King) Jaquette, the former born in Pennsyl-
vania and the latter in the state of Xew York.
They were both reared in Xew York and they
were married there. Soon afterward they
moved to Jackson count}-, Michigan, where the
father followed farming. In 1859 he started
fi >r I 'ike's Peak, but meeting on the way many
who had been disappointed in their quest for
gold in that region and were returning to their
homes and former occupations, he determined
to go on to California, which he did. crossing
the plains from St. Joseph. Missouri, with ox
teams and being five months on the road. He
spent four years in California mining and pros-
pecting, and was very fortunate for a time in
his work. He then went into a big deal for
fluming a large stream to get water on the
mining claims, but before the work was finished
a disastrous flood swept away all the fruit- of
35°
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
the enterprise and he lost all he had. He then
returned to Michigan and the family continued
to live on a Calhoun county farm, to which
they had moved. On account of physical dis-
ability he did not go into the Civil war, but
five of his brothers did and served through the
contest and returned to their homes unharmed.
Six children were born in the family, but only
two grew to maturity, Mr. Jaquette and an
older brother named Darwin B., who is a
farmer in Eaton county, Michigan. Fred was
reared on the farm in Calhoun county, in his
native state, on which the family settled when
he was but eight years old. He began his
education in the primary schools near his home,
then attended the high school at Albion, Michi-
gan, where he was graduated in 1879, after
which he took a full course at the Albion Busi-
ness College, being graduated in 1880. After
that he passed a year in the State University of
Illinois at Champaign, and on his return to
Albion learned his trade as a moulder. He
worked at this trade until May, 1887, when he
came to Colorado, and soon afterward settled
in Boulder county, buying a small tract of six
acres and a half of land near the University
at Boulder. It was raw land and he paid one
hundred dollars an acre for it. He at once
set to work to improve it and planted it all in
fruit trees, mostly apples, while the entire tract
between the trees was planted to strawberries,
raspberries and grapes. These grew and
thrived, and in 1892 he sold six hundred dol-
lars worth of fruit an acre off of this tract.
He also purchased three lots in the town of
Boulder on which he built houses, then sold
them at a gratifying profit. In the fall of
1892 he came to Grand Valley and bought
forty acres of raw land, the place on which he
now lives, and in the spring of 1895 moved his
family on the place with a view to making it his
permanent home. In the autumn of the same
year he made a pre-emption claim of one hun-
dred and twenty acres one mile north of his
present residence, and this tract will be valu-
able when the new high-line ditch, now in
course of construction, is completed. He has
greatly improved his home place and has thirty
acre in fruit, the orchards being very prolific
and the quality of their products first class.
Sixteen acres of his trees are in bearing order,
and from them in 1903 he sold over one thou-
sand five hundred boxes of apples, and in 1904,
two thousand boxes of apples and seven thou-
sand boxes of peaches. In January, 1882, he
was married to Miss Clara L. Manning, a na-
tive of Auburn, New York, and three children
have Messed their union, Charles M., Mary C.
and Ruth C. In political faith Mr. Jaquette is
a firm and loyal Republican, but he has never
aspired to public office, being content to serve
his party and his country from the honorable
post of private citizenship and in useful works
of lasting benefit to his community, county and
state. He is one of the most highly esteemed
citizens of the Western slope.
JAMES WHITLEY.
With a strong inclination to the- business
of prospecting and mining, in which he has
never won a very large success, yet to which he
has adhered for years and returned regularly
after quitting the industry, James Whitley has
not, however, placed all his egg's in this one bas-
ket, but has followed other lines of industry in
which he has succeeded and prospered, and is
therefore a man of substance in worldly wealth
as well as a progressive and enterprising busi-
ness man in any lines to which he turns his
hand. He is a Canadian by nativity, born in
the city of Toronto in September, 1852, and the
son of John and Ruth ( Hewitt) Whitley, na-
tives nl" Ireland of Scotch ancestry. They
came to America when young and were reared
and married at Toronto. The father was a
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
35 1
cooper and worked at his trade all of his mature
life except during the Civil war in this country,
when he served in the Union army in a Xew
York regiment. In 1858 the family moved to
Lockport, New York, and soon after the war
the father died and was buried in the Soldiers'
Cemetery in that city. The mother died in
Canada in 1853. Two of their children, James
and an older sister, are living, the sister being a
resident of Toronto. James lived with his ma-
ternal grandmother in Canada until he was
fourteen years old, and received a limited com-
mon-school education. Then he began work-
ing on a farm in the neighborhood of her home
at a compensation of one dollar and seventy-
five cents a month and his board and lodging.
Some little time afterward he joined his fa-
ther at Lockport, and when he was seventeen
moved to upper Michigan, where he was em-
ployed for a number of years by the Marquette,
Houghton & Ontonagan Railroad, working
for the company in various capacities but in
train service most of the time. For some time
he had charge of the iron ore dock at Mar-
quette, overseeing one hundred men in loading
vessels. Early in 1874 he moved to lower
Michigan and later back into Canada. In the
fall of 1878 be came to Colorado among the.
pioneers of Leadville, and here he remained
five years. During the first year he worked
in the smelter, then started a store six miles
east of the town at a village called Bird's Eye,
where he was also postmaster. He carried on
this store three years successfully, then started
a store and boarding house at La Plata smelter
which he conducted two years. During the
time of his residence at and around Leadville
he sank about five thousand dollars in prospect-
ing and mining operations. But as his store
and boarding house netted him about three
thousand five hundred dollars a year he was
able to stand the loss. In the spring of 18^4
he filed on a land claim near Salida. but the
next spring he abandoned this and moved to
Mesa count} - . Here he located on a ranch
twenty miles southeast of Grand Junction on
Kannah creek and engaged in the stock indus-
try. Later he took up one hundred and sixty
acres in that vicinity and for years lived on the
land and carried on a successful and profitable
stork business there. In the spring of 1897
he traded this for bis present ranch of forty
acres, located five and one-half miles northeast
of Grand Junction, ten acres of which were
in fruit at the time. He has since improved
the property and doubled his acreage in fruit,
becoming one of the most prosperous and pro-
gressive men in his business in the section. In
1903 he sold from his orchards 2.000 boxes
of apples, besides one thousand boxes of pears,
peaches and other fruit. In politics he is a
steadfast Republican, and in the public affairs
of the county he has for years taken an active
and helpful part, serving as under sheriff two
years during John D. Reeder's term as sher-
iff. Not satisfied with his previous experience
in mining ventures, be made two trips to the
Klondike for further efforts in this line, one
in 1897 and the other in 1899. and in the two
lost about two thousand dollars; and he still
occasionally tries his hand at prospecting. In
the iall of 1003 he built a modern cottage resi-
dence on his ranch, which is otherwise well im-
proved, and be now has one of the most at-
tractive and complete homes in his part of the
county. On December 2, 1873. ne was married
to Miss Margaret Arnett, who was born near
Toronto, Canada, of Scotch parents. They
have one child. Agnes A., who for five years
has been in the employ of the Colorado Tele-
phone Company, and is now chief operator of
the company at Grand Junction. Mr. Y\ nitlev
is a member of the blue lodge in Masonry at
Grand Junction and also belongs to the Wood-
men of the World, being active in each of
these societies.
352
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
F. N. JoHAXTGEN.
Energetic and successful in pushing his i wn
business and building up his personal fortunes,
and scarcely less active and energetic in the
service of the people of his community in pro-
moting every laudable enterprise for its wel-
fare, which is ever foremost in his mind, Frank
X. JoHantgen, of Meeker, ranks among the
leading and most useful citizens of Rio Blanco
count} - and is widely esteemed on every side as
such. He is a native of Dayton. Ohio, where
his parents, Nicholas and Mary (Steffen) Jo-
Hantgen, who were born and reared in Prus-
sia, settled in [846, and where he was horn on
January 24. 1855. The father was a black-
smith and prospered at his forge. He had a
family of seven children, five of whom are
living, Joseph, F. N., William, Rose and
Emma. Frank died in infancy and Anna in
1896. The father died in 1898. The son, F.
X., received a common-school education of
limited extent, and at the age of twelve began
to earn money enough for his own necessities.
He remained with his parents until he reached
the age of twenty years, having began to learn
his trade as a blacksmith at the age of sixteen,
giving special attention to the department of his
craft devoted to service in the manufacture of
carriages. He learned his trade in his native
city, and on completing his apprenticeship of
four years, moved to Indianapolis. Indiana.
where he wrought as a journeyman until 1877.
He then returned to Ohio and, in partnership
with his father, carried on the business of
dressing tools for three years. In 1879 he
came to Colorado ami, taking up his residence
at Leadville, followed blacksmithing in the em-
ploy of John Alfred during the summer. He
gave some time to prospecting at Kokomo
and Fairplay, but meeting with no suc-
cess in these efforts, he returned to liis trade in
[880, and during the next three years was fore-
man of the shops of the In .11 Silver mines. In
the fall of 1883 the state of his health induced
him to change his residence to the San Louis
valley, and in the spring of 1885. when the
Crystal Hill Mining Company's office was
blown up, he was appointed a guard over the
property, serving in that capacity until the trou-
ble was over. Returning then to Leadville. he
remained there until the summer of 1886, when
he moved to Meeker and opened the business of
the Pioneer Wagon and Blacksmithing Wi >rks
at that town, which he conducted until he was
appointed postmaster of the town by President
Cleveland in 1892. Then, in partnership with
Henry Hayes, he carried on a drug store. He
was connected with this mercantile enterprise
until 1899. when it was sold to Messrs Strelka
& Edwards. Prior to this time, however, in
1892, he bought a ranch of one hundred and
sixty acres nine miles west of Meeker in
Powell Park, and on retiring from the drug
business he settled on the ranch and began to
devote himself attentively to improving his
property and building up bis stock industry.
He has added two hundred and sixty acres to
his original purchase and now has two hundred
acres of first-class land under cultivation. But
while engrossed largely in his own affairs, he
has not neglected the general interests of the
community or the welfare of the state, \lways
ready for any duty that properly confronts him.
he helped to organize the National Guard of
the state, and in it he served as chief commis-
sary under command of General Bell during
the troubles with the miners at Cripple Creek
from September 4 to October 8. i<)o; v and
later as body guard of Governor Peabody at
Denver. He is a leading stockholder in the
Highland Cemetery Association, and has been
in charge of the Odd Fellows' building at
Meeker For many years, lie was also foremosl
in securing a suitable building fur tin- Episco
pal church organization at Meeker and is now
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
353
one of the main supports of the church. In
politics he is an earnest working Democrat.
being secretary of the county central com-
mittee. He has also served the community well
for a number of years as a member of the
school board and of the city council. In addi-
tion to one of the most imposing and beautiful
residences in Meeker he owns other real estate
in the town of considerable value. In May,
1904, the Harp- JoHantgen Manufacturing and
Blacksmith Company was incorporated with a
capital stock of five thousand dollars, which in-
cluded the consolidation of the JoHantgen
Pioneer shop and t'he business of Harp & Riley
Blacksmith Company. Mr. JoHantgen is
manager and secretary of the new corporation.
On January 24. 1890, he was united in mar-
riage with Miss Fannie F. Fairfield, a native of
Wisconsin. A self-made man. and having
struggled to consequence by his own efforts,
he knows how to appreciate the exertions and
the needs of others in like condition, and has
been of great service to many a good man in
extremities ; and knowing as well that the gen-
eral progress of any community depends almost
wholly on individual energy properly concen-
trated and directed, he has been an inspiring
and organizing force in this behalf, and has
left his impress visibly upon the commercial
and industrial life of the region in which his
lot has been cast.
JOHN JENS.
John Jens, of Grand Valley, living on a fine
and well-improved fruit ranch of thirteen acres
three miles east of Grand Junction, illustrates
in his career the native thrift and all-conquer-
ing energy of the German people, who wher-
ever they stick their stake make the wilderness
blossom as the rose and yield a ready and
abundant tribute to the wants of man. He is a
native of Germany, born on February 3, 1866.
2 3
ami his parents. Juergen and Eva (Oetzman)
Jens, were also natives of that country, where
their forefathers lived from time immemorial.
The father was a soldier in the Prussian army
from i860 to 1864, and fought in the war be-
tween that country and Denmark. He brought
his family to the United States in 1884 and
settled in Sherman county, Nebraska, where
he and his wife are still living and farming.
They had eight children, four of whom are
living, John being the third in the order of
birth. He was reared on the paternal farm in
his native land and there received a slender
common-school education. When he was
twelve years old he began working on other
farms in the neighborhood, and when seven-
teen, in 1883, he came to the United States in
company with his younger brother Hans. They
located in Sherman county. Nebraska, where an
older sister had settled the year before. Thev
worked on farms in this county for a few
years, and in 1887 Hans died there. John saved
his money and in 1889 bought a farm of one
hundred and sixty acres, all wild land and un-
improved except by a rude sod house. Here
he lived and labored, bringing his land to pro-
ductiveness and otherwise improving the prop-
erty for a number of years. Then, on account
of his sufferings from asthma, he came to the
more favorable climate of Colorado and rented
a small ranch north of Grand Junction, leav-
ing his Nebraska farm in charge of a tenant.
In T902 he bought the fruit ranch of thirteen
acres on which he now lives, and since then
he has devoted his energies to its development
and improvement. Five acres of the tract are
in fruit and yield abundant crops. He has
built a neat and comfortable modern cottage
dwelling and other needed structures and made
his home very desirable from every point of
view. On April 9, 1895. ne was married to
Miss Lena Schoening. like himself a native of
Germanv. She came to the United States with
354
PROGRESS I I'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
her parents when she was nine years old, and
they soon afterward became residents of Sher-
man county, Nebraska, where they are now
living. Mr. and Mrs. Jens have no children of
their own, but they have a daughter of a
brother of Mrs. Jens whose mother died when
the child was two years old, and whose name is
Lucy. In political affiliation Mr. Jens is a pro-
nounced Populist, and in fraternal circles he
belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America
at Grand Junction. He and his wife are mem-
bers of the Lutheran church.
ARLIE B. YEATON.
Born and reared in Franklin county. Maine,
farming and raising stuck and also merchan-
dising for years in Nebraska, and now raising
fruit extensively and profitably in Colorado,
Arlie B. Yeaton. of Mesa county, living three
and one-half mile east of Grand Junction, has
had a wide and varied experience in the longi-
tudes, climates and farming conditions in this
country, but his natural adaptability and readi-
ness of resourcefulness has made him equal to
them all and successful in all. His life began
on August 14, 1862, in Franklin county, Maine,
and he is the son of Elias and Sarah (Stod-
dard) Yeaton, natives of the same county,
where the father was a farmer. In 1883 the
family moved to Burt county, Nebraska, but
nine years afterward the parents returned to
Maine where the mother died within a short
time after their arrival at their old home, and
there the father is still living. Their family
comprised six sons and one daughter and all
the sons are living. Arlie was the second
born of the family. He was reared in his native
state and there received a common-school edu-
cation. He remained at home until he was
twenty-one years old, then accompanied his
parents to Nebraska, w-here a year later he
rented land and carried on a general farming
industry in Burt county, continuing his oper-
ations in this line eleven years except one. dur-
ing which he was in the stock business and one
which he passed in a store at Omaha. In the
spring of 1894 he came to this state and lo-
cated in Mesa county, having purchased twenty
acres of raw land the year previous in that
county with a view to converting it into a fruit
farm. In the spring of 1895 he built a dwelling
on this land and planted the whole twenty
acres in fruit trees. He then had the usual
experience of waiting for the trees to bear
without income except from hard work in
other capacities. For seven years he worked
at various places and kinds of employment in
the valley, but when the orchard began to bear
his labor and bis long patience was amply re-
warded. In 1902 he bail one thousand nine
hundred boxes of apples, besides other fruit
from his trees and realized over one thousand
one hundred dollars of net profit from the yield.
In 1903 his crop was three diousand one hun-
dred and fifty boxes of apples, two thousand
eight hundred and forty boxes of which graded
fancy, four tons of prunes and three hundred
boxes of pears, and his net profits for the year
were two thousand three hundred dollars from
the crop. The prospects for a large increase in
these figures for coming years are very good.
On December 5, 1888, Mr. Yeaton was mar-
ried to Miss Hattie R. Wright, a native of
Lewis county, New York, and daughter of
John W. and Mariette (Loomis) Wright, both
natives of New York, the former of Lewis
county and the latter of Jefferson county.
The father was a farmer and a railroad man,
and for four years during the last administra-
tion of President Grant he was doorkeeper of
the United States house of representatives at
Washington. In 1881 he and his family moved
to Burt county, Nebraska, where he died on
bis farm on November 6, 1895. Since then
Mrs. Wright has been making her home with
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
355
her daughter, Mrs. Yeaton. Mr. and Mrs.
Yeaton have two children, Gladys W. and
Grace C., twelve and ten years old, respectively.
Mr. Yeaton is a Republican in politics, and a
member of the United Workmen and the Mod-
ern Woodmen in fraternal circles. He and his
wife belong to the Methodist Episcopal church
at Grand Junction.
CULLEN F. WALKER.
The scion of old Xew England families
who have lived in that section of the country
from colonial times, Cullen F. Walker, of Mesa
county, this state, is far from the scenes and
associations of his childhood, youth and early
manhood and amid surroundings far different
from those which environed his family roof-
tree. Yet with the adaptiveness and self-reli-
ance of the New England character, he is as
well equipped for the conditions of his present
lot and as read}- to meet its requirements as it
he were to the manner born and had lived in
Colorado all his life. He was born at Bethel,
Oxford county. Maine, on February 15. 1841,
where his parents. James and Hannah J.
1 Barker) Walker, were reared from childhood,
the former having been born in Vermont and
the latter in Xew Hampshire. The father was
a merchant and mill owner at Bethel and there
he carried on a successful and profitable busi-
ness for many years. He was a member of
the state legislature and also served as a trial
justice for a long time. He died at Bethel in
1866 and his wife also ended her days there,
passing away in 1875. Of their eight chil-
dren six are living, Cullen being next to the
youngest. Fie grew to manhood in his native
town and received a public-school and aca-
demic education. After leaving school he
worked in his father's mill until the death of
the parent, and then operated the same until
1870, when he sold out and moved to Minne-
sota. Locating at Albert Lea, he engaged in
the commission business seven years. At the
end of that period he moved to Fort Berthold
Indian reservation, where he was three years
in the employ of the government. In 1880 he
took up his residence in Grant county, South
Dakota, where he homesteaded one hundred
and sixty acres of government land and re-
mained ten years. Being driven out by the
drought, he sold his claim for almost nothing
and moved to Brookings count}-, the same
state, where he remained three years. He then
passed three years in Lyon count}-. Iowa, and
in January, 1901. came to this state and located
in Grand valley, buying ten acres of land three
miles east of Grand Junction on which he now
lives. On August 23, 1863. before leaving his
native state, he was married to Miss Mary E.
Twitchell, a native of Bethel, Maine, like him-
self. They have had three children. Edith
T. died at the age of twenty-two, James F.
lives in Mesa county, this state, and Ray F. in
South Dakota. In politics Mr. Walker is in-
dependent, and fraternally he belongs to the
Masonic order. He and his wife are members
of the Congregational church.
James F. Walker, eldest son of Cullen
F. Walker, came to Colorado in the autumn of
1900 and bought a fruit farm adjoining his fa-
ther's which he operated successfully until re-
cently, when he sold it. He has been actively
connected with the management of county af-
fairs and in political movements as a Social-
ist. In the fall of 1902 he was the Socialist
candidate for the state legislature, and has oth-
erwise been prominent in public local interests.
He was married in Chicago- to Miss Rebecca
Hedges, and they had three children, Fordyce
H. Albert C. and Hollis, the last named being
deceased. Mrs. Walker died on February 15.
1903.
356
PROGRESSIVE MEN . OF WESTERN COLORADO.
CHARLES M. WHITSELL.
Charles M. Whitsell, of Mesa county, com-
fortably located on a tine fruit ranch three
miles east of Grand Junction, has been a resi-
dent of this state and of the Grand Valley
since 1898. He was born in Appanoose
county. Iowa, on March 19. 1858. and is a son
of Philip and Mary (Stewart)' Whitsell. who
were born, reared and married in Pennsylvania.
In 1855 they moved to Iowa and settled at
Centreville in Appanoose count)-, where the fa-
ther worked at his trade as a tailor until the
beginning of the Civil war, when he enlisted in
the Union army as a member of Company G,
Thirty-sixth Iowa Infantry. He served three
years in the war, one in active field service,
then losing his health, he spent nearly a year
in a hospital at Keokuk, and after his recovery
was assigned to hospital duty at Davenport, in
which he was occupied until the end of his term
of enlistment. He died at Centreville in 1865,
and his widow now lives in Wayne county, the
same state. Of their three children two are
liying, Charles being the younger of these. He
was reared and received a limited common-
school education in his native county, and at
the age of thirteen, owing to the death of his
father and the moderate circumstances of the
family he was obliged to begin making his
own living, which he did by working on the
farm of an uncle for two years, after which he
went to work in the coal mines in the part of
Iowa where he lived. In this line of useful-
ness he was employed, with a few intermis-
sions, until the spring of 1898. He then came
to Colorado and, locating in Grand Valley,
found employment on the fruit farm of his
cousin. James II. Whitsell. whom he aided in
planting twenty acres in fruit for an equal
partnership in the business. The orchard is
now eight years old, and the crop of 1903 was
two thousand four hundred boxes of apples,
five hundred boxes of pears and quantities of
other fruit. The land belongs to James H.
Whitsell and Charles M. attends to the fruit
business for his share in its products. He was
married on September 4, 1887, to Miss Blanche
Harper, who was born and reared in Appa-
noose county, Iowa. They have three chil-
dren, Lloyd, Cora and Hallie. In politics Mr.
Whitsell is a Democrat and in fraternal life he
belongs to the Odd Fellows and the Modern
Woodmen.
James H. Whitsell was born in Pennsyl-
vania on June 11, 1857. His father, Lawrence
Whitsell, was one of the pioneers of Appanoose
county. Iowa, and took up one of the first
tracts of land homesteaded there. He passed
the rest of his days in the county, dying on his
homestead in 1898. His son James came to
this state a number of years ago. and at once
began to take an active part in its industrial
and commercial life. For twelve years he
was employed by the Colorado Fuel and Iron
Company, and for a long period of this time
was one of the company's superintendents. He
located on his ranch in 1903. In politics he
is an active and zealous Democrat, and in the
performance of all his duties as a citizen he is
faithful and enterprising. He is one of the
esteemed ranchmen and citizens of Mesa
county, and is widely and favorably known in
other lines of industry.
JOHN J. LUMSDEN.
The oldest, most extensive and most promi-
nent builder and contractor at Grand Junc-
tion now and for a number of years, and
having erected many of the most notable struc-
tures in the city and county. John J. Lums-
den may be said to have an enduring monu-
ment in the work he has done, and to have
been one of the most potential factors in the
improvement of the section of Colorado in
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLOR. IP",
357
which his lot lias been cast. He is a native of
New York city, born on December 25, [858,
and the son of William and Ann (Lucas)
Lumsden, who were born in Scotland and
reared and educated there. The father was a
young man when he came to this country and
located in New York. He followed the sea
for a number of years before coming to the
United States, and soon after coming he was
married in his new home. A short time after-
wards he and bis family moved to Canada
where he engaged in farming. He died in that
country in T903, and his widow now lives in
Xew Haven, Connecticut. Their offspring
numbered four sons and two daughters, all of
whom are living. John was the third child
born in the family, and was reared on the
Canadian farm. He attended the public
schools and when he reached the age of six-
teen was apprenticed to the trade of a brick
and stone mason, at which he spent three years.
He then worked as a journeyman one year, and
in the fall of 1879 came to Colorado. After a
short residence at Denver, during which he
worked at his trade, he moved to Colorado
Springs and became foreman for the principal
contractor there. Afterward, with J. H.
Ackerman. he organized the firm of Ackerman
& Lumsden. which carried on contracting ami
building on a large scale. In [883 they moved
to Grand Junction and made that place the seat
of their extensive operations. This partner-
ship was harmoniously dissolved in 1887, and
since then Mr. Lumsden has conducted the
business alone. He has built a large portion
of the best section of the city. When he moved
there there were no business houses on Main
street, only a few tents for mercantile pur-
poses, the business of the town being nearly
all on Colorado avenue. Among the large and
imposing structures he has erected under con-
tract may be mentioned the beet sugar factory,
which cost one hundred and twenty-five thou-
sand dollars, all the buildings at the Indian
school, the principal school buildings in the
town, one built in 1903 having cost twenty-
three thousand dollars, nearly all the brick busi-
ness blocks, and many bridges in the county.
In 1901 he raised the bridge at Debeque from
its old piers, moved it nine feet and placed it
on new piers, stopping travel over it while
moving it only twelve hours, and making the
change, when everything was ready, in one
hour and three-quarters. This was all the
more wonderful as an engineering feat because
of the facts that the bridge is of two hundred
and fifty feet span, with trusses forty feet
high, and weighs one hundred and eighty tons.
Mr. Lumsden has also successfully prospected,
as every man in this country does at one time
or another, and has done considerable dealing
in real estate. He now owns a number of
valuable properties in Grand Junction and the
surrounding county and has mining claims of
considerable worth at Leadville and in Hins-
dale county. He was married on October 9,
1883, to Miss Cinderella C. Orth, who was
horn in Illinois near Chicago, and was reared
and educated in Missouri. She was a public-
school teacher at Trenton, that state, at the
time of her marriage. Her father is deceased
and her mother is living at Trenton. Mr. and
Mrs. Lunsden have three children. Delia M..
Alma A. and William F. In politics the head
of the house is a stanch Republican and always
active in the service of his party. He served as
a member of the Grand Junction city council
a number of years, and in the spring of 1903
he was nominated for mayor, but was not
elected, as he did not wish to be. He was in
Denver during the campaign and made no
effort to win, but even at that he was beaten by
only eleven votes. In fraternal circles he is an
active and earnest working Freemason, having
taken thirty-two degrees in the Scottish rite
and belonging to the Mystic Shrine. He is a
358
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
past master of his lodge and for four years was
eminent commander of his commandery of
Knights Templar. In all the relations of life
he stands well wherever he has lived, and in all
the duties of good citizenship he has been faith-
ful, zealous and serviceable. Among the build-
ers and makers of the section of this state,
which has been the principal scene of his
activity, none enjoys and none deserves a
higher place in the regard of the people.
JUDGE MILTON R. WELCH.
To the position of prominence and dis-
tinction which he now holds in the legal pro-
fession of this state, and to the wealth of legal
learning, practical astuteness and eloquence
and force as an advocate, which make him an
ornament on the bench and gave him a lead-
ing place at the bar before his elevation. Judge
.Milton R. Welch, the county judge of Delta
county, now serving his third term as such,
came by a long, interrupted and trying course
of effort and study. But as he was obliged to
fight for every foot of his advance, so he
made sure of the ground as he proceeded, and
secured solid as well as showy attainments.
He was born at Knoxville. Iowa, on April 13.
[865, and is the son of James L. and Annis
(McMillen) Welch, the former a native of Illi-
nois and the latter of Ohio. They moved to
Iowa in childhood with their parents, and in
that state they were reared, educated and mar-
ried. The parents were pioneers there, and
the Judge's father won a good farm from the
wilderness by assiduous effort. He now re-
sides in Delta county, where the mother died
in 1888. The father served in the Civil war
from 1861 to 1865. Six children were born
in the family, of whom four are living, the
Judge being the third in the order of birth.
He grew to manhood on the home farm near
Knoxville, Iowa, and was educated in the pub-
lic schools and a good academy at that town.
After completing his course he came with his
parents to Colorado in 1882, they locating at
Alma. Here the father opened a mercantile es-
tablishment and the son assisted in the busi-
ness. He also did some prospecting in Park
and Summit counties. At odd times he read
law with a view to entering the profession. In
the fall of 1886 he moved to Delta and soon
afterward located a claim to a tract of land
four miles south of the town. He taught school
three years, in the meantime continuing his law
studies as he had opportunity. He then en-
gaged in farming on bis ranch and also took
charge of one owned by his father, continuing
this work until the fall of 1892, when he en-
tered the law department of the State Univer-
sity at Boulder, from which he was graduated
in 1894, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws.
In that year a gold medal had been offered to
the students of all the law schools in the state
by Judge Moses Hallett for the one passing
the best final examination, and this distinction
was won by Judge Welch, an honor of which
he is still justly proud. Having been admit-
ted to the bar at Boulder, be returned to Delta
and began his practice, which he continued
successfully and with growing reputation and
patronage until he was elected county judge in
the fall of 1895. He was re-elected in 1898
and again in 1901. During the last nine years
he has also been United States commissioner.
In political faith he is an unwavering Republi-
can, and in the service of his party he was
always active and effective until he went on
the bench. Prior to that he attended all the
state conventions and other important gather-
ings of his party friends and took an earnest
and intelligent part in their proceedings. On
June 5, t8q8, he united in marriage with Miss
Maud Newland, a native of Ionia, Michigan,
and daughter of D. M. and .Mary ( Baittie)
Newland, the former now living at Los An-
PROGRESS! VE MEN OE WESTERN COLORADO.
359
geles, California, and the latter deceased. The
Judge and Mrs. Welch have three children,
lona, James Le Roy and Catherine. He be-
longs to the order of Odd Fellows and the
Knights of Pythias. A man of high character,
breadth of view and decided public-spirit, the
judicial ermine well becomes him and he wears
it with grace and dignity.
IRVIN M. McMURRAY.
A prominent real-estate and general busi-
ness man in Delta county, and an active and
judicious promoter of the interests of the com-
munity in which he lives, industrial, commercial
and educational, Irvin M. McMurray, of Delta,
is an ornament to the town and a forceful
factor in all elements of its growth and ad-
vancement. He was born near Omaha. Ne-
braska, on July i<). 1863. the son of Richard
M. and Mary (Johnson) McMurray, the for-
mer born in Pennsylvania and the latter in
Indiana. The father came west to Nebraska
when young and was married there. After
farming in that state for a number of years
he moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where he
was engaged in merchandising for a time. Then
fi ir man}- years he was active in the mining,
mercantile and political life of this state, con-
ducting large and successful enterprises and
representing his people at times in the terri-
torial and state legislature. He is now living
retired at Delta at the age of eighty-two. His
wife died in 1886. They were the parents of
three (laughters and one son, the last being
the oldest, and all are living. Irvin was ten
years old when the family moved to Colorado
and the rest of his life so far has been passed
in this state, except during short absences when
he was at school. He began his education in
the public primary schools, attended the high
school and the State Normal at Oregon. Mis-
souri. In the autumn of 1882 he located at
Delta, then a village of one hundred and fifty
inhabitants, and engaged in the retail drug
business, the business being conducted the first
year in a tent. For a number of years there-
after he conducted the enterprise. In 1890
he sold it and turned his attention to ranching
and the real-estate business, in which he has
ever since been actively occupied, and very suc-
cessful. In political faith he is a firm and loyal
Democrat, and in the service of his party he is
at all times earnest, energetic and effective.
He rendered important service to the county
and its people as a county commissioner for
three years, and in every way has been po-
tential in promoting and developing under-
takings for the material and moral welfare of
his section of the state. He is a stockholder
in the Delta Flour Mills Company and
connected in a leading and helpful way with
other enterprises in the industrial life of the
community. On April 12, 1893, he was mar-
ried to Miss Lucy Yarwood, a native of
Canada, where her father died a number of
vears ago. She came to Colorado with her
mother, who died in this state in 1893. Mr.
McMurray belongs to the Knights of Pythias
and his wife is an active working member of
the Methodist Episcopal church.
JFSSE F. SANDERS.
In the history of any community there are
some names pre-eminent because they are those
of men who are leaders of the active product-
ive forces therein and both by their own en-
ergies and the effect of their examples on those
of others give trend to the life of the commu-
nity, effect to its potencies and strength and
direction to its growth and development.
Among these at Delta Jesse F. Sanders occu-
pies a leading and commanding place. There
is scarcely any element of good in the commu-
nity, industrial, commercial or moral, that has
360
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
not felt the force of his creative mind and the
impulse of his directing hand. He was horn
in Broome count)-, New York, on February 25,
r85 i, and is the son of Henry and Catherine
(Sheare) Sanders, the former a native of
Pennsylvania and the latter of New York.
The father moved to Xew York when a young
man and there was married. The greater part
of his life was passed in that state, although he
lived for a number of years in his native state
after he was married, and there his wife died
in 1883. In 1892 he came to Colorado and
made his home with his son Jesse until his
death, at the age of eighty-six years, on Feb-
ruary 27. 1904. The family numbered four
sons and two daughters, five of them being
now alive. Jesse, the youngest of the sons,
was reared in his native state and educated in
its public schools. At the age of seventeen
he left home and went to Pennsylvania where
he learned his trade as a blacksmith and ma-
chinist. After working at the craft for a
number of years in that state he came to Colo-
rado in 1880 and located at Alma in Park
county. Here he again worked at his trade
and alternated its hard and rugged labor with
prospecting tours through the surrounding
country. In 1887 he went to the San Juan
country, and there he was engaged in pros-
pecting and mining with headquarters at Ourav
until [894, when he took up his residence at
Delta. In 1892 he discovered the Bachelor mine,
one of the greatest silver producers in the
state. In partnership with Charles Armstrong
and George Hurlbert, he developed this prop-
erty and found it a big bonanza, realizing for
each of its owners an average of si-xty-eight
thousand dollars a month in its palmy days,
when silver was not above sixty cents. The
ore body at times was ten to twelve feet thick
and unusually rich in metal. When he settled
at Delta in 1804 Mr. Sanders began at once to
take an active part and a prominent place in
the life of the town. He embarked in the
grocery business, which he carried on for a
few years, and within the first few months of
his residence here acquired a controlling in-
terest in the Farmers & Merchants Bank of
the town, of which he has ever since been presi-
dent. In 1896 he built a canning factory at a
cost of twelve thousand dollars, which has been
of great benefit to the town and the surround-
ing country. This he sold in [899 to its pres-
ent owners. In 1896 he also built the Sanders
opera house and the next year the building in
which the bank is now settled and conducting
its business. He erected for himself the fin-
est dwelling in the town and owns a dozen or
more other residence properties, besides busi-
ness blocks and other houses. Moreover he is
connected with all the leading bridge and
ditch companies of the county and president
of a number of them: and other projects in
behalf of local interests receive his hearty co-
operation. In politics he is an uncompromis-
ing Democrat and always earnest and effective
in the service of his party. For the benefit of
Delta he served two terms as its mayor. In
fraternal life he belongs to the Flks. the Odd
Fellows and the Masons. On February 23.
1879, he was married to Miss Catherine A.
Ferguson, who was born in Pennsylvania and
is the daughter of Charles and Elizabeth
(Miller) Ferguson, the former a native of
Nova Scotia and the latter of Pennsylvania.
The father came to Colorado in the early days
but soon afterward returned to Pennsylvania,
where he died in 1883. and where his widow
is now living. Mr. and Mrs. Sanders are the
parents of five children. Dora M.. Charles H.,
Cora B.. Robert R. and Mary E., the latter
dying March 4. 1901, at the age of four years.
WILLIAM R. GALE.
William R. Gale, a prominent lumber
merchant and builder of Delta, and president of
the Grand Mesa Lumber Company, which he
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
361
organized in 1903. is a native of Montreal,
Canada, born on June 26. 1858, and reared
and educated in that country. His parents were
William and Jane C. (Perdeaux) Gale, the
f< inner a native of Ireland of Scotch ancestry,
and the latter born in the same country of
French and Irish parentage. They grew to
maturity and were married in Ireland, and soon
afterward came to the United States. Follow-
ing a short residence in this country they moved
to Canada, where the father has carried on his
business as a jeweler and watchmaker for
many years, principally at the town of Orms-
town, in the province of Quebec, where he is
now living, and where his wife died in 1901.
A brother of Mrs. Gale came to this country
when a young man and accumulated a large
fortune as a farmer. At his death, having
never married, he left his estate to endow Per-
due College, which was named in his honor.
Nine of the children in the Gale household
grew to maturity, and of these six are now liv-
ing. William was the fifth born of the family,
and was reared and educated in Canada, chiefly
at Ormstown. He was thrown on his own re-
sources at the age of twelve, and from that
time on for several years he worked in sum-
mer and attended school in winter. In t S 7 5
he was apprenticed to a carpenter with whom
he spent three years and a half, learning bis
trade and receiving one hundred and twenty-
five dollars and his board for his work. For
tbe last six months he got no pay as he was
during that time occupied as a draughtsman.
On passing his examination for a diploma, as
required in that country, lie refused to accept
the sheepskin, as he had propounded problems
that his instructor was unable to solve. He
then passed a year and a half in the larger
towns of Canada collecting ideas in different
features of his work and in 1879 crossed the
line into the United States, locating at Man-
chester. New Hampshire, where he worked for
a contractor named Ireland. He quit his
service eight times during the first year, and
each time he was invited to return at increased
wages. In [88] he became foreman for this
man ami remained in his employ until 1885.
In [880 he spent a short time in Colorado ami
acquired a liking for the state. From 1885 to
1887 he was in Canada, and in March of the
year last named he again came to this state,
locating at Delta, where he has since resided.
In partnership with his younger brother John
C, he at once, on his arrival here, engaged in
contracting and building, and in the ensuing
fall established a lumber yard in the town. The
next year they added furniture and under-
taking to their business, and carried on the
several lines together until 1898, when John
bought the furniture and undertaking depart-
ments and William sold the lumber yard to an-
other party. He then made a trip covering a
year and a half through Colorado, Wyoming
and Utah looking up a better location, with the
result that he returned to Delta and again went
into the lumber business there. In 1902 A. E.
Penley bought a one-half interest in the busi-
ness, and the next year they organized the
Grand Mesa Lumber Company, with a paid-up
capital stock of twelve thousand dollars, and
W. R. Gale as president, I. C. Hall as vice-
president and A. E. Penley as secretary and
treasurer. Under this arrangement they have
greatly expanded the business, built a large
planing-mill, acquired an immense stock of
material and built up an extensive industry in
contracting and building. They have erected
several of the largest and best buildings at
Delta, among them a thirteen thousand-dollar
school house, which was completed in 1903.
On November 5. 1891. Mr. Gale was married
to Miss Nettie Cowell. who was born at Grand
Rapids, Michigan. They have one son. Charles
362
PROGRESSIVE MEN OP WESTERN COLORADO.
E., now ten years old. In political allegiance
Mr. Gale is an independent Republican. Fra-
ternally he belongs to the Masonic order and
the Knights of Pythias.
JOHN A. CURTIS.
John A. Curtis, the accomplished and ac-
commodating county surveyor of Delta county,
.who is now serving his twelfth consecutive
term in the office, having been continuously re-
elected since his first term, which began in
1889, is a native of the historic town of Bow-
doin, Maine, born on December 20, 1858, and
the son of John and Pauline (Hall) Curtis,
also natives of that town, and members of old
colonial families who bore a conspicuous part
in the Revolutionary war. The father was a
farmer and also a shipbuilder. During the
Civil war he built monitors for the United
States government, working at the navy yards
at Kittery, Maine, and East Boston, Massachu-
setts He now lives at Bowdoin, where his wife
died in September, 1003. They had five chil-
dren, all of whom are living. John A. being
the third born. He grew to manhood in his
native place, attended the public schools there
and an academy at Litchfield, and afterward
entered the engineers department of the Maine
University at Orono. When he reached the age
nf twenty, and before being graduated at this
institution, he joined the United States Engi-
neers Corps under General Warren. After
serving three years in that corps along the
coast of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, with
headquarters at Newport, he came west to
Wyoming in 1881, and during the next six
years was employed on government surveys in
the wilderness. The life was one of hardship
and toil, and frequently every hour was fraught
with danger from hostile Indians. In the au-
tumn of 1SS7 lie settled at Delta and engaged
in general engineering work. In the fall of
1889 he was elected county surveyor of Delta
county, and at every succeeding election he
has been re-elected. In the public improvements
made in the county during his incumbency of
this office he has borne an important and serv-
iceable part, making survey for all ditches,
reservoirs and similar enterprises and directing
their construction. He has also been deeply
and actively interested in other local affairs of
importance, his skill and judgment being gen-
erally recognized as of a high order. In 1892
he helped to organize the Delta Improvement
Company, which owns a portion of the town-
site, and has been president of the company
almost throughout its existence. He also as-
sisted in organizing the volunteer fire depart-
ment of the town and was its first captain.
He is in addition a stockholder in various en-
terprises for promoting the welfare and devel-
opment of the community, and takes an active
interest in their work. In political affairs he
is an earnest and serviceable Republican, and
besides being county surveyor has served on
the local school board for a number of years.
On February 20. 1894, he was married to Miss
•Catherine Bradney, a native of Clayton, Illi-
nois, and daughter of Sylvester and Nancy
1 1 lavis ) Bradney. the former born in Ohio and
the latter in Kentucky. They are now living
at Clayton, Illinois, where the father is a pros-
perous farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Curtis have two
children, George W. and Esther M. Mr. Cur-
tis is an enthusiastic Knight of Pythias and
.aided in organizing ('.rand .Mesa Lodge, No.
84, of the order at Delta in [892.
HENRY HAMMOND.
One of the very first settlers within the
limits of what is now Delta county, having lo-
cated there in 1881, before the Indians had re-
tired from the region or the advancing foot-
step of civilization had invaded it. when there
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
363
were no houses or other works of the white
man at hand and the soil was yet virgin to
the plow, and having since then been active in
building up the section, developing its re-
sources, constructing its conveniences, such as
roads, bridges, ditches and public buildings,
and taking a prominent part in shaping its po-
litical institutions, Henry Hammond may
properly be called one of the fathers of the
county, and he is justly entitled to the high
esteem in which he is held on every side. He
was born at Cambria, Columbia county, Wis-
consin, on March 17, 1857. and is the son of
James and Martha ( Floyd ) Hammond, na-
tives of Staffordshire. England, where they
were reared, educated and married. Soon after
their marriage they came to the United States,
settling at Cambria. Wisconsin, the father and
two other men being at the head of an Eng-
lish colony locating there, where they were all
pioneers. They intended to start and operate
in that region an extensive pottery, Mr. Ham-
mond the elder being a practical potter. This
was. however, abandoned and the colonists be-
came farmers and developed the agricultural
wealth of the neighborhood greatly to its ad-
vantage and their own. The time of their ar-
rival was in 1844, and in the subsequent his-
tory of the section Mr. Hammond's name is
conspicuous in local affairs and the faithful
discharge of various public functions as an offi-
cial chosen by the people around him. He and
his wife died where they had erected their do-
mestic shrine, leaving six of their ten children
as their survivors, five of whom are still living.
Henry was reared on the Wisconsin home-
stead, and bad the usual experience of boys in
his station at the time, attending the district
schools of the neighborhood in the winter
months and working on the farm the rest of
the time. When he was seventeen years old
he started out for himself, and after working
a year in his native county, went to California
in the fall of 1875. He remained in that state
about three years until the excitement over the
discovery of gold at Leadville. this state,
brought him thither in December, 1878, among
the early prospectors and miners at that camp,
fn partnership with his older brother George,
who now lives at Rocky Ford, this state, he
engaged in the meat trade and prospered. In
September. 1881. he came to where the town
of Delta now stands and entered one hundred
and sixty acres of land five miles south of the
site of the present town. This ranch, now
owned by Fred Beaudry. was his home fur two
years, and during that time he. in company
with Frank Burkhart and Ed Cappron, con-
structed a ditch two miles long from the Un-
compahgre river for the irrigation of their
land and his own. they having settled near him.
This was the first ditch for irrigation pur-
poses constructed in the present county of
Delta, which at that time was a part of Gunni-
son county. In 1883 he sold his ranch to Fred
Beaudry. and locating at the then infant town
of Delta, started a livery barn, the first in this
section of the country, and also ran a stage
line between Delta and Hotchkiss and Paonia,
carrying the mails, for a number of years.
He was successful in this enterprise, and later
he started a harness business and bought and
managed a number of ranches at different per-
iods, lie still owns the stable and other im-
provements for the livery undertaking, but
has sold the business itself. He has built him-
self a neat and comfortable residence in the
town, and there he lives in peace and comfort
after his many trials and struggles, in the midst
of the development he has aided so materially
to promote, and enjoying the advantages of the
advanced civilization he has helped to bring
about. In politics he is a Republican and as
such has served as alderman of the town, and
in fraternal circles he holds high rank in the
Masonic order and the order of Odd Fellows.
364
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
being' a past master in his Masonic lodge and
having- passed the chairs in the other. I Ic also
belongs to the chapter and the commandery in
Masonry. He was first married on September
10. 1884. to Miss Maggie Davis, a native of
Lexington, Kentucky. She died on March 15,
1895, and on February 16, 1898, he married a
second wife. Miss Mary E. Harrington, a na-
tive of Michigan. They have had three chil-
dren. Martha, who died at the age of two years
and seven months, William G., who is now six
years old, and Alline Amy, who was born No-
vember 20. 1904.
WILLIAM H. CROTSER.
To the mind at peace with itself there is,
even on this side of the grave, a haven where
the storms of life break not. or are felt 'but in
gentle undulations of the mirroring waters.
This haven is a serene and hale old age. He
who enjoys it has run his race of toil, or trade,
or ambition. His clay's work is accomplished
and he has come home to rest, tranquil and un-
harassed, in the splendor of the sunset, the
milder glories of late evening. So finds Wil-
liam H. Crotser, of Delta, who at the close
of a long, active and useful career in business,
is now living retired from active pursuits,
secure from what in a worldly way. and firmly
established in the esteem and good will of his
fellow men as one of the patriarchs of the town,
whose services are memoralized in enduring
praise in the prosperity and progressiveness of
the community he helper] materially to build up,
and the evidences of industrial, commercial and
moral strength with which it is blessed. Mr.
Crotser was born at Mifflinburg, Union county,
Pennsylvania, on October 2, 1825. His par-
ents. John and Elizabeth (Davidson) Crotser,
were also natives of Pennsylvania, and in that
great hive of productive industry they passed
the whole of their lives, the father dying in
1833 and the mother a short time before. They
had a family of twelve children, but two of
whom are living. William and his younger
brother Jacob, who is still a resident of his
native state. William was left an orphan at
the age of eight years, and three months after
the death of his father he was bound out to
service on a farm until he should reach the age
of sixteen. At that age he was apprenticed to
a carriage-maker with whom he remained four
years. After completing his apprenticeship he
w 1 irked at his trade in Pittsburg for a time and
then in Ohio. At length he engaged in busi-
ness at Fort Wayne, Indiana, 'two years, then
returned to Pennsylvania and located at Lock-
haven, where he again worked at his trade for
a year. From there he moved to Salona, the
same state, where he was married. In the fall
of [855 he moved to Newton, Jasper county.
Iowa, and after being employed at his trade
one year there, changed his residence to Fort
Scott, Kansas, where he built the first house
outside of the fort, erecting it for another
man. He was among the first settlers in the
neighborhood, and there he met Governor
Crawford, whom he had known in Pennsyl-
vania and who came to the fort soon after he
did. When the Civil war began Mr. Crotser
returned to Iowa, and before the memorable
contest was ended he became a member and
second lieutenant of Company M. Ninth Iowa
Cavalry, in the Union army, but he was as-
signed to recruiting service most of the time
during his term of enlistment. After the war
he was at the head of a prosperous hardware
trade at Harrisonville. Missouri, for eight
years. In 1872 he sold out there and moved to
Kansas City, where he carried on a similar
business until 1875. He then came to Colo-
rado, and after spending a short time at Pueblo,
went to Ouray where he engaged in prospect-
ing and mining without success. There were
onlv about twenty cabins in the town at that
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
365
time, 1876, and he was among the pioneers of
the place. Six years of time and labor were
fruitlessly devoted to prospecting and mining,
and in the winter of 188 1-2 he moved to Delta.
The outlook did not seem promising to him
and he was about to leave, when he again met
Governor Crawford who persuaded him to re-
main as the town was just starting and in his
opinion had a good future. In the spring, of
1882 he built the first house on Palmer street,
which was one of the first in town, and soon
afterward started a small hardware store, the
first in the town. He had lost all he pi >s
in his mining ventures and was obliged to make
a fresh beginning just as if he had never had
anything. He continued his hardware busi-
ness until 1900 and attained to a substantial
prosperity, acquiring considerable real estate
of value in the town and also very desirable
ranch property in the Gunnison valley adjoin-
ing the townsite. In 1900 he sold his hard-
ware business and since then he has lived .re-
tired from active pursuits in the town, enjoy-
ing the fruits of his labors. He is a stanch
Democrat in political faith and a member of
the Masonic order, one of the charter members
of the lodge at Delta and the chapter at Mont-
rose. On September 5, 1847. he was married
to Miss Mary Tate, a native of Cedar Springs.
Pennsylvania, daughter of Robert and Barbara
(Gast) Tate, who were also born in that state
and passed their lives there. Mr. and Mrs.
Crotser have one child. Minnie.
JUDGE ALFRED R. KING.
Judge Alfred R. King, of Delta, is one of
the prominent citizens of the state and has
been one of the leading promoters of the inter-
ests of the section in which he lives. As an
able lawyer, a zealous and conscientious counts-
attorney and a learned, discreet and impartial
judge, he has dignified and adorned his pro-
fession, and as an enterprising, broad-minded
and public-spirited man in the development of
In- town ami county and the advancement of
their best interests, he has honored the citizen-
ship of the state and rendered signal service to
his people. He comes of distinguished an-
cestry and in his career he has well upheld the
traditions and examples of his family. One
of his ancestors. William King, was the first
governor of Maine, and a marble statue of him
now -lands in the Statuary Hall of the United
States Capitol at Washington, one of the two
his state is allowed to place there in honor .if
her most distinguished men. Farther back his
ancestors on both sides of the house were Rev-
olutionary soldiers and bore themselves gal-
lantly in the great struggle for American inde-
pendence. Judge King was born in Henry
county, Illinois, on February 12, [857, and is
the son of Rufus D. and Rebecca J. ( Whit-
ney 1 King, the former a native of Maine and
the latter of Ohio. The father was a farmer
and settled in Indiana when a young man. He
was married there and soon afterward located
in Henry county. Illinois, where he died in
1S85. and where the mother -till lives. Thev
had six children, three of whom are living, the
Judge being the second in the order of birth.
His older brother. Rev. George D. King, is a
Methodist Episcopal minister in Montana. For
a number of years he was president of the Uni-
versity of Montana and he is now presiding
elder of the Bozeman district in that state.
The Judge was reared on the Illinois homestead
and began his education in the public schools.
He attended Hedding College at Abingdon.
Illinois, two years, and then entered Union
College Law School in Chicago, completing the
course in one year. He was admitted to the
bar of the supreme court by examination in
1882, and came immediately to Colorado, lo-
cating at Gunnison. A year later he moved to
Delta, beins^ one of the first lawvers in the
3 66
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
county which had just been organized. He
was soon after his arrival appointed county
attorney, and in the fall of 1883 was elected
county judge at the first election held for
county officers. Three years later he was re-
elected, serving two terms. In the spring of
1885 he was elected mayor of Delta and his
duties in this office were unusually important.
The town site had been entered as government
land and during his term as mayor it was sur-
veyed as such, so that all the titles to lots in it
from the government passed through his hands
as the chief executive of the corporation.
Governor Crawford was instrumental in or-
ganizing the townsite company and owned its
property and franchises until his death. Then
Judge King took charge of his estate as one
of the trustees, and some time later he and
George Stephan bought the interests of the
company, and they have since owned and han-
dled its business. Judge King has been actively
connected with every enterprise involving the
welfare and progress of the town. He was one
of the organizers of its first bank and is now a
stockholder in the successor of that institu-
tion, the present First National Bank of Delta.
He takes an active and serviceable part in poli-
tics as a regular or Wolcott Republican, and
in the fall of 1804 was a candidate for the state
senate on the ticket nominated by that party,
hut in the confusion of party affairs brought
about by the silver issue he had no show for
election and of course was defeated. The dis-
trict comprised the counties of Gunnison, Delta
and Mesa. In 1900 he was nominated for the
lower house of the state legislature for the dis-
trict composed of Montrose and Delta coun-
ties, and his fidelity to Senator Wolcott again
defeated him. But he is now, as he has always
been, a stanch Republican. On December 23.
iNXj, lie was married at Cambridge, Illinois,
where she was born, to Miss Annie R. Cald-
well, a daughter of Edward and Ann (Hutch-
inson) Caldwell, who were born in Philadel-
phia. I Ter father is dead and her mother lives
with her and Judge King. In the King house-
hold four children have been born, Fred R..
Ula M., Edward and Neil. The Judge has
been a member of the school board during the
past twelve years and the excellence of the
schools in the town is a tribute to his intelli-
gence, fidelity and enthusiasm in behalf of the
system. Fraternally he is an Elk and a Free-
mason in lodge, chapter and commandery.
Professionally he is attorney for the Denver
(X: U10 ( rrande Railway Company and the Utah
Fuel Company.
HON. GEORGE W. HENRY.
A valiant soldier in defense of the Union
during the Civil war. an earnest and intelligent
legislator in one of the great states of the
Mississippi valley, a leading lawyer in several
places and a county judge in two of the coun-
ties of this great commonwealth, Hon. George
W. Henry, of Delta county, has had a career
full of valuable suggestiveness to younger
men and of interest to men of all ages. He
was born in Clark county, Ohio, on Februarv
25, i8_'7, and is the son of John and Rachel
I Morris) Henry, who were born in Kentucky
and married in Ohio, where the mother died
111 [848. The father was a farmer and in
1870 he moved to Illinois, where he died in
[873, at the town of Oakland. They had a
family of nine children, of whom their son
George is now the only one living. He grew
to manhood in his native state, and there he
attended the public schools, a good academy
and the Ohio Conference High School at
Springfield, lie taught school eleven years in
Ohio and Illinois, going to the latter state in
1852, and locating in that part of Coles county
that afterward became Douglas county. There
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
367
he read law and was admitted to the bar, pass-
ing in 1857. Later he located at Louisville,
Clay county, and began practicing his profes-
sion. On July 8, 1861, he enlisted in the
Union army as a member of Company D,
Eleventh Missouri Infantry, and was soon af-
terward commissioned first lieutenant in the
quartermaster's service. In this capacity he
served fourteen months and was then appointed
captain of Company D and assigned to active
field service. He was called into many im-
portant engagements, among them the one at
Perryville, Missouri, the capture of Island No.
10 and New Madrid, the siege of Corinth,
many expeditions and skirmishes in Tennessee
and Mississippi, the battles of luka, Corinth.
Vicksburg. Jackson, Chickasaw Bayou and
others. After the fall of Vicksburg he was sent
to Tennessee and later to his home on a veteran
furlough. Not long after this he and many
other commissioned officers resigned on the
reorganization of the regiment as veterans, in
order to give opportunity for the promotion of
vounger men. He went through the war with-
out disaster, and after its close practiced law
a number of years in Clay county, Illinois. In
1872 he was elected to the state senate of that
state for a term of four years, and during his
service in that body drafted a number of hills
which were enacted into laws and are still on
the statute books as they were originally passed.
In 1877 he came to this state and located at
Lake City, where he practiced law a number
of years and served as county judge six. In
1887 he removed to Delta, and since then he
has been in active practice in that county ex-
cept during six years when he was serving as
county judge there. He was a Republican in
politics from the foundation of the party until
the People's party was formed, and then he
joined that organization. In Illinois he per-
sonally knew and greatly admired President
Lincoln, and was on intimate terms of friend-
ship with him. On April 2, 1857, Mr. Henry
was married to Miss Rehecca A. Magner, a
native of Indiana. They have had four chil-
dren, two sons and two daughters. The sons.
Lyman I. and William G, are living, and the
daughters, Clara Frances and Mary Myrta.
have died. Mr. Henry is a prominent member
of the Grand Army of the Republic.
ADEN B. CRABILL.
Mr. Crahill is the well qualified and suc-
cessful manager of the Delta Flour Mills
Company, located at Delta, this state, and by
his energy, skill and business capacity he has
brought the work of the mills to a high grade
of excellence and the business of the com-
panv to a large and profitable development.
The company was organized on January 1.
[903, with a capita] stock of fifteen thousand
dollars, and J. C. Cale as president, C. B.
Elliott as secretary and treasurer, and A. B.
Crabill as manager. The capacity of the mills
is nne hundred barrels and their output is of
the finest quality. The mills are equipped with
the lastest roller system, having been recently
remodeled. Business at these mills started in
a small way with the old-style burr system of
grinding a number of years ago, and since then
has passed through various ownerships. For
five years just before coming under its present
ownership and management it was operated by
Mr. Crabill and N. G. Clark. Mr. Crabill is
a native of Shenandoah county. Virginia, born
on September 26, 1855, and the son of David
G. and Mary (Swartz)' Crabill, who were also
born in Virginia, where they still live. The
father is a retired farmer and a highly re-
spected man in his home county. The family
comprised nine children, of whom Aden was
the first born and eight are now living. Aden
was reared on the Virginia homestead to the
age of twenty, and worked on it with industry
3 68
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
and fidelity. Owing to the Civil war, which
seriously disturbed all institutions and con-
ditions m that part of the country, his edu-
cational advantages were small and he is prac-
tically a self-educated man. At the age of
twenty he entered a mill in his native county
to learn the trade, and afterwards worked
at it there and in Ohio. In 1880 he came to
Colorado, and during the next two years he
was employed in a mill at Fort Collins. In
1895 he moved to Delta, and here he has been
continuously connected with the milling in-
dustry since his arrival. In politics he is an
ardent and devoted Democrat, and in fraternal
life an enthusiastic Freemason. In the public
local affairs of his county he takes an active
part but is not an aspirant for office, preferring
to aid in giving direction and inspiration to the
f< irces of progress in the community rather
than to administer the duties of public station.
On December 2, 1882. he united in marriage
with Miss Clara L. Strode, who was born at
Urbana, Ohio. They have one child, their
daughter, Letitia. now nineteen years old.
oliyer p. McCartney, m. d.
Dr. O. P. McCartney was born at Louis-
ville. Kentucky, on September 6, 1869, and
is the son of Joseph C. and Mary F. (Perry)
McCartney, the father a native of Kentucky
and the mother of Georgia. She moved to
Kentucky when she was a young lady and was
married there. The father was a physician
and surgeon and practiced at Louisville and
later at North Fork, Indiana, where he and
his wife are now living. Three of their five
children are living. Dr. Oliver being the young-
est. He grew to manhood in his native city
and was educated in its public schools. In
1SX7 lie began the Study of medicine, but on
account of failing eyesight was obliged to
abandon il for a time. In t8c>2 he came to
Colorado and located at Denver, dividing his
time between that city and points in Boulder
county. lie was graduated from the Gross
Medical College at Denver in 1901, and for
two years thereafter practiced in Boulder
count}-, then moved to Delta where he has since
been actively engaged in practice with an ex-
panding patronage and a growing reputation
both in his profession and as a progressive,
wise and useful citizen. In politics he is in-
dependent. On April 19. 1893. ne was mar-
ried to Miss Annie Barnes Mason, a native of
Port Hope. Canada. They have one child.
Vera Florence. Dr. McCartney has the in-
terest of the community in which he has cast
his lot earnestly at heart and omits no effort
on his part to push forward its development
ami enduring welfare.
LAWRENCE A. HICK, M. D.
Dr. Lawrence A. Hick, of Delta, is a
native of Rensselaer county. New York, where
he was born on December 19. 1869. His par-
ents. John and Elvina ( Angel! ) Hick, are also
natives of New York, and are now living at
Fond du Lac. Wisconsin. The father is a
Presbyterian minister, but at present he is
living retired from active work. Two chil-
dren were born in the family, the Doctor and
his younger brother Norman, the latter a
traveling salesman out of Chicago. The Doc-
tor was educated at the public schools, a
seminary at Oakdale, Nebraska, and a college
at Bellevue, that state. In 1889 he began the
study of medicine under a preceptor, and in
[89] entered Omaha Medical College, where
he was graduated with the degree of Doctor
of Medicine in [895. He came direct to Delta,
this state, and here he has since made his
home and actively practiced his profession.
Closely attentive to every demand of his busi
ness and omitting no effort on his part to
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
369
master it in every way, he was the first presi-
dent of the county and an interested member of
that and the medical societies and a close
student of the literature of the profession. He
is also the Denver & Rio Grande railroad local
surgeon and county health officer. In politics
he is a pronounced Republican, and in fraternal
life a Freemason, a Knight of Pythias and a
Woodman of the World. On March 17, 1895,
Ik- was married to Miss ( Gertrude Luce, a native
of Omaha. They have one child, Lawrence L.
CHARLES R. SIEBER.
Highly fortunate in his life, both in its pro-
ductive usefulness and in the esteem of his
fellow men which it won him. and which was
largely enhanced by the "deep damnation of
his taking off," the late Charles R. Sieber, of
Mesa county, who was brutally murdered by
a former employee while at the height of his
usefulness and power for good to the people
among whom he lived and labored, was one
of the best known and most serviceable
citizens of the Western slope, and as such was
a shining mark for the shafts of malice, envy
and ill-will. He was a native of Germany,
born at Breslau on January 2$, [846, and the
son of Paul and Francisca Sieber, also natives
of the fatherland, where they passed their lives
and where their forefathers had lived for many
generations. There were ten children in his
father's family, of whom he was the last
born. When he was fourteen years old he
came to America in company with a friend,
Charles Kretchmer, who is now an esteemed
citizen of Pueblo, this state. After passing a
year in Canada they moved to the United
States and settled in Illinois, where they re-
mained until in the 'sixties, when they came
with the German colony established in Wet
Mountain valley, to Colorado. Mr. Kretch-
mer stopped at Pueblo and Mr. Sieber ac-
-24
companied the colony to the valley. Here he
engaged in farming and raising cattle, becom-
ing a man of consequence and influence in the
section, so that when Colorado was admitted
to the Union as a state in 1876 he was chosen
to represent his people in the first state legis-
lature. At the session in which he served, a
portion of what had been Fremont county was
cut off and erected into a new county called
Custer, the name it now bears. Mr. Sieber
continued his operations in the cattle and ranch-
ing industry there until 1885. when he moved
to Mesa county and. in partnership with Mr.
Hudson, under the firm name of Hudson &
Sieber. he enlarged his stock business and also
opened a large retail market at Grand Junction.
This was in the early 'nineties. In 1897 the
Sieber Cattle Company was formed with Mr.
Sieber as president and manager and John and
Mahlon Thatcher as other members of the
company. The company did a very extensive
business, at times having ten thousand cattle
on hand. While at Sumner Camp, thirty-five
miles southeast of Grand Junction, Mr. Sieber
was shot and killed in cold-blooded murder by
one Harris, a former employee of the company,
who had a grudge against him. This shocking
occurrence aroused the greatest indignation
throughout the western part of the state, where
the victim of it was widely known as a pioneer,
upright and progressive man, and one of the
leading citizens of the section. It ended a life
of value to the whole state with no advantage
to the murderer beyond the gratification of his
passion and malice. Mr. Sieber was married
on December 25, 1869, to Miss Henrietta
Palmer, a native of Steuben count}'. New
York, where her parents, Azor and Martha
(Dickson) Palmer, were also born. In 1864
the Palmer family crossed the plains with
wagons to Colorado and located at Russellville.
thirty-five miles from Denver, on Cherry
creek, where Mr. Palmer kept a stage station
37°
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
several years, going to Wet Mountain valley
and engaging in the stock business in the
spring of 1869. He died there in 1886 and
his wife in 1899. They had four children, all
living. Twelve were born in the Sieber house-
hold, eleven of whom are living, Louise,
Anna, Francisco, Henrietta, Martha, Frankie.
Carl, John, Jessie, Paul and Fred. Laura died
some years ago.
HON. JOHN C. BELL.
The United States house of representatives,
notwithstanding the ridicule to which it is
often subjected by the unknown or the thought-
less, and the charges of dishonesty and cor-
ruption which are sometimes made against
some of its members, is in fact one of the most
learned, upright and patriotic bodies of men
in the world. The wisdom, manliness and in-
tegrity of the American people are epitomized
there, and it is at the imminent danger of ex-
posure and certain loss of reputation that a
member is ever guilty of any form of wrong
doing. That Hon. John C. Bell held a position
of commanding influence in that exalted forum
during his service as a member of the body is
a stnmg proof of his ability, wisdom and in-
dustry, and a high tribute to his character and
manliness. Mr. Bell was horn at the village
of Suwannee, Tennessee, on December 11,
1X51, and is the son of Harrison and Rachel
(Laxson) Bell, the former born in Tennessee
and the latter in Mississippi. The father was
an extensive planter and owner of a number
of grist mills. He was also a speculator and
prominent business man. and one of the in-
fluential citizens of his portion of the state.
serving at times as sheriff of Grandy countv
ami in other official positions giving- trend and
cogency to public affairs. Both parents died
amid the scenes of their useful labors and the
people by whom they were universallv es-
teemed. Their son John C. was reared in his
native county and educated at the private
schools of Prof. Rufus Clark and those of
Profs. Hamilton and Miller in Franklin
county, Tennessee. He read law at Winches-
ter, that state, and was admitted to the bar
there in 1X74. In June of that year he moved
to Colorado and began the practice of his
profession at Saguache. He was soon after-
ward appointed county attorney of Saguache
county and held the position until May, 1876,
when he resigned it and moved to Lake City,
then the most thriving town in the great San
Juan mining region. There he immediately
took a prominent place in his profession and
in politics as a Democrat of unwavering fidelity
and great force of character and resourceful-
ness. In 1878 he was elected county clerk of
Hinsdale county, hut he did not perform the
duties of the office personally. He was also
twice elected mayor of Lake City, and in 1885,
during his second term, he resigned the office
to form a partnership with Hon. Frank C.
Gaudy for the practice of law. removing to
Montrose, where he has ever since resided, for
the purpose. In November, 1888, he was
elected district judge of the seventh judicial
district of the state for a term of six years,
and resigned this position after being elected
to congress in the fall of 1892, to represent the
immense second district, which now comprises
forty-four counties. He was four times re-
elected, sitting in the fifty-fourth, fifty-fifth,
fifty-sixth and fifty-seventh congresses after
his first term, receiving at his last election
more than thirteen thousand majority over
three opposition candidates. During his service
in the house he was connected with much im-
portant legislation for this section of the coun-
try, and being a hard-working and hard light-
ing' member, he secured almost everything he
asked for. After a long fight he got an ap-
propriation for a federal building at Colorado
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COEORADO.
37
Springs, secured the opening of the Southern
Ute Indian reservation for settlement, a term
of the United States court to he held each
year at Montrose, and the survey for the Gun-
nison tunnel for irrigation purposes long be-
fore the national reclamation act was passed.
He introduced the original Gunnison tunnel
bill, and from this the present reclamation law
was largely copied. When the strength of
eastern opposition to western irrigation
schemes, especially to making appropriations
for the same, is recalled, Mr. Bell's tireless
energy and his great service in this behalf will
be duly appreciated. The Gunnison tunnel is
a project of enormous proportions and weighty
with benefits to an immense scope of country.
The tunnel will be six miles long, and will con-
vey water from the Gunnison river for the ir-
rigation of many thousands of acres of other-
wise valueless land in the Uncompahgre valley.
It will have a capacity of twelve thousand
cubic feet of water per second, and its flow and
distribution will be so regulated as to secure
the greatest good to the greatest number of
ranches for the longest period of time. An-
other of the little known but highly valuable
achievements of Mr. Bell in congress is the
prohibition of the use of the Pension build-
ing or any other public building in Washington
for the quadriennial inauguration ball, which
it is said will effect a saving of over two hun-
dred thousand dollars to the government every
four years. When an inauguration ball is ap-
proaching it has been the custom to lay off all
the clerks in the building in which it is to
be held eight or ten days so that proper prepar-
ations for the event can be made. The salaries
of the clerks so laid off alone amount to over
seventy thousand dollars for the time they are
idle. Still another of the important measures
which he introduced and passed in congress
was the exemption of soldiers in the Cuban
and Philippine wars from forfeiture of their
mining claims by failure to work the assess-
ments during their absence in the army. He
gained by just dessert the reputation of getting
more pension bills successfully considered than
any other congressman ever sent from Colo-
rado; and in his campaigns he always received
the solid soldier vote of his district. He served
on main- important committees in the national
house and, as a marked recognition of his in-
dustry, wisdom and ability, he was appointed
by Speaker Reed on the most important one
in the body, the committee on appropriations.
On September i. 1881, Mr. Bell was united in
marriage with Miss Susie Abernathy, a native
of Franklin county. Tennessee, and a daughter
of Dr. Jones B. and Sue (Sumner) Abernathy,
also natives of that state, where they died a
number of years ago. The father was a very
prominent physician with a national reputation
in his profession. Mr. and Mrs. Bell have two
daughters. Susie and Ethel. Mr. Bell is an
active lodge, chapter and commandery Mason,
with membership in the bodies at Montrose,
and also belongs to the Odd Fellows lodge at
Lake City. He recently received a medal for
having been a member of the latter body con-
tinuously for twenty-five years. Since retiring
from congress he has been active and eminent
in the practice of his profession.
HERBERT E. PERKINS.
One of the most progressive and successful
stock men and the most extensive sheep
breeder in Delta county, Herbert E. Perkins
occupies a prominent place in the industrial
life of the section in which he lives and aids
materiallv in increasing the wealth and com-
mercial activity of its people. He was born at
Mechanic Falls, Maine, on July 17, 1855, his
parents, William M. and Ruth (Jordan)
Perkins, also being natives of that state. They
belonged to old colonial families and their fore-
37 2
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
fathers bore conspicuous parts in all the pre-
ceding history of New England in peace and
war. The parents of Mr. Perkins passed their
lives in their native state where they were
extensive and prosperous farmers. The father
was a prominent man locally and served as one
of the commissioners of Androscoggin county
for a number of years. They had four daugh-
ters and two sons, four of whom are living,
Herbert being the last born in the family. He
was' reared on the farm, attended the public
schools, was graduated at the high school and
then attended two terms at Hebron Academy.
In the spring of 1873 he went to Boston, and
after serving three months as conductor on a
street car, worked in the Faneuil Hall market
about nine months, then became collector on
the road for a lightning rod company, in which
capacity he spent three years, and for a time
he was also collector for a bank in Boston.
In July. 1878. he came to Colorado and lo-
cated at Rosita where he prospected and mined
more than a year, this being during the boom
days of the Bassick mine. Early in 1880 he
went to Gunnison count)', where he was en-
gaged in mining until the fall of 1883. Dur-
ing this period he discovered and located the
Last Ruby mine, adjoining the Ruby Chief.
Here the prospect was very promising and Mr.
Perkins was offered twelve thousand dollars
for his interest. He refused the offer and got
nothing. He came to Delta in the fall of
1883, in company with Thomas Moore, and
together they engaged in the cattle business.
This partnership lasted over a year and since
its dissolution Mr. Perkins has been in the
business alone and has been very successful.
In [890 he sold off all his cattle and turned his
attention exclusively to sheep-raising. In this
branch of the stock industry he runs on an
average about eight thousand head of the
I [ampshire strain, being the largest sheep man
in the countv. He owns ranches in Gunnison
count}- of three hundred and twenty acres, in
addition to what he owns in Delta county. In
politics he is a stanch Republican, and while
not desirous of official station of any kind, the
county convention of his party on a recent oc-
casion, in a spirit of jest, nominated him for
county assessor and he was forced to accept
the office and perform its duties, which he did
with credit to himself and satisfaction to the
people. On December 25, 1895, he was mar-
ried to Mrs. Hettie (Geer) Clark, a native of
Michigan and a widow with two children by a
former marriage, Lucy R. and Don L. Red-
mond. Mr. Perkins belongs to the order of
Odd Fellows, being a charter member of Delta
Lodge, No. 116, in the fraternity.
FRED SCHERMERHORX. M. D.
In the six years of his residence at Mont-
rose and his active practice as a physician and
surgeon throughout the surrounding country
Dr. Fred Schermerhorn has greatly endeared
himself to the people of this section and risen
to a place of commanding reputation and in-
fluence in professional circles, while by his
activity in public local affairs and all under-
takings involving the general welfare and
wholesome progress of the community he has
become an influential and leading citizen. He
is an active and zealous Democrat in political
allegiance, and the interests of his party at all
times command his best efforts and most in-
telligent attention. In fraternal life the Doctor
is allied with the Knights of Pythias and the
Modern Woodmen. Doctor Schermerhorn
was born at Grand Rapids, Michigan, on No-
vember [9, 1856, and is the son of Cornelius
P. .mil Maria (Rice) Schermerhorn, the former
a native of Canada and the latter of Michigan.
The mother died in her native state and the
father in Louisiana. He was a farmer, and
during the latter part of the Civil war served
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
373
one year in the Union army. The Doctor grew
to manhood in his native state on the paternal
homestead one mile from Grand Rapids. He
was educated in the public schools, being-
graduated at the Grand Rapids high school in
1876. In 1877 he entered the medical de-
partment of the University of Michigan at
Ann Arbor, and after studiously pursuing a
thorough course of instruction, was graduated
therefrom with the degree of Doctor of Medi
cine in 1880. He practiced for a number of
years at different places in Michigan, and in
1890 he came to Colorado and located at Den-
ver, where he practiced a year, then removed to
Pueblo, and there he spent another year in
practice. In 1892 he located at Creede and
was one of the first physicians there. The
next year he returned to Michigan, but five
vears later, having still a longing for the
farther West, he came back to Colorado and
settled at Montrose. Here he has since de-
voted himself wholly to his profession and has
built up a large and lucrative practice among
the best citizens of the county, which is highly
representative in character and growing con-
stantly in magnitude. The Doctor is a mem-
ber of the Southern Colorado Medical Society
and the Rocky Mountain Alumni of the Michi-
gan University. On August 31, 1880. he was
united in marriage with Miss Jeannette Thor-
ington, a native of Winona, Minnesota, reared
in Michigan. As chairman of the county cen-
tral committe of his party the Doctor has
demonstrated bis ability as an organizer for
political work and shown that he has vigilance
and vigor in action as well as wisdom in coun-
sel. He is at present coroner and county health
officer of Montrose county, a member of the
United States board of pension examiners and
local surgeon for the Denver & Rio Grande
Railway. He was candidate for regent of the
State University on the Democratic ticket in
the fall of 1904, but was not elected.
ISAAC CANFIELD.
It will stand forever to the credit of Isaac
Canfield, of the Plateau valley. Mesa county,
thai he opened the first oil well in the state
and brought to the knowledge of mankind that
there were stores of the unctuous fluid that had
already made thousands wealthy and millions
comfortable in the older sections of our coun-
try, beneath the soil of Colorado, to whose
people he thereby gave a new industry of in-
calculable value ready for their enterprise in
development. Mr. Canfield was born in
Livingston count)-. Xew York, on October 11.
1839, and is the son of Ira and Elizabeth (Con-
solus) Canfield, natives of Saratoga county,
that state, who moved to Livingston county
early in their married life and there passed
a portion of their days as prosperous farmers.
The father was prominent and influential in
the public affairs of the county, and at one time
served as its sheriff.
In 1852 they moved to Potter county.
Pennsylvania, where the father engaged in
lumbering until i860, when the oil excitement
took him to Titusville and for eleven years
thereafter the son was in the oil business with
him there, the enterprise proving very suc-
cessful. In 187 1 the family came to Colorado
as members of the colony organized under the
advice and auspices of Horace Greeley and
located at the town named in honor of that dis-
tinguished man. There father and son en-
gaged in ranching and raising cattle. In 1875
they opened the Rob Roy coal mine at what
is now Canfield, which was named in their
honor, and this they operated for a number
of years until the strike caused them to sus-
pend. Their operations were extensive and
profitable, the output of the mine being suf-
ficient to require the employment of over one
hundred men. The coal was shipped to Den-
ver, and from there to other places as required.
374
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
The father died in Florence, this state. Hav-
ing been in the business of producing' oil in the
East, guided by his experience and knowledge
on the subject, the son located at Canon City.
While operating a coal mine at Coal Creek he
there struck the first oil well in the state, and
in 1902 he also drilled the first oil well in the
Boulder oil field. After opening this field his
efforts were directed to the oil fields of Canada
and during the year 1903 he drilled over forty
wells in undeveloped Canadian territory and
was successful in every well. At the present
he is engaged in opening up a new oil field at
Debeque, this state.
In the fall of 1903 he, with his son and
daughters, bought the Buckhorn ranch, about
four miles from Collbran, south, which com-
prises four hundred and eighty acres, all under
irrigation, with two hundred acres in alfalfa
and one hundred and sixty acres in grain and
other suitable products for that region. On
this ranch they have extensive stock interests,
principally cattle, and by their energy, business
capacity and breadth of view are making every
element of success in their undertaking pay
tribute to their prosperity. On the 30th of
March, 1862, Mr. Canfield was married to
Miss Imogene Butterworth, a native of Potter
county, Pennsylvania. They have had four
children, three of whom are living, Maud, wife
of C. A. Morrison, May, wife of W. M. Porter,
and Carl B. The first born of the family. lone,
died in infancy. All of the living children are
at home and they have practical charge of the
ranch and its interests. Politically Mr. Can-
field is a Republican, and while living in Boul-
der county he was elected to the lower house
of the first state legislature in 1876. He has
always been an active party worker, and has
frequently served as chairman of his party's
central committee in the county of his home
at the time. At one time he was also mayor
of Florence.
HENRY F. LAKE.
It is always important and usually in-
teresting to contemplate the lives of the foun-
ders of a new section of our country, the
pioneers who faced their tasks undaunted and
found contentment in fashioning the mighty
levers of future achievements ; and if some
of the scenes and incidents of their lives seem
homely to us. we shall be better able to appre-
ciate the advantages we enjoy compared with
those our hardy founders had when they laid
the base of our prosperity. Their days of sim-
plicity in life and iron seriousness of purpose
have many salutary lessons for this hurried
and self-satisfied age. Their story is epitomized
in the interesting career of Henry F. Lake, of
Gunnison county, this state, who, devoted to
the welfare of his country, has borne his full
share of labor and care in its service in peace
and war. Mr. Lake was born in Livingston
county. Michigan, on November 1. 1843, and
is the son of Rial and Mary F. (Burt) Lake.'
native near Bellows Falls. Vermont. The
father kept a private school in Philadelphia a
number of years, then in 1834 moved to Liv-
ingston county, Michigan, when that coun-
try was as wild and unsettled as any of the
farther West is now. With an ox team lie
hauled the first stove into the county from
Detroit, a distance of titty miles. He passed
the remainder of his life in that wilderness,
clearing and improving a good farm from the
virgin forest and helping to organize and
shape the government and civilization of the
section; and when his and his wife's useful
labors were ended they were laid to rest amid
the growing industries and cultivation which
thev had helped to found. Eight children were
born to them, but two of whom are living,
their son Henry and one of his sisters, the
latter making her home on the old Michigan
homestead. A younger brother, who passed
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
375
away some years ago, was in the employ of
the Santa Fe Railroad for many years, and at
the time of his death was its chief engineer.
Henry, who was next to the youngest of the
family, remained at home until he reached
the age of fifteen. His educational advantages,
were compassed within the crude and irregular
facilities of the country school in a new section,
where every force was required to subdue the
land to fertility and supply the home with the
necessaries of life. He worked on farms near
his home until Augxrst 9, 1862, when he en-
listed as a private in Company H, Twenty-
second Michigan Volunteer Infantry, in de-
fense of the I nil m during the Civil war. He
was promoted corporal before leaving the state
and sergeant in the spring of 1863. At the
battle of Chickamauga on September 19 and
20, 1863, he had command of bis company as
fifth sergeant, all its higher officers having been
killed or wounded. In this terrible battle the
whole regiment was captured and Mr. Lake
was held a prisoner of war until March 1,
1865, passing the time in prisons at Atlanta.
Richmond, Danville, Andersonville, Charles-
ton and Florence. On March 1, 1865, he was
paroled at Wilmington, North Carolina, and
on April 28th following was commissioned
second lieutenant to rank as such from April
1st. He was prevented from being mustered
as a lieutenant by being a prisoner under
parole, and was honorably discharged at Camp
Chase on June 9, 1865. On February 28. [888,
nearly twenty-five years afterward, the gc\
eminent made tardy reparation for this hard-
ship by special order No. 43, from the head-
quarters of the army, adjutant general's office,
which reads: "The discharge of Sergeant
Henry F. Lake. Company H, Twenty-second
Michigan Infantry Volunteers, June 9, 1865,
is amended to take effect April 27. 1865. He
is mustered into service as second lieutenant,
same company and regiment, to date April 28.
1865; mustered out and honorably discharged
June 9, 1865. and he is mustered for pay in
said grade during the period embraced between
the aforesaid dates." During his time of nearly
a year and a half in southern prisons he suf-
fered terrible hardships and privations,
cruelties and disease, exposure and want. After
the war he returned to Michigan and for the
next ten years farmed a portion of the old
homestead. In January, 1876, he moved to the
vicinity of Topeka, Kansas, and before the end
of that year came to Colorado on the first regu-
lar passenger train that reached Pueblo over
the Santa Fe Railroad. During the ensuing
winter he was night clerk at the terminal rail-
way station, and in May, 1877. he joined a
train of freight teams leaving for the San
Miguel country, attracted to that region by
the mining excitement. The government had
built a road from the old Ute agency to the
Uncompahgre river, but it was so crude that
this party found it necessary in places to take
their wagons apart in order to get to the top
of a hill. Some little time afterward the Mears
toll road was built and many of these dif-
ficulties were therein- removed. During the
summer of 1877 he made three trips to Pueblo
with a freight team, the distance being three
hundred and fifty miles each way. With
several other men he remained in the San
Miguel country through the winter of 1877-8.
In the fall of 1877 the old town of San Miguel,
about two miles below what is now Telluride,
was surveyed, and Mr. Lake and others, being
dissatisfied with the allotments of land made
to them, surveyed and plotted the present town
of Telluride. which they named Columbia.
During the summer of 1878 he prospected with
indifferent results, and the next winter worked
in the engineering department of the Santa
Fe at Topeka, Kansas. In the spring of 1879
he came with burros over the old Saguache r< lad
to Gunnison, which then had only two build-
376
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
ings, one of them the county clerk's office with
a dirt roof. He located at White Pine, about
thirty-eight miles east of Gunnison, and en-
gaged in mining and prospecting, locating
nearly all of the May Mazeppa properties on
Lake hill, the North Star being one of the
principal mines of the group. This he worked
successfully for ten years, then sold his min-
ing interests and took up his residence per-
manently in the town of Gunnison, where since
1894 he has been actively engaged in the real-
estate and insurance business. In politics he
was a pronounced Republican until 1896. He
then became a Democrat and has since been
allied with that party, in whose services he has
been zealous and efficient, as he always was in
the service of the other. In 1890 he was ap-
pointed receiver of the United States land
office at Gunnison, in which position he served
four years. When in San Miguel county,
which was then a part of Ouray, he served as
justice of the peace, the first one in that sec-
tion. Fraternally he is connected with the
Odd Fellows, the Red Men and the Woodmen
of the World, holding his membership at Gun-
nison and being a charter member of the lodges
of the two last mentioned, and since 1890 clerk
of his cam]) of Woodmen. In May, 1873, he
was married to Miss Mary Tock. a native of
Xew York, who died in 1875, leaving one
son. Henry F. Lake, Jr., now editor and
manager of the Gunnison News-Champion;
and in March. [892, he married a second wife.
Miss Frances A. Norton, who was born in
Livingston county, Michigan.
JOSFPH F. HEINER.
Joseph F. Heiner, the efficient and obliging
county surveyor of Gunnison county, whose
administration of his office has been so satis-
factory to the people that he has been repeat-
edly elected to it, was born in Chicago, Illinois,
on November 24, 1862, and is the son of
Nicholas and Margaret (Schultz) Heiner, na-
tives of Germany who emigrated to this coun-
try when young and were married in the city
of Xew York. Soon afterward they moved to
Chicago, and there the father was a prosperous
shoe merchant until his death in 1898. He
was active in politics and became well known
and prominent in the local government of the
city, serving a number of terms as alderman.
The mother died in 1900. They were the par-
ents of eleven children, of whom six are living
and their son Joseph was the tenth born. He
was reared in Chicago and there received a
common and high-school education. At the
age of fifteen he began to learn the trade
of a printer, and after completing his ap-
prenticeship worked as a journeyman several
years in his native city and St. Louis. Mis-
souri. In 1880 he became a resident of Colo-
rado, locating at Gunnison, where he found
employment in the office of the News-Demo-
crat, which he soon afterward took entire
charge of and then conducted it for a number
of years. In the spring of 1894 he sold the
paper and was soon after appointed register of
the Lmited States land office at Gunnison by
President Cleveland, holding the position until
1898. In the meantime he studied civil en-
gineering and on retiring from his office took
up surveying. In 1899 he was appointed
county surveyor to fill an unexpired term, and
since its expiration he has been twice elected
to the office, of which he is still the incumbent.
In political affairs he supports the Democratic
party with ardor and efficiency, giving every
campaign his earnest and helpful attention, and
while he had charge of the newspaper he
made it an effective advocate of the principles
of bis party. He was married on November
28, 1884, to Miss Ella B. Smith, a native of
Wesl Virginia, the daughter of David and
Maggie (Atkins) Smith, who were born in that
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
377
state and became early pioneers in western
Colorado, taking up land in that part of it in
1875. locating about three miles west of Gun-
nison before the county was organized. When
this event occurred in 1879 Air. Smith was
appointed the first county judge, and after the
expiration of his term was twice elected to
this office for a term of three years each time.
He and his wife are now living at Hotchkiss,
Delta count}-. Air. and Airs. Heiner are the
parents of four children, of whom Eugene
died at the age of nine, and Iris at the age of
fourteen, and Bonita and Reva are living.
Well equipped by nature and study for public
life, ardently devoted to the welfare of his
country, and free, fervent and impressive in
speech and writing, Mr. Heiner has been one
of the most useful advocates of the political
principles in which he believes and one of the
most capable and popular public officials the
county has had from the date of its organiza-
tion to the present time.
CHARLES LIBBEY.
Charles Libbey, one of the prosperous and
progressive ranch and stock men of Mesa
county, whose attractive and well-improved
ranch lies six miles southeast of Collbran, was
horn at Quebec. Canada, on June 10, 1849, and
is the son of Raney and Kate (Younger) Lib-
bey, both of whom were born on an island in
the St. Lawrence near Quebec, the father being
of English-French and the mother of straight
French ancestry. After their marriage they
settled at St. Sylvester in their native province,
and engaged in farming. The mother died
there in 1861 and the father at Quebec in 1894.
He was a prominent stock dealer for many
years, handling large numbers of horses and
cattle. Orphaned by the death of his mother
when he was but twelve years old. and with
very limited schooling, their son Charles took
up the burden of life for himself at the age of
fourteen and within the next few years ex-
tended his education in the rugged bul thor
ough school of experience. By proving him-
self willing to work at whatever he could find
to do, and worthy and well qualified for any
ordinary occupation, especially in industry and
application, he was never without employment.
and although for some years he could not make
choice entirely to his taste, he made steady
progress toward independence. When he
started for himself he crossed the line into
Maine and passed about one year at Fox, Ken-
nebec and Augusta, that state, then came west
to Alpena, Michigan, where for five years he
worked as a teamster, hauling supplies to htm-.
ber camps. In 1869 he moved to Chippewa
Falls, Wisconsin, then a small place of about
seven hundred inhabitants and not a railroad
within one hundred miles. There he lived
nearly six years, driving stage between that
town and Eau Claire. In 1875 ' le wen f l "
California, and after spending a short time at
San Francisco, went to Forest City, in the
northern part of the state, where he worked
three months in the mines. The desire for ad-
venture still possessing him, he then made a
prospecting tour into the Stinking River coun-
try in British Columbia, going by water and
overland with dog teams four hundred miles,
and finding the necessaries of life almost above
price, meat and flour being one dollar a pound
and often hard to get at that. Returning to
California, he lived awhile at Oakland, then
drove a team at Red Bluff. In 1880 he came
to Colorado and during the next three years
was foreman for the S. P. Brown & Company
livery business at Leadville. Fate was leading
him with firm but kindly hand to his desired
haven and suited occupation, and in 1884 she
brought him to his present location in the
Plateau valley. Here for six years he worked
for the late Fred S. Rockwell (see sketch else-
378
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
where in this work), but in the meantime lie
took up a homestead of one hundred and sixty
acres of land and later a desert claim of forty
acres, all wild and unimproved. He built him-
self a log cabin and began to improve his
property, conducting ditches as he was able
and in time erecting a comfortable dwelling
and other needed structures. Here he has been
well content to live and prosper, carrying on
a flourishing general ranching and cattle in-
dustry and with earnestness and breadth of
view helping to build up and develop the coun-
try around him. In politics he is a stanch Re-
publican and in fraternal circles a member of
the Odd Fellows' lodge at Collbran. On De-
cember 21. 1898, he was united in marriage
with Miss Mary Goyn, a native of Boulder
county, Colorado, the daughter of William E.
and Savanna (Ferguson) Goyn. The father
died in 1904 and the mother now lives in San
Francisco, California.
JOHN M. McDOUGAL.
That jealous mistress, the Law. who is
displeased with any division of loyalty in her
devotees, and lays them under the most ex-
acting requirements, but who rewards true de-
votion at her shrine with bountiful benefac-
tions, has an able and creditable follower in
Judge John M. McDougal, of Gunnison, one
of the leading lawyers of western Colorado,
where for nearly a quarter of a century he has
been practicing his profession, and where he
has high standing at the bar and a conspicuous
place in the regard and good will of the people.
He is a native of Larue count)-. Kentucky, bom
ori April 21, 1850, and the son of John and
Mary E. (Willette) McDougal, the former a
South Carolinian and the latter a Kentuckian
by birth. The paternal grandfather, Alex-
ander McDougal. was horn and reared in the
highlands of Scotland, and on his arrival in the
United States in his young manhood, settled in
South Carolina, afterward removing to Larue
county. Kentucky. He was a Baptist clergy-
man of the old school, and had a wide circle
of pastoral and professional duties in his new
home amid the wilds of the Blue Grass state,
marrying many persons who afterward won
distinction, baptizing their children, and at the
close of their careers piously consigning their
remains to their last resting places. Among
the marriages of celebrated persons whose
nuptial knot he tied was that of Thomas Lin-
coln and Nancy Hanks, the parents of Abra-
ham Lincoln. His son, the father of John M.
McDougal, was a hard-working farmer, whom
the Civil war stripped of all his accumulations,
and both he and his wife died on their old
Kentucky home, the latter passing away in
1852 and the former in 1875. They had six
children, four of whom are living, their son
John being the last born of the family. He
was reared on the farm, passing his boyhood
and early youth there during the Civil war
and being about fifteen years of age at its
close. The desperate struggle left the section
of the country in which he was living bereft of
much of its valuable property and prostrated
in all its energies, and he not only was thereby
deprived of the educational advantages he
would otherwise have had, and obliged to get
along as best he could with a meager com-
mon-school training, but also compelled to
labor long and diligently to aid his father to
save some remnant of a once promising estate
and support the rest of the family. He was.
however, industrious and frugal, and was
moreover filled with an ambition to become
something more than an obscure farmer. At
the age of nineteen he entered Lynnland In-
stitute in Hardin county, Kentucky, and passed
two years within its classic halls to good ad-
vantage. He got this part of his education on
credit, and when he left the college he was in
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
379
debt to nearly the amount of two hundred
dollars for his advantages there. He then
taught school a number of years, making a
good record as an instructor, and saving
enough out of his earnings to pay his debt and
seek another vocation more in the line of his
tastes. In 1874 he went to Frankfort, in his
native state, and became special librarian to
the court of appeals. During the two years he
occupied this position he studied law, and in
the latter was on the staff of Gov. P. H. Leslie
with the rank of colonel, having been pre-
viously private messenger to the Governor.
On May 16, 1876, he was admitted to the bar,
and during the session of the legislature that
year was sergeant at arms of the house of
representatives. In September he moved to St.
Louis, Missouri, and began the practice of his
profession on his own account, and was soon
afterward admitted to the district and circuit
courts of the United States there. Continu-
ing his active practice in the Missouri
metropolis until 1880, he rose to good standing
at the bar of that portion of the country; but
in the year last named, feeling a desire for the
freer life and larger opportunities of the un-
developed West, he came to Colorado, arriving
at Gunnison on April 28, at that time a small
hamlet with many of its people still living in
tents. He became a member of the law linn
of Thomas. McDougal & Thomas, which
opened an office at Irwin and one at Gothic in
addition to the one it had at Gunnison. Judge
McDougal was established at Irwin, then the
principal mining camp of the count}', and for
three years had charge of the business of the
firm at that place. Since 1883 he has main-
tained his office and residence at Gunnison. In
1884 he was appointed deputy district attorney
under Charles Rood, and he afterward served
two terms as deputy superintendent of the
county schools and served as a member of the
Gunnison city council. In 1888 he was elected
county judge to fill an unexpired term and at
its close was re-elected for a full term of three
years. In the fall of 1902 he was chosen to
represent Gunnison county in the state house
of representatives. In all these positions he
has discharged his duties with an ability and
a fidelity that have won him general and high
commendation. In politics he is an unwaver-
ing Democrat, and so active has he been in the
service of his party and so wise and influential
in his work that he is recognized as one of
its leaders on the Western slope. On January
29, 1898, he was married to Miss Lucile S.
Goade, a native of West Virginia and the
daughter of Albert L. and Sophronia (Wood)
Goade, who also were born in West Virginia.
The mother has died and the father is now liv-
ing near Carthage, Missouri. The Judge and
Mrs. McDougal have one daughter, Mary Lu-
cile. As a lawyer Judge McDougal is learned
in the law and its construction by the courts,
alert, shrewd and resourceful in the trial of
cases, and eloquent and convincing in present-
ing them to and arguing them before court and
jury. As a citizen he is public-spirited, pro-
gressive and far-seeing. As a man he is up-
right, candid and trustworthy, and has a pleas-
ing personality and manner that make him
universally popular.
FELIX G. WADE.
Through various pursuits in many differ-
ent places, after suffering many hardships and
privations and encountering unnumbered dan-
gers, after c< muting numerous triumphs and
numerous reverses in his existence. Felix G.
Wade at length found a secure and comfortable
anchorage from the storms of life on the fine
ranch of one hundred and fifty acres of good
land which is now his home, five miles from
I >elta, this state, on Ash mesa. He is a native
of West Virginia, born on February 24, 1836,
3 8o
PROGRESSirE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
and the son of Alexander and Nancy (Corbly)
Wade, the former born in Ohio and the latter
in Virginia. The family moved to Iowa in
1865. and there the father passed the remain-
der of his life as a prosperous farmer. He
died there in 1869. The son Felix attended the
public schools in the neighborhood of his home
and aided his father on the farm until he
reached the age of seventeen. Then, in 1853.
he left home and migrated to Iowa. During
the next four years he worked in many parts
of the state, and in 1857 he went on the plains
with a freighting outfit from Nebraska City
west. He followed freighting two years, then
moved to where Denver now stands, that city
at the time having lost its identity in the
greater clamor over Pike's Peak, by which
name the whole surrounding country for many
miles was known. In the fall of 1859 be lo-
cated there with a good ox team, and during
the year he came into possesison of several
lots which have since become very valuable.
But he was taken ill and obliged to sell every-
thing he had for a paltry two hundred dollars.
He then went back to Iowa and spent the win-
ter. In the spring of i860 he went to Cali-
fornia, where he farmed awhile, then turned his
attention to mining. He remained in the state
until 1863, when be went to Nevada. There
he prospected and mined until 1866, being all
the while among the Indians and in continual
danger of death by violence at their cruel -
bands. In 1866 he returned to California and
three years later went back once more to
Iowa. He remained east until 1876. moving
about in Iowa. Missouri and Kansas and en-
gaged in various occupations and meeting with
alternating success and disaster. In the vear
last named he returned to this part of the
country and settled in Ouray county, bringing
witli him from Kansas a small herd of cattle.
Here he turned his attention to raising cattle
and carried on the business in that county until
1893, at which time he moved to Delta county
and bought a ranch of one hundred and fifty
acres which has since been his home. He has
improved his property and brought the land to
an advanced state of cultivation. It now
yields good crops of hay and grain, and he also
conducts a flourishing stock industry. He still
has some mining interests in Ouray county,
but is devoting most of his time to bis ranch.
On June 11, 1874, he married with Miss
.Martha Wood, who was born in Arkansas in
1858, and is the daughter of Terrell and Jane
(Fowler) Wood, the former a native of Geor-
gia and the latter of Tennessee. Mr. and
Mrs. Wade have had seven children, Jennie,
Minnie, John H., Colorado. Felix A.. Edith
and Mabel C. Only three are living, the oldest
being twenty-eight years old and the youngest
thirteen. They are all at home. Mr. Wade
belongs to the Masonic order and is a Demo-
crat in political faith.
FRANK ROSS.
True to the instincts and customs of his
people, who were for centuries among the
great navigators of the sea and explorers of
distant lands, this esteemed citizen of Delta
county looked out over the fretful Atlantic
in his boyhood with a longing to see and know
foreign counties in his boyhood, and became
a wanderer "ere manhood darkened on his
down)' cheek." He is a native of the kingdom
of Portugal, where he was born on May 4.
1849. H is parents, Joseph and Mary (Perry)
Ross, were also Portuguese by birth, and they
passed their lives in their native land. The
father was a sawyer and worked at his trade
in the lumber industry all bis life, having no
better instrument of labor than the old-time
cross-cut saw. which in his time was in general
use in his country for sawing timber, the
modern machinerv for the purpose not vet
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
38i
being in vogue there. Frank received a o >m-
m< in-school education and at the age of fifteen
left his In nne and emigrated to the United
States with hut little capital fur the strenuous
life before him in his new In nne except his
stout heart, his clear head and his willing
hands. Locating in Illinois, he went to work
on a farm for small wages, and he remained
there so occupied nineteen years. In 1883 he
came to Colorado and settled at Leadville. but
only remained there a short time, removing
in the fall of the same year to Delta count}-.
Here he took up the ranch on which he now
lives, but did not locate on it until the next
spring. Even then, Ei ir a number of years,
he was obliged to work out from home for
wages until he got the place habitable and pro-
ductive, but now it is yielding him a comfort-
able revenue and making him a pleasant home.
He owns eighty acres of good land, about
fifty-five of which are in alfalfa and yield
abundantly, and he also has a promising and
increasing herd of cattle and some fine horses.
He devotes his time and energies to the im-
provement and cultivation of his ranch and the
expansion of his stock industry, and takes a
good citizen's interest in affairs of the neigh-
borhood in which the welfare and progress of
the people are involved. He is generally recog-
nized as a wise and useful citizen, and is held
in gi 11 id esteem by all his neighbors and the peo-
ple generally. On January 15, 1888, he
united in marriage with Miss Emily Yezina,
who was born in Canada on July 14. [869, and
is the daughter of Nelson and Emily ( Roapell)
Vezina, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in
this work. They are the parents of four chil-
dren. Joseph X.. Frank A.. Emma L. and
Tillie E., the oldest, Joseph X.. being fifteen
years old at the time of his death, December
17, K704. Mr. and Mrs. R, >ss are Catholics
in church membership and in politics he sup-
ports the Republican party. His ranch i^ lo-
cated on Ash mesa, five and one-half miles
from the city of Delta.
XELSOX VEZINA.
A highly respected and serviceable citizen
of Delta county, living on Ash mesa, where he
was a pioneer and the second settler. Nelson
Yezina has seen the redemption of the region
from a barren wilderness and its progress to
its present condition of fertility and fruitful-
ness, and has borne his full share in working
mit the change. He is living now in comfort
and prosperity surrounded by the fruits of his
labor and the advantages of the civilization he
has aided so materially in establishing and pro-
moting. Mr. Vezina was born in the dominion
of Canada on June 26, 1841. His parents were
John and Margaret (Butternea) Vezina. both
like himself born and reared in Canada. The
father was a farmer. Imt having learned the
trade of a carpenter in his early life, he
worked at that in connection with his farming
to the end of his days. The son Nelson, after
receiving a common-school education and
learning his trade under the instruction of his
father, left home in 1863. at the age of twenty-
two, and crossed the line to Michigan, where
he remained four years, working at his trade.
In 1 Si 17 he moved to Lee county. Iowa, where
he lived until 1875, all the while industriously
pushing his plane. He then returned to his
native country and during the next six years
was variously employed there. In 1881 he
again came to "the States" and located at Lead-
ville. this state. A year later he moved to
Delta county and took up a homestead claim
on Ash mesa, building the second house on
this elevation, the only other resident of it at
the time beingThomas Ash. for whom the mesa
was named. After a few more settlers came
38;
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
in they all joined in building a ditch for ir-
rigation, which has been of great advantage
to the whole section. Mr. Vezina lived on his
homestead until 1894, then sold it and bought
one hundred acres, to which he has added
another one hundred by a subsequent purchase.
Here he raises hay and grain in large quan-
tities and is extensively engaged in the cattle
industry. He has been successful in his farm-
ing and cattle business and has also made con-
siderable money working at his trade in the
mining industry where he got good wages. He
carries on both lines of activity with enterprise
and vigor, and is altogether a very prosperous
man. On September 16, 1861, he was married
to Miss Emily Roapell, a native of Canada.
The)' had eleven children, of whom but four
are living, Emily, Lialumena, deceased, Emma,
Mary and Nelson. The others died in infancy.
The mother died on January 7. 1875, and mi
January 3, 1876, Mr. Vezina married a second
wife. Miss Mary Brien, who also was born in
Canada. They have had twelve children, of
whom eight are living, Tami, deceased, Mose,
James, Henry, deceased, Anna, Ellen, Edward.
Julia, deceased, Mattie. Julia, deceased. Cyril,
and Jewel. The living children are all in Colo-
rado but one, and have homes either with or
near their father. The youngest is a boy, now
eight years old (May, 1905). The father is a
Democrat in political faith and all the mem-
bers of the family are Catholics.
ANDREW T. BLACHLY.
The late Andrew T. Blachly, of Delta,
whose tragic death on September 7, 1893, at
the age of forty-six. by a daring hold-up and
robbery of the Farmers & Merchants' Bank,
of which he was at the time cashier, awakened
universal regret and horror throughout the
Western slope of this state, was born in Dane
county. Wisconsin, on September 22, 1847,
and was the son of Eben and Jane (Trew)
Blachly, of that state, both of whom are now
deceased. The father was a doctor and after
many years of general practice in Wisconsin,
moved to the vicinity of Kansas City, Missouri,
where he opened and conducted a school for
negro children, carrying it on in conjunction
with his wife, who had, like himself, received
a college education and was well qualified for
the work. They kept the school going mainly
by their own endeavors and at their own ex-
pense from 1866 until 1877, when the father
died and the mother sold her property and
joined her son in the West. They were the
parents of five sons and one daughter. The
first and second born of the sons served in the
Civil war. One was captured and confined in
Libby prison and the other died in a military
hospital. Andrew received a good education,
attending the Locli (Wisconsin) Academy and
pursuing a partial course at Washington and
Jefferson College, in Washington. Pennsyl-
vania. He left home in 1869 and came to Colo-
rado, where he clerked in the office of the
Kansas Pacific Railroad at Denver part of the
time, teaching school during the rest until
1872. From that time until 1878 he was oc-
cupied in mercantile business for himself at
Monument. Colorado, and also published a
paper called the Mentor for two years. In
1880 he moved to Salida and kept a drug store
until 1881, when he changed his base to Gun-
nison and there carried on the same business
until his health broke down in 1885. He
then moved to Delta count}' and took up a
homestead on which he lived five years. He
planted a few acres in fruit, but sold the place
before the trees began to bear much. Locating
at Delta, he opened a real-estate office and
pushed his business vigorously and profitably
for two years. At the end of that period, in
company with D. S. Baldwin, lie organized the
Farmers and Merchants' Bank of Delta. He
PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
383
served as cashier of this institution until Sep-
tember 7, 1893. when just after the bank had
been opened for business three robbers walked
into the room and ordered him to throw up his
hands and turn over to them the cash, [nstead
of doing this he called for help and the leader
of the outlaws shot him, killing him instantly.
The robbers then went behind the bars and
taking all the money in sight, made their way
to the back door where their horses were tied.
As they mounted their horses and passed to
the rear of the postoffice they encountered W.
R. Simpson, who had heard of the robbery.
He stepped into an alley and shot two of them
dead. The third man, who was their guard
while they made the raid, succeeded in getting
away with the money they had taken. At the
time of Mr. Blachly's death he was living on a
ranch he had purchased a short time lie fore.
On this property his family resided until re-
cently and under the wise and vigorous man-
agement of his widow it became one of
considerable value and productiveness. Mr.
Blachly was married on September 7. 1877. to
Miss Man- A. Bradley, a native of Bangkok,
Siam, the daughter of Dan B. and Sarah
(Blachly) Bradley, the former born in Utica,
Xew York, and the latter in Dane county. Wis-
consin. The father died in 1876 and the mother
in 1893. To Mr. and Mrs. Blachly eight chil-
dren were born, all sons and all now living.
They are Arthur T., Fred F., Clarence D.,
Howard D.. Harold W., Ralph R„ Louis B,
and Edward H. By their help Mrs. Blachly
has been able to carry on the operations of the
ranch and greatly enlarge its productiveness.
She sold the one on which they were living at
the time of her husband's death and bought
another of forty acres. On this she has four
acres in fruit and also runs a fine herd of cattle
in the hills. She and her sons are very suc-
cessful in managing the business, and she has
won a high reputation as a business woman
of excellent judgment. The oldest son was
fifteen years old when his father died and
the youngest one year old. The first named is
now a student in the medical department of the
State University at Boulder, and will be gradu-
ated there in a short time, after which he will
practice his profession in the neighborhood of
his home. Mrs. Blachly has prospered in all
her undertakings and made money steadily.
She is regarded as a very good manager and a
lady of great industry and enterprise. Her
husband was a Republican in politics, a Mason
in fraternal life and a Presbyterian in church
membership. She is also a Presbyterian and
she and the sons are in sympathy with the prin-
ciples of the Republican party in political
affairs. Their ranch is located one mile and a
half east of Delta, on the Garnett mesa.
JACOB MILLER.
A native of Germany, and descended from
families resident in that country from im-
memorial times. Jacob Miller, a ranchman of
Delta county, is comfortably seated on a good
property of one hundred and sixty acres on the
California mesa, a mile and a half from
Delta. His life began in the fatherland on
July 10. 1869, and he is the son of John and
Christina (Siess) Miller. The father was a
mason by trade and worked at his craft
throughout his mature life. In 188 1 he
brought his family to this country and settled
at Massillon. Ohio, where both he and his wife
passed the rest of their days. Their son Jacob
began life for himself in 1883, when he was but
fourteen, by working in a glass factory at Mas-
sillon. where he spent a year. He then worked
in a cigar factory for a year and after that in
a flour-mill for two years. From 1887 to 1889
he was employed by a doctor, and from the
year last named until 1894 was engaged in rail-
roading. From that employment he moved to
3§4
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Chicago and was a teamster in that city for a
year. In 1896 he took up his residence in
Delta county, this state, and during the first
year farmed on rented land here. In 1897 he
located on the farm which has ever since been
his home, and which in its present condition
of cultivation and productiveness is the result
of his industry and skill as a farmer. He has
forty acres in alfalfa and the rest of the land
under cultivation in wheat, oats and other farm
products. His time since settling here has been
intelligently devoted to improving his property.
On October 19, 1900, he was married to Mrs.
Bridget E. (O'Mara) Miller, a widow, the
daughter of Martin and Bridget (Collins)
O'Mara. born in Ireland, as her parents also
were. She came to this country with them in
1882, and here they both died after some years
of usefulness in this new section. Mr. and
Mrs. Miller have one child, their daughter
Helen Christina. Mr. Miller supports the Re-
publican party and both he and his wife be-
long to the Catholic church.
JEREMIAH MULVIHILL.
This active, industrious and progressive
fruit man and good citizen of Mesa county,
whose untimely death on June 4. 1900. at the
early age of thirty-seven years, caused general
regret throughout the community in which his
usefulness was just beginning to be felt with
force and good effect, was born in county
Kerry, Ireland, on April 12, 1853. where his
parents, Patrick and Catherine (Murphy) Mul-
vihill. were also native, and where they passed
their lives. Their son Jeremiah remained in
Ireland until he was twenty, and then, in the
spring of [873, came to the United States and
located in Pennsylvania, where he was in
charge of a stone quarry for four years, (n
[877 he came west to Colorado, stopping at
Denver. There he took a job in a flour-mill
which he held for two years, then became a
section boss for the Denver & Rio Grande
Railroad. In the employ of this company he
first went to Leadville and laid the first tracks
for the road from South Park to that town.
He remained there until October. 1895, when
he moved to Palisade and during the next five
years he conducted the Palisade hotel. In 1900
he bought the ranch on which his family now
live, about one mile and a half west of the
town. It comprises twenty acres, about fifteen
acres of which are in fruit trees in good bear-
ing order. Mr. Mulvihill sowed the other five
acres in alfalfa, and was about to build a dwell-
ing on the place when he died on June 4th of
that year and left his plans to be carried out by
his widow and children. She received two thou-
sand dollars insurance on his life and with this
she built a comfortable dwelling and otherwise
improved the place, and since then she has
lived on it and managed its operations with
the help of her sons. She was Miss Mary
Dore, and was born in county Limerick, Ire-
land, on July 24. 1853. the daughter of parents
who were natives of the same count}. Mrs.
Mulvihill is a good business woman and man-
ages her affairs with judgment and skill. In
1903 she sold some twelve hundred dollars
worth of fruit with other products, and her
profits are steadily on the increase. She has
five children, Patrick F., John J.. Jeremiah.
Edward and Catharine. They are all fixing at
home and all aid in the work on the farm. Her
husband was a member of the Catholic church.
as she is herself, and belonged to the Wood-
men of the World. In political faith he was
a Democrat. In the fall of 1003 the widow
sold ten acres of her land for four thousand
dollars, and what she kept is much more valu-
able. She is held in high esteem throughout
the neighborhood in which she lives and de
serves the position she occupies in the regard
and good will of the people around her.
PROGRESSIVE MUX <>i : WESTERN COLOi
^
HARRY M. CANNON.
Harn M. Cannon, one of the most ex-
and successful fruit-growers of west-
ern Colorado, whose fine farm of forty-five
acres, with about thirty-six in choice fruit
tree-, is a model of thrift, good management
and skillful culture, was born at Madison,
Jefferson county, Indiana, on March 20, 1865,
and is the son of Thomas L. and Martha
(Nichols) Cannon, the former a native of
Aurora, Indiana, and the latter of Milton.
Kentucky. The father is still living in his
native state, and has keen foreman of a plan
ing mill there throughout his mature life. His
wife died in 1865, when her son Harry was
km two months old. They had a family of
si: children, all of whom are dead but Harn
a of his lirothers. After the former left
he worked at cigar making for some
time, then ran a dairy and farmed for eight
years in Indiana. In September, 1901, lie
came to Colorado and settled in Mesa county
Here for a vear he rented and in the autumn
of 1902 he bought the place on which he lives.
It comprised twenty acres, seventeen of which
were in fruit tree- in good bearing order. He
at once set out more trees after making his
purchase, and in 1903 bought twenty-five acres
more land. He now has thirty-six acres in
productive orchards, the trees ranging from
six to fifteen years old, and expects during this
vear (1904) to plant five acres additional,
mostly in peaches. In 1903 his crop of fruit
brought over seven thousand dollars, it being
sold to eastern men, with whom he always deals
direct: and he already has a contract for the
sale of his crop of 1905. The apples last year
were nearly one hundred per cent, fancies, a
very good showing for this section. But he is
a practical fruit-grower and equipped with
every appliance that his observation and read-
ing have indicated as necessary for the best
2 5
results in Iris work. Among these is a
and-a-half-horsepower gasoline engine for
g. On May 28, 1888, he united in
marriage with Miss Katie Pefrerko
of Ohio, born on August 2. 1867, the dan
of Chriss and Helen (Bruner) Pefferkorne.
Three children have blessed and brightened his
household, Walter T„ Harry F. and Ruth
all of whom are living at home. Mr. Ca
always finds a ready market for lhs fruit as it
is always first class and has a high reputation
where it is known. He takes an earnest in-
ipment of the county and
every undertaking for the lasting good of its
In politics he is a Republican.
SAMUEL VV. WEEKS.
The interesting subject of this brief review-
is a native of Xew York state, where bi
liis parents were born and reared, and where
their forefather, lived for many genera
His life began on June 2. 1853, and he
son of Harvey and Adeline (Green) Weeks,
both now deceased. They were farmers all
their lives and prospered at the business. Their
son Samuel was reared on the paternal home-
stead and received a common-school education.
\tter leaving school he farmed in his native
locality until 1893, tnerl turned his attention to
the produce trade at Groton, Yew York, in
which he was engaged seven years. In 1900 he
again went to farming in New York and con-
tinued at the business until 1002. when he
came to Colorado and located in Delta county.
Here he purchased the place on which he m >w
lives, about two miles and three-quarters
si mthwest of Delta. It comprises one hundred
and sixty acres, forty of which are in alfalfa
and five in fruit. He also raises wheat and
oats. The section is not well adapted to fruit
and his yield in this commodity is small. But
the hay land produces a net revenue of about
3 86
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
fifteen dollars an acre, and he is extensively
engaged in bee culture, having over five hun-
dred stands of bees. In the season of 1903 he
sold nearly twenty thousand pounds of first-
class honey, netting him some fifteen hundred
dollars from the industry. Mr. Weeks was
married on October 26, 1875, to Miss Louisa
Karn, a native of New York state, born on
February 6. 1855. and the daughter of Peter
and Matilda (Hockman) Karn, also born in
that state and both now deceased. Three chil-
dren have been born in the Weeks family, C.
Herbert, Mortimer P. and Adeline. The oldest
lives 111 California and the other two in Xew
York. Mr. Weeks is a Republican in politics,
and a well estemed citizen.
JOHN NAEVE.
The industry, thrift and persistent energy
which characterize the German people have
been transplanted by the subject of this sketch
from his nativity in the fatherland to this coun-
try, where they have been employed to good
purpose by him in winning an estate of fair pro-
portions and secure foundation from unpromis-
ing conditions and the virgin wilderness of this
western world. His life began in German)- on
December 11. 1861, and he is the son of Wil-
liam and Lizzie (Schroeder) Naeve. also Ger-
man by nativity and residents of their native
land throughout their lives. They had a fam-
ily of three children, of whom their son John
is the only one living, the others having died
in Germany as their parents did. He remained
at home until 1882, receiving his education in
the common schools and working on the pa-
ternal homestead in the interest of his parents.
Tn the year last named he hearkened to the
voice of- the United States calling for volun-
teers in her great army of industrial progress
and came to this country, settling in Boone
county, Towa, where he worked two wars 011
farms for wages. In 1884 he moved to Sher-
man county, Nebraska, and there he took up
a homestead of one hundred and twenty acres
of land, which he improved and lived on until
1898. He then sold it for seven hundred
dollars. During the next two years he rented
a farm in that county, and in 1900 came to
Colorado and bought the place on which he
now lives, or a part of it, locating six miles
east of Grand Junction. Five acres of the land
were in fruit trees when he made the pur-
chase and he has since planted two additional
acres in fruit. In the fall of 1903 he bought
twenty acres more, all wild land, which be in-
tends to improve and make productive as
rapidly as be can. His fruit crop in 1903
netted him about seven hundred dollars and
be kept the hay and other products of the land
nearly all for his own use. Seven acres of the
land are in hay and yield about forty-two tons.
On March 5, 1883, Mr. Naeve was married to
Miss Anna Kahlor. like himself a native of
Germany, and born in that country on Sep-
tember 24. 1866. They have seven children,
Willie C. Dora C, Louisa C, Anna F., John
H.. Alvin H. and May. They were all born
in Nebraska, but the oldest who was born in
Iowa. Mr. Naeve belongs to the Modern
Woodmen of America and the Republican
party. He and his wife are members of the
German Lutheran church.
WILLIAM BRIGGS.
Although now a . prosperous and pro-
gressive fruit-grower on a choice little farm of
twelve acres, ten of which are in thrifty and
prolific apple, peach and pear trees, located
about one mile east of Clifton, Mesa county.
this state. William Briggs was born and reared
amid very different surroundings and bred to
a different vocation, though bis early training
was somewhat in a similar line, he having been
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
387
born and reared on a farm in Chautauqua
county, New York. His life began on Novem-
ber 15, 1863, and he is the son of O. F. and
Marietta (Eells) Briggs, who were of the
same nativity as himself. His parents were
prosperous fanners and he remained with
them until 1885, when he was twenty-two
years old, working on the farm and attending
the public schools for a few months a year dur-
ing a few years. From his home he moved to
North Platte, Nebraska, in 1885, and there he
was engaged in railroad work until 1894, when
he came to Denver and became a railroad con-
ductor out of that city. In the spring of 1896
he moved to Mesa county, settling on a twelve-
acre fruit farm which he bought, and ten acres
of which were already in fruit trees two years
old. Here he is still living and in conducting
the place he has greatly prospered with the
promise of still more extensive returns for his
industry. In the season of 1903 he sold one
thousand five hundred dollars worth of su-
perior fruit from the place, and each year the
product of his orchard increases. On Febru-
ary 13, 1889. he was united in marriage with
Miss Bertha Blaser, a native of Switzerland
born on August 27, 1865. She is the daugh-
ter of Jacob and Magdalena (Beangerter)
Blaser. and came to the United States when
she was sixteen years old. Mr. Briggs had
three brothers and three sisters, all of whom
are living. In his own household three chil-
dren have been born. Cora M.. William G. and
Arthur A., and they are all still living at home.
He is an active member of the United Work-
men and is a zealous follower of the political
fortunes of the Republican party. He is pros-
perous in his business, enterprising in reference
to public improvements in his neighborhood,
warmly interested in the welfare of his county
and ardently devoted to the institutions of his
adopted state. Among her people he is well
esteemed as an enterprising and progressive
man and an excellent citizen.
D. C. HAWTHORNE.
D. C. Hawthorne, of Mesa county, this
state, living on a fine and fruitful ranch lo-
cated about half a mile west of Palisades, who
has contributed materially to the development
and improvement of the fruit industry in west-
ern Colorado, is a New Englander by nativity,
born in Windsor county. Vermont, on March
22, 1826. His parents were Collins and Rosa-
mond (Ransom) Hawthorne, also born and
reared in New England. They moved from
Vermont to Erie county. New York, in the
spring of 1842. and there they passed the rest
of their lives, the father dying in 1883 and the
mother in 1895. They were farmers and their
son D. C. lived with them and aided in their
labors until 1850. teaching school in the winter
months from 1842. when he was but sixteen
years old, to 1S48. six years in all. In 1850 he
went to work in the interest of an insurance
company, with whom he remained two years.
In the spring of 1852 he went to Independence.
Missouri, and from there journeyed with ox
teams to Oregon, crossing the Sierra Nevadas
at the Cascades near Mt. Hood; and on bis
arrival at Oregon City in the fall of 1852 he
joined a government surveying partv. but soon
after began surveying for himself and con-
tinued until the spring of 1858. He then went
to San Francisco, and from there made a visit
to his old home in Erie county. New York.
Coming west again soon afterward, he stopped
in Leavenworth county. Kansas, and engaged
in the nursery business, remaining there so
occupied until 1886, at which time he moved to
the western part of the state, where he lived
until 1890. In that year he came to Colorado
and located in Mesa county, securing emplov-
ment in the orchards of George Crawford,
for whom he set out sixty acres in peaches,
apples, pears, plums and grapes. He remained
with Mr. Crawford until the spring of 1894.
He then determined to start in the fruit busi-
3 88
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN (
ir himself, and moving to Palisades, he
bought the twenty-acre farm on which he now
lives and planted ten acres of it in fruit trees
of various kinds. He has recently planted the
other ten acres in fruit and will in a few years
have one of the best and most productive
orchards on the Western slope. From the ten
acres already in hearing order he harvested in
1902 and sold twenty-three hundred dollars
worth of fruit, and he did as well if not better
in 1903. On October 4, 1859, he was married
to Miss Sarah M. Hapgood, one of the four
children born in the household of her parents,
hut one of whom are now living. She was born
in Windsor county, Vermont, and died in
Kansas in the fall of 1880. To this union
were horn two children, A. Hapgood, who died
in Kansas in 188 1, and Rosamond F., a resi-
dent of Boston, Massachusetts. In August.
1882, Mr. Hawthorne married a second wife,
Fa C. Short, who still abides with him.
In political faith he is an active and zealous Re-
in, and in fraternal life was for a num-
ber of years an active member of the order
of Odd Fellows. He and his wife belong to
the Methodist church and take a serviceable
part in its works of benevolence and other
activities, earnestly supporting all worthy and
beneficent movements.
JOHN J. PLANK.
Having met every requirement of duty
throughout a long and not uneventful hie. and
labored industriously to provide himself and
his family against adversity, conducting his
operations amid varying circumstances of for-
tune. John J. Plank, a prosperous and success-
ful fruit-grower of Mesa county, living about
one mile and a half west of Palisades, is now
enjoying in the evening of life the benefits of
his labors in a snug competence and the last-
ing esteem and good will .if his fellow men.
He was born in Wayne county. Ohio, on Sep-
tember 28. 1S30, and is the son of David and
(Kurtz j Flank, natives of Pennsylvania
who died in Ohio, whither they moved in their
early married life. They had a family of
eight children, of whom but four are living.
John received a common-school education and
assisted his parents on the paternal homestead
until he reached the age of eighteen. He was
then apprenticed to a gunsmith to learn his
trade at Wooster in his native county, and
1 at the trade until 1S62. He then en-
listed in the Union army for the Civil war as
a member of the One Hundred and Twentieth
Ohio Infantry and served to the close of the
war. He was in the Vicksburg and Arl
Post campaigns, and with General Bauks on
his Red River expedition. On this expei
all but seventy men in his command of four
hundred were killed, the seventy saving them-
;elves by climbing a ten-foot bank by the aid
of brush ami vines. This was the last im-
portant engagement in which he took part.
He then became a member of the One Hun-
dred ami Fourteenth Volunteer Infantry and
d rill the fall of 1865 and was then trans-
ferred tn the Forty-eighth Ohio Veteran Bat-
talion. After being mustered out of the service
al Houston, Texas, he returned to Wooster,
where he lived and worked at his trade until
the spring of 1876. He then moved to Win-
field. Kansas, and continued at Ins trade there
until 1803. In the autumn of that year he
came to this state and located at Canon City.
Nearly a year later, in August, 1894, he moved
to Grand Junction and soon afterward bought
ten acres of land in the vicinity of Palisades.
The land was wholly wild and unimproved,
.Mill after preparing it for the purpose he set
mit six and a half acres in fruit trees.
Four years later he set 1 mt an ad-
ditional acre and a half in fruit, and
he now has eight acres of trees in a thrifty and
productive condition, yielding large returns for
389
i and bringing hii i
revenui I md five
hundred dollars' worth of fruit off of th
other farm products of value. In No-
vember, [866, he was married to Miss
L. Flohr, who was born at Canto
daughter of Jacob and Matilda (Wagley)
Flohr, natives of Pennsylvania who settled in
Ohio in early life. Mr. and Mrs. Plan!
ven children, of whom three, Nelli
Clara A. and Harry G, are living; and Lewin
ephine and an infa
dead. Mr. flank is a stanch Repubh
politics and belongs to the Brethren's church
in religious affiliation. His wife died on April
to, 1 goo. He is energetic and enterprising in
Ins business and earnestly attentive to all the
duties i if citizenship. Among the residents of
his and other porC he is
highly esteemed fur his sterling worth and
manly qualities.
WILLIAM A. GILLASP
Invested with the charge and management
of a large farm, and conducting its affairs suc-
cessfully for six years < wing to the continued
illness of his father, he being the oldest child
in the family, cheated out of all hi- earnings
mrewd and dishonest partner in business
a year later, working as a salesman for farm-
ing machinery in a hotly contested field, then
• to this state and working in the mines
and at carpentering and hauling ore through
a severe winter, starting a
dairy later from his earnings and having- the
cows, which iie had leased, offered at sheriff's
»nd thereupon being obliged to borrow
one thousand eight hundred dollars at eighteen
per cent, to buy them. William A. Gillaspev.
of Gunnison county, one of the most widely
and favorably known live-stock men on the
Western slope, has had plenty of trouble and
: lus struggle for advancement a
men, hut lie has triumphed over all diffi
rked himself to a comfortable estate and
i of high esteem among his fell< <
zens of the county. His e
the greater and the best part of his education,
and while that has been bitter it h;
li
tical. His ranch of three hundred and twenty
k, seven and a half miles
I is one of the i
. the valley and yields an ai
of three hundred and fifty tons of hay a year.
'/rain and other products. Mr.
Gillaspey was born near Steubenville, Jeffer-
son county. Ohio, on August 24. 1850. and is
the son of John and Rachel A. (Maxwell)
pey, the former a native of Pennsylvania
and the latter of Ohio. The father ■
farmer and in [855 moved his family to Henry
county, Iowa, where they were pioneers. There
ming operations were enlarged and be-
came extensive and profitable, and there the
parents died., the father in August. 1893, and
04, the forme 1
I -four and the latter sixty-four years of
age at the time of death. They had ho
and one daughter, all of whom are living lint
the daughter, William being the oldest. He
- of age when the 1.
>.ts made, and obtained his educal
the common schools of that state. When the
son reached the age of sixteen the father was
taken ill and the former was forced to take
charge of the farm and manage its operations.
This he did until he was twenty-two, farming
the place on shares after he was twenty-one.
Then having saved about twelve hundred dol-
lars, he bought an interest in a grocery store,
but at the end of a year his shrewd partner
had it all. This experience was a hard
him at the time, but it was valuable all th
sequent life. For nearly two years after
39°
PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
that he was a salesman of the Lowden hay
machine, installing it in barns for the farmers
who bought it. In April, 1S80, having again
accumulated a little money, he came to Colo-
rado, reaching Gunnison on April 2T,d. He
soon afterward went to Irwin and there
worked in the mines and at his trade as a
carpenter until the winter of 1881-2, during
which he hauled ore from the mines to Crested
Butte, the snow being so deep in places that
he drove over telegraph poles sixteen feet high.
In 1884 he leased the ranch known as the
Mowbery ranch at Gunnison, together with
some cows, and started a dairy. Two years
latter the cows were sold at sheriff's sale, their
owner having mortgaged them and failed to
pay off the mortgage, and he was obliged to
borrow eighteen hundred dollars at eighteen
per cent, interest to buy them. He kept his
dairy going in this way and prospered at it by
extraordinarily hard work. In 1889 he sold the
dairy, and after paying his indebtedness had
over one hundred cattle. He then began to
give his attention wholly to the cattle industry,
shipping in the first registered Shorthorn bull
that was brought to Gunnison county and also
the first grain binder. In addition, with char-
acteristic enterprise, he was the first man in
the county to sow oats. In 1893 he leased the
ranch on which he lives and one year later he
bought it. He has cleared of sage brush and
redeemed by irrigation one hundred acres of
his land since he bought it, and now has very
profitable returns from his labor in cultivating
it. The first year he cut one hundred and fifty
tons of hay. but the annual yield is now three
hundred and fifty tons. He also has three
hundred graded Shorthorn cattle and has some
other excellent registered stock. In [900 he
bought the imported Percheron stallion Pasha.
one of the finest breeders ever brought to the
county. Tin's valuable animal had the mis-
fortune to break a leg in [904 and had to be
killed. That animal was recently replaced
by one equally as good. Keota Brilliant, bred
from imported stock both sire and dam. Mr.
Gillaspey was one of the organizers of the
Gunnison Count\- Stock-growers Association,
and is now (1905) serving his fourth term as
its president. When he came to this county
he had but one dollar in money. His success
is due to his own efforts and native ability. In
politics he is a Republican and in fraternal life
a Knight of Pythias and an Elk. belonging to
the lodge of the order last named at Ouray.
On July 26, 1898, he united in marriage with
Miss Ada Sales, a native of Kansas, whose
father, James Sales, is now a prosperous
farmer in Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Gillaspey
have two sons, Willis Alvin and John J.
Clarence. For seven years the father was
president of the now defunct Gunnison County
Fair Association, which he helped to organize
and in which be was a leading stockholder.
JOHN EDWARD WYLIE.
A resident of Colorado since 1880. and
during the last ten years of the time living on
the ranch which is now his home. John Edward
Wylie has seen much of the great develop-
ment of the Western slope in its progress and
has used to good purpose his opportunities to
aid the movement. He was born on August
27, [861, in Fairfield county, Ohio, where his
parents, George W. and Charlotte (Griffith)
Wylie. were also native. The father was a
farmer and a contractor in railroad construc-
tion work. In 1871 the family moved to
Anderson county, Kansas, where they were
among the early settlers, and where the father
died in 1875. The mother is now living in
Ohio. Of their three children two are living.
John Edward being the older of them. He
was about ten years old when the mine to
Kansas occurred, and in the common schools of
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
39i
that state lie completed the education, so far as
he had opportunity to go, which lie had begun
in those of his native place. He was but little
over fourteen when his father died, but even
at that early age he assumed charge of the farm
and conducted its operations, continuing to do
this until 1880, when he came to Colorado
and located at Conejos. Here he worked on
a ranch and drove freight teams until August,
188 1, when he moved to Gunnison, just before
the railroad through the town reached it. He
was employed on this road about one year, and
then entered into partnership with S. J. Miller
to carry on a livery business, under the firm
name of Miller & Wylie. This they conducted
successfully thirteen years. In the meantime
they bought a ranch, the one on which Mr.
Wylie now lives, and which he took in his
part of the property of the firm when the part-
nership was dissolved. It comprises two hun-
dred and eighty acres and is well improved
and all under irrigation. Here he has a
flourishing cattle industry in which he makes
a specialty of thoroughbred Shorthorns, hand-
ling on an average about two hundred and fifty.
He manages his business with close attention
to every detail and the results justify his care.
His cattle have a high grade in the markets
and this is due to the fact that they are always
in good condition and bred with due regard to
the largest returns for the outlay involved. In
politics Mr. Wylie is a pronounced Republican,
and fraternally a Woodman of the World in
the camp of the order at Gunnison, of which
he is a charter member. On November 3,
1887. he was united in marriage with Miss
Lucinda Cooper, a native of Clinton county,
Illinois, a daughter of Stephen D and Hannah
E. (Stiles) Cooper, who were born, reared and
married in Ohio, and were earlv settlers in the
county of her birth. The father died in
Washington county. Illinois, in T875, and the
mother in Indiana in 1901. Mrs. Wylie came
to Colorado in [882, and since then has lived
in Gunnison county.
EZRA E. JAYNES.
For years actively engaged in general
business and mercantile life, giving valuable
service to the cause of education in several
sections of the country as a school teacher, and
during the Civil war being at the front through
a considerable portion of the momentous con-
test and receiving a number of wounds, Ezra
E. Jaynes has performed with fidelity and zeal
most df the duties of citizenship which ordi-
narily fall to the lot of an energetic and
patriotic man, and has well earned the rest
which he has enjoyed for the last twelve years
of his life. He was born in St. Albans town-
ship, Franklin county, Vermont, on June 25.
[834, and is the son of Chester and Eliza (Dee)
Jaynes, of the same nativity as himself. The
Jaynes family are of English origin and the
Dees of French, but domesticated for a long
time in Wales. Both lines came to this coun-
try in early colonial times, and have been con-
spicuous in the service of the land of their
adoption in all phases of its history in peace
and war. The immediate parents of Mr.
Jaynes passed their lives and ended their days
on the Vermont homestead. The father was
a captain of the war of 1838, and the maternal
grandfather was General Washington Dee, of
the continental army in the Revolution. The
family comprised nine children, four of whom
are living, Ezra E. being the third child horn
and now the only living son. He grew to the
age of seventeen in his native state, and being
graduated at the academy at Georgia there at
thai age at once moved to Delaware county.
Ohio, where he taught school two years. He
was then clerk for Williams, Andrews & Com-
39^
IV E MEN OF WESTERN ■
pany, of that county, pari of the time working
in a bank and part in the paper mills belonging
to the company. Early in 1854 he moved to Chi-
and after clerking six months in the
general store of A. L. Kenzie there, took up his
residence in St. Croix county, Wisconsin,
where he again taught school two terms as
■it in the high school at Hudson. He
then clerked nearly two years in a general
store at Hudson, after which he opened a store
of his own at New Richmond, Wisconsin,
where he also became postmaster and remained
until the beginning of the Civil war. At that
time he sold out and on April 19, [861, en-
listed in the Union army as a member of Com-
i ', First Wisconsin Infantry. Prior to
this he had belonged to the Home Guards. The
■;■. a vote on joining the Federal
m April 18th, and the next day went to
Madison and were mustered into the service in
Jaynes served to the close of the
war. at the end of three months re-enlisting in
Company F, Eighth Vermont Regiment.
They were assigned to 1 reneral Butler's bi
and sent to Ship island, off the coast of Mis-
sissippi. The command was embarked at New
York city on Jamiar 1 ~. [862, with three
d five hundred men on board, one
sand of them cavalry. They were on the water
thirty-one days, which Mr. Jaynes says was the
longest period of thai length lie ever ex-
perienced. During the trip six deaths occurred
on the steamer, the bodies being thrown over-
board. The passage was rough and stormy
all the way through. Later the regiment was
. rred to New Orleans and took part in
the bombardment of the forts there. After
that Mr. Jaynes was on detached duty for
some time, and brigade postmaster with an
n the Xew Orleans custom house. He
hen assigned to recruiting sen ii
recruited some eight hundred men for the
service. After that he returned to his regi-
ment and did service in the field. During this
period he was on the Opelousas Railroad and
i every foot of the advance
from W lexandra. Fie marched with
his command to Alexandra although he had
efore reaching the
salt works, having a portion of his right knee
tol away. During this march they drove
General Dick Taylor's army before them.
.vent down the river to Baton Rouge and
marched up the country to Port Hudson, hav-
ing considerable fighting on the way.
on was invested on Ma) 27, 1863, and the
lighting continued about a month. On |
1 ;i!i, Mr. Jaynes was shot through the right
sh iulder, the ball coming out at the side. This
ed early on Sunday morning, and he was
left mi the field as dead until Sunday night
he received assistance, having in the
1 id 1 .. He was then
taken fourteen miles over a cordui
scut 1 m a boat-to New Orleans, reaching a hos
there on June 24th, ten days after being
wounded without having his wound di
This was in a frightful condition, vet
and full of maggots, and it was
tarkable \ italit) that he lived and
wonderful recovery. He left th
November 24th on a furlough to \ ermont, and
without money or sufficient clothing. At the
end of ninety days thereafter, allium
wounds were nol entirely healed, he •■
boat at New York and rejoined ;
at Xew Orleans. About four weeks later in a
skirmish of the Opelousas Railroad he was sh< >t
through the right thigh, receiving a flesh
wounded. Soon afterward he was detailed as
hospital steward and a little while latei
1 rred 1 1 the Veteran : rps. In
May, [864, he went with his regimenl to New
York and from there was sent to Vit
where he had his last engagemenl in front of
Petersburg. Here he h ls ag tin shot through
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTEi
393
the right thigh about two inches above his
former wound in that limb. He was then
an Reserve ■
from which he was mustered out of the sen ice
at Brattleboro, Vermont, on March 24, [865.
After making a short visit to his old Vermonl
home lie moved to Will county, Illinois, where
he rented two hundred and forty acres of land
and engaged in farming. Four years later he
bought iHie hundred and sixty acres of un-
broken prairie in that county, and proceeded
to improve it, making a tine farm out of it and
enriching it with good buildings. In 1X01 he
rented this to a tenant, and having twelve
thousand dollars in cash, came to Colorado and
purchased ten acres of land on Fruit Rid
Mesa count)-. This was fenced and h
acre of orchard trees. He planted mor<
made other improvements until the place is
1 lie finest and most productive in
the valley. It belongs to his son,
it some years, ago at one thousand dollars per
acre. He also sold his Illinois Fai
Since 1902 Mr. jaynes the elder has lived re-
tired at Grand Junction, making- judicious in-
vestments of his savings in real estate in the
valley, where he owns more than one thousand
acres of excellent land. He was mar .
March 12, 1870, to Miss Man A. Klingler. a
native ■ nia, daughter of Elias am'
Sarah (Moyer) Klingler. also natives of that
state, who settled in Will county. Illim
[867. Tlie Klinglers are of German descent
hut have been in the United States
generations. Mr. Jaynes' father died in Will
county, Illinois, in [902, at the agi
two, leaving an estate worth over fifty thou-
sand dollars. The mother is still living
ami is now past eighty. Mr. and Mrs. Jaynes
have five children, Lester F... ( (scar \\ . ■
' . Edith E. (wife of W. H. Borschell),
;ini Alfred T. Oscar W. is principal of the
schools at Monee, Illinois. The other children
residents of Mesa county, tin-
Mr. Ja 1 1 lenl Republican in ;
e and esteemed member of the
if the Republic.
JOHN H. ROMER.
K d with the spirit of industi
which characterizes his race, and having
iractical
1 nee in his native land, John I!. >
of Mesa count}-, living near Collbran, on a
line ranch which he has redeemed from the
and made fruitful, came to the United
States a; the age of nineteen determined to get
on in the world if his own efforl
rid in this respect Ins hopes have
Fully realized. He was born
• :,. and is tin | ] Mary
■ r) Romer. They were also < ierman by
ty, and lived and died in their native
land, as their ancestors had. done for many
nons before them. The
well-to-do farmer, and lived to the ;
seventy-five, dying in 1873. The mother sur-
him eighteen years, dying in 1X01, at the
age of eighty-'-even. Their son Jul
paternal home lucated
at the state schools. He remained, at home
until he was nineteen assisting on the farm. At
that age he determined to seek his fortune in
the United States, and to this end landed in
Xew York in 1866. He remained there a short
time and then, after passing a short time in
Pennsylvania, migrated to Cleveland, Ohio,
where he worked on a dairy farm and drove a
team. From theredie went to Cincinnati, and
after a residence of a year in that city, came
west to Missouri. There he worked on a farm
two years, then bought one on which he lived
ab< >iit five years. From there he came to Alma,
this state, where he remained ten years. In
[886 he moved to Roan creek, near Debeque,
394
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Mesa county, and took up one hundred and
sixty acres of land, on which he made his
home for sixteen years. He then sold that
place and bought his present ranch near Coil-
bran, on which he has since resided. In 1882
he was married to Miss Lorena Colley, of Mis-
souri. Three children have blessed their union,
Olivia, Bertha and Emma. Mr. Romer has
prospered in life by his own industry and is
well fixed in the matter of property. He also
stands well in the regard of his fellow men.
JOHN A. FITZPATRICK.
John A. Fitzpatrick, of Collbran, Mesa
county, is a pioneer of 1878 in Colorado and
of 1880 in the portion of the state wherein
he now lives; and from the time of his advent
among its people he has been active and zeal-
ous in the development of the section and the
promotion of the general welfare of its in-
habitants. He is a native of Canada, born in
1840 in Glengarry county, province of On-
tario, and is the son of Hugh and Margaret
(Ross) Fitzpatrick. also natives of the Do-
minion, who passed their lives in that country
engaged in farming. The mother died in 1843.
leaving five children, of whom John was the
fourth, and the father in 1879, he being at the
time of his death sixty-five years old. Their
son John remained at home with his father
until twenty-one, receiving his education in
the schools near by and learning the business of
agriculture under the direction of his parent
on the homestead. When he reached his ma-
jority he came to the United States and settled
in Wisconsin where he was employed in lum-
bering two years. The next year was spent
in Minnesota in the same occupation, and the
next at his Canadian home. He then came
over into New York and farmed for a year,
then made a trip to Massachusetts, returning
again to Canada. Two years later he came to
Colorado ami located at Denver. In 1880 he
removed to Buena Vista, where he kept a hotel
for two years. In 1882 he settled on his pres-
ent ranch, and some time later started the livery
and feed business he is now conducting at
Collbran. He has business capacity and enter-
prise, and has prospered in all his undertak-
ings. At the same time he has built himself up
in public estimation as a wise and progressive
citizen, and is now held in general esteem
throughout his section of the county. In 1872.
at Montreal, Canada, he was married to Miss
Eliza Farlinger. a native of Glengarry county.
Ontario. They have nine children. Jeannette
G., John A. R., Chester C. Edgar f., Nellie.
Lloyd, Milton, Lillie and Ruby. In business
circles, in social life and in the public affairs
of the community Mr. Fitzpatrick is an im-
portant and influential man. and he is worthy
■ if his place.
ZACHARIAH BERTHOLF.
One of the original pioneers of Mesa
c unity, coming to seek his fortune amid its
prolific resources and abundant opportunities
in the early days of its history, and impelled
to the move by the hope of thereby benefiting
his wife's health, Zachariah Bertholf, of the
Plateau valley, who lived one mile south of
Collbran on a good ranch which he had made
comfortable with all the appointments of mod-
ern husbandry and fertile through careful in-
dustry and persistent effort, succeeded in both
aspirations, finding his wife restored to vigor
and good spirits by the healing air of the sec
lion and his own condition in life veil provided
for in a worldly way and secure in public
esteem. He was a native of Indiana, horn in
[837, and the son of Andrew II. and Electra
(Macumber) Bertholf, whose history is given
at some length in the sketch of his brother,
|ohn M. Bertholf, to lie found elsewhere in this
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
395
work. Mr. Bertholf remained at home until
he attained his legal majority, receiving a dis-
trict school education and acquiring a thorough
knowledge of farming by practical experience
in his father's fields. His first independent
engagement in the business of life was in the
line to which he had been trained and was on
farms in his native state. In 1883 he came to
Colorado and located in Mesa count}- on the
ranch which was ever afterward his home.
The story of his early struggles with hardship
and danger, and of his systematic and well-ap-
plied industry in making his farm habitable and
productive, is an oft-told tale in American
history. It is sufficient to say that he found the
conditions of life primitive and full of priva-
tion and hazard, and he met and overcame
them with a manly and self-reliant spirit, as
his ancestors had done elsewhere in this coun-
try from time to time where they were pioneers.
He was married, in 1858, to Miss Melissa Car-
rothers, of Indiana, where the marriage oc-
curred, and their union was blessed witli nine
children, all but two of whom are living. They
are Dora. Ida. Harvey, Eva, Elsie. Arthur and
Forest. The first born child, a daughter named
Letitia. died at the age of thirty-five, and an-
other named Myrtle at that of eleven. Mr.
Bertholf gave the affairs of his ranch close and
careful attention. But he nevertheless found
time to indulge his passion for hunting at times,
and lie had a great reputation as a Nimrod in
the state, having to his credit many deeds of
prowess in this line of sport. On one oc-
casion with five shots he brought down three
bear and two deer, which is strong proof of
his skill and accuracy as a marksman, as well
as a high tribute to his courage and success as
a hunter. His journey hither with his family,
from their Indiana home, was made with teams
and portions of it were through a trackless
wilderness; and they traveled, not in an armed
and well protected train, hut alone and with
no guards but themselves; thus showing the
true spirit of the pioneers, which is ever un-
daunted amid dangers, and ever at home amid
Nature's benignant manifestations and multi-
form scenes of life. In the community which
he helped to found and aided in developing Mr.
Bertholf was held in the highest regard as a
wise and progressive man and a good citizen.
His death occurred on October 16, 1903.
GEORGE GIBSON.
In the veins of George Gibson, of 'Mesa
count}', who constructed and now owns and
operates a saw-mill near Plateau City, the
Mood of the southern cavalier of this country
mingles with that of the sturdy Scotch High-
lander, his father. James R. Gibson, being a
native of North Carolina, and his mother,
whose maiden name was Mary Mearns, of
Scotland. The father left his native heath
when he was young and became a pioneer in
Illinois: and his mother came to this country
with her parents in early life and found a new
home in the same great state. There they be-
came acquainted and were married, and there
their son George, who was the fourth of their
eight children, was bom in 1864. In 1882 the
family moved to Kansas, where both parents
died in iSq8. George was eighteen years old
when he became a resident of Kansas, and
although before that event for about two years
lie had been shifting for himself, he accom-
panied his parents thither, and during the first
two years thereafter was engaged in farming
in that state. He had received a common-school
education in his native place, and was well pre-
pared for the industry with which he has been
largely connected since reaching his maturity
by practical training on his father's farm and
others in Illinois. In the spring of 1890 he
settled in the Plateau valley, in this state, and
in that section he has since continuously re-
396
RESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
sided, prominently connected with its develop-
ed deeply interested in a practical and
leading way in its enduring welfare. In this
; ate he first located near the vil-
there for some years car-
: a flourishing business as a rancher and
Later he moved to the vicinity
ity and built a saw-mil] which he
n operating greatly to the ad-
vantage of the community and his own profit,
'i it furnishing a much-needed cont-
uses in the sun
and reaping the rewards of his
rprise in a large and expanding i
V'hi neither ostentatious nor self-as-
an important part in the
public life of his section, and is highly es-
teemed as a citizen of lofty tone, breadth of
: t ssive ideas.
WILLIAM S. COOK.
The childhood of William S. Cook, a pros-
perous ranchman of the Plateau valley. Mesa
county, this state, living about two miles north
illage of Collbran, was darkened by the
shadov i ment in the death
i when he was but nine years old; and
of his later life were oppressed by
apparently unremuherative toil.
with their incident hardships and privations.
his unconquerable energy
and his unvarying frugality and thrift, he is
well fixed in a worldly way, and can look hack
with composure over the i id trials
h which he ha
■ntv. Missouri. March 25, 1852,
and is the son of George E. and Mary A.
(Mattln 1 1 k,the E01 mei a natn e of Rhode
Island and the latter of England. The father
migrated to Iowa in his youth, and later to
Missouri. In 1S57 he moved his family to
Kansas, where his wife died in 1861, aired
Forty years. In 1878 he came to
Douglas county. Colorado, and a short time
afterward went to California, since which time
he has never been heard 1 by hi: m William
S. Cook remained at his home in Kansas until
he reached the age of nineteen, securi
education in the
earning his own living for some years at
ous occupations. At the age of nineteen he
came to this state and located
he time, as the sum
earthly possessions, the clothing he wore and
ten cents in money. He remained in D
county ten years employed in riding the range
and herding cattle. On 1 ' 882, he
landed in Grand valley, Mesa county, and two
later look up his residence in Plateau
walk}- on the ranch which is his present home.
Since that time he has been a resident -
section and has been actively engaged in de-
veloping a profitable farming and. stick busi-
ness and in his way promoting the g
growth and progress of the community in
which he lives. He was married in 18
[da Jones, a native of Douglas o
Colorado. Eight children have blessed their
m six are living, Madge.
Flora, William S.. Jr., James and Albert B
Those deceased are Maud, who died in 188 1.
and John who died in 1898.
RICHARD HUMPHREY.
Born to a destin) of t< >il, hardship, d
•; En >m child-
make his 1 >w 11 war iii the \vi rid. Rich-
nmphrey, of Delta county, the owner
and manager ol a fine ranch of two hundred
orty acres lying sa eight miles
from Helta, has bravely confronted every dif-
ficult) and successfully overcome evei
I le was horn Jul) 25, [834, in the
of Kentucky and is the si n ^\ fames and An-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
39;
geliru I [umphrey, both nati
Kentucky. The father died when the son was
but one year old, leaving a family of three chil-
dr< n, all of whom are living. I
reared on the farm a the conditions
of the family and. the need of every available
hand in getting through with the farm work,
he had but few and short opportunities for at-
tending schi « il. Vet such was the natural force
and aptitude of his mind that he acq
' fair degree of knowledge of the elementar;
branch
very difficulties of his situation gained self-
reliance rcefulness — qualities
service in every en : ns subsequent
life. He remained at home assisting his rnother
in managing the homestead until October 22,
when he enlisted in the Union arm}' as
mber of the Twenty-sixth Kentucl
fantry. In this regiment he served to the close
i' the Civil war, being discharged on July 20.
. nd was alwa) s at tin
he was never absent, passin ;
cl vithout receiving a wound,
taken pris >ner or spending a day in the
irticipated in the battles of
Shiloh, Brentwood Hills and Nashville, went
thr' ugh numerous skirmishes in which
presenl i • Fast rind
furious, and took part in many other engage-
ments of note. After his discharge he re-
turned to his old Kentucky home, and remained
there until 1887. when he came to Col
He was at that time fifty-three years of age.
with all his powers of bod) and mind in full
vigor and his wisdom matured by an extensive
and varied experience. He has applied his
knowledge and ripened judgment to his busi-
ness and the general improvement of his sec-
tions in this state, and the result is that he has
gained a competency here for himself and
been of signal service to others and his com-
munity in general in pushing forward the
levelopi ill r ery material
I around him. On his arrival
-I'M; . in the spring of [888, he
I the place on which he
id he has since bought an addition
tundred and sixty acres, so that he has
hundred and forty acres of
n which he raises excellent
103 lie produced on
1 u1 twelve hundred bushels of
rass large and
elds ol i:; st-class ha) . It is Ins pres-
1 to devote Ins land principally to
reafter, as this seems to be its best and
I I umphrey was first
married on May 10. i860, to Miss Mary Asher,
. . of Kentucky. She died on May 16,
leaving three children. Matilda. A., Allen
\rrie C, all of whom are living. On
March 20, [876, he was married to Miss
er, who bore him one son, Carl Ii
tiled in February, 1897, at the ai
years, in a coal mine in Kentucky. The
I wife died on Max [6, 1 S y - . and on
May 30, 1883, he married a third, Narcissa
cl in, who was bom in Davis county, Ken-
lucky, on April 1/, [851. They had in
which died when it was only four davs old.
igh taking an active part in local affairs
involving the welfare of his section of the
count)" and state, Mr. Humphrey is independ-
1] in politics. In church re-
lations he is a Baptist. He is a good citizen.
progressive business man. an earnest pro-
moter of every public interest, and is well es-
teemed wherever he is known.
LEMUEL T. STEWART.
Lemuel T. Stewart, of Mesa county, living
in a good stone house which he built on Roan
creek and which was one of the first erected
on that stream, he being among the earliest
398
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
settlers in this region, is a native of Ohio, born
in 1850. He is the son of James and Nancy
(Turner) Stewart, both of the same nativity
as himself. His father was a shipbuilder in his
younger days, and later became a farmer
his native state. He died there in 1856, at
the age of sixty-three; and his wife died the
same year, aged fifty-eight. They had seven
children, of whom the subject was the last
born. Thus doubly orphaned at the early age
of six, he was thrown on his own resources
while he was yet very young. His boyhood
was passed at Bellefontaine, in his native state.
working on a farm and going to school. At
the age of twenty-one he migrated to Illinois,
and some little time later to Kansas. Here
he taught school four years, then came to Colo-
rado, locating at Denver, where he remained
about eight months. From there he moved
to Blackhawk, Colorado, and kept a hotel for
some time, after which he was employed for
two years in mining at Caribou, Boulder
county, and during the next tour in the same
occupation at Leadville. In 1880 he made a
trip through Arizona, New Mexico and I 'tab
prospecting, and in 1882 located on Roan creek-
near where be now lives. He was, as has been
noted, one of the first settlers in this section
and built one of the first dwellings on the creek
for the residence of a white man. The house
is of stone and stands just west of the Con-
tinental divide. Mr. Stewart has lived here
continuously since his first occupation of the
land, and has been busily occupied in farming
and raising stock. His ranch is historic ground,
lying along the trail taken by the Ute Indians
after the Meeker massacre. In [890 Mr.
Stewart was united in marriage with Miss
\nnie Meyer, and their union has been blessed
with one child, their daughter Lula. The
father has been very active in public affairs.
particularly in school matters, having served as
president of the school hoard from its or-
ganization until the fall of 1902, when he de-
clined to serve longer. He is one of the repre-
sentative men of this section.
ROBERT EATON.
Robert Eaton, one of the leading business
men of Debeque, Mesa county, began life with
the shadow of a double bereavement, losing
both his parents when he was but four years
old. and has had a varied and interesting
career, worked out mainly by bis own efforts
and capacity. He was born in the city of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1850, and is
the son of Joseph and Susan (Carey) Eaton.
His father was a Scotchman and bis mother
a Pennsylvanian by nativity, and both died in
1854. The father came to this country early
in the "forties and settled in Pennsylvania.
Later he moved his family to Zanesville, Ohio,
where he and his wife ended their days to-
gether. , Their son was one of twins, a son
and a daughter, born to them, their offspring
numbering four in all. After the death of his
parents he was taken to the home of an uncle
in Illinois, and there be grew to the age of
twenty and received a fair district-school edu-
cation. In 1870 he came to Colorado, ami
after spending a few months at Denver, moved
in 1871 to Weld county, where he remained
three years employed in herding cattle and
riding the range. In 1874 be went to Boulder
county and turned his attention to mining, and
in' 1878 followed the same pursuit at Leadville,
continuing his operations in this line at that
place until 1882. He then came to Mesa
county and settled on Roan creek, being one
of the first dwellers on that fruitful stream.
Two years later he moved to Gunnison county,
ami was engaged in mining in that prolific re-
gion until [885. At that time he returned to
the creek and went into the cattle business for
awhile, then moved again to Leadville. and
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
399
while there was elected a member of the lower
house of the legislature. At the end of his
term he returned to his ranch in Mesa county,
and after living there a short time, sold it and
opened a real estate business at Debeque. This
he has prosecuted vigorously and built up into
an enterprise of considerable moment, being
alway-s ready to meet the demands of an ex-
acting though active market, and directing its
course along lines of healthy development. He
is one of the leading men of this part of the
state.
RALPH W. OSTROM.
Ralph W. Ostrom, a respected citizen of
Debeque. who has been active in the industrial
and commercial life of the community, was
born on shipboard in the waters of China in
1859. He is the son of Alvin and Susan
(Boylan) Ostrom. natives of New York. The
mother died in 1865 and was buried in her
native state. The father was a missionary in
China during the greater part of his life, and
later was occupied similarly in the Hawaiian
islands, where he died and was buried in 1 S<>5
at the age of seventy-two. Ralph was the
youngest of their three children. He was reared
to the age of eighteen in California, and there
received his education in the public schools.
At the age mentioned he started out in life for
himself, going to Arizona on a prospecting
tour and remaining about one year. In 1879
he came to Colorado, and locating at Pueblo,
was employed in painting houses and other
buildings for two years. He then spent short
periods at Gunnison and Grand Junction, after
which he took up his residence in the vicinity
of Debeque on Roan creek. A short time
afterward be returned to Grand Junction
where he remained and followed bouse paint-
ing until 1887. At that time he returned to
Debeque. and selling his ranch devoted himself
to mercantile business for eight vears, at the
end of which he sold his store to H. A. Stroud,
and then lived a retired life in the village which
he helped to build and which bears the marks
of his enterprise and progressiveness. In the
fall of 1904 he opened a meat market and
grocery in the postoffice building and here com-
mands a large and increasing patronage. In
1888 he was married to Miss Pearl Neel, a
native of Kansas. They have two children,
their daughters Helen and Hazel. In all the
relations of life Mr. Ostrom has been accept-
able to the people of this community, having
been enterprising in business and in public
affairs, upright and genial in his private life,
with breadth of . view, an enlightened public-
spirit in considering and promoting the best
interests of his section, and a lofty and inspir-
ing patriotism in his devotion to the welfare
of the whole country. No man in the com-
munity is more widely esteemed.
CORNELIUS M. GUINEY.
Cornelius M. Guiney. of Debeque, Mesa
count\-, foreman of the water service there for
the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, is a native
of Canada, born in 1850, and the son of
Nicholas and Catherine (Roach) Guiney, both
natives of Ireland. The father came to this
continent in 1856 and settled in Canada, and
six years later moved to Pennsylvania, where
be died in 1900. The son was reared from
childhood to the age of twenty-one in Penn-
sylvania, and received a district school edu-
cation there. At that age he came west to
Kansas and for two years was employed in a
powder-mill in that state, then moved on to
Colorado, and during the next two vears was
engaged in mining at Leadville. From there
he changed bis base of operations to the San
Juan country, where he mined and prospected
for fifteen years with varying success, having
the usual fate of men engaged in this exciting
400
RESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
and alluring but uncertain occupation. From
Colorado he went to New Mexico, and during
the next four years found remunerative though
hard work in teaming, after which he made a
trip to Seattle, Washington, and from there
returned to i blorado and went into the -
of the Denver & Rio Grande Railr
. and following his engagement with
the company at that point he became its fore-
man oi the water service at Debeque, Mesa
county. Since locating here he has acquired
' some property in the neighborhood, one piece
pedal value being a prolific orchard not
far from the village. One of his I
in active service during the Spanish-American
rid was shut in the knee at the ba
San Juan Hill. He is now in the Philippines
in the military service of the United States
government. Mr. Gti
to Miss Mar) Drounsell, a native of England,
the marriage occurring at Glenwood Springs.
Colorado, where she was living at the time.
They have four children. Nora, Frank, Ella
and Etta. In the community of his present
residence Air. Guiney has risen to consequence
and public esteem, and is regarded as a worthy
man in every way.
SAMUEL MARTIN.'
Coming to Colorado about thirty-one years
ago, Samuel Martin has passed more than half
lii> life in this state, and during that time he
In- 1 een of material service m its development
and improvement in a number of occupations
in different places, cultivating the soil, helping
to keep the peace as a civil officer, sawing lum-
ber for buildings and other structures, and in
numerous other ways. He brought to his
destiny here a frame enfeebled by exposure and
accident, and an experience of life in several
states and employments in peace and war. and
a natural aptitude to see and seize opportunities
and make the most of them. He was born on
September 8, 1836, in Sussexshire, England,
and is the son of John and Hannah (Perry)
Martin, also English by nativity. The mother
died in her native land and the father in Ohio
in 1853. On his arrival in this country the
father lived for awhile in the state of New
York, then moved to Ohio where he passed the
rest of his days. He was a farmer in
land and a builder and contractor in America.
In politics he supported the Republican
Four of the six children born in the family are
living, James and Sophie m England, William
imuel in Colorado. Owing to th<
death of his parents the subject recer
meager education. He came to America in
nd. losing his health while working in
1st, sought its recovery in the West, re-
moving to Buchanan count}, Iowa, where he
to be a sawyer of lumber He b
interested in the [ndi d< siring to learn
their language and modes of life, went
them in northwestern Iowa and in Minni
\fter sharing their wild life several months,
he returned to civilization at McGregor on the
Mississippi, m a sawyer
in the pines. Here he remained until
then moved to Mew Madrid. Missouri, and in
that region he was engaged in hunting and
trapping until June 26. 1860. ( iarae was abun-
dant and he found his occupation very profit-
able. While so occupied he was a passenger on
the river steamer "Ben Lewis" when she was
blown up near Cairo, and was so seriously in-
jured that he was laid up two years. At the
beginning of the Civil war he offered himself
as a volunteer in the Union army, but on ac-
count of his physical condition was not ac-
cepted. He was, however, accepted as a scout
and in this service was once captured by the
Confederates. \fter the close of the war he
returned to New Madrid and was appointed
deputv sheriff, lie remained there until 1S73
PROGRESSITE MEN O.F WESTERN COLORADO.
401
variously employed, then came to Colorado and
settled at Boulder, which at that time was a
small place with but few inhabitants. Here
he farmed until 1876, when he was appointed
under sheriff, and after two years' service in
that office was appointed marshal for Boulder
county for one year. From 1880 to 1884 ne
farmed on leased land, and in the year last
named moved to the White river valley and
bought a portion of his present home on Coal
creek, five miles northeast of Meeker. He has
purchased additional land until he has two
hundred and forty acres and the tract is sup-
plied with sufficient water to enable him to
cultivate two hundred acres. He raises hay
and cattle in large quantities and some grain
and vegetables. In political allegiance he be-
longs to the Democratic party, and he sup-
ports its principles with ardor, not now ami
then, but all the time and every day. He served
as county commissioner in 1001, 1902 and
1903. and his work in the office was highly
esteemed, as he is himself.
H. A. STROUD.
H. A. Stroud, for about fifteen years a
merchant at Debeque, Mesa county, and now
a member of the mercantile firm of McKay &
Stroud, dealers in general merchandise of even
kind, is a native of England, born in 1863. and
the son of John and Anna (Dayton) Stroud,
who were also natives of that country. In
[865 the} - brought their family to the United
States and settled in Iowa, afterward moving
to California, where the father died in 1891,
aged seventy-seven. The mother died two
years later, aged seventy. Their family com-
prised seven children, of whom the son. H.
A. Stroud, was the last born. He came with
his parents to the United States when he was
two years old, and grew to the age of nineteen
on the Iowa homestead, assisting in its labors
and attending the winter schools. In 1882 he
came to Colorado and located at Grand Junc-
tion. A year or two later he began freight-
ing between Grand Junction and Aspen, this
state, continuing the enterprise until 1888. At
that time he established a feed and sales
stable and a hay, grain and coal emporium at
Debeque, and a few years later bought the in-
terest in the stock of general merchandise be-
longing to Ralph W. Ostrom. and since that
time the firm has been known as McKay &
Stroud. Under their joint management the
enterprise has been greatly enlarged and the
trade vastly increased until it is now one of
the most extensive in this part of the state,
laving a large scope of country under tribute to
its trade. Mr. Stroud has been active for
years in the public life of the community, serv-
ing two or three times as mayor of the village.
He belongs to the order of Odd Fellows, with
membership in Roan Creek Lodge, No. 125.
In 1888 he was married to Miss Emma Dix-
son. a native of Illinois, and they have two
children. Herbert L. and Nettie M.
JASPER N. RHOADS.
Born in Missouri and reared amid the wide
sweep and stirring activities of the agricultural
life of that great state, and later following his
chosen vocation on a large scale in Kansas.
Jasper X. Rhoads, of Garfield county. Colo-
rado, living about five miles north of the vil-
lage of Debeque on Roan creek, came to be an
important factor in the farming industry of
his section after thorough preparation in the
business and having learned it in every detail
by actual practical experience. His life began
in 1865. and he is the son of Harvey and Mem-
ory (Evans) Rhoads. the former a native of
Ohio and the latter of Indiana. Soon after
their marriage they moved to Missouri, and
after a residence of many vears in that state
402
PR0GRESSIJ 7 E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
took up their abode in the territory of Okla-
homa, where they are now living. Jasper was
the second born of their twelve children, and
was reared to the age of nineteen on the Mis-
souri homestead, and received his education
at the district schools near by. At the age
mentioned he took up the contest of life for
himself, going to Kansas and there engaging
in farming for six years. In 1890 he came
to Colorado and settled at Grand Junction, but
he lived there only a short time, removing soon
after his arrival in the state to his present
home, which by industry and close application
he has made valuable in productiveness and
improvements, and beautiful with artistic ap-
pliances well adapted to its natural attractive-
ness. His land is pleasantly located along
Roan creek, in the midst of a region fertile
and responsive, and here he carries on a farm-
ing industry of good proportions and increas-
ing profits. He was married in 1885 to Miss
Mary Hays, a native of Missouri but living
at the time of her marriage in Kansas. They
have six children living, Meda, Estella, Vic-
tor, Harvey. Charles, and Lester. Two oth-
ers. Fern and Clarence, died in childhood.
Mr. and Mrs. Rhoads are among the leading
people of their community, and have the last-
ing respect and esteem of their large circle of
friends and the citizens generally. Mr.
Rhoads takes an active interest in the welfare
of his county and state and does his part
faithfully toward its promotion.
FRANK l\ CANNON.
From the seething agricultural industries
of Ohio, amid which he had acquired a thor-
ough knowledge of farming through active
practical experience, Frank P. Cannon, of Gar-
field count)-, came to Colorado when lie was
something over twenty years of age, and since
then he has been actively connected witli tin-
progress and development of this state in
various lines of useful effort, taking into the
range of his operations almost every occupa-
tion peculiar to the country, but devoting him-
self mainly to the one to which he was bred.
He was born in Summit county, Ohio, in 1854,
and is the son of Israel and Ruth (Sheels)
Cannon, prominent and successful farmers
there where they are now living. The father
was a native of Massachusetts, reared as a
farmer and following that industry during al-
most the whole of his life. In 1833 he moved
to Ohio where he has since resided. During
the Civil war he was a recruiting officer for
the Union army. The mother was a native of
New York, and belonged to a family of ardent
Union men, five of her brothers being in the
Federal army and doing valiant service in de-
fense of the perpetuity of the Union. She
was the mother of nine children, her son Frank
being the first born. He was reared on the
Ohio homestead, and in 1875, soon after com-
pleting his twentieth year, determined to seek
his fortune in the West, and for this purpose
came to Colorado and located at Littleton,
about fifteen miles from Denver. Here he re-
mained some six years engaged in farming
and raising and dealing in stock. In 1880 he
removed to Gunnison county, and was there
engaged in mining until 1884. In September
of that year he settled on the ranch which has
since been his home, which is beautifully lo-
cated on Roan creek, and here he has since
vigorously pushed his stock and farming in-
dustries to broad development and profitable
returns. He was married in 1883 to Miss
Christia Sugar, of Nauvoo, Illinois. They
have four children, Gladys, Lester. Allen and
Ruth. Mr. Cannon has taken a prominent
part in public affairs. He secured the es-
tablishment of the postoffice at Highmore ami
the county macl leading by it. which i< one
of the important thoroughfares in the county.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
and also the Highmore public school, aiding
materially in building the house for the same.
and serving the local board as secretary for a
period of twelve years. He was largely in-
strumental in having the first election precinct
laid off in this section of the county, and was
one of the influential forces and most active
workers in securing the construction of the
Roan creek reservoir for irrigating purposes,
which has been one of the main sources of
progress in the growth and development of
this portion of the county. He is a prominent
member of the Masonic order, and takes an
influential and serviceable part in all the pro-
ceedings of his lodge. Active and forceful in
every element of improvement and advance-
ment of his section from the time of his advent
among its people, Mr. Cannon is one of the
most respected and representative men of his
community, and has well exemplified in his
career the best attributes of its broad-minded
and wide-awake citizenship.
G. P. O. KIMBALL.
G. P. O. Kimball, one of the enterprising
and progressive farmers and stock men of
Garfield county, this state, whose fine ranch
is located on the creek which was named in his
honor lies fifteen miles north of Debeque, is a
native of New England, and he learned the
business in which he is engaged in that section
of the country, where the conditions of the
industry are widely different from those of
his present home, but the underlying princi-
ples are the same. He was born in Xew
Hampshire, at the town of Hanover, in 1846.
His parents were Joseph and Margaret (Blais-
dell) Kimball, the former a native of New
Hampshire and the latter of Maine. The fa-
ther moved to Maine as a young man and
there was married. He was engaged in farm-
ing and sawmilling until his death, in
1869, at the age of fifty-six. The mother
survived him fourteen years, dying in
1883, at the age of seventy-two. They were
the parents of three children, of whom their
son G. P. O. was the last bom. His boyh 1
and youth were passed on a farm in his native
state, and at the age of twenty-one he moved
to Pennsylvania and went to work in the lum-
ber industry. For four years he was thus
employed in that state, and in 1870 came to
Colorado, settling at Central City, where he
remained a year. From there he moved to
Middle Park and there was engaged in mining
until 1884, then .changed his base of operations
to the vicinity of Collbran. Mesa county, where
he resided a year. At the end of that period
he took up his residence on the ranch he now
occupies in Garfield county, where he has since
made his home. He was the pioneer of the
-took industry in this section, having been the
first man to bring cattle in numbers into the
region, ami since starting it here he has stead-
ily engaged in it and has helped to augment
it to its present large proportions. When he
came into the region it was necessarv to trans-
port everything in by pack animals. He was
very poor then but is now well-to-do. For
three years he gave the county faithful and
valued service as a county commissioner, and
has been otherwise prominent in public affairs.
He belongs to the Odd Fellows and the Ma-
sonic order. In 1888 he was married to Miss
Sarah C. Frasier.
FRED D. WILLSON.
Born in rather humble circumstances in
Massachusetts and removing from there with
his parents to the wilds of Wisconsin when
he was but five years old. and in that state
reared to a life of toil on a farm in the newer
and more undeveloped section of what was
then the West. Fred D. Willson. of Garfield
404
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
county. Colorado, had neither the favors of
fortune to give him a start in life nor the ad-
vanced education to prepare him for one. He
began with nothing but his own natural en-
dowment of determination and persistent
energy, and his unrelenting self-reliance, and
all the progress he has made is the result of
his own efforts and capacity- His life began in
1859, and he was the third of the seven chil-
dren born to his parents. About the year
1863. when he was yet a child of but four
years of age, the family moved to Wisconsin
where his father, Daniel S. Willson, ended his
days, dying in 1891, at the age of sixty-two.
His mother, whose maiden .name was Eliza
Woods, was also a native of Massachusetts, and
is now living in Wisconsin. The parents were
industrious and thrifty farmers, and sought
in the new state to which they moved better
opportunities of rearing and providing for their
offspring than their native place seemed to
offer. But they found the conditions of fron-
tier life less fruitful and more difficult than
they anticipated, and they could at best give the
children good training in active industry and
the example of faithful performance of duty;
and in this way they inculcated lessons of self-
denial and self-reliance, which after all may
have been the best estate they could have o in-
ferred. Their son Fred passed his boyhood
and youth in his new home, attending school
in the neighborhood as he had opportunity and
acquiring habits of useful labor and a practical
knowledge of agriculture on the paternal home-
stead. At the age of twenty-two he started in
life for himself, working on farms near his
home. He continued this line of activity there
two years, then came to Coloradi 1 and settled at
Red Cliff in Eagle county. Tie passed two
years there engaged in prospecting and min
ing, and at the end of that time moved to
where he now lives on a ranch in Garfield
county, located on Roan creek, about sixteen
miles north of the village of Debeque. Here he
has since been engaged in farming and rais-
ing stock, improving his land and increasing-
its productiveness, and helping to develop the
resources of the section and promote its prog-
ress. He has been active and serviceable in all
public affairs and, with an eye single to the
general good, has aided in pushing forward
every commendable enterprise for .the welfare
of the section in which he lives. In the social
and fraternal life of the community he has been
a helpful factor, being a prominent member
of Roan Creek Lodge. No. 125, of the Ma-
sonic order, and influential in all commercial,
industrial and educational movements. His
ranch shows the marks of his enterprise and
skill, and his impress on the general activities
of the section has been pronounced and bene-
ficial. His position as a leading and repre-
sentative man is unquestioned and his hold
011 public confidence and esteem is equally well
established, as it is well merited.
DAVID BAKER.
David Baker, one of the substantial and
successful farmers of Garfield county, whose
attractive and well improved ranch lies on
Conn creek, twelve miles north of the village
of Debeque, has lived in several states and
mingled with the agricultural interests there-
of in a practical way. mastering the business
and indulging a natural taste for rural life
and pursuits. He was born 111 Muscatine
county, Iowa, in 1849, and is the son of David
and Mary (Miller) Baker, the former a na-
tive of Pennsylvania and the latter of Ger-
many. The father settled in Ohio in early
life, and later lived in Iowa. Kansas and Mis-
souri, ending his life in the state last named on
January 30. 1903, at the age of eighty-six
years. His wife died in Iowa in 1857. They
were the parents of three children. David be-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
4°5
ing the second. His boyhood was passed in
Iowa, Kansas and Missouri, and owing to the
migratory life of the family his opportunities
for regular attendance at school were few and
interrupted. At the age of seventeen he en-
tered upon the task of making his own liveli-
hood, and during the next eight years was
variously employed in the neighborhood of
his Missouri home. Tn 1873 ne carne to Colo-
rado and remained a short time in Douglas
county, then returned to Missouri. The next
year he again became a resident of this state,
locating in El Paso county, where for eleven
months he was employed in logging. From
there he moved to the San Luis valley. Here
he was engaged eight years as a range rider
and herdsman for W. D. & J. G. Coberly, a
portion of the time being spent in Huerfano
county and a portion also in Grand county.
In 1883 he moved to where he now lives in
Garfield county, locating on an excellent ranch
on Conn creek which he has since greatly im-
proved and increased in productiveness. In
1897 he was married to Miss Lizzie Arm-
strong and they have two children. John D.
and Mary E. Mr. Baker's life has not wholly
passed in the pursuits of peace. In 1868 he
enlisted in Company H, Nineteenth Kansas
Cavalry, for a campaign of six months against
the Indians, and rendered valiant service, and
in every way has always been ready to take
his part of any public burden.
DR. VV. W. TICHENOR.
Born amid quiet rural scenes in the in-
terior of Wisconsin in 1854, Dr. W. W. Tich-
enor, of Rifle, one of the leading physicians of
( farfield county, this state, and also a prom-
inent fruit-grower, saw little in the circum-
stances of his early life to suggest the stirring
scenes of turbulence and danger through
which he was destined to pass. He is a son of
Alphonso F. and Elizabeth (Utt) Tichenor,
natives of New York, and was the second
born of their six children. His father was a
prominent physician in his native state, Wis-
consin, and also in Iowa. He now resides at
Portland. Oregon. During the Civil war he
enlisted in defense of the Union in the Thirty-
first Wisconsin Infantry but did not get into
active field service, being assigned to the hos-
pital at Madison as surgeon in charge through-
( nit the term of his enlistment. He had a
brother, however, who laid his life on the al-
* tar of his country, dying in Libby prison.
The mother died in 1864. Dr. Tichenor was
reared and educated in Wisconsin and Iowa,
and received his professional instruction at
the Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati,
where he was graduated with the degree of
Doctor of Medicine in 1S73. He went at
once to Dodge City. Kansas, and began prac-
ticing his profession. Seven months later he
mo\ed to Bazine, Ness county, in that state,
and there took up a homestead which he de-
veloped and reduced to cultivation in connec-
tion with his practice. During the time of his
residence in that count} - be was appointed
deputy sheriff, and served through the times
that were so full of trouble with horse and
cattle thieves. His life was frequently threat-
ened, and he bad numerous warnings tacked
on his door that unless he left the country he
would be killed. He had no idea, however,
of running away from duty and dared his
threateners to do their worst. Persevering in
the performance of his official duties, he aided
materially in reducing the lawless element to
subjection and restoring peace and order in
the county. In 1887 he came to Colorado
and settled at Rifle, where he has since lived
and practiced medicine, except during four
years when he gave up professional work on
account of the state of his health. He is still
in active general practice and has a high rank
406
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
in professional circles, and is well esteemed
by his large body of patrons. In addition to
his regular business he has a fine orchard of
choice fruit trees about one mile and three-
quarters from the town, which yields abund-
antly and is a source of profit and great pleas-
ure and pride to him. In 1876 he married
Miss Clara Brown, and the union resulted in
two children, Maud and Alphonso, the latter
named for the Doctor's father. In 1894 he
married a second wife, Miss Marion Arnold,
and they have three children. Wilfred, Marion
and Mabel. The Doctor is a prominent mem-*
ber of the Woodmen of the World, belonging
to Rifle Lodge, No. 303. He has been actively
connected with all undertakings for the im-
provement of his community and throughout
its extent and a much wider area is highly es-
teemed as a leading and representative citizen,
a civic force of potency and usefulness, a man
of broad professional attainments and a gen-
tleman of elevated social culture.
[SEM W. GRAHAM.
With a prosperous and steadily expanding
farming' and stock industry to engage his time
and energies, and so well established in the
esteem and good will of his community that
the plateau on which he lives has been named
( iraham mesa in bis honor, the subject of this
brief review has found in this western world
the success in business and influence among
his fellow men for which he is well fitted by
nature and attainments, and is justifying the
promise of his early life made manifest by
even youthful exhibitions of energy and ca-
pacity. He is a native of Springville, Wiscon-
sin, born in August, 1856, and the son of Lewis
and Electra C. (Shown) Graham, natives re-
spectively of Illinois and Indiana. His father
was a miller by trade and followed his craft
in connection with farming for many years in
Wisconsin. The family then moved to Min-
nesota, where he died in 1879. aged fifty-three
years. In 1864 he enlisted in the Union army
as a member of Company F. One Hundred
and Thirteenth Wisconsin Infantry, serving in
that regiment until the close of the Civil war.
The mother died in 1880, at the age of forty-
seven. Her father was a veteran of the war
of 1812, and regaled her childhood with stir-
ring tales of events in that short but decisive
contest. The family comprised five children,
of whom Isem was the first born. He lived
in Wisconsin to the age of twelve, then moved
with the rest of the family to Minnesota. In
[881 he came to Colorado and located in Park
county. For five years he was employed in a
store there, then moved to the vicinity of
Rifle, where he now lives, and settled on a
ranch on Graham mesa, which, as has been
noted, was named in his honor. Since then
lie has made his home on this ranch and has
been actively engaged in farming and raising
high-grade stock. He was married in 1889
to Miss Jennie Mullen, and they have had six
children, Elmer. Claud, Albert, Henry. Eber
and Violet, the last named dying in 1902. at
the age of ten months. Mr. Graham is a prom-
inent member of the order of Woodmen of the
World. He is successful in business and
prominent in public life, and is widely es-
teemed in the community where he has so long
lived and successfully labored.
MARTIN H. STREIT.
Martin H. Streit, of Parachute. Colorado,
who has during the last nine years faithfully
and capably discharged the duties of postmaster
of this, progressive and enterprising little town,
is a native of Erie county. New York, and
was born in 1845. He is the son of Michael
and Magdalena (Ley) Streit. natives of Lor-
raine, one of the provinces wrested by fortunes
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
407
of war from France by Germany, who came
to the United States about the year 1840 and
settled in New York, where they remained
until 1852, then moved to Indiana. There
the father was a prosperous farmer and died
in 1872, at the age of fifty-seven. The mother
is still living in that state and is past ninety
years of age. Her father was a soldier under
Bonaparte and her childish fancies were kin-
dled with his stirring accounts of the battles
and marches in which he took part under that
great commander. The family numbered
eleven children, of whom Martin was the third.
He began to earn his own livelihood at the
age of eleven, being then employed in a furni-
ture factory at North Vernon. Indiana. In
1859 he left that town and took up his resi-
dence at Louisville. Kentucky, wdiere he
learned the trade of a shoemaker, and wdiere he
remained until the beginning of the Civil war.
He then returned home and enlisted in Com-
pany E, Twenty-second Indiana Infantry, for
a term of three years. His regiment was soon
in active field service, and he saw much of the
horror of the mighty conflict until he par-
ticipated in the battle of Pea Ridge. There
he received three wounds, being shot in the
leg and the right wrist and injured in one of
his eyes. He was soon afterward discharged
on account of the disabilities thus incurred, and
sent home. After drifting around a few years
at various occupations, he located at Fort
Scott, Kansas, where he was engaged in the
hoot and shoe business during the next ten
years. In 1879 he came to Colorado and set-
tled at Gunnison. Here he remained four
years prospecting and mining, then went to
work for the Denver & Rio Grande Express
Company as a messenger on trains. He re-
mained in the employ of this company three
years and a half, and at the end of that time,
late in 18S7, moved to Parachute in Garfield
county. Colorado, and started an enterprise in
ranching and raising cattle which he after-
ward abandoned and turned his attention to
dealing in real estate, in which he is now
successfully occupied. In 1894 he was ap-
pointed postmaster at Parachute, and he has
held the office continuously since that time,
giving general satisfaction in the discharge of
his official duties. He was the first Repub-
lican, and for a number of years the only one,
in this locality. In the development and im-
provement of the section he has taken an active
part, having been one of the originators of
what is now called the Wilcox Ditch and Grand
Valley Improving Company, and a forceful
factor in other works of public utility. In 1870
he was married to Miss Sadie B. Powell, a na-
tive of Davis county, Iowa. Mr. Streit is one
of the founders of the town of Parachute, he
having helped to lay out the town site and
start the village on its way of progress and
vitality. This prosperous village has since
changed its name to Grand Valley. Fie is at
present one of its leading and representative
citizens, and manifests a warm and serviceable
interest in every element of its welfare.
ENOS F. YEOMAN.
After years of storm and danger since
reaching man's estate, and enduring hardship
and privation in almost every form, Enos F.
Yeoman, of the Parachute creek region. Gar-
field county, has found a peaceful home amid
the abundant opportunities and large rewards.
for systematic labor offered in the state of
Colorado. He was born in 1842 in Fayette
county, Ohio, the place of nativity also of his
parents, Levi and Mary J. (White) Yeoman,
well-to-do farmers of that state. The mother
died in 1855 and the father, in 1863. Their
offspring numbered seven, Enos being the sec-
ond. He was reared on the farm and bore
his part in its useful labors until the beginning
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
of the Civil war. when he enlisted in Company
K, Forty-eighth Ohio Infantry, in which he
served three years, six months and fifteen days.
Soon after the close of the war he settled at
Cheyenne, Wyoming, and found employment
as a government scout. He was sent to Fort
Bowie in the Chiricahua mountains in Arizona.
where he remained until 1S76, then returned to
Wyoming and was employed as a scout in
the Sioux war of that year under Generals
Crook and Merritt and in this campaign saw
hard service and had many narrow escapes.
He was with Thornburg at the Mill Creek mas-
sacre and in many other of the noted en-
gagements of the time. After the close of this
war he went to Nebraska and in 1880 was
married to Hiss Ellen Shimel, of Iowa. He
then moved to where he now resides on Para-
chute creek and where he has since been en-
gaged in farming and raising stock. He takes
an active interest in school affairs, being sec-
retary of the local school board, and in other
phases of the public life of his community. He
is a social member of the Woodmen of the
World. He and his wife are the parents of
eight children, seven of whom are living, Mel-
vin, Elmo, Blanch, Jessie. Clifford, Grace and
Lela. Another daughter named Maud died in
1900. at the age of seventeen. Mr. Yeomari
is diligent and faithful in all the duties of citi-
zenship and no man in his community is more
highly or more generally esteemed.
DAVID J. HOFFMAN.
The fifth of thirteen children born to his
parents, and obliged by the circumstances of
the family to begin earning his own living
early in life, David J. Hoffman, of Parachute.
Garfield county, had but limited educational
advantages except in the rugged but thorough
school of experience, and his .rise to comfort
and consequence is therefore the result of his
own endeavors and force of character. He
was born June 11, 1838, at Lapeer, Michigan,
where his parents settled some years before,
and is the son of Peter C. and Sarah (Taylor)
Hoffman, now both deceased. The father was
a German by nativity and came to the United
States in 1811, locating and living for a num-
ber of years near Boston. Later he moved
his family to Michigan, and after a long course
of industry at his trade as a cabinetmaker, died
at Lapeer in 1866, aged sixty-nine years. The
mother was born and reared in New York,
and died in 1873, at the age of eighty-
two. Their son David grew to manhood in
his native town, and after reaching his major-
ity went to work at his trade as a carpenter
in the neighborhood of his home, remaining
there thus engaged until 1862. He then en-
listed in defense of the Union in Company I.
Twentieth Michigan Infantry, and served his
full term of three years in that command. He
was mustered out in July. 1865, an d soon after
went to Ohio and began business as a contrac-
tor in railroad construction work, especially
building bridges. He continued actively occu-
pied in this line eight years, and in 1879. dur-
ing the Leadville, Colorado, gold excitement,
came to that place. Until 1884 he remained
there prospecting and mining, and following
other occupations, then settled on the ranch
which he now owns and resides on near Para-
chute, Garfield county. His ranch is pleas-
antly located on Parachute creek and com-
prises a large body of fertile and productive
land ; and on it he has conducted a profitable
and expanding farming and stock industry.
He also runs a cafe in the village and carries
on a thriving business at his trade. In i86r
he was married to Miss Ellen Hyde, who died
in 1885, leaving three children, (inland, [da
and Cora. In 1 S< > 1 Mr. Hoffman married a
second wife. Miss Sarah Brown, whose death
occurred July 8. IQ04. His war experience
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLOR.! DO.
409
was a severe and trying one, and he keeps alive
its memories and companionships by taking an
active interest in the affairs and meetings of
the Grand Army of the Republic, holding his
membership in the post of the order at Rifle.
He is an industrious, law-abiding citizen, with
a deep and intelligent devotion to the welfare
of his country in general and the section of his
residence in particular, and he is well esteemed
wherever he is known for his breadth of view,
his public spirit and the sterling qualities of
manhood generally which he exhibits.
EDWARD G. BARTHEL.
Edward G. Barthel, now a prosperous
and enterprising farmer and stock man of Gar-
field county, living in the neighborhood of the
village of Parachute, has had a varied and in-
teresting experience, in the course of which he
has dwelt in a number of places and engaged
in several different pursuits. He is a native of
Ontario, Canada, where he was born in 1866,
at the town of Stratford. His parents were
Louis and Rachel (Kastner) Barthel, both na-
tives of Ontario, where the father acquired
and wrought at his trade as a machinist. In
1879 they moved to Colorado and settled in
Gunnison county, remaining there until 1887.
At that time they changed their residence to
Garfield county, and there the father died in
1889, aged fifty-three years. His widow sur-
vived him eleven years, dying in 1900, at the
age of fifty-eight. They were the parents of ten
children, and their son John, the second born,
was obliged to begin making his own way in
the world at an early age. At the age of twelve
he became an office boy at Peoria, Illinois, and
three years later came to Colorado, and lo-
cating in Gunnison county, passed several vears
in mining. In 1890 he moved to the Para-
chute creek country and followed farming in
that fertile region. Several years afterward he
went to Prescott, Arizona, and there clerked
in the store of Aitkin & Robinson four year-.
At the end of that time he went into mercan-
tile business for himself in the gents' furnish-
ing and haberdashery line, and during the next
three vears carried on a flourishing trade
throughout a large scope of country. Tiring of
mercantile life, he returned to Parachute and
again engaged in farming and raising stock,
at which he has since been occupied with suc-
cessful results. In 1887 he was united in mar-
riage with Miss Jennie Wilson, a native of
Chicago, Illinois. They have one child, their
daughter Bessie.. In the various places of his
residence Mr. Barthel has won warm com-
mendation for his advanced ideas, force of
character and strong and upright citizenship.
He stands high in his present community and
has hosts of friends.
JAMES T. McCARY.
The scion of an old Virginia family that
staked its all on the fortunes of the Confed-
eracy and lost all, James T. McCary, of Gar-
field county, this state, was obliged to begin life
with nothing and make his way in the contest
for supremacy among men by his own efforts.
He was born near the historic city of Rich-
mond, in the Old Dominion, in 1858, and is
the son of Craven P. and Mary (Weigand)
McCary, also natives of Virginia. At the be-
ginning of the Civil war the father enlisted in
the Southern army and during the four years
of the awful conflict he was in active service,
following his convictions through one deluge
of death after another until the last flag of bis
cause was furled in final and unconditional
surrender. He moved his family to Colorado
in 1872, and for a number of years thereafter
was actively engaged in farming and raising
cattle. He retired from active pursuits some
time ago on account of the infirmities of ad-
4io
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
vancing age, and now makes his home with his
son. His wife died in 1885, at the age of fifty.
Several of her brothers were also valiant sol-
diers in the Confederacy. Her son James was
the first born of her thirteen children, and
passed his boyhood in his native place in the
very midst of alarms, for their home was at
the very front in the hostile section and was
wasted by both armies in turn. At the age of
fourteen, in 1872, he came with his parents to
this state, and soon afterward engaged in the
cattle business in company with his father. In
1882 he sold his interests in the business and
removed to Grand Junction, Mesa county.
Here he began farming on his own account,
and seeing the promising conditions for fruit
culture in this now prolific section in this prod-
uct, he planted the first orchard in the region.
In 1892 he left there for Cripple Creek in hope
of making a rapid and substantial improve-
ment in his fortunes by mining. During the
next five years he full, .wed this engrossing but
delusive occupation, and in 1897 turned his
attention once more to farming and the stock
industry, locating on the ranch which he now
occupies and owns on the banks of Grand
river in Garfield county, known as the
"Evergreen Fruit Farm.*' His attention has
more recently, however, been absorbed in fruit
culture, his place being well adapted to this in-
dustry, and his fine orchards being abundant
in their yield. Mr. McCary is proprietor of
the Evergreen Fruit Farm, the finest in the
county, consisting mostly of apple and peach
trees. lie has all carefully selected varieties,
showing him to lie master of his chosen enter-
prise. His is strictly a fruit farm and he is a
fruit man. clearly understanding the propagat-
ing and care of trees to insure the highest
quality of fruit, and today Mr. McCary is
known as one of the leading orchardists in
Garfield county. In 1885 he was married to
Miss Josie Lomar, who died in 1887, at the
age of twenty, leaving one child, their daugh-
ter Josie. Two years later he contracted a
second marriage, his choice on this occasion
being Miss Mary Evans, and they have three
children, Vida, Dolly and James. Mr. Mc-
Cary is one of the enterprising and progres-
sive men of this part of the state, and stands
well in the respect and good will of all who
know him. He is prosperous in his business,
driving it with energy and intelligence, and
he brings to the service of his community the
same qualities, which he applies to matters of
public interest with breadth of view and a
patriotic devotion to the progress and welfare
of his county and state.
JOSEPH M. DYER.
The scion of an old Virginia family, which,
like many others, sought a new home and
larger hopes in the undeveloped West, Joseph
M. Dyer, of Garfield county. Colorado, true
to the traditions and practice of his ancestors,
became a pioneer and has materially aided in
building up his portion of this state as they
did portions of the Mississippi and Ohio
valleys. His grandfather, John Dver. was a
native of Virginia and an early settler in Ohio,
where Joseph's father, also named Joseph, was
horn and where he was engaged in farming for
a number of years after reaching his maturity.
He married Miss Margaret McClintock, and
soon afterward they moved to Fulton county,
Illinois, and here Joseph, the immediate sub-
ject of this review, was born August 12, 1836.
Four years later the father died, aged about
forty years, and the duty of rearing her family
of eight children, of whom Joseph was the
fifth, devolved on the mother. She took up
her task with a faithful and resolute spirit and,
although she was unable to give her offspring
all the educational and social advantages she
wished, she did prepare them for the business
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
of life by teaching them habits of industry and
frugality, and lived to see them well established
and prosperous in their several localities. She
passed away in 1871, at the age of sixty-four.
Joseph passed his boyhood, youth and early
manhood on the home farm, remaining with
his mother until the beginning of the Civil
war, when, in August, 1861, at the age of
twenty-five years, he enlisted in defense of the
Union in Company A, Forty-seventh Illinois
Infantry. His regiment was soon in the midst
of active field service, and he participated in
a number of leading battles, among them the
contest at Farmington, Mississippi, the siege
of Corinth and its subsequent defense, the bat-
tles of Jackson, Mississippi, and Pittsburg
Landing, the siege of Vicksburg, and many
others. He was discharged from the service
at Springfield, Illinois, on October 11, 1864.
and at once turned his attention to farming
in that state, remaining there and so occu-
pied until 1883. In the meantime he served
there seven years as justice of the peace and
niie year as township assessor. In 1883 he
moved to Colorado and settled at Tincup. Gun-
nison county, where lie prospected and also
worked in the employ of the Union Pacific
Railroad for about four years. He then moved
to the Balzac ranch, on which he has since
lived and conducted a flourishing stock and
farming industry and raised fruit on a scale
of considerable magnitude. He has taken an
active interest in public affairs also, especially
in the cause of public education, having served
some years as school director. He was mar-
ried in 1855 to Miss Hannah Hall. They have
four children. Nettie, Frances M., Mar)- J.
and Alexander.
EDMUND F. CAMPBELL.
Edmund F. Campbell, a prosperous and
enterprising ranchman and fruit grower, liv-
ing on the Battlement ranch, five miles east of
Parachute, Garfield county, which he owns
and farms, and a prominent public man and
valued official in his neighborhood, is a native
of Prince Edward Island, Canada, where he
was born June 1, 1847, and is the son of Wil-
liam and Christy (Frazer) Campbell, the fa-
ther a native of the island, where he was a
farmer and sea-faring man. and where he died
in 1870. aged eighty-five. His parents were
born and reared in Scotland, of which country
his wife was also a native. She died in 1890.
at the age of eighty-five. Their son Edmund
was reared and educated in his native land, and
was speciallv prepared for business at the
Eaton & Frasee Commercial College, where
he was graduated in 1877. At the age of
thirty-two he came to Colorado and located
at Central City where he was engaged in min-
ing for about six months. He then moved to
Redcliff and during the next five years was
occupied in mining there. Turning his atten-
tion to politics, he became the first clerk of
Eagle county, and was also justice of the peace
and police justice for two years. From Eagle
county he moved to Garfield and took up his
residence on the ranch he has since owned and
occupied, and here he has conducted a thriv-
ing business in general ranching and fruit
culture. He has also been a justice of the
peace eight years in this county, for two years
was superintendent of the state fish hatchery,
in 1902 was horticultural inspector, and is now
treasurer of the school district. He is a Demo-
crat in politics, but is a broad-minded and pro-
gressive man, deeply interested in the welfare
of his community and held in the highest es-
teem by all classes of its people. Although
he has never married, Mr. Campbell manifests
as earnest and intelligent desire for the promo-
tion of every element of greatness and progress
as any man of family, and gives himself as
vigorously as any other citizen to the aid of
every commendable enterprise involving the
best interests of the people.
412
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
MxKAY RUSSEY.
McKay Russey, of Rifle, Garfield county,
is a native, of Wayne county, Indiana, born in
1845, :UK ' the son of William and Elizabeth
(Davenport) Russey. His father was a North
Carolinian by nativity, and was prominent in
the oil business in the early days of its his-
tory. Later in life he kept a hotel at Hart-
ford City, Indiana, and died' there at the age
of seventy-two. when his son McKay was
quite young. The mother was a native of
Wayne county, Indiana, and died in 1893, aged
seventy-six, leaving six children, of whom
McKay was the fourth. He remained at home
until he reached the age of sixteen, attending
school in the neighborhood when he could,
and looking forward eagerly to making his
own way in the world. In 1863 he enlisted
in the Union army, in Company I, One Hun-
dred and Thirtieth Indiana Infantry, for a
term of three years or during the war, and
was discharged in December, 1865. He was
in a number of important battles, especially
the one at Nashville and those of the Atlanta
campaign. After the close of the war and his
discharge he went to Texas and engaged in
the stock industry fur about two years. He
then took up his residence at Parsons, Kan-
sas, and there opened a livery business which
he carried on seven years. From there he
came to Colorado and located at Glenwood
Springs where he again engaged in the livery
business until 1887, when he moved to Rifle,
and at first turned his attention to raising stock,
afterward starting a livery business here also.
He is now solicitor fur the Colorado Stage &
Transportation Company, with headquarters
at Rifle. Mr. Russey's varied and active ca-
reer lias given him good business experience
and capacity which make him a valuable ad-
junct to any enterprise requiring energy,
knowledge of men and breadth of view, and
his services to the company for which he is
now working are highly valued. He is also
much respected as a good citizen and leading
man, and one who has the essential good of
the community very much at heart.
WILLIAM II. WILKINSON.
Belonging to a military strain active in the
service of their country at different times and
places, losing an uncle at the battle of Tippe-
canoe, and himself a valiant soldier in the Civil
war. William H. Wilkinson, of Garfield
county, now prosperously engaged in raising-
fruit and live stock on a fine ranch located
some eight miles east of Parachute, has shown,
as have other members of his family, the same
patriotic spirit when the integrity of the land
was threatened in war as he has exhibited by
his useful and productive industry in times of
peace. He was born February 28, 1837, ' n
Illinois, not far from Peoria, where his par-
ents, Aaron and Sarah (Harlan) Wilkinson,
settled on arriving from their native Virginia
and Ohio, respectively, in 1835. They were
well-to-do farmers and ended their days there,
the father dying in 1894, at the age of eighty-
two, and the mother in 1901, aged eighty-
seven. Her father, Moses Harlan, was a
prominent man in his section and served at
times in the Illinois legislature. William, the
second of the eleven children in the family, was
reared to manhood on the paternal homestead
and at the breaking out of the Civil war was
attending Lombard College at Galesburg, in
his native state. After the riot in Baltimore on
April 19, t86i. he promptly enlisted in Com-
panv A, Second Light Artillery of Illinois,
under Captain Davidson, for a term of three
years. He saw much hard and dangerous
service and participated in a number of im-
portant engagements, among them the battles
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
413
of Pea Ridge. Champion Hills. Black River
Bridge, Fort Gaines and Fort Morgan on
Mobile Bay. and the siege of Vicksburg. At
the last he was overcome by the heat and suf-
fered a severe sunstroke, from which, how-
ever, he seems to have suffered no serious per-
manent injury. Being mustered out of service
on September 14, 1864, he turned his attention
again to farming in Illinois, where he remained
until 18(17. when he came to Colorado and set-
tled at Boulder. After a residence of three
years there he moved to Summit county and
followed prospecting and gulch mining for
some time. He then formed a partnership with
Edwin Carter for the purpose of making a col-
lection of birds and animals. They succeeded
in getting a valuable collection together, which
is now one of the choice contributions to the
study of natural history at Denver, but on ac-
count of the state of his health Mr. Wilkinson
was obliged to abandon the enterprise and he
sold his interest in the work and bought the
ranch on the Grand river on which he now lives.
This was in 1882, and since then he has made
his home here and been activelv engaged in
raising live stock and fruit. He was married
in 1890 to Mrs. Catharine (Willet) Robeson,
of Xew Jersey, a widow- with two children,
Fannie and Charles. Mr. Wilkinson belongs to
the Grand Army of the Republic, holding his
membership in Marion W. Reed Post. No. 108.
at Rifle. When he came into this country the
means of transportation were crude and
primitive. All supplies and every kind of com-
modity had to be brought in from Grand Junc-
tion, a distance of fifty miles, on pack animals,
and the conveniences of life in the neighbor-
hood were equally crude and primitive, so that
he and his early companions had their share
of hardships and privations, and know- how to
appreciate at full value the better advantages
and enjoyments now prevalent in this section
under its rapid progress and development.
CHARLES B. SEWELL.
Losing his father by death when he was
sixteen years old, Charles B. Sewell. of the
Thompson's creek region, with a fine ranch and
home in Pitkin county, but having his post-
office at Carbondale, Garfield county, began
life for himself at an early age and has had
to make his own way by arduous effort and
his own capacity ever since. He was born in
1851 in Erie county, Pennsylvania, and is the
son of Robert and Caroline (Baker) Sewell, of
that county, where the father passed his entire
life as a farmer, dying in 1867, at the age of
fifty-three. The grandfather on the paternal
side. Ebenezer Sewell, was a native of Ver-
mont and a veteran of the war of 1812. He
died in 1868, at the age of ninety-two. Mrs.
Sewell, the mother of Charles B., was born
and reared in Connecticut and now lives in
Erie county. Pennsylvania, aged eighty-three.
Her father. Samuel Baker, was a direct de-
scendant of one of the Pilgrim fathers who
came over in the "Mayflower." He died in
1850, past seventy years of age, at Cleveland.
Ohio, where he was one of the earliest settlers
and a veritable pioneer. Charles B. Sewell
remained at home and was sent to school until
the death of his father. He was well educated,
completing his course at the excellent seminary
then conducted at Northeast, in his native
county, in 1868. His father's death, which
occurred a few months before, made it neces-
sar\ for him to go to work at once, and he
turned his attention to the oil fields of Penn-
sylvania as a promising place of operation.
He continued to operate in this region with
varying success until 1880, when he came to
Colorado and locating in Custer county, fol-
lowed blacksmithing for a period of two years.
From there he moved to Silverton, San Juan
county, where he remained until 1886 engaged
in mining and blacksmithing. He then moved
414
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
into Pitkin county, a distance of some two hun-
dred miles, and bought the ranch lie now owns
and occupies in Crystal River valley, on
Thompson's creek, and since then he has de-
voted his time and energies to ranching and
raising stock, and has succeeded well in the
business. He was married in 1888 to Miss
Clara M. Thompson, a daughter of Myron P.
Thompson, one of the first ranchers in this
valley. They have two children, Robert O.
and Caroline A.
JOHN L. THOMAS.
John L. Thomas is one of the prosperous,
'enterprising and progressive ranchmen and
stock-growers of Pitkin county, with a well
improved and wisely cultivated ranch on
Crystal river and Thomas creek, and both in
his business relations and his citizenship he
stands well in his community. He is a native
of Rushville. Indiana, born in [861, and is the
son of George L. and Catherine (Lewark)
Thomas. His father was a native of New
York and his mother of Indiana, and they
came to live in Colorado in 1877, settling at
Lake City. Later they lived at Leadville and
Aspen, and finally located the ranch in Pitkin
county which they sold to their son and which
he now occupies, and themselves retired from
active business pursuits. Their son John grew
to manhood in Iowa and Kansas, beginning
life for himself at the age of eighteen. Dur-
ing his first year in Colorado he burned char-
coal at Leadville. He then went to Mexico
and bought a train of burros which he brought
to Leadville, and during the next three years
used them in a freighting enterprise. On No-
vember 1, 1X8 1, he located on the ranch which
is now his home on Crystal river, pre-empting
a claim. Later he purchased his father's ranch
near by and since then he has given his whole
time and attention to improving his property
and building' up his business in the stock in-
dustry. He has, however, never failed of a
warm practical interest in the welfare of his
community, and during the last seven years
has served it well and faithfully as a justice
of the peace. In 1887 he was married to Miss
Cora Facer, and they have six children, Bessie,
Annie C, Charles E., Frank L., Nellie and
John W. Mr. Thomas is an interested member
of the Woodmen of the World, holding his
membership in the camp of the order at Car-
bondale. The cattle industry in Colorado is an
extensive and valuable one, and many of the
best men in the state make it their chief busi-
ness. .Among them Mr. Thomas is entitled to
a high rank both for the vigor and success
with which he conducts his business and the
excellence of its output, and also for his ex-
cellence as a man and citizen and his genuine
good fellowship.
LUCIUS LAKE.
Starting in life for himself at the age of
twenty, and since then residing where he now
lives on Garfield creek, in the county of the
same name in Colorado, Lucius Lake, whose
well improved and skillfully cultivated ranch
is near Newcastle, is thoroughly identified with
the interests of the section in which he has cast
his lot and to whose development and advance-
ment he has essentially contributed. He was
born in 1868 in Illinois, and is the son of Ro-
derick and Anna (O'Neil) Lake, the former a
native of New York and the latter of Vermont.
Soon after their marriage they settled on the
virgin prairie of Illinois, and there they lived
and nourished until iSjt). when the mother
died at the age of thirty-nine, leaving five chil-
dren, of whom Lucius was the first born. In
[886 the father moved his family to this state
.'iid settled at Aspen in what is now Pitkin
county. Hi' afterward moved to Newcastle,
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
4i5
Garfield county, where he now resides. He is
a veteran of the Civil war who saw years of
awful havoc and hardship in the momentous
contest, and received a serious wound at the
battle of Antietam, which the great Southern
commander considered one of the best fought
and most creditable engagements of his mem-
orable career. A brother of Mr. Lake's fa-
ther, who was also a Union soldier, died in a
Southern prison. Mr. Lake accompanied his
father in his change of residence, remaining at
home and assisting in the work of the home-
stead until he reached the age of twenty. He
then started out for himself, locating where
he now lives on Garfield creek, and where he
has since been engaged in an active and ex-
panding stock business. He has given his at-
tention earnest to the cultivation and improve-
ment of his ranch, and the building up of his
business and the interests of the section in
which he lives, and has to his credit achieve-
ments in both a private and a public way that
are highly appreciated and commended in the
community. His chief aim is to do well what
he has to do from day to day without seeking
public station or political advancement for
himself; and in this he has succeeded well, and
won the regard and confidence of his fellow
men at the same time.
ANDREW DOW.
Andrew Dow, of the Garfield creek section
of Colorado, living on a pleasantly located and
highly productive ranch not far from the vil-
lage of Newcastle, Garfield county, is a native
of Scotland, where he was born in 1846, and
where his parents were born and reared, and
his ancestors had lived and labored for many
generations. He is the son of William and
Isabella (McPherson) Dow, prosperous farm-
ers in Scotland, who ended their lives and their
labors there, the father dying on July 24,
1889, aged seventy-four, and the mother on
January 3, [886, aged sixty-one. The off-
spring numbered six children, of whom An-
drew was the third. He remained under the
paternal roof-tree until he reached the age of
seventeen, aiding his father on the farm and
at times with his work as a stonemason, a
craft he often followed in connection with his
farming operations. In 1868 the son came to
the United States and located hi Jasper county,
Iowa, where he worked a rented farm for nine
years. In 1879 he moved to Colorado and set-
tled at Leadville when that place was at the
height of its mining excitement. He contin-
ued to live there engaged in mining and milling
until 1886. when he moved to Garfield county
and. in partnership with John Murray, took up
a ranch near the head of Garfield creek. Here
he maintained his home and conducted a flour-
ishing enterprise for a number of years, then
sold his interest in the ranch and its business
and bought the ranch on which he now lives
on the same creek, but farther down the stream.
On this tract he has built up a very prosperous
and active industry in general ranching and
raising stock, and has become one of the lead-
ing and substantial men of his portion of the
county. He is widely known and highly re-
spected, and takes a leading part in all public
movements for the improvement of his com-
munity and the greater convenience and com-
fort of its people. He has the Scotchman's
proverbial thrift and shrewdness, and a spirit
of public enterprise in accordance with the
most admired tendencies of American progress
and development.
WTLLTAM P. KENNEDY.
William P. Kennedy, of Glenwood Springs,
the county assessor of Garfield county, this
state, and who has had a long experience in
public office, which he has always filled with
4 i6
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OE WESTERN COLORADO.
credit to himself and advantage to the people
whom he served, is a native of Jackson county.
[owa, bom in 1865. He is the son of E. J.
and Bridget E. 1 Reed | Kennedy, the former a
native of Xew York and the latter of Ireland.
The mother died in 1877, at the age of thirty-
six, having been the mother of ten children.
William being the sixth in the order of birth.
The next year after the death of his wife the
father moved his family to Colorado and for
some years thereafter engaged in ranching.
Then selling out his interests, he lived retired
from active pursuits until his death, which
was caused by bis accidentally falling from a
bridge at Glenwood Springs in November,
1001, when he was about sixty-eight years
old. The son, William P. Kennedy, was
reared to the age of twelve on the paternal
homestead in [owa, then started to make his
own way in the world by working on farms
in the neighborhood of his borne, which he did
in his native state for four years at six dollars
a month. In 1885 he came to Colorado and,
locating at Rifle, was employed for two years
in riding the range and herding cattle. In
1SS7 he moved to Aspen, where be was en-
gaged in mining until 1893, when he took up
his residence at Debeque. Mesa county, where
for two years he published a newspaper called
the Debeque Era, one year of the time serving
as mayor of the town. From Debeque he
moved to Rifle and bought a one-half interest
in the Rifle Reveille, which he edited and man-
aged, serving two terms also as justice of the
peace. He made his home at Rifle until elected
to his present office of count)' assessor in 1901.
when lie moved to Glenwood Springs, where
lie has since been living and occupied with his
official duties. He was married in 1893 to
Miss Emma Marchesi, and they have three
children, Fred II.. Alma I. and William Ed-
win. Mr. Kennedy is highly respected as a
citizen and has won high approbation as a pub-
lic officer.
JOSEPH T. McBIRNEY.
A native of Pennsylvania and a son of
Irish parents, Joseph T. McBirney exemplified
in his career the versatility and adaptabilitv of
his nationality, and the lessons of industry and
thrift taught in the great state of his birth.
His life began in 1866, and he is the son of
Hugh and Elizabeth (Telford) McBirney,
who were born, reared and married in Ireland
and came to the United States, settling in
Pennsylvania, where they remained until 1891,
when they followed their son Joe toCJolorado.
Here the mother died in 1898, aged over sev-
enty years, and the father is now living with
bis son. He was the fifth of their five children
and remained at home until he reached his le-
gal majority. He then went to work in a ma-
chine shop, and a year later engaged in the
manufacture of shoes, which he also followed
fi >r a year. At the end of that period he began
to learn the trade of a carpenter and after ac-
quiring facility at it followed it with varying
fortunes and in different places fifteen years.
By that time the West had engaged bis atten-
tion and he came to Colorado, settling at New-
castle, Garfield county. During the next ten
years he wrought at his trade, then bought the
excellent ranch on which he now lives on Gar-
field creek. To the improvement and cultiva-
tion of this tract be has since sedulously de-
voted himself, and with such good results that
he has transformed its once wild and unprom-
ising conditions into a valuable and attractive
home, worth\- id* the approval in which it is
generally held and full of promise for future
good on an expanding scale. It is not. how-
ever, to In- supposed that these results have
been attained without ardent and well-applied
industry and judicious business management.
Mr. McBirney has earned his success by his
own efforts, and is entitled to all the satisfac-
tion it justly affords him. lie has also gained
Ins linn and elevated place in the regard of his
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
417
neighbors and friends on merit, deserving
their good will by his sterling manhood and
obliging disposition and holding it by every
commendable attribute of good citizenship.
JOHN WALKER.
John Walker, an active, industrious, pro-
gressive and successful rancher and fruit-
grower of Delta county, living four miles and
a half up the Gunnison from the town of Delta,
is a native of that great hive of productive
industry, Pennsylvania, where his life began
on September 8. 1849. His parents. Isaac
and Jane B. (Fields) Walker, also were born
in that state, and there they passed the whole
of their lives, never leaving the state. The
father was a surveyor and found profitable use
for his knowledge in this line most of the
time. He also owned a farm, on which he
worked when not employed in surveying. He
died in his native state in the summer of 1889.
and his widow died there in 1892. Their son
John attended the district schools in boyhood
and youth and worked on his father's farm
assisting him also at times in surveying. He
remained at home until he was thirty-seven,
then in 1886 came to Colorado and located in
Delta county, where he now lives. Soon after
his arrival he bought one hundred and sixty
acres of land and moved on it in January, [887.
He at once began to improve the place and
bring the land to productiveness, but it was
five vears before he had water for irrigation,
and bis progress was necessarily slow. The
first dwelling occupied by the family on the
ranch was nearer the river than the present
one, and when a general system of irrigation
was put in operation the water of his well be-
came strongly alkali and he thereupon built a
new residence further back and sunk a new
well. The dwelling he now occupies is one of
the best in the neighborhood and is modern
27
in everv respect. It was erected in 1899. Four
vears prior to this time Mr. Walker set out
twelve acres of his land in fruit, mostly apples,
and during the last five years he has been
getting good returns from this enterprise. In
1903 he sold one thousand boxes of apples at
good prices, and the crop promises to increase
in volume and value as time passes and en-
larges the fruit fulness of the trees. The rest
of his place is devoted to grain and hay. He
has eighty-five acres in hay and this acreage
yields about four hundred and fifty tons of
first-class product a year, which sells at four
dollars or more a ton in stacks on the place.
Fortv acres of the original ranch have been
sold, but Mr. Walker still has enough to oc-
cupy all his time, and energy to good advantage,
except what he devotes to public improvements.
in which he has always been greatly interested.
He was one of the leading promoters of the
relief ditch in the valley, which was begun in
1890. To build it a stock company was formed,
of which Mr. Walker was the first president
He was later the superintendent and has been
a director in the company ever since it was
1 irganized. The ditch is a good one. never with-
out water, and has been of great service to
the valley. The company started with nine
men and Mr. Walker owned one-fifth of the
stock. It now has forty-three stockholders
and he owns one-tenth of the stock.
The par value of the stock is fifteen
dollars a share, but it is worth twenty-five on
the market and only three shares are for sale
at that price. A share represents sufficient
water for two and one-half acres of land, hi
other respects Mr. Walker has been of great
and continuous service to the community. He
was road overseer two years, and from the
time of his arrival in the county he has been
very active in the cause of public education.
He helped to get the first school building
erected in the vallev, and from that time on he
418
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
has spared no effort to advance the school in-
terests of the county. He also takes an earnest
interest and an active part in fraternal mat-
ters, having helped to organize the first Odd
Fellows lodge at Delta, and he has been one
of its main supports ever since. On Novem-
ber 9. 1874. he united in marriage with Miss
Man ]!. Martin, a native of Pennsylvania and
the daughter of William and Louisa (Amy)
Martin, who were both New Yorkers by birth.
The father was a millwright. Both parents
have been dead for a number of years. Mr.
Walker's father was a captain in the Pennsyl-
vania militia, and when the Civil war began
he was anxious to take the field in defense of
the Union, but was rejected on account of his
advanced age. There were two children
in the family, Mr. Walker and his sister. Five
children have been born in the Walker house-
hold, Archie, Rose A., Bessie M., Fred S. and
Heath M. The oldest is twenty-eight and
the youngest eight years old. The head of the
house is a Democrat in politics and always
has been. He belongs to the Odd Fellows
lodge. No. 116, at Delta, and Western Slope
Encampment. No. 39.
GEORGE W. MILLER.
George W. Miller, of Hotchkiss, who since
November 10, 1003, has been the dutiful and
attentive postmaster of the town, and was for
many years prior to that time one of the active
and progressive promoters of the state's in-
terests in a number of commendable ways, was
born in Delaware county. New York, on May
19, 1S42. He is a brother of Charles R.
Miller, of near Hotchkiss, a sketch of whom
will be found elsewhere in this work, and the
son of Putnam G. and Margaret (Roff) Miller,
natives of the same county as himself. In 1854
they moved to Iowa, and years afterward they
died there. In [861, when he was but eighteen
years of age, Mr. Miller enlisted in the Union
army for the Civil war, becoming a member
of Company H, Fourth Iowa Cavalry, his regi-
ment later becoming the veteran regiment of
the army, it being the first to re-enlist at the
end of its first term. It was first under the
ci immand of Col. A. B. Porter and later under
that of Col. Edward F. Winslow. The com-
mand formed a part of General Grant's army
at the siege of Vicksburg and in 1864 was with
Sherman. Mr. Miller was taken prisoner on
October 11, 1862, and kept in captivity about
three weeks. He was then under parole three
months before he was exchanged. In a
desperate charge his horse fell with him and
seriously crippled him, but this did not keep
him from again seeking active service. In
August. 1865, he received an honorable dis-
charge and returned to his home in Iowa,
where he remained until 1872. He then came
to Colorado and located in Clear Creek county
for a short time, being engaged in mining. In
the summer of 1876, he was in the Black
Hills of South Dakota, while that region was
at the height of its boom and mining excite-
ment, but in the fall of that year he returned
again to Iowa, remaining until the fall of
1880, when he came back to Colorado and lo-
cated at Pitkin, where he passed the time until
1883 in mining. In that year he made an-
other visit to Iowa and Dakota, and again in
the fall becoming a resident of this state, lo-
cating in Delta county, where he started an
enterprise in ranching ami raising stock, which
he conducted until 1891, then opened a drug
store at Hotchkiss and included an extensive
line of harness in his stock, but still retained his
ranch of forty-five acres adjoining the town.
of which he has twenty acres in fruit. In the
spring of 1900 he sold his store and devoted
his time to his ranch thereafter until Novem
her 19. 1903, when he was appointed post-
master at Hotchkiss, an office he is still tilling
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
419
capably and with satisfaction to its patrons.
His ranch was raw land when he bought it in
1891, and the improvements he has made on
the first purchase and an additional forty acres
which he pre-empted in 1893, are all the re-
sults of his own enterprise and well-applied in-
dustry, making the property into one of the
best fruit ranches in that part of the o >unty.
Mr. Miller was married on September 2, 1866,
to Miss Mary Mead, a native of Rockford,
Illinois. Some years after her birth her par-
ents moved to Chickasaw county, Iowa, where
the mother died and the father is still living.
Mr. and Airs. Miller have three children, Ger-
trude, Harry and C. Lloyd, all living in Colo-
rado. The head of the house belongs to the
Grand Army of the Republic and is a Re-
publican in politics, though seldom an active
participant in public affairs.
ABRAM E. HYZER.
The power of acquiring great wealth is a
blessing to any man if he have at the same time
the knowledge and the disposition to use it
properly and employ the opportunities which
it brings for enterprises of moment in which
the welfare of his fellow men is involved.
Tried by this standard, Abram E. Hyzer, of
Gunnison county, and one of its leading ranch
and stock men, is entitled to a high regard.
He has accumulated by his own endeavors and
business acumen an ample fortune, and he has
made his earnings and his enterprise subservi-
ent in a thousand ways to the good of the sec-
tion in which he lives, and conferred benefits
on In- fellow citizens there, which are material
and of magnitude, even though they may not
always have been appreciated at their full value
by the recipients. Mr. Hyzer was born in
Delaware county. New York, on April 26,
1852. and was trained to thrift and usefulness
on his father's farm, securing his scholastic
training" in its earlier stages in the public
schools near his home, and afterwards attend-
ing a good college at Monmouth, Illinois. His
parents, David and Margaret (Laidlaw) Hy-
zer. were also natives of the Empire state and
passed their lives within its borders, carrying
on extensive and profitable farming operations.
Their son Abram remained at home until he
was twenty-one years old, then worked on a
farm in the vicinity until 1876. In that year
he moved to Hodgeman count) - , Kansas, and
there during the next four years he kept a gen-
eral store at the town of Marino. In the spring
of 1880 he became a resident of Colorado, lo-
cating in Gunnison county in April on a por-
tion of his present ranch three miles north of
the county seat on Ohio creek. He has added
to his domain by homesteading and subsequent
purchases until his ranch now embraces seven
hundred and fifteen acres, and has been con-
verted into one of the most valuable and highly
improved places in the county. The land has
been vigorously improved and cultivated as it
came into his possession, water lias been abund-
antly supplied until the land is practically all
well irrigated, good buildings have been added,
and profitable employment has been furnished
on it to numbers of persons from the time
when its enterprising proprietor first occupied
any of it. The principal crop raised on the
ranch is hay, of which it yields about seven
hundred tons per annum, but good crops of
grain and other products are also raised. An
average of six hundred cattle, nearly all well-
bred Durhams. are generously supported here,
Mr. Hyzer having one of the choice herds of
the region, and with commendable pride in
them as one of bis most pleasing productions,
and with the spirit of devotion to his business
which seeks its best results, and to his section
of the state which aims to keep the standard
of its yield in everything up to the highest
mark, be always keeps his stock in excellent
4 20
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
condition. While a loyal Republican in polit-
ical affairs, he is not an active partisan worker,
rather seeking in his public activities the sub-
stantial good of his community than partisan
advantages. Fraternally he is connected with
the Masonic order in lodge, chapter and com-
mandery at Gunnison, and also with the order
of Elks and the Woodmen of the World there.
On December 19, 1881, he was married to Mrs.
Melissa (Clark) Wilkins, a native of Wiscon-
sin. Pursuing the modest tenor of his way,
without ostentation in his life or bearing, Mr.
Hyzer is universally recognized as one of the
most progressive and useful citizens of his sec-
tion of the state, and enjoys in a high degree
the esteem of all who have the pleasure of his
acquaintance.
THEODORE W. SCOTT.
Theodore W. Scott, a younger brother of
Thomas B. Scott, was born in Grant county,
Wisconsin, on June 2. 1861, and is the son of
Frederick and Ann (Wheeler) Scott, more ex-
tensive mention of whom will be found in the
sketch of their son Thomas B., elsewhere in
this work. He grew to the age of fifteen on
the Wisconsin homestead and then, in 1876,
moved with the family to Harrison county,
Iowa. He was educated in the public schools,
and remained at home until 1890. At that
time he came to Colorado and entered one hun-
dred and sixty acres of land six miles south of
Steamboat Springs, Routt county. In addi-
tion to tbis he bought one hundred and sixty
acres, and on these two tracts started an in-
dustry in the stock business which he con-
ducted successfully and profitably for four
years. He then sold bis possessions in that
section and moved to Grand Valley, locating
on the farm which is now bis home, six miles
northwest of Grand Junction, arriving there
in the autumn of [894. He bought forty acres
of wild land without improvements, to which
he has added thirty of the same kind by a sub-
sequent purchase. On this he has established
himself and built up a prosperous and ex-
panding fruit business, improving his place
with a good, modern residence and other neces-
sary buildings, and giving his attention to the
cultivation and enlargement of his orchards.
He has twenty acres in fruit, which yield large
crops of excellent quality, the returns' for his
labor in 1903 being more than four thousand
five hundred boxes of apples and two hundred
boxes of pears. By his industry and skill he
has redeemed his land from the wilderness and
made it productive and smiling with fruits of
peaceful husbandry and made a desirable home
of what was before a barren waste. On July
11. 1899. he married with Miss Luella Rogers.
a native of Harrison county, Iowa, and daugh-
ter of John W. and Sarah A. (Riley) Rogers,
natives of Ohio, wdiere they grew to maturity,
were educated and married. In 1886 they
moved to Iowa and settled on a farm in Har-
rison county, making the trip overland from
their Ohio home. John W. Rogers served three
years in the Union army during the Civil war.
He is now a highly respected citizen of Mesa
county. Mr. and Mrs. Scott have three chil-
dren. Rex R., Glenn G. and Fred F. In
politics Mr. Scott is independent, and is always
keenly alive to the best interests of the com-
munity in which be lives.
WILLIAM L. CHAPMAN.
The subject of tbis brief review, who is
one of the enterprising and progressive farm-
ers and representative citizens of Mesa county,
and whose attractive home, located five miles
northwest of Grand Junction, is whollj a prod-
uct of Colorado. He was born and reared on
her soil, lie was educated in her schools, he be-
gan the battle of life in her productive activi-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
tics, and lie has conducted his business oper-
ations wholly amid her people. He is there-
fore fully in sympathy with her aspirations,
identified with her interests and filled with the
spirit of her citizenship. 'Sir. Chapman's life
began at Canon City, Colorado, on September
7, 1872, and he is the son of Benjamin F. and
Mary E. (Cooley) Chapman, the former a
native of Iowa and the latter of Indiana. In
1868 the family settled in this state, making
their home at Cam in City. For a number of
years the father was engaged in freighting
between that place and Fairplay and other
points, and afterward was occupied in farm-
ing. He died at Canon City in 188 1. The
mother is still living and is now the wife of
James L. Duckett, of near Grand Junction, a
sketch of whom appears on another page of
this volume. Mr. Chapman grew to the age
of twelve at Canon City, and in 1884 moved
with his mother and the rest of the children
to Mesa county. He received a public-school
education, and in 1890. when he was 1ml
eighteen, began farming on rented land. This
he continued in various parts of the county
until 1903. when he bought the twenty acres
of land on which he now lives, and where he
carries on a flourishing industry in farming.
On August 16, 1896. he was married to Miss
Zella Howell, a native of Adair county. Iowa,
the daughter of Emerson G. and Helen
(Arnold) Howell, the father a native of Iowa
and the mother of Ohio, both of whom are
living. Mr. and Mrs. Chapman are the par-
ents of two children. W. L. Lovell and Hilton
W. Tn politics Mr. Chapman is independent,
and in fraternal relations belongs to the Mod-
ern Woodmen of the World. His ways have
been for the most part ways of pleasantness
and all his paths have been along the lines of
peaceful industry ; yet none the less is he in-
terested in the enduring welfare of his com-
munity and the progress, comfort and con-
venience of the people among whom his lot has
been cast. And as he has been a substantial
contributor to their advantages, so he has won
an elevated and lasting place in their regard
and good will.
GEORGE T. CHAPMAN.
George T. Chapman is a native of Jefferson
county. Iowa, where he was born on October
i_'. [864, and is the son of Benjamin F. and
Mary E. (Cooley) Chapman, the former of
the same nativity as himself and the latter born
in Indiana. The father was a farmer in his
native state, but believing in the possibilities
of the farther west, in 1868, he brought his
family to Colorado and settled them near
Canon City. For a number of years there-
after he was occupied in freighting out of that
city to Fairplay and other points, working hard
at his business but making good profits from
his labor. He died at Canon City in 1881, and
three years later the mother moved with her
children to Mesa county, where in time she
became the wife of James L. Duckett, a sketch
of whom will be found on another page of this
work. I lis educational advantages were few.
however, as he was obliged to go to work for
himself at an early age and continue to make
his own living from that time on. When he
was but fifteen he owned a team and freighted
between Canon City and Leadville, the inter-
vening country then being wild and unsettled
and his business being almost every hour
fraught with danger and excitement. At the
age of seventeen he sold his outfit and found
employment on a ranch in Wet Mountain val-
ley: and two years later he rented land in that
valley which he farmed on his own account
until 1884. At that time he moved to Mesa
county with his mother and younger brother,
and soon afterward he rented land near his
present home and engaged in farming, contin-
4--
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
uing his operations in this way for a number
of years. In 1892 he bought twenty acres of
the land on which he now lives, subsequently
adding by another purchase the other ten. To
the improvement of his farm he has sedulously
devoted his energies, and it is now one of the
choice farms of the neighborhood and is en-
riched with a comfortable cottage dwelling
and other necessary buildings. Mr. Chapman
was married on November 28, 1888, to Miss
Martha A. Smith, who was born in Marion
county, Illinois, on April 12, 1869. and is the
daughter of Robert and Anna (Ferguson)
Smith, the former a Kentuckian by birth and
the latter a native of Illinois. The mother died
when Mrs. Chapman was about seven years
old, and in 1880 the father came to Colorado
and became a farmer in Wet Mountain valley.
Two years later Mrs. Chapman joined him
there, and she has been a resident of this state
ever since. He died at Pueblo in 1898. Mr.
and Mrs. Chapman have two children, Elsie
and Roy Manson. Mr. Chapman is a Prohi-
bitionist in politics and be and his wife are
charter members of the Methodist Episcopal
church at Bethel, which they helped to organ-
ize and of which he was one of the first trus-
tees. He is still serving the church as a trus-
tee and is one of its most zealous and useful
members.
REV. HARVEY D. CRUMLY.
The offspring of Quaker parents, and bred
in the lessons impressively inculcated by the
tneml>ers of that faith, Rev. Harvey D. Crumly,
of Mesa county, living on a good ranch six-
miles northwest of Grand Junction, has ex-
emplified in his life the principles of peaceful
industry, fair dealing and considerate interest
in the welfare of mankind which distinguish
the sect. He was born in Jefferson county.
Towa, near the village of Pleasant Plain, on
February 2, 1868, and is the son of Isaac H.
and Rachel (Beals) Crumly, natives of eastern
Tennessee, where they were reared and edu-
cated. From there they accompanied their par-
ents, respectively, to Jasper county, Iowa, and
there, soon after reaching years of maturity,
they were married. In a short time after their
marriage they settled on a farm in Jefferson
county, that state, where the father died in
1896. The mother is still living there on the
old homestead. The father was held in high
esteem in the county and was chosen to ad-
minister some of its official duties from time to
time, serving as county surveyor for twelve
years. He had been previously married and
had four children by the first union. Of the
second marriage there were seven children,
six of whom are living, the Rev. Harvey being
the fifth born. He was reared in his native
county and attended the public schools there,
afterward taking a course at the Pleasant Plain
Academy, being graduated there in 1890. He
then entered Penn College at Oskaloosa, from
which he was graduated in 1895. F° r three
years thereafter he was principal of the Havi-
land (Kansas) Academy, and to the duties of
tin's position he brought the wisdom gained in
leaching two years previously during the va-
cations in Iowa. In October. 1898. he came to
Colorado and located in Mesa county where he
taught school two years. He then bought the
farm of thirty-one acres on which he now lives.
making the purchase in December, 1898. Two
years before, in the fall of 1896. he had been
ordained minister in the Friends church, and in
1903 he served the church at Glenwood, Iowa,
as its pastor. With the exception of that year,
he has resided on his ranch ever since pur-
chasing it. But his interest in the church has
never waned, and he has devoted his energies
to its welfare in the section of his present home,
helping to organize a mission of the Friends at
Pomona schoolhouse, of which he is now pas-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
423
tor. His ranch is devoted principally to fruit.
He has eighteen acres of apple and peach trees,
nearly all in good bearing order, and a con-
siderable space in strawberries. His business
is prosperous and its returns are commensurate
with his efforts and intelligence in conducting
it. On August 5, 1897, he was united in mar-
riage with Miss Olive Folger, a native of Il-
linois, but reared and educated in Kansas. She
is the daughter of the Rev. Thomas and
Josephine (Cutler) Folger, natives of Illinois,
the father being a minister in the Friends
church. They reside near Carthage, Missouri.
Mr. and Mrs. Crumly have one son, Lorenzo
T.. now five years old. In politics Mr. Crumly
is independent, a Prohibitionist in principles.
He and his wife have passed many of their win-
ters in evangelistic work, devoting their sum-
mers to their ranch, on which they have re-
cently completed and now occupy a comfort-
able and convenient residence.
CHESTER E. JAYNES.
Prominent in the fruit industry of Mesa
county, and in business and political circles.
Chester E. Jaynes. whose fine fruit farm is lo-
cated cue mile and a half mirth of Grand Junc-
tion, is one of the best esteemed citizens of
his portion of the county, and exemplifies in
his daily life the best attributes of Colorado
citizenship and business enterprise. He was
burn at Juliet. Illinois, on August 31, [874,
and is the son of Ezra E. and Mary A. ( Kling-
ler) Jaynes, natives, respectively, of Vermont
and Pennsylvania, and now living at Grand
Junction. Mr. Jaynes grew to the age of eigh-
teen in his native state, and received his edu-
cation in the public schools and the business
college at Joliet. In the spring of 1892 he came
to Colorado with his parents and located with
them at Grand Junction which has been his
home ever since except one year passed at Colo-
rado Springs, where he conducted a cigar and
confectionery store. In the spring of 1899 he
purchased thirteen acres of wild and unculti-
vated land near Palisades, on which he set out
fruit trees and made improvements, and which
he sold two years later at a profit of one thou-
sand eight hundred dollars. In 1901 he bought
the ten and one-half acres on which he now
lives. The land is all in fruit, apples, peaches
and pears. In 1902 he sold two thousand six
hundred boxes of peaches, two thousand boxes
of apples and six hundred boxes of pears; and
in 1903 one thousand eight hundred boxes of
apples, three hundred of peaches and six hun-
dred of pears. His business, although vary-
ing in volume, is all the time successful, and
the returns for his enterprise and labor are
large. On January 31, 1901, he was married
to Miss Florence L. Osborn. a native of Laveta,
Colorado, daughter of J. W. Osborn, of Grand
Junction. They have one child, their son El-
lis. In politics Mr. Jaynes is an active and
forceful Republican, always zealous in the serv-
ice of his party and frequently a delegate to its
conventions.
OWEN \V. HOSKINS.
The fast-fading race of western pioneers,
whose history at different times and places has
varied in incident and feature but has been the
same in privation, danger, heroic endurance
and magnitude of achievement, is an oft told
tale which never loses its interest, has an il-
lustrious member in the person of Owen \Y.
Hoskins, of Mesa county, this state, and others
in his parents and other members of his family.
This story is one of continual aggression
against the wilderness and its savage denizens,
and an unebbing tide of conquest over tremen-
dous odds, where the spread and perpetuity of
human civilization was the stake, and wherein
men. beasts and nature herself seemed arrayed
424
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
in arms against the aggressors. Their paths
were choked with difficulties, but their bodies
and souls were hardened to meet them; they
were beset with dangers, but these were the
very spice of their lives; and the wilderness,
rough, harsh and inexorable as it was. had for
the hardy pioneers, fired with the spirit of con-
quest or the hope of gam, charms more potent
in their seductive influence than all the lures
of luxury and sloth. And the work of these
conquering armies endures among us in busy
cities, mighty marts of commerce, enormous
industrial activities, and rich, powerful and
beneficent commonwealths bright with all the
radiance and fragrant with all the flowers of
the most advanced and progressive civilization
to which they opened the way. Mr. Hoskins
was horn at Pleasant Plain. Jefferson county,
Iowa, on November 26, 1864. He is the son
of Ellis and Ruth 1 Jones) Hoskins, the former
of whom was born in Ohio and the latter in
Indiana. They became residents of Jefferson
county, Iowa, in [839, and were married there
in 1844. They were pioneers in that region
and had" the usual experiences of the class on
the frontier. The woods were full of wild
beasts and wilder men, the soil was resolute
in its tendency to natural luxuriant and un-
tamed growth and yielded tardily to system-
atic culture. And the conveniences of life were
almost wholly lacking. The father was a
farmer and took up extensive tracts of land,
at one time owning four hundred acres, and
brought them to fertility and bountiful pro-
ductiveness, reaping rich harvests of profit
from his labors and becoming wealthy after
the manner of his day and locality. The most
of his land is still in the possession of the fam-
ily, belonging now to his children. He died
in the home of his choice on January 16, 1879.
His widow survived him twenty-five years to
the very day, passing away on January 16,
1004. Roth were members of the societv of
Friends. They were the parents of twelve
children, of whom the first and second born
are dead. Owen was next to the youngest of
the family. He grew to manhood on the pa-
ternal homestead and was educated in the pub-
lic schools and at Pleasant Plain Academy, re-
maining at home until he was twenty-four,
when he married. His father died when the
son was fourteen and after that the sons car-
ried on the farming operations. After his
marriage Air. Hoskins of this sketch bought
eighty acres of the home farm and farmed it
four years. He then sold it and moved to a
farm which 'he purchased in Wayne county.
Iowa, but soon afterward returned to Jefferson
county, and for three years was successfully
engaged in the real-estate business at Fairfield.
In September. 1903. he came to Colorado and
located in Mesa county, where he bought for
eight thousand dollars the fruit farm of eigh-
teen acres on which he now lives, one mile and
a half north of Grand Junction. His land is all
in fruit, apples, peaches, pears and plums, with
a considerable acreage in small fruits, and his
crop of 1903 paid him twenty per cent, on his
whole investment in the property. On Janu-
ary jo, 1888, he was married to Miss Josie
Jones, a native of Brighton, Iowa. They have
three children, Mary E., Hugh and Esther. In
politics he is a stanch and active working Re-
publican, and in church affiliation is a Presby-
terian holding an active membership in the
church at Grand Junction.
FRED HOSKINS.
This enterprising and progressive fruit-
grower and ranchman of Mesa county, living
two miles and a half north of Grand Junction,
belongs to a family in which the martial spirit
is high when occasion demands, and the devo-
tion to pursuits of productive industry is
equally strong when "Grim-visaged war hath
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
4-' 5
smoothed his wrinkled front." His grand-
father, his father, two of Ins brothers and sev-
eral of his uncles were gallant soldiers for the
Union in the Civil war, one of the brothers
dying of exposure on account of Hood's raid
in Tennessee, where he was buried. The
grandfather enlisted at the age of sixty-four in
a Wisconsin cavalry regiment and served four
years, being the oldest volunteer in the service
from his state, if not in the whole country.
Mr. Hoskins was born in Richland county,
Wisconsin, cm September 11, 1857. and is the
son of Amasa and Jane H. (Murdock) Hos-
kins, natives of New York, where they were
reared and married. Soon after their marriage
they moved to Ohio and a little later to Rich-
land county, Wisconsin, where they were pio-
neers. They entered a body of heavily tim-
bered land on which the advance of civilization
had as yet made no mark, and which was still
the abode of savages and wild beasts that stub-
bornly resented their intrusion. There were
few settlers in the neighborhood, and they were
obliged to make their way in this wilderness
almost alone and unassisted. The father
erected the first saw mill in the county, and by
its aid cleared his land and transformed it into
a fine farm. Soon after the beginning of the
Civil war he tried to enlist in what was known
as the Iron Brigade, but was not accepted. La-
ter he organized a company of his own. of
which he was captain, and which became a
part of the Forty-eighth Wisconsin Infantry.
In this command he served to the close of the
war. After that he returned to his Wisconsin
home, and there he died several years later.
The mother is still living, at the age of eighty-
four. The family comprised seven sons and
one daughter, six of whom are living, Fred be-
ing the fifth in the order of birth. He was
reared on the Wisconsin farm and bore his
share of the burdens of conducting its opera-
tions, receiving, however, a good public-school
education and taking a course at the business
college in Madison. After leaving school he
learned the tinner's trade, and when nineteen
years old went to Sioux Rapids, Iowa, where
he worked at his trade for awhile, then con-
ducted a hardware business for a number of
years. Selling out there, he went to Storm
Lake, in the same state, and passed four years.
In the spring of 1894 he came to Colorado and
located in Mesa county, purchasing and settling
on the farm of twenty-five acres on which he
now lives two miles and a half north of Grand
Junction. About fifteen acres of the farm had
been planted in fruit trees, which were then
young. He has planted three acres additional,
and now has one of the best and most prolific
fruit farms in the county. His crop in 1903
was two thousand three hundred boxes of
pears, eight hundred of apples, one wine-sap
tree yielding twenty-two boxes. These netted
him one dollar and sixty-five cents 'a box, a
very unusual return from one tree. On May
10. 1879. he was married to Miss Alary L.
Sanderson, a native of Oshkosh, Wisconsin,
a daughter of Hubbard and Jane (Warner)
Sanderson, natives of Xew York where they
grew to maturity and were married. In [844
they moved to Wisconsin and settled on a farm
over most of which the city of Oshkosh has
spread. Mr. Sanderson paid for his land in
part in deer hides. In 1866 the family moved
to Iowa and took up a homestead on which the
parents passed the rest of their lives. They
were pioneers in Buena Vista county, and the
father was its treasurer two terms in the early
days of his residence there. Their nearest rail-
road station at that time was Sioux City, eighty
miles distant. Mr. and Mrs. Hoskins have five
children. Bertha M.. wife of Truman Ketchum,
of Seattle, Washington; Orda J., wife of V.
G. Callanan, of Chicago: Jay L., a resident of
Chicago; and Gregg and Ross, who are living
at home. In politics Mr. Hoskins is a Repub-
4 26
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
lican, and in fraternal alliances is a Freemason
and a Modern Woodman of America, with
membership in these orders at Grand Junction.
GEORGE E. COWELL. M. D.
Dr. Cowell was born in Bradford county.
Pennsylvania, on April 27, 1843. He was
educated in the public schools of that county,
and in 1862. when he was nineteen years old,
he enlisted in defense of the Union in the One
Hundred and Forty-first Pennsylvania In-
fantry. In that command he served eighteen
months. At the battle of Chancellorsville he
received five wounds and.' being incapacitated
for further service, returned home. In 1865 he
moved to Grundy county, Illinois, and began
to read medicine at Minooka in that county,
afterward entering the Hahnemann Medical
College in Chicago, where he was graduated
in 1871. He then located at Elwood, Illinois,
where he carried on a successful practice until
1896. In that year he came to Colorado and
purchased the fruit farm of fifteen acres on
which his family now lives. It is one mile and
a half north of Grand Junction, and one of the
besl and most productive in fruit in this part
of the county. The Doctor became active in
pn imoting the best interests of the valley, being
enthusiastic over its resources and eager for
their rapid and full development. Recently his
health failed and he is now (1904) under treat-
ment in a hospital. For a number of years he
served on the board of pension examiners in
this county, and also in Illinois, and while a
resident of Illinois was a member of the city
council of the town in which he lived, and
president of the temperance society there. In
politics he is a stanch and active Republican,
zealous in the service of his party as he is in
everything else in which he takes an interest.
In fraternal relations he belongs to the order
of Elks and the Grand Army of the Republic.
He was married on November 8, 1868, to Miss
Catherine M. Ferryman, a native of Guernsey
county, Ohio, by whom he has one daughter,
Nellie G, who is living at home, and one son,
Forrest, who was killed in a railroad wreck
January 8, 1902, near Ogden, Utah. Her
mother died in 1887, and in 1888 the Doctor
contracted a second marriage, being united on
this occasion with Mrs. Josie L. (Linebarger)
Brown, a native of Will county, Illinois, and
daughter of John and Sarah (Linton) Line-
barger, the former a native of North Carolina
who moved to Indiana when he was eight years
old. and the latter born in Illinois. They were
married in Indiana, then moved to Will county,
Illinois. The father was a farmer and pros-
pered in his enterprise. Both are now de-
ceased, the father having died in 1885 and the
mother in 1903. Doctor and Mrs. Cowell have
one child, their daughter Hazel, now fourteen
vears old. Mrs. Cowell's first husband was
Ara Brown, who she married in 1881. He was
a native of Will county. Illinois, where they
were married, and where he died on his farm
in [882 lamented by all who knew him.
STEPHEN R. WELCH.
Stephen R. Welch, one of the lending fruit-
growers and representative citizens of Mesa
county, this state, whose postoffice is at Grand
Junction and whose farm is three miles north-
west of that city, is a native of Bureau county.
Illinois, where he was born on April 4. 1857.
Mis parents, Enoch and Eliza (Richardson)
Welch, were natives, respectively, of Vermont
and Ohio. The father came west when a
young man and was married in Ohio. By this
marriage he had two children. His wife died
in that state and he moved to Bureau county.
Illinois, where he married a second wife, the
mother of Stephen. He was a mason by trade
and wrought at his craft in the various places
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
427
of his residence. In 1869 he moved his family
to Benton county, Iowa, and three years later
to Woodbury county, that state. He died at
Sioux City, that county, leaving a third wife
to survive him. his second having died at their
Illinois home in i860. The second marriage
resulted in three children, all living, Stephen
being the first Irani. He was reared in Illi-
nois and Iowa, and received a public-school ed-
ucation. After leaving school he worked on
farms in Iowa until 1874 when he returned
to Illinois and located in Lee county, where
he passed four years working on farms. He
then moved back to Woodbury county, Iowa,
but not long afterward again returned to Illi-
nois. Soon after his marriage, in the spring
of 1882, he settled in Clay county, Iowa, and
there he remained engaged in farming- until
1896. He then sold his farm of one hundred
and sixty acres at twenty-nine dollars per acre,
having purchased it at twelve dollars per acre.
He then came to Colorado, locating in Mesa
county and bought the forty acres on which
he now lives, about half of which had been
planted in fruit trees a year before. He has
brought his land and orchards to a good state
of productiveness and reaps large returns from
his labor, having in 1903 one thousand boxes of
apples and eight hundred of pears, also sixty
tons of hay and five tons of potatoes, which
brought him an income of over two thousand
dollars. These figures will be much increased
as times passes, as his trees are just coming into
full bearing order. On February 24. 1881, he
was married to Miss Arella Geisinger, a native
of Dixon, Illinois, and daughter of David and
Sarah ( Barrett ) Geisinger, the former born in
Pennsylvania and the latter in Ohio. They are
now living at Storm Lake, Iowa. Mr. and
Mrs. Welch are the parents of three children,
Leo W., Clara V. and Russell E. In political
faith Mr. Welch is a Republican, and in frater-
nal alliance a Modern Woodman of America.
LESTER E. JAYNES.
One of the young and enterprising fruit-
growers of Mesa county, where he has been a
resident for about twelve years, Lester E.
Jaynes is an active and helpful factor in pro-
moting the growth and development of his sec-
tion of the county, and is regarded as one of
its best and most useful citizens. He was born
in Will county. Illinois, on December 1, 187 1.
and is the son of Ezra E. and Mary (Klingler)
Jaynes, of Grand Junction, a sketch of whom
appears elsewhere in this work. Mr. Javnes
grew to the age of twenty-one and received a
district-school education in his native county,
and in 1892 accompanied his parents to this
state, locating in Mesa county, where he has
since resided. Soon after his arrival here he
bought ten acres of land one mile and a half
northeast of Grand Junction. This he partially
improved, planting some seven and one-half
acres in fruit trees, and in the spring of 1896
sold it and bought the farm of twenty-two
acres on which he now lives, two and one-half
miles north of Grand Junction. The land was
in a condition of untamed nature when he
bought it. and to the work of improving and
developing it he has since devoted himself,
transforming it into a pleasant and productive
home, and making it an element of value in
the general wealth and commercial life of the
c 'tint)-. He has eight acres in fruit trees, a
portion of which are in fine bearing order and
yield abundantly, and the number of these is
increasing year by year, so that his profits and
the volume of his business are cumulative and
steadily expanding. He was married on Sep-
tember 29, 1895, to Miss Nanna R. Rose, who
was born at Del Norte, Colorado, and is the
daughter of Thomas O. and Lucy (Herndon)
Rose, the former a native of Illinois and the
latter of Kentucky. The mother died in 1893
and the father is still living at Grand Junction.
428
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Mr. and Mrs. Jaynes have had two children.
Harley Sterling, who died at the age of four,
and another son who died in infancy. Mr.
Jaynes is a Republican in politics and is always
faithful to his allegiance and active in the
service of his party. He also belongs to the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the
Modern Woodmen of America. Young, enter-
prising and knowing, the future holds out a
gratifying promise to him in business. In the
local public affairs of the county he takes a
zealous and serviceable interest. He is uni
versally esteemed and deserves the place he
holds in the regard and good will of his fel-
low men, being the possessor of many esti-
mable and valuable personal qualities.
GEORGE X. PATTERICK.
One of the great sources of strength in
American manhood and enterprise is the con-
glomerate nature of our people. The country
has laid all lands under tribute, and our inde-
pendence and wealth of opportunity enable us
to evoke the best elements of character from all
and combine them into a force for productive
energy that nothing can withstand. It is to
Yorkshire, England, a section of country re-
nowned throughout the civilized world for the
extent of its manufactures and the thrift and
enterprise of its people, that we are indebted
for George N. Tatterick, of Mesa county, the
most successful and skillful market gardener
in that portion of the state. He was born in
Yorkshire on September 22, 1850, ami al-
though he came to the United States when be
was but two years old, and therefore was al-
most wholly reared and wholly educated in this
country, he still has the original liber of the
Yorkshireman, and has exhibited his besl
qualities in the management of his various pur-
suits in different parts of America. His par-
ents, Thomas and .Mice (Varley) Patterick,
were also native in that portion of England.
and belonged to families resident there four or
five generations, having originally come from
Scotland ami settled there. The father was a
shepherd in his native land, but being impressed
with the greater chance for progress in the
boundless expanse of this country, came hither
in 1852 with his family and settled in Will
county, Illinois, where he engaged in farming.
His wife died there in 1873 and he in Chi-
cago in 1 89 1. Three of their children grew
to maturity and two are now living, their son
George and a sister who is younger than he.
He grew to manhood on the Illinois farm and
received his education in the district schools
near his home. After his marriage, at the age
of twenty-three, he bought a farm in Illinois,
but he sold it soon afterward and moved to
Buena Vista county. Iowa, where he purchased
one hundred and sixty acres of wild land which
he improved into an excellent farm. In 1889
he moved to Storm Lake, the county seat, and
for five years thereafter he conducted at that
place a prosperous business as a paper hanger
and painter. In 1894 he came to Mesa county
and bought his present farm of twenty-three
acres, on which he engaged in market garden-
ing. In this he has been unusually successful,
having skill and industry in the business and
studying its needs with care and applying his
knowledge with judgment. He has the finest
market gardens in the county, and gets from
them good returns for his labor. His land is
enriched with a good dwelling and other
buildings, and every appliance required for his
work is at hand. On January 1. 1873, he was
wedded with Miss Adelia Bohlander, a native
of Cook county, Illinois, the daughter of John
I'. and Elizabeth (Bassett) Bohlander. the for-
mer born in Germany and the latter in New
Jersey. The father came to the United States
with his parents when he was fourteen years
old, and with them located in Cook county,
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
4-")
Illinois. There he grew to manhood and was
married, and soon after settled in Will county.
the same state, where he died in 1876. His
wife is now living with her children, and is
seventy-six years old. Mr. and Airs. Patter-
ick have four children: Alice R., wife of Au-
gust Eastling, of Towner county, North Da-
kota; Charles W., of Grand Junction: and
George II. and Rhoda L.. still living at home.
In politics both Air. Patterick and his wife are
stanch and earnest Republicans. He is a
valuable member of the school hoard and serves
efficiently as its treasurer.
LAWRENCE M. MILLER.
Lawrence M. Miller, of Mesa county, Colo-
rado, who is comfortably settled on a thirty-
five-acre farm one mile and a half northeast of
Grand Junction, and is one of the prosperous
and progressive farmers of this neighborhood,
might almost he called the special apostle of
irrigation in Ids section of the county, so en-
thusiastic and enterprising' has he been in pro-
moting every phase of the work and so sub-
stantial in benefits to the community have been
his services and the results of his inspiring
example, he is a native of Lycoming county.
Pennsylvania, horn near Williamsport on No-
vember 30, 1840, and the son of Ambrose and
Belinda (Marshall) Miller, also native in that
county, where the)- passed their lives, actively
engaged in farming. Air. Miller's maternal
grandfather. James Van Camp Alarshall, was
selected at one time to make a treaty with the
Indians on the Susquehanna, and one of the
stipulations of his agreement with them was
that the_\' should vacate to the whites a strip of
land along the river as wide as the distance a
man could walk from sun to sun. He, being a
great walker, measured the distance himself,
and as the sun went down he threw himself on
the ground and stretched out his arms to their
utmost length, then stuck a stake where the
ends of his fingers touched. There were nine
children in the family of Air. Miller's parents,
of whom he was the sixth, and only three are
now living, one brother being a resident of
Pennsylvania and another of Wisconsin. Air.
Miller grew to manhood in his native state,
working on the farm in summer and attending
the district schools in winter. He also attended
Dickinson Seminary at Williamsport and a se-
lect school at Lewisburg a short time. At the
age of seventeen he was obliged to quit school
on account of his health, and going into the
Cogan valley pines of his native state, re-
mained two years, working for nine dollars a
month and clothing himself. He was very
frugal ami saved one hundred dollars, with
which he moved to Illinois and. locating near
Springfield, hired out to work on a farm. He
remained there two years, but as there was a
stmng attraction for him in Pennsylvania, at
the end of the time specified he returned to that
state and was married. After a residence of
several years there and two in Maryland, he
engaged in lumbering in Pennsylvania three
years. In the fall of 1869 he moved to Chip-
pewa balls, Wisconsin, where for a year he
conducted a lumber business and after that was
engaged in mercantile life, carrying on a large
store for a leading lumber company. From
Chippewa Falls he moved to Hodgeman
count}-. Kansas, not far from Lamed, where
he started an industry in the cattle business.
In 1885 settlers came there and he moved his
cattle to Colorado, locating in the Grand valley
where he found a range among the hills, and
since that time he has been a resident of this
section of the state. In [890 he disposed of
his cattle and bought fifteen acres of land now
owned by Dr. Cowell, and turned his attention
to raising fruit. He improved his place, mak-
ing a fine fruit farm of it. putting twelve acres
in orchard trees. In [890 he bought the ranch
43°
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
of thirty-five acres which he now owns and
occupies. It was all raw land at the time and
he at once set to work to develop and improve
it for a home, building a fine modern brick
dwelling and other necessary structures. A
portion of the land was above the ditch and
he put in a private pumping plant to irrigate it,
and in 1900, in partnership with his son, be-
gan raising Angora goats, of which they now
have about one thousand five hundred on the
range. They have prospered abundantly in this
enterprise, and Mr. Miller gives his son a
large share of the credit for their success. On
April 10, 1862, Mr. Miller was married to Miss
Amelia Andress, a native of Pennsylvania, the
daughter of William and Sarah M. (Jackson)
Andress, the father a farmer who is now de-
ceased, the mother making her home with her
daughter. Mrs. Miller. One sun has been born
to the Miller family, Eben McKean, who is in
business with his father. Mr. Miller is inde-
pendent in politics, but while living at Grand
Junction served two years as a member of the
city council and two as mayor. He was also
four years president of the Grand Valley
Canal, and at present is president of the Grand
Valley District Ditch. This enterprise is one
of stupendous importance to the region in
which it is located, being capable of irrigating
sixty thousand to eighty thousand acres of arid
land. In fraternal circles Mr. Miller is an en-
thusiastic Freemason, belonging to all branches
of both the York and the Scottish rites.
LAURENCE HYNES.
Laurence Hynes, of the Grand valley, one
of the prosperous and enterprising fruit-grow-
ers of Mesa county, whose productive little
fruit ranch of. seven acres is located two miles
east of Grand Junction, has had a career full
of storm and incident in several countries, and
although now quietly pursuing one of the fruit-
ful vocations of peaceful industry, has lost none
of his interest in public affairs and none of his
disposition to stir up and concentrate public
sentiment in behalf of the best interests of his
community when the circumstances seem to
demand such an effort. He is a native of the
city of Cork in Ireland, where he was born on
January 23, 1849, anf l tne son °f Laurence and
Mary A. (O'Neill) Hynes, also natives of that
historic old city. They emigrated to the United
States in 1879 and settled at Denver, this state,
where they died. Their offspring numbered
nine, of whom five are living. The son Laur-
ence was the fifth born of the children., and
was reared and well educated in his native
place. He learned the printer's trade there,
and after having been imprisoned two years
because of his connection with an uprising
against the government there, he accompanied
his parents and the rest of the family to this
country in 1879. He at once secured employ-
ment in newspaper work, being connected for a
time with the old Denver Tribune and the
Rocky Mountain News. In 1880 he became
clerk' and time keeper on the construction
work of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway.
'"id was -i) employed until the fall of that year.
He then made a six-weeks visit to Ireland, and
on his return to Denver at the end of that time
opened a book store on Fifteenth street in part-
nership with a younger brother. William F.
Hynes. Tn r88i he and an older brother named
James went to old Mexico and there they en-
gaged in contracting on the Mexican National
Railway, building one hundred miles of that
greal highway. x\fter this Mr. Hynes remained
in that country for a number of years operating
farms in different places. While there a revolu-
tion sprang up around him and with the instinct
of his race and impelled by a high sense of duty,
he took part in it. but without disaster to him-
self. On his return In Colorado in the latter
part of 1SS0 he established at Red Cliff the
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
43 ]
first Populist paper published in Eagle county,
calling it the Eagle County Comet. In 1893
he moved his plant to Grand Junction and es-
tablished the Weekly Times there. In the en-
suing October he purchased the Daily and
Weekly Star and consolidated them with the
Times under the name of the Daily Star-Times.
Three years later he sold this and started the
Weekly Union, which he sold a year later. He
then moved to Victor and for a short time con-
ducted the Weekly News at that point, then
moved his plant to Golden and for a year ran
the Daily Leader, which he started there.
When he sold this he moved to Cripple Creek
ami took editorial charge and management of
the Sunday Herald, and while conducting this
established the Weekly Xews, which he carried
on nearly a year, and with such force and vigor
that he was assaulted by some of its opponents.
He then sold this paper and during the next
eight months assisted in publishing the Golden
Circle at Cameron. In 1900 he again moved
into the Grand valley and settled on the fruit
ranch which has since been his home, and on
which he conducts a thriving and expanding
industry in fruit culture. On August 18,
1900. he was married to Mrs. Jessie (Worces-
ter) Garver, widow of the late Andrew Garver.
In politics he is independent and always ag-
gressive and influential.
HERMAN RICHNER.
One of the prosperous and progressive
ranch and cattle men of the Western slope in
Colorado, and having come to this region with
but little capital, Herman RichneV, of Rio
Blanco county, has won by his own efforts the
condition of worldly comfort in which he finds
himself, and has, in addition to what he pos-
sesses, the satisfaction that he has spent his life
worthily and profitably in his present home and
prospered through his own endeavors. He is
a native of Switzerland, horn on August 15,
1850, and he was reared and educated in his
native land, remaining there until he reached
the age of twenty-one years. His father was
a shoemaker, and when the son left school he
learned the same trade. In 1871 he emigrated
to the United States, arriving in Kansas on
January 1. 1872. He passed the first five years
of his resilience in this country in Kansas and
Texas, working at his trade. On August 15,
1877. he arrived at Leadville. this state, and
during the next seven years worked at his
trade and in the smelters there. He also dealt
in real estate at that town to some extent. In
[884 he disposed of part of his interests at
Leadville and, desirous of settling himself in
a more congenial occupation, he moved -to Rio
Blanco county and pre-empted a ranch of one
hundred and sixty acres in Hunter's gulch.
On this he lived and made improvements until
1SS7. then sold it ami bought a portion of his
present home ranch. He has since increased
his landed estate by the purchase of other
ranches, and now owns four, comprising six
hundred and forty acres in all. They are all
under cultivation and yield abundantly. He
also raises cattle on a large scale, and has be-
come one of the leading ami most prosperous
men in the business in this portion of the state.
He is active and useful in the improvement and
development of the section, and has in a
marked degree the confidence, respect and good
will of its people. In political faith he is a Re-
pul he in, with earnest interest in the success
of his party, but without desire for official re-
ward fur his services. His parents were Ja-
cob and Phrana Richner, like himself natives
of Switzerland, where they passed the whole
of their lives.- the father dying there in 1884
and the mother in 1888. Both were Lutherans
and well respected citizens. The father was an
industrious shoemaker and gave faithful at-
tention to his work and his duties as a citizen.
432
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Their offspring numbered five, of whom Mary
and Sophie have died and Herman. Anna M.
and Louisa are living.
ADOLPHE BELOT.
Since the age of fourteen a resident of the
Northwest, and during the last twenty-six
years living in Colorado, Adolphe Belot, of Rio
Blanco county, with a good ranch in the fa-
vored region which borders Piceance creek, has
had good opportunities to acquire and the abil-
ity to use a thorough knowledge of the various
industries of the state, and by so doing to aid
in advancing its welfare along with his own.
ami become fully imbued with the spirit of its
people'and its institutions. He was born on
May i. 1849, U1 the province of Alsace-Lor-
raine, which the fortune of war wrested from
France, and is the son of Xavias and Celestine
(Belot) Belot. of the same nativity as him-
self, who emigrated to the United States in
1853 and settled in Jefferson county, Iowa,
where they passed the remainder of their lives
as farmers, both dying a number of years ago.
They had seven children, of whom Virginia
and Honorine are dead and Louis. Amelia,
wife of Leon Piquette. Eugenia, wife of T.
Turck, Adolph and Victoria, wife of Joshua
Monti, are living. Adolphe received a com-
mon-school education, and in 1863, when he
was but fourteen years old, came west to Vir-
ginia City. Montana, where he mined for
wages eight months and then moved to Au-
burn. Oregon, being in the employ of the Ore-
gon-Baker Company as a purchasing agent of
mining claims. After two years in the service
of that company he returned to Iowa and en-
gaged in farming and raising stock until 1877.
He then disposed of his interests there and
again came west, locating in the Black Hills,
where he was successful at mining, and discov-
ered a number of valuable mining properties.
among them the Homestake. In 188S he
changed his residence to Leadville. this state,
and after prospecting and mining there for a
time, started the first transfer line in that place
which he operated until 1884. In that year
he moved to his present locality and pre-emp-
ted a ranch on Piceance creek, on which he
has since lived and to which he has added until
it comprises two hundred acres, of which one-
half is under cultivation. The cattle industry
and raising horses are his principal resources
for revenue, but be also conducts a general
ranching business with profit. He supports the
Democratic party in political matters. On No-
vember 29, Joo_\ he was united in marriage
with Miss Daisy Mundlein. who was born at
Granite. Colorado, and is the daughter of John
and Charlotte Mundlein. early settlers in this
state, and now among its most influential and
highly respected citizens.
ARTHUR COLLOM.
.Although now a prominent ranchman of
the Western slope of Colorado, and devoting
his energies with well applied industry to the
expansion and proper management of his busi-
ness. Arthur Collom began life's duties as a
miller and miner and followed those pursuits
from his boyhood to maturity. He is a na-
tive of the province of Ontario. Canada, born
on May 17. 1862. and the son of Charles and
Jeannette Collom, aged sixty-seven years and
sixty years respectively, the former born in
England and the latter in Canada. The parents
came to Colorado in 1871. and here the father
has become prominent in the industrial life of
the state and made many valuable contributions
iii useful labor and mechanical inventions to
its growth and development. The greater part
of his life so far has been passed in mining and
milling, and he is thoroughly familiar with all
the details of these industries from practical ex-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
433
perience in every phase of their work. With
the attention of a true devotee to his chosen
calling', he has been ever on the outlook for
whatever might lessen its labors and expand
its profits, and as he has an inventive mind, he
has found abundant opportunity for the exer-
cise of his study and ingenuity. Among the
appliances with which he has enriched the min-
ing industry is the concentrator gig of which
he is the inventor. He gives his support to the
Republican party in political matters, and with
earnest devotion to his allegiance he works for
its cause on all occasions with zeal and wisdom.
During the last few years he has been engaged
in the real estate business with special atten-
tion to handling mining properties. His wife
died in 1869, and he now lives at Idaho
Springs. Their offspring numbered four, of
whom only two are living. Arthur and bis sis-
ter Bessie. The former, owing to the circum-
stances of his early life, received but little
schooling, and at the age of sixteen began
working in the mines and stamp mills. He
wrought at these vocations in his native land
until 1871. when he accompanied his parents
to Colorado and. locating at Blackbawk, passed
a number of years working in the mines there,
then moved to Idaho Springs. In 1880 he and
his father installed a twenty-stamp mill at In-
dependence, near Aspen, the first one set up
in that part nf the state, and they conducted its
Operation three years. Then quitting the mill.
he helped to build the road between Twin
Lakes and Aspen. In 1884 he turned his at-
tention to another of the great industries of
the state and became a ranch and .cattle man.
In this occupation he has since been continu-
ously and actively engaged, and in it he has
built up a large and profitable business. After
locating his home ranch and giving some time
to its improvement and cultivation with grati-
fying success, he bought additional land to
the extent of two hundred and forty acres, and
28
of the whole tract of four hundred acres one-
half is in an advanced state of tillage and pro-
ductiveness. He carries on an extensive cattle
industry and farms his land with vigor and
go, id judgment, realizing excellent returns for
his labor in both lines of enterprise. When he
located in the neighborhood there were but few
settlers in that portion of the state, and all the
conditions of frontier life confronted him. He
has aided greatly in opening the region to set-
tlement and bringing it to its present condition.
On October 5, 1890. he was married to Miss
Mary S. Herrick, who was born in Michigan.
They have three interesting children, Verda.
Ethel and Clifford.
JOSEPH E. KELLOGG.
The parents of Joseph E. Kellogg, a pros-
perous and enterprising ranch man of Rio
Blanco county. Colorado. Joseph and Fannie
Kellogg, are natives of Cattaraugus county.
New York, where he also was born, coming
into the world on February 17. 1852. When
he was three years old the family moved to
Wisconsin and four years later to Iowa, where
the mother died in T873. In 1880 the father
became a resident of Colorado and now lives at
Meeker. During the greater part of his ma-
ture life he has been a merchant, but he is at
this time interested in ranches in Routt county
and the marketing of their products. He is
now, as he has been for many years, an earn-
est supporter of the Republican party. Five
of the seven children born in the family are
deceased. After receiving a common-school
education of limited scope, the son Joseph be-
came a clerk in a mercantile establishment
owned and conducted by his father, whom he
accompanied to this state in t88o. at the age
of twenty-eight. Here he continued to serve
other parties in the same capacity for six years
at Fort Collins. In 1886 he moved to his pres-
434
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
ent home in Routt county which he took up as
a homestead and which he has increased by
purchase to one hundred and eighty-two acres.
He cultivates seventy-five acres of the land
with good results and raises cattle in large
numbers, having interests in other ranches
which aid in expanding his business in the stock
industry. As an ardent Republican he takes an
active part in the public life of his county. He
served as county assessor in 1890 and 1891,
and after the close of his term in that office
passed another as deputy assessor. His ranch
is well located eighteen miles southwest of
Craig and is in a very advanced state of devel-
opment. On October 15, T872, Mr. Kellogg
was united in marriage with Miss Alma M.
Cartner, a native of Illinois, born in Cook
county near Elgin. They have had one child,
their son Fred, who died in infancy. Peace-
fully pursuing his chosen lines of usefulness,
with diligence in his work, with consideration
.for the rights and feelings of others while pro-
tecting his own, with studious devotion to the
welfare of his county and state, and a deep and
serviceable interest in the larger concerns of
his country, and giving the aid of his active
support and the stimulus of his example in be-
half of every good enterprise, the life of this
good citizen and energetic business man adds
materially to the wealth and prosperity of the
people around him and the elevation of their
moral and intellectual standard, and has se-
cured for him in return their lasting esteem
and good will.
WILLIAM H. ROSE.
More than sixty years have passed since
the birth of William H. Rose, at Buffalo. New
York, on January r, 1844, and more than twen-
ty-five of them have been passed by him as one
of the producing and distributing forces in the
development and progress of Colorado. He
received a common-school education, supple-
mented by a course at a good seminary located
at Alden, in his native county, and at Wyoming,
New York. On August 4, 1862, at the age
of eighteen, he enlisted in defense of the Union
in Company B, One Hundred and Sixteenth
New York Infantry, and by fidelity and gal-
lantry rose to the position of corporal and la-
ter to that of sergeant in his company, which
was in active service to the close of the Civil
war. Mr. Rose participated in many memor-
able campaigns and battles, among them the
Gettysburg campaign, after Stewart's cavalry in
October. 1862, the expedition to Xew Orleans
under General Banks in November, 1862, the
siege of Port Hudson in May, June and July.
1863. the Red River expedition in 1864, the
battle of Donaldsonville July 13, 1863. and the
various movements under General Sheridan in
the Shenandoah valley in Virginia. In 1864
he was wounded in one of Sheridan's fights on
Opequan creek, and in consequence of this
passed some time in hospitals at Baltimore and
Philadelphia, during which he studied civil en-
gineering. Since becoming a resident of this
state he has taken part in quelling several In-
dian outbreaks. After the close of the Civil
war he returned to Buffalo. New York, and for
two years practiced his profession of civil en-
gineer in the employ of the Buffalo & Philadel-
phia Railroad. In the spring of 1868 he moved
to Fort Scott. Kansas, 'and in the line of his
profession laid out the Wilbur addition to the
city. There he was also employed profession-
ally by the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad.
In 1872 he moved to Prescott, in that state,
and there he served as county surveyor until
1878, when he took up his residence at Kansas
City. In March. 1870. he came to Colorado
and located at Leadville, where he opened an
office as a civil engineer and United States
deputy mineral surveyor and became inter-
ested in handling mining properties. He re-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
435
mained there until 1882, then moved to Craig
for the purpose of prospecting for gold, which
he found, but not in paying quantities. So
turning his attention to ranching and raising
stock, in the spring of 1883 he pre-empted the
ranch on which he now lives. To his first
claim he has added until he now owns six hun-
dred and twenty acres, all of which he has im-
proved. I lis ranch was the first taken up in the
Bear river bottom where Craig now stands and
he built the first log cabin in the Craig valley.
He has since coming here been actively en-
gaged in general ranching and raising - cattle
and horses, and has served three terms as
county surveyor. He is also agent for the
Craig Townsite Company. United States dep-
uty mineral surveyor and United States com-
missioner. In aiding all undertakings for the
improvement of the section in which he lives
he has borne a cheerful and helpful part, as-
sisting especially in building the Highline or
South Park to Leadville owned by the Union
Pacific Railroad. Always interested in the
mining industry, he still owns mining interests
at Leadville. Fraternally he belongs to the or-
der of Odd Fellows and the Grand Army of the
Republic, and in political affairs supports the
Republican party. He was first married on
September 12. 1869. and by the union became
the father of four children. Howard, Jessie.
Minnie and Pearl, all of whom are deceased.
He was divorced from this wife in 1878, on ac-
count of incompatibility of temperament, and
on December 16. 1891, married a second one.
Miss Julia La Reaux, a native of New York-
state. Mr. Rose's parents were Walter and
Eunice ( Farnham ) Rose, natives of Massachu-
setts and New York respectively. The father
was a merchant for many years at Buffalo,
New York, and afterwards a farmer. He was
a Whig in political faith, and both parents were
Presbyterians in church membership. Their
offspring numbered seven, five of whom are
dead. Horace was killed in the second battle
of Bull Run ; Curtis died of injuries received
at the battle of Antietam, although he lingered
until 1895; Emily A. died in 1885, Delia L.
in 1893. and Martha J. in 1874. Mr. Rose
and his sister Helen M., wife of Orlando Coe,
are living. The father died in 1865 and the
mother in 1893.
MARTIN WEISBECK.
Martin Weisbeck, of Routt county, whose
ranch of one hundred and twenty acres located
near Craig, is considered one of the best of its
size in the county, is one of the sturdy mechan-
ics of self-reliance, perseverance and capacity
who have helped so materially to develop the re-
sources of this state and build up its industries.
He was born in Erie county. New York, on
December 1, 1849, aiK ' being the son of par-
ents in moderate circumstances, he did not have
much opportunity for attending school, but
was obliged to work for the necessaries of life
from his boyhood. He learned three trades
practically, those of stone mason, plasterer and
carpenter, and having a handy mechanical turn,
found it more easy to master three than many
do to master one. In his native state he
wrought at these trades for a period of twenty-
seven years, then came to Colorado and located
at Central City. Here he worked at his trades
and also did mining and teaming, continuing
at his numerous, occupations there until 1885.
He then moved to the vicinity of Craig and
took a homestead right to his present ranch.
It was entirely covered with wild sage brush
when he took possession of it, and its present
condition is the result of his own indefatigable
industry and skillful management. He made
the improvements and brought the land to fer-
tility and comeliness, and has been very suc-
cessful in raising large crops of hay. grain and
vegetables. There is an abundant supply of
43 6
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
water for sufficient irrigation, and his methods
of farming are of the best. In political faith
lie is a Democrat, but he is not an active par-
tisan. He finds enough to occupy his mind
and time in his private affairs.
CHARLES A. RANNEY.
Charles A. Ranney, of Routt county, living
in the neighborhood of Craig, is a younger
brother of Frank B. Ranney, of the same neigh-
borhood, a sketch of whom will be found on
another page of this volume, in which the fam-
ily history can be seen. Mr. Ranney was born
on May i, 1867, in Belding, Ionia county.
Michigan, and there received a high-school ed-
ucation, the conditions in his case not opening
to him the way to anything beyond in the line
of schooling. He was. however, diligent and
studious and acquired sufficient knowledge
and had sufficient self-confidence and force of
character to begin teaching school at the age
of seventeen. He followed this important vo-
cation six years in his native state, then came
to Colorado in 1890 and taught school at Craig
four years. From 1899 to 1903 he conducted
a drug store at Craig, and in the year last
named he traded the store for the ranch he
now owns and manages located on Fortification
creek, twenty-six miles north of Craig. It com-
prises two hundred acres, of which about three-
fourths can be cultivated. Hay and cattle are
the most important products on the place, but
grain, vegetables and fruit are also raised in
quantities. Mr. Ranney. although not an ac-
tive partisan, is a loyal and firm Republican in
political faith. He was married on May t.
too_\ to Miss Josephine Bassett. who was born
in Arkansas but reared in Colorado. Mr. Ran-
ney is a progressive man and has a voice of in-
fluence in the local affairs of the county, aiding
always in the promotion of enterprises of value
and helping to give the proper trend to public
sentiment in reference to public improvements.
SAMCFI. A. ADAIR.
Samuel A. Adair, who was one of the earl-
iest settlers in Routt county, and who is now liv-
ing retired from active pursuits after many
years of productive and active usefulness in
this county, is a native of McMinn county, Ten-
nessee, born on March 16, 1859, and the son
of William C. and Maltie (Reid) Adair, the
former a native of Tennessee and the latter of
North Carolina. The parents were farmers
and the father, who is still living in his native
state, is an active Republican in politics. The
mother died in 1885. Ten of their twelve chil-
dren are living, William W., Samuel A., John,
Clara (.Mrs. John Colthorp), Gustavus, Nora
( Mrs. T. B. Pain). James. Emma (Mrs. Wil-
liam Ei-win). Vada (Mrs. Jesse Stringham)
and Cora ( Mrs. George P. Anderson). Samuel
received a common-school education and has
made his own way in the world since be was
twenty years old. previous to that time assist-
ing his parents on the farm. In 1880 he came
to Colorado and located at Hahn's Peak in
Routt county, where he wrought in the mines
for wages until the fall of 1881. He then
turned his attention to raising cattle on the
open range on Bear river. This he continued
until the autumn of 18X2. when he sold his cat-
tle and began raising horses, keeping at that
until 1888. In that year he disposed of his
horses and again began raising cattle. In 1882
he homesteaded on a ranch which is a part of
his late home place. This comprises eight hun-
dred acres, and on it until recently he carried
on an extensive ranching and cattle industry.
When he settled on bis land it was all wild
and wholly without improvements of any kind.
He has brought the greater pari of it to a high
state of cultivation and has made many valu-
able and attractive improvements on it so that
it is now one of the most productive and desir-
able ranch homes in bis portion of the state,
Recently be sold the ranch and his live stock
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
437
to Carry Brothers, and since then lie has not
been actively engaged in any business. He was
a very progressive man. keenly alive to the
needs of the section in which he lived and al-
ways foremost in providing for them. He
aided in building the Brock ditch and numer-
ous other works of local improvement, being
ever in earnest with his effective influence and
example in developing the section. Politically
he is an ardent Republican, but he has never
sought or desired official station. He was mar-
ried on September 30, 1885, to Miss Cordelia
Walker, a native of North Carolina and the
daughter of William R. Walker, who became
a resident of Routt county in T882 among the
first settlers here. Mr. and Mrs. Adair have
two children. Gordon B. and Mattie A. Begin-
ning in this state with nothing. Mr. Adair has
used his opportunities to good advantage and
won from adverse circumstances a very good
estate, at the same time helping to push for-
ward the progress and improvement of the wild
region into which he came and where he has
labored to such good ends.
JAMES M. WHETSTONE.
James M. Whetstone, living on a fine ranch
of eight hundred and forty acres two miles east
of Hayden, is not only classed as a pioneer
but as one of the most progressive men of
Routt county, taking an active part in its
political affairs as an ardent Republican and
in its fraternal life as an enthusiastic Master
Mason. He was born in Schuylkill county,
Pennsylvania, on October 30. 1855, and re-
mained there until he reached the age of
twenty-two. His boyhood and youth were like
those of other country boys of his locality and
station. He attended a district school a few
months in the winter and worked on his
father's farm, remaining under the parental
roof-tree until he was twenty-two. At the age
of eleven his parents moved to Mahonoy City,
Pennsylvania, where from the age of fourteen
to twentv-two he was employed as clerk and
bookkeeper in stores. He then started out in
life for himself. In 1877 he left his native
heath and became a resident of Colorado. Lo-
cating at Breckenridge, he gave his attention
to milling and prospecting until 1882. serving,
however, in 1880 and 1881 as town clerk, an
office to which he was elected on the Citizens'
ticket. In 1882 he moved to Routt county and
took up his residence on portions of his present
ranch, which he secured on pre-emption and
homestead claims. He has increased the land
by subsequent purchases to eight hundred and
forty acres and has what many persons con-
sider the best ranch in the county. He can
cultivate two hundred and fifty acres and raises
good crops of hay. grain and vegetables with
some small fruits. His cattle, which are his
main reliance, are all of high grades and regis-
tered and kept in prime condition. During his
residence at Breckenridge Mr. Whetstone
served as business manager of the Summit
County Leader. He was married on December
30, 1890, to Miss Virginia E. Hooker. They
have one child, their son Sidney H. Mr. Whet-
stone's parents were Elias and Hannah (Stei-
gerwalt) Whetstone, natives of Pennsylvania.
The father was a man of many pursuits, a
citizen of influence and a Republican in politics.
He followed his sons to Colorado in 1881 and
died in 1898 at Breckenridge, having survived
the mother eighteen years, she passing away
in 1880. Five of their six children are living.
James M., Emma, wife of G. T. Bailey. John
A., Hannah, wife of E. P. Phelps, and Amos E.
MATHIAS ELMER.
Although born and reared in Switzerland,
where he was educated and learned his trade
as a butcher, and having tried his hand at
438
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
the craft in Paris, France, Mathias Elmer, of
Routt county, pleasantly located and estab-
lished on a good three-hundred-and-twenty-
acre ranch of his own in Bear river valley,
has found in this country and state the proper
field for his enterprise and the most congenial
surroundings and beneficent institutions for a
poor man struggling forward in the race for
supremacy among his fellows. His life began
in the land of William Tell on April 18, 185 1.
and he is the son of Oswald and Thoroth
Elmer, also Swiss by nativity. The father, who
is still living in his native land, farms and
raises stock with success. He is a member of
the Lutheran church, as was his wife, who died
on February 12. 1902. They had a family of
eight children. Of these Anna and Oswald
died, and Henry, Mathias, Anna, Maria and
Nicholas and Dorothy (twins) are living.
Mathias had such educational advantages as
are furnished by the state common schools. At
an early age he learned his trade as a butcher,
and at this he wrought in his native country
until 1873. then went to Paris, where he was
variously employed during his short residence
in that gay capital. In 1874 he came to the
United States and located at Pittsburg. Penn-
sylvania, where he remained two years, in
1876 becoming a resident of Colorado. After
living a short time at Denver he moved to
Central City and there worked at his trade
until 1883. a part of the time for wages and
the rest in a meat market of his own. In the
meantime, however, he went to the Black Hills
and endeavored to open a meat market, but
found the Indians so troublesome that he was
unable to proceed with the enterprise and re-
turned to Central City. In 1883 he determined
l" (11111 his attention to ranching and with this
end in view moved into the Bear river valley
and took up a homestead and a pre-emption
claim, each comprising one hundred and sixty
acres of wild land, all virgin to the plow and
without the suggestion of any improvement.
This tract of three hundred and twenty acres he
has redeemed from the waste and made pro-
ductive with the fruits of systematic cultiva-
tion, having one hundred and fifty acres now
in good annual crops of hay. grain and vege-
ables. He has made the improvements on the
land himself, so that the place as it is, one
of the hest and most desirable in the valley,
is wholly the result of his industry, thrift and
skill. It is plentifully adorned with fine trees
of his planting and well supplied with com-
fortable buildings and other structures for its
proper purposes. Moreover, such has been Mr.
Elmer's interest in and services to the public
welfare of the region that he is generally recog-
nized as one of its influential and represent-
ative citizens. On September 29, 18S1, he
united in marriage with Miss Mary Geisel.
a native of Wurtemberg. Germany, born on
March 16, 1863. They have four children,
Mrs. David Sellers, Ida M.. Mattie M. and
Emma L. Mrs. Elmer is the daughter of John
J. and Maria R. (Stoll) Geisel, also natives of
Wurtemberg. The father was a baker and
sometimes a farmer, and both were Lutherans
They had twelve children, of whom four are
living. Louisa, Bertha. Maria and Alvina. The
mother died on September 16, 1863, and the
father on January 23, 1889.
WILLIAM L. YOAST.
Born and reared at Humansville. in the
northwestern corner of Polk county. Missouri,
and living since most of the time in the rural
districts of Colorado, William L. Yoast, of
Routt county, whose well improved and highly
cultivated ranch is located fourteen miles south-
east of Hayden, has passed nearly the whole of
his life "ii the frontier and is therefore well
acquainted with every phase of its strenuous
but interesting requirements. His life began
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
439
on November 14. 1852, and he grew to man-
hood on the paternal farm, assisting in its ex-
acting labors, sharing its privations, incident
to farm life in the far west at all times, and
receiving such intellectual culture as was avail-
able at the primitive country schools of his day
and locality. In 1873, when he was twenty-one
years of age, he began the business of life for
himself, farming and raising stock in his na-
tive county until 1888. With the industry and
frugality which were parts of his home train-
ing, he succeeded in his undertaking. But his
success only served to fire his ambition for
larger results and accordingly he sought the
wider and more varied opportunities for ad-
vancement offered by this state, and, coming
to the neighborhood of Denver, he bought a
ranch on which he lived until 1890. Then re-
turning east some distance, he located in Ness
county, Kansas, and tried his hand at raising
sheep. A severe winter cleaned him up finan-
cially and cured him of the desire to continue
his operations in that state and the line which
had proved s. 1 disastrous. He then came once
more to Colorado and again located in the vi-
cinity of Denver in the fall of 1891, passing two
years on a leased ranch. In 1893 ne moved
to the neighborhood of Williams Park and
homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres of
land which was then covered with wild sage
brush and had never felt the master hand of
systematic husbandry. This he set to work
to improve and cultivate with an industry and
skill which have transformed it into a fine and
productive farm, yielding large annual crops
of hay and grain, and supporting generously
his large and choice herds of cattle. In his
section he is prominent and progressive, influ-
ential and intelligent in reference to public af-
fairs and well esteemed by all who know him.
Although an earnest Democrat in political
faith and devoted to the success of his party,
he does not seek public office, but prefers to
serve his community from the honorable post of
private citizenship. On June 2j, 1876, he was
joined in wedlock with Miss Mary E. Swinck,
a native of Kentucky. They have nine chil-
dren. John H.. James M.. Mary A.. William
W.. Bessie M.. Elmer A.. Frederick, Alva B.
and Clarissa C. Mr. Yoast's parents, Hugh
and Mary Yoast, were born, respectively, in
Tennessee and Virginia. The mother died in
1886. and the father is still living and actively
engaged in farming in Polk county, Missouri.
Their family numbered eleven, of whom Allie,
Susan. Columbus and an infant are dead, and
William L.. Frank. James. Annie, Margaret,
Julia and Mary are living.
JOHN DUNCKLEY.
John Dunckley, whose name is a household
word in Routt county and throughout a consid-
erable extent of the surrounding country as a
very progressive, enterprising and successful
stock and ranch man. is a native of Huron
county, in the province of Ontario, Canada,
where he was born on April 8. 1857. His par-
ents. George and Grace Dunckley. natives of
Ireland, emigrated to Canada at the age of ten
years and were later married there. They
moved from there to Kansas in 1868 and to
Colorado in [891. The mother died in this
state on June 2, 1892, and the father is now-
living at Boulder. He has been a farmer from
his youth, and has taken a leading part in local
politics as a Republican. Fourteen children
were born of their union, all of whom are liv-
ing. They are John. Rowland I., Richard H.,
George W.. William F.. Susan (Mrs. George
Campbell), Robert C, Thomas E., Edward,
Anna (Mrs. Sershun), Walter H.. Ella M.
! Mrs. Brooks ). Charles and Nelson. The par-
ents belonged to and reared their children in
the Methodist church. John, the first born of
their offspring, received a common-school edu-
44Q
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
cation and aided them in the work of the farm
until he reached the age of twenty-three, then
moved to Kansas and after farming for a few
months in Ottawa county, that state, removed
in 1SS0 to Colorado and took up his residence
at Canon City. Here he furnished ties for the
Denver & Rio Grande Railroad under contract
for two years, then returned to Kansas, where
he worked on farms for wages until 1888. In
that year he again became a resident of this
state, locating on his present ranch of one hun-
dred and sixty acres in Routt county, which he
secured by pre-emption and which is eighteen
miles southeast of Hayden. He cultivates one
hundred and twenty acres of his land with good
results in hay, grain and vegetables, and with
breadth of view for his own welfare and a
patriotic and public-spirited interest in the sub-
stantial and enduring good of the stock inter-
ests in the county, he maintains fine herds of
thoroughbred Hereford and Shorthorn cattle,
through which he has aided materially and ex-
tensively in raising the standard of stock in his
neighborhood. His ranch is one of the best of
its size in Routt county, and all its operations
are carried on with skill, intelligence and ac-
cording to the most advanced thought in the
business. The land was wild and uncultivated
when he took it up, unprofitably gay with wild
sage and cherry growths and without the sem-
blance of a human habitation or showing the
mark of any attempt at cultivation. He has
enriched it with good buildings, and, seconding
the bounty of nature, always available to proper
persuasions, has transformed the land from its
state of rude barbarism to one of smiling plenty
fruitful in all the concomitants of cultivated life.
If the denizens of the older communities who
build them greater and multiply their product-
iveness are entitled to credit, much more is one
who. like Mr. Dunckley, steps boldly into the
wilderness and summons it to the service of
man and a new people worthy of all regard
and esteem ; and this he enjoys in a marked de-
gree among those who have witnessed and
shared his labors and his triumphs.
HENRY SCHAFFNIT, SR.
Born in Germany and living during the last
fi nt y years in Colorado, and between the two
places traveling through many parts of the
United States to the Pacific and from the Gulf
to California, suffering all the hardships and
privations and encountering all the dangers of
frontier life, escaping death by cholera and fe-
ver, by famine and flood, reveling at times in
the wild existence of the mining" camp and at
times longing for the blandishments of civili-
zation, and in his wanderings gathering to-
gether one of the most extensive and curious
collections of deformed horns and antlers of elk,
deer, antelope, gazella and roebucks in exist-
ence, the interesting subject of this sketch has
had a career of unusual adventure and breadth
of experience, and has made it all subservient
to his own progress and advancement and the
benefit of the region of his present home. He
was born in Hesse-Darmstadt in 1833, the son
of Martin and Elizabeth Schaffnit. also native
in that country, where they were prosperous
farmers and prominent citizens, the father serv-
ing as mayor of his home town for nine years.
They were members of the Lutheran church,
and died in their native land, the father in 1863
and the mother ten years later. Henry emi-
grated to the United States in 1S51. after ac-
quiring a common-school education and learn-
ing his trade as a blacksmith in Germany, and
on arriving at New Orleans, the port to which
he was hound, made his way to St. Louis,
where he worked two years as a clerk and a
gardener. On the way from New Orleans to
St. bonis. Missouri, cholera broke out on the
steamboat and nine persons died on the way
up the Mississippi, and the boat was on this
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
44i
account quarantined at an island opposite St.
Louis and detained there some time. Mr.
Schaffnit passed the winter of 1853-4 at New
Orleans, then, to escape a virulent yellow fever
epidemic, returned to St. Louis in the spring,
and started for California under the influence
of the gold excitement over that state, journey-
ing up the Missouri and through northern Kan-
sas until the party, composed of himself, Mr.
Bush and Mr. Stephenson & Company, driving
two hundred and fifty head of cattle and a
number of ox teams, reached the Blue river in
Kansas. This stream rose four feet in the
night and flooded all the valley and all the cattle
belonging to the train stampeded, being visible
only when the lightning flashed. This circum-
stance so discouraged Mr. Schaffnit he deter-
mined to return east; but after a jaunt of fifty
miles on the backward track, during which he
was compelled to sleep on the open prairie at
night. Mr. Schaffnit changed his mind and
turned his face once more to the land of gold
and promise, although his only possession was
one blanket and a pistol. He soon fell in with
another party in which he became well ac-
quainted with Mr. Legan and Mr. Brassfield,
of Liberty, Clay county, Missouri, and together
they pushed on to their desired haven. The
trip was full of incident and danger, at times
the wagons having to be stopped on account of
the immense herds of buffalo passing through,
and consumed five months of wearying travel.
But at length they reached Sacramento, where
Mr. Schaffnit followed gold mining with suc-
cess for five years in Shasta and Trinity coun-
ties. California. In the fall of 1859, when he
gave up mining for a time, he saw the body of
United States Senator Brodrik lying in state
at San Francisco, he having been killed in a
duel with Judge Terry, the chief justice of the
state, and heard Colonel Baker, of the First
California Volunteers, preach the funeral ser-
mon. Leaving California then and proceeding
to his former home, on the steamer "North
Star." under command of Captain McGaven,
he was doomed to another disaster. The wheel
of the vessel broke off in the Carribean sea af-
ter leaving the Isthmus of 1'anama. In [861,
at St. Louis. Mr. Schaffnit enlisted in the
Turner Zouaves, Third United States Reserve
Cor] is, under Colonel McNeil, and in the three
years service in the Tenth Illinois Infantry he
rose rapidly to the rank of lieutenant. He was
wounded at Flint river, in Alabama, after
which he passed three months in the hospital at
Nashville, Tennessee. In 1864 he resigned
from the army by reason of disability and came
to Colorado to live, being among the first set-
tlers here. On his journey overland from Atch-
ison, Kansas, his party had trouble with the
Indians, but arrived at Central City without
serious mishap, and there he engaged in min-
ing on the Bob Tail and Gunel claims. In
1865 he again became a soldier, enlisting in
the First Colorado Militia under Captain Cous-
ins for a campaign against the Indians, who
were in hostility. A few months later he re-
turned to Central City and continued mining
until the spring of 1866, when he made a visit
to his old home in Germany. When he came
back to Central City before the end of that
year, he started mining again, continuing his
operations in this line successfully until 1877.
He then became proprietor of the Washington
Hotel and managed it for a year. Selling out
in 1879, he moved to Leadville, having four
years earlier made a trip into the Hayden val-
ley in Routt county and pre-empted one hun-
dred and sixty acres of land there. On this
first trip, in 1874. he passed through the mining
village of Hahn's Peak, and down to Snake
river, Wyoming. On their return he came into
an Indian camp on Flk river. The savages de-
manded of the party ponies and knives, and,
being refused, ordered the new-comers to
move out of the region. Mr. Schaffnit after-
442
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
ward made many trips between Hayden and
Leadville, some on snow shoes, and suffered
all the extremes of the winter seasons. But
wild game was plentiful and furnished him
with meat without much difficulty. His ranch is
near Steamboat Springs, and he devoted his
energies to its improvement and cultivation
until 1888, but since then has leased it to other
persons. In that year he built the first hotel
at the Springs, the one now known as the
Sheridan, fie was married in 1868 to Miss
Margaretta Kleinschmidt, a native of Ger-
many. They are the parents of one child, a
son. The father is one of Routt county's most
prominent and best known citizens, held in
high esteem throughout the county and
worthy of it. He is a leading member of the
Routt County Pioneer Association, and ac-
tively interested in all good works for the bet-
terment of the county. They now reside at
Steamboat Springs.
DR. JOHN A. CAMPBELL.
In the veins of Dr. John A. Campbell, of
Steamboat Springs, the blood of the resource-
ful, ingenious and ever thrifty New Englander
mingles with that of the industrious, produc-
tive and multifariously useful Pennsylvanian,
bis father, John Campbell, having been a na-
tive of Maine and his mother, whose maiden
name was Mary Furry, of that great hive of
many-sided and highly serviceable labor
founded by William Penn. They were suc-
cessful farmers and raisers of good stock, and
made their final earthly home in Fayette
county, Indiana, where the Doctor was born
near Connersville on July 14. 1831. The fa-
ther was a stanch Republican and both par-
ents belonged to the Christian church. Of
their ten children five are living, the Doctor,
Daniel, James, Mary and Elizabeth. One son
named Amos laid his life on the altar of his
country, fighting in defense of the Union at
the battle of Arkansas Post. The Doctor was
well educated, beginning his course of scholas-
tic training in the common schools and finish-
ing it at the Northwestern Christian Univer-
sity, in what is now Butler University, at In-
dianapolis, Indiana, receiving the degree of
Bachelor of Arts. He was also president of
Ladoga Academy in 186 1-2, receiving his uni-
versity degree of Master of Arts some time
afterward. In [854 he was ordained to the
Christian ministry, and for a number of years
thereafter he filled the sacred desk, most of the
time in his native state. He was graduated in
medicine in 1875 and practiced his profession
at Oueensville, Indiana, for several years. In
[881 he became a resident of Colorado, lo-
cating at Evans, Weld county, for a short
time, then moving to Denver, where he re-
mained until 1883 engaged in various occupa-
tions. In the year last named he determined
to turn his attention to mining, and to this end
took up his residence at Breckenridge. where
he discovered some valuable mines and re-
mained until 1887 working them and other
mining properties. He then sold his interests
at Breckenridge and elsewhere at a good profit
and moved to Routt county, locating at Steam-
boat Springs. Here he pre-empted a ranch of
one hundred and sixty acres, which is near the
town and is steadily growing in value, all the
land being tillable and yielding good crops,
particularly of hay. With a deep and abiding
interest in the general welfare of the count) of
his adoption, and especially devoted to its
moral and educational advancement, he served
from i8S() to 1893 as county superintendent
of the public schools, being elected twice to
this important office. From the organization
of the Routt County Pioneer Association be
Iris been its faithful and highly appreciated
historian. He also served as hill clerk in the
state house of representatives, being appointed
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
443
as a Republican, he having always been a de-
voted member of that party and giving it
earnest and loyal support. Fraternally he is a
Master Mason. On August 10, 1854, he was
united in marriage with Mrs. Charlotte Dyer.
a native, like himself, of Fayette county, Indi-
ana, born near Connersville. They have had
three children, one of whom died in infancy.
The two living are Dr. Lucian Dan Campbell,
of Denver, and Miss Lucy, who is still at home.
Mrs. Campbell's parents were natives of Vir-
ginia who passed many of their later years in
Indiana, where they died. They had two chil-
dren, one of whom, their daughter Cassel-
donia, died some years ago, leaving Mrs.
Campbell the only survivor of the family.
The Doctor is a very popular, prominent and
highly esteemed minister and citizen.
JOSEPH HITCHENS.
Joseph Hitchens, a younger brother of
William M. and James H. Hitchens, esteemed
citizens and progressive ranch and cattle men
of Routt county, sketches of whom will be
found on other pages of this work, was born
at Cornwall. England; on February 26, 1863,
and remained in that country until he was
eleven years old, making his own living in the
mines from an early age. In 1874. having
received a very limited education at the com-
mon schools of his native land, by attending
them for brief periods at irregular intervals, he
determined to seek his fortune in a country
of greater possibilities and freer opportunities
for young- men of industry and perseverance,
and, although then but a boy of eleven, he set
sail for the United States, and on his arrival
in this country located at Central City, this
state, where for six years he worked in the
mines for wages and operated leased properties
in the same industry. In 1880 he purchased
his present ranch of one hundred and sixty
acres, eight miles northwest of Steamboat
Springs, on which he has since resided and
carried on a flourishing ranch and cattle in-
dustry, raising good crops of hay, grain and
hardy vegetables, but finding hay and cattle
his main dependence. The improvements on
the land were all made by him, and nearly the
whole of his land has been brought to an
advanced stage of tillage. To its improve-
ment and development he has devoted himself
and the results are the legitimate consequences
of continued industry, skillful cultivation and
good business capacity. He has changed a
tract of wild land into a valuable and pro-
ductive farm, provided with a comfortable
dwelling' and other necessary buildings, and
has risen to a high rank among the progressive
and enterprising stock and ranch men of the
county. He is an active Republican in politics
and in fraternal relations is connected with
the order of Odd Fellows. On September 27,
1887, he wedded with Miss Jane May, a native
of Cornwall. England, and six children have
blessed their union and brightened their do-
mestic shrine, Stanley L., Gertrude M., Charles
E., Katie A., Frederick J. and Fremont E.
Mrs. Hitchens is the daughter of Richard and
Susan May, natives of England. Her father
was a very successful blacksmith for many
years, working at his craft to his own ad-
vantage and the benefit of his neighborhood.
He is now living retired from active pursuits,
enjoying the fruits of his life of useful labor
and secure in the regard and good will of his
countrymen. He and his wife are Wesleyan
Methodists. They have six children. Solo-
mon, Charles, Mrs. James Philip. John, Wil-
liam and Mrs. Hitchens. Mr. and Mrs. Hitch-
ens stand well in their community which they
have done so much to build up and improve,
and well deserve the general high estimate in
which they are held. They are exemplars of
that high sense of duty which slights no task
444
PROGRESSIVE MEN OP WESTERN COLORADO.
and shrinks from no burden that properly falls
to their lot, and preserves a cheerful and en-
couraging demeanor through every circum-
stance of hardship and privation.
JOHN" ADAM WHETSTONE.
The first settler on Trout creek. Twenty-
mile Park, John Adam Whetstone, of near the
postoffice of Eddy. Routt county, planted his
foot firmly in the wilderness when it was
wholly given up to the untamed growth and
the savage denizens whose domain it had been
for uncounted centuries, and, daring fate into
the lists, determined there to establish a home,
found a line and start the dawn of American
civilization for this region. His faith in the
promise of the country has been fully realized
and his noble efforts to begin its conquest and
colonization have been amply rewarded by the
estate he has gained for himself and the esteem
in which he is held by those who followed him
into this remoteness and whom he has led in
improving it and developing its resources. He
is a native of Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania,
born near Tamaqua on January 23, 1854. His
parents were persons of resolute spirit and de-
termined industry, and from them he inherited
these traits. Receiving a meager education by
slight attendance at the district schools, he was
dependent mainly for his intellectual develop-
ment and preparation for the battle of life on
the teachings of experience and his own re-
sources. He remained at home and assisted
his parents until he was twenty-two years of
age, then, in March, 1870, be went to San
Antonio. Texas, and from there, in June, he
came to Colorado and began prospecting and
working on ranches near Denver. The next
\ear be prospected through Middle and North
parks, meeting with no success and suffering
many hardships, lie moved on foot with his
blankets packed on his back and accompanied
by his one companion. John Fredrum, to
Breckenridge. He had twenty-five cents in
money and they had a sack of Hour weighing
fifty pounds between them, his partner's only
wealth being his share in this flour. As casft
was necessary to the prosecution of their jour-
ney, they sold the flour for four dollars and a
half, at Hot Sulphur Springs. At Brecken-
ridge Mr. Whetstone went to work in the mines
for wages, and also continued prospecting un-
til [879. When the massacre at Meeker oc-
curred in 1879 he was among the Indians
south of that place, but had no difficulty with
them. In the winter of that year he mined
for wages in the San Luis valley, and in the
ensuing spring returned to Breckenridge,
where he remained until 1886 ranching and
mining with varied success. In June, 1886,
he located part of his present ranch through a
homestead claim, and to this he has added until
he now owns six hundred and eighty acres,
two-thirds of which can be profitably culti-
vated. The place is well supplied with water
and he has provided it with comfortable build-
ings and other necessary improvements, mak-
ing it one of the finest and most valuable
ranches in Routt county. It is fifteen miles
southwest of Steamboat Springs, and yields
abundant crops of hay, grain and small fruits.
Cattle form his main reliance, however, and
these he raises in large numbers, their stand-
ard of excellence being high and the strain
thoroughbred Shorthorns. He is universally
regarded as one of the most substantial and
progressive cattle men in the county, and one
of its most prominent and representative citi-
zens. An ardent Republican in politics, he
gives his party generous and effective support,
and takes an active and helpful interest in all
the local affairs of his section of the state.
( )n March 30, 1881, he united in wedlock with
Miss Hattie Cowley, a native of Pennsylvania.
Thev have had five children, of whom l.ucien
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
445
C. died on December i, 1886, and Guy II., R.
Roy, Elise 1. and Clyde C. are living. -Mrs.
Whetstone is the daughter of William and
Mary Cowley, the former a native of England
and the latter of Pennsylvania. They passed
the greater part and the conclusion of their
lives in Schuylkill county. Pennsylvania, where
the' father was much esteemed as a mine boss
and good citizen. He supported the principles
and candidates of the Republican party in polit-
ical matters, and in fraternal relations was con-
nected with the Masonic order, the Odd Fel-
lows and the Knights of Pythias. Eight chil-
dren were born to them, three of whom have
died and five are living. Mrs. Whetstone. Mrs.
Elizabeth Faust, William, Lillie and Charles.
The mother died in 1888. Mr. Whetstone is
a brother of James M. Whetstone, a sketch of
whom appears on another page of this work.
JOHN ROLL.
Coming to Colorado twenty-four years ago.
in the full vigor and hopefulness of his young
manhood, and bringing with him the native
thrift and persistent industry which is char-
acteristic of his race and the habits of useful
labor and self-reliance which he had acquired
at his paternal fireside, John Roll, of Routt
count}-, who carries on an extensive and profit-
able ranching and cattle industry on his ranch
of one hundred and sixty acres twenty miles
southwest of Steamboat Springs, has been of
very material assistance in developing the re-
sources of the state and building up its interests
in many ways. He was born at Tyrol. Austria,
on December 6, 1847. and is the son of Peter
and Elizabeth Roll, also born and reared in the
fatherland, where they passed their lives farm-
ing, the father dying in -1850 and the mother
in 1859. Both were members of the Catholic
church. Their son John was educated at the
state schools and remained at home assisting
his parents on the farm until [869. He then
engaged in mining and followed this pursuit
eleven years in his native land. In 1880 he
emigrated to the United States and located at
Golden, this state, seeking the best field for
the exercise of the craft with which he was
familiar. There he mined for wages for a
time, then moved to Louisville, Boulder county,
and continued mining three years. At the end
of that period be changed his residence to
Central City, where he kept on mining under
contract until he came to Routt county and
located a ranch on Fish creek, getting it
through a pre-emption claim. He improved
this ranch and worked it four years, then sold
it at a considerable profit, after which he
homesteaded on his present ranch of one hun-
dred and sixty acres on Trout creek. He can
cultivate with profit one hundred and thirty
acres of his tract and gets good crops of hay
and grain. His cattle industry is his chief re-
liance, however, and this he pushes to the high-
est development both in the number and the
grade of his product. Politically he is a pro-
nounced Republican, but he seeks no recog-
nition in the way of public office at the hands of
his party although his services to its cause are
constant and diligent. On August 6, 1875,
he was united in marriage with Miss Josephine
Bitsker, like himself a native of Germany.
They have had seven children, six of whom
are living, John, Mary, Josephine, Joseph,
Arthur and Clara. A son named Adolph died
some years ago. Having come from a land
teeming with industries and crowded with
population, where all the conveniences and en-
joyments of cultivated life were abundant, it
would have not been surprising if Mr. Roll
had found the wilderness of this country in-
tolerable to him, and he had gone back to the
scenes and conditions to which he was long
accustomed. He was made of sterner stuff,
however, and having made his choice he not
446
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
only abode by it, but entered into the spirit
of his new surroundings and duties with zest
and energy, and by so doing aided in creating
around him the comforts he had deserted and
at the same time found his reward in his own
growing consequence, wealth and influence.
He is well pleased with Colorado, and omits
no effort to push forward its industrial, com-
mercial and moral greatness.
JOSEPH B. MALE.
Joseph B. Male, a very successful ranch
and cattle man and a highly respected citizen
of Routt county, dwelling on and working a
ranch of four hundred and forty acres of good
land located on Trout creek, twenty miles
southwest of Steamboat Springs, and owning
in addition one hundred and twenty acres of
coal land adjoining his farm, all of which he
has acquired by his own industry and capacity,
was a child of misfortune born to a destiny of
toil and privation, and orphaned by the death
of his mother and oppressed by the loss of his
home when he was but twelve years old. His
life began in Wayne county, Pennsylvania, on
April 21, iS^J. and by reason of his condition
and the death of his mother he had very slen-
der educational advantages. At the age men-
tioned he began to shift and provide for him-
self, and until 1878 worked at various occu-
pations in his native state. In that year he
moved to the vicinity of Dodge City, Kansas,
where he passed a year farming school land.
He then changed his residence to Port Scott,
in the same state, but after a stay of about two
months moved to Conway, Taylor county,
Iowa, where he found employment as a farm
band at a compensation of thirteen dollars a
month and bis board. He also worked as a
farm band near Bedford, Iowa, and near
Marysville, Missouri. In October, 1879, he
transferred his energies and his hopes to Las
Vegas, New Mexico, where he devoted four
years to driving oxen and making railroad ties
for wages and under contract. In 1883 he
came to Colorado and helped to build a stamp
mill at Summitville, returning to Xew Mexico
for the winter. Prom the spring of 1884 to
1888 he lived in Wyoming and was engaged in
building ditches and freighting. Then in 1888
he located his present ranch, or a portion of
it. adding to what he first took up until the
ranch now comprises four hundred and forty
acres, two hundred acres of which can be cul-
tivated. And as has been noted, he also owns
one hundred and twenty acres of valuable coal
land adjoining the ranch. Taking possession
of his land when it was wholly wild, he has
made all his own improvements and brought
about the fertile and productive condition of
the land as it is at this time. Here he conducts
with vigor and success a general ranching busi-
ness and a cattle industry of large proportions,
the cattle being his main reliance, although he
raises good crops of the products usual in the
neighborhood. Prominent and progressive as
a ranch and cattle man. Mr. Male also takes
a leading and active part in the affairs of the
county, and a cordial interest in its fraternal
life, being a Republican in politics and a Mas-
ter Mason in fraternal circles. He was elected
county commissioner of Routt county in No-
vember. 1904. to fill that position from Janu-
ary 1, 1905. to January 1, 1909. He was mar-
ried on March 1 _\ 1003. to Mrs. L. D. Mont-
gomery, a native of Pennsylvania and daugh-
ter of Isaac and Catharine (King) Schrecen-
gost. Mr. Male's parents were John C. and
\nnie (Spry) Male, the former a native of
England and the latter of Pennsylvania. They
ended their days in Pennsylvania, the mother
dying in [869 and the father in 1897. While
he was yet a mere boy the father aided in the
construction of the Delaware & Hudson canal.
hi later life lie was a fanner, and politically
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
447
supported the Republican party from its foun-
dation. Of their seven children, a son named
George died, and William, Joseph B., Mrs.
John W. Van Wert, Miles M., James and
Jonathan T. are living.
WILLIAM A. McKINLAY.
If the environment of a man's birth and
youth have any considerable influence on his
tastes, his habits of thought and his destiny,
much of value in the mental make-up and
general disposition of the subject of this sketch
may be attributed to the fact that he was born
and grew to early manhood on the banks of
the picturesque Hudson, amid the wonders
and delights of that noble river where pro-
gression in spirit and cultivation in taste, be-
sides all forms of a business mind are likely
to be quickened by the busy traffic of the
stream and the high state of development
found everywhere along its banks.
Mr. McKinlay was educated in the public
schools of New York and the University of
Wooster, Ohio. He is the son of Daniel and
Rachel McKinlay. the former a native of
Scotland and of the same lineage as the late
President. The father was manager for Gar-
ner & Company, prominent manufacturers at
Wappingers Falls and other points in the Hud-
son river valley. When but a boy he became
interested with his brother and other relatives
who were the principal owners of the Licking
Iron Company, which was the first to erect
iron furnaces in the famous Hocking valley
region of Ohio. In 1875 he came to Colorado
for the benefit of his health, and after spending
two years traveling in California and the West,
returned to Colorado Springs, and was in
North park and Routt county in the fall of
1879 just before the Meeker massacre. In
1880 he became interested with his associates
in the mining- machinerv business at Denver
and Pueblo, and in the latter place their com-
pany erected a large machine shop and foundry.
In 1888 he disposed of this interest there, re-
turned to Routt county and located the well
known McKinlay ranch on Elkhead creek.
Since January 1, 1896, Mr. McKinlay has de-
voted his time wholly to political life, having
been in the treasurer's office almost continu-
ously since that time. In 1904 he was again
honored by the Republican party with the
nomination, and was elected by the largest ma-
jority ever given a county treasurer in Routt
county. In June, 1900. he was married to Miss
Dora J. Keller, whose father was one of the
first settlers of the county, having located on
Elk river in 1883.
JAMES LAFAYETTE NORVELL.
The subject of this brief review, who has
wrought in many fields of labor during the
twenty-two years of his residence in this state,
has in each demonstrated his ability to meet
every kind of responsibility and perform with
success and credit all kinds of serviceable du-
ties. He was born in McMinn county. Tennes-
see, on November 20. t86l, and is the son of
Asbury and Nancy ( Cox ) Xorvell. who were
born and reared in Tennessee and lived there
until the death of the father in 1897, since
which year the mother has made her home in
Colorado. The father was a prominent farmer
in his native county, and was also active in
local politics as a Republican. He filled a
number of county offices from time to time,
and to the end of his life was an influential
and highly respected man. The son James L.
received a common-school education and
worked with his parents on the home farm un-
til he was twenty years of age. In 1882 he be-
came a resident of Colorado, after passing a
few months in various occupations, at and
around Dixon. Wyoming. On his arrival in
448
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
this state, in the fall of the year last named,
he located a ranch near Craig which he im-
proved and sold. He then took up a home-
stead, and while developing and improving
that, and conducting on it a flourishing stock
industry, operated a stage line between Steam-
boat Springs and Lay, continuing the latter
until 1890. Since then he has given his atten-
tion to ranching and cattle interests, and in
addition to the mercantile business, being the
founder of the J. L. Norvell Mercantile Com-
pany at Hayden. of which he owns three-
fourths of the stock. He now lives in Steam-
boat Springs. During his early years in the
West Mr. Non-ell experienced many hard-
ships and privations. The conditions of life
on this far frontier were hard to bear at the
best, and his lack of capital rendered them ad-
ditionallv grievous in his case. But he was not
made of the fiber that yields to difficulties.
He felt within him the forces fitted to win suc-
cess, and he steadfastly pushed his way over
every obstacle toward his present substantial
and pronounced prosperity. Since 1902 he
has devoted a large portion of his time, in con-
nection with his other enterprises, to the
Christian ministry under the government of
the Congregational church, and is accounted a
man of great usefulness in this department of
public work. Politically he is an earnest Re-
publican, but while giving his party the bene-
fit of his best services as a citizen, he has not
been an offensive partisan or an office seeker
in any sense. Seeing clearly and feeling deeply
the needs of the community in which he had
cast his lot. he has worked zealously for its
welfare and been potential in promoting its
best interests. On December 31, 1002, he was
united in marriage with Miss Mary J. Hamil-
ton, a native of Iowa. They have two daugh-
ters, Ruth L. and Edith M. In this and other
Western states, nature is provident in furnish-
ing opportunities for successful enterprise, and
Mr. Norvell is one of the sterling citizens of
the section who has the clearness of vision to
see her bounties and the energy to seize upon
them and use them to his advantage, at the
same time turning them to the lasting benefit
of the community in which he lives. Through-
out his life here he has been earnest and ef-
fective in making the most of his time and
labor, and in doing this he has been of signal
and appreciated service to every element of
progress and improvement in his section of
the state. Scarcely any higher tribute can be
paid to a man's worth than to establish the
fact that he has made all his chances subserv-
ient to his own advancement and the enduring
welfare of those around him, whether his
course has lain along the points and pinnacles
of great affairs where history holds her splendid
march, or amid the ordinary pathwavs of life
where plain and simple duty lifts her daily
voice. And this may be truthfully said of Mr.
Norvell, that wherever he has been he has
manfully met the requirements of his station.
JAMES C. GENTRY.
Although only ten years a resident of Colo-
rado, James C. Gentry, of Meeker, has risen to
consequence among her people and won a sub-
stantial business success amid her various in-
terests and conditions of promise. He was born
in Ashe county, North Carolina, on March
[9, 1873, and is the son of John and Mary
(Reeves) Gentry, also born and reared in
North Carolina, who are successfully engaged
in farming. They are the parents of six chil-
dren, all living: James C, of Meeker; Callie,
wife of R. E. Plummer, of North Carolina:
Thomas, William. Jessie and Letcher. The
father is an ardent Democrat and an enterpris-
ing business man. Always a man oi great
activity and energy, and daunted by no danger,
he became an earlv tourist to the Pacific coast,
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
449
starting many years ago overland to California
with a drove of cattle, and on the way he passed
through Steamboat Springs in this state in
1859. The son James received a good edu-
cation in the district schools and at Fairview
College, in his native state. He also studied
law in the professional schools at Denver and
Boulder after coming to Colorado, paying the
necessary fees and his living expenses out of
his earnings. From the age of eighteen he was
a school teacher for a number of years, part of
the time in North Carolina and the rest at
Fremont and Canon City, this state, having
come hither in 1894. He was associated with
the J. R. Witcher Lumber Company in the ca-
pacity of general manager until the business
was sold in 1898. He then took a review
course in law until 1900, when he began the
practice of the profession at Denver. In 1901
he moved to Meeker where he has since been
in active practice and also engaged in ranching
and raising cattle and horses, having pur-
chased on his arrival in this portion of the state
the improvements on a ranch of one hundred
and sixty acres on Miller creek. To this tract
he has added another of equal size which ad-
joins the town of Meeker. He can cultivate
two hundred acres of his land and has an ex-
cellent supply of water for irrigation. He
raises large crops of hay and grain and many
cattle and horses. He is, however, wedded to
his profession and makes it his chief employ-
ment, being regarded as one of the rising ami
successful attorneys of the western slope. In
1903, on January 1st, he was appointed county
attorney and is making a good record in the
office. In political faith he is an unyielding
Democrat and is one of the influential workers
of the party. In the fall of 1904 he was nomi-
nated as a candidate for district attorney, com-
prising the counties of Pitkin. Garfield. Rio
Blanco and Routt and was elected by a hand-
some plurality. Fraternally, he is connected
29
with the Knights of Pythias and the Odd Fel-
lows. On August 8, 1899, he was united in
marriage with Miss Henrietta Witcher. ana
tive of Fremont county, Colorado, and the
daughter of John R. and Salina (Foster) Wit-
cher, the former born in Georgia and the latter
in Iowa. The mother died in 1891, and the
father is still profitably occupied in farming
and raising cattle on an extensive scale. Of the
six children born in the family, four are living.
William J., Mrs. Gentry, John T. and Walter
E. In the Gentry household the offspring
number three. Of these John W. and Eva are
living, and Mary V. lias died. Mr. Gentry has
found Colorado a pleasant place to live and a
good field for enterprise. He has been success-
ful in all his undertakings and won high stand-
ing among the people of his county and other
portions of the state.
JOHN M. ELLIS.
John M. Ellis, one of the early settlers on
Elk river, in Routt county, and one of the
most active, progressive and prominent pro-
moters of that highly favored section of the
state, became a resident of Colorado when he
was but two years old, coming hither from
Pettis county, Missouri, where he was born
on August 26, [869. with his parents in i86t
among the early pioneers of the state. They
settled in Denver where the father wrought at
his trade as a blacksmith and became an active
and successful Democratic politician, filling a
number of public offices with credit, at the time
of his death on July 4. 1880, being treasurer
of the city of Leadville, to which he had
moved some years previous. He was also
prominent and popular in the Masonic order.
His wife survived him eighteen years, dying in
February, 1898. Of their four children but
two are living. John M. and Minnie, now the
wife of Albert Wagner, of Denver. John M.
45°
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
the only living son, received a common-school
education and began to make his own living at
the age of fourteen. When he reached that of
eighteen he formed a partnership with his
brother, Curtis E. Ellis, and together they con-
ducted a prosperous and profitable fish and
oyster business, wholesale and retail, for a num-
ber of years. He was next associated with H.
D. Steele & Company, Pioneer Grocery Store,
and afterward devoted several years to the
service of the Denver Packing Company. From,
1893 to 1899 he was engaged in range riding
and driving cattle from southern Colorado to
Routt county, a service in which he suffered
all the hardships and dangers incident to that
wild life, being out in all weathers, and going
without sufficient food at times for days to-
gether. In 1899 he took up a homestead claim
of one hundred and sixty acres on Elk river,
which was unbroken land covered with wild
sage brush. This he improved and sold at a
good profit, and he now owns the Keller ranch
of six hundred acres, of which he has three
hundred acres under cultivation, on which he
raises excellent crops of grain and hay and
conducts a flourishing industry in raising cat-
tle and horses of first-rate quality. The ranch
is eleven miles northwest of Steamboat Springs,
well located, abundantly watered and full of
promise for great development and value be-
yond even its present condition of fruitfulness.
Mr. Ellis takes an earnest interest in local
affairs as an intelligent promoter of the
county's best interests, and in national and
state politics as a loyal working Democrat.
Fraternally he is connected with the order of
Odd Fellows. On January 26, [899, he was
married to Miss Ivy May Keller, a lady of fine
spirit and intelligence who has been devoted to
his interest and ably seconded all his aspirations
and his ever) effort for advancement, aiding to
make his home a center of gracious hospitality
to bis friends and holding up before the com-
munity the ideal of an elevated American
womanhood. Both are popular in social life
and prominent in all the public affairs of then-
neighborhood.
THOMAS BENTON GIBBS.
This prominent citizen and progressive and
enterprising ranch and stock man of Routt
county, living in the neighborhood of Yampa,
is a self-made man and glories in the fact.
His fortunes have been builded by his own
energies and capacity, and he is indebted to no
favoring circumstances beyond his natural en-
dowment of a determined spirit and an aptness
of apprehension which enabled him to see op-
portunities where others overlooked them and
make use of them for his own advantage. He
was born near Greenfield, Dade county. Mis-
souri, on January 5, 1843, and is the son of
I lenrv and Nancy Gibbs, natives of Tennessee,
who moved to Missouri in the early days and
afterward to Kansas where they made their
final home, the mother dying there in 1856
and the father being killed in the Union army
during the Civil war. The father was a suc-
cessful farmer and an ardent Republican, and
both were devoted members of the Baptist
church. They had ten children, five of whom
are living. Henry M., Thomas B., Rebecca.
Mary and Rudie. Owing to the circumstances
of the family and the troubled section of the
country in which they lived during bis boy-
hood and youth, Mr. Gibbs had very limited
opportunities for securing an education in the
schools, his only chance in this respect being
fragmentary and. irregular attendance at a
primary country school in the neighborhood of
his home. His personal experiences were valu-
able, however, in broadening his mind and giv-
ing him a large amount of that worldly wis-
dom which is acquired through no other
avenue. He remained at home until he reached
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
45'
the age of eighteen, then rented a farm in his
native county which he worked until the spring
of 1862. On March 12th of that year he
enlisted in defense of the Union as a member
of the Fourteenth Missouri Militia, and after
a service of one year in that command his
regiment was consolidated with the Eighth
Regiment, in which he became a member of
Company L. In this he served nine months.
After his discharge he returned to Ins farm
and this he continued to operate until [875,
when he sold his interests in Missouri and lie-
came a resident of Colorado, locating near
Florissant in what is now Teller county. Here
he did ranch work until 1877, when he turned
his attention to freighting between Colorado
Springs and Leadville. which he followed two
years. In this enterprise his labor was hard
and his course full of danger. He was fre-
quently exposed to the fury of the elements,
swollen streams often obstructed his progress,
Indians were sometimes at hand and hostile.
and the lawless elements of the country looked
upon all men engaged in his pursuit as their
lawful prey. But the profits were large and
the work was alluring because of its very
difficulties, and he stuck to it until the increase
in railroad transportation rendered it less
profitable. Then, in 1879, he bought a one-half
interest in a ranch at Florissant, to which he
gave his whole attention during the next three
years. The venture was successful and in the
spring of 1883 he moved to Routt county and
took up a part of his present ranch on a home-
stead claim. This he has increased to three
hundred and fifty acres, of which two hundred
are tillable, the land all being of a high .grade
of excellence. He has improved the place with
first rate modern buildings and other structures,
his dwelling being one of the best and most
completely equipped in the neighborhood. Hay.
grain and hardy vegetables are raised with suc-
cess, and goodly herds of Shorthorn and Dur-
ham cattle are comfortably maintained on the
ranch, and numbers' of well-bred horses are an-
nually produced for market. Mr. Gibbs, while
one of the most progressive ranchmen of his
county, is also earnest and constant in his de-
votion to the general welfare of his section.
He is an ardent Republican in political al-
legiance, and a man of great public-spirit and
enterprise in the matter of public improve-
ments. He was married on November 20,
1866, to Miss Margaret Bird, a native of Ten-
nessee. They had one child, their son Henry
M., who died at an early age.
CHARLES WILLIS NEIMAN.
This prominent and enterprising ranch and
cattle man of Routt county, whose tine ranch
of five hundred and twenty acres, located
three miles and a half southwest of Yampa, is
a standing testimonial to his foresight, indus-
try and skill as a farmer and his taste and
good judgment in the erection and arrange-
ment of improvements, is a native of Wilkes-
barre. Pennsylvania, horn on March 24, 1861.
and the son of Edgar M. and Harriet ( Laird)
Xeiman. also natives of that state, where they
lived until 1870. then moved to Kansas, and
there engaged in successful farming until the
end of their lives, the mother dying there in
1887 and the father on December 31, 1903.
With the father farming was only a side is-
sue, as he was a prominent physician and sur-
geon in active practice, both in Pennsylvania
and in Kansas. He was also a man of promi-
nence and influence in each state, and was held
in high regard by his fellow citizens wherever
he lived. They had a family of eight children,
three of whom, Stella, Frank and an infant.
died, and five, Charles W.. Mrs. E. D. Eaton.
Edith M.. Mrs. John Eaton ami Fay, are liv-
ing. Charles was educated in the public
schools and at the State Agricultural College
45-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
of Kansas. He remained at home until he
reached the age of eighteen years, and then
started out to make his own way in the world,
which he has done ever since. In 1880 he
came to Colorado 1 and Li icated at Denver, where
for a few months he clerked in a grocery. But
not being satisfied with the outlook in this
state, he returned to Kansas in the fall of the
same year, and from that time until late in the
spring of 1883 he farmed in Kansas. His
success was poor owing to repeated droughts.
In the spring of 1883 he moved to Rawlins.
W'vming. and became a range rider for the
L. 7 Cattle Company, in whose employ he re-
mained a year, working hard and suffering
many hardships. In 1884 lie again came to
Colorado and. locating in Routt county, he
entered the employ of the Leavenworth Cat-
tle Company, and later that of the Oro Haley
Cattle Company, continuing to ride the range
until [895 for these and other outfits, with
headquarters part of the time at Craig and part
at Steamboat Springs. In the fall of 1895 he
was elected sheriff of Routt county as the can-
didate of the Democratic party, and was re-
elected in 1897, serving until 1899. ^ n me
meantime, in 1896, he took up a homestead of
one hundred and sixty acres, which is a part of
his present ranch. To this he has added by
purchase until he now owns five hundred and
twenty acres of good land with water enough
to cultivate five hundred. His crops, which
are large ami of good quality, comprise the or-
dinary products of the region, hut cattle form
his chief reliance. He gives his business his
close personal attention in all its details and
makes every effort to secure results commen-
surate with his outlay of time, capital and la-
bor, and lie is one of the mosl successful, pro-
gressive and prosperous men in the industry in
his portion of the count\. In politics he is an
uncompromising Democrat and to the inter-
ests of his party he devotes his continuous and
most effective energies. He is also deeply
and actively interested in all forms of public
improvement and always at the front with
counsel and material aid in every commendable
enterprise for the good of his county. Frater-
nally he i^ connected with the order of Odd
Fellows, and in the proceedings of the order
he takes an earnest and serviceable interest.
On December 31, 1900, he united in marriage
with Miss Ruby Carle, a native of Big Rap-
ids, Michigan, and a daughter of Judge Carle,
of that state, a sketch of whom appears else-
where in this work. They have had three
children. Edgar \Y. died in Jul}-. io<>4. and
Leslie M. and Willis C. are living. Mr. Nei-
man has parsed twenty-one years, nearly half
of his life so far. continuously in this state,
during all of which he has been a resident of
Routt county. He has here been employed in
arduous and important work for others, and
has pushed his own interests with vigor and
success. He has also occupied an exalted and
responsible official position for a number of
years and performed its trying duties with
fidelity and skill. In addition he has aided
in every proper way in the progress and devel-
opment of the county. In all lines of useful
activity in which he has been engaged he has
won and held the confidence and good will of
the people, and is now justly considered one
of its representative and influential men in ref-
erence to all the elements of good citizenship
and upright, straightforward and helpful man-
hood.
FRANZ S. CHARM \.\.
Born near Hannibal, Missouri, on Septem-
ber 1 1. iNm. when that section of the country
was thrilling with the early agony of the Civil
war. and had for years before been in the
^traits incident to a desperate and wasting bor-
der strife, which, while its acts of violence may
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
453
not have been witnessed just there, had its de-
pressing effect on all industries and aspira-
tions of the people even remotely connected
with it, reared with limited educational advan-
tages, and turning his hand to mechanical la-
bor at the age of fifteen, it would not have
been surprising if the adverse conditions of
his youth had made Franz S. Chapman, of
near Pinnacle, Routt county, only an ordinary
man. dampening his ardor and emasculating
his ambition to a commonplace expression;
and this they would have done but for his na-
tive force and determination, and his system-
atic industry and fortitude, which prepared
him for usefulness under almost any circum-
stances and gave him the power to triumph
over the difficulties of his later life, which were
often more arduous than even those of his
young manhood. He is the son of Hugh and
Cordelia C. (Scarlet) Chapman, the father a
native of Ohio and the mother of Virginia.
They lived in Ohio until 1859, then in Mis-
souri until 188.2. In that year they moved to
Colorado and located at Denver, where they
remained until 1887. From Denver they
changed their residence to Pueblo, and in [893
to Leadville. The father was a railway coach
builder and worked at his trade in these vari-
ous localities, fie and his wife now live near
Pinnacle. Routt county, and are engaged in
ranching and raising cattle. Politically he is
a Democrat and fraternally a Knight of Pyth-
ias. The family comprised four children, one
of whom. William A., died in 1858, and an-
other is also dead. Two are living, David M.
and Franz S. The latter, at the age of fifteen,
left home and began learning the trade of his
father, building coaches for railroad travel,
and afterward he followed it until 18S6. He
had acquired some skill as a craftsman in wood
before leaving home by assisting his parents
through working in saw-mills on the Missis-
sippi. He was employed at his trade at Den-
ver until 1882, at Brainerd, Minnesota, until
1883, at St. Paul six months, and finally at
Hannibal. Missouri, until 1886. In the spring
of that year he made a second trip to Colorado,
and during the next two years was occupied in
house building at Denver, working under con-
tract. In 1888 he became a resident of Routt
county, locating a pre-emption claim at Pin-
nacle, the first settler at that place. His land
was covered with wild sage and buck brush,
and a man less resolute would have been de-
pressed by its unpromising appearance. But
he had faith in the possibilities of the region
and his own ability to call them forth to his
advantage, and so he went to work improving
his place and preparing it to minister to his
want- by expanding and systematic product-
iveness. Some time after his arrival he bought
an addition of one hundred and seventy-five
acres to his ranch, and he has put this into
good farming condition also, having now three
hundred of his three hundred and thirty-five
acres under cultivation. Cattle and hay are his
principal productions, hut he also raises first-
rate crops of grain. His only possessions
when he came to this region were a team and
wagon, and he had from time to time unex-
pected difficulties to contend with, being often
snowed in for long periods in the winter, and
frequently suffering from the want of moisture
in his land in summer. But the abundance of
wild game furnished meat for his table, and
his spirits never flagged in the hope of ulti-
mate triumphs over all obstacles. The results
of his persistent industry amply justify his
faith, and from the hard conditions of his be-
ginning he has won a substantial estate. He
is also well established in the regard of his
people here, and since 1900 he has served
them well as the postmaster at Pinnacle. He
is a stanch supporter of the principles and can-
didates of the Republican party, and gives
proof of his loyalty to it in all its contests. On
454
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
June 24, 1885, he was married to Miss Mary
P. O'Connor, a native of Hartford, Connecti-
cut, reared at Hannibal, Missouri. They have
five children. Ora M., Hugh M., Walter X.,
Arthur S. and Margaret L. Mr. Chapman has
shown his deep and abiding interest in the
stock industry of his section by introducing a
line of thoroughbred cattle for its improve-
ment, which has been of substantial advantage
to the interest.
WILLIAM WARREN CARLE.
Prominent and successful in many lines of
industrial and productive life in this state, Wil-
liam Warren Carle, of Yampa. during the
forty-four years of his residence on its soil,
has been a substantial contributor to the
growth and development of the state, and both
in private and official life has exhibited all the
commendable elements of an upright, pro-
gressive and useful citizenship. He was born
at Owego, Tioga county, New- York, on Sep-
tember 28, 1835, and is the son of Aaron and
Susan E. (Ogden) Carle, who were also born
and reared in the state of Xew York. The
father was a cabinetmaker and farmer, and
prospered in both lines of his industry. Twelve
children were born in the household, four of
whom are living, Mrs. Phidelia Stage, Mrs.
Charles Andrews, Phebe Stage and William.
The father died in 1841 and the mother in
1889. Both were devout Baptists, the father
being for long years a deacon in the church.
In political faith he was an ardent Democrat.
The son, William Warren Carle, received a
good common-school and college education, at-
tending the college at Kalamazoo. Michigan,
he having become a resident of Kalamazoo in
1852. when he was seventeen years of age.
After leaving the university he taught school
in Michigan, Minnesota and Missouri until
i860, when he became a resident of this state.
While in Minnesota he laid out a town near
St. Paul, which has long since been ab-
sorbed into that progressive city. His town
was named Nineger. There he engaged in
mercantile pursuits, as he did also at Kala-
mazoo, in partnership with his brother J. H.
Carle, and taught school at the same time. He
was successful in his business and as a school
teacher he was highly esteemed. On his ar-
rival in Colorado, in i860, he located at Gregor,
Gilpin county, whither he journeyed from Mis-
souri by way of Atchison and the Smoky Hill
route, his company bringing a wagon train
loaded with supplies and provisions. These they
traded for mining property in Gilpin county.
The goods were in an excellent state of preser-
vation although six months had been con-
sumed in their transportation across the plains
and over the mountains, and many obstacles
and difficulties had to be passed on the way.
Mr. Carle followed mining until late in 1861,
owning and occupying the first and only two-
story dwelling at Gregor during his stay there.
In the fall of 1861, in partnership with his
brother, he traded mining properties for ranch
land near Boulder, and during the next four
years he devoted his attention to ranching on
this land. In 1865 he made a trip to Virginia
City, Montana, during the prevalence of the
excitement over the discovery of gold at that
place, and for a time he mined there with
good results. Returning to his Colorado ranch,
he remained on it until 1868. then made a trip
to his old home in Michigan. Concluding to
remain in that state, be located at Big Rapids
and opened a wholesale and retail furniture
establishment, which he conducted until 1878.
then sold the business. Two years later he
came again to Colorado and took up his resi-
dence near Montezuma. Summit county,
where he expended considerable money and
labor in trying to develop mining properties
but without profit. He abandoned mining
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
45;
after a time, but he still owns his Summit
county properties. In 18S0 he moved to Routt
county ami through a homestead claim secured
a good ranch near Yampa, being among the
first settlers in that vicinity. He has enlarged
his ranch by subsequent desert claims to three
hundred and twenty acres, and by his own
efforts he made two hundred acres of it fit for
cultivation and generously productive. Here
he gave his attention to ranching and raising
stock until 1901, when he turned the manage-
ment of the ranch over to his son-in-law,
Charles Neiman, and purchasing a store at
Yampa, became a merchant and the postmaster
there. In 1903 he resigned the office and since
then he has dealt extensively in real estate and
has also conducted a first-class bowling alley
in the town. Since 1894 be has served as a,
justice of the peace, and he also filled a similar
office six years in Summit county. He is a
gentleman of wide acquaintance and high
standing in the state, and in every place of his
residence has given his influence and his per-
sonal prowess and energy in the defense and
promotion of public order and the general wel-
fare. In Colorado he belongs to the Home
Guard, under the command of Col. David
Xichol. and while living in Montana he took
part in numerous skirmishes with the Indians.
Mr. Carle was married in October, 1870, to
Miss Lucy E. Pierson, who was born in Frank-
lyn, Delaware county. New York. February 1,
1844, and who taught in No. 1 Primarv school.
Grand Rapids, Michigan, for five years. They
have had three children, one of whom, a son
named Ernest, died in 1882. The two living
are Mrs. Charles Neiman and Mrs. Benjamin
F. Rice.
OSCAR HOLLAND.
Oscar Holland, the originator of potato-
growing in the vicinity of Carbondale, and
since he started it one of the most extensive
and successful promoters of the industry, is a
self-made man. whose fortunes have been
builded b\ himself without outside aid or fa-
voring circumstances. He is made of a fiber
that would have found a vigorous growth
anywhere, whatever the conditions, for be Iris
eyes to see and energy to take hold of and prop-
erly use bis opportunities, and even in adversi-
ties can find a means of grace to better his es-
tate. He was born near Platte City, Missouri,
on July 16, (863, and is the son of Nathaniel
and Elizabeth E. Holland, the former a n
of Missouri and the latter of West Virginia.
The father, who is still living in Platte county
of his native state, is a farmer and also engaged
in general stock-growing on a large scale. He
has been successful in his business and is com-
fortably fixed in the way of worldy wealth.
The mother died in 1881. Of their five chil-
dren three are living, William. Nora, now Mrs.
John Cozine. and Oscar. The school advan-
tages of the last named were very limited, be-
ing compassed within an irregular attendance
at the common schools for a few months in
the winter of two or three years. He assisted
his parents on the home farm until 1883. when
he became a resident of Colorado, coming
hither without money or other capital except
his natural abilities and determined spirit. He
located in the Crystal river valley on bis ar-
rival, and for a time worked for wages there.
He was industrious and frugal, and in a little
while had accumulated enough money to ven-
ture upon a ranch of bis own, which he took up
by pre-emption, and which is a part of the one
he now possesses and works. He has added
by purchase to his original tract until he owns
eight hundred and sixty acres of land in the
vicinity of Carbondale in Garfield county, four
hundred of which are easy to cultivate by nat-
ural and artificial irrigation for which he has
sufficient water. Early in his experience here
he introduced into the region the extensive
cultivation of potatoes, and this has been his
456
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
crowning success in farming- and is now his
most profitable source of revenue. He also
raises some grain and hay and has a good-
sized herd of fine cattle. He has his land all
well fenced, and the dwelling and other build-
ings he has erected on it are commodious and
comfortable in scope and convenient and taste-
ful in arrangement. He is in the first rank of
Garfield county ranchmen and owes his posi-
tion to his own energy, enterprise and breadth
of view. In political affairs he supports the
Democratic party, and in fraternal life he is
a Freemason of the Royal Arch degree. He
was married on June 29, 18S7. to Miss Hattie
Thompson, a native of Missouri. Energetic,
capable and successful in his business, earnestly
and intelligently active in public affairs, thor-
oughly devoted to the welfare of his home
neighborhood and county, and mingling freely,
according to his opportunities, in the social life
around him. Mr. Holland occupies a high
place in the regard of his fellow citizens, and
is easily one of the best and most representa-
tive men in his section.
JOHN WELSH.
A Canadian by birth and the son of English
parents who were born in Devonshire and emi-
grated to the Dominion in 1850, then in 1863
moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan, and now a
resident of one of the fruitful and progressive
regions of this state, John Welsh, of near Wol-
cott, Eagle county, has had opportunity to see
much of the world and make a choice of loca-
tion from many inviting sections. That he
has chosen wisely is proven by his present pros-
perity and the public estimation in which he is
held, all of which he has won by his own in-
dustry and worth, without the aid of favor-
ing circumstances. He was born on March
23, [852, at New London, in the province of
Ontario, and when eleven years old accom-
panied his parents. Joseph and Eliza Welsh,
to Kalamazoo, Michigan. There he completed
in the common schools the education he had
begun in those of his native land, going to
work at the trade of brick laying at the age of
thirteen. His father was a carpenter and
building contractor and died in 1878, his wife
surviving him one year and passing away in
1879. Three of their children are living, Wil-
liam L., Richard G. and John. The last named
remained at Kalamazoo until 1872, working
at his trade. Then regard for health and hope
of other advantages brought him farther west,
and during the next three years he worked at
his trade as a journeyman at Denver in this
state. In 1873. in company with John Guyer.
he made a hunting trip overland to Egeria
Park, and realized well in the venture which
consumed eight months, and was fraught with
dangers and privations, hut on the whole was
pleasant. While in the park and during a por-
tion of the time passed in getting there and re-
turning they saw no human beings but Indians,
and these were not always friendly or trust-
worthy. In 1875 Mr. Welsh mDved to Alma in
Park county, where he followed quartz mining
for a year, then going to Saguache county, he
located a squatter's claim which he sold in
December. 1877, after improving it. His next
move was through San Juan county to Lead-
ville, and at the latter place he worked at his
trade until 1881, in the winters freighting be-
tween Leadville and South Park. He also lo-
cated a number of mining claims at Redcliff
which in [879 proved to be of no value. From
1NS1 to [883 he conducted a dairy at Red
cliff with good returns, and in the year last
named moved to the ranch which is now his
home, securing the first one hundred ami sixty
acres by pre-emption and afterward buying
the addition of four hundred acres. This land
he has redeemed front its growth of wild sage
and transformed into an excellent ranch ol
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
-u;
tillable land, on which he has a comfortable
home and raises good crops of the products
suited to the region, hay and cattle being the
chief reliance. A nearby reservoir furnishes
him a good supply of water for irrigation and
his skill and industry do the rest to make his
undertaking profitable. He is considered one
i >f the most progressive and influential men in
the community, actively supporting the Re-
publican party and serving well as a county
commissioner from 1889 to 1891. He has also
been a leading member of the school board
for many years. In fraternal life he belongs
to the Woodmen of the World. On May 19,
[875, he was united in marriage with Miss
Mary Shields, a native of Fulton county. Il-
linois They have had three children. Wil-
liam, who died on December 9. 1881, Ursula,
who died on September 6. 1880, and Sallie R..
who is living. They also have an adopted
child. Francis E.
ALONZO LAFAYETTE BAKER.
With all our stirring activity in this coun-
try, and our immense flexibility of movement.
ease of transportation at this time and mighty
achievements in all departments of science, me-
chanics and the arts, and the unaccounted
shades of variety in occupation, enjoyment
and condition which they give, we look upon
life as commonplace and scarcely realize that
we are writing history with a heroic pen and
building enduring memorials as landmarks of
time, so little impression do the events and ac-
complishments of our fugitive days make upon
us until they can be viewed in a proper per-
spective and show forth their 'relative weight
and magnitude. Yet what may properly be
called the heroic age in any portion of our
land, that period which now seems remote be-
cause of the rush rather than the lapse of
time, wherein the wilderness was opened to
settlement and the foundations of its civiliza-
tion were laid, is always pregnant with inter-
est and full of salutary lessons, notwithstand-
ing tlie short audience the present always gives
to the past. The story of the pioneers, though
often told, is never exhausted; and not yet has
appeared the genius who can properly write
its poetry, although each age is bringing us
nearer to the full utterance of that stately epic.
To this heroic age belonged, in greater or less
degree, most of those whose lives and deeds
are recorded in these pages. Among them
Alonzo F. Baker, of Saguache county, this
stile, must be named with due consideration
and respect, for he has been a pioneer in more
than one state and has confronted and con-
quered the wilds amid widely differing cir-
cumstances. Mr. Baker was born in Fulton
county. Illinois, on February 12,* 1846. His
parents, Nathan W. and Permelia 1 Wilson 1
Baker, came into life practically on the fron-
tier, the former being a native of Ohio and the
litter of Kentucky, and born at a time when
both states were new and undeveloped. They
have lived in Ohio. Illinois and Iowa, since
their marriage, and now reside at South Ha-
ven. Kansas. The father is a graduate of the
Ohio State University, but has passed the
whole of his life since leaving school in fann-
ing and raising stock, except the time passed
by hint as a Union soldier, and member of the
Eighty-third Illinois Infantry, during the
Civil war. Because of a disability which pre-
cluded him from active service in the field, his
military service was rendered as a clerk in a
hospital. The following children of the family
are living. James. Charles. Alonzo L.. Wil-
liam. George I... Mary and Hattie. The par-
ents and many of the children are members of
the Christian church. Alonzo attended the
common schools near his home at short and
irregular intervals, and remained at home
working with bis parents until he reached the
453
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO
age of twenty-five. In 1872 lie went to Cali-
fornia, where he spent two years in ranch
work, and then, after a visit of a few months
at his Iowa home, caught the infection of the
Black Hills gold fever and journeyed to that
promising region, determined to reach it what-
ever ohstacles might interpose. He was
obliged to go on foot the long distance between
Fort Pierre, as it was then, and the Hills, and
arrived at Deadwood after many privations
and dangers, now surrounded by threatening
savages, who. however, did not attack the
part)', and now encountering wild beasts, rug-
ged travel or the fury of the elements and
sometimes all combined. But all his toil and
trials were for naught, for after prospecting
and mining in the Hills region from the fall
of [876 to that of T&yy. he found himself with
scarcely enough for "grub stake," and so re-
sumed his weary march in search of more
promising rewards, and returned once more
to the fertile fields of Iowa, making the home-
ward journey on a boat belonging to Dr. Bur-
leigh which started from Yankton but which
burned to the water's edge and sank in the
night at Hot Springs, on the Missouri. In
August, T87S, he again turned his face west-
ward and came to Alamosa, Colorado. Here
he found a wild, unsettled country, and pushed
on to Saguache, passing only two houses be-
tween the two villages. On his arrival at the
latter he assumed the management of the
Pumphrey ranch, of which he remained suc-
cessfully in charge until 1880. He then went
to prospecting and in time located the
Klondike claims, which in 1800 he sold to the
Woods Investment Company at Cripple Creek.
Yet he did not wholly abandon his interest in
ranching and raising stock, but has bad a share
in those industries ever since his advent in the
state. For a period of eleven successive years
lie served as a deputy sheriff in the county, and
made a record in the office for efficiencv. cour-
age and resourcefulness that any man might
be proud of. He is a stanch Republican in
politics and has always taken an interest in
county affairs at once active and serviceable.
On December 16. 1870, he was married to
Miss Stella A. Tucker, a native of Ohio. They
have four children. Alma F., Nellie, Annie and
Alonzo. But all his years have not been
passed in peaceful industry, or even the dan-
gers of the frontier. During the Civil war he
served in the Union army as a member of the
One Hundred and Fifty-sixth Illinois In-
fantry, Company K. and in his term of eight
months had much arduous and trying mili-
tary duty to perform. He was mustered out
at Spring-field. Illinois. Saguache county has
no more worthy or respected citizen.
JOHN WILLIS COOK.
This enterprising, far-seeing and pro-
gressive citizen of Saguache county, who, as
the owner and editor of the Saguache Crescent.
is one of the leaders of thought in southern
Colorado, and one of its representative men, is
a self-made man and, having learned by trying
experience the needs and aspirations of the
plain people of this country, is well able to state
and advocate them, as he does in his paper
and in all his public utterances. He was born
at Cook's Fort, a block house built by his grand-
father. George W. Cook, as a protection
against the pro-slaveryites, in Jefferson county,
Kansas, on December 20, 1866, the son of Wil-
liam M. and Frances (Pennick) Cook, the
father a native of Indiana and the mother of
Missouri. The family are of the good old
Puritan stock, tracing their lineage as they do
in an unbroken line from Francis Cook, one
of the immortal band of Pilgrims who landed
on Plymouth Rock that bleak December day
in T620. They have ever followed the star of
empire westward, moving to Hartford. Con
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
459
necticut, in [636, thence to Marietta, Ohio, in
1788, to northwestern Indiana in 1816. to Iowa
in 1852, to Kansas in 1854. Four patriots
served in the war of the Revolution, two in the
war of 1812 and one was wounded at the
stunning- of Chapultepec in the war with
Mexico. William M. Cook and his two
brothers, the only male members of the family
old enough for service, fought for the Union
through the great Civil war. True pioneers,
they have ever been found in the vanguard of
American civilization and be it said to their
credit they have ever stood for the cause of
freedom and right. George W. Cook, the
grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was
obliged to build a stout block house on his
Kansas claim on account of the pro-slaveryites
who were determined to drive out the free-
soilers and make Kansas a slave state, he and
his sons taking an active part in the Kansas
war which raged round them until the ad-
herents of slavery were driven from the new-
territory. The parents of the subject settled
in Kansas before the Civil war, and lived to-
gether until death ended the labors of the lather
on September 25, 1903, near Hobart, Okla-
homa, where he had drawn a claim at the
Kiowa and Comanche opening. The mother is
now living at Topeka that state. In 1859 the
father came to Colorado and prospected and
mined here until 1875 at various times and
places, except for nearly four years during the
Civil war, in which he served as a Union
soldier in Company B, Eleventh Kansas Cav-
alry, being mustered out of the service at
Leavenworth on August 20, 1865. His occu-
pation in Kansas was farming and raising
stock, and in this he was measurably success-
ful and prosperous. He was a stanch Re-
publican in political faith. Seven of his chil-
dren survive him John YV.. Ulysses E., Mrs.
O. D. Henley, Mrs. A. C. Slykhous, Mrs. May
George, Mrs. H. F. Browning and Mrs. Wal-
ter O. Hammond. The first born of these,
John Willis Cook, received a good education
in the common schools and at an early age be-
gan to earn his own way in the service of his
parents. Later he took a course of instruction
at the Strickler Business College at Topeka.
Leaving home in 1887, he taught school,
clerked in stores and spent several years at
newspaper work on daily and weekly papers in
eastern Kansas, and in Colorado. In 1896 he
returned to Denver and while there wrote and
published for his uncle, Gen. D. J. Cook, a
noted Colorado pioneer, a volume entitled
"Hands Up." it being the story of his forty
years' life in the West. The General filled a
number of important offices in troublous and
trying times. He was United States detective
city marshal, chief of police and chief of de-
tectives, successively, and as major-general
of the C. N. G., effected peace between warring
factions and put down disturbing elements at
Leadville in the great strike of 1880. He also
served as sheriff of the county eight years. His
life was stirring and strenuous to the last de-
gree, and the story of it which his nephew-
wrote is full of interest as a true and graphic
account of the times in which he was so im-
portant a personage and acted so prominent a
part. It has been read by thousands with great
interest, and is one of the best known and
most appreciated narratives of early Colorado
life. After completing the publication of this
work. Mr. Cook moved to Crestone, in the
mountain region of Saguache count}-, in 1898.
and turned his attention to prospecting and
mining, but without much success. In 1901 he
was elected county clerk and recorder of Sa-
guache county, and in March, 1903, bought the
Saguache Crescent, a leading Republican news-
paper of southern Colorado, of which he has
ever since been the owner and editor. He has
added to the capacity and equipment of the
office in order to be able to meet all require-
460
PROGRESSIVE MEN OP WESTERN COLORADO.
ments for job work of the best kind, and has
conducted the paper with intelligence, enter-
prise and sagacity, according to such lofty
ideals of duty to the public and devotion to its
interests as to have raised it greatly in the
estimation of the community and made it a
power in leading and directing public opinion
in the territory of its circulation besides largely
increasing its subscription list and other forms
of patronage. On September 29, 1896, Mr.
Cook united in marriage with Miss Anna L.
Martin, a native of Jefferson county, Kansas.
They have one child, their son Francis E. Mr.
Cook belongs to the Masons, Odd Fellows,
Elks, Modern Woodmen of America, Wood-
men of the World and Sons of Veterans. In
addition to his newspaper work, Mr. Cook
finds time to engage in mining, stock raising
and politics, in all of which he has been meas-
urably successful in recent years. He is a firm
Miever in the Rooseveltian doctrine of a
square deal all around and has made his influ-
ence felt in that direction in a section of the
state where political jobbery has lung been
dominant.
THOMAS MIRL AEEXAXDER.
Well established in the confidence and es-
teem of his fellow citizens of Saguache county,
who have recently crowned his twelve years of
useful labor and elevated citizenship among
them with a convincing proof of their regard
by electing him to represent them in the lower
house of the state legislature, and with a large
body of property which yields a comfortable
income and enables him to take an active in-
terest in several of the leading industries of
the state and devote the forces of his well
trained and energetic mind to the welfare of
the people, fate would seem to have in store
for Thomas M. Alexander a career of unusual
credit and benefit to the state. Tf health and
strength serve him for the purpose, and his
desire for it continues, there can scarcely be
any question of his remaining in public life
and occupying even more honorable positions
in the future than he has in the past. For he
has worthily met the requirements of his ut-
most duty so far, and as it is one of his strong
characteristics to do all the time and every-
where, his public services will continue to be
valuable and appreciated. Mr. Alexander was
born at Prospect, Butler county. Pennsylvania,
on October 11, 1853, the son of Robert D. and
Martha M. (Ferguson) Alexander, who were
also natives of that state and passed their lives
within its borders. The father farmed and
raised live stock successfully and profitably,
and was a man of prominence in his county,
filling several official positions there from time
to time, and making a good record for capacity
and fidelity in each. He was a Republican in
politics and he and his wife belonged to the
United Presbyterian church. Eight children
were born of their union, of whom Thomas M.
is the only one living. The father died on De-
cember 8, 1878, and the mother on November
11, 1 88 1. The son received a good education
in the district schools and at the Western
Academy, in his native county. He remained
at home until he reached the age of twenty
years, then turned his attention to dialling in
the oil fields of Pennsylvania, and after four
months of varying success in searching for the
unctuous fluid which was one of the money-
making profits of the period, he came west
on May 7, 1873. and located in Carroll county,
Missouri. Here he taught school during the
winter and worked on a farm during the sum-
mer until the spring of 188 1, then went to
Franklin county. Kansas, and bought a farm
which he worked two years and then sold it.
In the spring of 1884 he purchased another
farm of three hundred and twenty acres in Cof-
fey county, that state, and this he still owns.
PROGRESSIVE MEN Of WESTERN COLORADO.
In 1889 lie came to Colorado for the benefit
of his health, and also in search of a suitable
location for a permanent residence in this part
of the country in case he should find it neces-
sar) or desirable to remain. Alter traveling
through this and other western states until .
[892, he selected Saguache count}-, Colorado,
as the most advantageous situation for his wel-
fare, and bought a ranch of three hundred and
sixty acres of tillable land eight miles south-
east of the count)- seat, to the operation and im-
provement of which he at once began to devote
his attention. His excellent judgment as a
farmer and his good taste in the matter of im-
provements are shown by the present o mdition
of the place, which is one of the most product-
ive and attractive country homes in the county.
The ranch is supplied with water frqm four
artesian wells, is all well fenced, and has a full
complement of first rate buildings covering
every requirement for the extensive ranching
and stock business which is carried on there.
From his advent in the county Mr. Alexander.
has taken a very active and intelligent part in
i public affairs. He has served as county as-
sessor since the first of 1900, having been
elected to the office on the Republican ticket
in the fall of 1899. On November 8, 1904,
he was elected a county representative in the
state legislature as the candidate of the same
party, having demonstrated his capacity and
especial fitness for public service in his prior
office. From 1896 to 1904 he was also en-
gaged in saw-milling on an extensive scale,
but sold this branch of his business in the year
last named. He is interested in the Steele
Canyon Mining. Milling and Investment Com-
pany, and the Saguache Home Mining Com-
pany, and gives to the affairs of each a goodly
share of his attention. Being an earnest and
far-seeing friend of the cause of public edu-
cation, he has done much to promote the g od
of the school system in the county, both by
wise counsel and active efforts in its behalf.
His home is in the town of Saguache, but no
pari of the count}- escapes his attention
without the benefit of his active and service-
able interest. Starting with but little capital,
he has so managed his affairs and worked his
opportunities that he is now one of the sub-
il and influential men of the county and
one of the most energetic promoters of every
element of its progress and development.
From the serious business of life he takes fre-
quent recreation in hunting and fishing, of
which he is passionately fond and at which he
is skillful and successful. He is practically a
self-made man and entitled on personal merit
to the general esteem in which he is held and
the universal popularity which he enjoys. In
fraternal life he is a valued member of the or-
der of Elks and the Odd Fellows, and in the
latter he has passed all the chairs in his lodge.
On January 16, 1877, he was joined in mar-
riage with Miss Elizabeth J. Kemble. a native
of Youngstown, Ohio. They have had eight
children. Of these one daughter named Jean-
nette is dead, and the following are living:
Robert E.. Joseph W., Thomas G., Elsie L.,
Sarah L., James A! and Myrtle M. Mrs. Alex-
ander is a lady of accomplishments and great
energy. She takes a prominent part in social
life in and around the city, and is an active
worker in the interests of the Baptist church,
of which she has long been a member.
SAMUEL JEWELL.
Coming to Colorado more than twenty-five
years ago as a young man, Samuel Jewell, the
treasurer of Saguache county, entered at once
into the spirit of the country and soon made
himself known to its people as a man of un-
usual energy and business capacity, and taking
his place cheerfully in the ranks of its workers,
began a career of steady advancement in pros-
462
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
perity and public esteem which has continued
until now and gives abundant promise of still
further distinction and usefulness. He is a
native of Chenango county, New York, born
on Christmas day, 1852, and the son of Samuel
and Matilda Jewell, who were born and reared
in Massachusetts and moved to Illinois, after a
residence of some years in the state of New-
York, first locating in Chicago and afterwards
in McHenry county. There the mother died
in 1858 and after that event the father moved
to Kansas, where he passed away in 1865. He
was a shoemaker and prospered in his vocation.
In political allegiance he was warmly attached
to the Republican party. Two children survive
them, Samuel and his brother James. The for-
mer received a common and high-school edu-
cation at Marengo, Illinois, and after leaving
school followed various occupations in that
state until he moved to Missouri in i860.
There he passed thirteen years in Johnson
county, then in March, 1879, came to Colorado
and located at Canon City. From that place
he freighted to a number of different points
and kept a general store at Alamosa. From
the fall of 1880 to July, 188 1, he made Ala-
mosa his headquarters and- continued freight-
ing until the spring of 1881. He then turned
his attention to raising sheep and cattle, with
ranching as an additional venture, on his own
account. His present ranch comprises four
hundred and eighty acres, of which one hun-
dred and sixty are grain land and three hun-
dred and twenty are devoted to hay and pastur-
ing. Six artesian wells supply the place with
an abundance of water for stock purposes, and
it is otherwise well improved. Air. Jewell has
been prominent and active from his arrival
here. He is a firm and loyal Republican, and
has never withheld his aid in the campaigns
of his party, and has always made his efforts in
its behalf tell to its advantage. In the fall of
1889 ne was elected county treasurer as its
candidate, and at the end of his term in the
fall of 1904 was triumphantly re-elected by an
increased majority. From 1886 to 1890 he
furnished by contract all the mutton used at the
Aspen mining camps and ever since 1880 the
town of Saguache has been his trading point.
and for a number of years it has been the place
of his residence. He is a shrewd, observant
and progressive business man, and an excep-
tionally successful politician. In the fraternal
life of the county he has been valuable and in-
spiring as a member of the order of Elks. On
February 26, 1876, he was joined in wedlock
with Miss Sarah Cleveland, a native of Mis-
souri. They had two children, Sallie, who died,
and Guy, who is living. The mother died in
February, 1881, and on January 27, 1892, the
father married a second wife. Miss Lucy
Nichols, who was born in Illinois. The fruit of
this union is two children, Hester and Edith.
THOMAS J. FRITZLER.
Thomas J. Fritzler, one of the progressive
and public spirited ranchmen and influential
citizens of Mesa county, living on a well im-
proved and highly cultivated farm near the
village of Snipes, was born in Iowa March 1.
[851, and is the son of Andrew and Polly
1 Ellis) Fritzler, the former a native of Ger-
many and the latter of Ohio. The father came
to the United States when he was but eleven
years of age, braving the heaving ocean for
the larger opportunities offered to thrift and
enterprise in this country and found a home
of hope and promise in Ohio, lie lived in that
state until he reached the age of twenty-five,
engaged in farming, and was married there.
In 1840 he moved with his family to Keokuk
county, Iowa, being among the pioneers, and
in that state continued his farming operations
until his death, in [896, when lie was seventy-
nine years old. His widow is still living at
PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
463
their Iowa home, over eighty years of age.
Their s.m Thomas grew to manhood and re-
ceived his education in his native state, re-
maining there until he was twenty-two, when
lie migrated to Utah and for a year worked in
a mine and a smelter. At the end of the ye ir
he returned to Iowa, where he lived until 1878.
He then took up his residence in Nebraska,
and during the next thirteen years was en-
gaged in farming on the enormous prairies of
that state. In 1891 he came to Colorado, still
devoted to agricultural pursuits, and, settling
on the ranch he now owns and occupies, con-
tinued his operations in this line of useful in-
dustry and is still engaged in it. During the
last two years he has been water commissioner
in his district, although not desirous of public
life, and has rendered faithful and efficient
service to the people in this important capacity.
He was married in 1882 to Miss A. M. Brooks,
a native of Indiana, and living at the time of
her marriage at Elwood, Nebraska. They
have had five children, Alfred R., Harry C,
Annie M. (died in 1884), Irvin B. and An-
drew. Mr. Fritzler combines the German
thrift of his father's people with the breadth
of view and enterprise of the American char-
acter, and has been a very useful and highly es-
teemed man in this community.
DACRE DUNN.
Dunn's Ranch, located twenty-three miles
southwest of the town of Saguache, in the
county of the same name, represents in its pres-
ent condition the enterprise of two generations
of thrifty and industrious men. alive to every
opportunity which fate has opened before them
and ever ready to make the most of one. Al-
though taken up in the very wilderness, hun-
dreds of miles from any center of civilization
less than thirty-five years ago. it now has many
of the luxuries of modern life for the enjoy-
ment of its owner and his family, and is
equipped with every convenience for its proper
conduct which the sleepless eye of science has
discovered and the skillful hand of art has
fashioned for such work. That it is well wa-
tered, highly cultivated and improved with
modern buildings and other appliances, need
scarcely be said when it is remembered that it
is a Colorado ranch in the possession and under
the management of an energetic and progres-
sive man ; hut that it should have an electric
lighting plant of its own, flooding the dwelling
and other buildings and the grounds with radi-
ance at night, and he supplied with many other
comforts usually unknown in rural sections.
and especially on ranch properties, is not only
surprising to all observers, but is a high trib-
ute to the enterprise, breadth of view and mod-
ern spirit of its owner. He is a native of Sus-
sexshire, England, horn on January jo, [877,
and the son of Dacre and Julia Dunn, the for-
mer born and reared in Yorkshire, England,
and the latter in Peoria, Illinois. They came
to Colorado and located in Saguache county in
1870, and soon afterward secured three hun-
dred and twenty acres of the present ranch by
pre-emption and homestead claims, and by sub-
sequent purchases increased their acreage to its
extent of twelve hundred acres, all of which
has since remained to it. The father was a
prosperous and progressive ranch and stock-
man, raising both cattle and horses of good
grades, and gave a large portion of his time
and a liberal share of his earnings to the de-
velopment of the county. He was one of its
most prominent and influential citizens, and
left his impress broad and deep on its industrial
and civil life. He moved into the section of
his home when it was almost without other set-
tlers, and by his influence and example induced
a number of other families to locate there, and
in this way, as well as by the exercise of his
enterprise in other directions, soon had the re-
464
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
gion a substantial contributor to the wealth,
1 1 msequence and power of the county. In addi-
tion to his property here he had interests in
some English coal mines, yet what they yield-
ed was added to his resources for the develop-
ment of his new home in the western wilds of
the new world. He took an active and helpful
interest in American politics as a Republican.
and was one of the controlling forces in the
councils and activities of his party. He died
in the midst of his usefulness on January 19,
1900, and his wife' passed away on June 19,
1 90 1. Their son Dacre received a good busi-
ness education in the schools and had in addi-
tion careful training under the supervision of
bis father in the lines of business in which he
is now engaged. He has been a resident of
the state since 1877. and during the whole of
the period has been earnestly devoted to its
welfare and progress. Since his father's death
he has managed the ranch and all its work of
every kind, giving even- phase of its operations
his close and careful attention and making the
utmost of every element of progress and profit.
The whole ranch is under good fencing, has a
first-rate modern dwelling and other good
buildings, an abundant supply of water and a
private electric lighting plant, as has been
noted, from which the residence and barns are
well lighted. Nine hundred and fifty acres are
given up to hay and pn "luces an excellent qual-
ity 1 if this commodity. The herds of cattle are
well bred Herefords and there are large num-
bers of them. The horses also are of good
breeds and well cared for. Mir. Dunn is a Re-
publican in political faith and, like all other
good citizens, takes an earnest and serviceable
interest in the affairs of his party. In fraternal
life he is prominently connected with the order
of Elks and the Woodmen of the World. On
( fctober 28, 1903, he united in marriage with
Miss Edith Francklin, a native of Colorado
and daughter of Harry and Alice Francklin.
wlio live near Monte Vista, and were early set-
tlers in Colorado. Mr. Dunn has succeeded to
his father's prominence and influence in public
affairs, not as an inheritance from that worthy
gentleman, but on hi sown merits, and is ac-
counted one of the leading citizens of his sec-
tii in of the state.
D. M. WEBB, Jr.
D. M. Webb, Jr., who resides with his fa-
ther on Mormon mesa, in Plateau valley, and
assists in conducting the extensive ranching
ami stock business which they carry on there,
was born in Millard county. Utah, in 1872.
His parents are D. M. and Eliza ( Dame )
Weljl). the former a native of Wisconsin, and
the latter of Utah, where she is now living,
making her home in Millard county. During
bis boyhood their son lived in Idaho with his
father, who was then a resident of that state.
When he was thirteen years old they moved to
Colorado and settled near where they now live
in Plateau valley. In 1885 they took up their
residence on their present ranch, and here lias
since been his home. He was educated in the
district schools near his home, beginning in
those of Idaho and finishing in those of Mesa
county, this state. He is a young man of en-
terprise and progressiveness, with clearness of
vision to see and persistent energy and in-
fluence to aid in procuring what the country
needs for its proper and systematic develop-
ment, and lias given his best efforts to the
wants of the section in the way of progress
and improvement, having been one of the orig-
inators ami builders of the Cottonwood lake
reset ir for irrigation, in which he still has an
interest, and helped in the promotion of many
other works of public utility. He has also ta-
ken an active interest in public affairs in a local
ivay, and been wise in counsel and diligent in
action in leading opinion and effort concerning
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
465
them to the best and must satisfactory expres-
sion. Having begun his life litre with ele-
vated ideals of citizenship, and endeavored to
follow them in practical work, no young man
in this part of the county is more highly es-
teemed and none has before him a more honor-
able and promising career. He is made of the
fiber of American manhood from which the
best services and the most desirable results
may be expected, and he is using his faculties
and his opportunities to realize for his por-
tion of the commonwealth its highest good in
a material, educational and political way.
S. E. EWING.
For nearly twenty years the interesting
subject of this brief review has been a resident
of Colorado and has been a potent factor in
the progress and development of the portion
of the state in which he has resided. He is
now one of the prosperous and successful
farmers of Mesa county, living on a fine ranch
which he has improved and cultivated for a
number of years in the vicinity of Plateau City,
and is connected in a leading way with the agri-
cultural and commercial interests of the sec-
tion, and contributes to its public life the force
of his energy and the inspiration of a good
example of upright and serviceable citizenship.
Mr. Ewing is a native of Brown county, Ohio,
where he was born in 1837, and is the son of
Robert and Elizabeth (Milton) Ewing, now
both deceased. His father was born and
reared in Ohio, and was a prosperous farmer
in that state, remaining there until 1837, when
he moved to Illinois and in 1857 to Kansas,
where he passed the residue of his life, dying
at the age of eighty-four. He served as a mem-
ber of the territorial legislature and was a
member of the convention which framed the
constitution of that state. His wife was a na-
tive of Virginia, who moved with her parents
30
to Ohio in early life and there grew to woman
hood and was married. She died in 1876.
Their offspring numbered eight, of whom S.
E. was the fifth born. He was an infant when
the family moved to Illinois, and he lived in
that state until he became tw-enty-five years of
age, being educated at the public schools in the
neighborhood of his home, and assisting in the
work on his father's farm until the time men-
tioned, when he migrated to Kansas and started
a farming enterprise of his own which he con-
ducted successfully for a period of twenty-two
years. He then came to Colorado and settled
in Boulder count}-. For six years he lived there
engaged in the same line of activity, then
moved to where he now lives, taking up his
present ranch on the Kansas mesa in 1888.
Here he has since been operating as a farmer
and stock-grower, and has prospered in the
business and won a high place in the regard
of his fellow citizens of this section. He was
first married in 1861 to Miss Sarah A. Goode,
a native of Illinois. They became the parents
of nine children, eight of whom are living, Wil-
liam E., Frederick G., Oliver. John. Robert.
Elizabeth, Hattie, Rose A. and Sylvanus V.
The other one, a son named Thomas, died
when he was ten years old. The second mar-
riage occurred on May 15, 1902. and was to
Miss Lillie Kerr, a native of Arkansas. They
have one child, George E. Ewing. Mr. Ewing
has ever been zealous and persistent in push-
ing forward works of public utility for the im-
provement of his neighborhood. He was
active in promoting the construction of the Big
creek reservoir for purposes of irrigation, and
is now a stockholder in the enterprise, holding
sixteen shares. Many- other works of im-
portance have had his earnest and serviceable
support, and all of commendable value may
count upon his countenance and substantial aid,
for nothing of worth to the community fails
to meet his approval and enlist his interest. ,
466
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
JOHN C. CHARLESWORTH.
John C. Charlesworth, of Mesa county, re-
siding, on the Mormbn mesa in Plateau valley,
is a native and a product of the West, born.
reared, educated, married and engaged in busi-
ness in various parts of the country in this sec-
tion. He first saw the light of this world in
Millard county. Utah, in 1852. He is the son
of Thomas and Alice (Barrows) Charles-
worth, both natives of England, the father
born in London and the mother in Sheffield.
At the age of eight years the father went to
sea as a cabin boy and the hazardous but in-
fatuating life upon which he had entered held
his interest and kept him employed until he
was nineteen : and during this period he visited
many parts of the globe, and had the opportu-
nity to observe and study mankind under a
great variety of circumstances. In his young
manhood he came to the United States and
settled in Ohio, where he wrought as a brick-
maker, a craft at which he had previously ac-
quired some facility. In 1844 he moved to
Utah and is now living in Millard county, that
state, actively engaged in farming. His wife
died there in 1896, at the age of seventy-three.
Their offspring numbered twelve, of whom
John was the fourth. He was educated in his
native county, remaining at home with his par-
ents until he was eighteen, then starting out in
life for himself as a farmer there, and this oc-
cupation he followed in that neighborhood five
years. At the end of that period he went to
Arizona, and for six months conducted suc-
cessfully the operations of a flourishing vine-
yard; but desiring a different kind of occupa-
tion as a farmer, he moved to Idaho, where he
followed farming in general and raising stock
for three years. His next employment was as
.1 ranchman and stock-grower in Wyoming,
which kept him busy for two years. He then
came to Colorado and located on the excellent
ranch which he now occupies on Mormon mesa,
in Mesa county: and on this property, which
he has greatly improved, he has ever since con-
ducted a prosperous and profitable business as
a general farmer and stock man. He was mar-
ried in 1873 to Miss Mary Ann Ferguson and
they have thirteen children, Mary E., Francis,
John M.. Alice, Ellen. Gilbert E., Delroy, Wil-
liam. Leslie E., Lester E., Opal" L.. Violet and
Amy.
RUFUS A. WOOD.
After spending several years of his mature
life in a variety of occupations at different
places in the middle and farther West. Rufus A.
W 1 joined the great host of industrial
workers engaged in the peaceful and indepen-
dent avocation of tilling the soil, thereby re-
turning to the pursuit of his youth, and for
which he had been trained by practical experi-
ence on his father's farm. He was born in
.Missouri in 1851), and is the son of James A.
and Antoinette (Dayton) Wood, the father a
native of Kentucky and the mother of Illinois.
Both left their native states when they were
young .and became residents of Missouri
where they formed an acquaintance and later
were married. They were farmers by occupa-
tion, and two years after the birth of her son
Rufus. and while she was yet a young woman,
the mother died, passing away in 1861. Her
husband survived her thirty years, dying in
1891, aged sixty-one years. At the age of thir-
teen Rufus began the work of making his own
way in the world, first working on farms in
Missouri where he remained until 1870. He
then came to Colorado and located al Denver.
Here he was employed in general work of var-
ious kinds for a year, at the end of which he
moved to Pueblo, and in that city was em-
ployed four years in a freight house. From
there he went to Trinidad where he was en-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
467
gaged in lumbering three years, then located
at Montrose, and during the next four years
conducted a feed store at that place. Then de-
termining to locate permanently and engage in
a business of continuing employment and prom-
ise, he settled on the ranch which is now his
home on the Mormon mesa, in Plateau valley.
Mesa county. Here he has since resided and
carried on a vigorous and profitable farming
and stock industry. He was married first in
1875 to Miss Anna M. Smith, a native of
[Jtah. She died in 1900, aged forty-four, and
on January 27, 1903, he was married a second
time, his choice on this occasion being Miss
Emma Whiteside, a native of England, and fix-
ing at Clfillicothe, Missouri, at the time of her
marriage. Mr. Wood is active in the public
affairs of his county, and is highly respected
by its people on every hand.
AUGUST F. STOLZE.
August F. Stolze, of Mesa county, this
state, whose excellent ranch on the Mormon
mesa in Plateau valley, in its present condition
of advanced improvement and high cultivation,
is the product of his industry and judiciously
applied skill in husbandry, is a native of Ger-
many, where he was born in 1873. He is the
son of Henry and Dorothy ( Wickman ) Stolze,
also natives of Germany, who came to the
United States in t88i and settled in Illinois,
where they lived until 1889, when they came to
where their son August now lives. Here
tfie father died on May 24, iqoo. and
fiere tfie mother now lives, making her
home with her son. He lived with his parents
at their Dundee ( Illinois) home until he was
seventeen, and was educated at the public
schools of the neighborhood. At that age he
went to Chicago and during the next five years
worked at the butchering business, learning
both the mechanical and the commercial parts
of it thoroughly. He then returned to Dun-
dee and, after remaining there a few years,
came to Colorado and took up his residence
in Mesa county on the ranch which is now his
home, and since then he has devoted himself
to farming and raising stock. His farm i- one
of the attractive and valuable rural homes of
the neighborhood, and he has given to its de-
velopment and improvement all his energy and
the knowledge acquired in a varied experience
and attentive study and observation, bringing
it from a state of wildness to its condition of
fertility and fruitfulness. Pie was married in
T889 to Miss Anna Heiden, a native of Ger-
many. They have had three children, of whom
their son Martin and their daughter Nettie are
living, and Alma died in childhood. While
unostentatious and unassuming in his daily
life, Mr. Stolze has manifested a healthy and
intelligent interest in the welfare of tfie county,
and has aided in its development by every
proper means at his command. He is ardently
devoted to the interests of his adopted land and
overlooks no element of merit in bis county.
state and country, and is at the same time earn-
est against all dangers that threaten their en-
during prosperity.
JOSEPH NICHOLSON.
Joseph Nicholson, of Mesa county, Colo-
rado, was made an orphan by the death of his
father when he was about one year old. and
the condition of the family, consisting of a
widow with nine children, of whom he was the
eighth, rendered it necessary for him to take
care of himself at a very early age. And his
success in life is therefore wholly the result of
In- own energy, capacity and adaptability to
circumstances. He was born in 1857 in Adams
county, Illinois, and is the son of Joseph and
Elizabeth (Spencer) Nicholson, the former a
native of Kentucky and the latter of Indiana.
468
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
The father became a resident of Indiana in early
life, and after his marriage there moved to
Illinois. In 1849 he joined the emigration to
California in search of a better fortune, but
after a residence of three years on the Pacific
coast, returned to his Illinois home, where he
died in 1858. His widow at once took up the
burden of rearing her large family and bore it
bravely and successfully according to her cir-
cumstances, living to reap the rewards of her
devotion in seeing her offspring all settled in
life and doing well. She died in 1901, at the
age of seventy-two years. Their son Joseph
remained in his native county until he reached
the age of twenty, securing a little schooling
here and there in the schools near where he
was employed on farms, for he was obliged to
hire out to make his living while he was yet but
a boy. When he was nearly of age he moved
to Salt Lake City, and after a short residence
there, came to the San Juan county in Colo-
rado. There for three years he was engaged
in freighting, then moved to the Fremont
valley, in southern Utah. In that fruitful and
progressive region he was united in marriage
with Miss Mary Ivie in 1883, and he remained
there two years after his marriage occupied in
farming. He then moved to San Pete county,
Utah, and for five years thereafter was an
active dealer in horses and other stock. After
that he settled at Grand Junction, where he con-
ducted a thriving livery business for two years.
In 1889 he settled on the land which is now his
home, and there he has since resided and was
occupied in the cattle industry on an expand-
ing scale until 1902, when he disposed of his
cattle with the determination of devoting him-
self wholly to his farming operations. His
ranch is located near the village of Mesa, about
thirty-five miles northeast of Grand Junction,
in a rich agricultural region which has been im-
proved with good facilities for irrigation,
which he has helped to construct and keep in
good working order, and is a very desirable
and attractive piece of property. He has
served the community well as foreman on the
Mt. Lincoln irrigating ditch, and in other ca-
pacities of public utility from time to time. He
and his wife are the parents of tour children.
Leroy, Essie, Willis and Jessie. Since locating
at his present home Mr. Nicholson has also
been engaged in mining to some extent, spend-
ing three years in that occupation.
JOHN KENDALL.
John Kendall, of Parker basin, Mesa
count}-, was born at Detroit, Michigan, and is
the son of John and Martha (Dickinson) Ken-
dall, natives of Scotland who brought to this
country the characteristic shrewdness, persist-
ency and industry of their race, and on the soil
of the new state in which they settled won suc-
cess in their chosen line of action and general
public esteem among the people surrounding
them. The remainder of their lives was passed
in Michigan, the father dying in 1864. and the
mother in 1884. at the age of forty-three.
Almost from childhood their son John took
care of himself, working out to earn his living
and going from one occupation to another as
necessity required or inclination directed. One
of his early engagements was as a foundry
hand in Ontario, Canada, where he was em-
ployed eighteen months. He then worked on a
farm until 1888, when he moved to Utah and
in that state was employed variously for four
years. From there he came to Colorado and
located where he now lives, on a fine ranch in
Parker basin, Plateau valley. Fie was mar-
ried in 1891 to Miss Sarah A. Charlesworth,
a native of Utah and living at the time of her
marriage at Kanosh, that state. They have
four children. George. Alice, and Floyd and
Lloyd, twins. Mr. Kendall is wide-awake and
vigilant, industrious and capable in his 1 nisi-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
409
ness, upright and manly in his dealings with
his fellows, public-spirited and far-seeing in
reference to public affairs, and genial and com-
panionable in social life. He is regarded as
one of the representative men of his section,
and has a voice of influence and wisdom in all
matters affecting the welfare of his community.
He is now in the prime of life, and with health,
enterprise, breadth of view and intelligence to
back up his laudable ambitions, he would seem
to have many years of usefulness and an honor-
able career before him, even though he is not
desirous of public life or official station. He
has the qualities which make men serviceable
in a public way, and they are not long al-
lowed to remain idle in this country, especially
in the great West.
JESSE T. GILLIAM.
Through varying scenes of adversity and
prosperity, through alternations of hope and
fear, through effort and vicissitude, Jesse T.
Gilliam, of Plateau valley, Mesa count)-, liv-
ing near Collbran, has come to his present es-
tate of worldly comfort and success, and having
been tried by both extremes of fortune and
never overcome by either, he has all the more
enjoyment in his prosperity of today through
recollecting the trials by which he secured it.
He was born in Clay count)', Missouri, in 1837,
and is the son of John and Eliza (Clark) Gil-
liam, the father a native of North Carolina and
the mother of Tennessee. The father accom-
panied his parents from his native state to Mis-
souri when he was but three years old, and
there passed the rest of his days, dying in
1867, at the a,ge of fifty-four. The mother
lived to the age of seventy-nine, dying in
1894. They were the parents of nine children,
Jesse being the oldest. His boyhood and youth
were passed in his native county and at
Savannah. Andrew county, whither the family
moved in his childhood. He remained at
home until he was twenty-one, and afterward
managed his father's farm until the beginning
of the Civil war. In 1861 he enlisted in the Mis-
souri Home Guards, and in 1862 in Company
G, Fourth Missouri Cavalry. In this command
he served until the end of his term of three
vears, and after his discharge re-enlisted as a
member of Company H, Thirteenth Missouri
Cavalry. He was finally discharged on May 13,
1866, and returned home where he remained
until 1872, engaged in farming and raising
stock. He then moved to Kansas and con-
tinued his operations in these lines of industry
in that state for five years. From 1876 to
1884 he lived in the Indian Territory, and
the next three years was again in Kansas. In
1887 he came to where he now resides on
Kansas mesa, Plateau valley, in Mesa county,
having nothing when he settled there but the
clothes he wore, his blankets and fifty cents
in money. On February 24, 1903. he was mar-
ried to Mrs. Susan E. Campbell, who has been
of material assistance in building up his for-
tunes and making his home comfortable. Both
are highly respected.
NELS P. JOHNSON.
Among the contributors to the growth and
development of the United States, which num-
ber in their list every clime and tongue of the
world that is not wholly given up to barbar-
ism, and some even of them, scarcely any
country has given more generously than Swe-
den, whose thrifty and industrious men and
women have settled in all parts of the country
where there was prospect of good returns for
honest effort, and have aided in every kind of
industrial and commercial enterprise, what-
ever the conditions, only asking opportunity to
work and enjoy the fruits of their labors. Of
the number of Swedish people who have settled
47Q
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
in Colorado and aided in her development and
the increase of her wealth and the spread of
the highest civilization on her soil, Nels P.
Johnson, of Mesa enmity, a prosperous farmer
and stock man residing' near Mesa postoffice,
is \\orth\' of creditable mention in any compila-
tion of progressive men for this portion of the
state, both on account of his productive indus-
try and his upright and manly character. He
was born in Sweden in 1847, am ' ' s tne son
of Peter and Hannah (Hanson) Johnson,
both natives of that country, from whence they
brought their family to Utah in 1862. They
engaged in farming in their new home and con-
tinued their industry in this line until death
ended their labors, the father's occurring in
1871, at the age of seventy, and the mother's
five years later, at that of seventy-five. Their
son Xels was about sixteen when they came
to America, and he stopped in Nebraska where
be remained some time and then joined the
others in Utah. He went soon afterward to
Nevada, passing about ten years in the two
states in various kinds of employment. After
this he spent a year in Minnesota clerking in
a hardware store. At the end of the year he
returned to Utah, and four years later came to
Colorado, settling on the ranch which is now
his home, and has been since 1885. He was
married in 1867 to Miss Angel Ida Jensen, a
native of Denmark, who has borne him eight
children, six of whom arc living, Xels P., Jr.,
.Mary. Philenda, Rosetta, Arthur S. ami Flor-
inda. Frederick died at the age of sixteen,
being drowned in Mesa lake June 17, tooo.
PETER LEFEVER.
Peter Lefever, the popular and well known
boniface at Plateau City. Mesa county, is a na-
me of Bruges, Belgium, born in 1857. and the
son of John and Mary (Moore) Lefever, also
natives of Bruges, Belgium. They wore well-
to-do farmers in that country, frugal and
thrifty people of modest and unostentatious
lives, but worthy of all regard for their up-
rightness and fidelity to duty. At good old
ages they passed away, both dying in 1894,
the mother aged seventy-two and the father
eighty-seven. Their son Peter remained at
their home at Bruges until he was twenty years
of age, assisting on the farm and securing a
good state-school education. In 1877 he came
to the United States and, making his way at
once to Colorado, located in Boulder county,
where he lived fifteen years engaged in ranch-
ing, lie then went to Pike's Peak and re-
mained four years, after which he moved to
Plateau valley and a short time after his arrival
there began keeping a hotel at Plateau City
which he is still conducting. He has made the
house one of the best known and most popular
hostelries in this portion of the state, and is
known far and wide as a genial and accommo-
dating host with every consideration for the
welfare of his guests, and zealously providing
everything needful for their comfort and pleas-
ant entertainment. Both by nature and attain-
ments he is well fitted for his business, and he
enters into its inmost spirit with warmth and
zeal. He was married May 27. 1893, t(l Mrs.
Martha (Hubbard) Barter, a native of Maine.
By her first marriage Mrs. Lefever had eight
children, Cora. Minnie, Nellie. Mary, Sarah.
Edwin, Lola and Hester, four of whom are
living. Their son Edwin was drowned in
[882, in Boulder county, at the age of sixteen.
Mrs. Lefever is a native of Maine ami a daugh-
ter of James and Hannah (Adams) Hub-
bard, the former a native of Maine and the lat-
ter of New Hampshire, the father being a car-
penter and shipbuilder by occupation. In 1856
the family removed to Grinnell, Iowa, and in
[862 to Boulder, Colorado, being pioneers of
that region. Mr. Hubbard located on a ranch
and became a breeder of tine horse- and sheep.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
He died in Boulder in 1876, aged sixty-live
years, while his wife died there in June, 1904,
aged ninety-one years. They were the par-
ents of five children, two suns and three daugh-
ters, of whom three are living, James, Sarah
and Mrs. Lefever. Mr. Lefever has been an
earnest advocate of all good public improve-
ments, and has borne cheerfully his share ol
the burden they entail. In the public life of
the community he is an important factor, hav-
ing enterprise and influence, and using both to
secure the promotion of the general weal and
the substantial comfort and improvement of
the people.
MRS. ELLEN T. (MERRILL) PALMER.
During- the last twenty years this highly
esteemed and most worthy lady, whose death
occurred on the 24th day of January, 1004. was
a resident of Mesa count}-, Colorado, and an
ornament to the citizenship of the whole Plat-
eau valley, useful in every way among its peo-
ple and illustrating- in her daily life the best
traits of that lofty American womanhood
which meets every requirement of its situation
and conditions, and discharges with skill and
fidelity every duty incident to its lot. She was
a native of the state of Maine, born at Perk-
ham, Somerset county, and the daughter of
Mar-hfield and Lucy C. ( Tubbs ) Merrill. Both
parents were natives of Maine and were reared,
educated and married in that state. Some time
after their marriage they moved to Winne-
bago county, Illinois, and were there engaged
in farming- until their deaths; the mother dy-
ing- in 1837, aged thirty-eight, when her daugh-
ter was about eight years of age; the father in
1840, aged sixty-seven. Mrs. Palmer passed
her girlhood in her native state, remaining
there until she was seventeen, when she joined
her parents in Illinois. After arriving at her
new home she taught school until her mar-
riage, in 1846, to Asa Palmer, after which she
and her husband moved to Iowa and in 1858
from there to Kansas, where they remained
until 1883, actively occupied in farming on an
extensive scale. In 1883 they came to Colo-
rado and took up their residence on a ranch
near what is now Plateau City, and there Mr.
Palmer died in [896 aged seventy-four. Mrs.
Palmer continued to live on the ranch and su-
perintend its operations, and was successful in
her work, cultivating the land with vigor and
skill and conducting all the affairs of the farm
with intelligence and in a progressive way.
Her husband was an enterprising and progres-
sive man. He built the first sawmill in Plateau
valley and was instrumental in the erection of
other works of public usefulness. They were
the parents of seven children, Mary L., Clem-
ent K., Merrill E., Mercy R., Albina, Asa, and
Henry L. Clement K. died in 1894 at the age
of forty-two. The others are living.
ADAM H. JUDY.
Adam H. Judy, of Gunnison county, who
owns and manages a fine ranch of four hun-
dred and forty acres on Ohio creek, thirteen
miles north of the county seat, is a native of
Pendleton county, West Virginia, born on Sep-
tember 15, 1853, and the son of Martin and
Christina (Harper) Judy, who were also born
in that state. Living in the portion of old
Virginia that remained loyal to the Union dur-
ing the Civil war, and as a reward for its loy-
alty was raised to the dignity and consequence
of separate statehood, and not far from its east-
ern boundary, he witnessed in bis boyhood all
the horrors and bitterness of civil strife at close
quarters, wherein families were divided and
homes rent asunder, and shared as well the dis-
advantages in the way of lack of early educa-
tion and commercial and industrial opportuni-
ties incident to such a condition. His parents
472
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
were reared and married in that county and
there the father passed his life, dying on the
old homestead, which is now the home of the
mother, in January, 1885. He sympathized
with the North in the contest between the sec-
tions, but notwithstanding this he was drafted
into the Confederate army and served two years
under its banners. Then he procured a sub-
stitute, and during the remainder of the war
was a scout for the Federal forces although not
regularly enlisted in the army. Thirteen chil-
dren were born in the household, ten of whom
are* living, Adam being the first horn. He
grew to manhood on the farm and attended
when he could the district schools in the neigh-
borhood, which was not often owing to the dis-
turbed condition and consequent depression of
the section. At the age of twenty-one he
started a store at Circleville, in his native state,
and also dealt in live stock, buying and selling
horses and cattle on a scale that was extensive
for that part of the country. After seven
years of successful operations in these lines at
that place he sold out there and in the spring
of [883 carrte to Colorado, soon afterward
taking up one hundred and sixty acres of land
on Mill creek, about six miles above where he
now lives, and which is still known as the Judy
Park. He later abandoned his claim and re-
turned to Virginia, where during the next three
years he kept a store at Union Mills, Fluvanna
county, Virginia. But the Western fever was
still stnmg in his system and could not be elim-
inated. So he returned to Gunnison county in
this state in 1887, and for a number of years
thereafter made it his summer home and passed
the winters in southern Kansas, southwestern
Missouri and Indian Territory. He has been
a permanent resident of the Ohio creek coun-
try since 1890. Purchasing his present ranch
m [897, he has since then made that his home,
having previously owned and occupied the
ranch now belonging to and the home of John
C. Harris. His principal crop on his ranch is
hay. and he also raises stock, chiefly cattle, in
large numbers. On November 22, 1874. he
was married to Miss Ruhanna Phares, of West
Virginia. She died in that state, leaving four
children, Charles P., Sallie T.. John M. and
Annie. On December 5, 1889, Mr. Judy mar-
ried a second wife, Miss Nettie Nelson, also a
native of West Virginia, but reared in Kansas.
They have had eight children, three of whom
are living, Robert B., Lillie S. and Alvin C.
Those who have died are Bessie and Jessie,
twins, and three who passed away in infancy,
named Earl and Pearl, twins, and Martha, a
twin to Robert B. Politically Mr. Judy is a
Democrat and fraternally a United Workman,
belonging to the lodge of the order at Gunni-
son.
DAVID ANDERSON.
A native of Scotland, where he was born
March 10, 1846, and growing to manhood in
that country and thereafter for a number of
years working at his trade in its principal cities.
David Anderson, of Plateau valley, Mesa
county, came to this country in the full ma-
turity of his powers and with his perceptions
sharpened by practical experience with men.
so that his naturally strong mind had additii mal
preparation for the emergencies be was likely to
meet with in a new country. He is the son of
Peter ami Betsy (Henry) Anderson, both na-
tives of Scotland, where the whole of their
lives were passed in the pleasing and independ-
ent occupation of farming, the father dying
there in 1854, and the mother in 1002, after
she had passed her eightieth year. They were
the parents of ten children, of whom David was
the sixth. Pie grew to manhood in his native
land and received a common-school education
there. After leaving school he learned the
trade of a blacksmith, and for several years
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
473
followed it near his home and in all the lead-
ing cities of the country, as has been stated. In
1867 he emigrated to the United States, lo-
cating at Lynchburg, Virginia, and there wi irk-
ing at his trade two years. In 1869 he moved
to Kansas, where he engaged in ranching some
time, then, under direction of his brother-in-
law, learned the trade of a stone mason, at
which he wrought until 1878. In that year he
became a resident of Colorado, and after living
for a short time at Denver, went to mining
near Aspen and also did some freighting in
1880 and 1 88 1. In the spring of 18S2 he
moved to what is now Mesa county, continuing
work at his trade for about ten years in various
parts of the state. He had located a ranch on
Plateau creek, about two and a half miles be-
low where Plateau City now stands, and there
his family lived during the time he was work-
ing at his trade. He was among the pioneers
of that part of Mesa county, there being but
one other family in Plateau valley at the time
he located there. In 1892 he purchased his
present ranch on Grove creek. Here he has
since resided and been occupied in ranching and
raising stock. During the last six years he
has also been employed by the United States
government in guarding the forest reserve.
He has been active and persistent in his efforts
to secure publit improvements in the section at
all times, and was particularly forceful and ef-
fective in pushing through the construction of
the Grove creek reservoir for irrigating pur-
poses. In 1868 he was married to Miss Jessie
Scrimgeour, a native of Scotland, living at the
time of her marriage at Lynchburg, Virginia.
Thev are the parents of four children, Grace.
David. Mary and John.
CHESTER A. GREEN.
Postmaster and hotel keeper at Iola, Gunni-
son county, and in that neighborhood conduct-
ing a large and flourishing ranch and stock in-
dustry, Chester A. Green has found the favors
of fortune by seeking them where they were to
be found, and compelling them to come forth
at the bidding of his sterling worth, honest in-
dustry and persistent and commanding efforts
wisely applied. He was born in Ashtabula
county, Ohio, on September 2, 1844, and is the
son of Allen J. and Emma P. (Cleveland)
Green, natives of New York state wdio became
residents of Ashtabula county in early life and
were reared, educated and married there. They
were teachers in the public schools of the
county before their marriage, and after that
event the father became a farmer and also
worked at cabinetmaking. The father died in
Ohio and the mother is now living at Gun-
nison, this state, aged eighty-one years. Or-
phaned by the death of his father when the
son was but little over a year old, the latter
was tenderly reared by his mother, whose con-
stant attention to his wants and wise counsel
were the forming influences of his character,
and are among his most pleasant recollections.
She valued education for her children highly,
and sent him to a good academy at Kingston
\<> complete his after a thorough course in the
public schools. He was a schoolmate of the
late United States senator, Hon. Benjamin
Wade, of Ohio, and some other men who won
distinction in professional or public life. After
leaving school he worked for a time at the
trade of a machinist, having a decidedly me-
chanical turn in both metal and wood work. In
1867 he went to California, and in that state
he lived twenty-one years, working as a ma-
chinist and engineer in the summer months and
bookkeeper in winter. "While so employed he
made for himself a cabinet tool chest wit'.
twenty drawers, which he still owns, and which
is a beautiful piece of workmanship as well as
a most convenient depository for tools. It con-
tains thirty different kinds of hard wood, all
474
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
polished and artistically finished, the raw ma-
terial of which cost him one hundred dollars,
the cabinet being now valued at five hundred
dollars. As a specimen of the skill he has for
and the work he can do in the higher, lighter
and more graceful lines of his handicraft it is
worthy of special admiration and mention,
showing that had he chosen to devote himself
to ornamental construction in wood and metal
work he might have attained the rank of an
artist. He also has a one-horse-power engine
of the old style which he made almost wholly
by hand several years ago. In 1888 he became
a resident of Colorado, and locating in Gun-
nison county, engaged in the cattle business,
which has since occupied his time and energies
on an expanding scale and with cumulative
profits. He owns one hundred and sixty acres
of land, one hundred of them under irrigation
and good cultivation, and runs a herd of some
two hundred fine cattle. His ranch is on the
Gunnison river and along the railroad at Iola,
where he also keeps a hotel and is postmaster.
The location is one of the picturesque places of
the state, a long, narrow valley surrounded
with grand old mountains and containing as
fine trout fishing as can be found in the world.
Many sportsmen spend time at this resort,
and business men and others also make it the
place of their summer outings. Mr. Green has
yielded to the genius of the place in providing
a good hotel for its visitors and ten cottages in
addition for those who prefer to keep house.
With these he has a profitable business while
ministering to the comfort and enjoyment of
hundreds of his fellow men. It goes almost
without the saying that he is a popular and
widely known boniface, and that his activity
in promoting the welfare of his community is
highly appreciated by its people. On Thanks-
giving day, 1878, he united in marriage with
Miss Minnie A. Lewis, who was born and
reared in San Francisco, where her parents.
John R. and Fannie M. (Fotheringham) Lewis,
natives of New York, were pioneers. Mrs.
Green died in 1901, leaving four children,
Abbie F., Emma J., Minnie A. and Chester A.
Their father is a stanch Republican and active
party worker. Fraternally he belongs to the
Masonic order, the Knights of Pythias and the
Odd Fellows, holding his membership in each
in California. It should be stated to his credit,
that although he has been mainly a man of
peace, and in the work of the woi Id belongs to
the department of construction, during the
Civil war. when Cincinnati was threatened by
Morgan's invasion of Indiana and Ohio, in
obedience to the call of the Governor for
minute men to defend the city, he was a mem-
ber of the Squirrel Hunters' Brigade that re-
sponded to the call, and now, when the mo-
mentous conflict is fading into the shade of his
tory, he often shows his honorable discharge
from this service with commendable pride.
CHARLES JULIAN.
Charles Julian, an old settler and the lead-
ing liveryman of Crested Butte, is a native of
near Wilkesharre, Pennsylvania, horn on Au-
gust 19. T847. FTis parents, Richard and Su-
sanna i Edwards ) Julian, were born in county
Kent. England, and lived there until 1847,
when they emigrated to the United States with
then- four children, and after a tedious voyage
of two months across the Atlantic in a sailing
vessel, located on a farm in Pennsylvania,
where they passed the remainder of their lives.
In [862 the father enlisted in the One Hun-
dred and Sixty-second Pennsylvania Infantry
for defense of the Union during the Civil war.
and in that command he served two years and
nine months, or to the end of the momentous
conflict. Mis regiment took part in many san-
guinary engagements and he was shot in the
right hip at the battle of Gettysburg. < >ne of
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
475
his sons, Richard, was in the United States
navy before the war, also served through it,
and si ion after its close died of the black fever
contracted in the service while on the St. Law-
rence river. Charles was the fifth born of
eight children, and was reared on the home
farm in his native state, receiving his education
in the district schools of the neighborhood.
In 1863, when he was but sixteen years old,
he enlisted in the Ninth Pennsylvania Cav-
alry for the Union army and was discharged
on account of disabilities incurred in the serv-
ice after being a year and three months at the
front, being shot through the right wrist and
in the left leg just above the ankle at the bal
tie of Fredericksburg. He was also taken
prisoner and held in captivity thirteen days and
then paroled. After his discbarge he returned
home and worked in the mines in the vicinity
and also in machine shops, remaining a num-
ber of years. In 1874, when the panic closed
many of the shops and mines, and the oil boom
was at its height, he moved to Butler county.
Pennsylvania, where he remained nearly four
years. In 1878 be was attracted to Colorado
by the gold excitement and located at Lead-
ville. There he worked in the mines about one
year as foreman for the Colorado & California
Tunnel Company. He took his family to
Leadville with him, making the trip over the
mountains by stage coach. In 1870 they
moved to Gunnison county among the pioneers
of this section, and locating at Irwin, passed
six years in freighting with headquarters at
that place. He then bought the livery barn at
Crested Butte which he has since been so suc-
cessfully conducting. His barn is well
equipped with everything belonging to the busi-
ness, and as the spirit of its management is a
sincere and ardent desire to meet the wishes
and promote the comfort of its patrons in every
way, it enjoys a large and remunerative pat-
ronage. In politics Mr. Julian is an active
and zealous Republican, doing good work for
his party in all its campaigns and enjoying in
a large measure the .confidence and esteem of
its leaders. He has served the community as
city councilman and two terms as mayor. Fra-
ternally he belongs to the Masonic order and
the Odd Fellows. He was married in Penn-
sylvania in 1869 to Miss Mary J. Williams,
who was born in England and emigrated to
the United States with her parents when she
was ten years old. Twelve children have been
born of this union, only two of whom are liv-
ing, Susanna and Sadie. Mary J., two Ediths,
Freddie, Thomas, two Eddies, Joseph and Bes-
sie died at different times and ages. Mrs. Jul-
ian died in January, 1904. while on a visit to
her old Pennsylvania home. Her remains
were buried at Crested Butte.
HENRY S. TOMKINS.
After a long and successful mercantile ca-
reer in various parts of the two great Anglo-
Saxon countries. England and the United
States, in which be bad charge of extensive
and important interests and met his responsi-
bilities in a manly and masterful way. Henry
S. Tomkins, of Chaffee county. Colorado,
turned to the vocation of the old patriarchs and
lias found in it congenial and profitable em-
ployment. He is a native of Liverpool, Eng-
land, born on March 24, 1841, and was edu-
cated in the public schools of his native city.
After leaving school he was apprenticed to the
tea and coffee trade, having, however, first se-
cured a collegiate education. Intending to de-
vote his life to mercantile pursuits, he remained
in the department of trade in which he started
seven years, then became a commercial trav-
eler for one of the largest wholesale houses in
London. After being on the road in the inter-
est of that house for a period of twelve years,
he engaged in a commission business on his
4/6
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
own ace unit which he continued three years.
In 1876 he visited the Centennial Exposition at
Philadelphia, and while on this side of the wa-
ter made a tour of this country and Canada.
visiting all the principal cities from the Atlan-
tic to the Pacific. Being greatly impressed by
this country and its opportunities for business,
especially abundant and prolific in the West,
he determined to erect his domestic altar here
and cast his lot with the people of the United
States. Accordingly, after remaining a year
in England after his return to settle up his af-
fairs there, he brought his family, consisting of
his wife and five children, to Chicago, and dur-
ing the next seven years he was employed in
that great hive of industrial and commercial ac-
tivity as store manager of the branch estab-
lishment of R. Hoe & Company, the most ex-
tensive manufacturers of printing presses in
the United States. In 1885 he moved to Den-
ver, this state, and engaged in the metallifer-
ous milling business. Later he conducted a
similar enterprise at Decatur. Summit county,
and afterward moved to \\ 'infield in Chaffee
county, where he took charge of a large mill.
Owing to failing health and the necessity for
an outdoor life, he abandoned milling and
turned his attention to farming and raising
stock in 1887, and since then he has been ex-
tensively engaged in these pursuits. Taking
up a homestead live miles from Buena Vista,
he began his enterprise in ranching and stock
raising in a small way. and he has since en-
larged it to considerable proportions, adding to
hi- domain by purchase until he owns several
hundred acres of land and expanding his oper-
ations until he is now one of the leading farm-
ers and stock men in his part of the state.
Since coming to this country he has always ta-
ken an active and serviceable part in its poli-
tics, espousing the cause of the Democratic
party after due deliberation and firmly adher-
- his faith through all conditions, except
for several years, espousing the cause of the
Populist party with such success he was made
national committeeman for Colorado, for four
years. In the tenth general assembly in this
state he was chosen a representative of Chaf-
fee and Fremont counties on the ticket of the
Populists. He was afterward chief enrolling
clerk of the state senate in the eleventh assem-
bly. As the candidate of the Democrats he
was elected to the fourteenth assembly in the
fall of 1902. as a representative of Fremont
and Chaffee counties and carried the district
by a large majority. His work in the house
of representatives has been generally com-
mended by the members of all parties, his un-
quailing courage in standing for what he be-
lieved to be right winning the admiration of op-
ponents as well as friends. In the industry
to which he has latterly given his whole atten-
tion he is prominent and influential, being an
active member of the Colorado Horse and Cat-
tle Growers Association, and at one time on
its executive committee. He organized the
Chaffee County Association and has unvary-
ingly been its delegate to the state association.
His ranch is a fine one, well developed, highly
improved and skillfully cultivated. Four of his
grown sons are now at home and assist him
in its management. In the social life of the
state lie has ever been prominent and influen-
tial. He is a cordial friend of United States
Senator Thomas M. Patterson, who was, like
himself, raised in Liverpool, England. On
July 12. i8fij;. Mr. Tomkins was married to
Miss Fannie Tuson. of Liverpool, where the
marriage was celebrated. They had five chil-
dren. Harold, Charlotte E. (deceased). Albert.
Fannie and Caroline. Their mother died on
November 2, [872, and her remains were bur
ied in Liverpool. In July. 1877. Mr. Tomkins
married a second wife. Mi-- Ellen Acton, a na-
tive of England, this marriage also occurring
in his native city. They have four children,
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
George H., Ernest, Myron J. and Charles L.
Throughout his residence in Chaffee county
Mr. Tomkins has served on the district school
board, and has given a decided stimulus to the
cause cf education there. He is a strong wo-
man's suffrage man and his opinion upon that
subject has been sought by several prominent
writers in this country and Holland.
FRANK SIMMONS.
For a period of nearly thirty years Frank
Simmons, an active, energetic and progressive
ranchman of Delta county, living and conduct-
ing a prosperous business a mile and a half
from Cory of the Grand river, has been a resi-
dent of Colorado, having come into the state
in 1X7O. He has lived in various places in the
commonwealth and taken part in a number of
its leading industries. He has therefore an
extensive knowledge of its people and their oc-
cupations, and also a good record of industry
and citizenship to his credit. The place of his
nativity was Jefferson county, Iowa, and he
was born there on March 1. 1855. His father,
'. . ilium R. Simmons, a native of Tennessee,
moved to Iowa at the age of nineteen years,
and there he met with and married Miss
Salatha Crenshaw, who was born in Illinois.
They were industrious and well-to-do farmers
in Iowa, where the father died, the mother now
living. In 1873, when he was eighteen years
old, and after receiving a common-school edu-
cation, their son Frank left his father's home
and started out in life for himself, going to
Nevada where during the next two years he
occupied himself in prospecting, teaming and
ranching. In 1875 he returned to Iowa, and
in the spring of 1876 once more turned his
face toward the setting sun, joining the stam-
pede to the Black Hills wdiere he mined until
fall. At that time he came to Colorado and
took up his residence in Douglas county. Dur-
ing - the first three years he worked in the em-
ploy m{ a large cattle man. then engaged in
freighting between Leadville and Colorado
Springs. In the spring of 1880 he bought a
team, and locating at Leadville. passed three
years learning in and around that busy and
prolific camp. In 1883 he moved to Grand
Junction, the next year to Delta county, where
he improved and sold a ranch, and in the fall
of [884 went to Sagauche county and started
an enterprise in the cattle industry which he
carried on until 1889, when he returned to
( iunnison county, and after prospecting there
four years, located at Lake City, where he re-
mained until 1901. He then changed his resi-
dence to Delta county once more, and in the
spring of 1903 bought his present home, a
ranch of sixty acres, which he is steadily im-
proving and getting- in order for raising vege-
tables on a large scale. He has a portion of the
land in alfalfa and much of the rest is devoted
to growing potatoes. On November 2*j, 1899.
be was married to Mrs. Lucinda Flanary, a
native of Illinois and a widow- with one child
dead and five living, one of whom has a home
with Mr. Simmons. In national politics Mr.
Simmons is a devoted member of the Demo-
cratic party, but in local affairs his first con-
cern is the general welfare and advancement of
the community, in which he takes an active
and helpful interest. He is prosperous in busi-
ness, enterprising in the development of the
section of his home, faithful in all the duties
of citizenship and generally well respected by
his fellow men.
CHARLES T. BAKER.
The religious fervor, the stern self-reliance
and the determined persistency that colonized
New- England, have left their mark ineradi-
cably on all phases of American history.
Wherever the voice of duty has led the spirit
478
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
of New England has responded, and its work
is glorious in all places and all lines of life.
Scarcely had it established a foothold on the
rocky coast of the Atlantic when it began to
go forth into the farther wilderness for new
conquest and the spread of its beneficent
activity. From it came the ancestry of Charles
T. Baker, county assessor of Montrose county,
whose forefathers in the paternal line were
among the early settlers of western New York,
locating near what is now the city of Buffalo,
where he was born in 1848. His father,
Thomas Y. Baker, was a native of that state,
and spent his early life in New York city, serv-
ing when a young man as amanuensis to Horace
Greeley. He afterward engaged in the news-
paper business in connection with a publication
famous later as the New York Ledger, in which
he was associated with the well known "blood
and thunder" writer, Ned Buntline. When he
sold his interest in this venture he went into the
book publishing business on Fulton street in
Brooklyn, which he continued until the epen-
ing of the Civil war. Then being treasurer and
lieutenant of the Thirteenth Regiment, New
York State Guard, a military organization
still in existence, he entered the Union army
with his command and served three months.
At the end of that time he returned home and
raised a company in the Eighty-seventh New
York Infantry, and as its lieutenant returned
to the army and was assigned to active service,
which he conducted in a manner so satisfactory
that at the battle of Fair Oaks he was made
captain. Being taken prisoner soon after this,
he was confined in Libby prison and later at
Salisbury. Missouri. After his exchange he
went back to his New York home and from •
there came west to Wisconsin, and locating at
Madison, engaged in the livery business until
(868, when he was burned out. after which he
opened a hotel at St. Peters, Wisconsin, which
he conducted for two years. Then buying out
a large boarding house in Milwaukee, he was in
charge of that during the next two years, dis-
posing of it to take a position at Omaha, Ne-
braska, as superintendent of the lumber de-
partment of the Union Pacific Railroad at a
salary of fifteen hundred dollars a year. A few
years later he returned to New York city and
died there in 1876, at the age of fifty-two. He
was a Democrat in politics and a prominent
Mason in fraternal relations. He was the son
of John and Phoebe (Wood) Baker, the former
a native of Pennsylvania who passed the most
of his life on Long Island engaged in shoe-
making, and dying in Westchester county.
New York. Charles T. Baker's mother, Sarah
S. (Worden) Baker, was born at New Haven,
Connecticut, in 1826 and married to Mr.
Baker in 1S47. She was the daughter of Phil-
ander and Isabella (Carter) Worden. her
father a native of New York and her mother
of New Hampshire. The mother was a de-
scendant of John Worden, who came to
America on the "Mayflower" in the early his-
tory of Massachusetts. She died in 1854, aged
sixty, in New York city, where her husband
also died, his end coming in 1858, at the age
of sixty. He was a Democrat in politics and a
son of James Worden, a prosperous New York
farmer. Charles T. Baker passed his boyhood
in New York and Brooklyn, and his youth in
Madison, Wisconsin. In the latter state he
completed his education at the State University,
and after leaving school, in company with an-
other young man, purchased six bicycles and
went through portions of Wisconsin and Iowa
teaching young men to ride them, hiring halls
in various places for the purpose. Returning
to Milwaukee, he was employed in the office of
the Young Men's Christian Association in the
clerical department for a year, then moved to
Kansas and for seven years was engaged in
farming near Independence. From there he
migrated to Joplin, Missouri, and followed
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
479
teaming and hauling ore for G. B. Carson until
[877. Late in the spring of that year he came
to Colorado and settled at Crested Butte, ar-
riving there on Jul}' 3d, having been forty-
five days on the journey with a team and
covered wagon. In the fall he changed his
residence to Rosita, where he bought a small
ranch on which he lived three years, then sold
out and moved to California. He remained in
that state eight months, visiting various sec-
tions of it, and at the end of that period re-
turned to Colorado and took up a ranch of one
hundred and sixty acres on North Mesa river
on a pre-emption claim. He was occupied in
farming this until 1889, when he was elected
county assessor, an office he is still filling, and
whose duties he is performing in a very credit
able and satisfactory manner. He still owns
his place, but since assuming his office has had
it in charge of an agent or tenant. His prin-
cipal crops are grain and hay, and as he owns
water rights sufficient to provide proper irri-
gation, he can make his operations more profit-
able than many others. He is, however, in-
terested in the full and adequate development
of his section, and serves as secretary of the
Loutsensezer Ditch Company of North Mesa.
He is also prominent and active in road im-
provement and school work, and gives due
attention to every line of useful activity in the
general service of the community. He was
married in 1876 at Neodesha. Kansas, to Miss
Selina Gartin, a native of Missouri, who died
in 1895, at the age of forty-two. leaving two
children. Theodosia and Minnie. In the winter
of 1902-3 he married a second wife. Miss Laura
Ludwig, a native of Minnesota and daughter
of Frederick and Wilhelmina (Reko) Ludwig,
natives of Germany but long resident in the
United States. The father was a machinist by
trade who came from his native land to Min-
nesota, and after a residence of some years in
that state moved to Colorado. His parents,
Charles and Anna Ludwig, also came from
< icnnany to Minnesota. Charles was an
engineer, but passed the last twenty years of
his life farming. Wilhelmina (Reko) Ludwig
was a daughter of Christopher Reko, who, on
his arrival in the United States from Germany,
settled in Renville county, Minnesota, and died
soon afterward. Mr. Baker has been long and
favorably known throughout the county, and
has enjoyed in a marked degree the confidence
and esteem of the people. His public services
have been valuable and appreciated and his
private life has been one of industry and up-
rightness.
H. M. STARK.
With his childish fancy kindled and his
boyish enthusiasm quickened by narratives of
thrilling interest from the great wars waged
at the close of the eighteenth and the begin-
ning of the nineteenth century, in which his
father was an active participant under the
Prussian General Blucher, and who doubtless
regaled bis offspring with graphic accounts of
his campaigns, and with the voice of America
ever in his ear persuasively calling him to a
share in her bounteous rewards for effort, en-
ergs- and skill. H. M. Stark, of Montrose
county, was early in life prepared for emigra-
tion to this country and for whatever might
befall in its stirring activities and the require-
ments of its necessarily intense and strenuous
life ; and when he came hither at the very dawn
of his young and ardent manhood, he was not
disappointed in either the abundance of the
opportunities for useful labor in the country.
or the diligence and alertness needed to seize
and use them properly. He is a native of the
little village of Vilkenfelde, Prussia, born in
1840, the son of John Frederick and Anna
(Retzloff) Stark, who were born and reared
there and who at the end of life were laid to
480
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
rest beneath it? soil. His father was a soldier
in the Prussian army during the early part of
his mature life and fought in many campaigns
under General Blucher against Bonaparte.
After quitting military service he retired to a
little farm near die village, and on this his
family was reared. He died about 1878 be-
tween eighty and ninety years old, leaving to
his offspring but little more than the priceless
legacy of a good name and a record of duty
faithfully performed under all circumstances.
The mother died in 1851 at the age of forty-
rive years. Their family numbered seven chil-
dren, of whom H. M. was next to the young-
est. He received a good elementary education
in the state schools of his native land, remain-
ing at home until he was twenty-one years old,
then came to the United States, making his
first stop in this country at Tyrone, Pennsyl-
vania, where he lingered only three months,
then proceeded to Pittsburg. A few weeks in
that busy city satisfied him with that portion
of the country. Plis vision was set to the
gauge of the swelling prairies and the farther
mountains, and he promptly sought its gratifi-
cation by going on to Indiana, and locating in
the northern part of the state in the neighbor-
hood of Plymouth and South Bend, where he
remained several years engaged in farm work
and other occupations. He then spent a sum-
mer in Illinois, and after that made an exten-
sive slow tour of inspection through the south-
ern states, and reached Indian Territory in the
course of his wanderings and remained there
about eleven months. From there he returned
to Illinois and wintered. In the spring follow-
ing he came to southern Missouri, and here se-
cured an engagement to drive cattle across the
plains from that section to Colorado. After
stopping some time at Colorado Springs he
went further west, then engaged in prospecting,
freighting and road building, coming after a
time with a load of supplies to Ouray, a section
■ of country with which he was not wholly un-
familiar, having previously visited Lake City
and the Gunnison region. He built one of the
first shanties for human habitation at Ouray,
and in the vicinity of that village followed
mining for a number of years, locating several
valuable silver mines there, and taking out
quantities of rich ore. In [881 he settled on
the ranch where Mr. Shores now lives, taking
up two claims in association with a partner.
A little later he bought his partner's interest
and traded the land to .Mr. McConnell and pur-
chased the place on which he now lives after
visiting a number of states with a view to se-
curing a desirable location. On this he has
made valuable improvements, built an attract-
ive and commodious brick dwelling with good
outbuildings, and developed an extensive and
profitable farming and stock business, his prin-
cipal crops being grain and hay, and his stock
operations being confined to cattle. In 1882
he was married to Miss Mary Stokoe, a native
of Ouincy, Illinois, daughter of John and Han-
nah ( Ascough ) Stokoe. of that state, who em-
igrated to that state from England. Mr. Stark
has been prominent and active in the public life
of the community and has been one of the serv-
iceable factors in developing its material re-
sources and building up its connmercial and
industrial interests. He is held in high esteem
as a leading and progressive citizen. In politics
he is independent, though keenly alive to the
welfare of his county and state.
W. E. GODDARD.
W. E. Goddard, head of the firm of God-
dard & Son. prominent ranchers and stock-
growers of Montrose county, is a native of
Maryland, horn in 1837. His parents were
John and Eliza (Abel) Goddard, also natives
of that state, where the mother died in 1837
when her son \V. E., the last bom of eleven
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
children, was eleven days old. After her death
a few months the father moved his family to
Illinois, and settling on a farm in Bond count}',
lived and labored there until the fall of 1859,
when he went to live with one of his daugh-
ters in St. Louis. He remained with her un-
til his death, in 1861, and his remains were
buried in that city. On the Illinois homestead
W. E. Goddard grew to manhood and in the
district schools of the vicinity he acquired a
limited education. He learned the business of
farming and raising stock by practical experi-
ence in every branch of it, and this has been
his occupation almost ever since he started in
life. His first independent move was to tike
charge of his father's farm when lie was twen-
ty-two years of age. After managing this for
a time he went to Montana in the spring of
1865 and engaged in prospecting and mining
for three years. Returning then to Illinois,
he married Miss Sarah Scott, a native of Ten-
nessee who emigrated to Illinois with her par-
ents when she was young. The marriage was
solemnized on January 1. 1869, and the young
couple lived in Illinois until the death of the
wife, in 1876, after which Mr. Goddard made
his home with a brother in St. Charles county,
Missouri, until [879. He then came to Colo-
rado and after passing seven years at Silverton
and vicinity, he moved to the place he now oc-
cupies, purchasing it as unimproved land. Here
he started an industry in general farming and
stock-growing in partnership with his son, E.
A. Goddard. the survivor of two born to him in
his marriage, the other one. William M., hav-
ing died in childhood. This enterprise has
grown through judicious care and good man-
agement to large proportions, a high rank as
to products and profits of considerable magni-
tude. The place at the same time has been fur-
nished with good buildings of every needed
kind for the business, and been made one of
the most comfortable and restful country homes
3 1
in this part of the state. The firm produces a
high grade of Shorthorn cattle, omitting no
effort to keep the standard high, the breed pure
ami the condition of the cattle good. They
also have a large and thrifty orchard of apple
and peach trees from which they have abund-
ant yield- 1 <i excellent fruit. Secure against the
winds of adversity, sheltered from the storms
of life, at peace with all the world and firmly
fixed in the good will and esteem of their
neighbors and their fellow citizens generally,
the father and son live on their comfortable es-
tate and find occupation for all their time and
energies in their expanding business except
what are required for social duties and the
claims of the community on them in a public
way. To these they give a ready and service-
able response, performing with alacrity, cheer-
fulness and vigor all the duties of good citizen-
ship and showing a win >lesome and helpful in-
terest in the general welfare of their neighbor-
hood, county and state.
e. h. Mcdowell.
What was once the far frontier, the un-
molested haunt of wild beasts and wilder men
in this country, as soon as it became measur-
ably settled and subdued to the requirements
and began yielding the beneficent productions
of civilization, became a fruitful source of the
energies needed for the exploration, settlement
and development of other and more remote sec-
tions, and sent its trained forces forward to
the work. And so it happened that many of
the vigorous and determined pioneers of the
farther West were themselves natives of por-
tions of the country in which they or their par-
ents camped on the heel of the flying buffalo
and reared their domestic altars where but a
night before the panther leaped or the deer dis-
ported, and where the red man long lingered
with intensifying grudge against their invasion
4§2
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
and sullen treachery or open hostility to its
continuance and farther progress. Of this num-
ber is E. H. McDowell, of Gunnison county,
whose achievements on the soil of Colorado are
but repetitions of those of his immediate
progenitors on that of Minnesota, where he was
born in 186S, the son of Henry and Mary
(Spencer) McDowell. His father was a na-
tive of New York, where he drove for many
years on the Erie canal, and then moved to
the wilds of Wisconsin when a young man and
there settled on a farm which was as yet virgin
to the plow and had never felt the persuasive
hand of systematic husbandry. He then
moved on to Minnesota and soon found it
necessary to help defend the new home in
which he had located from the venom of the
predatory Indian, and in 1861 he enlisted in
the force recruited for Indian warfare and
served therein for three years. The mother
was also a native of the East and, like other
pioneer women of her day, braved the dangers
of the frontier and endured its hardships with
a spirit that would have done credit to the
most resolute Roman matron. When their son
who is the immediate subject of this sketch
was two years old they moved to Kansas, and
there he was trained for the duties of citizen-
ship in the public schools and amid the ad-
ministration of the civil affairs of the com-
munity around him, remaining in that state
until he was nearly twenty-one years old. Dur-
ing this time he spent five years in going south
and buying horses and taking them north to
sell. In 1889, having taken his place anil be-
gun active work in the struggle of men for
supremacy, he left home and came to Colorado,
making the long trip in a wagon, and locating
at a place which is now called Hale, on the
eastern border of the state, where he remained
until 1 S()i) busily engaged in farming. He then
came farther west into the state and took up
bis residence on the place he now occupies,
known as the old McCann ranch of three hun-
dred and twenty acres, on which he has since
then resided and conducted an extensive and
prosperous stock and general farming industry.
Mr. McDowell has conducted his business with
vigi >r and system, and has made it an important
element m the commercial life of the county
besides adding to his own prosperity and con-
sequence. But he has also taken an active
interest in the social and fraternal welfare of
his section, and given due and serviceable at-
tention to all undertakings for its advancement
and improvement. He is a zealous member of
the Modern Woodmen of America, with mem-
bership in the lodge of the order at Gunnison,
and a member of the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows at Gunnison. In 1886 he was
married to Miss Louise Johnston, a daughter
of Martin Johnston, of Iowa, who died when
she was but two years old, from diseases con-
tracted in serving his country in the Civil
war. The McDowells have six children. Cyril,
Oey and Ocy (twins), Earl, May and John,
all of whom were born in Colorado.
WILLIAM B. MONSON.
The tide of emigration in this country,
which has flowed steadily westward from the
Atlantic coast, encountering every danger, en-
during every privation and conquering even-
difficulty, that has defied the rage of savage
men and of the elements and has commanded
hitherto unknown conditions to its service and
advantage, until it has overspread the whole
land and transformed it into a vast expanse
of productive energy and made it fruitful with
the beneficent products and blessings of the
most advanced civilization, presents to the
imagination one of the most striking themes
of interest in all the range of human historv.
Romance and poetry dwells on its story with
delight, and legitimate history finds in its
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
483
spectacular yet substantial features of everlast-
ing accomplishment a most impressive field for
thought and narrative. In gross it is unparal-
leled in the annals of time, although in in-
dividual aspects it may be but an oft told tale.
In himself and in his immediate progenitors
William B. Monson belongs to this great the-
atre of action, and is to be reckoned among the
progressive men of the section in which he
lives because of his part in it and the manner
in which he has performed that part. He is
a native of Bourbon county, Kentucky, born
in 1843, and the son of Hugh T. and May
Monson, who were also natives of that state,
where the mother died in 1856, at the age of
twenty-five, leaving two children, of whom
William was the first born. When he was six
years old his father moved with the two chil-
dren to Missouri, arriving there in 1850 and
remaining until 1863. He then made another
move westward, coming first to Denver and a
short time afterward locating at Fort Lupton,
this state, where he continued to reside until
1872. At that time he went back to his former
home in Missouri, where he is still living, hav-
ing reached the venerable age of eighty-five and
attained the position of a patriarch in the re-
gard of the community in which his evening
of life is descending peacefully and happily to
the grave. In 1858, at the age of fourteen, the
son W r illiam began the work of earning his < >\vn
livelihood by taking charge of an ox team for
a journey across the plains to Salt Lake City,
which he successfully accomplished and soon
after returned to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas,
where he remained until the beginning of the
Pike's Peak excitement in 1859. He was at
that time young and full of energy, well de-
veloped physically and filled with a love of ad-
venture and endowed with a spirit of daring
and self-reliance that welcomed danger and
difficulty in almost any form. He purchased
an ox team and started with others to the new
land of promise whose golden music had just
thrilled the world, and perhaps with high
hopes of what it might have in store for- him.
Arriving at Denver, he found it profitable to en-
gage in freighting between the older settle-
ments along the Missouri and Mississippi, and
so returned to St. Joseph, Missouri, with his
team employed in that business. He continued
freighting between Denver and St. Joseph for
several years, making a number of trips and
encountering on almost every one hostile In-
dians eager to steal the stock and take the
scalps of any white men they might find on
the plains. The life was full of hazard, but
had a flavor of keener enjoyment on that ac-
count. Still after a few years of it, in which
he saw all its phases, Mr. Monson determined
to abandon it and settle permanently in the
West. He took up his residence at Fort Lup-
ton, w-here he was employed as station keeper
for a period of twenty-five months. In the
winter of 1863-4 he moved to Denver and the
next spring took up land in the vicinity of
that city on which for nearly ten years lie was
profitably engaged in raising sheep and cattle.
In 1873 he sold out there and moved to Doug-
las county, locating near Castlerock, where
he continued ranching and raising stock until
1877, when he brought his horses and cattle to
his late site, pre-empting on one hundred and
sixty acres of land and soon after purchasing
more, and on this land was actively occupied
in the stock industry with an expanding busi-
ness and increasing profits. Subsequently he
sold his ranch and stock and is now living at
Ohio City, Colorado. Mr. Monson has been
married three times, his first marriage being
to Miss Arvilla Doyle in 1872. She died in
188 1, at the age of twenty-eight, leaving two
children. Luke B. and Susan M. In 1883 he
married his second wife, Miss Mary Sours,
who died in 1892. leaving one child, her son
William E.. she being also about twenty-eight
4*4
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
years of age at her death. His third marriage
occurred in 1893 and was to Miss Mary F.
Medley, who still abides with him. They have
two --"'.is, Eugene and Hugh T.
DAVID A. McCONNELL.
The father of David A. McConnell, of near
Doyleville, Gunnison county, was Thomas W.
McConnell, a prosperous manufacturer of fur-
niture at New Salem. Pennsylvania, and after
the death of his wife, whose maiden name was
Catherine Gilchrist, and who departed this life
in 1835 while she was still a young woman, he
reared the five children she left with care and
judicious consideration for their future wel-
fare, cultivating in them habits of useful in-
dustry and a spirit of self-reliance and readi-
ness for any emergency. Some two years aft-
erward he married Miss Catharine Withrow
and raised a second family of six children.
After the close of the Civil war he moved to
Missouri and settled on a farm in Johnson
county, where he died in 1875, aged seventy-
four years, llis son David was born at New
Salem, Pennsylvania, in 1 S _> 7 . ami lust his
mother by death when he was but eight years
old. lie grew to manhood and was educated
under the careful supervision of his father, and
when he was twenty-three, in [850, removed
td Inwa, where he remained two years. In
1 85 2 he crossed the Isthmus of Panama to Cal-
ifornia, and during the next twenty or twenty-
one years was engaged in mining and merchan-
dising at various mining camps in the moun-
tains of that state. He was successful in his
business at times, and also suffered many of
the disasters incident to the precarious life he
was living. He attained to prominence in poli-
tics, aiding in many ways in establishing the
forms and supporting the powers of govern-
ment in the new country, and serving for a
time as county commissioner of Yuba county.
Then turning his face once more toward the
rising sun, he went to Marquette. Michigan,
where for a year or two he was engaged in the
lumber industry. From Michigan he went to
Missouri and, leaving his family in that state.
came himself to Colorado and in 1875 to Lake
City, and there mining several years and serv-
ing as county assessor. In February, 1879, he
took up as a homestead in Gunnison county a
portion of the land on which he now lives, fa-
miliarly known as the Evergreen Ranch,
which is pleasantly located on Tomichi creek,
and on which he has made unusually good im-
provements. Here he has since been engaged
in raising hay and cattle, developing his land
and increasing its value, and taking a leading
part in the local affairs of his district and
county, in which he is recognized as a man of
intelligence and enterprise, deeply interested in
the progress of the section and worthy of the
high place in the regard of the people which
he holds. He has served the county well and
wisely as count}' commissioner. For many
years he was a Republican in politics, but of
late has been independent. Fraternally he has
belonged to the Independent Order of Odd Fel-
lows for a long time. He was married in 1859
tn Miss Mary E. McMath, a native of Michi-
gan, daughter of Archie and Elizabeth (Him-
mell) McMath. Her parents came overland to
California in the early days, and here they
passed the rest of their lives, the father dying
in 1879. aged seventy-four, and the mother
in 1899, aged eighty-seven. Mr. and Mrs.
McConnell have had nine children, six of whom
are living. Edward K.. Albert H, William N.,
Ardelia K., Mary E. and Nellie E.
C. G. MILLER.
Having passed more than a quarter of a
century in the mining regions of Colorado, and
been engaged in various occupations in differ-
ent places in the state. C. G. Miller, of Gunni-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
48=
son county, located about six miles mirth of
the town of the same name, is well acquainted
with the habits and customs of the people, the
conditions and requirements of progressive ac-
tivity and the pursuits for which it offers fa-
vorable opportunity. Having tried several
lines of work he has settled down to that of
ranching as best adapted to his tastes and ca-
pacity and as most in accord with the hulk of
his experience, thus showing wisdom in know-
ing how to choose and in adhering to his choice.
He was born in 1855 in the state of Ohio, and
is the son of E. A. and Phoebe A. (Bishop)
Miller, the former like himself a native of Ohio,
and the latter of Michigan. In 1857 tne ^ am "
ily moved to Iowa, and there Mr. Miller grew
to manhood and was educated, and there his
parents are <till living and engaged in farming.
He is the first horn of their nine children, and
the conditions were such that his opportunities
for attending even the district schools in his
neighborhood were limited and irregular. At
the age of fourteen he started out in life for
himself, engaging in farming near his home
until he was twenty-two. Then, in the fall of
1877 lie came to Colorado and locaated at
Colorado Springs, where he remained until the
spring of 18S0. At that time he migrated to
Leadville and found employment in freighting
for about six months, at the end of which he
went to Buena Vista and followed the same
occupation in that vicinity until 1884. Re-
turning to Leadville in that year, he engaged
in teaming, hauling wood and other commodi-
ties for about two years in and near that camp,
then went to Aspen and there followed freight-
ing until 1S87. From that time until the
spring of 1890 he was in the saw-mill business,
operating mills in Eagle county, where he once
more turned his attention to the cultivation of
the soij and the rearing of cattle, the occupa-
tions of his boyhood, youth and early man-
hood. He employed himself in ranching in
Eagle county until the spring of 1002. at
which time he found a more congenial field for
his operations in this pursuit in Gunnison
county and mi the ranch which he now owns
and occupies. He was married in November,
1881. to Miss Laura E. Stevens, of Colorado
Springs, and they have four children, Ethel
G., Edwin L., Edith L. and Ena B. Their
home is a pleasant one and the business of the
farm is well conducted. Mr. Miller would
seem to be safely anchored on the sunny side
of fortune and secure against the winds of ad-
versity. He stands well in the community, be-
ing recognized as a progressive and enterpris-
ing citizen, a good farmer, an upright man
and a generous friend and neighbor.
(i. \Y. BROWN.
Through a variety of occupations in a
number of different places, and contact with
men under many circumstances and conditions,
G. W. Brown acquired the knowledge of the
world and the clearness of vision which are a
part of his most valuable stock in trade in the
general commerce of human life. His native
state is New York, and there he was born in
1835, the son of Pliny G. and Elizabeth
(Mitchell) Brown, the former a scion of an
old New England family born in Vermont, and
the latter a native of New York. The family
moved to Iowa in 1852, from New Y r ork where
the father had settled and married some years
before, and in the new home they continued
the occupation of farming which they had fol-
lowed in the old. Both parents died in Iowa,
the mother in 1863, at the age of about sixty,
and the father in 1872, at that of sixty-nine.
The son grew nearly to manhood in his native
state, and in its public schools received a good
elementary education. He learned active and
useful industry on his father's farm, and in its
invigorating labor gained strength of body and
4 86
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
independence and self-reliance of mind and
spirit. At the age of twenty he took up life's
activities for himself emigrating to Minnesota
and there farming on a scale of some magni-
tude for two years. The next two years were
passed in teaming in Nebraska, and twelve
years was consumed in working on the Missis-
sippi river. Tiring of the river work, he went
to Waterloo, Towa, and devoted the next two
years of his trade as a stone mason which he
had acquired before leaving home. From
Waterloo he moved to Madison county, in the
same state, where he again engaged in farming.
In 1882 he came to Colorado and followed
mining for a year at Tin Cup, then returned to
Creston. Iowa, and during the next two years
had charge of a hotel there which became a
popular hostelry. But the business was not to
his taste, and he had an increasing longing
for the West. So he came again to Colorado
and settled on the ranch in Gunnison county
six miles north of Gunnison, on which he has
since made his home and conducted a general
ranching and gardening. Here he has been
active in public local affairs, and devoted much
time and energy to the advancement of the
schools, serving as director and in other ways
pushing forward the cause of education. In
politics he is a Republican, but is not an active
politician. He was married in 1855 to Miss
Matilda Workman, of Minnesota. Their fam-
ily consists of three children, George W.,
Arvilla H. and Charles E.
S. GOLLAGHER.
The resourcefulness of the Irish race and
its willingness to enter any field of labor, how-
ever untried or great the undertaking, is well
known everywhere, and its daring is as often
the result of hope, high spirits, self-reliance and
general quickness of apprehension, as of dis-
cretion and maturity of deliberation. Youth
does not deter its people and inexperience does
not intimidate them. Mr. Gollagher, of Tin
Cup, one of the leading business men of that
portion of Gunnison county, is a striking illus-
tration of this truth. Landing in Xew York
at the age of twenty, he entered business as a
grocer and hotel keeper, and conducted his en-
terprise successfully until he desired to follow
other pursuits in a different part of the coun-
try. His family had dwelt in Ireland for many
generations, and there he was born in 1852,
the son of Thomas and Rosanna (Phillips)
Gollagher, whose noble lives were passed on
the Emerald Isle, as those of their forefathers
had been from time immemorial. The father
died in 1890, aged seventy-five, and the mother
is still living in county Derry. Their son
Samuel remained at home, assisting on the
farm which they conducted and attending
schools as he had opportunity until he reached
the age of twenty. He then determined to
seek in the new world the chance to gratify his
ambitions which seemed to be denied in the
old, and came to the United States for the pur-
pose, as thousands of his countrymen had done
before and thousands have done since. He
reached New York in 1872 after an uneventful
voyage, and although at the time he had but
little money or knowledge of the world, he was
impelled by his courageous spirit to enter the
business circles of the American metropolis as
a grocer and hotel-keeper, and he followed
these lines successfully for seven years. By
that time the Leadville gold excitement was
at its height, and believing there was as good
a chance for him in that promising field as for
any other man of nerve and self-reliance, he
sold out his Xew York business and sought
the new camp in the heart of the Rockies. He
remained at Leadville only six weeks, how-
ever, surveying and prospecting without sat-
isfactory results, then came on to Tin Cup.
where he followed the same employments until
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
48;
1S89. Tn that year he turned mice more to
his first occupation in this country, opening a
grocery and general merchandising establish-
ment which he is still conducting, and in which
his success has fully justified his change of
base. 1 lis emporium is one of the leading mer-
cantile institutions of the section in which he
lives, and lays a large extent of country under
tribute to its trade. It is conducted on lofty
lines of integrity and business capacity,
wherein the needs of the community are care-
fully studied and provided for. and the com-
fort and satisfaction of his patrons have due
consideration. Mr. Gollagher was united in
marriage with Miss Anna B. Clickener in 1893
and six children are the fruit of their union.
Catherine. Rosa. Susan, Anna, Gertrude and
Samuel J. In the public thought and activities
of the community Mr. Gollagher wields a
healthful and inspiring influence, and in the
regard of the people he has a high place.
W. SCOTT DICKINSON.
Having spent a considerable portion of his
earlier life as a lumberman in the more un-
settled parts of Maine and Pennsylvania, W.
Scott Dickinson, of Pitkin, Gunnison county,
was measurably prepared for frontier life when
he came to the Rocky mountains and cast his
lot with this section of our country, and had
some knowledge of the impulses and springs of
action of people who dwell much in the pres-
ence of nature and are seeking to extort from
her the hidden treasures which she is always
willing to give up when she is properly in-
terrogated. He had experience in some of their
hardships and inconveniences, and knew bow to
sympathize with and take his place among them
in a way to be of service. He was born at
Wakefield, province of New Brunswick, in
1845, and is the son of William and Louisa
1. (Estabrook) Dickinson, who were also na-
tive'there. The father was a lumberman and
died in 1847, aged thirty-three, two years after
the birth of his son. The mother lived until
May 27. i8c;3, when she passed away, at the
age of eighty-five. William was reared and
educated in his native county, and when he was
seventeen abandoned the farm work in which
he had hitherto been engaged and went into
the woods of Maine to follow lumbering as a
business. He remained there three years, then
moved to Pennsylvania and followed the same
vocation until 1880, when he came to Colorado
and located at Pitkin, where he has since re-
sided and been actively engaged in business.
Until 1884 he was employed in getting out ties
for the railroad companies under contract. He
then started a second-hand store, and found the
business so profitable that be enlarged his enter-
prise to cover dealings in new goods, and now
carries on an extensive and profitable trade
in both, being one of the leading business
men of the town. He has also been prominent
and influential in the civil and social life of the
community, serving as mayor of the town five
terms, and being recognized as one of the
molders and movers of public sentiment in all
lines of general interest. He is a Republican in
politics, with a potential place in the counsels
of his party, and one of its most loyal and
active supporters. Mr. Dickinson was first
married in 1871 to Miss Adeline More, who
bore him three children. Vernon, Louisa J. and
George. His second marriage occurred in
1878, and was with Miss Sarah A. Ingram.
They had one daughter, Edith V., who died
in June. 1902.
WILLIAM V. VAN OSTERN.
A veteran of two of the wars fought by his
country, in one of which he helped to conquer
from Mexico a portion of the state in which
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
he now lives, and in the other to defend it
against the evils of threatened disunion. Wil-
liam V. Van Ostern, of Crested Butte, Gun-
nison county, is sealing his devotion to the sec-
tion with which he has cast his lot by aiding
in developing its resources and making its
treasures available for the service of mankind
and thus augmenting the sum of human com-
fort and happiness. So' in war and peace he
has been its devoted friend, and is justly en-
titled to the high regard in which he is held
by a considerable body of its people. He was
born in Ohio in 1824, the son of Peter and
Cynthia (Vance) Van Ostern, natives of Penn-
sylvania who were among the early settlers of
Ohio. His father died there in 1868. at the
age of seventy-seven, and his mother in 1882.
at that of eighty-two. They had three chil-
dren, of whom William was the first born.
His childhood, youth and earl}- youth were
passed in his native state, and in her liberal
schools he received a fair education. At the
age of twenty-two he enlisted among the
volunteers for the war against Mexico and in
that stirring contest he followed the flag of his
country until it waved in triumph over the capi-
tal of the conquered foe. After the close of
the war he went to California, remaining six
or seven years engaged in mining and driving
stage. In the fall of i860 he crossed the
plains to Missouri and bought a farm of three
hundred and twenty acres in that state on
which he lived until 1862. He then returned
to Ohio and enlisted in Company A, One Hun-
dred and Twentieth Ohio Infantry, for a term
of three years or during the war. He was dis-
charged in 1864. as first lieutenant, and on his
return to Ohio at once re-enlisted as a mem-
ber of the One Hundred and Eighty-sixth
Ohio, Company B, for a term during the war.
and served to its close. In all his military ex-
perience he was in active field service and par-
ticipated in the most important engagements.
When he was mustered out of service in 1885
he took up his residence at Tipton, Missouri,
and engaged in mercantile business, limiting his
operations to handling shoes and kindred com-
modities. A few years later he sold out at
Tipton and removed to Bunceton. where he
opened and for two years conducted a general
merchandising establishment. Then selling
that, he went into the employ of the Osage
Mining Company with headquarters at Se-
dalia, Missouri. After giving this company
faithful and valued service for five years he re-
moved to Irwin in Gunnison county, this state,
and remained there until 1885, and during five
years of his residence at that place was its post-
master. In 1885 he determined to make his
home at Crested Butte, in the same county,
and there he has since been in the employ of
the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. Ik-
was married in 1858 to Miss Mary E. Crall. In
politics Mr. Van Ostern has been an unwaver-
ing Republican from the formation of the party,
and has on all occasions taken an active part
in its campaigns, giving to its cause both wise
counsel and active support.
LOUIS MILLER.
To the settlement, civilization and develop-
ment of the United States all climes and
tongues have contributed of their brain and
brawn. Early in her history her men of
breadth and progress realized that generosity
in naturalization was a potent factor in the
growth of nation-, especially new countries,
and her invitation to the world to accept her
opportunities was broad and liberal, and it has
been accepted in the spirit in which it was ten-
dered. The empire of Francis Joseph has made
many contributions of value to her civilizing
forces, and among them must be mentioned
Louis Miller, of Gunnison county. Colorado.
living near Oversteg. He was born in Austria
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
489
in 1861, the son of John and Annie (Greta)
Miller, natives of that country, where the
mother died at the age of thirty-seven. The
father emigrated to this country in 1883 and
is now living in Texas. At the age of twelve
their son came to the United States, and mak-
ing his way to Texas, was soon employed in
the ranching and stock industries of that great
state, remaining there so occupied for fifteen
years. He then moved to Colorado and settled
where he now lives on a ranch of three hun-
dred and twenty acres near East river. Since
then he has keen an important factor in the
cattle business of that part of the state and a
man of force and standing in its local public
affairs. He was married in 1900 to Miss
Annie Morelock, a native of Austria, and liv-
ing at the time of her marriage at Oversteg.
Thev have no children. Wherever he has lived,
Mr. Miller has been active in the development
and improvement of his section, and has been
among the prominent and highly esteemed citi-
zens who have given character and credit to its
institutions and its citizenship.
D. F. BLAIR.
Tlie inspiring story of the conquest, occu-
pation, development and cultivation of the
great West of the United States never loses its
interest oft told through it lie. It is the ac-
count of an unebbing tide of progress over dif-
ficulties almost inconceivable to those who have
not experienced them, and its true and full re-
cital would glow with heroism, be tinged with
sentiment and romance, deeply shadowed with
tragedy, melting in its pathos and glorious in
triumph for civilization and the good of man-
kind. This majestic march has never halted
or considered defeat. As soon as one part of
the country was occupied and settled another
was entered, the sons and daughters of pio-
neers repeating farther in the wake of the set-
ting '-un the work of their parents where their
own lives began, ami in turn giving their heroic
spirit and high example to their offspring for
inspiration to renewed battle with the opposing
forces of nature and further conquests. 1). F.
Blair, of Mesa county, Colorado, living four-
teen miles southeast of Grand Junction, in his
career and origin is an epitome of this story.
He was born in 1855. in Holt county, Mis-
souri, where his parents were pioneers, and in
turn became one himself in this state. He is
the son of James and Emeline (Jasper) Blair,
the former a native of Illinois and the latter
of Kentucky. In 1841) the father went to Cali-
fornia, where he remained about two years,
then returning eastward settled in Missouri,
where he was engaged in farming until
his death, in 1807. at the age of sixty-eight
years. His widow is still living in that state
and has her home at Mound City. They were
the parents of six sons and six daughters, the
subject of this sketch being the second in the
order of birth. He passed his childhood.
youth and earlv manhood in his native county,
remaining at home until he reached the age of
twenty-four years, and receiving in the district
schools what educational training there was
available to him under the circumstances. In
1879 he came to this state and settled at Gothic.
( mnnison county, and there engaged in mining
until 1882. He then moved to the vicinity of
Whitewater, Mesa county, and there he has
since continuously resided and been occupied
in farming and raising stock and fruit on an
expanding scale and with increasing profits.
Being one of the early settlers in this neigh-
borhood, he has also been one of the most use-
ful and progressive, doing well himself and in-
spiring others to greater efforts by his influ-
ence and example. In 1893 ' le xva ^ united in
marriage with Miss Olive West. They have
three sons. Floyd. Cecil and James. In all the
elements of good citizenship Mr. Blair has been
490
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
true and straightforward, showing great and
intelligent interest in the welfare of his section
of the state, and meeting all his obligations in
every relation of public and private life with
manliness and fidelity. He is one of the es-
teemed men of his community and representa-
tive of its best aspirations.
M. D. HOLLAND.
The versatile and adaptable people of the
Emerald Isle, who can make themselves at
home in any country, ami mold a shapely des-
tiny out of any plastic condition that fate may
fling before them; who are never at a loss for
an answer and never without a resource in
trouble; and who have dignified and adorned
every line of active life at home and abroad,
have done much for the civilization and devel-
opment of the wild places of America, and en-
rich those already settled and civilized with
the triumphs of intellect, the power of genius
and the graces of social culture. It is to this
race that M. D. Holland, of Mesa county, liv-
ing near the village of Whitewater and about
sixteen miles southeast of Grand Junction, be-
longs and he has all the more pleasing charac-
teristics of his people. He was born in Ire-
land in 1852, and is the son of D. V. and Julia
(Harrington) Holland, who were also Irish
by nativity and belonged to families long resi-
dent in the green little isle. The mother died
in 1900, and the father passed away a year la-
ter, at the age of eighty-five. They were the
parents of nine children, their son M. D. being
the last born. He was reared and educated in
his native land, remaining with his parents un-
til he was twenty years old, then went to sea
for two years. In 1874 he came to the United
States, landing at Boston, and after remaining
six months in Massachusetts, moved westward
to Michigan where he worked in the copper
mines a year. He then came on to the Black-
Hills of South Dakota, and a few months later
to Denver, this state. He followed mining in
the vicinity of the capital city for some time,
then in 1889 settled on the ranch where he now
lives and where he conducts a flourishing.
farming and stuck industry. He was married
in 1882 to Miss Maggie Murphy, and they are
the parents of eight children. Mary. John.
Maggie. Nellie, Don, Irena, Henry and Fran-
cis. Mr. Holland is prosperous in his business,
well esteemed, in his community, active in pub-
lic-spirit and aid to the advancement of the
county, and interested in every good work, lo-
cal and general, for the advantage of the peo-
ple.
J. F. SULLIVAN, Sr.
The subject of this sketch was born in
Wayne county, Iowa, July 17, 1847. His par-
ents were Harvy P. and Eliza (King) Sul-
livan. They were born in Kentucky and died
at Centerville, Iowa, October 2, 1853. At the
age of seven years he was removed to Ken-
tucky by his mother's parents and lived on a
farm there until he was thirteen years old. He
had but very little schooling up to that time and
had resolved to secure a better education. He
went to Williamsburg, the county seat of
Whitley county. Kentucky, and clerked in a
grocery store morning and evenings and Satur-
days to pay his way in school. He attended
school most of the time after he was thirteen
years old up to July 1, 1864, when he left
Kentucky and went back to Iowa, where he
continued going to school for the greater part
of two years, until he had a fair common-
school education. Then he rented a farm and
on the 27th day of February, 18(17, he mar-
ried Miss Eliza R. Duncan, and to her is due an
equal share of praise, for her industry and
frugality has been one of the main levers to
his success. He lived in Iowa as a renter for
about fine years, then bought a farm in Mercer
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
49]
county, Missouri, where lie lived until March
1, 1881. Then he came to Colorado for his
health, having been bothered with lung trouble
for two years, so that he was aide to work
on the farm but very little. As soon as he
landed in Colorado he went to roughing it,
prospecting and camping out up to the latter
part of December, 1881, when he landed on
Kannah creek, then a sage brush wilderness,
and took up his claim, on which he still lives.
At this time he had regained his health, so he
wrote his wife to sell the Missouri farm and
come to Colorado, for he had found all that
he had started out to find — health and good
climate. She sold the farm and came to this
place and they have lived here since. They
have reared six children, Mary L. (Sullivan)
Morrison, William A., John.W., J. F., Jr..
Eliza R. and Susan Ada.
HENRY BOLEM.
Henry Bolem, a prosperous citizen, pro-
gressive farmer and stockman, and a leading
Democrat of the Whitewater section of Mesa
county, whose industry is conducted on a good
ranch located some twenty-five miles southeast
of Grand Junction, is a native of Germany,
born in 1837. His parents, also natives of the
fatherland, were Mathias and Caroline
( Slamp ) Bolem, and both have long been dead,
the mother passing away in 1872. Their son
Henry remained in his native land until he
nearly reached man's estate, and in the state
schools he received a good education. Soon
after leaving school he emigrated to the United
States, landing in Xew York, where he re-
mained until 1856. He then enlisted in the
Fifth Infantry for a term of five years and at
its conclusion was discharged at Fort Creek,
New Mexico. He remained there twelve
years, and in 1872 moved to where he now re-
sides, securing good land of which, with the
energy, persistent industry and agricultural
skill characteristic of his race, he has made an
excellent farm and an attractive and comfort-
able home.- He was married in 1896 to Miss
L. J. Wain, a native of Mt. Vernon, Iowa.
No children have blessed their union but their
home has been a center of generous hospitality,
and has never long lacked the sunny smiles and
cheerful companionship of visitors and friends.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Bolem are well known ami
highly respected, and their thrift and industry,
their genial natures and obliging dispositions
and withal the interest they manifest in the
welfare of everybody in general and their own
community in particular, have won them a
large body of devoted and admiring friends.
Mr. Bolem has imbibed the spirit of American
institutions, and is loyal to the country of his
adoption in every respect, taking a deep interest
in the county, state and national welfare and
contributing his portion of the inspiration nec-
essary to secure it. He is a firm believer in the
principles of the Democratic party and always
gives them and its candidates faithful and
serviceable support.
J. A. LAURENT.
The interesting subject of this brief review,
whose productive life of nearly a third of a
century in this state has been of considerable
service in developing and building up the sec-
tion of it in which he lives, is a Canadian by
nativity, born in the province of Quebec in
T837. He is the son of M. A. and Julianna
(Giroux) Laurent, who were both born in
Quebec and lived there until a few years ago,
when they came to this state and have since
made their home with their son. Mr. Laurent
remained in his native land until he had passed
the- verge of manhood by several years. He
received a good district school education, and
when he was about twenty-five years old, after
492
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
following various employments for several
years he entered a store as clerk and sales-
man, and during the next three years he re-
mained there in that capacity. At the end
of the period mentioned he determined to come
to the United States and seek a home amid the
wide and promising opportunities so abundant
in its western section. Accordingly in 1892 he
came to Colorado, and settling on the farm
which is now his home, located twenty miles
southeast of Grand Junction, Mesa county, and
engaged in raising fruit and cattle on an ex-
panding scale. His business has prospered and
has grown with the flight of time, and it is
now one of the most extensive and profitable of
its kind in that part of the state. It comprises
the production and handling of all sorts of the
usual domestic fruits, and he finds a ready and
eager market for all his output. His orchards
are thrifty, with the trees and varieties well se-
lected, and receive the most skillful attention.
Mr. Laurent was married in 1884 to Miss Ro-
sanna Trahan, a native of Quebec. They have
nine children, Victor A., Oscar, Hector, An-
toinette. Georgie, Joe D., Rosanna. Albertine
and Laura, all living at home. The head of
the house is widely known and highly esteemed
as a citizen and holds a high rank as a business
man of enterprise, breadth of view and pro-
gressiveness. He and his family stand well in
the best social circles and are important factors
in the public life of the community.
JAMES W. COX.
James W. Cox, who after a long and event-
ful career wherein the element of danger was
almost ever present and the condition of con-
test was the regular order, is now, in the
evening of his life, making his home with
George W. Masters, a prosperous ranchman
with a fine farm near Snipes, Mesa county,
a sketch of whom appears at another place in
this work. Mr. Cox is a native of Morgan
county, born on September 7, 1832, and the
son of Armstadt and Isabel (Caldwell) Cox,
the former a native of Tennessee and the latter
of Virginia. After their marriage they settled
in Illinois, and there the mother died in 1859,
aged fifty-five. The father died in June, 1832,
and the mother remarried in May, 1836, to
Able Harding, a good and honorable man who
endeavored to have his step-sons grow up hon-
est, respectable men. James W. Cox received
a limited education and after leaving school
engaged in farming for about eight years in
his home county. In i860 he came to Colo-
rado and settled at Denver, but remained there
only a short time, then went on to California,
where he at first was employed on farms. He
helped to start the first mail route between San
Francisco and the Missouri river, and saw the
first and the last of the pony express riding
between these points. In June, 186 1, he moved
to Nevada and engaged in supplying horses to
the overland mail route during the troubles
with the Indians in those days, continuing at
this business until 1864, when he again came
to Colorado and enlisted in the Third Colorado
Cavalry for the campaign against the Indians,
then in an extensive outbreak. He took part
in the Sand Creek battle with the savages on
November 29, 1864. which practically ended
the war, and he was mustered out of the service
on December 23d following. In 1865 he was
employed at ranching, then returned to Illinois,
where he remained until after the death of his
wife on October 15, 1873. Since that time he
has been a wanderer in various parts of the
West, seeking such employment and such oc-
cupation as his fancy or inclination directed,
finding at last a safe and comfortable harbor
after his long ami stormy voyage, at the ranch
of his friend. George \Y. Masters, of Mesa
county, with whom he hoards and makes liis
home. During his time Mr. Cox has hail many
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
493
thrilling adventures, many narrow escapes, and
many periods of hardship and privation.
Three times he was obliged to ride for his life
away from the Indians and once away from the
Mexicans and was only saved each time by the
fleetness and endurance of his horse and his
own skill as a horseman. On February 8,
1858, he was married to Miss Jemima Daw-
son, a native of Hancock county, Illinois, who
died 'in October 15, 1873, a £ e d thirty-two
years, six months and six days, and left one
child, their daughter Mary. Air. Cox is a
typical pioneer and there is no phase of fron-
tier life that he has not been through. He is
well versed in woodcraft, knows all the wiles
of the Indians, can read the indications of
weather changes, and has a wealth of worldly
wisdom gathered in his western life and inti-
mate communion with nature. He also has an
almost inexhaustible fund of interesting remin-
iscences and narratives of persons and events of
distinction which is a never-failing source of
entertainment to his numerous friends and as-
sociates, especially those of the younger gener-
ation.
WILLIAM HENRY.
The last born of his parents' fourteen chil-
dren, and losing his father by death when he
was but eleven years of age, William Henry, of
Mesa county, a prosperous and progressive
ranchman living at Collbran. came into the
world with a destiny of toil and privation he-
fore him. and entered on his portion early in
life. He is a native of Pennsylvania, where
his life began in 1845. and is the son of John
and Sarah (Brobst) Henry, also native in that
state, where the father was an industrious
farmer. He died in 1856. at the age of forty-
one, leaving his excellent wife to do the best
she could in rearing her large family and pre-
paring them for the duties of active existence
in a struggling world. She met her duty
bravely and performed it faithfully; and she
lived to the age of seventy-one, dying in [895.
after seeing her children all making their way
with credit and exemplifying in their daily
lives the lessons learned from her teachings
and her good example. Her son William
passed his boyhood in his native state, receiv-
ing a limited education at the district -
and helping to earn his own livelihood as soon
as he was able. When the Civil war broke
out he was sixteen years of age, and full of
zeal for the union and among the earlv volun-
teers he enlisted in the Nineteenth Pennsyl-
vania Cavalry for three years or during the
war if it should not last that long. Although
in active service during the greater part of
his term of enlistment, he escaped without in-
jury or capture, and returned to his home
with the consciousness of having faithfully per-
formed his duty and laid upon the altar of his
country three years of the best efforts of his
vigorous and aspiring youth. After the con-
test l?e was engaged in various occupations for
a few years, and acquired some facility as a
carpenter. In 1870 he came to Colorado and
located at Denver, then a straggling town of
some two thousand inhabitants. Making this
his headquarters he was employed as a range
rider and cowboy in the neighborhood for four
years. He then moved to Custer county, this
state, and was there engaged in ranching until
1885, and also in prospecting, losing all his
earnings and everything he had in the la6t
named exciting and alluring but often dis-
appointing occupation. From Custer county
in 1885 he changed his base of operations to
Colorado Springs, and during the next three
years worked at his trade as a carpenter at that
town. In 1888 he moved to Plateau valley and
settled on the ranch which has since then been
his home and which he has by assiduous in-
dustry raised to a high rank among such
properties in the neighborhood, making it valu-
494
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
able with good improvements and fruitful
through careful and skillful tilling. The ranch
lies close to Collbran and Mr. Henry's resi-
dence is in that village. He was married first
in 1867 to Miss Kate Hess, a native of Penn-
sylvania, who died in 1870, at the age of
twenty-seven, leaving one child, their son Stan-
lev W. In 1872 he married a second wife.
Miss Almyra Hopkins, of Denver, and they
have four children, William M., Sarah C,
Dennis Y. and Samuel A. Few men in his
community, if any, are more esteemed than
Mr. Henry, and none is more worthy of esteem,
whether it be based on his business capacity and
high character as a man or his enterprise and
public-spirit as a citizen.
BERT ELLIS.
Losing his mother by death when he was
but three years old and his father when he was
fourteen, the lessons of adversity came early to
Bert Ellis, one of the substantial and progres-
sive farmers and stock men of Garfield county,
this state, whose pleasantly located ranch on
Main creek is one of the attractive rural homes
in that portion of the state. Mr. Ellis was
born in 1856 in Moultrie county, Illinois, and
is the son of Walker and Hannah (Carter)
Ellis, the former a native of Illinois and the
latter of Indiana. The father was a veteran of
the Civil war. He moved his family to Texas
in 1858 and settled on a ranch there. The next
year his wife died, and he passed away in
1870. They were the parents of three chil-
dren, Bert being the second born. He re-
mained in Texas making his home with his
father until the death of that estimable gentle-
man, when the youth, then fourteen years of
age, returned to Illinois to live with an uncle
with whom he found a home until he was
twenty. He then went to work for himself
on a farm in the neighborhood of his uncle's
place, and after working there for a year
moved to Kansas. Here he remained three
years engaged in various occupations, then
came to Colorado, and locating at Denver,
went to work for the Denver & Rio Grande
Railroad. While in the employ of this com-
pany he learned telegraph}', but he never had
occasion to use the art as a means of making a
living. He moved from Denver to Glenwood
and there passed three years profitably em-
ployed at his trade as a carpenter, at which he
had previously acquired facility. At the end
of the period named he moved to a ranch near
Rifle, and a short time afterward to the one on
which he now lives, settling there with his fam-
ily in 1889. He has devoted his time and ener-
gies wholly to general farming and raising
stock, and has made a gratifying success of
his business. He takes a very active interest in
school matters, serving as president of his dis-
trict. Mr. Ellis was united in marriage with
Miss Flora Crann in 1889. They have one
daughter, Lucinda.
OTIS MOORE.
Otis Moore, of Gunnison county, whose
ranch of four hundred and eighty acres, lying
five miles north of Gunnison, is one of the
best and most highly improved in the county,
is a native of Colorado and has passed almost
the whole of his life so far in the county of
his present home. He was educated in its
public schools, began his life work on its wide
domain in the business in which he is now-
engaged, and has devoted all his energies to
the development of its interests. He was born
at River Bend, ninety-eight miles east of Den-
ver, on July 19, 1876, and is the son of Wil-
liam 1'.. and Jennie (Davis) Mo,, re. the former
born in West Virginia and the latter in Mis-
souri. The father was a pioneer in Colorado,
conducting a post for trading with the Indians
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
49!
at River Bend at an earl}- day. He now lives
in Gunnison county, where the family settled
when the son was about four years old. He
was reared on his father's ranch to the age of
fifteen and attended the public school at
Gunnison. When he reached the age of
lit teen he began to earn an independent living
by working on ranches by the month, which
he continued to do for eight years. In 1897
he bought one hundred and sixty acres of
land about two miles north of where he now
lives, which he sold in 1901 and bought his
present place of four hundred and eighty acres
on Ohio creek. This is a very productive tract
of land and is devoted almost wholly to hay,
of which he cuts an average of five hundred
tons a year, but he also raises some grain.
Ever since his childhood he has been connected
more or less with raising cattle and other stock,
and since he left home at the age of fifteen
has been actively employed in that industry.
Very early in his independent career he began
to get cattle together for himself, and know-
ing the business thoroughly in all its bearings,
he has made a success in his efforts to gather
large herds of superior breeds about him. now
owning four hundred to seven hundred head,
the size of his ranch, the number of his cattle
and the magnitude of his operations making
him one of the extensive stock men of this part
of the state. He is earnestly interested in the
progress and improvement of his count}-, and
although not ostentatious in his public-spirit,
he is always active and helpful in the exercise
of it. Politically he is a Republican, but not
often an active party worker. On February
9, 1897, he was married to Miss Alice Mc-
Millan, a native of Mitchell county, Kansas, a
daughter of Horace and Caroline (Baxter) Mc-
Millan, who were born and married near
Sigourney, Iowa, and became early settlers in
Cloud county, Kansas. The father is living on
a farm near Concordia, that state, and the
mother died there some years ago. Mr. and
.Mrs. Moore have three children, Arthur II..
Gail H. and Dora V. It is a matter of historic
interest that the home ranch of the Moo'res
was originally taken up by Louis Arns, one
of the very early pioneers in this section. There
is a cabin still standing on it which was built
by him in the 'seventies, most of the work
being done by Indians who were then numerous
in the neighborhood. In addition to this ranch
on Ohio creek Mr. Moore owns six hundred
and forty acres of pasture land.
FRANK E. LIGHTLEY.
Frank E. Lightley, wdrose beautiful ranch <>n
Ohio creek, nine miles north of Gunnison, is
one of the choice ones of the valley in which
it is located, and has been his home during the
last five years, was born near Beaver nam.
Dodge county. Wisconsin, on June 7, 1857.
His parents, John and Louie Ann (Maltby)
Lightley, are more specifically mentioned in a
sketch of his brother George W. Lightley, else-
where in this work. When Frank was three
years old the family moved to Freeborn o lunty,
Minnesota, and there he grew to the age of
twenty on his father's farm and received a
common-school education in the district
schools of the neighborhood. At the age men-
tioned he went to the pine woods in the north-
ern part of Wisconsin, where he worked at
lumbering until the spring of 1881. At that
time he came to Colorado, arriving at Gunnison
on April 23d. Here he worked with his brother
George for seven years, then engaged in ranch-
ing a few years on land which he rented. In
1889 he bought the ranch on which he now
lives on Ohio creek, nine miles north of Gunni-
son, which comprises three hundred and sixty
acres of excellent land, nearly all under irriga-
tion and equipped with good buildings and all
the necessary outfit for an enterprising and
496
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
successful ranching and stock industry. His
principal crop is hay, of which he raises about
four hundred tons a year. In 1890 he began
raising stock and has gradually increased his
operations in this line until he now has a herd
of some four hundred good cattle and a number
of superior horses. While he was not among
the earliest settlers in his neighborhood, he has
been among the most active and helpful in
building up the section and developing its re-
sources, omitting no effort of his own and no
stimulus to others of which he has been capable
in promoting the advancement and comfort of
its people and an increasing volume of wealth
from the bounty with which Providence has
blessed it. In political affairs he supports the
Republican party, and in fraternal circles be-
longs to the Woodmen of the World. On July
20, 1890, he united in marriage with Miss
Maggie Lehman, a native of Kansas, the
daughter of Joseph and Sarah (Combs) Leh-
man, the father born in Xew York and the
mother in Iowa. The father was among the
early settlers in Gunnison county, locating
many years ago the ranch on which his son
Lee now lives on Ohio creek about eleven miles
north of the county seat. The mother died in
Kansas in 1876 and the father in Pueblo. Colo-
rado, in 1889. Mr. and Mrs. Lightley have one
son. Charley H.
SQUIRE G. LANE.
During the last twenty years the interesting
subject of this sketch has been a resident of
Fruita, Mesa county, this state, and he has seen
all the growth and development of this section
from a barren waste to its present advanced
state of fruitfulness and prosperity- He was
born on January 1. 1831, in Putnam county,
New York, and is the son of George and
Esther (Drake) Lane, who were also natives
of Putnam countv. His father was a farmer
for a time, but passed the later years of his life
in the milling and grain business, moving to
Niagara county in his native state when his
son Squire was eighteen months old, and set-
tling on a farm there. He died at Rochester
at a good old age, as did the mother. There
were twelve children in the family, of whom
two daughters and four sons are living. Squire
was the third born, and was reared on the
paternal homestead, receiving a public-school
education, which was supplemented with one
term at an academy. He remained at home
until he was twenty-one, then engaged in the
lumber and shingle business, all shingles at
that time being made by hand. The seat of his
operations was in Orleans county. Xew York,
and he continued them two or three years. At
the end of that period he moved to Coldwater,
Michigan, and bought a farm near the town.
Two years later he sold this and returned to
Niagara county. New York, where he was mar-
ried and settled on the old homestead. After
farming this three years he sold it and moved
to his native county of Putnam where he again
engaged in farming. In 1874 he sold this farm
also and came to Colorado. Making Denver
his headquarters, he prospected and mined for
four years in various places with all the vary-
ing successes and reverses characteristic of
these alluring but delusive occupations. He
had plenty of hard work and experience, but
did not lav up much gold as the result of his
efforts. In 1883 he moved to Mesa county and
took up a ranch of one hundred and sixty acres
in Grand valley, about one mile below Fruita.
This was prior to the birth of that thriving
little town, and he was one of the pioneers in
this section, there being but few settlers in it
then, and they almost all bachelors, only one
woman living between his ranch and Grand
Junction. The region was almost wholly de-
void of vegetation of value, producing naturally
nothing for human food or commerce, and
SQUIRE G. LANE.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
497
there was not a tree between his ranch and
Grand Junction except along the river hanks.
No irrigation ditches had been constructed, and
the natural aridness of the region forbade any
attempt at systematic husbandry on a scale of
magnitude. In 1885, when the fi.rst ditch for
irrigation was completed, Fruita was founded.
He then sold his ranch and built the second
house in that town, and there he has ever since
made his home. During the last five years he
has been engaged in the lumber business in
partnership with Mr. Merriell, under the firm
name of Lane & Merriell. and has prospered.
In politics he is a stanch Republican, and as
such has served two terms as county commis-
sioner, besides filling several minor local offices
at various times. He was married in Michigan
in 1856 to Miss Ann E. Hayne, a native of
New Jersev. They have had four children,
George H., deceased; Ernest H., deceased;
Winnie A., deceased, and Eva E., who is living
ami the wife of C. W. Cain, a prominent .Mesa
county ranchman (see sketch elsewhere ). Mr.
Lane has been an earnest blue-lodge .Mason
during nearly fifty years. Having wrought his
full day of labor, he is now enjoying the even-
ing of life in peace and comfort, respected by all
his neighbors and friends and a host of admir-
ing acquaintances.
REGIS VIDAL.
Regis Vidal. whose death on May 31. 1901.
deprived Gunnison county of one of its l<
ranchmen and most esteemed and prominent
citizens, was horn in the department of Ar-
deche. France, in 1839. The death of his par-
ents when he was young deprived him of early
educational advantages and threw him on his
own resources fin- advancement in the world
and into the hard and rugged school of experi-
ence 'or his training. In [859 he emigrated to
the United States, and for several years there-
after he wrought in the mines near Pittsburg.
32
Pennsylvania. Returning to his native land
about the year 1873. he was married to Miss
Albine Tarandon and soon after brought his
bride to this country. They came direct to
Colorado, and locating at Gunnison for a short
time, took up land about three miles north of
the city on Ohio creek, being among the earli-
est settlers in the county. Mr. Vidal worked
for a number of years in mines in various
parts of the state to get the money necessary to
improve his property, which by purchases sub-
sequent to his first location he increased to
seven hundred and twenty-five acres. In 1879
the family took up their residence permanently
on the ranch 'and from then to his death the
father devoted his entire time and energy to its
improvement, making it in fact the finest ranch
in the county. After his death his widow car-
ried on the business with vigor and capacity
which shone out with increasing brightness
owing to the difficulties with which she was
obliged to contend: for the father at his death
left the property heavily mortgaged. The ex-
cellent lady was, however, clearing away the
debts and other difficulties steadily and mak-
ing progress toward final freedom, when death
ended her labors also, calling her away from her
sphere of earthly usefulness on June 19. 1904.
They were the parents of eight daughters and
one son, all of whom are living- and at home,
Philipine, Josephine, Robert, Matilda, Dorothy.
Berthilda, Sophia. Louina and Annette. The
daughters and the son have inherited the spirit
and determination of their parents, and they
at once took up the work where the mother
was obliged to drop it. determined to save their
estate from loss and redeem it from its in-
cumbrances. Their conduct in the matter, that
of the young ladies, is romantic and deeply in-
teresting, and furnishes one of the highest trib-
utes tii the essential worth and usefulness, as
well as of the pluck and independence of Amer-
ican womanhood our annals afford. They
made Miss Dorothv Vidal the manager of the
49 8
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
enterprise and all together went to work with
will and cheerfulness to promote its success.
So faithfully have they all labored, and so
wisely have they managed their affairs, that
with the circumstances continuing as they are.
under ordinary conditions they will have ac-
complished their object by the end of three
years from this time (1904). The daughters
know all about ranch work of every kind, and
ther never shirk from its performance with all
the strength and ardor of their natures. In
haying time they put on overalls and run the
mower, the rake, the go-devil and the stacker.
and save their crop with expedition in the best
condition, and with no other help than that of
their brother Robert. When it comes time to
bale the hay for market they do this too with
skill and no loss of time. They think their
work as good as play and none of them has ever
been ill a day from it. They are young ladies
of very striking and prepossessing appearance,
fine specimens of physical womanhood and
with all the modesty and graces wKich adorn
the drawing room as well as the strength and
resolution necessary- to meet emergencies and
conquer difficulties. In the winter months the
older sisters find employment in Denver, where
they have hosts of friends, and the younger
ones attend school at Gunnison. Their father.
having an impressive realization of the value of
education from his own early lack of it. was
deeply interested in school matters in his
county and for years served as the president of
the board in his district. He was in reference
to all public affairs a wisely conservative yet
eminently progressive man. and gave his
hearty assistance to all commendable projects
for the improvement of his community and
count v.
WILLIAM REESER.
The life of toil and privation, hardship and
danger, sudden wealth and often as sudden
poverty afterward, and the heroic struggle
against great odds for a foothold on the soil
and its reduction to submissive and generous
productiveness, which has been the lot of the
western pioneers, has been the experience of
William Reeser, of Mesa county, one of the
substantial and prosperous farmers of the
Grand Junction section of the state ; and like
many another of his kind he can enjoy his
present comfort and consequence all the more
because of the toilsome and trying course
through which he reached it. He was born in
Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, on
February 23, 1830, and is the son of John and
Hannah (Traher) Reeser, who were also native
there. In 1883 the family moved to Ohio, and
from there to Indiana and later to Illinois,
where the father operated a large farm in Clark-
county, remaining there for a number of years
and prospering in all his undertakings. He
died in Iowa and his wife in Illinois. Their
offspring numbered ten, three of whom are
living. Their son William was the fifth born
and remained at home until he was twenty-five.
Owing to the migratory life of the family his
school advantages were irregular and limited,
but he made good use of what he had and re-
ceived a good common-school education.
When the Pike's Peak gold excitement swept
over the country in 1859 he started for the new
eldorado, and shipping his cattle from St.
Louis by boat to Leavenworth. Kansas, he pro-
ceeded overland from that point by ok teams
by way of the Republican river valley route,
then a new one just opened, to Denver, which
he found a small hamlet of a few log cabin's.
There were over one hundred persons in his
train and the country through which they
traveled was nearly all wild and uninhabited.
He sent the first issue of the Rocky Mountain
Xews back east to his father, for even in that
day there was journalistic enterprise in this
western world. Going on "to Pike's Peak, he
was disappointed in his search for gold there,
and proceeded to Central City, where he mined
PROGRESSII'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
499
in Russel gulch until the spring of i860. He
then went to Georgia gulch, and here he was
successful and did well. Late in the autumn of
[861 he, with several other persons, made a
stampede to Baker's Park, which was near
where Lake City now stands. He wintered
there and had a hard time of it. Food was
scarce, the season was severe, the Navajo In-
dians were hostile and troublesome, and the
means of providing against all these difficulties
were but slender and not easily available. In
the spring he returned to Georgia gulch and
worked his mines during the summer. The
return trip was full of hardship and danger.
Often the party had no food for days but the
fish they could catch in the streams, and
these they were obliged to eat without salt.
When they were near the present town of
Salida they caught a badger, and this Mr.
Reeser savs was the toughest eating he ever
had. While at Baker's Park he made a pros-
pecting trip to the head of the Rio Grande
and there had a hard tussle with a grizzly bear
that forced him to climb a tree, in doing which
he dropped his gun. He had fired at ami
wounded the bear, but did not have time to
reload before going up the tree, and as the bear
was a very large one and enraged by its wound
he found his only safety in flight. After keep-
ing him imprisoned up the trees for a con-
siderable time the bear disappeared in the tim-
ber, and he was permitted to go on his way.
He worked his mines in Georgia gulch until
the fall of 1862, then with four other men he
outfitted for Virginia City, Montana, but they
were cut off by the hostility of the Indians and
went to Virginia City. Nevada. Here Mr.
Reeser remained about five years, during which
period he discovered the richest mine on the
Humboldt, but was beaten out of his interest
in it. While living at that point he was en-
gaged in lumbering the greater part of the time
and found it a profitable occupation. In the
fall of 1867 he went to California to visit
his brother, and soon afterward he took a
steamer at San Francisco for New York, mak-
ing the trip by the Nicaragua route. From
New York he came west to Indiana and later
to Iowa. In the spring of 1868 he bought a
good team and went to Kansas, settling in
Cherokee county, where he got married and
took up land on which he went to farming.
He remained there until 1877, and being sick
most of the time w r as very unsuccessful. In
the year last named he returned to Colorado,
and locating at or near Canon City, remained
until the spring of 1882, then removed to Mesa
county, taking up his resilience 1 in 1 me hun-
dred and sixty acres of land which he entered
and which lay on the river five miles below-
Grand Junction. Some years later he sold
this and bought the forty acres on which he
now lives, six miles northwest of the Junc-
tion. On September 27, 1868. he was mar-
ried to Miss Susan Spickelwire, a native of
Indiana. They had nine children. John (de-
ceased). Lizzie, C. Edward. Rosa (deceased).
Hutchinson (deceased). William B.. Nellie (de-
ceased), Noble (deceased) and Joseph R. In
politics Mr. Reeser is an independent
Democrat.
C. Edward Reeser, the oldest living son of
William Reeser. was born in Cedar county,
Missouri, on January 16. T864, ami came to
Mesa county, Colorado, with his parents. In
the fall of 1 90 1 he bought twenty-seven acres
of land on which he now lives, seven mile?
northwest of Grand Junction, and where he
carries on a successful farming industry, being
one of the progressive and enterprising young
men of that section of the state. He was mar-
ried on July 4. 1898, to Miss Belle Eaton, a
native of Michigan. They have three chil-
dren. Edward B.. B. Fay ami James A. In
politics Mr. Reeser is independent. In fra-
ternal relations he is connected with the \\ 1-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
men of the World. He and his wife are mem-
bers of the Methodist Episcopal church at
Bethel.
MANSIR STEWART.
In war and peace the subject of this sketch.
has been faithful to duty and exemplified the
best attributes of American citizenship. He
was born in Rensselaer county, New York,
on June 4, [841, and is the son of Elipha-
let and Lucy (Till ey ) Stewart, also natives
of New York, where the mother died
in August, 1854. The father moved to
Kansas in 1864 and some time later to
Indian Territory, where he died. He
was a law student in early life and lived to be
ninety-seven years old. There were seven
children in the family, and six are living.
Mansir was the fourth horn. He grew to the
age of fifteen in his native state and there re-
ceived a district school education. He started
in life for himself when but a hoy. going to
New Boston, Illinois, for two years and from
there at the end of that period to Kansas in
1857. His arrival in that turbulent region was
in time for him to witness and participate in
the border troubles then prevalent in Kansas,
as no resident of the section was allowed to re-
main neutral. After spending a few years
teaming on the plains he enlisted in the Union
army in August, iS(u. as a member of Com-
pany E, Thirteenth Kansas Infantry, under
command of Col. Thomas M. Bowen, later
United States senator from Colorado, and was
assigned with his regiment to the Army of the
West. lie was in the service eight months.
nearl) half of the time in the hospital at Spring-
field, Missouri. The field service in which he
was placed took him into a number of skir-
mishes and battles. At Prairie Grove he re-
ceived a gunshot wound in his left limb which.
with other injuries, sent him to the hospital,
he having been reported mortally wounded.
After being discharged from the service, in
March. 1863, he returned to Kansas, and lo-
cating in Marshall county engaged in farming
and raising stock, and also in merchandising
and the real estate business at Irving, where
he improved several farms, remaining there
eight years and carrying on a successful busi-
ness. At the end of the period named he sold
out and moved to Butler county. Kansas, where
he engaged in the real estate business and mer-
chandising until 1879. He then moved to Colo-
rado Springs, this state, where he built several
houses tor himself, living there until 1883,
when he moved to Grand Junction, after which
he made his home there for a number of years.
There he bought real estate and improved it,
building several residence properties which he
afterward sold. In 1895 he took up his resi-
dence at Fruita, buying land adjoining the town
and a ranch on the river. On February 2$,
[864, he was married to Miss Julia A. Vaughn,
a native of Randolph county, Indiana. They
had nine children, seven of whom are living,
Mary, Lucy, Greg, Clair, Dick, Earl and Ge-
neva. Those deceased are Jennie 1. and Ray,
the latter dying in Alaska, being buried at
Forty Mile. Their mother died on April 0.
1897. Greg and Clair went to Alaska in the
spring of [895, and in [896 Clair returned
home and Greg went to the interior of Alaska,
where he built the first cabin put up on Bonanza
creek. They were successful in their search for
gold. Clair returning to Alaska in 180.7. and
some time later Dick, Earl and Ray followed
them to that far-away country, where they were
also fairly successful. Earl being one of the pio
neers to the famous "(imp Fairbanks" on the
Tanawa river. In making a return trip once
three of the boys, Fred, Clair and Dick, were
on a ship which lost her rudder and drifted for
nineteen days. 011 the trip from Cape Nome
1.1 Seattle, those on board fixing mostly on
hard tack. Mr. Stewart is a Silver Republican
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
5oi
in politics, but he never held office except in the
army or aspired to public office. He has sub-
scribed tn no creed, but is ever ready to assist
and encourage every worthy enterprise and is
an advocate of morality and justice
FRANK A. COLLINS.
For nearly a quarter of a century Frank A.
Collins, of Mesa county, one of the progressive
and substantial fruit-growers and ranchmen of
western Colorado, living two miles east of
Fruita, has been a resident of this state and an
important contributor to its development and
improvement. He was born in Burke county,
North Carolina, on December 1, 1859. the son
of Brice M. and Margaret E. (Warwick) Col-
lins, also natives of North Carolina, the father
of Scotch-Irish and the mother of Pennsyl-
vania Dutch ancestry. They are farmers, and
in 1874 moved to Kansas, locating near Junc-
tion City, where they still live. There were
twelve children in the family, ten of whom arc-
living, Frank having been the first born. He
was about fifteen when the family moved to
Kansas, and in the schools of that state supple-
mented in a small way the limited public school
education he bad received in those of North
Carolina, attending a few terms in the winter
months. Being the oldest child, he was obliged
early to look out for himself by working on
neighboring farms; and this effort, trying at
best to a young and ambitious nature, was
doubly discouraging at that time and place,
for the grasshoppers consumed all the crops of
the farms and rendered it unusually difficult to
extract a living from the soil for a number of
years. In the spring of 1870 he moved to the
Indian Territory, and for a year was employed
on a ranch in the western part of the Chickasaw
nation near where the western cattle trail
crossed from Texas. At the end of his year
there he came to Colorado, and during the
spring and summer of 1880 worked in a saw-
mill in the mountains forty miles above Gunni-
son. In the fall he went to Leadville, and a
little later to Denver. During the next nine
months he worked on the Rio Grande Railroad
011 the South Platte river, then returned to
Denver and was variously employed in that
city for two years. In February, 1884. be
moved into the Grand valley, and after spend-
ing some time in a number of different occupa-
tions, be purchased the eighty acres of land
now owned by Mr. Wheeler, making the pur-
chase in 1887. He immediately began to make
improvements and planted seven acres in fruit
trees, intending this to be his permanent home.
But in 1802 he sold the place, having previ-
ously bought the one of eighty acres on which
he now lives. This he has made over into a
good farm which yields abundantly in general
products and provides a liberal revenue from
its twenty acres of choice fruit trees and its
additional acreage devoted to small fruits. His
crop of apples in 1903 was about eighteen hun-
dred bushels, and the yield from his general
farming was also large. His farm is improved
with a good modern dwelling and other suit-
able buildings, and has every needed appliance
fi >r the proper operation of its industries. On
December 22, 1886. he was married to Miss
Fannie F. Lamson, a daughter of Bruce Lam-
son, who has lived in Mesa county since 1883.
Eight children were born to them, five of whom
are living. Fisk. Edgar, Ruth, Laura and Lucy.
Those deceased are Charles, Howard and Ells-
worth. Their mother died on January 25,
1899, and on June 25, 1901. Mr. Collins mar-
ried a second wife. Miss Cora B. Holdridge. a
native of Swanton, Vermont, and daughter of
Amasa and Delia C. ( Stiles') Holdridge, both
natives of that state. The father is deceased
and the mother makes her home with Mr. and
Mrs. Collins. They have two children. Beryl
H. and Vyrdon S. In politics Mr. Collins is
502
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN C0L0RA1
a Prohibition Republican. He and his wife
are members of the Methodist Episcopal
church at Fruita, of which he is one of the
trustees. He is also superintendent of the Sun-
day school. He served on the school board of
district No. i. Fruita, eleven years.
ADAM SHELLABARGER.
Every true man is. according to the
measure of his capacities and the loftiness and
constancy of his spirit, a cause, a country, an
age. All human events in his unclouded vision
teach him faith — faith in himself and in the
omnipotence of will and of natural law. He
finds his guidance in obedience to the instincts
within him, and by lowly listening to them
hears the right word. Neither vexations nor
calamities abate his trust. His natural mag-
netism selects in the economy of the world's
work what belongs to him, and this without de-
pendence on books or what we call education.
for they only copy the language which the
field and the work-yard make. He is no vain
carpet knight, shunning the rugged battle of
fate where strength is born, but walks abreast
with his days, and lives every hour of them as
it passes. Domesticated in nature, he has her
mighty forces for his ministrants, and standing
on tiptoe in any circumstances looks over
the hilltops of difficulty to the boundless wealth
of the future. And, as with him to think is to
act, seeing this, he at once sets out to possess
and command it. Men of this character have
opened the wild West of this country to set-
tlement and civilization, and brought its won-
derful resources to the service of the race. Our
history shows forth no more heroic, far-seeing
or colossal class than our pioneers, whether
measured by aspirations, by endurance, or by
greatness and permanency of conquest. To
this class belongs the modest and unassuming
subject of this article. He came to this state
in 1869, and from then until now has been
actively doing all that came his way for the
development and advancement of the section,
never dreaming, perhaps, that his efforts were
heroic, and worthy of an exalted place in song
and story. He came into the state with next
to nothing in the way of capital, and all that
he has and is has been achieved by himself;
and the influence of his example and his work,
with all their attendant blessings, must be
added to the account in estimating the value of
his citizenship here. Mr. Shellabarger was
born near Springfield, Ohio, on December 16,
1846, and is the son of Martin and Elizabeth
(Sheller) Shellabarger, natives of Maryland
who moved to Ohio soon after their marriage,
and enacted on the soil of that then western
frontier the role he has since repeated with so
much credit in this section of the country. The
father passed the remainder of his life in Ohio,
and after a long course of strict attention to
farming and raising live stock, and active par-
ticipation in public affairs as an earnest
Democrat, died there in October, 1894. The
mother now lives at Yellow Springs, that
state. They were the parents of six children.
Of these Anna died in 1868, Mrs. Frank Fulton
in October, 1894, and George E. in Septem-
ber. 1897. The three living are Mrs. Charles
Lehow, a Colorado pioneer who resides at Yel-
low Springs, Ohio; Adam and William, the
latter living on the Platte river near Plum
creek. Adam received only a common-school
education, passing his minority on the home
farm and assisting in its labors ; then, in 1869.
he came to Colorado by way of the Union
Pacific Railroad to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and
from there by stage to Denver. On the Platte
canyon near this city he found employment
as a ranch hand for six months, then came to
San Luis valley November 20, 1869, being em-
ployed by Lilly & Coberly, extensive cattle-
growers, with whom he remained ten months
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
503
for the purpose of learning all about the stuck
industry. During this period he made trips
to Texas and New Mexico to bring cattle to
Colorado and in the fall of 1870 was given one
hundred cattle on shares by Lehow Brothers ot
Platte canyon, and with this start he began
ranching and raising stock on the Rito Uto,
on land that is a portion of his present ranch
of four thousand seven hundred acres, one
thousand of which produce first-class hay. He
secured his first tract as a homestead and pre-
emption, a total of three hundred and twenty
acres, and has added the rest by purchase. He
lias two hundred acres devoted to grain and the
remainder, besides what is given up to hay, is
excellent pasture land. Water is furnished
abundantly for all necessary purposes by
twelve artesian wells, and several ditches. The
ranch is seven and a half miles northeast of
Moffat and is well located for its best develop-
ment. It is all fenced and well improved with
all the requirements for a valuable and attrac-
tive ranch home. Cattle and hay are the chief
products, and these are grown extensively and
profitably. Horses were also raised in numbers
for an active and discriminating market until
1893, when this branch of the stock business
was abandoned. Mr. Shellabarger was one of
the first settlers in this portion of the country,
and for several years after his location here
wild game was his principal source of animal
food for his table. From his young manhood
he has been an energetic and zealous working
Freemason. He aided in organizing the lodges
nf the order at Saguache and Crestone, and is a
charter member of both. He is also a member
of the order of Elks, with a membership in the
lodge of that order at Creede, Colorado. He
learned his business from the ground up and is
a high authority on all questions touching the
cattle industry, his opinion thereon being val-
ued and deferred to throughout a large extent
of the surrounding country. He is, moreover,
one of the prominent and influential citizens of
the country, and has a voice of power and a
leading part in all matters of local interest and
advantage. In political activity he supports
the Democratic party with an ardor and effi-
ciency, being prominent and potential in its
councils without seeking any of its honors in
the way of nominations to public office. On
April 3, 1873. he united in marriage with Miss
Abigail Wales, a sister of Wales Otis, a sketch
of whom will be found elsewhere in this work.
They have had six children. Of these Emma
died on November 5, 1896, and the following
are living: Charles W.. who was the first
white boy born in that section of the county;
Ralph. Elizabeth C, Ethel, Eloise. Elizabeth
has become renowned as a traveler, she having
made a trip around the world, starting on De-
cember 1, 1903, and returning in June. 1904.
Her route was from San Francisco to Hono-
lulu, then across the Pacific to Manilla,
through the Indian ocean, the Red sea, Suez
canal, the Mediterranean, and across the At
lantic and this continent to her home. She was
one month on the water going and fifty-eight
days returning. Coming to Colorado before
the railroads in the state were built Mr. Shella-
barger encountered all the difficulties and in-
conveniencies of life on the remote frontier.
When he located on his ranch Denver was the
nearest trading point, and this was some one
hundred and fifty miles distant as the crow
flies, and involved in a trip either way a much
greater distance through trackless wilds and
over steep and rocky regions. His choice was
often one of two evils or discomforts — either
to do without desired supplies or make this
long, trying and dangerous journey to get
them.
GEORGE BALL.
In the forty years of his active labor as man
and boy, since he began to earn his own living
and make his way in the world unassisted,
George Ball, who is now one of the progres-
5°4
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
sive and prosperous ranch and cattle men of
Saguache county, this state, and is comfort-
ably fixed on a fine ranch of three
hundred and twenty acres seven miles
southeast of the county seat, one-half of which
he entered as a homestead and the other half
acquired by purchase, has seen much of the
world, and mingled with peoples of widely dif-
fering characteristics and engaged in a great
variety of pursuits. The experience has been
valuable to him in satisfying his love of adven-
ture and desire to see the world, but much more
in giving him knowledge of himself and his
strong points of character, and teaching him
how to rely on them for his advancement in
life and in meeting its frequent and trying
emergencies. Mr. Ball is a native of "merrie
England," born in Staffordshire on March 10.
1849. His parents, George and Prudence Ball,
were also English by birth, and passed their
lives in their native land. The father was a
dipper in the potteries, and made good wages
at his work but he did not have much to give
his children in the way of a start in life. Of
the seven children in the household Moses and
Hugh have died, and Joseph, who is superin-
tendent of the second division of the Rocky
Mountain Coal & Iron Company; Joab, Isaac,
and George, the last named being the second in
order of birth of those who are living. He re-
ceived a very limited common-school educa-
tion, and began to work in the potteries at the
age of nine years, being employed in their in-
teresting work five years. From the age of
fourteen to that of nearly seventeen he did hard
labor in the coal mines. Then, impelled by a
strong desire to seek more fruitful opportuni-
ties in the new world, where they were said
to abound, and where thousands of his country-
men had found them, on August 5, [867, he
sailed from Liverpool for the United, States,
and ten days later arrived at Pittsburg
Pennsylvania. The first three years of his resi-
dence in this country were passed working in
coal mines in Mercer county and along the
Monongahela river in that state, and the next
two in the same occupation in many different
and widely separated places, among them Illi-
nois, Vancouver Island, the Puget Sound coun-
try, near San Francisco, California, and in the
vicinity of Coos Bay, Oregon. In the spring
of 1872 he came to Colorado, and after mining
at Georgetown until October of that year, he
went to Wyoming and mined coal at Carbon
until Christmas day, then returning to this
state, worked ten days in the mines
at Golden. In January, 1873, Mr. Ball lo-
cated half of his present fine ranch on
a homestead claim, and traveled to it from
Denver with all his worldly possessions on one
wagon drawn by one yoke of oxen, leaving the
capital city on January 1 6th and arriving at
his homestead on the 29th day of the same
month, the temperature during this time being
thirty degrees below zero, and the journey full
of hardships and suffering. But his subsequent
triumphs on the tract of his choice and the addi-
tion he has made to it. have amply rewarded
his heroic efforts to secure it and demonstrated
his wisdom in the selection. One hundred acres
of the land is well adapted to grain and seventy
acres to hay, the remainder being good pasture
ground. The ranch is well fenced and provided
with comfortable and commodious buildings
and other necessary improvements. He raises
large quantities of oats and other cereals, and
his hay is first class in quality and abundant
in quantity. Mr. Ball has given his business
close and careful attention, and it has rewarded
his zeal with returns proportioned to the outlay.
He has been something of a hunter, too, and
has a large collection of mounted specimens of
wild game, trophies of the chase, including
birdsi animal^ and reptiles, all secured
and mounted by himself, assisted by his
brother Joseph, since [886. The collec
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
505
tion is valued at five hundred dollars and
is wholly of Colorado products. Mr. Ball is a
Republican in politics and an earnest worker
for his party. Recognized as one of the sub-
stantial, progressive and far-seeing men of the
county, he is prominent in all local affairs and
occupies a high place in the regard of the
people.
FRANK ROMINGER.
Frank Rominger, of Saguache county,
whose fine ranch of four hundred and eighty
acres is located seven miles southeast of Villa-
grove and has been in his possession since
1887, is altogether a western man, and is one
of the excellent types of the people of this sec-
tion. He is among the most prosperous and
progressive ranch and stock men of his portion
of the state, ardently loyal to its and the gen-
eral interests, ever willing to bear his part in
the work of development and improvement,
and entertaining a high opinion of and a com-
mendable pride in the wonderful possibilities of
the future which will make Colorado one of the
commanding commonwealths of the Union, an
impressive proof of which is given in the ad-
vancement in every department of useful indus-
try already achieved by this young giant al-
though it is as yet but little beyond the first
quarter-century of its existence as a state. Mr.
Rominger was born on September 10. [861, at
Dakota. Nebraska, and was reared in Colorado.
\ common-school education, and a limited one
at that, was all that he bad opportunity to ob-
tain, owing to his situation in life, which made
him a helping hand to his parents as soon as he
was able to work. He remained at home
working under the wise direction of bis
father until he reached the age of about
twenty years, then from 188 1 to 1887 he
managed the home ranch on shares. In the last
named year he pre-empted one hundred and
sixty acres of his present ranch and bought the
other three hundred and twenty acres, and
since that time he has had no other ambition in
the world but that of making his place all that
nature made possible and skill and industry can
achieve for it. He has improved it witli g 1
buildings, fences and other necessary struc-
tures, provided it with water plentifully sup-
plied and wisely distributed, and brought its
extensive and responsive acreage to abundant
productiveness. His staples are hay. gram and
vegetables, and sheep and cattle prove a profit-
able resource. Every phase of ranch life at
present suitable to the region has its share of
close and thoughtful attention, and the results
are commensurate with the outlay in every
particular. While not an active worker in
political matters. Mr. Rominger supports the
principles and candidates of the Republican
organization with fidelity and ardor, but seeks
no political honors for himself. He was mar-
ried on February 21, 1888, to Miss Caroline
Rominger. a native of Germany. They liave
three daughters, Mary, Annie and Elsie.
FREDERICK JEEP.
Frederick Jeep, one of the oldest settlers in
Saguache county, and conducting a flourishing
ranch and cattle industry on his ranch of three
hundred and twenty acres, five miles southeast
of the county seat, and one of the most gen-
erally respected citizens of that whole section
of the state, is a native of the province of 1 Ian-
over, German}-, born on October 9. 184.2. He
is the son of Frederick and Charlotte I Sharper)
fee]), who were also born and reared in Han-
over, and passed their lives in that province.
The father was throughout his mature life an
officer in the customs service, and was prosper-
ous and well esteemed. He died m 1872 and
his wife in 1901. Eight of their children sur-
vive them, George. Alvina, Matilda, Frederick.
Dora. Emma, Mrs. Carl Nels and Mrs. Her-
;o6
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
man Schroeder. Frederick received a com-
mon-school education, and at the age of four-
teen went to sea as a cabin boy. He followed
the sea twelve years, and in the course of his
service visited all quarters of the globe and
rose to the position of a master seaman. In
1867 he came west and, after a short stav at
Cheyenne, at that time a hamlet of tents, he
started farther west from Julesburg with an ox
team. After two days journeying in this way
he fell in with a United States government ex-
pedition, and from that time drove one of the
mule teams attached to it. Several bands of
Indians threatened the train, but as it was able
to defend itself, they did not attack it. After
leaving this government train Mr. Jeep en-
gaged in making ties for the Union Pacific
Railroad, continuing in that employment until
early in 186S. when he came to Denver,
this state, by stage, and there he followed
a variety of occupations during the suc-
ceeding four years, but was principally en-
gaged in mining and ranching. In 187 1 he
accompanied Samuel J. Slain to Saguache
county, traveling overland with horse and mule
teams by way of Turkey creek, Canyon, Fair-
play, Trout creek, the Arkansas river and
Poucha pass. They were eight days making
the trip, and had an interesting time while do-
ing so. After his arrival in the county Mr.
Jeep took up pre-emption and homestead
claims of one hundred and sixty acres each,
which together form his present ranch, as the
tracts are adjoining. He took the land as na-
ture gave it and the improvements it now con-
tains have all been made up by him. These
comprise a good modern house, first-rate
barns, fences, sheds and other structures, and
artificial supplies of water for irrigation. The
principal crops are oats, wheat, barley ami po-
tatoes, and cattle are raised in large numbers.
On August 5, 1880, Mr. Jeep was married to
Miss Metta Schwarmann, a native of Germany.
They have had four children, one of whom,
Frederick died, and three, George. Mrs. Bert
Alexander and Charlotte, are living. With
one hundred and twenty acres of his ranch in
grain, and the rest given up to hay and pas-
ture, Mr. Jeep is always sure of a good crop of
some kind, and as the quality of his products
is high, the regularity and extent of his income
is not uncertain. His natural progressiveness
and his patriotism to the land of his adoption
have made him a useful member of the citizen-
ship of the county, and as he was one of the
earliest settlers in the region of his home, so
he has been one of the most influential and ef-
fective forces in developing it and stamping it
with the spirit of modern enterprise and civili-
zation.
JOHN SCHILLING.
So rapid has been the advance of the pio-
neer in this country at times, and so close be-
hind him the advance gxiard of civilization,
that communities have grown up on hitherto
unoccupied territory almost between the vernal
and autumnal equinox, and where the last
snows of one winter left a trackless wilderness
the first fall of the next found a hamlet of
thrift and promise literally hewed out of the
forest or spoken by a word of command into
being on the plain. Although it is but twenty-
two years or less since John Schilling located on
the ranch where he now lives, seven miles
southeast of Villagrove, Saguache count) - , and
at the time wild game was plentiful and but few
white men were in the region, it is now plenti-
fully dotted with well-improved and productive
ranches, the homes of industrious and content-
ed people, and prolific in the fruits of hus-
bandry and other results of skillful human
workmanship. Mr. Schilling is a native of Ost-
wig province. Westphalia, Germany, where
he was born in July, 1836, and where he grew
to manhood and received a common-school
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
507
education. He remained in his native land un-
til [865, then came to the United States just
as the long and bloody war between the sec-
tions of our country was over and the mighty
armies on either side were melting into masses
of people once more and turning their attention
from strife and carnage to the white harvests
of peace and productive industry. His first lo-
cation was at Marquette, Michigan, but not
deeming the outlook there promising for him.
he went to Chicago and found employment in
the construction of the lake tunnel. One day's
experience in this labor determined him to seek
a more congenial occupation elsewhere, and he
journeyed to St. Louis, Missouri. He passed
two years mining coal at Dry Hills, five miles
west of that city, and at the end of that period
moved to Wyoming, where he remained until
late in November, 1869. On the 29th day of
that month he located in the Cottoncreek sec-
tion of Saguache county, this state, and there
he resided until 1882, when he bought a ranch
of three hundred and twenty acres, of which
he has since sold one-half. The rest he has
well improved with good fences and buildings,
plentifully supplied with water, and all the land
in condition for cultivation. Good crops of
hay, grain and vegetables are raised, and these
are now the principal products, but until recent-
ly Mr. Schilling also engaged extensively in the
cattle business. His ventures in this country
have been in the main successful, and he is
comfortably fixed and well established on a
firm footing for larger operations and greater
profits. In political faith he is a stanch Repub-
lican and he gives his party regular and hearty
support. On January 9, 1883, he united in
marriage with Mrs. Louise Ellinghoff. who is.
like himself, a native of Germany. She died
on August 4. 1891. One of the earliest set-
tlers in this region, Mr. Schilling is also one of
its most respected and representative citizens.
He is earnestly and practically devoted to the
general welfare and improvement of his coun-
ty and does his part in promoting its best inter-
ests.
MATTHEW" LAUGHLIN.
Of Irish ancestry on his father's side, and
inheriting the versatility, resourcefulness and
adaptability to circumstances that distinguish
his race, and moreover, possessing the health
and vigor of body and the independence and
self-reliance of spirit which are bred on a farm,
where the time is passed in useful labor and
each man has many times a week to decide
questions of immediate and pressing im-
portance for himself, Matthew Laughlin was a
valuable addition to the slender population of
Saguache county, Colorado, when he located
there in October, 1870. At that time there were
but twenty-five families in the county, and
while its vast domain still offered fruitful op-
portunities to hardy adventurers who were
willing to forego the blandishments of civiliza-
tion and often even the ordinary conveniences
of life, eveiy such addition was warmly wel-
comed as an increase in the subduing and pro-
ductive force at work in redeeming the region
from the waste, and at once found room for
all his mental and physical faculties, with
promise of good returns for their use. Mr.
Laughlin took his place in the working force
and among the developers of the county, and
his worth was instantly recognized. He sat
on the first jury called in the county, and
which served in 1871, and from then until now
he has been a man of influence and inspiration
in every line of the local public life. He was
born at Lagro, Wabash county. Indiana, on
January 8, 1846. and is the son of Thomas and
Jane Laughlin, the former a native of Ireland
and the latter of Ohio. They were successful
farmers in Indiana, Iowa and Kansas, and
died in the state last named, the mother in 1S75
and the father in January, 1803. at the ad-
5 o8
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
vanced age of one hundred and ten years. Five
of their children are living, Thomas S., Mat-
thew, Mrs. Henry Monroe, Mrs. Percy Clark,
and Mrs. Amiel Jpnach. Matthew received a
common-school education and served his turn
on the farm with industry and zeal, remaining
at home until he reached the age of eighteen.
In 1856 the family moved to Iowa and located
in Poweshiek county. They remained two
years, then, in 1858, changed their residence
to Pottawatomie county, Kansas, for two years,
at the end of which they settled in Brown
county of that state, where the parents passed
the remainder of their lives. In i860 Matthew
made a trip to Colorado with a load of freight.
He was but fourteen years old at the time, and
this experience, which would have been one
of magnitude and great interest to a grown
man, was to his youthful fancy one of the
great events of history, filling his imagination
at the start with pictures of all daring adven-
tures he had ever read of and his daily life, in
the course of the journey, with many of their
impressive counterparts. Many roving bands
of Indians and vast herds of buffaloes were en-
countered, but neither man nor beast did the
expedition harm. The young argonaut re-
turned to his Kansas home in August of the
same year, and there he remained until 1866,
when he determined to come again to Colorado
and become a permanent resident of the terri-
tory. The route followed in his first trip to
this state was from Hiawatha, Kansas, to the
Platte river and along the course of that
stream to Denver. After his arrival the sec-
ond time he located at Granite, and for a time
worked in the mines there for wages. He was
industrial and frugal, earned good wages and
saved them and in course of a few years had ac-
cumulated enough to begin ranching and cat-
tle-growing, which he did in October, 1870, in
Saguache county, taking up one hundred and
sixty acres of land as a homestead, and at once
beginning to improve it and make it product-
ive. This ranch has ever been his .home
and the seat of his industry. Three-fourths of
the land are under cultivation, good crops are
raised, large herds of good cattle are main-
tained, and first-rate improvements have been
made on it. He has prospered from the start,
although his early years in this region required
heroic endurance and persistent effort ; for
the whole country was new and wild, there
were but twenty-five settlers within the pres-
ent limits of the county, and their homes were
wide apart, and all the untamed brood of bird
and beast and savage man were still prevalent.
Each rancher was largely dependent on his
own resources for the conveniences and often
for the necessaries of domestic life, and the
implements with which the hard and unremit-
ing work had to be done had, in most cases,
to he fashioned by the toiler. All honor to the
heroic men who thus opened the way for better
times, improved conditions and the comforts of
modern life in this wilderness! The)- blazed
the path for the march of civilization, and the
present state of progress and development is
the best monument to their fidelity, endurance
and determined industry. Among these Mr.
Laughlin is one of the foremost in the time
of his arrival and the value of his service. He
is justly esteemed throughout the county as one
of its founders and builders, and is held in a
public regard commensurate with his worth.
His ranch is seven miles west of the town of
Saguache. On January 1 1, 1887, he was mar-
ried to Miss Amelia Eilinghoff, a native of
Prussia, and a sister of Mrs. John Rominger
(see sketch of him on another page for family
history). Mr. and Airs. Laughlin have four
children, Annie M., Herbert k\. Harry C. and
Teddy R. In politics the father is a Republi-
can, but not an active partisan. It is worthy of
mention that, at the age of sixteen years. Mr.
Laughlin joined the Kansas state militia and in
PROGRESS! I'E MEN OP WESTERN COLORADO.
509
1864 Company E., to which he belonged, was
ordered to Westport, Missouri, to assist in re-
pelling the rebel General Price, who threatened
to invade Kansas City.
CHARLES EDWIN LAWLEY.
While fate seems at times arbitrary and un-
reasonable in her gifts both of endowment and
opportunity, bestowing on some every form of
bounty and opening the way to the fullest use
of her award in profit or pleasure or both, and
giving to others nothing but a necessity to
strive and struggle, she at the same time bal-
ances her favors in a measure, and where she
places the sharp spur, she usually accompanies
it with the power in him who feels it to re-
spond, and this in turn produces greater po-
tency for further effort. If the heart be right
and the spirit courageous, poverty, difficult}
and danger do not restrain, but the very ob-
structions stimulate and in the sane and health-
ful atmosphere of utilitarian labor, commands
circumstances to service rather than cringes
a d cowers before them. This fact is admir-
ably illustrated in the life and work of Charles
Edwin Lawley, of Saguache county, this
state, residing on his ranch of eighty acres in
the vicinity of Villagrove, who left home to
make his own way in the world at the age of
nine years, and has ever since been the archi-
tect of his own fortune and made steady prog-
ress in industry, frugality and capacity
in building it to its present comfortable pro-
portions and form. He was born at Chicago.
Illinois, on September 17. 1874. the son of
Edwin and Ada Lawley. natives of England
win 1 emigrated to this country in their youth
and located in the great metroplis of the Lakes.
The father is a switchman in the employ of one
of the railroads centering there, and has been
so employed during the greater pari of his ma-
ture life. He is an honest and industrious
workman, and enjoys the confidence of all who
know him well. Politically he is attached to
the Republican party. The mother died in
1 88 1. They had three sons. George E, Frank
and Charles. The last named saw but little of
the inside of schools and was dependent for the
most of his education on experience and the
book of nature which has ever been open before
him. He left home in 1883 and came to Colo-
rado, locating in Saguache county. Here he
worked as a ranch hand for wages until 1900,
and although the compensation for his service
was meager, he saved his earnings until he was
able to take up the ranch which he now owns
and do something toward equipping it and
starting its improvement and the cattle indus-
try which he now conducts. The ranch com-
prises eighty acres and is located ten miles
northwest of the town of Saguache. It is well
adapted to hay and potatoes and these are
raised in quantities and good quality. Cattle
are also raised as extensively as the capacity
of the ranch will admit, and this branch of the
industry is steadily on the increase. Air. Law-
ley is a Republican in politics but does not
neglect his own affairs for party contests. His
acquisitions have cost him too much effort and
self-sacrifice and embodied too much personal
hardship and privation to be ignored for senti-
ment of any kind. At the same time he gives
careful attention and helpful service where the
real and enduring interest iff his section is in-
volved, and does his part as a good citizen in
every useful line of local public work.
CHARLES A. SCANDRETT.
Open the doors of opportunity to talent and
integrity, and they will do themselves justice,
and property will not be in bad hands. Years
ago Colorado flung wide her portals to men of
enterprise and capacity, and she ha- reaped the
advantage in a thrifty and progressive popula-
5 IQ
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
tion, loyally devoted to her interests and earn-
estly engaged in developing her resources ana
magnifying her greatness in all the elements of
material, intellectual and moral power. Among
the industrious, brave and persevering men
who came hither in obedience to her cordial in-
vitation, to accept her bounties of opportunity
and make the most of them, and who have suc-
ceeded in gaining substantial benefits for
themselves and at the same time aided her prog-
ress in every element of advancement, is
Charles A. Scandrett, of Saguache count}',
one of the enterprising and successful ranch
and cattle men of the region in which he lives,
and one of the leading and representative men
of the southern part of the state. He was born
with the spirit and fiber of real manhood, and
his natural endowments were trained to
full development and usefulness by his parents,
William T. and Malinda Scandrett, the former
a native of England and the latter of Greene
county, Illinois. They were married in 1858.
and their son was born on April 15, 1859, at
their Green county (Illinois) home. In 1875,
with the hope of regaining his health, which
was feeble, the father moved his family to this
state, coming overland to Canon City, and
after their arrival here took up his residence in
the San Luis valley. He secured land on pre-
emption and homestead claims, which he sold
after improving it. He is a man of unusual
capacity and fitness for administrative duties,
and rendered the county excellent service as as-
sessor in the years 1877 and 1878, and as dep-
uty assessor in 1882 and 1883; and he would
have been of much greater service in a public
way had not death ended his labors on Ni ivem-
ber 8, 1893, the extension of life he secured by
moving to this state being gratifying but not
as long as his friends hoped. He was a zealous
member of the Baptist church, and an Odd Fel-
low and a Freemason, and he gave a steady and
loyal support to the principles of the Republi-
can party. Of the eight children in the family
Atlantis. William and James base died, while
Jessie, Milton. Charles A.. George W. and
Mrs. Thomas Ashley are living. Those living
are all in Colorado and all doing well. Charles
A. received a common-school education, and
soon after coming to this state took up ranch
property on two claims, which he improved
and sold. His present ranch comprises one
hundred and sixty acres of land that can all be
cultivated, all substantially fenced, supplied
plentifully with water, and enriched with good
and commodious buildings and other struc-
tures required for carrying on a vigorous ranch
and cattle industry and making a comfortable
home. He raises cattle and horses in numbers
and large crops of grain and hay. The ranch
is four miles west of the county seat, which
affords him a read)' market for his products
and gives him opportunity for desired social
enjoyments. Fraternally he belongs to the
Woodmen of the World, and in politics is a
firm and serviceable Republican. Industry and
frugality, with good management and close at
tention to his affairs have made him successful
in business, and his earnest and effective service
to local interests have secured him a high place
in public esteem.
CARL LOUIS MAROLD.
The great state of Illinois, which even
within the memory of men now living was the
far frontier of this country, and waiting for
colonization, settlement and redemption to the
purposes of civilization, has furnished a vast
amount of brain and brawn, bone and sinew,
for the development and cultivation of the
farther west, ami among its contributions in
this respect Car! Louis Marold, of Saguache
county, this state, may be mentioned with re-
spect and consideration. For be is one of the
citizens of Colorado, who in youth took the
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF IVESTERX COLORADO.
burden of life on his own shoulders and has
since borne it bravely and with credit. He was
born in McHenry county. Illinois, at the town
of .Marengo, on December 3. 1873, and is the
son of John B. and Matilda (Hartmann) Mar-
cild, natives of Germany who emigrated to the
United States in 1868 and settled in the Prairie
state. The father was a tinner and worked at
his trade in that state until 1880, then moved
tn this state and took up his residence at Sag-
uache where he followed his trade until his
death on November 5, 1890. In 1887 he
bought a ranch, and from then to the end of
Ins life carried on its affairs in connection with
his mechanical work. In politics he was inde-
pendent, always voting for the man and not
for the party. His family comprised six chil-
dren, all of whom are living. They are Franz,
Rudolph, Hedwig, Carl L., Annie and Oscar.
Carl received a common-school education, go-
ing to work as soon as he was able, and at the
age of seventeen began to make his own living
independent of help from anyone. He acci >m-
panied his parents to Colorado in 1880. In
1900 he bought a ranch which contains ninety-
three acres of land that can all be cultivated. It
is located a mile and a half southeast of Sag-
uache, convenient to a good market, a few
miles from a railroad station, and is all fenced
and has good buildings of sufficient capacity
• for present needs. An independent water right
furnishes it with due irrigation and makes it
very productive. Crops of hay and grain are
raised with success and cattle prove a profit-
able resource. All its operations are conducted
with vigor .and good judgment, and while it is
steadily rising in value, all that it is is the
product of its owner's well applied industry and
judicious management. He has also purchased
what is known as the home ranch formerly
owned by. his mother, comprising one hundred
and sixty acres of fine alfalfa land, making two
hundred and fifty-three acres of land under 1 me
fence and irrigated by the same ditch, a first-
class water right. The subject owns a fine
herd of cattle which comprise the chief source
of his revenue. In political affairs Mr. Marold
ardently supports the principles and candidates
of the Democrat party, and in local matters of
benefit to the community he takes a citizen's ac-
tive and helpful interest. Accepting the
ditions of life in Colorado as he found them.
and omitting no effort on his part to make the
most of them, he has found the state a good
place to live and thrive in, and is not backward
in proclaiming its merits to homeseekers on all
occasions. Among the people who have wit-
nessed his efforts and shared the benefits of his
aid and example be is well esteemed, and he
does his part to merit their good opinion in
honest industry and upright living. On Janu-
ary 25, 1905, he married Miss Hope Jones, a
graduate of the Saguache county high school.
PRICE M. JONES.
With the burdens of life resting upon him
from an early age and developing in him the
force of character and self-reliance to which
responsibility always educates the capable and
responsive character. Price M. Jones, one of
the leading merchants of Saguache and an ex-
tensive cultivator of fruit and hay, came to
Colorado in 1875, nearly thirty years ago, well
fitted for a frontier existence and struggle for
advancement, and since that time has borne
his part well and wisely in all the civil, social
and commercial life of his county. He was
horn in Fountain county. Indiana, on July 13.
1842, and reared in Illinois, where his parents
located in his childhood. They were farmers,
and on the Illinois farm his father, John P.
Jones, a native of Kentucky, hut reared in
Adams county. Ohio, died in [858, when the
-on was but sixteen years of age. and the oldest
of seven children. The mother, a native of
5i-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Adams county. Ohio, whose maiden name was
Julia A. Adams, was a woman of resolute
nature, and she at once took hold of the inter-
ests of the family and. with the aid of her son
Price, carried on the business until all the
six children reached maturity and were able to
provide for themselves. In the arduous effort
required to keep everything moving forward
and in prosperous condition. Mr. Jones's health
gave way, and in 1875 he brought his mother
and two sisters who were still at home to this
state, and after remaining a few days at
Canon City moved on to Saguache, then a little
hamlet. Ranch property was purchased at
once, and while it was being put in condition
for productiveness and a home he engaged in
clerking. His father was an ardent and ener-
getic Republican in political allegiance, and he
and his wife were devout and serviceable mem-
bers of the Baptist church. The mother died
in this state in 18S4. Her brother, M. N.
Adams, was a pioneer in Presbyterian church
work in Minnesota, having been superintend-
ent of state missions for twenty years and served
as a chaplain in the regular army with the rank
of major. His wife was also a teacher. In
February, 1862, Mr. Jones enlisted in Com-
pany G, Sixty-first Illinois Infantry, and
served in the war until June 1, 1865. Once he
was discharged on account of disabilities in-
curred in the service, but he soon afterward re-
enlisted. In 187(1, after clerking a few months,
he bought a small stock of goods and opened
a store at Saguache. This mercantile enter-
prise he has enlarged until it covers a general
line of commodities and is one of the leading
institutions of its kind in the town. He also
purchased town property, and by turning it
over and carrying on a real estate business oi
some magnitude aided greatly in building up
the town and promoting its best interests. From
the time of his arrival here he has been very
active in Sunday school and church work and
the fraternal life of the community, being in-
strumental in founding the Baptist church
organization in this part of the state, greatlv
enlarging the volume and zeal of the Sunday
school forces and organizing Centennial Lodge
of Odd Fellow's, of which he is a charter mem-
ber. One of his most valued and valuable
possessions is a ten-acre fruit garden which is
considered the finest in the San Luis valley.
and the fruit and vegetables from which took
the prize awarded by the Denver & Rio Grande
Railroad at the Alamosa Fair of 1889. He
also has one thousand and fifty acres of hay
and grain land in the county which yields abun-
dantly and produces hay and grain of the first
quality, never failing in its yield or falling be-
low the high standard its output has attained.
On July 4, 1878, he was joined in wedlock with
Miss Elmira J. Matthews, a native of Ohio,
who grew to maturity in Illinois. They have
two children. Edgar X. and Edith. That Mr.
Jones is conducting several lines of business.
all of which minister to the growth, aggrand-
izement and wealth of the county, and in each
of which he is winning success, proves that he
is a gentleman of unusual business capacity
and enterprise; and that he is universally es-
teemed throughout the county shows that his
life is upright and serviceable, and that the
people around him appreciate energy, progres-
siveness and elevated citizenship.
HARVEY WOOLERY.
One of western Colorado's most progres
sive. successful and highly esteemed ranchmen
and stock-growers, and a leading citizen of
Routt county, Harvey Woolen has been the
architect of his own fortune and is essentially
a self-made man. He was born in Cooper
county, Missouri, on October 31, [847, and is
the son of Francis E. and Frances 1 Jones)
W'oolerv. the former a native of Missouri and
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
the latter of Kentucky. The parents were suc-
cessful farmers who ended their days in Cooper
county, Missouri, where the father died on
January 9, 1899, and the mother on December
20, 1901. Both were Baptists in church rela-
tions for many years, and the father was a
Democrat in politics. They had a family of
six children, four of whom are living, Harvey,
Joseph M., William and Mrs. Newman G irdrj .
Owing to the turbulent conditions of the
border country in which Harvey passed his
childhood and youth just prior to ami during
the Civil war, the schools were almost closed
for years and the opportunities for education
were next to nothing. Mr. Woolery shared this
hardship with other children of the region, and
like the most of them depended on the rugged
but thorough school of experience for his
training for the battle of life, supplementing
its lessons with a measure of academic instruc-
tion procured by his own efforts after the close
of the war. He remained at home until he
reached the age of twenty-one, then engaged
in farming and raising stock on his own tic-
count in his native county, passing six years
in this occupation there. At the end of that
period iie moved to Bates county, in the same
state, and there he farmed two years. In the
spring of 1880 he became a resident of Colo-
rado, and until the summer of 1881 was em-
ployed in construction work on the Denver &
Rio Grande Railroad. When he completed
his contract with the railroad company, he
moved by teams to Leadville, much of the
journey being through a newly settled and un-
developed country, and every mile of the way
was beset with difficulties and dangers. After
remaining- at Leadville three months he trav-
eled by the same means and with similar ex-
periences to Steamboat Springs in Routt coun-
ty, mostly through' an unsettled country with
only poor roads and without bridges and con-
tending with obstacles to his progress that
33
would have disheartened and driven back a less
resolute spirit. lie arrived at Steamboat
Springs on September 30, 188 1, and became
one of the very few early settlers in that neigh
borhood, taking up one hundred and sixty acres
of land by pre-emption. To this he has since
added until he has now four hundred and forty-
acres, of which he can cultivate four hundred
acres. On this land he litis made all the im-
provements which add so much to its value at
this time, and brought about the changes from
its unprofitable gayety in wild sage brush to its
present state of fruitfulness in the products of
cultivation and systematic husbandry. Hay
and Shorthorn cattle are produced on an
extensive basis and form the chief source of
revenue, but grain and vegetables are also ex-
tensively raised. In addition to his ranch Mr.
Woolery owns real estate at Boulder, this state,
and at Steamboat Springs. He was married
on November 2, 1871, to Miss Sarah C. Mur-
phy, like himself, a native of Cooper county,
Missouri. They have had eight children, one
of whom, Aubrey P., is dead and seven are
living, Mrs. Edward Tullinger, W'yan E.,
Oscar A., Mrs. Charles E. Baer, Eugene T..
the first white boy born in Routt county. Edna
M. and Emery. Mrs. Woolery belongs to the
Presbyterian church. Mrs. Charles E. Baer to
the Congregational church. The ranch is three
miles west of Steamboat Springs.
JACOB BARSCH.
The institutions of America have been
devoted to the production of a vast army of
industrial conquest and elevated citizenship for
the administration of governmental affairs.
rather than advanced scholarship or specula-
tive disquisition, although the latter are by
no means wanting. But the every circum-
stances of the case have made it necessary for
our people to conquer and plant the wilderness
5H
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
before the higher walks of intellectual activity
could receive due attention, and accordingly
the most general and substantial element of our
educational system has been the "people's uni-
versity," the common schools, which have been
forcibly said to form the sheet anchor of the
ship of state and one on which it may rely with
confidence and hope. It is supplemented by
the lessons of experience in useful labor in
every department of energy and zeal, and the
the result of the training is a race of men and
women who defy all danger and shrink from
no difficulty in material accomplishment or
civil management, and whose achievements are
the wonder and admiration of the world. In
these educational institutions, the common
schools and practical experience in life, the
subject of this brief review obtained his educa-
tion, and the lessons therein learned he has ap-
plied with such wisdom and common sense
that he is one of the leading and most sub-
stantial citizens of Saguache county, this state,
and one of the most esteemed forces in its de-
velopment. Mr. Barsch was born on Decem-
ber i, 1865. near Columbus, Indiana, and i^
the son of Adam and Margaret A. Barsch. na-
tives of Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, who emi-
grated to this country April 11, 1854, and loca-
ted in Indiana, where they remained until 1868,
then moved to Linn county and afterward to
Montgomery county, Kansas, where they are
now living. The father has devoted all his
years to farming, and since becoming a citizen
of this country has supported the Republican
party in political affairs. He and his wife be-
came the parents of twelve children, one of
whom died in infancy and the others are liv-
ing. They are Jacob, Harvey E., Hattie E.,
Ida B., Barbara, Amelia, Alice. Catherine.
Benjamin, William and Mary. Jacob, the first
born of these, began to make his own living at
the age of seventeen, coming to Colorado in
[883 and locating near Alder, where he fol-
lowed mining and saw-milling two years with
small returns. In 1885 he went to work as a
ranch hand in the vicinity of Villagrove, and
by saving his earnings was soon able to pur-
chase a ranch in the neighborhood and start a
cattle industry on a small scale. This ranch
he has, in company with his partner. C. X. Mil-
ler, increased by subsequent purchases to one
thousand and forty acres, and the cattle busi-
ness has been expanded to large proportions.
Mr. Miller has been associated with him in the
enterprise since 1896, the firm name being
Barsch & Miller, and both being energetic, far-
seeing and progressive men. they fit well to-
gether and work in harmony for their mutual
interest. Their ranch is located four miles
northeast of Villagrove, and is improved with
the best sheds and corrals in the count)-. They
have conducted their business with vigor and
good judgment, and the success they have won
is large and the place they occupy among the
ranch and cattle men of the county is in the
first rank. Mr. Barsch has always taken an
active and serviceable part in politics as an earn-
est and loyal Democrat. In the fall of 1904 he
was his party's candidate for county commis-
sioner, but owing to the large adverse majority
in the county he was not elected. He did, how-
ever, reduce the majority against his party to
almost nothing, and this by reason of his per-
sonal popularity. He is prominent and zeal-
ous in the fraternal life of the count)- as a
Ereemason and a Modern Woodman of
America. Having come to this state with noth-
ing but his own native capacity and determined
spirit, he took the conditions that fate flung be-
fore him, and out of them he has molded a
shapely destiny and acquired an estate well
worthy of high consideration, and at the same
time has been of material service to the county
in general in aiding by intelligent ond consist-
ent work in the development of its resources
and elevating the tone of its citizenship, mean-
while stimulating others by his influence and
example to the same spirit and similar efforts.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
ALONZO BREWER.
It is a matter of common knowledge, at
least among the people of Colorado, that when
once the air of the Rocky Mountain region
has been enjoyed for a time, and the system has
become accustomed to it. and when in addition
thereto a taste has been had of the breadth of
life, amplitude of purpose and cosmopolitan
freedom of social enjoyment which is charac-
teristic of the region, the mind can find con-
tentment no where else, or will long for a re-
turn of the exhilarating experience, and if op-
portunity allow, will seek and secure it. Tins
lias been said thousands of times with earnest-
ness and all sincerity, that to live awhile in
this section of the country creates an appetite
for it that cannot be fully satisfied elsewhere.
The fact has been proven by the careers of
many men, among them Alonzo Brewer, of
Saguache county, who for years oscillated be-
tween Iowa and nearby states of the Missis-
sippi valley and Colorado, and finally settled in
this state permanently to his satisfaction and
advantage, and to the benefit of the
county in which he cast his lot. of
which he is one of the leading citizens
and business men, conducting now the principal
undertaking and livery establishment in the
town of Saguache and within an extended
radius around that flourishing seat of the
connt)- government. Mr. Brewer was born on
August 8, 1850, in Bradford county. Pennsyl-
vania, and is the son of Francis and Agnes
(Jayne) Brewer, Pennsylvanians also by na-
tivity and for many years residents of the state.
In 1856 they moved to Iowa, which was their
final earthly home, the father dying - there on
March 14th. and the mother on May 9, 1892.
The father was a successful farmer in business
and a Republican in political faith. Five of
the children in the family are living. Harrietta,
Emma, Rose, Sarah and Alonzo. After re-
ceiving a common-school education Alonzo be-
gan to make his own living at the age of four-
teen years, farming and driving stage in Iowa.
His route in the occupation last named was out
of Boone, in the county of the same name, and
as it called for prompt and unfailing service in
spite of conditions, it was full of hardship in
the winter months and not always free from
them at other seasons. Still, while it
tried his nerve and frequently subjected his
shrinking body to suffering, it hardened his
frame, developed his strength and endurance
and augmented his courage; so that, when he
came to Colorado in 1870, and began to freight
lumber from Turkey Creek to Denver, George-
town and Central City, he had already the
heroic qualities of mind and body required for
that arduous employment. In the fall of 1871
he located a ranch in San Luis valley, be-
ing among the first settlers in that now progres-
sive and highly favored region. This he im-
proved and sold, it being at this time in the
possession and ownership of Oliver P. Allen.
In the spring of 1873 ne returned to Iowa, and
during the next five years he was engaged in
fanning in that state. Then, after farming
more than a year in Smith county, Kansas, he
came again to Colorado in 1880, and remained
until July, 1881. At that time he went to Kan-
sas and in the ensuing fall to Iowa, where he
again farmed five years. In 1886 he joined the
H. D. Brown surveying outfit and until 1888
he worked with that in North Dakota. He
then moved into Iowa again, and locating in
Webster county, farmed until 1891, when he
changed his residence to Lehigh in that state
and his business to undertaking and the furni-
ture trade, in which he engaged until 1896.
Then coming once more to Colorado, he located
at Saguache and started the livery and under-
taking business in which he is now engaged.
His outfit comprises everything required for
his extensive business in these lines and is al-
Si6
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
ways kept in excellent order and ready for im-
mediate service. With the local affairs of in-
terest and of advantage to the county lie is al-
ways connected in a leading way and with sub-
stantial aid. and in its politics he takes an active
and influential part as a Republican. On Octo-
ber 9, 1887, he was married to Miss Emma
Pixler, a native of Postville, Iowa. They have
two children, Verne and Harold. 'Mrs. Brewer
died on January 22, 1892.
GEORGE C. CROSSAN.
A native of Harrison county. Ohio, where
he was born on August 21, 1847, and reared
to the age of seventeen in Iowa, where he re-
ceived a common-school education, then serv-
ing six months in the Union army during the
dying throes of the Civil war, afterward clerk-
ing in a store, farming in various states, man-
ufacturing brick, teaming and ranching j n dif-
ferent parts of Colorado. George C. Crossan,
of Routt county, has had a varied experience in
a number of lines of active usefulness and
under a great variety of circumstances, ami lie
has greatly profited by it in building up force
of character and self-reliance, which have
made him ready for any emergency and ca-
pable of any proper exertion within the limits
of his capacity. Mr. Crossan is the son of
James and Melila (Cook) Crossan, who were
born in Harrison county. Ohio, and moved to
Iowa in 185 1. the father remaining there until
1864, when, bis wife having died in 1859, he
returned to Ohio and there passed the remain-
der of his life, dying on February 14, 1899.
The mother died on December 2d. the day on
which old John Brown was hanged for treason
in Virginia. The father devoted his time to
fanning and contract work. lie was a stanch
Democrat politically, and an ardent Freemason
fraternally. Both parents were Presbyterians.
I In \ had six- children, five of whom are living.
Robert A., George C, Nancy J., wife of Frank
Taylor, James A. and Mrs. George Stringer.
George remained at home until 1864. then en-
listed in Company C. Seventh Iowa Infantry,
in defense of the Union. He served to the
close of the Civil war. and was mustered out of,
the service at Louisville. Kentucky, on July 12.
1865. Returning then to Iowa, he entered a
store at Union Mills, Mahaska county, as a
clerk, being occupied a year and a half. At
the end of that period he turned his attention to
farming and he followed this occupation until
1867, working for wages on farms in Johnson
and Henry counties, Missouri, then from 1867
to 1871 in Madison county, Iowa. In 1871 he
returned to Mahaska county, Iowa, and there
farmed two years on his own account. In 1873
he began the manufacture of brick and con-
tinuing this enterprise until 1876 with fair
profits, found himself in a condition for a more
ambitious undertaking. So, disposing of his
interests in Iowa, he moved to Abilene, Kansas,
where he spent two years and a half in contract
work and one and a half years as assistant in
the office of a coal merchant. In 188 1 he came
to Colorado and located at Breckenridge, re-
maining two years during which he did team-
ing under contract. On April 14. 1883. he
located a homestead in Egeria park, being
the first settler on the creek and having the
first choice of land in the neighborhood. His
choice was wisely made, as his ranch is con-
sidered one of the best in the whole country
around Yampa. He has bought additional
land and now owns four hundred and eighty
acres, of which three hundred and twenty-live
can be cultivated. The ranch is ten miles
south of Yampa and has independent ditches
which furnish water for its cultivation, and
good improvements made by Mr. Crossan.
When he settled here the whole region was in
a state of primeval wilderness and wild game,
which was plentiful, afforded him abundant
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
supplies of meat. They had a scare from the
Indians, which proved to he caused by a wan-
dering Indian on a hunt. Being a carpenter.
Mr. Crossan built cabins for new settlers and
helped to build up the country by inducing
them to come in. Soon after his arrival and
location here he went to Breckenridge and
formed a colony consisting of S. D. Wilson,
E. H. McFariand, S. C. Reid, L. L. Newcomer,
Preston King, Silas Sutton and a Mr. Siebold,
who, excepting the two last named, moved to
the park and became permanent residents there.
Mr. Crossan raises the best quality of grain,
hay and vegetables in abundance, and carries
on an extensive cattle industry. His early ar-
rival in the section and his large success in
building it up and advancing his own interests
at the same time have made him prominent and
highly respected and placed him at the head
of the old settlers. He is a Republican in
political faith and a third-degree Mason fra-
ternally, with membership in the adjunct order
of the Eastern Star, his wife and two daughters
belonging also to the latter. On February 29.
1872. he was married to Miss Rachel Roberts.
a native of Mahaska county. Iowa, the daugh-
ter of Joseph and Rachel (Kirk) Roberts, who
were horn in Ohio hut made Iowa their final
earthly home, and died there in 1855. They
were farmers and had a family of five chil-
dren who are living, Martha A., Mrs. Crossan,
Anna. Beulah and Leverson. Mr. and Mrs.
Crossan have five children also, James C.
Charles L., Myrtie. wife of James McFariand.
Lila E.. the first white child born in that part
of the county, and Robert R. J. C. is a past
master of the Masonic lodge.
THOMAS C. ELLIOTT.
This enterprising and progressive citizen
of Eagle county, who is held in the highest
esteem for the care he has taken of his mother
since his father's tragic death, and the capacity
he has shown in managing his affairs and his
excellent and elevating citizenship, was horn
in Buchanan county, Missouri, on December
7. 1858. He was educated in the common
schools, receiving only a limited scholastic
training for the battle of life, hut his subse-
quent experience has made him a broad-minded
and well informed man. His ranch of one
hundred and twenty acres, twenty miles north-
west of Wolcott on Rock creek, was secured by
purchase and has heen highly improved by
him. It is located in one of the most beautiful
regions on the Western slope, and his careful
husbandry, tasteful improvements and vigor-
ous management of all its interests make it one
of the choice pieces of property in this region.
Tn addition to working his own ranch well and
profitably, he superintends his mother's of one
hundred and sixty acres, which lies near his.
On both haw grain and hardy vegetables are
raised with success, hut cattle prove the main
resource. The water rights are independent
and abundant in supply for the cultivation of
a large part of each property, and every ele-
ment of progress and prosperity on the places
is used to advantage. In political matters Mr.
Elliott is independent, hut he is earnest in the
service of his people along every line of public
improvement and comfort. On June 25, 1893,
he united in marriage with Miss Lottie Mont-
gomery, a native of Butler county, Pennsyl-
vania. They have five children. Lala P., Wil-
liam M.. Ada M., Wesley I. and Nannie L.
Mr. Elliott is the son of Abraham and Nannie
( Irvine) Elliott, who were born and reared in
Kentucky and moved to Missouri soon after
their marriage, making their home at St.
Joseph. There the father engaged in merchan-
dising until 1869. when he sold his business
and moved to Deer Lodge, Montana, being
among the early settlers at that place. There
he followed merchandising; 1 me vear and then
Si*
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
engaged in the cattle business until 1876.
when he moved to Colorado, and camped in
Middle Park from the fall of that year until
June of the next. At that time he crossed the
range and located at Manitou Park, twenty
miles west of Colorado Springs. He was oc-
cupied in the cattle industry a year at Manitou
Park, at the end of which he returned to Mid-
dle Park, hut lived only six weeks longer, being
killed by the Indians while in the peaceful dis-
charge of his domestic duties and without
being guilty of the slightest wrong to the in-
furiated savages, the tragedy occurring on Sep-
tember 3, 1878. His death created a profound
indignation throughout a wide extent of the
surrounding country, for he was recognized as
a man of the highest character, prominent in
business circles and full of potential and whole-
some enterprise for the good of the state. The
cause of his death was a malignant spite of the
southern Utes against the white people in gen-
eral and those of this section in particular, and
a determination to be revenged for supposed
injuries at their hands. While a party of these
Indians were out on a buffalo hunt, they killed
a Mr. McLain, and on their arrival at Denver
were promptly arrested by order of Governor
Routt. They were, however, released without
punishment for the crime, and then became in-
toxicated and noisy. Moving on to Middle
bark, one of them was slain by Big Foot
Frank, and impelled by a desire for revenge
came in sight of Mr. Elliott, who was at his
wood pile about four o'clock in the afternoon,
getting wood for the kitchen fire. He had been
putting up his hay and making arrangements
to move back to Manitou Park in order to
avoid trouble with all Indians, but as soon as
these marauders saw him they shot him to
death in the most dastardly and cowardly man-
ner. He was a loyal Democrat in politics and
an ardent member of the Masonic order. He
and his wife were the parents of two children.
i
their daughter Ellen C, who died on July 12,
[865, and their son Thomas C. After his
death his widow disposed of the Middle Park-
property and moved to Manitou Park, where
she remained until 1879. when she took up her
residence at Fort Collins. Four months later
she concluded to locate on Rock creek, and
here she has made her home since 1880. Her
son has stood by her manfully and given close
attention to all her interests. His parents'
first trip to the Northwest was made up the
Missouri to Fort Benton on the steamer "Lily
Martin," in command of Captain Patterson,
which started from Atchinson. Kansas, on
April 14, 1865. From Fort Benton to Helena,
Montana, they traveled by a mule train. The
second trip was up the Missouri from St.
Joseph to Fort Benton on the steamer "Only
Chance." They made two round trips in all
for the benefit of Mrs. Elliott's health. While
at that early day the country was wildly pic-
turesque and travel was full of incident and
interest, it was also hazardous, every hour
fraught with danger and even- shadow likely
to conceal a foe. They, however, escaped dis-
aster and found their long journeys of great
benefit and bountiful in enjoyment.
FRISBIE DEWEY HUTCHINSON.
This widely and favorably known and lead-
ing ranchman and cattle-grower of Routt
county, is a native of the state of New York,
born at Canaan, Columbia county, on June 22,
1844, and the son of Benjamin B. and Clarissa
(Dewey) Hutchinson, also native in that state,
the mother being' a first cousin to Admiral
Dewey. The parents were farmers in New
York, Michigan. Missouri and Colorado, be-
coming residents of this state in 1872. The
father was a successful business man, always
finding good opportunities for his advancement
.Mid using them wisely. During the Civil war
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
5i9
he furnished beef for the United States troops
at a profit. He was a Republican in politics
and a Freemason and Odd Fellow fraternally,
being district deputy grand master in the for-
mer order. The son received a good education,
and at the age of eighteen took up the burden
of life for himself as a private soldier in the
Seventeenth Michigan Infantry. Company C,
finding active service and facing death on
seventeen of the renowned battle fields of the
memorable contest of 1861-5. He was taken
prisoner at Spottsvlvania Courthouse in Vir-
ginia and held in captivity to the close of the
war. Returning to Michigan after his release,
he passed the winters of 1865 and 1866 at
school, and afterward learned the trade of a
stone mason. He has also done much good
work as an auctioneer, and for seven years
he was an agent for the German Life Insurance
Company of Rockford, Illinois, and the Home
and Phoenix of New York. In 1866 he moved
to Hannibal. Missouri, and until 1890 he made
his headquarters there. In addition to other
work he carried on a farming enterprise in
Ralls county, Missouri, and also manufactured
brooms extensively. In 188 t he made his first
trip to Colorado, and located at Montezuma
with the hope of improving his failing- health,
and also his financial condition. Here he
passed three months prospecting, then returned
to Ralls county. Missouri. In 1885 he came
again to this state and in 1886 rented a ranch
ten miles north of Denver, where he lived a
year and a half, learning how to farm by irri-
gation, managing the ranch and his Missouri
interests as well. He was so much encouraged
by the improvement of his health ami the
business outlook that in 1890 he sold all his
interests in Missouri and determined to make
Colorado his permanent home. He then pre-
empted one-half of his present ranch, of three
hundred and twenty acres, acquiring the rest
later by homestead. Of the entire tract he
has two hundred acres under cultivation in ha)
grain and vegetables, but hay and cattle are his
principal sources of revenue. The ranch is
six miles southwest of Yampa. on the Trappers
Lake trail, and was all in wild sage when he
took hold of it. all the improvements being
made by him. Not long after his arrival in
this section an Indian scare was occasioned by
the savages stampeding sheep between Beggs.
Wyoming, and Fortification creek, which
brought out five hundred armed men for the
defense of the region and the punishment oi
the marauders. Mr. Hutchinson being one of
the number. He is an ardent Democrat in
politics, having cast his first vote (a white
bean) in Andersonville prison for George P..
McClellan. In the fraternal life of the state he
takes an active interest as a Freemason, a
member of the Order of the Eastern Star, an
Odd Fellow, a member of the Rebekahs, and
a Grand Army of the Republic man. In the
order of Odd Fellows he holds the rank of
past grand. On October 10, 1867. he united in
marriage with Miss Elizabeth Doggett, a na-
tive of Marysville, Kentucky. In every relation
of life Mr. Hutchinson has met his duty man-
fully, and he has won thereby the guerdon of
true fidelity in the lasting regard and good
will of his fellow men.
GEORGE J. D. DAY.
With his very birth and all his childhood
clouded by the terrible disaster of the Civil war,
and this intensified by the death of both his
parents before he was eight years old, George
J. D. Day. now one of the prosperous ranch
and cattle men of Routt county, living on his
own ranch of three hundred and twenty acres
located eighteen miles northwest of Steamboat
Springs, began the journey of life and pursued
it for many years under very unfavorable cir-
cumstances. But his native force of character
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
triumphed over all difficulties and enabled him
to work his way along to consequence and a
place in public esteem well worth}' of all his
efforts. He was born in Clay county. North
Carolina, near the village of Hayesville, on July
22, 1864, the son of John and Mary Daw na-
tives of North Carolina, where for many years
they were planters. The war left their section
of the country in so impoverished and desolate
a condition, that without much chance of
progress for themselves or educational or
other advantages for their children, they
deemed it best to seek a new home of greater
promise in the almost untrodden wilds of the
far West. Accordingly they came to Colorado
in 1870 and located in the vicinity of Pueblo.
Here they began ranching and raising stock
with good prospects, but their day of hope was
short. Within the year of their arrival in this
state the mother died, and the father followed
her to the other world the next year. They
had a family of ten children, but five of whom
are living, Jacob, John. Thomas, George and
Carolina. After the death of his parents
George returned to his native state and made
his home with relatives there until he was able
to care for himself, which he began to do soon
afterward by working on plantations tor very
small and precarious wages. He remained in
the old North state until 1886. after a time
leasing land and planting it on his own ac-
count. His success was so meager and incon-
stant that he determined to return to Colorado,
and in 1886 he did so. arriving m the neigh-
borhood of Hayden, Routt county, in debt.
Tie was. however, willing to work at any occu-
pation for which he was fitted and soon found
employment with William Walker as a ranch
hand. In a little while he took a homestead
claim to one-half of his present ranch, which
was then unimproved and covered with wild
sage, and, building a little dwelling such as his
condition and surroundings made possible, he
settled on his claim and began to improve it.
His progress was such that soon afterward he
was able to double his acreage and bring the
new portion also to cultivation and profit. He
still owns all the land and has two hundred
and forty acres of it in good producing con-
dition. In the meantime he has greatly im-
proved the buildings and added to their num-
ber until he has a comfortable and profitable
home where when he located there the same
state of nature prevailed that centuries had
witnessed. He has good ditches that supply
enough water for the extent he cultivates, and
every season sees an increase in the value of
his ranch and its products. Hay and cattle are
his main reliance and are raised extensively.
He is an old-time Democrat in political faith
and practice, and gives his party loyal and
continued support. On July 18. 18(55, ne was
joined in wedlock with Miss Mary Sellars, of
the same nativity- as himself. The}- have had
three children, of whom two. Belle and Delphia,
died in infancy. The one living is a daughter
named Pearl. Mr. and Mrs. Day are enter-
prising and are well esteemed throughout their
community.
ROBERT HELVEY.
Although "the slings and arrows of out-
rageous fortune" have at times been thick
around him. Robert Helvey, of Routt county,
residing on Deep creek, sixteen miles north-
west of Steamboat Springs, has encountered
them with resolute courage and determination,
and if he has not taken the buffets and rewards
with equal thanks, he has at least met' them
with an unyielding spirit, and even used some
of the buffets to his advantage. He began his
youth with family responsibilities upon him. far
beyond the weight due to his years, but he
bore them with a manly constancy and devotion
to duty, and thereby strengthened his character
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
for all the subsequent conflicts of life so that
he has triumphed over them, winning for him-
self a comfortable estate and securing at the
same time the lasting regard of his fellow-
men. He was born at Percival, Fremont
county. Iowa, on January 18, 1857, the son of
Melvin T. and Mary A. I Blair) Helvey. They
were early settlers in Iowa, where the father
was a prosperous farmer and devoted to rear-
ing his family of four children, three of whom
are living, Robert, Mrs. William Dunfield and
Charles. When the integrity of the Union was
threatened by armed resistance at the begin-
ning of the Civil war he joined the mustering
armies in its defense, and before the end of the
sanguinary conflict laid his life on the altar of
his country in one of its desperate battles. Thus
deprived of its main support, the family was
driven to the necessity of providing for its
maintenance as best it could, and so when
he was but fourteen years of age Robert was
obliged to give up his slender school advan-
tages and begin the battle of life for himself.
He earned his own living from this time on,
and even out of his meager wages contributed
to the support of his mother and the rest of
the family. Three years later the responsi-
bility of supporting the household fell more
heavily and almost wholly on him. but he re-
mained at home and performed his duty as well
as he could. In 1878. when he was twenty-one
years old, they moved to Nebraska and located
on a farm ten miles north of Nebraska City,
where all his hopes of profit were blasted by the
unwelcome invasion of the grasshoppers which
destroyed all his crops. In 1880 he moved to
Lincoln, that state, and there for a few months
followed teaming to get a new start. In the
summer of that year he came to Colorado and
located at Georgetown, being among the first
settlers there, and again found profitable em-
ployment as a teamster, remaining two years.
At the end of that period he sold his teams
and moved to Denver, where he worked in the
round house and as a fireman for the Union
Pacific and Colorado Midland railroads until
1884. He then changed his residence to
Cardiff and continued railroad work there for
a short time, at the end of which he moved to
Tacoma, Washington, where be followed rail-
roading and teaming until 1892. In that year
he came to Colorado, and the next year, mak-
ing Steamboat Springs his headquarter.^, en-
gaged in freighting and teaming which he
continued two years. In 1895 he homesteaded
on his present ranch of one hundred and sixty
acres, of which he cultivates one hundred and
ten with good returns. He has plenty of water,
being interested in two ditches, and having
made his own improvements and directed his
own ranching operations, has his place de-
veloped much to his taste and through his own
efforts. Hay, cattle and horses are his prin-
cipal productions, and on these be finds he can
securely and profitably rely. His mother, who
has accompanied him in his wanderings, now
resides at Steamboat Springs. On December
25. 1870. he was married to Miss Lavina
Holmes, a native of Cedar county. Iowa. They
had five children, three of whom died in in-
fancy and two are living, Harley and Mrs. Jay
Paxman. Their mother died on March 16,
1892, and on March 17, 1804. Mr. Helvey
married a second wife. Miss Effie A. Canton-
wine, who was born in Boulder county, this
state. Five children have blessed their union.
Of these a son named Floyd has died and
Stella E., Robert A.. Vera F. and Oscar W.
are living.
WILLIAM G. McCORMICK.
Although born and reared to the age of
fourteen in the mining regions of Lackawanna
county, Pennsylvania, and the son of a father
who afterward became a miner in Colorado,
522
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
William G. McCormick, of Routt county, one
of the prominent and progressive ranch and
cattle men of the Elk creek region and the
fourth settler on the creek, never caught the
mining fever, but during nearly the whole of
his life from his youth has been connected with
the ranch and stock industries of this state.
His life began on Christmas day, 1859, and
he is the son of David B. and Emeline Mc-
Cormick, the father a native of New York of
Scotch descent and the mother of Pennsyl-
vania of New England ancestry, her fore-
fathers being among the Pilgrims who landed
at Plymouth Rock in the early days of Mas-
sachusetts history. Air. McCormick's father
was a speculator in the East until 1873. In
that year he came to Colorado and located at
Denver, and near that city he followed min-
ing until 1889, when failing health obliged
him to abandon this pursuit. He was success-
ful in business and retired with a competence.
In public life he takes an active part as a Re-
publican, and in fraternal circles is connected
with the Masonic order. The mother died in
1869. They had four children, Eugene, Eliza-
beth. Wyatt and William G., all of whom are
living. William, the first born, was educated
at the common schools and assisted his parents
until he reached the age of twenty. Then, in
1879, he located in Fremont county and spent
four years ranching and raising cattle on Texas
creek. At the end of that period he took
charge of the Wendling & Schuyler ranch,
and continued in charge of it until 1888. He
then returned to Denver and began speculating
in land, but owing to the amount of almosi
worthless paper he was obliged to take in pay-
ments, his business was not profitable and he
abandoned it in 1890. With four hundred
dollars in money and a team and wagon which
he saved from the wreck he moved to Routt
county that fall and. squatting on a claim, de-
voted his attention to breaking horses for James
Kenney until the ensuing spring, when he pre-
empted his present ranch, which comprises
two hundred acres of tillable land. Here he
has made good improvements and brought his
tract to such a state of development that it
yields him excellent crops of hay, grain and
vegetables, hay and cattle, however, being his
principal products. He supports the Repub-
lican part}- in national politics. In October.
1882, he united in marriage with Miss Anna
Rounds, a native of Luzerne county, Pennsyl-
vania. They have five children. Claude, Nel-
son, Jessie, Edson and Walter. Mr. Mc-
Cormick has had his share of adversities in
life, but he has never yielded to them, always
keeping his courage up and exhibiting a spirit
of determination that no business calamity
should overcome his energy or determination
to succeed. And this earnestness of perse-
verance ami industry has won him his present
possessions and his well established hold on
the regard of his fellow men wherever he is
known.
WILLIAM H. JONES.
Born with a resolute and self-reliant spirit
rather than to favoring circumstances and op-
portunities, and reared through the hard school
of stern and relentless necessity to habits of
industry and thrift, with but little chance 1m
get mental training and book learning in the
schools provided for the purpose, William H.
Jones was essentially a self-made man, and by
his inherent qualities of manhood, progres-
siveness and general adaptability he rose to
prominence in his locality and found many
ways of being useful to his community, lie
was a native of Washington county, Tennessee.
whose life began on May 28, 1841, and the
son 1 >f John B. and Elizabeth (Martin) Jones,
also natives of Tennessee, who found their
final earthly home in Iowa, where the mother
died in 1846 ami the father in [848. They
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
523
were devout and serviceable Methodists and
passed their lives in diligent farming. The
father was a Republican in political alliance
and active in the service of his party. Twelve
children were born to them, six of whom arc-
living, William H., Virginia. Marguerite,
Mary, James and Samuel. Owing to the early
death of his parents William was thrown on
his own resources long before "manhood dark-
ened on his downy check." He was taken in
charge by relatives at Agency, near Ottumwa.
Iowa, and as soon as he was able was put to
work on their farm. When he determined to
start out in life for himself, he went to Mis-
souri, and after a short residence in that state
moved to Illinois, locating in McLean county
in 1861. There he passed five years in suc-
cessful farming, and in 1866 turned his at-
tention to raising and dealing in stock inde-
pendently of other farming operations. This
line of enterprise he pursued some time in Il-
linois, then changed his residence to near Her-
mitage, Hickory county, Missouri, where he
was engaged in tanning until 1878, and from
then until 1880 in various other occupations.
In the year last named he came to Colorado,
and during the next seven years followed min-
ing for wages and on leased properties at Lin-
coln City and Breckenridge. In 1887 he be-
came a resident of Routt county, locating a
portion of the present ranch on Trout creek on
a pre-emption claim, and afterward adding to
its extent until it now comprises three hundred
and three acres, of which two hundred can be
cultivated. The land was wholly uncultivated
and unimproved when he located on it, given
up to its wild growth of sage brush and wib
lows, and all that it shows in the way of im-
provement and tillage is the result of his own
continuous and judicious industry. Hay and
cattle are the principal products, but there are
also raised good crops of grain and vegetables.
He was the second settler on the creek, and
while he was obliged to endure many of the
privations incident to the life on the distant
frontier, he was never at a loss for food, as
wild game was plentiful and he became an un-
erring shot. Politically he supported the
Democratic party. On November 11, 1869, he
united in marriage with Miss Samantha Med y,
who died on November 21, 1903, leaving three
of their four children as her survivors, Russell,
I [any and Nora E., the other one having died
in infancy. Mr. Jones had the satisfaction of
knowing that his success in life was the result
of his own powers and efforts, and that he had
won it without the aid of circumstances or other
help of any kind. He died on May 5, 1905,
and was buried May 6th at Steamboat Springs,
Colorado.
GEORGE E. TRULL.
"Not honored less is he who founds than
he who heirs a line." and this is equally true as
to places and communities. The man who
strides boldly into the uninhabited wilderness
and there starts a family and builds up a re-
gion, peopling it with thrifty and progressive
inhabitants and bringing resources to the sup-
port of men and into the channels of commerce.
is as essentially a benefactor of mankind, as
1 me who receives from a long line of dis-
tinguished ancestors estates and interests of
value and keeps them in good forms of utility
and progress whereby many men profit, and in
the discernment of many judicious observers
the former is entitled to a much higher meed of
praise and credit. For he makes out of the
raw material what the other only maintains
and still further develops. George E. Trull
belongs to the class of new creators in that he
came to the section of Routt county in which
his flourishing ranch and cattle industries are
located, and there in the midst of a profound
and unbroken wilderness establishes a home
which has been the nucleus of a growing and
524
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
prosperous community, already well advanced
in development, and yielding to the public weal
a goodly store of wealth, enterprise and pro-
ductiveness. He was born on December 22,
1865, at South Paris, Oxford county, Maine,
and is the son of Edwin R. and Annie X.
Trull, themselves natives of Maine. The father
died when the subject was but two years old,
while the mother lives with her daughter, Mrs.
Wiley, at Nashua, New Hampshire. The
father was a prosperous manufacturer of car-
riages and kindred products. He was an active
Republican in politics and a Methodist in
church affiliation, as is now his widow. Two
of their children are living, George and his
sister Gertrude, wife of Archie Wiley. George
received a common-school education and
worked with his father for several years after
leaving' school. He began to earn his own liv-
ing at the age of twelve, and when he was a
good sized youth he became clerk in a dry-
goods store at Portland in his native state, and
afterward was in the employ of the Adams
Express Company at Boston, Massachusetts,
for three years. In 1886 he came to Colorado
and took up his residence in Routt county.
locating on a ranch which he pre-empted, then
improved and sold at a good profit. He has
since taken up the one he now owns at Trull on
a homestead claim, the place being named in
his honor, as he was the earliest settler there.
The ranch comprises one hundred and sixtv
acres, and he has one hundred and thirty under
cultivation. Cattle and hay are his principal
products and his business is flourishing, and
carried on with increasing magnitude and
profits. When he took up the land it was
covered with wild sag"e and had no buildings of
any kind. He has made his own improvements,
which arc a standing evidence of his enterprise
and taste, and by his industry he has made his
farm a very productive and valuable trad of
land. IK- is a stanch Republican in political
affairs, and fraternally belongs to the Modern
Woodmen of America. On Xovember 24,
1890, he was joined in wedlock with Miss
Martha McLaughlin, a native of Scotland.
They have had five children, three of whom,
Edwin, John and George, have died, and two,
Francis R. and Edward E., are living. Mrs.
Trull is the daughter of Richard and Mary
(Elliott) McLaughlin, who were born in Scot-
land and came to this country many years ago.
They are Presbyterians in church fellowship.
Of their nine children seven are living, Mrs.
Trull, Jane, Mar}-, John, James, William and
Peter. Since 1897 Mr. Trull has been post-
master of the office which bears his name. He
is also the road supervisor of his district, and
his services in both capacities have won him
hearty commendation from his friends and
neighbors, and all others who have occasion to
patronize the office or travel over the roads
which he keeps in order, his performance of his
official duties in both respects being in accord-
ance with his general demeanor, which covers
all the requirements of good citizenship with
fidelity, industry and intelligence.
ISAAC A. WILHELM.
Sprung from an old Pennsylvania family,
long resident in the historic county of Berks,
and for several generations carrying on ex-
tensive farming operations there. Isaac A.
Wilhelm. of Routt count)-, this state, with one
of the largest, most highly improved and suc-
cessfully cultivated ranches in the neighhor-
li 1 of Steamboat Springs, has brought to
Colorado an excellent inheritance of qualities
as a man and citizen and of well developed
faculties for labor and business, which lie lias
put into successful and productive operation
here, thereby fully justifying the promise of his
childhood and youth and vindicating the ster-
ling character of his ancestry. 1 le was born in
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLOR
Berks county, Pennsylvania, on March 17.
[866, and was educated at the district schools.
From the age of seventeen he has paddled his
own canoe in life, and has made steady prog-
ress in the work. Being practically a self-made
man, he has from his early manhood been well
aware of the strength and fiber of his make-up.
and has also known the value of self-reliance
and personal efforts in others. His parents.
Jacob and Mary Wilhelm, were also natives of
Pennsylvania, and in that state they passed
their lives. The father was an extensive farmer
and dealer in live stock, and both parents were
members of the German Reformed church.
The mother died in 1875 and the father is
also dead. They had eleven children, all of
whom are living, Mrs. Henry Snyder. Mrs.
Theresa Miller, James, George, Amelia, Jacob.
Jared. Isaac A.. Mrs. Frank Troutman. Mrs.
Frank Stout and Mrs. M. Sheet. When their
son Isaac left home to work for himself, he still
devoted a portion of his earnings for four
years, or until he reached his legal majority,
tn the assistance of his parents, during that
l :riod working on farms in Iowa and Kansas.
In [883 he became a resident of Colorado, lo
eating at Lake City where he engaged in min-
ing, working for wages and also operating
leased properties on his own account. In 1880
he moved to Cripple Creek, where he leased
mining properties and worked them with great
success and profit, remaining there until 1902.
when he took up his residence in Routt county,
purchasing his present ranch of five hundred
and sixtv acres, seven miles south of Steamboat
Springs. The land is all capable of easy culti-
vation and is well supplied with water. Since
buying the property he has made extensive and
valuable improvements, and pushed the de-
velopment of his land's fertility and product-
iveness to an advanced stage, having all his
energy and all his business capacity always in
play and making every day count to his ad-
vantage, i lay and cattle are his principal pn id-
ucts, and these are excellent in quality and
abundant in quantity. As he was one of the
most successful miners in the state so lie is one
of the most progressive and broad-minded
ranch and cattle men in his portion of it. In
political faith and devotion he is an ardent
Democral in national affairs, but in local mat-
ters he gives the first consideration to the sub-
stantial and enduring welfare of his community
and count}'. Xo citizen of his section stands
higher in the public regard, and none has
earned his position on more substantial merit.
ERVIX DAXIEL EATOX.
Although of prime Xew England ancestry,
his father, Sylvester Eaton, having been born
in Maine, and his mother, whose maiden name
was Jennie (Gibson) Leighton, in Vermont,
Ervin D. Eaton, of Routt county, is wholly a
product <•< the West. He was born at Utica,
Winona county, Minnesota, on July 10. [863,
and moved with his parents to Kansas in his
Boyhood. He secured his education in the
common schools and at the Davis City, Ne-
braska, high school. His parents were farm-
ers, and the father was a pronounced Repub-
lican in political faith. He died in Minnesota
in 1865. There were three children in the fam-
ily, one of whom. Marguerite, died in 1874.
The other two, both sons, John A. and Ervin
D., are living. The latter remained at home
working in the interest of his parents until
1 88 1, his later years before this date being
passed as bill clerk for A. P.. Sims & Com-
pany, wholesale merchants at Atchison. Kansas.
In 188 1 he came to Colorado and located at
Saguache, wdiere he worked on ranches for
wages until the fall of that year, when he re-
turned to Kansas, remaining two years. In
1883 he again became a resident of this state.
locating on a ranch in the vicinity of Delta.
52b
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
where he continued to live until the spring of
1885, when he disposed of his interests there
and turned his attention to merchandising at
Newcastle, Garfield county, in partnership with
M. C. Van de Venter, they having the distinc-
tion of building the first store at that town.
The partnership lasted two years, and at the end
of that period Mr. Eaton sold out and moved
to Aspen, where he followed mining until the
summer of 1S87, when he again returned to
Kansas. He remained in that state until 1893,
clerking' in a store at Corning. He then once
mi nc came to Colorado and took up a home-
stead three miles and a half southwest of
Yampa, Routt county. This he improved and
then leased it to a tenant, himself in 1898 be-
coming manager in the mercantile establish-
ment of H. J. Hemage at Yampa. He also
served as postmaster at Yampa in 1899. 1900
and 1 90 1. At the end of his term as post-
master he started a mercantile enterprise of his
own which he conducted until December, 1902,
when he sold the business to accept the office
of clerk and recorder for the county, a position
which he is still filling, and to which he was
elected as a Republican. He is still interested
in ranching, however, and owns one hundred
and sixty acres of superior land, all of which
is arable and under an advanced state of culti-
vation. In the spirit of improvement which
has done so much for the locality in which his
pr< ']>ertv is he has been active and zealous, help-
ing to build the Roaring Fork ditch and other
works of the kind, applying to local affairs for
the general good the same energy and intelli-
gence which he has used so effectively in ad-
vancing his own interests. He started in life
without money and has made his way un-
assisted through his own efforts and capacity to
consequence and comfort, holding firmly every
foot of ground he has gained and as well keep-
ing his place among the highest in the regard
ami good will of his fellow men. Fraternally
he is connected with the Alasonic order, the
Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of the World.
On June 6, 1888, he united in wedlock with
Miss Ida V. Neiman, a native of Wilkesbarre,
Pennsylvania. They have had four children,
one of whom died in infancy, and Arthur C,
Edith G. and Jessie L. are living. Capable in
business and popular in public life. Mr. Eaton
is easily one of the best citizens of the county.
NICHOLAS ELMER.
Nicholas Elmer, a younger brother of
Mathias, a sketch of whom will be found on
another page, was born on April 21, 1866, in
Switzerland, the son of Oswald and Dorothea
Elmer, of that country, where his mother died
on February 12, 1900, and his father is still
living. Mr. Elmer was educated at the state,
o minion schools and at the age of sixteen began
to earn his own living and work himself for-
ward in a business way. In 1882, deeming that
the opportunities for a poor man's advance-
ment were better amid the boundless possibili-
ties of this country than in the cramped and
crowded conditions of his own. he emigrated
to the United States and located in Green
county, Wisconsin, where he worked on a farm
fi 'f a year at a meager compensation. In 1883
he became a resident of Colorado, taking up
his home at Leadville. Here he worked a
year in the smelter, then in 1884 moved to the
Bear river valley, and in the vicinity of Hay-
den pre-empted eighty acres of land and took
up one hundred and sixty as a homestead.
Nearly all of his tract of two hundred and [1 irty
acres can be cultivated, and while hay and cat-
tle form his chief reliance, he also raises good
crops of grain and vegetables. His ranch is
six miles northeast of Hayden. giving him easy
access to a good market. Politically he sup-
ports the Republican party, and. like other
progressive and public-spirited men in his
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COEOh
5 2 7
neighborhood, he takes an active part in the
progress and development of the region, show-
ing his interest in its welfare by the improve-
ments he has made on his own wild tract and
the degree of productiveness to which he has
brought it by his industry and skill, and his
faith in its future by contributing liberally of
his time and means to all public interests.
WILLIAM PRITCHARD.
Born to a destiny and reared in an atmos-
phere of toil and privation, and with his
faculties sharpened and his mind invigorated
by his condition, when he came to a land of
boundless opportunities, William Pritchard, of
Routt county, who is now one of its most pro-
gressive and successful ranch and cattle men.
was prepared to work out a comely estate fr< mi
almost any conditions which fate might fling
before him, and turn every circumstance to
account in his favor, however untoward and
obdurate it might seem on its surface. He
came into this world in southern Wales on
May 10, 1S45, an d ne g rew to the age of
twenty-four in his native land, attending the
common schools at irregular and short intervals
and beginning the battle of life for himself at
the early age of eleven years. In 1869 he bade
farewell, to the unpromising land of his birth
and braved the heaving ocean for a chance in
the land of promise whose voice was then po-
tential through' >ut the civilized world in the
call for volunteers to her great army of agri-
cultural and industrial conquest for which
active campaigns were in progress, especially in
the West. On his arrival in this country he lo-
cated at New Cambria, Missouri, where he fol-
lowed railroad work until failing health obliged
him to seek another occupation. Moving then
to Iowa, he devoted his time to farming for
wages until 1872, and with an ambitious de-
sire to supplement his slender education, at-
tended school at intervals. In the sprii
[872 he became a resident of Georg<
Colorado, and during the next two years he
worked in the mines in that vicinity for wages.
In 1S74 he came to Routt county and located a
ranch on Snake river. This he improved to
some extent, then sold it in 1875. He then
went to Halm's Peak, and until 1883 he was
engaged in prospecting and mining in that
promising region, and although he sometimes
lost heavily in his ventures, on the whole he
was unusually successful. P>ut he was obliged
to pay a price that many would not have con-
sidered for his advantage, turning his back on
all the allurements and even the common com-
forts of civilization, and herding with the In-
dians, camping with them, sleeping with them
and often sharing the crude and unsavory food
on which they lived. They were friendly, how-
ever, and aided him in his aspirations, and in
this he found some compensation for the pri-
vations he was compelled to suffer. In 1883
he quit mining and located his present ranch
in Morgan bottoms, taking it as a homestead.
It comprises one hundred and fifty-one acres,
all of which is tillable, and on it he brings forth
every year good crops of hay, grain and vege-
tables. Here also he carries on a cattle in-
dustry of constantly increasing dimensions and
accumulating profits. He has made his ranch
one of the most desirable in his section, and his
success ranks him among the most progressive
and prominent men in his lines of activity on
the Western slope of the state. He belongs
to the Republican party and is an earnest and
zealous member of the Congregational church.
His ranch is five miles southeast of Hayden and
is well supplied with water. All its improve-
ments were made by him. His parents were
William and Mary (Davis) Pritchard. natives
of Wales, where both died, the father in 1846
and the mother in 1848. Of their five children
William is the only one living.
5^
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
ALBERT SQUIRE.
There is scarcely a parallel in human
history to the benefactions the United States
nf America have furnished to mankind. When
laid open to the gaze of over-crowded and over-
wrought Europe, as it was at that time, it was
a range of boundless opportunity for enter-
prise, waiting only for the hand of systematic
industry to develop its resources and set its
stores of hidden wealth flowing through all
the channels of trade, and inviting the world
to come and put the currents in motion. The
world has accepted and is still accepting the
imitation, and here upon our soil we have a
real democracy of labor in its shirt sleeves at
work where work will pay. Among the men
of foreign birth who have come hither with
high hopes of substantial gain, and with eyes
to see and force to grasp the opportunities so
generously proffered, Albert Squire, of Routt
count}-, this state, is one who is worthy of
honorable mention and a high regard. He
came with almost nothing but his native force
and ability, and like many another of his kind,
he has commanded the wilderness to "stand
ruled" and deliver up its hoarded provender to
bis needs, and it has obeyed the masterful sum-
mons under his persistent and well applied
energy. Air. Squire, the son of William and
Mary Squire, of Milton Abbot, Devonshire,
England, was born in that county on April 7,
[853. Mis father was a prosperous miner and
farmer, and both parents were devout mem-
bers of the Bible Christian church. The father
died in his native land in December, 1870, and
the mother is also dead. Of their seven chil-
dren William. John and Richard died, and the
other four are living. Albert remained with
his parents until he reached the age of nineteen
year-., getting what education be could in ir
regular attendance upon the ministrations of
the common schools and assisting in the farm
work 1 if the parental home. On June 5, 1872,
he set sail for this country, and on his arrival
here located for a short time in New Jersey.
From there he moved to the copper regions of
northern Michigan, in both states giving his
attention to mining. In October. 1875, he be-
came a resident of Colorado, and from then
until 1884 he mined in Boulder, Gilpin, Jef-
ferson, Clear Creek and Lake counties, must
of the time with headquarters at Central City
and the rest at Leadville. In 18S4 he changed
his residence to his present location, seven
miles northeast of Hayden, Routt county, and
his occupation to ranching and raising cattle.
He homesteaded on one hundred and sixty
acres of land which was at the time unprofit-
ably gay with its wild growth of sage and
willows. This he improved and reduced to
productiveness, then bought another tract of
equal magnitude to which he applied the same
process. The whole body now yields him
generous returns for his labor in hay, grain
and vegetables, and handsomely supports his
large herds of good cattle. Politically Mr.
Squire adheres to the Republican party. He
was married on March 1, 1880, to Miss Mina
L. Ingram, a native of Richland county, Wis-
consin. They have had twelve children, of
whom Alary B., Mina E. and Cabin have died,
and Sadie M., Margery E. Lena May. Frank-
lin, Reuben, Pearl, Daisy, Joe and Andrew are
living. The mother died on March 27. 1904.
WILLIAM ERWIN.
That circumstances have much to do with
the life of a man has been abundantly dem-
onstrated in every period of the world's
history from its dawn. But that they have
not unlimited sway has also often been proven
and finds a new illustration in the career of
William Erwin, of Routt county, whose Home
is in the neighborhood of Hayden, and who
came to Colorado twenty four years ago empty-
EROGRESSITE MEN OF WESTERN COLOR.iDU.
529
handed and is now a citizen of consequence.
with a comfortable esteem which he has wen
from hard conditions by his own persevering in-
dustry and business capacity. Circumstances
were not in his favor but he commanded them
to his service and has made even his adversities
minister to his progress. Mr. Erwin is a na-
tive of Union county, Ohio, born near the
town of Milford on his father's farm, on July
24, 1854. He received only a common-school
education, being obliged from an early age to
take his place and keep it in the ranks of those
who were doing the work of the farm. He is
the son of Robert and Eva Erwin, natives of
Ohio. The mother died in her native state in
1861, and since then the father has lived in
that state, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and the
territory of Oklahoma, where he now resides.
He has followed farming during the greater
part of his life. During the Civil war he
served in defense of the Union as a member
of an Ohio infantry regiment. He is a Re-
publican in political belief, and a man of in-
fluence where he lives. The family comprised
two daughters and one son, Amanda (Mrs.
Sipes), Lola (Mrs. William Hutchinson) and
William. From 1863 to 1869 William lived
at Albany, Illinois, with his father, and after
that for some years in Monroe county, Iowa,
from where he moved with the family to Mis-
souri. In 1876 he became a resident of Colo-
rado, and after a short stay at Denver, moved
to Rollinsville, in what is now Gilpin county.
He did not remain there long, however, but
soon after went to Boulder county and then to
Gunnison county. In these various places he
was occupied in making ties for the railroads,
ranch work and prospecting. Two years of his
time he passed in New Mexico, prospecting
and mining, with alternate success and failure.
In 1882 he located on his present ranch on
Bear river. This comprises one hundred and
ten acres and yields good crops of hay, grain
34
and vegetables, but horses, cattle and hay are
his chief products. He made the improvements
on his land and redeemed it wholly from the
waste. He was also an important factor in
the improvement and development of the neigh-
borhood, helping to build all its ditches, roads
and bridges, and its schoolhouses and other
public buildings. In all he has borne his share
of the labor and care with manliness and cheer-
fulness and given the force of an excellent ex-
ample to others. Politically he is a Republican
and fraternally an Odd Fellow. On November
11. 1887, he united in marriage with Miss J.
D. Adair, a daughter of \Y. C. Adair, of Mc-
Minn county, Tennessee. They have had six
children, of whom Floyd and Grace have died
and Mattie V., Alva E.. Howard and Mabel
are living, well liked by all who know them.
EZEKIEL SHELTON.
Ezekiel Shelton is a successful and pros-
perous ranch and cattle man, who from an
early age has managed his own fortunes and
by industry, sobriety and frugality has built
them from nothing to their present proportions
which make him one of the leading men of his
section in Routt county, and well known as a
man of prominence and influence in other por-
tions of the state. He was born on January
28, 1833, at New Lisbon, Columbiana county,
Ohio, the son of Samuel and Nancy Shelton,
the former a native of Maryland and the
of Ohio, where both died after many years
of useful and productive life. The father set-
tled in Ohio in 1807, among the first in the sec-
tion where he cast his lot, and to the end of
his life was a successful farmer and a promi-
nent man there, taking an active part in politics
on the Democratic side, and both he and his
wife being active workers in the Methodist
church. He died on December 2. 1885, aged
seventy-eight years, and his wife on February
53°
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
14, 1S97, aged eighty-two. Of their eleven
children four are living. David B., Homer B..
Vernon T. and Ezekiel. The last named re-
ceived a good common-school education and
then completed his course at the Salem, Ohio,
high school. He remained at home engaged
on the paternal farm until 1854. when he en-
gaged in farming for himself and continued his
operations in his native locality four years with
success. When the oil excitement broke out
in Pennsylvania in 1858, he invested his sav-
ings in the new industry and lost them. In
1866 he took up surveying and engineering
work as a regular occupation, and for many
years thereafter pursued it with ardor and
profit, winning distinction by his skill and en-
terprise. He served as city engineer at Al-
liance, Ohio, from 1871 to 1878, and was the
chief engineer and surveyor in the construction
of the Alliance & Lake Erie Railroad, and in
his capacity as engineer had charge of the first
street paving at Alliance. In 1879 he became
a resident of Colorado and, locating at Breck-
enridge. engaged in surveying mining claims.
In 1882 he moved to the vicinity of Hayde'n in
Routt county, being one of its first settlers, and
homesteaded on his present ranch, which com-
prises one hundred and sixty acres and yields
abundant crops of hay, grain and vegetables,
and supports large herds of good cattle which
form the principal source of revenue. He has
made many improvements on his ranch which
add greatly to its beauty and value, and is
steadily pushing its development forward with
gratifying results of enduring worth. Taking
always an earnest interest in the welfare of
the county, he served seven years as county
surveyor, three years as county commissioner
and one term as county school superintendent.
He is now the United States commissioner and
a stanch Republican in political affiliation. He
is also a notary public and president of the
Routt County Pioneer Association. He has
probably done more surveying than any other
man on the Western slope of this state, having
surveyed over one thousand irrigation ditches.
In his youth he took the uncompromising stand
of a total abstainer from alcoholic liquors and
tobacco, and still adheres to it firmly. He is
among the most generous of Colorado citizens,
from the earliest days of his residence here
having his house ever open to the claims of
hospitality, and is one of the most prominent
and reliable men in his county. Fraternally he
belongs to the order of Odd Fellows. On Sep-
tember 1, 1859. ne was married to Miss Mary
S. Entriken, a native of Chester county, Penn-
sylvania, and they have had four children. Of
these Samuel died and Mrs. C. P. Bowman,
Byron T. and William are living. The parents
are earnest and zealous members of the Con-
gregational church. Meeting with fidelitv and
ability the requirements of every public duty
and every line of private life, omitting no effort
on his part to make his existence and his citi-
zenship as serviceable to his fellows as circum-
stances would allow, and stimulating others
to usefulness by his example, Mr. Shelton de-
serves the high esteem in which he is held and
the general public confidence which he enjoys.
GEORGE D. WOOLLEY.
George D. Woolley, head of the firm of
Woolley Brothers, extensive and prominent
stock men doing business on Bear river near
Craig, was born in Jefferson county, Colorado,
on July 26, 1872, and is the son of George and
Hannah Woolley, the former a native of New
York state and the latter of Ireland. During
the early manhood of the father he followed
mining, but his later years were devoted to
ranching and raising cattle. Fie came to Colo-
rado in 1861 and located at Nevadaville. He
mined in this neighborhood until 1871, having
varied success and failure, then moved to
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
53 1
Golden where he mined for a time, then turned
his attention to ranching as has been noted.
Fraternally he was a Knight of Pythias and
politically a Democrat. He died on June 7,
1888, leaving his wife and six children as his
survivors, all of whom are still living. The
children are Charles L.. Effie, wife of John
Mack. Mary E., wife of Joseph McKay, Ida
C, wife of James Finlay, Lillian G., wife of
Harry Terrill, and George D. The last named
was educated at the common and high schools
in his native county and remained at home
with his parents assisting in their labors urrtil
he reached his seventeenth year. In 1893, in
partnership with his brother Charles, he pur-
chased three hundred and twenty acres of land,
one of the ranches now owned and worked by
the firm, which was then well covered with
sage brush. This they Ijegan at once with
energy and judgment to improve and reduce
to productiveness. In 1896 they bought an-
other ranch of two hundred acres, and this
also they have redeemed to fertility and come-
liness and furnished it with good buildings and
other improvements necessary to a first-class
ranching and cattle business. Their crops on
both places are large and the quality is su-
perior, and their cattle industry is one of the
leading ones in this part of the county. The
brothers take a deep and helpful interest in the
public and fraternal life of the community,
George being a member of the Masonic order
and the Woodmen of the World, and both being
Democrats in political alliance. They are pro-
gressive, enterprising and popular, zealous for
the advancement and improvement of the com-
munity, and the county in which they live, and
always willing to bear their share of the burden
incident to the best interests of the public.
( rei >rge D. was married on September 25, 1901,
to Miss Catherine E. Finley, a native of Deca-
tur count)-. Kansas, a daughter of Rolland W.
and Laura E. (White) Finley, a sketch of
whom will be seen on another page of this
work. Mr. and Mrs. Woolley have one child,
their son Raymond D. The style of the firm
under which the ranching business is conducted
is Woolley Brothers. It is well known through-
out a wide extent of country as a synonym for
uprightness and integrity as well as enterprise
and progressiveness in business, while the in-
dividual members of the firm are highly es-
teemed as men and citizens.
ALEXANDER HERON.
Of sturdy Scotch ancestry on his mother's
side and of as sturdy English on his father's.
Alexander Heron, of near Pagoda. Routt
county, combines in himself the best traits
of both races and has brought to the further-
ance of his interests in this country the vigor,
enterprise and breadth of view which he in-
herited from both parents. He was born in
Glasgow. Scotland, on March 30. 1868, and is
the son of Peter and Katharine (McDonald)
Heron, the former a native of England and the
latter of Scotland. The father was a baker
and worked at his trade for more than thirty
years. He then turned his attention to farm-
ing and was successful in the venture. He was
a Catholic and the mother belonged to the Free
Church of Scotland. The latter died on Octo-
ber 13, 187 1, and the former on October 4.
1SS4. Eight of their ten children are" living,
Alexander. George, James. Edith, Anna,
Emily, Mary and Isabella. Alexander, the
fifth born of those living, had few and scant
educational privileges. In 1885, at the age of
seventeen, leaving the scenes and associations
of home, he braved the heaving ocean with
high hopes for the land of promise on this side
of the water, where there was abundance of
opportunity for thrift and enterprise and ample
rewards for worth and industry. Arriving 111
Colorado, he located on Pdue river, where he
53^
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
found profitable employment as a ranch hand.
After passing a year in this work he went to
Dodge City, Kansas, in search of more genial
occupation, but not finding the country there
to his taste, he returned to Colorado and found
his way to the prolific region which borders
Williams fork in Routt county. In the mean-
time, however, he had resumed ranch work at
Rock}- Ford and Colorado Springs, where he
remained until 1888. On Williams fork he
pre-empted a ranch which he still owns and on
which he has expended his labor to good ad-
vantage. Until 1898 he was in partnership
with his brother George in this enterprise, but
since then he has owned and managed the ranch
alone, the partnership having been dissolved
harmoniously. The ranch now comprises four
hundred and eighty acres and two hundred and
fifty acres are good arable land now under ad-
vanced cultivation and yielding abundant
harvests of the crops peculiar to the region.
Cattle-raising is the chief industry and this is
carried on extensively and profitably. But
grain is raised in large quantities, especially
wheat for which the land on this ranch is said
to lie the best on the fork. With characteristic
enterprise and commendable faith in his knowl-
edge on the subject, Mr. Heron introduced the
Angora goat into this section, and the results
of the undertaking have justified his prescience
and highest hopes. He owns a fine flock of the
goats and finds them a source of considerable
revenue. In political relations Mr. Heron is
a Republican. He was married on December
14, 1899, to Miss Jessie Cameron, a native of
Ingham county, Michigan, where her parents,
John and Agnes (Wasson) Cameron, natives of
Ireland, settled when they arrived in this coun-
try, and where they made their final home.
They were prosperous farmers, and the father
supported the Democratic party in American
politics. He died in Michigan in 1874 and liis
widow in 1SS0. Mr. and Mrs. Heron have a
host of friends in their community and are al-
ways named among the best citizens of the
neighborhood.
ALBERT T. JOHNSON.
Albert T. Johnson, of near Pagoda, Routt
county, is a younger brother of Louis J. John-
son, of the same neighborhood, a sketch of
whom will be found on another page of this
work in which the family history is told at
some length. Mr. Johnson was horn at Cen-
tral City, this state, on October 29, 1870, and
received a slender education in the public
schools of that vicinity. At the age of four-
teen he began to support himself by hauling ore
for the Alger-Kansas Mining Company at
Central City, in which his father had an inter-
est. After something more than a year of this
arduous toil, which was particularly hard for a
boy of his years, he moved to Williams fork
and homesteaded on his present ranch of one
hundred and sixty acres, being among the
earliest settlers of the region. Taking hold of
the wild land with vigor and accepting the pri-
vations of the far frontier with courage and
cheerfulness, he soon had a comfortable abode
and began to enjoy the fruits of a few pliant
acres which he was cultivating. At this time
(1904) he has a large body of his ranch in
abundant productiveness and a wide range of
grazing land for his cattle. He has been and is
very enterprising and progressive, and has
commanded the land to yield its tribute to him
with the voice of a master, and although the
response was grudging and small at first his
energy and mastery have prevailed and it is
g'enerous and of elevated quality at present. In
the fraternal life of the community Mr. John-
son mingles as a member of the Woodmen of
the World and in its political activities as an
earnest working Democrat. lie was married
on May 3. [904, to Mis-- Margaret Moller, a
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
native of Denver, and at the time of her mar-
riage a public school teacher at Pyramid, where
she had been teaching' four years.
HIRAM H. BARNARD.
From the time when he was but fifteen
years old Hiram H. Barnard, now a resident of
Craig, Routt county, has been actively, closely
and continuously connected with the cattle in-
dustry, and in his long and varied experience
in this connection he has visited every part of
the West, northern, central and southern, and
has encountered many dangers, suffered many
hardships and endured many privations. He
lias met all classes of people, white, black and
red. has had numerous thrilling adventures and
some very narrow escapes, and has been
through every phase of life incident to his en-
ticing but hazardous occupation. Mr. Barn-
ard was horn in Lavaca county, Texas, at the
town' of Hallettsville, on November i, 1857.
His educational advantages were few and of
short duration. He lived in a country where
work was essential from every capable hand
to provide the necessaries of life, and at the age
<if fifteen lie began making his own living by
riding the range in the cattle industry in his
native state. He remained there so occupied
until 1878, when he journeyed over the trail
to Cheyenne, Wyoming. During that year and
a part of the next he was associated with the
Swann Land and Cattle Company. On March
4, 1870. he began an engagement with G. A.
Searight and in his interests he went from
Cheyenne to Kelton, Utah, over the stage
route to Umatilla Landing. There he received
sixteen thousand cattle for Wyoming, which
he brought safely to their destination. He re-
mained with this outfit until May r. T882. when
he became associated with the Powder River
Cattle Company on Powder river. In the
spring of 1883 lie entered the employ of
Tomson & E. C. Johnson, of Sweetwater, at a
point called Devil's Gate, and in the spring of
1S88. leaving that firm, he became connected
with the Ora Haley Cattle Company. During
[889 and 1890 he furnished timber for the
mines owned by the Colorado Fuel ami Iron
Company at Newcastle under contract, and in
1891, again turning to the cattle industry, he
entered the employ of the White River Cattle
Company, with which he remained until [894.
He then once more became associated with Ora
Haley and passed that year and the next buy-
ing cattle in Utah. Idaho and Oregon for east-
ern markets. Since then he has continued in
the employ of Mr. Haley, with headquarters
at Craig. He is manager for the company and
is considered on all sides one of the best qual-
ified and most capable cattle men in the West.
Politically Mr. Barnard is a Democrat and
fraternally an Odd Fellow. He was married
on April 13, 1904. to Miss Anna Bassett, a na-
tive of Colorado, the first white girl born in
Routt county. Mr. Barnard is the son of Alex-
ander and Amanda (Cathevins) Barnard, na-
tives of Tennessee who made Oregon their final
home. The father followed ranching and rais-
ing cattle with success. He died in 1893 anr ^
the mother in 1895. Four children survive
them, William M.. Benjamin P.. May. wife of
Jesse Smotherman. and Hiram H.
LOUIS A. JOHNSON.
Inheriting from his father a love of adven-
ture and a desire for the frontier, Louis A.
Johnson, of Routt county, living near Pagoda.
started out early in life to paddle his own
canoe, and to this end sought the fruitful fields
of Colorado, arriving in the state when he was
but fourteen years old. since which time he has
been a resident of the state and busily occupied
in some one or another of its various industries.
He was born on April 19, i860, at Nebraska
^54
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
City, Nebraska, and is the son of Anton L. and
Annie Johnson, who were born and reared in
Germany and emigrated to the United States in
1846. They settled in Nebraska where they
kept a hotel three years. In 1850. charmed with
the golden music then thrilling the world from
far away California, the father set out with ox
teams for that promising eldorado, and after
arriving there engaged in mining for a few
vears. He was very successful in his search for
gold and returned East where he had property
and had left his family. He remained in Ne-
braska until i860 when he had a second attack
of western fever and again crossed the plains
from Julesburg along the Platte to Central
City this state. He soon acquired an interest
in the Alger-Kansas mine there and again for-
tune rewarded his enterprise with good returns.
The mine was of both quartz and placer prod-
uct and yielded rich stores of the precious
metals to its early workers. Subsequently his
family followed him to the state and he made
his final home at Denver where he achieved a
gratifying success in lending money and in the
real estate business and attained prominence in
the business and political circles of the city. He
died in Denver on March 2, 1903, and since
then the mother has made her home with her
sons. Of their six children five are living,
John H. and Louis J., who were born in Ne-
braska, and Lena N., Mrs. C. F. Ergy and Al-
bert T., natives of Colorado. Louis J. received
a meager education in the common schools, and
at the age of ten became self-supporting by
working for his mother on the Nebraska farm.
In 1874, when he was but fourteen, he followed
his father to Central City, this state, and there
he found employment hauling ore for the Al-
ger-Kansas Mining Company, which he did
until 1884. Determined then to turn his atten-
tion to ranching, he moved to Routt county
and stopped on Williams fork, at that time a
wholly uncultivated region, with stores of agri
cultural wealth in its soil waiting for the per-
suasive hand of the husbandman to bring them
forth. Mr. Johnson was one of the first seven
arrivals in the region, but he did not just then
remain. After passing some time in hunting
and trapping large game, in which he was very
successful, he returned to Central City in the
spring of 1885, and during a year thereafter
he mined for wages. In the summer of 1886 he
returned to Williams fork and took up his pres-
ent ranch as a homestead. This comprises one
hundred and sixty acres of first-class land but
was then virgin in its state of nature and while
offering rewards for industry and enterprise
laid a heavy price of these qualities on its offer-
ing. Mr. Johnson at once began with energy
to improve his property and make it product-
ive, and he now has one of the choice tracts
and most comfortable homes in this section.
Fifty acres of this land smile on his toil with
abundant harvests and the rest affords fine pas-
turage for his cattle. He is independent in
political action but omits no effort required of
him in the development of the section in which
he has cast his lot. In the local affairs of the
community he has influence as a wise counsel-
or and an energetic worker and has been poten-
tial for good in promoting the general welfare
of its people by his own work and the inspira-
tion he has given to others by his example.
Routt county has no better citizen and ro me
whi > is held in higher regard by her people.
CHARLES F. EGRY.
One of the leading, most enterprising and
most successful ranch and cattle men of Wil-
liams fork country, where he owns a large
ranch in advanced state of cultivation and with
good improvements on it which he has made
himself, converting a barren wilderness into
one of the best ranches and most attractive
homes in the section Charles F. Egry. of Pyra-
PROGRESSII'E MEN OE WESTERN COLORADO.
535
mid, Routt county, is now enjoying the fruits
of his useful and unremitting labors and is
comfortable in an estate which he has won fn >m
obdurate conditions and through many trials
by his own persevering industry and energy.
He is a native of the great state of Ohio, born
at Hamilton, Butler county, on November 2$,
1867. In early youth after short and irregular
attendance at the district schools, he began to
bear the burden of life for himself. He learned
the trade of plumbing and gas fitting and
wrought at it ten years in his native state. In
1888 he came to Colorado and located on his
present ranch and here he lias since conducted
a general ranching and cattle industry of large
proportions and commensurate profits. In
1896 the postomce of Pyramid was established
at his home and he has ever since been the post-
master. He belongs to the Masonic order. ( >u
October 12, 1893, he united in marriage with
Miss Rose E. Johnson, a native of Colorado,
daughter of Anton L. and Annie (Abbel) John-
son and sister of Louis J. and Albert T. John-
son, sketches of whom appear elsewhere in this
work, which see for biographical notes of the
parents. Mrs. Egry prior to her marriage was
a teacher in the public schools at Craig. In the
Egry household six children have been born
and are living, Anna C, Fred L.. Helena M..
Alary E., William L. and Albert C. Mr. Egry's
father was Frederick Egry, a native of Ger-
many, who came to America at the age of
twelve years and learned the printer's trade.
The mother, whose maiden name was Caroline
( )uofr, was born in Ohio, and, with her hus-
band, settled at Hamilton, Ohio, where they
ended their days, the mother dying in [873 and
the father on February 18, 1903. He was the
editor and owner of the Hamilton Telegraph
for many years and later carried on a profitable
insurance business. In politics he was an
ardent Democrat and taking an active part in
municipal affairs at Hamilton, was elected
o luncilman and mayor of the city several times.
Fraternally he was connected with the Masons
Odd Fellows and the United Workmen. Of the
four children born in the family three are liv-
ing William L.. Alois E. and Charles F. Suc-
cessful in business, prominent in social life, in-
fluential in local affairs and generally highly
respected, Mr. Egry is easily one of the lead-
ing citizens of the county and fully di ■-■
the regard and good will of his fellow men
which be so largely enjoys.
REINHARD D. MILLER.
It is a high tribute to the citizen soldiery
of our country that after the toils, privations
and dangers of busy campaigns, when "grim
visaged war has smoothed his wrinkled front."
the armies melt at once into the ordinary cur-
rents of life and seek amid the white harvests
of peaceful industry forgetfulness of the red
fields of battles whereon great questions of
human destiny have been settled. This inspir-
ing fact is forcibly illustrated in the case of
the interesting subject of this memoir. A val-
iant soldier of two countries and three wars,
making therein a record for unsurpassed dar-
ing and skill as a cavalry trooper, and bearing
honorable discharges from the service in which
he distinguished himself and rose to official
position, he is now pursuing with industry and
enthusiasm the peaceful vocation of a farmer
and stock-grower in one of the remote but high-
ly favored sections of this state and is as vigor-
ous and energetic in the management of his
present business as he was daring and gallant
in military life. Mr. Miller was born in Prus-
sia on March 21. 1849, the son of John and
Henrietta Miller, also natives in the fatherland,
where they lived, labored and died, and were
finally laid to rest in their natal soil like their
ancestors for many generations before them.
The father was a forester and game keeper for
536
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
many years; and both parents were devoted
Lutherans in religious faith. They had three
children who survive them. Wilhelmina, Rein-
hard and Adeline. The son grew to manhood
and was educated in his native land. After
leaving school, like his father he became a for-
ester for a time and then served his time in the
German army, fie was in the service at the
time of the Franco-German war and followed
the standards of his country from their first
victory at Weissenberg to the time when they
waved in final triumph over the palace of Ver-
sailles. In the autumn following the close of
this war he emigrated to the United States and
located in New Jersey where he did street con-
struction work for a year. He then moved to
Virginia and again engaged in farming. Later
he became a resident and a prosperous garden
er in Maryland. Turning his eyes toward the
setting sun. he found himself next in Illinois
where he passed a year and a half farming near
Beardstown. At the end of that period he en-
listed in the Third United States Cavalry at
St. Louis and served five years in Troop L,
being stationed during the term at several dif-
ferent posts and seeing many of the dangers
of Indian warfare, among his experiences of
horror being the Meeker massacre in 1879. He
rose to the rank of sergeant and as such was
discharged at the end of his term. The years
1881 and 1882 were passed by him in hunting
and trapping n White river in this state, and
in 1883 he again joined the arm) . enlisting in
Troop B at Leavenworth, Kansas. At the
end of another term of five years' faithful serv-
ice he was honorably discharged at San An-
tonio, Texas, in 1888. In the two terms he
served in the regular army he made a dazzling
record as a cavalry rider and won high com-
mendations from his commanders. In 1888 he
returned to Colorado and located his present
ranch of one hundred and sixty acres on ;•.
homestead claim. On fifty acres of this he
raises good crops of hay, grain and vegetables,
and the rest is used as grazing land for his cat-
tle, which form his chief resource on the ranch.
All the improvements on the land were made
by him and its successful cultivation is due to
his industry and skill. The ranch is located on
Williams fork. On September 29, 1901, Mr.
Miller was united in marriage with Mrs. Ade-
heid Bar, like himself a native of Prussia, who
came to this country when young. His mili-
tary record and his sterling worth have brought
Mr. Miller the cordial regard and high esteem
of his fellow citizens in Routt county and else-
where where he is known. In political affairs
he ardently supports the principles and candi-
dates of the Republican party.
HUGH TORREXCE.
Coming to Colorado when a young man for
the benefit of his health, and with the hopes
and aspirations of his life overclouded by
disease, then finding here the relief he sought
ami gaining strength and restored energy in
the health-giving climate, Hugh Torrence be-
came one of the producing and creating mem-
bers of the state's citizenship, and has since
risen to consequence and influence in its busi-
ness circles and prominence in the public affairs
of the section in which he cast his lot. In Fay-
ette county. Pennsylvania, on October 22.
1R43. his life began, and on the paternal home-
stead in that great hive of industry he grew to
manhood, attending in a small and irregular
way the district schools and working when he
could on the farm. His parents were Hugh
ami Anna Torrence. themselves natives of
Pennsylvania, and throughout a large portion
of their lives useful and respected citi 1
that state. The father was a merchant and
farmer and prospered in bis various undertak-
ings. He was a Republican in politics and gave
carm-st and helpful attention to the public
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
537
local affairs of his county. Death ended his
labors in 1867. and those of his widow in [884.
Of the five children born to them Mrs. John
Witteman died 1882 and William in 1897.
The other three are living. The family moved
to Illinois late in life and some time afterward
to Missouri. The son Hugh A. Torrence left
home in 1873 and came to Colorado as has been
stated, for the benefit of his health. He took up
his residence in the vicinity of Denver, where
he remained a year. In 1874. being much im-
proved, he moved into the Bear river country.
and later changed his residence to Grand
county. Here he passed two years more, still in
search of health, and engaged principally in
•hunting and fishing. In 1876 he found himself
so far improved that he determined to establish
a home in the state which had given his vigor
of body and vivacity of mind, and to that end
built the first cabin put up in Routt county, a
little log shack which provided shelter and such
of the comforts of life as were available in that
then far away section, and went to raising cat-
tle. He was in the wilderness and alone save
for the presence of Indians and wild beasts,
whose proximity was often more menacing
than companionable or helpful. Great priva-
tions and hardships were plentiful in his lot.
and clanger was ever present. But the wild
life had its compensations in man}' ways, and
Ik- bravely endured the rest. In 1882 lie
formed a partnership with Charles Hullet in
the cattle and ranching industry, which la ted
until the death of Mr. Hullet, on April 30,
1903. The chief products of their enterprise
were hay and cattle, as they are of Mr. Tor-
rence's efforts now, and in his business he has
been very successful. His ranch comprises two
thousand acres, three hundred of which are
under energetic and skillful cultivation. The
needful water for irrigation is supplied from
ditches belonging to the property, and as the
ranch is only twenty-four miles from Meeker.
a good market for its products is within easy
reach. Mr. Torrence has devoted himself al-
ni' 1st wholly to his work and has become one of
the most prosperous and prominent stock men
011 the Western slope. He is a stanch Republi-
can in politics, and no exigency of his private
affairs ever causes him to slacken in devotion
to the interests of his party. In business circles
and in the public life of his county he is in-
fluential and he is highly esteemed and re-
spected wherever he is known.
WILLIAM R. DEAKINS.
To le born and reared on a farm and re-
ceive a limited education at the district schools
is the common lot of millions of men in this
country wherein the agricultural interests so
largely prevail: and to follow the industry to
which they arc bred and slick to it through life
is also the lot of millions. And in this class of
people is to be found our best, most progressive
and most self-reliant citizenship in all sections
of the country. This has been the lot of Wil-
liam R. Deakins. of near Pagoda, Routt coun-
ty, one of the enterprising and representative
cattle and ranch men of his section who. al-
though far from the place of his nativil
amid far different surroundings from those of
his youth and early manhood, is still engaged in
the paternal occupation of farming with such
modifications of conditions and circumstances
as the difference of location makes necessary.
He was born in Buchanan county, Missouri, on
April 17. 1865, the son of Henry and Sarah C.
Deakins. the former a native of eastern Ten-
nessee and the latter of Missouri. The father
was a successful farmer, a Democrat in politics
and a man of influence in the neighborhood
of his home. Of the seven children of whom
they were the parents two died in infancy and
William R.. Henry T.. Sarah J.. Charles M.
and John W. are now living. The father died
538
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
on October 17, 1882, and the mother now
makes her home in eastern Kansas. Their son
William remained at home and assisted his pa-
rents until he reached the age of twenty-two,
then in June, 18S7, he became a resident of this
state and pre-empted a portion of the ranch on
which he has since resided and which he has
increased to three hundred and sixty acres. He
has one hundred and twenty-five acres under
cultivation and producing good annual crops of
hay and grain. He also raises large numbers
of cattle and finds the industry agreeable and
profitable as an occupation. Mr. Deakins was
one of the first settlers on Williams fork and he
is accounted one of the most progressive cit-
izens of the region. He took up his land in its
state of natural wildness without improve-
ments of any kind. The soil was still virgin to
the plow and its wild growth was profitless to
the husbandman. From this condition he has
by his industry and energy redeemed his place
and made it a comfortable and attractive home,
bountiful with the fruits of cultivated life and
smiling with the evidences of thrift and taste.
Fraternally Mr. Deakins is a master Mason and
politically an enthusiastic Democrat. In the
public affairs of his community and county he
takes a serviceable part, cheerfully bearing his
share of the burdens and modestly giving his
share of the counsel needed for their proper
management and the proper development of
the best interests of the people. On all sides he
is considered a wise, upright and useful citizen.
worthy of the cordial regard in which he is gen-
erallv held throughout the community.
JOHN H. FRAHM.
The life of this prosperous and enterprising
ranchman has been for the most part unevent-
ful, but has given a good illustration of fidelity
to duty and the capacity for self advancement
without the aid of outside help. He was bom
on August ii. [868, at Stafstedt, Germany,
where his ancestors lived many generations be-
fore him, bis parents. Henry and Wipca
Frahm, having also been b< m there, and hav-
ing passed their industrious and creditable lives
there. The father was a well-to-do farmer,
ami both were members of the Lutheran
church. They bad a family of ten children,
eight of whom they reared to maturity and all
of whom are still living. They are George,
Katharine, John, Dedlef, Henry, Lena, Eliza-
beth and Anna. The father died in 1874 and
the mother in 1886. The advantages of school-
ing available to their son John were neither
numerous nor continued, so that he is practical-
ly a self-made man. After leaving the common
schools, which he attended for short periods at
intervals, he entered the German army for a
term of three years, going in as a private and
being mustered out as a corporal. At the age
of twenty-one and the close of his term of mili-
tary service he emigrated to the United States
and came to Colorado. On arriving here he se-
cured employment as a ranch hand in the serv-
ice of George Sievers. an extensive cattle man,
and he remained in his employ three years. By
saving his money he had enough at the end of
that period to open a meat market at Glenwood
Springs, which he did in the summer of 1893,
and in connection with that carried on a cattle
trade. These enterprises he kept going until
September, 1898, with profitable returns, then
sold them and moved to the ranch which has
since been his home and the seat of his useful
industry, and which he acquired by purchase.
It comprises three hundred and twenty acre-,
one-half being added since bis first occupation
of it. and is located twenty-three miles south-
west of Meeker. He can cultivate two hundred
acres of the tract and does it in the thorough
and vigorous way characteristic of the German
people, producing good crops of hay. grain,
vegetables and small fruit. 1 lc also raises cat
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
539
tie in numbers commensurate with the capacity
of the place, and finds agreeable and profitable
occupation in both lines of his industry. The
land is sufficiently supplied with water for the
acreage under cultivation, and Mr. I- rain n sup-
plements the generosity of nature by faithful
attention to his part of the engagement. He
is a member of the order of Odd Fellows and
the Woodmen of the World, and in political
affiliation belongs to the Democratic party.
Since 1903 his brother Dedlef has been as-
sociated with him in carrying on the ranch and
its various interests. Mr. Frahm is recognized
as a good and useful citizen, and a valuable ad-
dition to the productive energies of the state.
and especially of the county and community in
which he lives.
DAVID D. FERGUSON.
David D. Ferguson, of Thornburg, Rio
Blanco county, came to Colorado at the age of
thirty, with his faculties fully developed and
his mind seasoned by experience in another
part of the continent amid the exacting but in-
vigorating duties of farm life. He was born
in the province of Ontario, Canada, on July 2.
1848. and is the son of Duncan and Mary
(Monroe) Ferguson, and the last born of their
seven living children. His parents were Cana-
dians by nativity and of Scotch ancestry. The
father farmed in his native land to the end of
his life, which came in February, 1891, the
mother surviving him nearly thirteen years and
dying in December, 1903. In 1878 Mr. Fer-
guson came to Colorado and located at Mani-
tou after the death of his wife at old Thorn-
burg battle ground. In 1887, he moved to Rio
Blanco county and pre-empted one bundled
and sixty acres 'of land twenty-three miles
northeast of Meeker, on which he has since
lived. He has increased bis land to a body of
seven hundred and twenty acres, provided it
with good buildings and brought two hundred
acres of it to an advanced state of cultivation.
He has also built up an extensive and flourish-
ing cattle business, and established himself in
the confidence and esteem of the people as a
man of good business capacity, enterprise and
public-spirit, devoted to the welfare of his coun-
ty and state and earnest in his support of all
that is best in American institutions. Fraternal
ly he is connected with the order of Odd Fel-
lows and politically he is a cordial supporter
of the principles of the Republican party. In
the service of the community or the general
public interests of the people he has never fal-
tered, whether the duty involved has been
pleasant or otherwise. At the uprising of the
Ute Indians, August 9. 1887, he took his place
as a guard in the garrison at Fort Hall for the
protection of the community in which he was
especially interested, and in many other ways
and lines of service he has shown his fidelity to
duty and the lofty patriotism by which he is im-
pelled. He numbers his friends by the host,
and is widely and favorably known in all the
relations of life in which he has been found.
December 16, 1004, he married for his second
wife Mrs. L. V. Berry of Boston, Massachu-
setts.
REUBEN O. REYNOLDS.
Reuben O. Reynolds is a native of White-
side county, Illinois, born on May 24, 1857,
the son of Richard and Lucy (Bullock) Rey-
nolds, who were born in the state of New York
and moved to Illinois early in their married life.
Afterward they lived in a number of states,
Minnesota. New York, Kansas and Colorado.
The father was a farmer by occupation and a
Republican in politics. There were five chil-
dren in the family, only two of whom are liv-
ing, Reuben and Alice, wife of William U
Berry, of this state. Reuben attended the com-
mon schools and worked on the home farm
54Q
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
after the manner of farmers' sons in all parts
of the country, and in 1878, when he reached
the age of twenty-one years, he began farming
for himself in Ness county, Kansas, where he
carried on the industry until 1892. In 1880 and
1881 he was also engaged in teaming with
headquarters at Pueblo, this state. Disposing
of his interests in Kansas in 1892, he came to
Colorado to reside permanently, and rented a
ranch in Powell Park, which he occupied until
1895. when he bought the one he now owns
anil works. This comprises eighty acres and
there is sufficient water to make the cultivation
of the whole tract practicable. Since 1896 Mr.
Reynolds has also been engaged in freighting
in addition to ranching, and has become widely
known as the leading freighter in and out of
Meeker. Fraternally he is connected with the
Woodmen of the World, and politically sup-
ports the Republican party. On November 24,
1S79, he was married to Miss Mary C. Hard-
man, a native of Iowa. They have two chil-
dren, Hetta E. and Anna L. Hetta E. has been
reared and educated in the schools of Rio
Blanco county and to her credit it may be said
that she is the first teacher in. the county who
was educated in the county, winning an
enviable reputation for himself.
THOMAS GAGNON.
Although a Canadian by birth, and reared
and educated to the age of seventeen in the Do-
mini* m, Thomas Gagnon, of Pitkin county, liv-
ing near Watson, is a thorough citizen of the
United States now and in full sympathy with
the institutions and the people of this country.
He was born in the province of Quebec on < )c-
tober 24, 1855, and is the son of Samuel and
Emma < iagnon, also Canadians in nativity. The
parents were prosperous farmers in that conn-
try and devoted members of the Catholic
church. The mother died in [894 and the
father is still living. In political matters he
supports the Liberal party. They were the
parents of ten children, of whom six are living,
Thomas, August, Joseph, Samuel, Lewis and
Amanda, the wife of Theodore Leo. The op-
portunities for attending school afforded to
Thomas were few and irregular. At the age
of fourteen, being obliged to make his own way
in the world, and not unwilling to do it, he
went to Upper Canada, and there he worked
three years in the lumber camps at a compensa-
tion of twenty -dollars a month and his board.
In 1872 he crossed the line into the United
States and located at Saginaw, Michigan.
After a residence of several years in that city,
in 1880 he came to Colorado and engaged in
saw-mill work at Denver in the interest of
John Morrison, receiving a wage of thirty-live
dollars a month and his board. At the end of
the first year of his residence here he formed
a company and went to Gunnison to conduct a
saw-mill business of his own. The venture was
riot very successful, and he next turned his at-
tention to prospecting and mining, which he
followed until 1893, then located at Aspen,
where he was occupied in planing and shingle
mill work for six months. The ensuing twelve
years were passed in mining, part of the time
for wages and part on his own account. He
then bought a ranch near the one he now owns
and conducts, and after w< rking on it five \ ears
sold his interest to Philip Robichand, his
partner in the enterprise. In 1896 he pur-
chased his present ranch of one hundred and
sixty acres, about half of which is under pro
ductive cultivation and yields abundant crops
of hay. grain and vegetables. He al^o raises
cattle and horses of good grades for the mar
kets, and in all lines of his enterprise on this
land he is successful and progr< ssive His hay
is of exceptionally fine quality, and has
reputation for its excellence. Although inde-
pendent in politics he is active and eat
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
5-M
all undertakings for the welfare of bis district
and county, and his breadth of view and gen-
eral intelligence are such in reference to public
matters that for a number of years he was
chosen to serve as road commissioner for Pit-
kin count}', and the excellent roads he built
while occupying this position gave abundant
evidence of the wisdom of the choice of a com-
missioner. On November 17, [891, he was
married to Miss Bertha Maurin, a native of
Trumbull county, Ohio, and daughter of John
and Mary (Fontille) Maurin, natives of France,
where the father served as a soldier seven
years, then engaged in coal mining. In 1865
they came to the United States and settled at
Pittsburg. Pennsylvania, where he was em-
ployed in the same industry until 1868. They
then moved to Ohio and remained twe'nty
years, lie all the while mining coal. In 18SX
they came to Colorado and took up their ranch
on Capitol creek in Pitkin county, where the
father died on March 7, 1000, and the mother
January 30, 1905, aged sixty-two years, seven
months and seven days. Mrs. Maurin contin-
ue 1 to reside on the home ranch after the death
of her husband until a few weeks prior to
her death, which occurred at the home oi
Mr. Raymond, near Aspen, where she bad been
seme weeks taking treatment. Mrs. Maurin
was a devoted wife and mother, high!}- es-
teemed neighbor and friend. The father was
an independent in politics, and both parents be-
longed to the Catholic church. They had a
family of eleven children, eight of whom are
living, six sons and two daughters, all at home
except Mrs. Tom Gagnon. Mr. and Mrs. Gag-
non have five children, viz: Frederick, May.
Bertha, Thomas and Albert. During the last
three years Mrs. Gagnon has been a member of
the school board, and has rendered valuable and
efficient service to the cause of education in
that position, having been re-elected on May
1. 1905, for another term of three years.
CLINTON T. BANE.
Clinton T. Bane, senior member of the firm
of Bane Brothers (C. F. and B. F. Bane), pro-
gressive ranchmen and stock growers of Gar-
field, located on a fine ranch of three hundred
and twenty acres, one hundred and eighty acres
of which can lie easily cultivated, has had a wide
experience in a number of states and a variety
of employments. Plis educational advantages
were of the most meager kind and extent. Inn
he has supplemented them by close observatii m
and the worldly wisdom acquired only in the
school of experience. He was born on Decem-
ber 23, 1844, in Cass county, Illinois, and at-
tended the public schools only two years. Pie
began to make his own way in the world at the
age of fifteen, working on a farm for twelve
dollars a month and his board. In 1861 he came
to Colorado and locating near Denver, passed
the next two years in the employ of George
Rist. He next went to Nebraska, near Omaha,
and there he worked as a day laborer for a
short time, after which he moved to Alameda
count)', California, where he was employed on
a ranch for wages two years. From there he
went to Arizona, and for one year was en-
gaged in prospecting and other occupations.
He returned to California, and soon afterward
migrated to Butte, Montana, going later to
Helena, that state, and passing two years in
driving teams. In 1884 he came back to Colo-
rado, and at Leadville worked in the mines for
a year, then moved to Aspen, where he spent
three months freighting, after which he worked
for I. W. Chatfield one season. At tfie end
of that time he and his brother. B. F. Bane,
located adjoining pre-emption claims of land
in Pitkin county, ten miles southeast of Car-
bondale, on which they are still living. They
own good water rights for their land and raise
large crops of superior timothy hay and grain.
and also cattle in large numbers. The brothers
54-'
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
are well known as good business men and en-
terprising and forceful factors in the local af-
fairs of the community. They are Democrats
in politics and give their party loyal support.
Their success here has been pronounced and
they stand well in the community. Although
unmarried they take a great and serviceable in-
terest in the welfare of the county and its
people, and lend their ready aid to all under-
takings for their advancement and improve-
ment.
JOSEPH C. HARROD.
From his youth connected with the pursuit
of farming almost wholly, and yet learning
wisdom and acquiring a knowledge of men
from a busy experience in mercantile life.
Joseph C. Harrod, of Pitkin county, this state,
living near Snow Mass on a good ranch of one
hundred and fifty-seven acres, two-thirds of
which are capable of cultivation without arti-
ficial means, came to the industry in which he is
engaged with excellent preparation for its re-
quirements, and having put his knowledge to
practical use, he has been successful and pros-
perous in his undertaking. He is a native of
Marion county. Indiana, born near Indianapolis
on Christmas day, 1852. His parents were
George W. and Harriet (Pierson) Harrod. na-
tives of Ohio, who settled at Indianapolis in
1S40. and later moved to Champaign county,
Illinois. The father was a carpenter, and be-
ing industrious and frugal, as well as a good
mechanic, he did well at his trade and accumu-
lated a fair degree of worldly substance. He
was a 'man of progressive ideas and warmly in-
terested in public affairs, supporting the princi-
ples and candidates of the Democratic party
with loyalty and zeal. Four children were born
in the family and three are still living: George
and Enoch, who live at [ndianapolis, and
Joseph C. a resident of this state and the im-
mediate subject of this writing. Another son,
Richard, is deceased. The parents are also
gone, the father dying in 1857 and the mother
in [860. Joseph enjoyed only such educational
advantages as were furnished by the country
schools of his youth, and at the age of fifteen
began working on farms in the neighborhood
of his home, remaining there so occupied seven
years. He then moved to Illinois, and con-
tinued his farming operations in Hancock
county until 1880. In the spring of that year
he came to Colorado, arriving at Denver on
March 31st, and after remaining six weeks in
that city, moved to Gunnison and some time
afterward to Leadville. From there he changed
to Rock Creek, where he prospected and mined
until 1883. He then located at Grand Junction.
which he soon afterward sold at a profit. Dur-
ing the next thirteen years he was employed by
the Continental Oil Company, known at that
time as Baker & Company, remaining with
the company until its business was purchased
by the Standard Oil Company. When he quit
that employment he bought the ranch on which
he now lives and which he has since been oc j
cupied in improving and developing. It com-
prises one hundred and fifty-seven acres, and
one hundred acres of it are under good cultiva-
tion, yielding good crops of grain and hay and
giving liberal support to a flourishing stock
business which he conducts on it. On Decem-
ber 22, 1888, he was married to Miss Sarah B.
Coffman, a native of Indiana and daughter of
John and Lydia (Crist) Coffman, the former
born in Indiana and the latter in Ohio. Early
in their married life they settled in Illinois,
after moving to Kansas, and afterward to Ok-
lahoma Territory, where they now live and are
successfully engaged in farming. The father
is a Democrat in political faith and both are
members of the Baptist church. They are the
parents of eight children, seven of whom are
living. Mr. and Mrs. Harrod have four. Grace.
John, Charlton and Robert S,
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
54?.
HENRY A. STAATS.
Born on the rich alluvial plains of Illinois,
and reared to the pursuit of agriculture amid
their prolific fruitfulness and ease of culture.
I tenr) A. Staats. of Pitkin county, living near
Snow Mass on a fine and well-improved ranch
of four hundred acres, was nevertheless so well
instructed in the art of farming and reared with
such valuable lessons of self-dependence and
closeness of observation, that when he came to
apply his knowledge in this state where t 1 o
ditions of an agricultural life are so vastly dif-
ferent, he soon found himself master of the sit-
uation and has won a substantial competence
by his thrift and energy here as he would have
done almost anywhere, being one of the men to
whom circumstances are made to minister and
yield tribute. His life began on July 9, [848, at
Egypt, in the great Prairie state, where his pa-
rents, Hiram and Jessie Staats, the former a
Xew Yorker by nativity and the latter born in
Scotland, settled in 1830. The father was a
farmer and a manufacturer of leather, and
wrought at his craft until 1861, then turned his
attention to the hotel business, conducting' a
popular and much frequented hostelry on the
old national road at Ewington, Effingham
county, and also served continuously for fif-
teen years as justice of the peace. His office
was a favorite place for the young folks to get
married, they coming from all parts of the sur-
rounding counties. In 1874 he came to Colo-
rado and located a homestead twenty miles
west of Denver, where he ranched, raised haw
grain and cattle, and conducted a general farm-
ing business with success and profit. He was a
firm and active Democrat in politics and his
wife belonged to the Methodist church. She
died in 1885 and the father in 1895. They
were the parents of eight children, three of
whom, Andrew, Christina and Mary, are de-
ceased, the last named being at the time of her
death Mrs. Samuel Moffit, a resident of the
South. The surviving children are Nelson, Mar-
tha. Jennie, Sarah and Henry A. Henry re-
ceived but little schooling except what
from that exacting but thorough taskmaster,
experience. At the age of ten he was obliged
to go to work on the farm to help his parents,
and after that there was seldom an opportunity
to attend school. He remained at home until
he was thirty-six, but in the meantime, when
he was but fourteen, enlisted in the Union for
the Civil war in 1861, and served one vear as
messenger boy for the quartermaster of his
command. After leaving the army he engaged
in railroad contract work in his native state,
with his brother, helping to build the Eads
bridge over the Mississippi at St. Louis and the
tunnel there, along with other jobs of im-
portance. In 1874 he came to Colorado and
located at Denver. A year later he went to New-
Mexico and San Juan, and for four years he
was occupied in prospecting and mining with
moderate success, locating and disposing of
me of the richest claims in that territory. In
the summer of 1879 he returned to Colorado
and took up his residence at Leadville. After
mining there a month he crossed the range
through Independence pass in company with
Wilson and Thomas Durant, breaking the
trail, and made the trip without adventure
worthy of note except some difficulty in fight-
ing fires, as the whole section was burning, and
reached Aspen on July *8th. There were but
few settlers in this portion of the country then.
and all the conditions of life for those hardy
adventurers who had cast their lot here were
wild and rugged. Mr. Staats continued pros-
pecting until 1886. He built one of the first
cabins at Aspen and also a blacksmith shop, and
in partnership with the Staats brothers ran a
pack train between the new camp and Lead-
ville and Twin Lakes. This was not a profit-
able enterprise and stopped at the end of a
year. Indian threats of hostility made all but
thirteen of the settlers leave the region, some
544
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
of those remaining being Mr. Staats, Michael
Lorenzo, Warren Elliott, Warmer Root,
Henry Tourtellotte, Keno Jim and Joseph
Dietz. In 1881 Mr. Staats located a portion of
his present ranch, a pre-emption claim of one
hundred and sixty acres, to which he has since
made additions until the ranch now comprises
four hundred acres, all of which is under culti-
vation. The principal crops are hay, grain and
garden vegetables; and horses and cattle are
raised in good numbers and with fair profits.
The head of the house is an earnest and loyal
Democrat in politics, and a man deeply inter-
ested in the advancement of his community. He
was married on March 27, 1886, to Miss Ella
Harmon, a native of Androscoggin county,
Maine, and daughter of George and Jedidah
(Foss) Harmon, who were also born in that
state. They were married in 1835 and settled
on a farm at North Livermore, Maine. Here
were born to them fourteen children. In the
spring of 1861 they moved to Beloit, Wiscon-
sin, where the eldest son was practicing law.
Their second son Edward graduated from Be-
loit College in 1862, having left Waterville
College to come west with the family. In 1863
they moved to Minnesota, where they engaged
in farming until the father died, September 6,
1876. Ella L. graduated from Mankato
Normal School in 1874 and was successfully
engaged in teaching for ten years. She then
came to Colorado in 18S4. The aged mother
came to Colorado in 1887 to live with her chil-
dren. She died May 5, 1900, at the home of
Mrs. Staats. Only four of her children sur-
vived her. Herbert R., Mason, Columbia and
Ella L. (Mrs. Staats).
WILLIAM W. WURTS
Pursuing the even tenor of his way amid
the strenuous and oftentimes oppressive con-
ditions of frontier life, gaining headway against
the currents of hardship, danger and disaster,
here by slow progress and there by more rapid
.stride;-, always meeting his responsibilities in
industry and courage with manliness and force,
and frequently helping some less fortunate
brother to a new start, William W. Wurts, of
near Rifle, Garfield county, one of the Western
slope's must substantial, enterprising and suc-
cessful ranch and cattle men, has, during his
long residence of more than thirty-five years in
the farther West and intimate intercourse with
its people, borne himself with commendable up-
rightness and loyalty to every duty, and has all
the while been a potent force in pushing for-
ward the progress and development of the sec-
tion in which he happened to be living. He is
a native of Ohio, jorn in Lake county on
Christmas day, 1847, an< l tne son °f Archibald
and Mary (McGuire) Wurts, the former born
in Ohio and the latter in Ireland. They re-
mained in Ohio until 1S58, then moved to
Michigan, locating near Lansing. The father
was a manufacturer of wagons and carriages,
and did farming in connection with his indus-
trial business. He was a man of great public
spirit and enterprise and was successful in his
undertakings. Deeply interested in the cause
of education, he was one of the early pro-
moters and aids of Hillsdale College in Michi-
gan, and contributed essentially to the establish-
ment of other institutions of value to the state
In his early manhood he was a Whig in political
affiliation, lint when the Republican party suc-
ceeded to the assets of his former part) he
promptly and fully espoused its cause, and he
remained true to the organization to the day of
his death. He and bis wife were members of
the Christian church, and died, he in 1854 and
she on February 24, 1883. leaving two of their
four children to survive them. William and his
brother Archibald, now living near Pueblo,
Colorado. After receiving a limited education
at the public schools. William joined the
WILLIAM \V. WUBTS.
MRS. MARY M. WURTS.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
545
Union army towards the close of the Civil war,
while he was as yet but a youth, as a member
of Company G, Second Ohio Cavalry. He
served to the close of the contest and was mus-
tered out of the service at Camp Denison. Re-
turning to his home, he took a contract for
1 inring oil wells. He continued this Inn oi
activity until the spring of 1S67, when he
moved to Kansas City, Missouri, but after a
short residence there he moved on to Omaha,
crossing the plains with a large train. From
Fort Larimer they had United States troops
to escort them into Montana, and so avoided all
trouble with the Indians, but were six months
on the trip. .After the supplies were unloaded
Mr. W'urts returned to North Platte and a lit-
tle later went to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where
he wintered. In the spring he started for New-
Mexico, intending to do mining, but on arriv-
ing at Pueblo he learned that admission t<» the
mines would be refused, and so he changed his
termination to Denver. From there he went
to Canon City and Mt. Granite, where he en-
gaged in mining in the employ of the Cash
Creek Mining Company, for a period of three
years. He next took a position as contractor
with the Boston & Colorado Smelting Com-
pany and remained in association with that
corporation three years in that vicinity. Then
he did contracting for the company at Alma
until the spring of 1876, at which. time he
moved to the San Juan country with head-
quarters at Del Norte. Here he freighted
about the country during the summer, and in
the fall went to the Black Hills of South Da-
kota, where he sold his teams and turned his
attention to mining, remaining two years and
acquiring the ownership of a number of claims.
He then moved to Leadville and again
freighted until 1879, when he opened a meat
market at Alma. This was a profitable enter-
prise, but in 1882 he sold it to purchase a
squatter's right to a ranch. He began raising
35
cattle and ranching, and during the next four
years gave his attention win illy t>> these pur-
suits. In 1886 he sold his ranch and took Ins
cattle to Eagle county where he held them two
winters until he could find a suitable location
for a permanent residence. In 188S he pur-
chased another ranch, this one located on West
Rifle creek, near Rifle, and this place he held
until he sold it to his son Jesse in 1895. His
final purchase was the ranch he now owns and
occupies, two miles north of Rifle. It com-
prises one hundred and twenty acres, all till-
able and well supplied with water lie also
owns another ranch of the same size and in
the same neighborhood. Hay and. cattle are
his principal products. The former is produced
in large quantities and of the latter he runs
about eight hundred head. Fraternally Mr.
Wurts belongs to the Odd Fellows and the
Grand Army of the Republic, and politically
he supports the Republican party. On May 24,
1880, he was married to Miss Mary Mullen,
who was born in Iroquois county, Illinois, at
the town of Watseka, and is the daughter of
Daniel B. and Mary (Mayett) Mullen, both
natives of the province of Quebec. They lo-
cated in Illinois in early life and moved to
Denver, Colorado, in 1873. One year later
they moved to Alma and in 1885 to Rifle creek
near Rifle. The father is a carpenter and brick
and stone mason, and as a contractor and
builder he has erected many of the large build-
ings in Denver and elsewhere in this part of the
country. He is an earnest Democrat in
political activity and he and his wife are Metho-
dists in church relations. Nine of their ten
children are living: Mary ( Mrs. Wurts) ; Del-
phine (Mrs. Joe Lovell), of Paris. California;
Delia (Mrs. McDonald Oshier), of Como,
Colorado; David, of Telluride; Charles and
George, of Rifle; Jennie (Mrs. I. W. Graham),
of Rifle; Frances (Airs. Louis Plummer), of
Rifle, and Katharine (Airs. Joseph Slaughter),
54"
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
of Ridgeway, this state. In the Wurts family
twelve children have been born, ten of whom
are living: Jesse \V., Alta (Mrs. John Man-
ning ), of Lawton, Oklahoma; Hattie, Warren,
Aaron, William. Emma, Rachel, Milton and
Virgil. The parents are members of the
Methodist church.
THOMAS B. SCOTT.
Thomas B. Scott, one of the enterprising
and prosperous fruit-growers of Mesa county,
with his orchards located six miles northwest
of Grand Junction, where he lives and thrive-
through his industry, thrift and intelligent at-
tention to every detail of his business, is a na-
tive of Grant county, Wisconsin, born on Janu-
ary 1 6, 1858, and the son of Frederick and.
Ann (Wheeler) Scott, the former a native of
England and the latter of W r ales. They came
to the United States with their parents in early
life and grew to maturity in Wisconsin, where
they met and were married. In 1876 they
moved to Harrison county. Iowa, and there the
father died in 1886. The mother survived him
five years, dying at the home of her son in Colo-
rado in 1891. Their son Thomas grew to the
age of eighteen on the Wisconsin farm and
then accompanied the family to their new home
in Iowa. He was educated at the public
schools, and bred to habits of industry on the
farm. He remained at home until the fall of
[894. He then came to Colorado and located
on the farm which is now his home. This com-
prises forty acres and when he bought it it
was partially improved. He lias given his at-
tention principally to raising fruit of superior
quality for market, and has been very success-
ful at the business. He has thirteen acres in
apples and four acres in pears, all set out by
himself, and most of the trees at this time
( [904) in hearing order. Mis crop of apples in
1903 was five thousand boxes, and the promise
for large increases in future is very bright, as
his trees are thrift}- and are kept in good con-
dition and properly cared for. In 1900 he
built a new modern dwelling which is one of
the most complete in the section. On Decem-
ber 23, 1886, he was married in Wisconsin to
Miss Belle Cottingham, a native of Grant
county, that state. They have two children,
Flossie A. and Thomas Merle. In political af-
filiation Mr. Scott is a Prohibitionist, and he
and his wife are members of the Methodist
Episcopal church at Bethel. It is much to
say in a man's favor that he has increased the
sources of wealth in his section and multiplied
the opportunities for useful employment ; bin
this is essentially true of Mr. Scott. His
orchards are wholly the product of his own in-
dustry and intelligence, and their products add
materially to the volume of trade in his count}'.
at the same time giving employment to several
persons. He is moreover one of the public-
spirited and enterprising citizens of Mesa
county, deeply interested in all that contributes
to its welfare and development, and is held in
high esteem by its people as one of their repre-
sentative and progressive men.
MILO B. SHARP.
Beginning life as a farmer, Milo B. Sharp,
of Grand valley, pleasantly settled on a small
farm of forty acres six miles northwest of
< irand Junction, has steadfastly put away all
the enticements of the mining industry, and In-
close application to his chosen pursuit, and
thrift and systematic industry in conducting
his operations, has prospered and won a sub-
stantial estate, and a place of esteem and con-
fidence among his fellow men of the section
in which he lives. He was born in Audubon
count}', Iowa, on Vugusl 25, 1861, the son of
George W. and Phoebe J. (Montgomery)
Sharp, the former born near Frankfort, Ken-
'PHK W W Wl'RTS RANCH.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
54/
tucky, and the latter in Pennsylvania. The
father left his home when a boy, his father
having died, and was reared by an uncle in
Illinois. The mother came to the same part
of that state with her parents in 1837, when
she was two years old, the family being among
the pioneers in the locality. There both grew
to maturity and were married, and soon after-
ward moved to the vicinity of Exira, Iowa.
where they also were pioneers. In that neigh-
borhood they passed the remainder of their
lives. They were the parents of four children,
two of whom are living. Mr. Sharp and a
younger brother who resides in the state of
Washington. Mr. Sharp was reared in his na-
tive county and received a district school edu-
cation, which was very limited, as his father
died when he was twelve years old and he,
being the oldest son, was obliged to take charge
of the farm. After the death of his mother in
1883 the farm was sold and the estate closed,
and during the next two years he lived on
rented land. In 1S86 he came to Colorado and
settled at Greeley. A year later he went to
Cheyenne county, Nebraska, where he entered
a fractional quarter-section of one hundred
and seven acres of land and started a stock
business which he conducted there successfully
for seven years, in the meantime buying one
hundred and sixty acres additional. In the
spring of 1894 he sold out to good advantage,
and in the spring of 1895 again came to Colo-
rado, locating in the Grand valley. Here he
bought forty acres six miles northwest of Grand
Junction, on a part of which he now lives, hav-
ing sold fifteen acres some years ag'o. The
land was improved at the time of his purchase
with a small frame house and had an orchard
of eight acres. He at once turned his attention
to the cultivation of fruit, enlarging his orch-
ard by regular plantings until he has twelve
acres in apples and pears and an extensive
tract in small fruits. In the year 1903 his
crop was seven car loads of apples and one of
pears, and during that and the preceding year
his net returns netted him an average of two
thousand five hundred dollars to three thousand
dollars. He has recently built a new dwelling
at a cost of one thousand eight hundred dollars,
which is modern in every way and equipped
with all the comforts of a well appointed home,
being supplied with hot and cold water, pro-
vided with a comfortable bath room, and other-
wise up-to-date in all its appliances. On Febru-
ary 23, 1884, he was united in marriage with
Miss Minerva Barber, a native of Pennsylvania
who moved to Audubon county, Iowa, with
her parents, John K. and Sarah E. (Harter)
Barber, when she was five years old. They
were also Pennsylvanians and now live in
Shelby county, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Sharp
have had five children, Grace E., Pearl (de-
ceased), Harold K., Fern L., and Walter V.
Mr. Sharp is a Prohibitionist in politics and be-
longs to the Modern Woodmen of America
among the fraternities. He and his wife are
members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
ADRIAN SCHMITT.
Adrian Schmitt, now one of the prosperous
and enterprising farmers of Mesa count}-, liv-
ing three miles and a half northwest of Grand
Junction, and the pioneer in the cattle industry
of this section, was born in Bavaria. Germany,
on March 7, 1847, an( l i s tne son 01 John an< l
Barbara (Fuch) Schmitt, also Bavarians by
nativity, and passing their lives in their native _
land. The father, in company with one of bis
older sons, carried on extensive farming oper-
ations, and when a nobleman in his neighbor-
hood failed, he bought an estate in land and
some cattle. His son Adrian grew to manb 1
in his home neighborhood and there received
a common-school education. He showed great
facility in mathematical operations, through
548
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
life being able to solve difficult problems in bis
bead more rapidly than others can with pencil
and paper. He worked on the farm with his
father until be was twenty-one, then, learned
the trade of a baker, which he followed in
various places, principally in Hamburg. When
the Franco-Prussian war broke out, in order to
escape military service, he came to the United
States, having with him three thousand dollars,
which he deposited in a Brooklyn (New York)
bank. He then came west to Indianapolis,
where he wrought at his trade about a year.
Being smitten with the mining fever at the end
of that time, he came to Colorado in 1872 and
located at Georgetown. There and in Middle
Park and at Leadville he mined and prospected,
and for a short time worked in the ore mills,
and in these operations lost all his money.
From that section he went to Aspen, among the
first to enter that region, making the trip on
snow shoes over snow twenty feet deep ami
carrying one hundred and seventy-five pounds
of food and other freight on his back. He
passed one year at Aspen and cleared over
two thousand live hundred dollars. In the fall
of 1881 he moved into the Grand valley, being
one of the first settlers of that now populous
and prolific region. Here he entered one hun-
dred and sixty acres of land, a part of which
is now his home. In the following spring he
brought seven cows and calves into the valley,
which were the first cattle introduced into the
section, and since then he has been continu-
ously engaged in the stock industry. Under
his judicious management his land became pro-
ductive and greatly increased in value. He
has sold all of it hut forty acres 011 which he
now lives retired and in comfort, enjoying the
fruits of his labor and the esteem and con-
fidence "i" his fellow men. He recently sold
one piece of his land, comprising forty acres.
for four thousand dollars. On March 10, 1875.
be was married, at Georgetown, in this state.
to Miss Anna Tunish, a native of Bavaria who
came to the United States alone when she was
a young woman. They have six children,
Alan-, Maggie, George, Lawrence, Theresa
and Emma. In politics Mr. Schmitt is inde-
pendent, and in religious affiliation he is a
member of the Catholic church.
JAMES L. DUG RETT.
For the whole period of a generation of
human life James L. Duckett. living four miles
and a half northwest of Grand Junction, has
been a resident of Colorado, and during the
whole of that time has been engaged in aiding
1m develop the resources and push forward 'the
progress of the state. He was born in Bun-
combe county, North Carolina, on August 31,
1827, and is the son of Joseph and Sarah
CHipps) Duckett. both natives of South Caro-
lina hut reared and married in North Carolina,
where the)' passed their useful lives and were
finally laid to rest beneath the soil that was
hallowed by their labors. The father was a
carpenter and farmer, and the scion of a Revo-
lutionary family, his paternal grandfather,
Jacob Duckett, having been in active service in
the struggle for independence from its begin-
ning to its close. The Ducketts are of Welsh
and the Hippses of German ancestry. James
Duckett grew to manhood in his native county
and received there a limited education at the
subscription schools of the time. His mother
died when he was a young man. and si u in after-
ward when he married he took charge of the
paternal homestead, which he conducted for
a number of years. In 1S71 he came to Colo-
rado and, locating in Fremont county, took up
land and engaged in farming, remaining twelve
years. In September, 1883, he moved to
< hand valley where he bought one hundred and
sixty acres of land adjoining his present home
on the west. This he afterward sold and
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
549
bought another quarter section, a part of which
is the farm of sixty-eight acres which he now
owns and occupies. Here he has been continu-
ously occupied in ranching, but making a
specialty of raising hay since that time. He has
recently retired from active pursuits himself
and has his land farmed by a tenant. His
'first marriage occurred in North Carolina in
1845 and was to Miss Sarah McCracken, a
native of that state. Thirteen children were
born to them, of whom nine are living, two of
them in Mesa county, Elbert M. and Sarah J.,
the wife of John T. Gavin. Their mother
died on September 25, 1888, and on August
21, 1889, Mr. Duckett married Mrs. Mary E.
(Cooley) Chapman, a native of Indiana, and
a widow with two sons. George T. and William
L. Chapman, both residents of Grand valley.
In politics Mr. Duckett is a Prohibitionist, and
in fraternal circles has been a Freemason for
over forty years. He and his wife are mem-
bers of the Methodist Episcopal church.
JAMES HULME SMITH.
Founder and head of the firm of Smith
Brothers, who carry on one of the most ex-
tensive cattle industries in the western part of
the state, and who are also connected in a lead-
ing way with other enterprises of magnitude
and great service to their section. James
Hulme Smith, of Grand Junction, has been one
of the forceful factors in the development ami
progress of Colorado, scarcely any form of its
multitudinous commercial and industrial
activities having lacked stimulus from his wide
and versatile mind and direction from his
skillful hand. He was born in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, on June 30. [858, and is the son
of George A. and Eliza (Hulme) Smith, the
former a native of Bucks county, Pennsylvania,
and the latter of Mount Holly. Xew Jersey,
and both belonging to old English Quaker
families whose American progenitors came to
this country with William Penn. The father
was engaged in mercantile life in Philadelphia
as a member of the firm of James, Kent, Santee
& Company, with which he was connected from
its organization to its dissolution, a period of
over forty years. He died in Philadelphia in
[884, and the mother in 1886. In the public
affairs of the city he was active and prominent,
serving as president of the select council for
a number of years, and was energetic and po-
tential in promoting the centennial, the con-
struction of Pyramid park, the organization of
the great fire department, and many other
works of great importance and value in that
section of the country. He was captain of the
• Home Guards during the Civil war. being in-
capacitated for active field service by the fact
that he had but one arm ; but he was called into
engagement at the head of his company at the
battle of Gettysburg. The son. James Hulme
Smith, was reared in his native city and was
educated at private schools. In 1875 be en-
tered the University of Pennsylvania, and was
graduated from that institution four years
later. He then came to Colorado and located
at Lake City where he bought an interest in
the Palmetto mine, which he helped to develop.
This was one of the best mines in Hinsdale
count>-, but as it is a silver property no work
has been done on it for several years owing
to the low price of silver. While living at
Lake City, Mr. Smith was a member of Com-
pany A, Second Battalion of the Pitkin Guards,
in which he served three years, during the
greater part of the time as sergeant. In 1882
he was married and for two years thereafter
lived in Denver. He then settled in Mesa
county and, in partnership with his brother.
George Peyton Smith, began an industry in
breeding and handling cattle which by energy
and capacity they soon expanded into one of
the largest and most successful of its kind. For
55°
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
a number of years the}- were leading breeders
of range Herefords, now they buy and fatten
steers for market. For a period they had regu-
larly two thousand head or more on the range,
but owing to the shortening of the range in re-
cent years they do not run so man}-. One of
their ranches, which contains one hundred and
sixty acres, is high up in the mountains, and
the home place of four hundred and eighty
acres is two miles southeast of Grand Junction.
Both are in a high state of cultivation, the
latter being beautifully located on the high
Orchard mesa, overlooking Grand valley. This
ranch was purchased in 1S89, and since then
James H. Smith has devoted the greater part
of his attention to it, while his brother has
looked after the ranch and stock in the moun-
tains. The}- soon found it necessary to install
a pumping plant to get water high enough to
irrigate their land, and this they did on a
large scale at a cost of over fifteen thousand
dollars. The plant is a mile and a half up
the river above the residence, and comprises
two water wheels working under ten feet head,
generating one hundred horse-power, with a
large rotary pump and a sixteen-inch pipe. The
amount of water raised is four thousand gal-
lons a minute, which is raised to a height of
eighty-two feet. The machinery is kept run-
ning night and day, and has capacity for ir-
rigating the entire ranch of four hundred and
eighty acres. At present one hundred and sixty
acres are irrigated for alfalfa and one hundred
acres for fruit, with some additions for grain.
Here they feed five hundred to six hundred
cattle eveiw winter, using large quantities of
hay which they produce themselves. They also
have a fine modern residence on this ranch
which is equipped with every convenience and
is artistically furnished. Mr. Smith was one
of the originators and early directors of the
Grand Junction Fruit-Growers' Association,
which has done much for the development of
the valley, and for a number of years has been
its president. He has also served as counts-
commissioner several terms, and is now a mem-
ber of the board. At different times he has
been its efficient and vigilant chairman. In this
position he took special interest in the erec-
tion of good bridges in the count}- which now
stand as a monument to his enterprise and pub-
lic-spirit. One of these of unusual magnitude
and utility is the steel bridge over the Gunnison
at Whitewater. In addition he originated plans
for remodeling the bridge at Debeque. and se-
cured the erection of numerous smaller struc-
tures of a similar character in various parts
of the county. He and his brother helped to
establish the Mesa County State Bank, and
both have been actively connected with its
management since its organization. In politics
Mr. Smith is a Republican, and while not de-
sirous of public office is always zealous and
energetic in the service of his party. On Janu-
ary 25, 1882, he was married at Denver to
Miss Mary V. Fortune, a native of Louisiana,
Missouri, who came to Colorado in her girl-
hood, and in this state was reared and educated.
Her father was a captain in the Confederate
army during the Civil war, and was killed in
battle. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have had five
children, George Albert; James Fortune, who
died at the age of six years; Erwin Edgar,
who died at the age of six months; Alice
Paxon and Roger Stewart. The head of the
house belongs to the order of Elks with mem-
bership in the lodge at Grand Junction.
George Peyton Smith, a brother of
James Hulme, and the other member of the
firm of Smith Brothers, was born in Phila-
delphia, Pennsylvania, on Max- 17, 185(1, and
was educated at Swathmore College. For
some years he was associated with his father,
and later with Lewis Brothers in the dr\ goods
business. His health failed, and in 1 88 | be
joined his brother lames in the stock industry
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
55 >
in this state, and since then he lias made Ins
home here. He is vice-president of the Mesa
County State Bank, of which he was one of
the founders. He is well and widely known
throughout the West as a leading' stock man
and has for years been actively connected with
the management of the American Cattle-< Grow-
ers' Association, being president of the local
branch. In politics he is a Republican, but is
not an active partisan; and in fraternal rela-
tions belongs to the Elks' lodge at Grand Junc-
tion.
JOHN H. YESSEN.
German thrift and industry, which can turn
an arid waste into a garden and build up great
enterprises anywhere for the common good of
man, have many monuments in our country to
mark the scene of their labors which have
poured out blessings and benefactions on the
surrounding country. One of this character
is the fruit farm and ranch of John H. Yesscn.
which is located about one mile and a half east
of Fruita. in Mesa county, this state. Mr.
Ye'ssen is a native of Prussia, where he w as
born on March 15. 184J. and is the son of
Jesse and Maggie (Graussen) Yessen, also na-
tives of Prussia, where their lives were passed.
They were the parents of three children, of
whom their son John was the first born. After
the death of his mother his father contracted
a second marriage by which there was a large
number of children. John was reared on the
paternal homestead and received his education
at the state schools of his native land. He
remained at home until he reached the age of
twenty-seven, then in Maw [869, came to the
United States, and after working' on a farm
for a year in Wright county. Iowa, moved to
Colorado. Here he was engaged in freight-
ing between Denver and some of the mining
camps for a few years. In 1875 he married and
turned his attention to ranching and raising
stock on Bear creek near Morrison. Twelve
years were passed there in congenial and profit-
able occupation of this sort, then the family
moved to Golden. In 1891 they came to Grand
valley, where he bought a ranch of
acres, on a part of which he now lives. He
has since sold twenty acres of this land and
bought a house and six acres at Cleveland, ad-
joining the town of Fruita. He has prospered
in his enterprise and is in vcr\ comfortable cir-
cumstances. His orchard of six acres is one
of the special features of his farm, and it yields
him a substantial income, its products having
a high rank in the markets and being brought
forth with every care to secure the best results.
On December 4, 1875, he was married at Den-
ver to Miss Ida Johnson, a native of Prussia,
where she was reared and educated, and fn >m
whence she emigrated to this country when she
was a young lady. They have two children.
Henrietta, the wife of Jacob Scbieswohl, of
Grand Junction, and C. Henry, who is living at
home. Mr. Yessen is independent in politics,
and in church affiliation is a Lutheran. He is
one of the substantial- and highly respected
citizens of his county, with breadth of view
and public spirit, taking an active interest in
local public affairs, and aiding in the develop-
ment and promotion of every judicious under-
taking for the benefit of the community in
which be lives.
NELSON L. LINELL
Many men of great intellectual promise and
fine abilities turn naturally and eagerly to the
cultivation of the soil as a choice occupation,
and devoting to it the forces of their minds
and the researches of their studies, making a
gratifying success of their industry and find
peace and contentment as well as prosperity in
their labors. It was so with Nelson L. Linnell.
of Mesa county, who has developed a fine fruit
552
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
farm two miles east of Fruita. He is a native
of Sweden, born at Gronby on December 7.
1 85 1. His parents, Lars Martinson and Karin
(Nelson) Linell, were also natives of that coun-
try, and the father is still living there retired
from active pursuits, having accumulated a
competence as a prosperous farmer. The
mother died in 1896. They were the parents of
six children, only two of whom are living, a
daughter who is still a resident of Sweden, and
Nelson L. An older brother, Martin Linell,
died suddenly on May 3, 1897, of heart failure,
at Washington, D. C, where he had been for
a number of years an aid in the department of
insects of the United States National Museum.
He became interested in the study of nature
in early life, and even in boyhood began col-
lecting and classifying the fauna and flora of
his native land. In 1870 he matriculated at the
University of Lund, and soon distinguished
himself in mathematics, biology and languages.
He came to the United States in 1879, and
secured employment in a chemical laboratory
in Brooklyn, New York. In 1884 he became
a member of the Brooklyn Entomological So-
cietv, and a little while afterward held the
office of curator of the body. He was ap-
pointed an aid in the department of insects of
the National Museum in 1888 and held the
position until his death. In the nine years of
his tenure he worked over and practically re-
arranged the entire collection of specimens in
the department with which he was connected.
He was a member of the Washington Entomo-
logical Society and also of the New York So-
ciety, and was a valued contributor to their
publications. He was a great reader and
student outside of his specialties, and was re-
markable for his proficiency in language-. Nel-
son Linell, the immediate subject of this sketch,
was reared and liberally educated in his native
land. At the age of nine he entered the prepar-
atory school at the scat of the University of
Lund, his father's intention being to prepare him
for advanced work as a teacher. The 1 iccupatii m
was not to his taste, however, and in 1872. at
the age of twenty-one, he emigrated to the
United States and located in Orange county,
Florida. After a year's residence there he
returned to Sweden and three years later again
came to this country, once more settling in
Florida, where he remained three years, then
left that state for the benefit of his health,
going to New York city and there working
three years as a florist. In 1882 he married
and brought his bride to Colorado. They
took up their residence at Montclair, five miles
east of Denver. Here he was engaged in
market gardening until 1890. He then sold
his property at a good price and, moving to
Grand valley, bought eighty-five acres of land
on which he now lives, two miles east of Fruita.
The land was almost in a state of nature, ami
by assiduous industry and excellent judgment
he has brought it to an advanced condition of
fertility and productiveness, and enriched it
with good buildings. There was a small nucleus
of an orchard, and this he has expanded and
improved until he has thirty acres in the choic-
est fruit and his orchard has a reputation
throughout the surrounding country so wide
and so well established for the superior quality
of its product that the place is known on every
hand as the Linden Fruit Farm. His special-
ties are strawberries and apples, and he has
been very successful with both. In public af-
fairs he takes an active part, being a zealous
Republican in politics ; and in lodge member-
ship belongs to Fruita Camp of the Woodmen
iif the World. Hi' which he was one of the
founders and charter members. On April 5.
1882. he was married to Miss Anna Dahlqvist,
a native of Sweden, who came to the United
States in 1871). She is the daughter ni Lars
and Christina (Olsen) Dahlqvist, Swedes by
nativity whose lives were passed in their native
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
555
land. Mr. and Airs. Linell have two children,
Ebba, who was born at Montclair, this state,
in 1889, and Lena, who was born at Fruita in
i893-
WILLIAM SCHWARTZ.
One of the progressive and successful
farmers of Mesa county, this state, and com-
fortably settled on a fine farm of one hundred
and forty-five acres one mile west of Fruita,
William Schwartz has built himself and his,
estate up from a small beginning and after
years of discouraging labor in other occupa-
tions. He is a native of Wurtemberg, Ger-
many, born on December jo. [857, and the son
of Christian H. and Margaret (Henning)
Schwartz, who were also native in that part of
the fatherland and belonged to families long
resident there. In i860 they moved to Amer-
ica and located in Kingston county, Canada,
but five years later crossed the line into the
United States, settling in Wayne county,
Michigan, thirteen miles west of Detroit, where
they passed the rest of their lives, the mother's
ending in 1871 and the father's in 1S87. They
were farmers and their family consisted of
seven children, five of whom are living. Their
son William was one of the older ones, being
the second child. He grew to the age of six-
teen on the homestead with almost no prepar-
ation for the life work that was before him ex-
cept hard work and privation; for school
facilities were very limited in that part of
Michigan in his boyhood and farm work was
plentiful and exacting. He remained at home
until he reached the ag _ e of sixteen, then for
three years worked out in the neighborhood.
In 1876 he came to Colorado and settled at
Alma where he was engaged in prospecting
and mining until Leadville began to attract at-
tention. He was one of the first to reach that
promising camp, but found the same indifferent
success in his mining operations he had ex-
perienced at Alma. He continued the same
lines of employment for a number of years,
and his condition not improving, in [893 he
moved to the Grand valley and bought a tract
of fifteen acres of land one mile from Fruita on
time, having only eighty dollars in capital.
This land is a part of his present ranch of one
hundred and forty-five acres, and he has
brought the whole body to a high state of pro-
ductiveness and improved it with good build-
ings. By hard work and close attention to his
business he has prospered and become one of
the substantial and well-to-do farmers of the
countw For a number of years he carried on
general ranching, but lately he has made a
specialty of raising potatoes, his yield in 1903
being one hundred and seventy-five tons. On
June 20, 1880, he was married to Miss Emma
Weckel, a native of Germany, who came to
the United States with her parents in her girl-
hood. They have two children, Bertha E. and
Carl W. In political faith and allegiance Mr.
Schwartz is an independent Democrat, and in
fraternal relations belongs to the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows, the Woodmen of the
World and the Order of Washington.
BENJAMIN F. KIEFER.
Benjamin F. Kiefer. of Mesa county, who
resides at Fruita and has been in partnership in
business with his brother Frank, a sketch of
whom will be found elsewhere in this work,
was born in Franklin county, Indiana, on May
10, 1858, and is the son of Dominic and Caro-
line (Witt) Kiefer. whose history is set out
more at length in the sketch of their son Frank.
Benjamin was reared in his native count)-, and
received his education in the district and paro-
chial schools near his home. Fie remained on
the homestead until he was twenty-two, then
went to Howard county, the same state, and
there, in company with an older brother, leased
554
PROGRESS!]' E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
a farm about one mile north of ECokomo. They
had an opportunity to buy the farm of one hun-
dred and sixty acres for the sum of three
thousand two hundred dollars, but neglected to
do so, and soon after the discovery of natural
gas in the neighborhood made the land much
more valuable and secured its rapid absorption
within the corporate limits of the town. In
the spring of 1883 Benjamin came to Grand
valley, in this state, with his mother to join
his brother Frank in business. They have car-
ried on extensively, among their operations
being the plotting of one hundred and sixty
acres into an addition to Fruita known as
Cleveland, and also the construction of the
Kiefer extension to the Grand Valley canal,
they building seventeen miles of ditch to ir-
rigate ten thousand acres of land below Fruita.
The Fruita Canal and Land Company, with ;>,
capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars,
in ten-dollar shares, was organized for the pur-
pose of building this work and to acquire land
and water rights. The officers of the compan)
are F. D. Kiefer. president ; B. F. Kiefer, secre-
tary and treasurer, and B. F. Hughes, vice-
president, they being also the directors. The
construction of this ditch brought under culti-
vation a large body of excellent land, especially
well adapted to raising sugar beets, and this
has made possible the success of the best beet
sugar factory at Grand Junction, which was
otherwise a failure. In 1S02 Mr. Kiefer and
his lirother established at Fruita the Mesa
County Mail, a weekly newspaper, for the pur-
pose of advertising the resources and industries
of Grand valley, more particularly the portion
around Fruita. Of this paper H. C. Wagner
is the editor. The Kiefer Brothers are ener-
getic and wide-awake business men. with a
large allowance of business enterprise and
public-spirit. They have been very useiul and
influential in developing the valley anil filling
it with productive activities. In politics they
are active Democrats, but not aspirants for
public office, although the subject was ap-
pointed postmaster at Fruita by President
Cleveland and served four years. On October
6, [897, he was married to Miss Mary C. Mas-
ser, a native of Republic county. Kansas, and
daughter of Dr. Masser, of Fruita. They have
two children. Gladys Gertrude and Lucile. Mr.
and Mrs. Kiefer are both church members.
The Kiefer Brothers were the primary agitators
of the high-line ditch enterprise and mi
fective in bringing it to the attention of the
legislature. In consequence of their activity
the district irrigation law was passed and sur-
veys have been made. The ditch will be sixty
miles long, and forty feet on the bottom and
will carry six feet deep of water taken from
the Grand river about one mile above Plateau
creek. It will have capacity for irrigating
sixty thousand acres. Mr. Kiefer has been the
moving spirit in many of the industrial enter-
prises of his town and valley, and never lost
confidence in the future greatness of the west-
ern part of Colorado, and especially the valley
of the Grand river, where he resides, and since
the fruits of his efforts and enterprises, coupled
with the wonderful resources of the valley.
have been realized, he has succeeded in re-,
alizing a handsome competency and comfort-
able home for his family and himself.
M VI'TllFW LANE.
A pioneer of Grand valley, who left his na-
tive heath in youth and came alone to the
United States with almost no capital but his
energy, his determined persistency, and his
never failing faith in himself. Matthew Pane,
living three miles north of Fruita, Mesa
county, has had a chequered and interesting
career, full of toil and varying fortune. He is
a native of county Cork, Ireland, horn in [856,
and the son of form and Mary I Xeilli Lane,
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
555
also native in that county, where the father
died in 1873 and the mother in January. 1904,
at the age of one hundred and two years. The
father was a prosperous farmer, he and his
brother owning together about two hundred
acres of good land. On this farm the son
Matthew was reared to the age of eighteen,
then in 1874 he left Ireland and came to
America, landing in New York with ten dol-
lars and the clothes he wore. He went to
Philadelphia and during the next eight months
was employed there as a longshoreman. In the
spring of 1875 he came west to Missouri and.
locating in Nodaway county, passed five years
there operating a farm for his sister. In the
spring of 1880 he came to Colorado and went
to mining at Leadville. which he continued
there for a year and a half, part of the time
engaged in prospecting. His success was only
moderate, and in the summer of 188 1 he moved
to the San Juan country, where for some
months he worked in the Silverton mine. In
the fall of 1882 he secured employment on the
railroad then building into Grand function .
and since that time has made his home in
Grand valley. In the summer of 1863 he took
up the one hundred and sixty acres of land on
which he now lives, and since then has been
engaged in ranching, and the stock industry.
In politics he is an independent Democrat, and
in fraternal relations belongs to the Woodmen
of the World, a beneficiary society.
CHARLES BEVIER.
After years of toil and effort, and having
seen many ups and downs in business in
various parts of the country, the subject of
this brief review is at last comfortably settled
<m a tract of excellent land which he redeemed
from the waste and has made fruitful with all
the products of advanced husbandry and culti-
vated life. His farm is located three miles
northwest of ITuita. Mesa count}', and is one
of the best of its size in that prolific region.
\nd moreover, what it is in the way of pro-
ductiveness and profitable returns for labor, it
is the work of his own systematic and well ap-
plied industry, and stands to his credit as a new
creation in a section of the state which only
needed the faith and perseverance of the hus-
bandman to make it rich and prosperous. Mr.
Bevier is a native of Livingston county. New
York, born on September 29. 1841, and the
si m of Nathaniel and Anna F. (Fergtison)
Bevier, who were also natives of the Empire
state, and moved from there to Michigan when
the son was but twelve years old. They lo-
cated on a farm in Calhoun county and there
passed the remainder of their days. Their
family consisted of nine children, of whom
Charles was the sixth, and eight of whom are
living. He was reared on the farm and re-
ceived a common-school education. On
August 20, 1862. he enlisted in defense of the
Union for the Civil war. and as a member of
Company C, Twentieth Michigan Infantry,
under General Wilcox. He participated in a
number of important engagements, among
them those at Fredericksburg, the Wilderness
and Spottsylvania. At the last his left thigh
was seriously wounded by part of a burst shell,
and he was sent to the hospital at Washington.
D. C. where he remained nearly a year, and
was then discharged at the close of the war,
having been in the service about three years,
nearly a third of the time in the hospital. He
returned to his Michigan home, and in the fall
of 1865 moved to Nebraska, and taking up
his residence in Otoe county, was successfully
engaged in farming for a year, the grasshop-
pers destroying all bis crops. The next six
months were spent in Page county. Iowa, and
at the end of that period he moved to Missouri
and located at Cooper, where he remained
three years. In October, 1S71. he changed his
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
base of operations to Kansas, settling in the
spring of 1872 in Sumner county, and there
taking up one hundred and sixty acres of land
and buying one hundred and sixty more. For
eleven years he farmed there industriously and
prosperously, then came to Pueblo, Colorado,
in the spring of 1883, and conducted a board-
ing house successfully at that point about a
year, and afterward one at La Junta about the
same length of time. From there he went to
Ashcroft and followed mining, later engaging
in the same precarious occupation at Aspen. In
his mining operations he lost all he had, in-
cluding his farm in Kansas, the decreasing
price of silver being the cause of his disasters.
In April, 1893, he moved to Grand valley and
bought the forty acres of land on which he
now lives, three miles northwest of Fruita. It
was wild land without improvements of any
kind, and in fact there were but few improve-
ments within a number of miles of it. But
he had faith in its fertility and also in the
neighborhood, and persevered in his laudable
endeavors to make a home of his purchase. In
this he has succeeded admirably, bringing his
land to an advanced state of cultivation and
erecting a commodious modern dwelling and
other needed buildings on it. Twenty acres of
the tract are in fruit, and the yield from these
is abundant and profitable. On March 1, 1866.
he was married to Miss Virginia Sandridge, a
native of St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of
Benjamin and Isabella (Monday) Sandridge,
natives of Virginia, now both deceased. The
father was a prosperous merchant. In politics
Mr. Bevier is independent, with patriotic de-
votion to the welfare of his country, and with
ed ideals of public life and public >i
Fraternally he i> connected with the Odd Fel-
lows and the Grand Arni\ of the Republic.
Mr. and Mrs. Bevier have an adopted son,
< rrant, m >\\ nineteen years 1 >M.
JOSEPH ROTH.
Joseph Roth, during several terms alder-
man and now mayor of Fruita. and who con-
ducts in that thriving and progressive town a
general mercantile, hardware and grocery
business, has served the sections of the country
in which he has lived with fidelity and zeal
in peace and war, carrying on good business
enterprises in times of peace and devoting him-
self to critical and hazardous sendee in the
Federal army during the closing year of the '
Civil war. He was born on Christmas day,
[845, at Ouincy, Illinois, and is the son of
John A. and Apollonia (Schell) Roth, natives
of Bavaria, Germany. The father came to
the United States in 1836 and locating at
Ouincy, Illinois, where he worked at cabinet-
making. He was among the first of the argo-
nauts to cross the plains to California in 1849.
and after a residence of three years in that state
returned to Illinois, locating in Adams county.
Later he made another trip to California and
remained two years. On his return he settled
at Camppoint, Illinois, where he was engaged
in general merchandising nearly twenty-five
years. He died at that town on October 1,
1875. His wife came to this country when a
girl and met and married Mr. Roth at Quincy.
When she was sixteen she made a trip to
Europe as companion to a tourist, being en-
gaged as such because of her facility in speak-
ing French, German and English. She died at
Camppoint in 1800. They were the parents
of ten children, five of whom are living, Joseph
being the second born and the oldest of those
who survive. He was about eleven years old
when the family moved to Camppoint. and in
the public schools of that place finished the ele-
mentary education he had begun in those of his
former home, afterward supplementing (lie in-
struction thus received with a course of ,.110
PROGRESSIVE MUX OF WESTERN COLORADO.
557
term at Knox College, at Galesburg, in his
native state. He learned the tinner's trade,
but remained at home until he was nineteen,
then in 1865 enlisted in the Union army as a
member of Company E, One Hundred and
Forty-eighth Illinois Infantry. In this corn-
pan) he served to the close of the war, part
of the time being on detached service, and
while the railroads were in the hands ol the
Confederates he carried the mails and orders.
This part of his service was full of peril and
lie had a number of narrow escapes from cap-
ture and death. He also participated in the
battle of Franklin and did much skirmishing
in Tennessee and Alabama. At the close of
the war he returned home and during the next
six months worked in a tin shop. He then
sold his interests to his father and came west
to Montana in March. 18(17, making the trip up
the Missouri to Fort Benton and from there
across the country to Bozeman. There he
opened an establishment in the stove and tin-
ware trade which he conducted for a number
of years. He was at Bozeman when the treaty
with the Crow Indians was made, and was the
first postmaster of Bozeman, being appointed
by President Grant. He subsequently sold out
at Bozeman and went prospecting and mining
in the Snake river country below Blackfoot,
Idaho. Flere in seven months he lost all he
had accumulated in his former operations, after
which he went to work as a brakeman on the
Union Pacific Railroad. On his fourth trip in
this service he had a wreck and as a reward
for his care and wisdom in the disaster was
prombted conductor. Six months later he re-
turned to Illinois and engaged in business in
Hancock count}-, and later at Liberty, Adams
county, remaining at the latter place three
years. At the end of that time he sold his
business at that point and from then until
1886 was in a similar enterprise at Barry, in
the same state, carrving on extensivelv under
the firm name of Roth & Whike. lie then
sold out to his partner and moved to Norton,
Kansas, where he engaged in the real estate
business, continuing his operations in this line
eight years. From Norton he came in 1894
to Fruita and established the business in which
he is now occupied, and which has grown to
good proportions from a small beginning. He
has been married twice, his first wife being Miss
Margaret A. Thompson, a native of Camp-
point, Illinois. He was united with her on
Septemher 5. 1871, and the fruit of their union
was one daughter, now the wife of John Van
Hook, of Glenwood, Colorado. Her mother
died in 1874. and Mr. Roth, on Septemher 16,
[875, married a second wife. Mrs. Iris C.
(Waggaman) Green, a native of Punxsutaw-
nev. Pennsylvania, daughter of Rev. J. C. Wag-
g-aman, a Presbyterian clergyman, and a
widow with two children of her own, Flora and
Etta, and a step-son, Ellis L. Green. By his
second marriage Mr. Roth is the father of
three children. Delia A.. Pearl and Joseph F.
In politics Mr. Roth is a Republican. He is
now mayor of the town and has served several
terms as alderman. In fraternal circles he
belongs to the Masonic order, with member-
ship in the lodge at Fruita.
ROBFRT L. ADAMS.
Robert L. Adams, president of the Fruita
Mercantile Company, which is fully described
in a sketch of its general manager, W. C.
Osborn, on another page of this work, has
had a varied and interesting career, trying his
hand at a number of occupations and winning
a substantial success at each. He is a native
of Montgomery county. Missouri, born on Sep-
tember 14, 1805, and the son of William and
Nancy (Oden) Adams, the former horn in
Missouri and the latter in Pennsylvania. Mrs.
Adams accompanied her parents to Missouri in
558
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLOR. IDu.
her girlhood, and in that state she was reared,
educated and married. The lather of Robert
was engaged in buying mules and shipping
them South before the Civil war. "When that
memorable contest began he joined the fortunes
of his section of the country and became a
Confederate soldier. He served the cause with
fidelity and courage until the close of the strug-
gle, and since then he lias been farming in
his native state. His wife died in 1882. They
were the parents of seven children, six of
whom are living. Robert L., the third child,
was reared in his native county on the home
farm, and owing to the circumstances sur-
rounding him had but limited educational ad-
vantages. He remained at home until after
the death of his mother, then, in 1882, came
to Colorado and followed mining in the San
Juan country one season. From there he went
to Montana, where he worked on the range,
then was in the San Juan country another
year. During the four years following this
he was employed in the cattle industry in Mesa
county, and at the end of that period started
in this business for himself. He has continued
and enlarged his operations in this line with
increasing success until he has become one of
the extensive stock breeders and dealers in the
western portion of the state, having his head-
quarters at Fruita during the last seven years.
In 1001. when the Fruita Mercantile Company
was organized and incorporated he became its
president and one of its leading stockholders,
and in this capacity he has been connected with
the company ever since. On December 1 . 1 S. 17
he was married to Miss Myrtle Turner, a native
of Huerfano county, Colorado, and two chil-
dren have blessed their union. Mildred and
Velma. In politics he is a firm and active
Democrat, giving his party councils the benefit
of Ids breadth of view and excellent judg-
ment, and its campaigns bis influence and earn-
est support, although without .ambition for
public office himself. In business and in private
life be is well known and highly esteemed as
one of the leading and most representative
citizens of his county.
WILLIAM CARL OSBORN.
The power to organize great mercantile or
industrial enterprises is inherent in some men,
and they move to the accomplishment of the
purpose for which nature intended them with
a confidence and success which would be sur-
prising if not done with so much apparent ease
and smoothness. One such example is fur-
nished by the career of William Carl Osborn,
the general manager of the Fruita Mercantile
Company, and one of its organizers and lead-
ing officials and stockholders, who. although as
vet a young man, has won distinction in mer-
cantile circles by his unusual business capacity
and genius for large undertakings. He was
born in Towns county, Georgia, on November
ti, 1874, and is 'the son of Jesse W. and Z.
Helena (Mauldin) Osborn, also natives of
Georgia, where the father was prosperously en-
gaged in the milling business. In 1878 the
family moved to Colorado and settled in Huer-
fano count\- where they engaged in farming
until 1886, when they changed their residence
to Mesa county, in the valley of the Grand, and
followed the stock business. In 1802 the
father started a mercantile business with his
son William as a partner. This they con-
ducted until [896, and then, selling- out. the
father engaged in the grocery trade at Pueblo.
Two years later he moved to Grand Junction,
where he is still in business. The son was
reared in Colorado from the age of four, and
received a good education in the primary and
high schools of this state, being graduated from
the Grand Junction high school in 1894. After
quitting the grocery business at Pueblo in
1898, he was on the road two years as the rep-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
559
resentative of a Denver house in the sale of
pickles, vinegar and kindred commodities. On
May 27, [901, lie helped to organize the Fruita
Mercantile Company, with a capital stuck of
twenty thousand dollars, and R. L. Adams as
president, John McAndrews as vice-president
and W. C. Osborn, secretary-treasurer and
manager. The company conducts a general
merchandising business which is one of the
most extensive in the lower valley and has a
reputation second to none in this part of the
state for the magnitude of its operations, the
extent and variety of its stock and the elevated
tone on which its business is conducted. Two
branch stores have recently been established.
Much of the credit for the success of the en-
terprise and its high standing in public favor is
due to Mr. Osborn, who has given it his un-
divided attention and has displayed in its man-
agement executive and business ability <>t ..
very high order. On June 14. 1899, he was
united in marriage with Miss Gertrude Masser,
a native of Kansas and daughter 01 Dr.
Charles B. Masser, of Fruita, a sketch of whom
will be found on another page of this volume.
Mr. and Mrs. Osborne have two sons. Otto
Oswald and an infant. In politics Mr. Osborn
is an independent Democrat, and at present is
a member of the board of- aldermen of Fruita.
Fraternally he is connected with the < >rder
of Washington and the Woodmen of the
World.
FRANK D. KIEFER.
One of the early settlers of Mesa county in
the neighborhood of Fruita, and one of its most
enterprising and progressive citizens. Frank
D. Kiefer has the respect and esteem of all
classes of its people and is universally recog-
nized as a leading man in this section and a
representative of the best citizenship of the
state. He was born on August 20. [863, in
Franklin county, Indiana, and is the son of
Dominic and Caroline (Wheat) Kiefer, natives
of Germany. The father was reared in his
native land and came to the United States at
the age of twenty-one. The mother came
hither with her parents when she was three.
Her father was a contractor for the construc-
tion of canals and became an early resident of
Indiana. Mr. Kiefer's father was a tailor by
trade, and throughout his life was an in-
dustrious craftsman. He died in Indiana in
1869, when his son Frank was six years old.
The mother now lives at Fruita. There were
nine children in the family, all of whom are
living, and Frank was the last born. He grew
to the age of nineteen in his native state, and
being obliged by the exigencies of his situation
to go to work at an early age to earn his own
living, he had but limited opportunities for
education. He worked on farms in Indiana for
a number of years, and in February, 1882, came
to Colorado, and after passing one season at
Gunnison, moved to Mesa county in company
with an older brother. He lived at Grand
Junction until the spring of 1884. but during
the previous year he and his brother In 'tight
one hundred and sixty acres of land on which
a portion of the town of Cleveland now stands,
and which was plotted by them into town lots
in 1889. In 1894 they began to construct what
is known as the Kiefer extension of the Grand
Valley ditch, building seventeen miles of new
ditch, which was completed in 1898. This
enterprise brought about ten thousand acres of
good land under water, northwest of Fruita,
and greatly increased the productive wealth of
the region. Previous to this Mr. Kiefer had
come into possession of a considerable body
of land and now owns about eight hundred
acres. He devotes his time to general ranch-
ing with all the phases of agricultural life
which that term implies. He has done much,
not only through the ditch but in many other
ways to develop the resources of his section
q6o
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
of the county and state and promote their best
interests. In politics he is a Democrat, active
in the service of his part} - but not desirous of
public office. He is a member of the Wood-
men of the World in fraternal relations, and
finds interest and entertainment in the pro-
ceedings of his camp in the order. On No-
vember 20, 1889. he was married to Mis-
Mabel Clare Steele, a native of Davenport,
Iowa, and daughter of Joseph L. and Rebecca
J. ( White) Steele, the former a native of Ohio
and the latter of Iowa. They now live at
Pasadena, California. Mr. and Mrs. Kiefer
have three children, Edith E.. Ida F. and
Clarence V.
WILLIAM E. RHINEHART.
Through toil and tribulation, through effort
and vicissitude, through faith in planting and
hope deferred and finally disappointed in reap-
ing, but in all changes of fortune with persist-
ent courage and stern endurance, William E.
Rhinehart, one of the energetic and successful
fruit-growers of Mesa county, living on a fine
fruit farm of thirty acres located two miles east
of Fruita, has come to substantial prosperity
and a position wherein bis faith in the bounty
of nature is fully justified and his labors to win
her continued favor are duly rewarded. He was
born at New Lexington, Perry county. Ohio.
on August 18, 1866, and is the son of William
and Eva E. (Sellers) Rhinehart, the former a
native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Ohio.
The father was a farmer and moved his family
to Illinois about 1868, and after living there
and farming many years, again moved west,
settling in 1885 in Republic county. Kansas,
where he died on September 11. [889, and
where the mother is still living. Their son Wil-
liam E. was less than two years old when they
moved to Illinois. He was reared to the age of
nineteen in McDonough county, that state, and
there receiving a district-school education. In
the spring of 1885 he accompanied the family
to Kansas, and in the autumn of 1887 came to
Colorado and located in Mesa county, where he
farmed for a year. He then married and moved
to Thayer county, Nebraska, and there again
engaged in farming and continued his opera-
tions five years at the end of which he changed
his base to California, where he remained about
an equal period and followed the same pursuit.
Because of the drought- in both Nebraska and
California he was unable to make any headway
and had to abandon his efforts at husbandry.
He turned his attention to operating a ha\
press for two seasons in California, and by this
means managed to accumulate enough money
to bring him back to Mesa county, this state,
in the spring of 1898. Soon after bis arrival
he rented a farm of twenty acres, which had a
small orchard of three hundred to four hundred
trees on it, but no other improvements w< irthy
of mention. Before the summer ended he
bought this land on contract and he has since
purchased ten acres additional. He has paid
for the land out of its fruit products, and has
improved it with a comfortable dwelling and
good outbuildings. His orchards now num-
ber some two thousand trees, nearly all apple.
and about half in good bearing order. His crop
of 1902 was seven carloads of superior fruit,
and that of 1903 was eight carloads, and he
had in addition two carloads of potatoes and
an abundance of small fruits, bis gross returns
for the year being over four thousand dollars.
Mr. Rhinehart's achievements in the short space
of six years are really worthy of special men-
tion. He is now practically out of debt, has
some of the best improvements in the valley on
bis place, his orchards are of cumulative and
rapidly expanding value, and bis profits from
year to year are continually on the rise. The
story forcibly illustrates the possibilities for
properly applied energy in this favored section
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF IVESTERX COLORADO.
56i
and suggests the much wider range they are
likely to show within the near future. To his
wife he gives credit for a large share of his suc-
cess. For her energy has heen potential, her sa-
gacity has been marked and her enthusiasm in
the business has never waned. lie has also
boughl and shipped apples to the markets for a
number of years in addition to those he has pro-
duced 'in his own land. In politics he is a
Republican, but is not an active partisan, al-
though warmly interested in the welfare of his
party. On August 23, 1888, he was married
to .Miss Mary S. Johnson, a native of Republic
county. Kansas, where she grew to maturity
and was educated. She is a daughter of I )aniel
H. and Julia A. (Jones) Johnson, and a sister
of Lester C. Johnson, of Fruita, a sketch of
whom will be found on another page of this
volume. Mr. and Mrs. Rhinehart have two
children, their son Willis E. and their daughter
N. Marjorie.
LESTER C. JOHNSON.
Having come to Colorado and located in
Mesa county in 1887, and since then having
devoted all his energies and time with the ex-
ception of the first year to the fruit interest- of
the section. Lester C. Johnson, living two miles
and a half northeast of Fruita, has been a sub-
stantial contributor to the development and im-
provement of his neighborhood and the expan-
sion of its wealth of production and opportun-
ity. He was born in Knox county, Illinois, on
May 29, 1864, the son of Daniel H. and Julia
A. (Jones) Johnson, both also natives of that
state. In the spring of 1870 the family moved
to Republic county, Kansas, locating on a
farm. The parents now live in Grand valley,
where they have been since the fall of 1887.
There are four children in the family all living,
and Lester is the oldest. He was six years old
when the familv moved to Kansas, and in that
36
>tate he was reared on the family homestead,
assisting in its labors and sharing its trials,
and attending the district schools in the winter
months until the spring of 1887. when he came
to Colorado and settled in Mesa county. Here
he worked by the month for a year, then lo-
cated on the ranch which he now occupies,
which at that time was win ill}- uncultivated and
in a state of natural wildness. In the spring of
1889 he began to set out fruit trees, and this
he has continued steadih year by year ever
since, until he has now thirty-five of his forty
acres in thrifty and promising young trees,
many of which are in fine bearing order. His
selections are mainly winter apples, and his
crop of 1903 was large and profitable, yielding
a net income of more than four thousand dol-
lars, ten carloads of the fruit being shipped to
Denver. His first planting produced five hun-
dred and fifty dollars worth of apples on one
acre in 1903. and the other hearing trees in
proportion. While developing his orchards he
raised strawberries, potatoes and similar small
products, from the very start making his land
yield good returns for his labor. On February
5. 1889. he was married to Miss Alice Hand-
le}-, a native of Illinois. They have four chil-
dren. Edith. Grace. Merwin and Harold. In
politics Mr. Johnson is a Democrat, and while
he is active and forceful in the service of his
party at times, and never neglects its interests,
he is not an office seeker. Fraternally he is
connected with the Woodmen of the World,
holding a membership in the camp of the order
at Fruita. He is also a member nf the Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows at the same
place.
ALBERT D. MAHANY.
Having served his country faithfully in the
Civil war. and borne since the memorable con-
test the marks of its burdens, and having de-
voted to the pursuits of peace the same spirit of
562
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
yJi
courage and determination lie showed in the
presence of the enemy and the presence of
death in war. Albert D. Mahany, one of the
prominent and successful ranchmen and stock-
growers of Mesa county, living half a mile
north of Fruita, has won a substantial estate
nut of hard conditions and is comfortably fixed
in a worldly way as well as firmly established
in the regard and good will of his fellow men.
He was born at Buffalo. New York, near the
site of the present postoffice of the city, on De-
cember 5. 1844, and is the son of John and
Mary Mahany, natives of Ireland, who came to
the United States many years ago and located
at Buffalo, where they both died. The father
served in a New York regiment three years
during the Civil war, and took part in many
noted engagements. He was wounded at the
battle of Antietam on September 16, 1862, and
was then transferred to the reserve corps.
There were three sons and two daughters in the
family, and he also had a daughter by a former
marriage. The oldest son, Henry Mahany.
went south in his young manhood, and was em-
ployed on Mississippi river steamboats a num-
ber of years. He was on board the "Natchez"
under Captain Leathers during the time of the
midnight race. As captain of the New Orleans
Cadets he rendered valiant service to the Con-
federacy in the war between the states, and was
killed at the first battle of Fredericksburg. Al-
bert D. Mahany lived in Buffalo until he was
ten years old, then went to Alton, Illinois, and
during two or three years made his home with
his half sister, his mother having died when he
was two years old. From Alton he went to
Bloomington, Illinois, and lived two years, then
moved to Twinsburg, Ohio. He attended the
public schools when he had opportunity, and in
August, 1861, at the age of sixteen and in
obedience to the call of the President for vol-
unteers to defend the Union, enlisted in Com-
pany K. Nineteenth Ohio Veteran Volunteer
Infantry, under General O. M. Mitchell. His
command was ordered to Louisville, then
under General Crittenden, but in the latter part
of the war it was in the Fourth Army Corps,
Army of the Cumberland. He served to the
close of the war. nearly four years, re-enlisting
in the same company and regiment at the end
of his term, and was discharged on June 25,
1865. He saw a great deal of active field serv-
ice, participating in the engagements at Perrv-
ville, Shiloh, Corinth, Stone River. Chicka-
mauga, Chattanooga. Missionary Ridge. Pick-
et's Mills. Kenesaw Mountain, Pine Top,
Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta, Jonesboro and
Lovejoy Station, besides skirmishes too numer-
ous to mention. At Lovejoy Station he was
shot in the right arm and the wound required
that two inches of the bone should be taken out.
This so incapacitated him that he was in a hos-
pital at the time of his discharge, and was
unable to do labor of any kind for some time
after his return home. He therefore went to
school two years, and in 1867 came to Colo-
rado, and locating at Georgetown, worked a
year in the Ten Mile district. He then opened
a bakery and grocery store at Georgetown
called the Ohio Bakery, the building he put up
for the purpose being occupied as a courthouse.
Two years later he sold his interest to his part-
ner and went to Chattanooga. Tennessee, where
he lived eight years conducting a grocer}'. At
the end of that period he returned to Colorado,
and after passing a year and a half at Denver,
engaged in the cattle industry near Estabrook
five years. In 1883 he moved to Grand valley
and took up one hundred and sixtv acres of
land on which he now lives and carries on an
extensive farming and stock industry half a
mile north of Fruita. having alxnit four hun-
dred cattle on the range. He is also interested
in mining in Sinbad valley where he has prom-
ising copper claims. In politics Mr. Mahany
is an unwavering Republican, and is always
earnest and effective in the service of his party.
He was married on November g, 1S00. to Miss
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COEORADO.
563
Marena E. Post, a native of Hudson, Ohio, and
daughter of Bradford and Eliza ( Williams)
Post, also natives of that state, their people
being its pioneers and coming from Connecti-
cut. Mrs. Mahany's mother has been dead a
number of years and her father died in 1904 at
St. Elmo, Tennessee. Mr. and Mrs. Malianv
have nine children: Effie A., wife of J. S.
O'Neill; Charles H. ; Anna S., wife of E. E.
Adams; Albert B. ; Mary E., wife of J. W.
Robinson; Jennie A., wife of Frank M.
Downer; and Lena S., Ira Z. and Ellen L., liv-
ing at home. The head of the house is a mem-
ber of the order of Odd Fellows and the Grand
Army of the Repul.iic. He and his family
belong to the Congregational church.
URSA S. ABBOTT, M. D.
Although yet a young man of thirty. Dr.
Ursa S. Abbott, of Grand Junction, has had as
much variety of incident and opportunity as
often falls to a man within the limits of an
ordinary human life. He was born at Clear-
port, Ohio, on June 3, 1873, and is the sou of
Lafayette and Mary E. (Lysinger) Abbott. His
father, a native of Vermont, and his mother a
native of Pennsylvania, came to Ohio when
young and there reached maturity, became
acquainted and were married. The father was
a successful merchant for many years at Clear-
port, and died there in 1895, and the mother
also ended her days there, passing away in
1897. Their offspring numbered ten. seven of
whom are living-. The Doctor was the seventh
in the order of birth, and was reared in his
native county, receiving his education in the
public schools and under the instruction of
private tutors at home. He attended Heidel-
berg University at Tiffin, Ohio, two years, then
entered the University of Michigan at Ann
Arbor, but was obliged to leave in his senior
year on account of his health. In 1898 he
began the study of medicine at the Ohio Medi-
cal University at Columbus, where he passed
one year. The next was passed at the College
of Physicians and Surgeons at Chicago; but
he was unable to remain at either becau
the state of his health, and being obliged to
seek a milder climate, came to Denver, where
he spent a year at the Gross Medical College.
He then went to California, and in n;o2 was
graduated from the College of Physicians and
Surgeons at San Francisco. He located and
began practicing at Point Richmond on the San
Francisco bay, and was successful from the
start. In December of that year he received an
appointment as physician on a German steam-
ship and sailed for Hamburg, Germanv, on the
31st day of the month. His trip covered sev-
enteen thousand miles and involved stops in
Central and South America, at the Cape Verde
and Canary Islands, and in France, Germany
and England. He returned to New York on
May 24, 1903. and there took a course of
instruction at the Post-Graduate School and
Hospital. While doing this he received and
resigned a position as physician on the New
York board of health. In October, 1903. he
came to this state and located at Grand Junction
permanently, entering at once on the active
practice of his profession there. He is a mem-
ber of the Mesa County and the Colorado
State Medical societies and the American Med-
ical Association. In politics he is an ardent
Republican, and in fraternal relations belongs
to the Knights of Pythias, the Woodmen of
the World and the Fraternal Order of Eagles.
He is also local medical examiner for the
Woodmen of the World. Fraternal Union of
America. National Life Insurance Companv
and the United States Life Insurance Com-
pany. On September 7. 1904. Dr. Abbott mar-
ried Miss Rose Carolyn Keller, of Lancaster,
Fairfield county, Ohio, who was born there
June 18. 1876, the daughter of John B. and
Elizabeth (Hartrnan) Keller, both natives of
Germanv.
564
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
FREDERICK S. BRUNER.
Frederick S. Bruner, since 1900 the post-
master at Fruita, Mesa county, was born near
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on March 26. 1S47,
and is the son of < leorge and Maria C. (Smiley)
Bruner, also natives of Pennsylvania, though
of German ancestry. The father was a farmer
throughout his life, and was killed by accident
by a railroad train while crossing the tracks
when he was seventy-nine years old. He was
well known and highly respected in his section
of the country, and held a number of local
offices from time to time in his county. The
children in the family numbered six. all of
whom are living, the youngest at the age of
fifty and the oldest at that of seventy, Fred-
erick being the third born. He grew to man-
hood on the paternal homestead, receiving his
education at the district schools and New
Bloomfield Academy, which he attended two
terms. After leaving school he learned the
molders' trade and worked at it a few years
in Ohio. He moved to Cedar county, Iowa, in
1 87 1, and there engaged in farming. Four
years later he returned to Pennsylvania, but
moved to Iowa again in 1881, and engaged in
the coal business at Greenfield, remaining there
so occupied until 1891, when he came to Colo-
rado and located on a fruit ranch which he
bought half a mile north of Fruita. He made
valuable improvements and developed thirteen
acres to great productiveness in fruit of fine
varieties and superior quality. Four years
later he sold this and purchased "of C. C. Post
a grocery stock and consolidated the two stores.
After three years of successful operation on
the consolidation, in which he did a business of
thirty thousand dollars a year, he sold out to
the Fruita Mercantile Company. Soon after-
ward lie was appointed postmaster at Fruita,
receiving his commission in 1900, and he has
since filled this office witli credit to himself and
satisfaction to its patrons and the community
in general. His wife held the position for
three years previous to his appointment. He
has taken an earnest interest in the business
and public life of the town and county, and
been of substantial service in promoting all the
best interests of both. Among other enter-
prises to which he has given helpful attention
is the Fruita Realty Company, of which he was
one of the founders and which he now serves
as vice-president, he being one of the leading
.stockholders. This company owns the town-
site and has been energetic and enterprising in
building up the town. He also owns other real
estate in the town and is the town treasurer. He
was married in 1874 to Miss Myra Bushey, a
native of Pennsylvania, who accompanied her
parents to Missouri when sbe was young. She
became the mother of four children, all living,
Anna, wife of George Amsbary: Walter: and
Bessie and George, twins. Mrs. Bruner died
in 1900. In politics Mr. Bruner is a Republi-
can, and in church membership a Methodist
Episcopalian. He is a member of the church
board of trustees.
ALVIN X. BUCKLIN.
Alvin X. Bucklin, a brother of Hon. James
\Y. Bucklin, 'of Grand Junction, a more
extended notice of whom appears on another
page of this work, is one of the leading hard-
ware merchants in this part of the state, and
has shown in his business operations the same
force of character and persistency of effort that
have distinguished his brother in other lines of
activity. He was born in Kane county, Illinois,
on December 22, 1862. and is the son of George
and Arethusa (Winch) Bucklin. He was reared
in his native county and received his education
in the public schools and the preparatory <\v
partment of the Northwestern University at
Evanston. After leaving school he was em-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
5^
ployed for a number of years as a traveling
salesman, and during- this time, in [882, paid a
visit to Grand Junction, then in its pioneer days.
In [890 he located there permanently, and since
that time has been active and enterprising in
business, having one of the best stocked and
most extensive hardware stores in the city and
within a wide range of surrounding country.
This is conducted along the lines of the most
straightforward and upright business methods,
and with an enterprise entirely in keeping with
the progressive spirit of the community in
which it is located. On January 15. 1800, Mr.
Bucklin was married in California to Miss Lil-
lia B. Britton, a native of that state, her parents
having been among the pioneers of Santa Cruz
county and held in high esteem as leading and
representative citizens. They are still living
there, but the father has retired from active
pursuits. Mr. and Mrs. Bucklin have one son.
George F. Mr. Bucklin is a member of the
order of Elks and at present ( 1004) is exalted
ruler of his lodge at Grand Junction. In politics
he is an active, working Democrat.
THADD PARKER. M. D.
In 1901 Dr. Parker came to reside and
practice at Grand Junction, bringing to his pro-
fessional duties here a wealth of capacity and
learning acquired in years of study and prac-
tical experience in several of the best schools
and hospitals in various parts of this country
and others, in which his natural adaptability to
the profession had the most careful and com-
prehensive training. His success in this field
of professional labor has fully justified the
hopes raised by his previous preparation and
pn ivided a cumulative reward for his study and
practical efforts to master his line of work. He
was born at Petersburg, Michigan, on Septem-
ber 28. 1868, and is the second of the three
sons, all physicians, of his parents. Burton and
Fannie E. (Raymond) Parker, also natives of
Mulligan. The father is an attorney and at
present one of the supervising agents of the
United States treasury department at Wash-
ington. Dr. Parker was educated at the public
schools of his native town, being graduated at
the. high school there in 1887. He began the
study of medicine under the instruction of Doc-
tors H. C. Wyman and Dayton Parker, of
Detroit, and in 1888 entered the Michigan Col-
lege of Medicine and Surgery in that city. fr< mi
which he was graduated in 1S91 with the
degree of Doctor of Medicine. He then went
to Europe and took a three-months course in
the hospitals of Edinburgh, and on his return
pursued special courses at the Post-Graduate
School in New York and the Harvard Clinic
in Boston, serving also four years as house
surgeon at the Emergency Hospital in Detroit.
In 1901 he came to Colorado and located at
Grand Junction, where he has ever since been
actively engaged in a general practice of medi-
cine and surgery, in which he has been very
successful, rising to a high rank in the profes-
sion and winning a large, lucrative and repre-
sentative business" He belongs to the county
and state medical societies and the American
Medical Association, in the proceedings of all
of which he takes an active and interested part.
On January 21, looo, he was united in mar-
riage with Miss Nellie R. Smith, a native of
Gunnison, this state, and daughter of Burrell
and Amelia Smith. Her father is now
deceased. He was formerly a wealthy mining-
man. Her mother is living at Greeley. Colo-
rado. In politics the Doctor is a Republican.
He wa- recently appointed to the position of
county physician of Mesa county.
T. C. HICKMAN.
Among the commercial enterprises which
contribute most essentially and substantially to
the business interests and vitality of Grand
Junction, the Grand Junction Lumber Com-
5 66
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
pany is entitled to a high regard for the extent
of its operations and the straigtforward and
skillful manner in which it is managed. It was
established in March, 1903, and incorporated
with a capital stock of eighteen thousand dol-
lars, as the successor to the lumber firm of
Mayo & Endner, which had conducted the busi-
ness, with some changes of partnership, for a
number of years. The officers of the company
at this time (1904) are M. VV. Blakeslee, presi-
dent; H. C. Bucklin, vice-president; and T.
C. Hickman, secretary, treasurer and manager.
Mr. Hickman, who is the general director of its
affairs, is a native of Sangamon county, Illi-
nois, born on August 21. 1857, and the son of
George T. and Elizabeth (Lyon) Hickman,
who were born at Shelby ville, Kentucky, and
became pioneers of Sangamon count}', Illinois,
where they were married, and where thev
passed their days after their marriage, the
father dying there in 1888 and the mother in
1892. They were prosperous farmers and stood
high in their section of the state. The father
was an associate of Abraham Lincoln in boy-
hood and young manhood, and although born
and reared in Kentucky, was an ardent Repub-
lican. The son, T. C. Hickman, grew to man-
hood on the farm in his native county, and
there received a public-school education, after-
ward entering the Illinois Wesleyan University
at Bloomington, but owing to failing eyesight
he did not complete his course. He taught
school five years in Illinois, and in 1881 moved
to Lyons, Nebraska, where he again engaged
in teaching for five years. In 1886 he moved
to Craig, Nebraska, and during the next five
years was in the drug business there. At the
end of that period he sold out and started an
enterprise in the lumber and grain trade which
he conducted five years. In 1896 he came to
Colorado and located at Grand Junction, where
he was employed in the lumber yard of P. A.
Rice until \n><^. when In- became a member and
manager of the Grand Junction Lumber Com-
pany, with which he is still connected, as has
been noted. In politics he is a stanch and
unyielding Republican, but not an active part-
isan or party worker although in 1898 he was
the nominee for county treasurer, but was
defeated at the election. He belongs to the
Masonic order and is at present the master of
his lodge. He also belongs to the Elks, the
Modern Woodmen of America and the Wood-
men of the World. On December 29, 1880,
he was married to Miss Laura B. Ramey. They
have two children, Cardwell L. and Mabel C.
KNUD HANSON, M. D.
From the ragged coast of Norway to the
mountains of Colorado is a wide sweep in
longitude and conditions, and might well sug-
gest unfitness in a person born and reared on
the one for agreeable and useful life in the
other. That the suggestion is without force is
proven by the career of Dr. Knud Hanson, one
of the most prominent physicians of Grand
Junction, which is an impressive illustration of
the fact that to a man of real force and capacity
circumstances and conditions are only incidents
to be commanded to service and are not
allowed to dominate life or lessen active use-
fulness. The Doctor Was born in the old city
of Bergen. Norway, on July 11. 1874, and is
the son of Peter and Bertha (Olson) Hanson.
natives of that country, where the mother died
in 1898 and the father is still living, now
retired from active pursuits after a long, hon-
orable and successful career as a wholesale
grocer. Their offspring numbered fourteen, of
whom six are living, the Doctor being the thir-
teenth born. He grew to the age of sixteen in
his native land and there received a common-
school education, being graduated from the
high school in 1890. He then came to the
I Fnited State-* and located at Sauk Center. Min-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
? ( '7
nesota, where he clerked in a drug store three
years. In the fall of [894 he entered Rush
Medical College at Chicago, and after passing
three years there in diligent study of medicine
and surgerx-, was obliged to leave on ace unit of
his health. He came at once to Colorado, and
in 1898 was graduated from the University of
Denver with the degree of Doctor of Medicine.
For a year he was house physician at St. Luke's
Hospital in Denver, and in the fall of 1899
moved to Grand Junction, where he has built
up a large and lucrative practice in medicine
and surgery, giving attention especially to the
latter branch of his profession and achieving
unusual success and acquiring celebrity for skill
in it. He is a member of the county and state
medical societies, and gives to their proceedings
close attention as a learner, and the results of
his study, experience and observation as a con-
tributor. He is official physician to the Indian
school located at Grand Junction and in this
position has rendered very efficient and satis-
factory service. He has also been coroner two
years. In fraternal relations be is an interested
member of the order of Elks, in which he is a
wise and helpful counselor in the business of
his lodge and an inspiration in its social life.
LEROY C. HEDGES. M. D.
The medical fraternity of this country
comprises one of the most useful and contin-
uously active classes of its people. Not only do
its practitioners go about among their fellows
alleviating pain and averting' disaster in a
physical sense, but they are disseminators of
the best public opinion, guides and directors of
public thought and action, conservative forces
in every community for the preservation of its
most vital interests and the prevention of many
forms of wrong through hasty and ill-consid-
ered activity. To this class belongs Dr. Leroy
C. Hedges, one of the prominent and highly
esteemed professional men of Mesa county, liv-
ing at Grand Junction, and, with that place as
a center, rendering beneficent service to his
kind throughout a wide extent of country and
exerting a wholesome and productive influence
on the common thought and impulse of the
people, although not himself active in a politi-
cal way or desirous of public station of any
kind. He was born in Fremont county. Iowa,
on August 6, 1859, and is the son of William
H. and Maria C. (Clarke) Hedges, the former
a native of New York and the latter of Canada.
both of English ancestry, the Hedges family
coming to this country in T632. The Doctor's
father, a noted civil engineer, made the first
topographical and trigonometrical survey of
the city of Chicago, where he is still living and
holding an important position, the duties of
which he discharges with great diligence and
ability although he is now nearly seventy-one
years old. His wife also still brightens the
home with her presence at an advanced age.
Their offspring numbered six, three of whom
are living. The Doctor moved with the family
to Chicago when he was six years of age. and
there grew to the age of nineteen, receiving a
public and high school education. When four-
teen years old he went into the office of an
uncle, and from then until he was nineteen
studied much along the lines of the medical
profession. At the age last named he came
west with his father, and during the next ten
years was engaged in ranching and mercantile
business in Dakota, also teaching school and
publishing a newspaper for a time. Returning
to Chicago, he resumed the study of medicine,
and was graduated from the Chicago Medical
College in 1891. He practiced in Chicago sev-
en years, at Janesville, Wisconsin, three and
at Onalaska, in the same state, two. He then
came to this state and located at Grand Junc-
tion, where he has since resided. He stands
high in professional circles and in the genera!
;68
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
estimation of the people, being an active and
forceful man in local public affairs without
regard to politics, and meeting the obligations
of citizenship in a commendable and fruitful
way. He is physician to the smelter at Grand
Junction and has the confidence of all who are
connected with it. In the organizations of the
profession formed for the concentration and
enlargement of its best thought and influences
he takes an earnest and intelligent interest,
being an active and contributing member of
the American Institute of Homeopathy and the
Wisconsin and Chicago Homeopathic Medical
societies ; and during two years he lectured on
anatomy in the National Medical College of
Chicago. Fraternally he is connected with the
Odd Fellows and the Royal League. In politics
he is a socialist in theory, but generally votes
the Republican ticket. He was married in
Dakota in 1885 to Miss Fannie S. Howe, a
native of Wisconsin, and they had two chil-
dren, Ernest H. and Clarke. She died in 1889,
and two years later he married a second wife.
Miss Ida E. Ellis, a native of Canada. They
have three children, Leroy E., William S. and
Albert R.
GEORGE SMITH.
An Englishman by birth, and passing his
life from the age of ten to that of twenty-one in
the coal mines of that country, George Smith,
(if Grand Junction, brought to the land of his
adoption the knowledge and skill acquired in
that experience, and has put it to good service
in developing the coal mining interests of the
section in which he has cast his lot, being
among the pioneers of that industry here and
one of its most intelligent and successful pro-
moters. He was born in Yorkshire, England,
nil January 25, 1858, the son of James and
Ellen (Coffin) Smith, natives of Derbyshire in
his native land, although they now live in Lan-
cashire, where the father is engaged in mining
coal. Mr. Smith's opportunities for schooling
were limited, as he was obliged to go to work
in the mines at the age of ten and pass the rest
of his minority at hard work. He remained
at home until he was twenty years old, and in
January, 1880, came to the United States,
reaching Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, with a capi-
tal of two dollars. He at once went to work in
the coal mines on the Monongahela river, and
in December of the same year returned to Eng-
land and was married. In April, 188 1, he
brought his wife to this country, which he had
determined to make his home, and came direct
to Colorado. He found employment in the
mines at Louisville and Erie until February,
1883, then took up his residence at Grand Junc-
tion, at that time a village of about five hundred
inhabitants, which he has seen grow to a city
of ten times that number. For a while he was
employed by the railroad company, and in the
winter of 1883-4 opened the Brook Cliff, the
first coal mine opened in Mesa county. In
1888 he sold this to the Little Brook Cliff Rail-
road Company, which constructed a railroad to
it and began a more extensive development of
its resources. While he owned the mine he sup-
plied the Grand Junction coal markets, hauling
his product in wagons a distance of twelve
miles, which he found a profitable business
although very laborious. When the broad
gauge railroad was built to Grand Junction he
opened the Mt. Lincoln coal mines at Pali-
sades, and after operating them successfully for
a number of years, sold them to a Denver firm
in 1893. He then started an enterprise in the
coal and real estate business in which he has
been very successful. In i8q_' lie began the
construction of what is now known as the
High-Line Irrigation Ditch, in partnership
with Alexander Strouthers and C. W. Bald-
win, for the purpose of watering the high lands.
They built twenty four miles of the ditch, and
in the enterprise Mr. Smith lost all he had
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
569
accumulated. At present the construction is
being enlarged and carried forward under the
state irrigation laws. In the fall of 1899 he
opened the Cameo coal mine for a corporation
he had formed known as the Grand Junction
Mining and Fuel Company, of which he is one
of the owners and the manager. The fall before
he was elected a member of the legislature on
the Populist ticket. In the ensuing session he
was a candidate for speaker of the house, but
W. G. Smith was elected and he was made
chairman of the committee on corporations and
railroads. He was the author of a law
authorizing the merging of all branch railroad
lines under one corporate name, and under its
provisions the re-organization of the Colorado
Southern was made possible, and the people
secured the benefits which have flowed there-
from. He has also served one term as under
sheriff of Mesa county, and two terms as sec-
retary of the board of inspectors of the state
coal mines. In connection with the commercial
interests of the city he is a member of Chamber
of Commerce and one of its directors: and in
politics is chairman of the Republican city com-
mittee. He was married in 1881 to Miss Jen-
nie Sutton, who died in 1888, leaving no chil-
dren. On June 28, 1899, he married a second
wife. Miss Edith A. Bylis. They have two
daughters. Vivian and Edith. In fraternal rela-
tions he belongs to the Modern Woodmen of
America and the Knights of Pythias. Mr.
Smith is an enterprising, progressive and
broad-minded citizen, deeply interested in the
welfare of his city, county and state, and
always willing to bear his full share of the
burdens of promoting them.
SAMUEL X. WHEELER.
The legal profession, although laying its
votaries under tribute for continuous and ard-
uous labor to win success, and often requiring
sleepless nights after toilsome days in its
exactions, yet wins many of the best minds of
tlie country to its fields of contest and loses
none of its attractions to the ambitious because
of the hard conditions of the service. Ann nig
the men who honor it and are distinguished in
it, western Colorado has no more welcome or
inspiring example than Samuel N. Wheeler, of
Grand Junction, one of the leading attorneys
of Mesa county, and one of its best and most
representative citizens, who is prominent and
successful in business as well as in professional
life. Mr. Wheeler is a native of Clarke count) .
Virginia, horn in 1857. and the son of Jackson
and Jane (Triplett) Wheeler, who were also
natives of the Old Dominion and lived there
until after the Civil war, when they moved to
Missouri, where the father bought a farm and
on it they reared their family of eight children,
five of whom are living. The father was a sol-
dier in the Confederate army dining the war
in the command of "Stonewall" Jackson. His
son Samuel accompanied the family to Mis-
souri from his native state in 1863, and grew
to manhood on the paternal homestead. He
was educated in the district schools and at the
Warrensburg Normal School, paying for his
education by teaching school. He studied law
under the direction of a well known Warrens-
burg attorney and counselor, and in 18S2 was
admitted to practice in the Missouri courts,
after which he took a course of lectures at the
University of Virginia. Going to New Orleans
in 1884, he there taught a select school for eigh-
teen months. In 1886 he began the practice of
his profession at Odessa. Missouri, but in the
following year moved to southwestern Kansas,
and from there in iSqo came to this state and
located at Grand Junction. During the next
five years he was associated in practice with
Judge W. S. Sullivan, and since the dissolu-
tion of the partnership with him has been
alone. In his practice he has been eminently
57°
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
successful, rising to the first rank in this sec-
tion and making a reputation throughout a
much larger scope of country as a learned
counselor, a skillful attorney and a forcible and
eloquent advocate. Both in the elementary
principles of the law and in its interpretations
by the courts he is well versed, and his intellec-
tual forces are always marshalled and ready
for duty on call. But although the law is a
jealous mistress and seldom admits a divided
devotion from her worshippers, he finds time to
give attention to an extensive real estate busi-
ness and the cultivation of several fine fruit
farms near Fruita in Mesa county. He is also
attorney for the Grand Valley National Bank
of Grand Junction and the Colorado Midland
Railroad at that city. In politics he is an ardent
Democrat, and, although averse to public
office, served two years as city attorney. In the
fall of 1-898 he was a candidate for the nomina-
tion for district judge in his district, but for
personal reasons he withdrew from the race
before the nominating convention met. Tlu
best interests of the community receive his sup-
port at all times, and in all commendable
phases of its social, public and commercial life
he is prominent, helpful and stimulating. He
belongs to Mesa Lodge, No. 58, Independent
Order of Odd Fellows, and has filled all its
official chairs. In 1888 lie married with Miss
Frances Hereford, of Missouri. They have
three children. Rowena. Samuel N., Jr.. and
Virginia.
ISAAC N. BUNTING.
For nearly fourteen years a resident of
Colorado, and during the whole of that time
connected with the press of the Western slope
in a prominent and influential way. Isaac X.
Bunting', manager and editor of the Daily Sen-
tinel of Grand Junction, has been effective in
promoting the best interests of the section and
making known to the world its resources and
wealth of opportunity to homeseekers and men
of activity and enterprise. He was born in
1862, at Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and is the
son of S. M. Bunting, then living there, who
established the S. M. Bunting Hat and Fur
Company, one of the oldest firms in Pennsyl-
vania. This was started in 1850, and the elder
Bunting was its proprietor until his death, in
1885. In this period of thirty-five years he
built up an extensive trade for his firm, became
widely known in the business world, and also
rose to prominence in social circles. He mar-
ried Miss Hannah Slonaker, a Pennsylvanian
of German descent on the maternal side, who
is still living at Pottstown. Their family con-
sisted of five children: John A., who suc-
ceeded to his father's business ; Howard S., who
is a representative of and stockholder in the
Hamilton-Brown Shoe Company of St. Louis,
and in 1887 was a member of the Kansas legis-
lature ; William W., who is secretary and treas-
ure]' and manager of the Keystone Agricultur-
al Works: Anna M., wife of W. H. Maxwell;
Isaac N., the subject of this review. He
received his education in the schools of his
native town and at the Pennington, New Jersey,
Seminary, from which he was graduated in
1882. Afterward he was employed four years
as a traveling salesman, part of the time for
the Dunham Manufacturing Company, of St.
Louis and New York, and part for Dodge
&- Seward, confectioners, of St. Louis. In
1886 he went to Kansas and, in partnership
with his brother, engaged in the cattle business
and merchandising, remaining there until i8qo,
when he came to Colorado to take the manage-
ment of the Grand Junction Daily Star, an
Associated Press newspaper, which he man-
aged until 1893. Then, in partnership with
Howard T. Lee. he established the Daily Sen-
tinel. Mr. Bunting assuming full charge of the
local and business departments, ami later of the
editorial department also. Of this he has made
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
a gratifying success, his subscription list and
the popularity of the paper showing a steady
and continuing increase, and growing con-
stantly in influence and power. His part
in political affairs, local and general, has
been a prominent and forceful one, and
his paper has proven a valuable organ
of his principles. Positive in his opinions and
fearless in declaring them, he has established
a wide reputation as a man who always has the
courage of his convictions. He is past chancel-
lor of Grand Junction Lodge, No. 55, Knights
of Pythias, and a member of the grand lodges
of Pennsylvania, Kansas and Colorado in the
order. He is also prominent in the order of
Woodmen of the World and the Elks. In 1886
he was united in marriage with Miss Maude
Stanley Wilson, of Pennsylvania. They are
the parents of three children, Helen S.. Mark
R. and H. Margaret.
GUSTAVE VAN HOOREBEKE.
Successful in the practice of his profession,
the law. and also in commercial and banking
business, and devoting all the energies of his
strong and well-trained mind to the interests of
the section of this state in which he has cast his
lot, Gustave Van Hoorebeke, of Grand Junc-
tion, has been of great and highly valued serv-
ice in the progress and development of western
Colorado, and is recognized on all sides as one
of its most representative and influential citi-
zens. It was in the historic city of Ghent, in
Belgium, with its time-honored cathedral, its
renowned university and its valiant defense in
many wars, that his life began, and February 2.
1838, was the date of his advent. His parents
were Emanuel and Coletta (Van Loo) Van
Hoorebeke. the former a native of Belgium and
the latter of France. The father was in the mer-
cantile business in his native land, and on com-
ing to the United States in 1850, became a
farmer in St. Louis county, Missouri. Three
years later he moved to Cole county, that state.
and in 1855 took up his residence in Kansas,
being among the pioneers of Pottawatomie
county, in which he settled. In 1856, one year
after locating there, the mother died, and after
surviving her more than forty years, the father
died at Parsons, past eighty-seven years of age.
Their only child, Gustave, accompanied them
to this country, being twelve years old at the
time, and received such a district school educa-
tion as the migatory life of the family allowed.
He was three years at the St. Louis University.
but was not graduated. When he reached the
age of twenty-four he left home and began to
study law, pursuing his professional studies
until 1863, when he was admitted to practice at
Carlyle, Illinois. He remained there engaged in
the practice of his profession until 1874, then
moved to Denver, this state, and formed a part-
nership with Bela M. Hughes. Soon afterward
he returned to Illinois on account of his wife's
health, and in bis former home continued his
practice until 1903. He is a Democrat in poli-
tics, and in 1868 was the candidate of his party
for the office of secretary of state of Illinois.
but as the state went fifty thousand Republican
there was no chance of his election. In 1885
he was appointed by President Cleveland
United States district attorney for the southern
district of Illinois and he served until July 1.
1889. He was also attorney in Illinois for the
Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Railroad
for a period of twenty years or longer.
In April. 1903, he came to Grand Junc-
tion and formed a law partnership with
Honorable J. S. Carnahan. a sketch of
whom will be found on another page
of this volume, and the firm is one of the most
prominent and successful in the West. In May
of last year mentioned Mr. Van Hoorebeke
became one of the organizers and principal
stockholders of the Union Trust and Banking
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Company, the first trust company formed on
the Western slope, and was elected its presi-
dent, a position he still holds, owning a major-
ity of the stock in the company. In July, 1858,
he was married to Miss Ann E. Phillips, a
native of Madison, Indiana, and they have
three children, two of whom are living, Charles,
of Grand Junction, and William, of Salt
Lake City. On May 3, 1877, he married a sec-
ond wife, Miss Cora B. Cook, who was horn in
New York. They also have had four children,
of whom three are living, Eugene, at Grand
Junction; L. Harold, at Grand Junction, assist-
ant cashier of the Union Trust and Banking
Company; and Vivian, at home. Mr. Van
Hoorebeke belongs to the United Workmen
and the Odd Fellows.
ARTHUR GEORGE TAYLOR, M. D.
Dr. Arthur George Taylor, of Grand Junc-
tion, i>ne of the popular and serviceable profes-
sional men of Mesa county, who has been in
active practice there since 1899, nas na d the
usual experience of a country physician and
surgeon — a life of toil and sacrifice for the
good of others, with the satisfaction of know-
ing that his labors, although often seemingly
unappreciated, have yet been of substantial ben-
efit to his community and contributed in a large
measure to the comfort and welfare of its
people. He is a native of Booneville. Missouri,
bom "ii August '). 1870, and is the son of W.
C. P. and Mary (McClain) Taylor, the former
a native of Virginia and the latter of Missouri.
The father was a carriage maker by trade and
located at Booneville when a young man. In
[849 he crossed the plains with ox teams to
California, where he remained five years, three
years engaged in mining and two years in
freighting and the stock industry. IK- died in
1 00 1 at Booneville, Missouri, where the
mother is still living. Their offspring numbered
eight, of whom two died in infancy and one
son at v the age of thirty. The Doctor was the
last born of the family. He was reared at
Booneville and there received a public-school
education. Afterward he attended the Univer-
sity of Missouri at Columbia, pursuing a scien-
tific course preparatory to the study of medi-
cine, and was graduated in 1896. His profes-
sional course was taken at the Missouri Medi-
cal College at St. Louis, where he was gradu-
ated in 1899. He then went to Philadelphia
and passed a year in a post-graduate course and
hospital work at Jefferson Medical College. In
1899 he went to Grand Junction and began the
successful practice of his profession, in which
he is still actively engaged. His practice is
general, covers a wide extent of the surround-
ing country and is highly representative in
character, numbering among its patrons many
of the best families in his section of the state.
In the organizations for combining the best
thought and forces of the profession he is
active and helpful, being a zealous member of
the Mesa County Medical Society, the Colo-
rado State Medical Society and the American
Medical Association. In the proceedings of the
county society he has taken special interest and
is now serving efficiently as its secretary. In
fraternal lines he is connected with the Masonic
order, the Modern Woodmen of America and
the Woodmen of the World, and in political
faith and allegiance he is a Democrat, but not
an active partisan. On November 16, 1897, he
was married to Miss Hannah E. Tice, a native
of New Jersey, and daughter of Richard E. and
Emily (Steelman) Tice. the former born in
that state and the latter in Xew York. The
Tice family are of Revolutionary stock and
bore themselves valiantly in the great struggle
for American independence. Mrs. Taylor's
parents reside at Williamstown, Xew Jersey,
and are prosperous farmers. The Doctor's
family consists of one son, Richard E., now
(1904) three years old. in addition to his wife
and himself.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
DAVID T. STONE.
The Union Banking- and Trust Company of
Grand Junction, which is the first trust com-
pany formed on the Western slope, enjoys in a
marked degree the confidence of the people of
the section, and by its steady progress and
enlargement in the volume of business justifies
this o mfidence in full measure. It owes much
of its success and popularity to the excellent
management it has had under its efficient and
accomplished cashier. David 'I". Stone, who is
one of the principal stockholders of the institu-
tion and deeply interested in its welfare. This
company was organized in May, 1903. and
incorporated on the 22d day of the month with
a capital stock of fifty thousand dollars. Its
officers are G. Van Hoorebeke, president ; Wil-
liam E. Dudley, vice-president, and David T.
Stone, cashier. It began business on Septem-
ber 14, 1903, and a statement of its affairs to
the close of business on December 28th, fol-
lowing, showed deposits amounting to $56,-
441.04, loans and discounts aggregating $57,-
637.68, and cash on hand in the sum of $42.-
•314.03. This for a business covering- only three
months is an unusually creditable record even
in a country rich in prosperity and enterprise.
Mr. Stone was born in Platte county. Missouri,
on October 28. 1856, and is the son of Thomas
F. and Mary A. (Flannagan) Stone, the former
a native of Bourbon county, Kentucky, and the
latter born in England. She came to the
United States and settled in Kentucky with
her parents in childhood. Mr. Stone's father
was a farmer and stock-grower, and well
known in western Missouri as a breeder of
superior Shorthorn cattle, having removed to
that state in 1848. He is now deceased, but
the mother is still living in Missouri. The oldest
son of the family, formerly a state senator
from St. Louis, is at present practicing law in
Kansas City. This branch of the Stone fam-
ily came from Virginia, where it was domesti
cated for many generations, its American pro-
genitors having settled there in Colonial times,
and are supposed to be descendants of Thomas
Stone, one of the signers of the Declaration of
Independence. In the immediate family of
Mr. Stone there were seven children, of whom
he was the fourth born. He grew to manhood
on the home farm in his native state, and
received a good district-school education, after-
ward entering the Christian Brothers College
at St. Louis, where he was graduated with the
degree of Bachelor of Arts, in 1881. He then
taught school near his home one year, and in
[882 came to Colorado, and at Del Norte
passed the next four years in teaching at the
Boulevard school, being first assistant three
years of the time and principal of the school
one. In 1886 he moved to Grand Junction, and
for three years served as principal of the school
there, at the end of which time he was elected
count}- superintendent, serving one term of two
years. He then entered the Mesa Count}' State
Bank and soon became assistant cashier, hold-
ing the position thirteen years, at the end of
which time he resigned and helped to organize
the institution of which he is now cashier. This
has flourished and grown, as has been noted,
his personal character, business capacity, long
residence and educational services in the com-
munity being potential factors in making it so
successful. He aided in organizing the first
teachers' institute of the twelfth normal dis-
trict at Montrose in 1888, and was one of its
instructors, and was also an instructor in the
institute at Ouray in 1899. In addition he
organized the Mesa County Teachers' Institute
during the first year of his tenure as county
superintendent. For a number of years he was
director in the Grand Junction Building, Loan
and Savings Association, of which he was also
an original stockholder. In 1S94 he was ap-
pointed clerk of the district court and held
574
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OE WESTERN COLORADO.
the office a year and a half. In politics he
has always been a Democrat, loyal to his part)'
and promoting its interests by his zeal and
fidelity in even' proper way. serving on the
senatorial and state committees in its organiza-
tion, and by his personal influence and efforts
aiding in securing the success of its principles
and candidates. On November 17. 1892, he
was married at Kansas City. Missouri, to Miss
Caroline L. Baker, a native of Lindsay, in the
province of Ontario. Canada, the daughter of
C. L. Baker, a prosperous merchant of that
city. Mr. and Mrs. Stone have two children.
their daughter Genevieve, now ten years old,
and their son David F., aged three.
MAX BUCHMANN.
During almost the whole of his life since
leaving school Max Buchmann, cashier of the
Grand Valley National Bank of Grand Junc-
tion, has been connected with the banking and
stock " brokerage business in some form, and
his adaptability to its requirements and the
masterful manner in which he meets them
proves the wisdom of his choice of occupation
and justifies the confidence of those for whom
he employs his abilities. He was born at
Adelsdorf, Bavaria, Germany, on July 24.
1876, the son of Ben and Caroline (Kramer)
Buchmann, descendants of long lines of an-
cestors born and reared in that portion of the
fatherland, both families having lived there
hundreds of years. The mother is deceased
and the father is still living in his native place.
Max is their only son and third child. He was
reared to the age of seventeen in the place of his
nativity, and was educated there in the primary
and high schools. At the age of thirteen he
was apprenticed to a merchant in the woolen
and banking business, with whom he remained
four years. He then came to the United States.
landing in New York city, where he was em-
ployed in clerical work two years. At the end
of that time he determined to seek a home
and estate in the West and came to this state
for the purpose, arriving at Colorado Springs
in January, 1896. For six months he followed
mining in Boulder county. He then returned
to Colorado Springs and became connected
with the banking and brokerage business, in
which he continued at that point until January,
1902, when he moved to Grand Junction to
take the position of cashier of the Grand Valley
National Bank, then being established, and this
position he has held continuously since that
time. On February 12, 1902, he was married
to Miss Carrie Kahn, a native of Ouincv.
Illinois, reared and educated in Chicago. Thev
have one child, their son Max, Jr., born in
Alay, 1903. Mr. Buchmann takes an earnest
and helpful interest in local affairs at all times.
He was one of the founders of the Chamber of
Commerce of Grand Junction, and has been of
great service in many other lines of fruitful
activity, withholding his aid from no worthy
enterprise in which the welfare of the com-
munity is involved. He is the local repre-
sentative at the Junction of Verner Z. Reed, of
Colorado Springs, one of the controlling fac-
tors of the Grand Valley National Bank, the
Reed Building Company, the Grand Junction
Town and Development Company, and the
Western Real Estate and Securities Company,
all of which have large investments in Mesa
county. Mr. Reed's interests at this point are
known to be in safe and capable hands, as is
shown by the skill and success with which they
are managed. In the social life of the com-
munity Mr. and Mrs. Buchmann have a high
standing. In business circles he is recognized
as a wise counselor and a Stimulating force.
And in domestic life he furnishes an example
of lofty ideals zealously followed.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
SAMUEL G. McMULLIN.
The capable and industrious district at-
torney of the seventh judicial district of this
state, who is the subject of these paragraphs,
is a man of force and influence in and out of his
profession and his office. He was born in the
good old city of Philadelphia on July 2, 1866.
and is the son of Samuel H. and tsabelle
(Matthews) McMullin. the former a native of
Philadelphia also, the home of his family since
1729, the latter born and reared in Cincinnati.
Ohio. The father was during his manhood a
Presbyterian minister and college professor,
occupying chairs in Center College at Danville.
Kentucky, and Miami University at Oxford,
Ohio. He died in 1891 near Cincinnati, and his
widow is now living in that city. The paternal
line was of Scotch-Irish descent and the ma-
ternal of English Quaker origin. Both families
have from their arrival in the United States
been intensely patriotic. Robert McMullin, the
district attorney's great-grandfather, was a
soldier in the Revolution and fought valiantly
for the cause of American freedom, holding
the rank of colonel. In Mr. McMullin's im-
mediate family there were six children, of
whom he was the fifth. Four are now living.
He was an infant when the family moved to
Cincinnati, and passed his childhood and youth
in that city, attending the public schools there
and finishing his scholastic course at the Cir-
cleville high school. He then began the study
of law in the office of Matthews & Shoemaker
in Cincinnati, and for some time attended the
law school there. His health failed tempor-
arily, however, and he was obliged to leave the
school without his degree. In November,
1889, he came to Colorado and located at
Grand Junction, and in June, 189 1, was ad-
mitted to the bar in that city, where he has
ever since been in active practice. He is a
Democrat in politics and always active in the
service of his party. In the fall of 1897 nc
was elected district attorney for the seventh
judicial district, comprising the counties of
Mesa, Delta, Montrose, Gunnison, Hinsdale.
Ouray and San Miguel, an enormous territory
and comprising many conflicting elements. At
the end of his term of three years he was re-
elected, and by reason of an amendment to the
state constitution he will serve four vears this
time. It will be easy to infer that his duties
are arduous and exacting; yet they do not oc-
cupy all of his time or energy. He is president
of the Home Loan and Investment Company,
and for the last thirteen years was a director
in the Mesa County Building and Loan As-
sociation. He is also secretary and attorney
of the Grand Junction Electric and Gas Com-
pany. On December 30, 1890. he was married
to Miss Rella Hall, a native of Shelbyville,
Illinois, and daughter of Cyrus and Sarah
(Lowe) Hall. Two sons have blessed t'e
union, Bentley and Howard. Mr. McMullin
Ixdongs to the Masonic order through lodge
chapter and commandery, and also to the
order of Elks. He is highly esteemed through-
out his district and is worthy of the distinction.
JUDGE WILLIAM A. MARSH.
The interesting subject of this review, who
is one of the leading business men of Grand
Junction, has had a varied and inspiring career.
Tried by both extremes of fortune, he has
never been unduly influenced by either, but
at every turn of the wheel has kept his faith
with his manhood, his determined spirit, his
self-reliance and his inflexible iutegritv. He
was born on February 9, 1856, in Sonoma
county, California, the son of Washington J.
and Maria P. (Smith) Marsh. Thev were na-
tives of New York. In 1849 the father went
to California by the perilous and tedious route
around Cape Horn, and the mother followed
576
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
him thither in 1852, she going by way of the
isthmus and Lake Nicaragua. For a number
of years the father followed mining and farm-
ing successfully in his new home, then lost all
his accumulations in a Los Angeles real-estate
boom. He died on March 13. 1898, in River-
side county, California, at a small town where
he conducted a modest store and was post-
master for a few years prior to his death. His
widow is still living there. During the Civil
war the father was a member of a militia
company which kept guns in secret ready for
emergencies. The Judge lived in various
counties of his native state and Nevada during
his boyhood and youth, and attended the dis-
trict schools as he had opportunity. Later he
was a student at the Collegiate Institute at
Napa, California, and was graduated there in
1879. He then taught school one year in
California and one year in Nevada. In 1881
he entered the law department of the Michigan
State University, and was graduated therefrom
in 1883. He came at once to Grand Junction,
this state, then a straggling village of five hun-
dred population. Soon after his arrival he was
appointed assistant cashier of the Mesa County
State Bank, and during the next seven years he
held this position. In the fall of 1889 he was
elected county judge, and at the end of his term
of three years he started the real-estate busi-
ness which he is still conducting and which he
has built up into one of the leading enterprises
of this kind in the western part of the state.
He has succeeded handsomely in his operations,
and is now one of the substantial men of his
section in a material way, and in business cir-
cles has a wide and helpful influence. In
politics he is a prohibition Republican, but is
seldom an active partisan. In church work he
is more energetic and the results of his labors
in this field stand out prominently to his ever-
lasting credit. He helped to organize the Sun-
day school of the Methodist Episcopal church,
ami was elected its superintendent, a position
he has held continuously from the organization
of the schi 10I until now. Later he aided greatly
in effecting a church organization, of which he
and Ins wife are zealous members, and which
through their efforts with those of others has
grown strong and effective for great good in
the community. Fraternally he is connected
with the Masonic order in lodge and chapter
and has held high offices in both organizations.
In July. 1886, he was married to Miss Rosa H.
Harris, whom he met while attending school
at Napa, California. She was born in Nevada,
the daughter of W. G. Harris, a mining man
during the whole of his mature life. The
Judge and his wife have four children. William
E., Alice A., Mabel and Walter W.. all at home.
In January, 1897, he was instrumental in or-
ganizing the Home Loan and Investment Com-
pany, with a capital stock of twenty-five thou-
sand dollars, and he has been its secretary and
manager ever since its organization. He also
helped 1o organize the first building and loan
association at Grand Junction, and in this as-
sociation he has been chairman of the property-
committee from its foundation. In all the re-
lations of life he has walked uprightly among
his fellow men, and in the means of developing
improving and elevating the material and moral
welfare of his section of the country he has
been potential in enterprise, wise in counsel.
conservative in action, and beneficial in even-
way.
EDWIN PRICE.
Editor, politician, postmaster and public-
spirited citizen, Edwin Price, of Grand Junc-
tion, is one of the most useful as well as one of
the best known and most highly esteemed men
in western Colorado. He was born at Carlyle,
inois, on October 27.
and comes of
distinguished lineage. His parents. Edwin and
Matilda I. (Walker) Price, were natives, re-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
spectively, of North Carolina and Louisiana.
The mother came to Illinois an infant in the,
arms of her mother on horseback all the way
from her native state, and thus became a
veritable pioneer in the great Prairie state, her
parents being among its earliest settlers. The
paternal grandmother of the subject was a
daughter of a Scottish nobleman named
Nairon, belonging to one of the old families
which are renowned in Scotch history. An
uncle of the subject's mother. Simeon Walker,
was one of the pioneer Methodist preachers of
Illinois and had five sons who were ministers.
Mr. Price's father was a merchant, and in the
early days of St. Louis was the assistant post-
master of that city. From there he moved to
Carlyle, Illinois, and engaged in merchandis-
ing at that town until his death in 1865. His
widow is still living, at the age of seventy-six,
making her home with her daughter, Mrs. H.
R. Bull, of Grand Junction. The family con-
sisted of three sons and five daughters, only
three of whom are living, and of these Mr.
Price is the oldest. He grew to manhood and
received his education in his native town.
When he reached the age of fourteen he lie-
came an apprentice in the office of the Car-
rollton, Illinois, Gazette, and there learned his
trade as a practical printer. Later he worked
for a time on the Union Banner, of Carlyle. and
in the fall of 1876 came to Colorado, locating
at Denver, where he was employed a while on
the old Denver Democrat. He then established
what is now- known as the Merchants' Publish-
ing Company, one of the largest establishments
of its kind in the city. In the fall of 1882 he
sold his interests in this company and moved to
Grand Junction, bringing overland from Delta
the plant and appurtenances with which he
started the News of that city, the first issue
coming out on October 27. 1882. the twenty-
fifth anniversary of his birth. It was a six-
column four-page paper, and the first one pub-
37
lished at the Junction. He has been the pub-
lisher and editor of the paper ever since, and
was in active charge of it until he became post-
master of the city in 1897. The News is not
only the oldest paper at Grand Junction, but
one of the most influential and prominent in
the western part of the state. It has had
much to do with shaping and directing the
course of public affairs in this section, and its
voice has always been potential for the good of
the territory in which it circulates. In April.
1883, Darwin P. Kingsley became associated,
with Mr. Price in conducting the paper. In
1886 he was elected state auditor, and at the
end of his term of two years he went to Boston
as manager of agencies in the New England
states for the Xew York Life Insurance Com-
pany. He has since been elected third vice-
president of the company. In the fall of 1883
Mr. Price was appointed postmaster of Grand
Junction by President Arthur, and after serv-
ing fourteen months resigned following the
election of Cleveland. In 1807 he was aga'in
appointed to this office, receiving his commis-
sion from President McKinley, and on January
10, 1902, was re-appointed by President
Roosevelt. Always a stanch Republican, Mr.
Price has been active and zealous in the service
of his part)- on all occasions. His paper was
the only one in his portion of the state that
stood by the Republican platform in the cam-
paign of 1896, when the silver issue swept so
many from their moorings. He has served the
city as alderman and in other capacities f r
the good of the community, and has attended
even 1 state convention of his party for twenty
years except that of 1903, and been of great
service in the deliberations of the bodies. On
October 13, 188 1, he was married to Miss Lola
F. Kennard, born in Maryland but a direct de-
scendant of the John Alden and Priscilla of
Plymouth. Massachusetts, who figure so promi-
nently in Longfellow's poem of "The Court-
578
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
ship of Miles Standish." Mr. and Mrs. Price
have five children: Lola Eudora, the first white
child horn at Grand Junction, and now the wife
of Richard Meserve. of that city; and Edwin
K.. Kingsley A.. Priscilla A. and Philip X.
It should be mentioned that in 1896 Mr. Price
was the Republican candidate for secretary of
state, but the conditions of the campaign, 1 >\\ ing
to the silver issue, precluded the possibility of
his election. Two years previous he made a
single-handed fight against the party managers
and their slate to be nominated as state auditor,
and only lacked ten votes of securing the
nomination.
HENRY A. AVERY.
One of the most prominent and influential
citizens of Lake City. Colorado, and dis-
tinguished among its citizens as a pioneer, lead-
ing business man. standing high in professional
circles, and having rendered the community
excellent service in several official stations.
Henry A. Avery is universally recognized in
his county as a man of great use-
fulness and one whose career in this
state has been of signal benefit to it and
whose character and capacities are good types
of those for which its people are respected. He
was born near Monroeville, Huron count}-.
Ohio, on December 8, 1847, the son of Luther
and Susanna (Ford) Avery, the former a na-
tive of Connecticut and the latter of Lincoln-
shire, England. After settling in Ohio they
remained there until death, the mother passing
away in August. 1870, and the father in Febru-
ary, 1895. lie was a prominent farmer and
stock-raiser in his county, and an influential
man in politics as an active working Repub-
lican. Along with his farming and stock in-
terests he engaged in speculation to some ex-
tent, and was successful in that as he was in
everything else. Six of their children survive
them, Mrs. Mary Rushton, George L.. James
O., Edward W., Mrs. Addie Bemis and Henry
A. The last named was educated in the public
schools and at Dennison University, located at
Granville in his native state. He remained
at home until after the death of his mother,
then, in 1871, came to Colorado and located in
the vicinity of Denver, where he passed a year
engaged in different pursuits. In the spring
of 1872 he moved to Pueblo, and for a few
months worked on ranches near that city. He
was then appointed assistant postmaster at
Pueblo, and this office he held until April. 1 S 7 7 .
At that time he changed his residence to Lake
City, and soon after his arrival at that point
entered into a partnership with John S. Hough
in merchandising, handling stationery and no-
tions. The partnership lasted until the spring
of 1886, and the business was successful. Re-
tiring from the firm then, Mr. Avery became
a merchant wholly on his own account, dealing
in real estate and mining interests in connec-
tion with his other business, and serving as
clerk of the district court from 1886 to 1900.
In 1896, however, he formed another partner-
ship with Mr. Hough, which lasted until [901,
when he sold his interest in the firm to his
partner. Since 1893 he has practiced law. and
since 1886 has been in the insurance and real-
estate business, representing at times fifteen
different fire insurance companies, and hand-
ling mining properties as well as ranch land
and town houses and lots. During a portion
of the year 1889 he served as county clerk.
With the municipal government of Lake City
he has been connected in a leading way from
the time of his arrival within its limits. Ik-
served as mayor for a number of years, and
has long been on the school board and con-
nected with other branches of the local govern-
ment. He has been a firm and zealous Demo
crat since 18Q2. and has always from thai date
taken an active part in the campaigns of his
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
579
party. In a service covering several years in
the Colorado ' National Pitkin Guards he rose
from the ranks to the position of captain, mak-
ing the advance on merit and well-deserved
popularity. While all the time engaged in
several different lines of business, he has shown
the capacity to keep their interests all well in
hand and prosecute them with vigor and suc-
cess, and his activity has put and kept in mo-
tion many forces for the good of the town
and county, and the benefit of numbers of their
citizens. On April 3, 1884, he united in mar-
riage with Miss Mary E. Watson, a native of
Will county, Illinois, born in the city of Wil-
mington. They have had nine children. Of
these three are dead and Charles L., William
W., Harriett A., Charlotte A., Helen F. and
Marion F. are living. Mr. Avery is of the
fiber of which the best citizenship is made,
filled with energy for his own pursuits, and
running over and inundating others with his
surplus. He is ardently devoted to the in-
terests of his adopted state, and sees clearly and
performs well his duty in leading its public
opinion and its industrial, commercial, political
and educational force to the finest and best re-
sults. The esteem in which he is held through-
out the county is based on his real worth and
manhood, and it grows steadily with the flight
of time, as he rises to higher duties and more
ci imprehensive usefulness.
CHARLES F. CASWELL.
Now wedded to his profession of the law
and very successful in the practice of it, but
at one time disposed to ride his led horse
as a miner. Charles F. Caswell, one of the
leading attorneys of western Colorado, illus-
trates in his experience the common lot of man-
kind, but has shown superiority to vast num-
bers of his fellow men by realizing practically
that the favors of fortune are generally to be
won only by systematic application to a chosen
pursuit and steadfast resistance to all the
dreams of life. He was born at Strafford,
Xew Hampshire, on May 10, 1S51, and is the
son of Cornelius E. and Betsey T. C. (Chase)
< aswell, also natives of Xew Hampshire. The
father was a farmer and during the greater
part of his mature life was the superintendent
of the county farm and insane asylum of Straf-
ford county. He also farmed extensively on
his own account and was largely engaged in
raising stock, especially horses of the best
strains and quality. In his later life he moved
to Dover, where he died soon afterward in
1881. His widow survived him a number of
years, dying at the same place in 1898. Charles,
the fourth of their five children, received his
preparatory education in the district schools
and Franklin Academy at Dover. He also at-
tended the excellent seminary at Northwood, in
his native state, and in 1870 entered Dartmouth
College, from which he was graduated in
1S74. He then went to Lynn. Massachusetts,
and read law with N. M. Hawkes, Esq., a
prominent attorney of that city. He was ad-
mitted to the bar at Salem, the county seat,
in 1877. He practiced at Lynn from Septem-
ber of that year to the spring of 1880, and was
as successful then as at any period of his life.
The discovery of gold at Leadville awakened
the miner's fever in him and brought him west
toward that promising field, for which he
started after several months of deliberation,
but he never got there. Instead he joined the
stampede to Middle Park, where he secured
many promising locations and prospects, but
found it necessary to practice law to make a
living, although he had previously made up his
mind to quit the law and become a mining
king. He remained in the Middle Park re-
gion until November, 1885. then abandoned all
attempts at further mining operations, and,
coming to Grand Junction, formed a partner-
580
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
ship for the practice of law with C. W. Burris,
now a resident of Salt Lake City. The part-
nership lasted two years and a half, and at the
end of that time was dissolved by the retire-
ment and removal of Air. Burris. Since then
Mr. Caswell has practiced alone. He has been
at the head of the profession in his section of
the state for years, and has an extensive
practice in all state courts and the federal
courts. His ability has been demonstrated in
many renowned causes and in almost every
forum in this part}' of the country. During
the last fifteen years he has been counsel for
the Grand Valley Irrigating Company and
several other large corporations. Always a
stanch Republican in politics, and always giv-
ing to the affairs of his party the most active,
zealous and effective support, he has yet stead-
fastly declined on all occasions to allow the use
of his name as a candidate for a public office of
any kind. For twenty-one years he served as
chairman of his delegation in the state conven-
tions and for a long time as a member of the
state central committee, but his must ardent
devotion has been to his profession, and that
has rewarded his loyalty in a measure com-
mensurate with his fidelity and constancy.
Fraternally he belongs to the Masonic lodge
and Royal Arch chapter at Grand Junction.
( )n May 7, 1891, he was married to Miss Jessie
Tenney Gray, of Kansas City, Kansas, where
the marriage occurred. Mrs. Caswell is the
daughter of Judge B. and Mary (Tenney)
Cray, of that city. She is an accomplished
lady, having been highly educated at Wellesley
College, and enters with appreciative and help-
ful spirit into the plans and ambitions of her
husband. In addition to his professional in-
terests Mr. Caswell has had a large interest
in the production of fruit in the valley, having
been one of the original fruit-growers of the
section, starting his orchard in 1886. In this
enterprise be has a partner. Hon. A. B. Hoyt,
who gives the industry his personal attention
and is an accomplished man in the business.
And having a love Of the beautiful in appear-
ance and action, Mr. Caswell is also a lover
of good horses, and is pleasantly occupied in
breeding them, owning a fine ranch for the
purpose. He has an active and productive
mind which exerts itself in all lines of public
progress and all elements of cultivation, good
taste and elevating enjoyment. An all-round
man, his influence in the community has been
felt as a stimulus in every department of fruit-
ful thought and activity, and he is correspond-
ingly esteemed as one of the county's best
counselors and most representative citizens.
WALES BROTHERS.
This firm of leading ranch and stock men.
which is widely known and highly esteemed
all over Saguache and the surrounding counties
of Colorado, and occupies a place of command-
ing prominence and influence in the lines of
business in which it is engaged, is composed
of Otis A. and Edwin Wales, sons of Harrison
G. and Elizabeth (Snell) Wales, the father
born at Newton, Massachusetts, on March 3.
18 1 2. and the mother in Ohio on January 10.
1822. In 1847 they moved from Illinois to
Newton, Massachusetts, where they remained
until 1853. then returned to the former state.
Here they lived until 1867, when the mother
died, and three years later the father joined his
sons in Colorado, and became interested with
them in the ranch and stock industry in which
they were engaged, forming a partnership with
them which lasted until his death, on Christ-
mas day. [889. Trior to this, however, in
August, 1862, although then fifty years of age,
he enlisted in the Union army as a private
soldier, in Company G, Eighty-ninth Illinois
Infantry, serving in that command to
the close of the Civil war. He was an
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
58i
earnest and active Republican in political
affairs, and serviceable in local interests.
Five of the children in the family are living.
Henry H., Otis A., Edwin M., Mrs. A. Shella-
barger and Mrs. William Shellabarger. The
senior member of the present firm, and the
older of the two sons who compose it, Otis A.
Wales, was born in Knox county, Illinois, on
May 9, 1840. He was educated at the district
schools, and remained at home until his enlist-
ment in defense of the Union at the beginning
of the Civil war, entering Company D,
Seventeenth Illinois Infantry, as a private, and
coming out at the end of his term as a corporal.
He was discharged on May 24, 18(14, after
seeing considerable hard and dangerous service
and participating in numerous important en-
gagements. After his discharge he located at
Altona, Illinois, where he remained until
1866, then, in company with Gordon Edgerton,
he started overland to Colorado, the mute of
the party being by way of Hannibal, St.
Joseph and Atchison. At the last named place
they procured mule teams and with that outfit
pursued their weary way to Denver, sixty days
being required to make the trip. From Denver
Mr. Wales went on foot to Park county, and
without money to buy provisions along the
wav, the fifty dollars with which he left home
having been exhausted. He reached the old
Buckskin Joe mine, and there he secured work-
in helping to build the plant for the Phila-
delphia Gold Mining Company, the construc-
tion taking three weeks. After that he was
occupied in hauling supplies until January 1,
[867, then until April chopped wood for
Thomas Laughlin, who had a contract for
supplying the wood needed in the mines. From
April to August he worked in the mines owned
by Berg & Parks, and the ensuing winter he
passed at Cheyenne, Wyoming, where he did
carpenter work for good wag - es. In April,
1 SoN, he returned to the Buckskin Joe mine,
and found employment there until August.
Soon afterward the mine froze up, and an out-
break of the nearby Indians drove all the peo-
ple to Breckenridge for safety. Air. Wales
went to Breckenridge, but soon afterward pr< >-
cured an ox team and a pony, and with this
outfit moved into Saguache county, looking for
a location as a permanent residence and busi-
ness. He was pleased with the region in which
he now lives and took a squatter's right to a
tract of land there, which he after the govern-
ment survey, pre-empted and homesteaded,
and which is a part of the ranch he and his
brother now occupy. Since then he and his
brother, Edwin Wales, have been among the
enterprising and progressive ranchmen and
stock-growers of the county, and their success
in these lines has been continuous and steadily
increasing in magnitude. Their business was
small at the start, but they had the real fiber
of energetic men and good business capacity,
and using all the means available for their
benefit, and the shrewdness and breadth of view
which thev so largely possess by natural en-
dowment and experience, they have expanded
their operations, enlarged their ranch and im-
proved their methods, until they are in the
front rank of the business in both the extent
of their dealings and the quality of their
products. They have been especially energetic
and far-seeing in their efforts to improve the
standards of stock in their own and the sur-
rounding counties, raising full-blooded Short-
horn bulls for sale to cattle breeders, and keep-
ing their own herds unmixed in this breed and
all their cattle in prime condition at all times.
Thev raise cattle on an extensive scale, and
produce more thoroughbred Shorthorns than
any one else in the county. Their ranch com-
prises twelve hundred acres, of which one
hundred acres are devoted to grain, four hun-
dred to hay and the remainder to grazing.
The ranch is all enclosed with good fences,
5«2
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
several beautiful streams flow through it, from
each of which they have water by the first
right, the dwelling is a fine modern house of
large proportions and attractive architecture,
and the barns and other structures are as g 1
as can be found in this part of the state. The
place is nine miles northeast of the town of
Moffat, and it is known far and wide as one
of the most hospitable and comfortable country
homes in Colorado. Mr. Wales has always
taken a good citizen's active and serviceable in-
terest in politics and local affairs. He is a pro-
ni iunced' Republican, of unwavering loyalty to
his party, but in local matters his first and
chief concern is the general welfare of the
community, and for the promotion of this he
is always ready to give time, effort and material
assistance. When their father was associated
in the business with them the firm controlled
two thousand one hundred acres of land, all
of which belonged to it.
Edwin Wales, the brother of Otis and the
oilier member of the firm, is also a native of
Knox county, Illinois, and was born on Janu-
ary ii, 1844. His education, like that of his
brother, was secured in the common schools.
During the Civil war he served in the company
and regiment as did his brother Otis, from
November, 1861, until the command was mus-
tered out. Then, re-enlisting, he was trans-
ferred to Company F, Eighth Illinois Infantry,
not enough of the Seventeenth Regiment re-
enlisting to hold its organization. Mr. Wales
served altogether four and a half years, having
been wounded at Shiloh, and when mustered
out, May 4. 1866, he held commission as sec-
1 uid lieutenant. He followed his brother to
Colorado in 1867, and since then they have
been continuously associated in business except
during the time passed by Otis at Cheyenne,
when Edwin remained at the Buckskin Joe
mine, having acquired some property there,
which he sold in the fall of l8dS, when the
move to Saguache county was agreed on. He
has been a full partner in the business from
April, 1869, an d is the manager of its various
features. Like his father and his brother, he
is a public-spirited and devotedly patriotic man,
and has borne his part in the development and
good government of the county. He served as
county commissioner two terms, and in many
other ways he has made his influence felt for
good in county matters. In politics he follov -
the fortunes of the Republican part}- with
earnestness and zeal, and in its councils he is
influential and very serviceable. On June 2,
1870, he was married to Miss Martha Aber-
nethy, a native of Vermont, who died at Salida,
Colorado, May 10, 1901. On April 29, 1903,
he married Miss Mary E. Sloan, a native of
McLean county, Illinois.
WILLIAM DANIEL DAVIDSON.
Taking upon his shoulders the burden of
life for himself at the age of seventeen, Wil-
liam Daniel Davidson, one of the progressive,
successful and extensive ranch and cattle men
of Saguache county, has for nearly two-
thirds of his active and useful existence since
then made his own way in the world, with
steady progress in spite of many reverses and
a serious accident in the mines which disquali-
fied him for work in them. He was born at
the village of Glasgow, Barren county, Ken-
tucky, on October 25, 1859, the second of six
children, four of whom are living, himself,
Jefferson D., Annie W. and John A. Davidson,
offspring of Alexander and Anna E. (Durham)
Davidson, members of old families long resi-
dent in Kentucky, where they were born and
reared and where they passed the whole of
their lives. The parents were well-to-do farm-
ers, living in peace and plenty, although dur-
ing the Civil war the times were full o\ trouble
around them. The lather .lied on Christmas
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
583
day, 1865, and the mother in August, 1870.
Their son William attended the common
schools in the neighborhood of his home and
worked on the parental homestead until he
reached the age of seventeen. He then started
oul 111 life for himself, moving to St. Clair
county, Missouri, and remaining there three
year- occupied in a number of different em-
ployments. In 1879 he came to Colorado and
located in Saguache county. Thereafter for a
number of years he did ranch and railroad
work, during a portion of the time in Xew
.Mexico In the spring of 1881 he returned to
Saguache county and for ninety days was em-
ployed as a ranch hand. At the end of that
period he secured employment in the Orient
mines, iron and silver, as a driller, being soon
afterward made powder foreman, a position he
held three years, until a premature explosion
disqualified him from mine work and he aban-
doned it. From 1885 to 1890 he was employed
on the ranches of A. Shellabarger. D. C. Travis
and Stephen Kinney. In 1890 he became fore-
man of the Baca-Grant ranch, owned by
George Adams, and served in that capacity,
having charge of the extensive cattle industry
carried on there, until 1895. In that year he.
acquired by deeds his present ranch of eight
hundred acres, and since then has been ranch-
ing and raising cattle extensively on his own
account, having in addition to his own land
four thousand acres leased. He raises cattle
and horses in large numbers and first-rate crops
of hay and gram. All his land can be culti-
vated, being well supplied with water for ir-
rigation, and it is managed with the most sys-
tematic and skillful husbandry. The place has
a commodious and comfortable dwelling for the
family, excellent barns, corrals, fences and
other needed improvements, all made by the
present owner, the buildings being among the
best in the county. Mr. Davidson is a progres-
sive and public-spirited man. and is everywhere
highly respected as an excellent citizen. Po-
litically he is a Democrat and fraternally a
Modern Woodman of America. In the public
life of the county he takes a part of continual
and productive interest, giving his help in coun-
sel and material aid to every commendable
undertaking for the benefit of the section and
its people and waiting for no man to lead in a
worthy enterprise. His own property, in its
advanced state of development and improve-
ment, stands forth in proof of his private enter-
prise, and his reputation for breadth of view,
progressiveness and unwavering loyalty to the
region in which he lives, shows the value of bis
influence and example in the county and the ap-
preciation which attends bis service to the
general weal and substantial good of the
whole region. On May 29, 1895, ne was joined
in wedlock with Mrs. Lena Warrant, a native
of Smithland, Woodbury county, Iowa, a
widow with five children, Mrs. Charles Fullen-
wider. Mrs. A. V. Brown, and Samuel.
Charles and L. J. Warrant. Of his marriage
with her one child has been born. William A.
The life of this prominent citizen. Mr. David-
son, is full of pertinent suggestiveness. He has
not waited to perform such actions as have 1' mg
had the praise of men. but has realized at all
times that anything a man can do may be well
done and is worthy of his efforts, and with
this faith he has found his fit place and con-
genial duties. He placed himself in the middle
of the stream of power and wisdom around
him, and by simply yielding to its influence
has been impelled to right conduct, fruitful
labor and service to his kind. He has cheer-
fully and with vigor obeyed the clarion call to
duty, and has found reward in the perform-
ance, and increased compensation for the sacri-
fices it required in the spirit and energy the
obstructions in his path have awakened. It is
584
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
the lesson of the best American citizenship, told
over many times with differing shades and
features, but always based upon fidelity to the
claim of the hour and the conditions of the
place.
FRANCIS MARION HILLS.
Some men are born to own property, and
can animate all their possessions. And in the
eye of a cold and calculating reason, perhaps
only they should own who can administer, they
whose work carves out work for more and
opens a path for all. For he is the rich man
in whom the people are rich, and he is poor in
whom they are poor. The fullness of health
in the former answers its own ends, and runs
over and has much to spare wherewith to in-
undate other men's necessities. Men of this
class build factories and railroads, they de-
velop mines and bring the wealth of new
regions into the channels of trade, they found
systems of commerce and sail all seas to foster
them, they see the hidden treasures of the
wilderness and command them to come forth,
they put in motion the forces to compel
obedience to the command, and needing a ful-
crum for their lever, they start a town, and
soon the wilds around them become as the
garden of God, rejoicing on every side, laugh-
ing, clapping its hands, and bringing forth in
abundance everything nourishing, and useful
and valuable, which it has held in reserve. To
this class belongs Francis Marion Hills, of
Villagrove, Saguache county, the founder of
the tow n and its first resident. After a long and
trying career, full of adventure and incident,
he located in this region and at once began to
plan for its peopling and development with
results already checringly great and full of
promise for future good of much greater
magnitude. Mr. Hills was born in McHenn
county. Illinois, near the town of Marengo, on
November to, [838, and is the son of Calvin
and Annisteen (Mead) Hills, natives of the
state of New York, who passed the greater part
of their married life in Illinois, dying there
after many years of serviceable labor, the
mother in 1876, and the father in 1888. The
father was a skillful carpenter and prospered
at his trade. He belonged to the Masonic
order and was a Republican in politics, while
in church affiliation he and his wife were of the
Christian denomination. They had nine chil-
dren, two of whom died in infancy and seven
are living. Francis M., Martin S., Fverill J.,
Mrs. Frank L. Dodge. Lucian J.. Mrs. Roy G.
White and John F. The first born of these,
Francis M.. received a good business education,
remaining with his parents until he reached his
legal majority, then, in 1850. impelled by the
excitement over the discovery of gold in the
neighborhood of Pike's Peak, he joined a party
of fifteen at Chicago who were coming to the
new region of promise, and with them jour-
neyed by rail to St. Joseph. Missouri. Here ox-
teams were procured and the journey was con-
tinued overland to Fort Kearney. At that out-
post they became convinced that their under-
taking was useless, and the party broke up.
some of the number returning east and Mr.
Hills and others proceeding to California. This
company left Fort Kearney on April 25th and
reached their destination in California on Sep-
tember 17th next ensuing. After his arrival
there Mr. Hills was employed in ranch and
livery stable work until i860, when he went
to Puget Sound and for more than a year
worked in the lumber woods skirting that won-
derful sheet of water. In the fall of 186] he
returned to California and engaged in placer
mining and farming, and three years later made
a visit to his old Illinois home, going on water
by way of Nicaragua and returning I \ '
the isthmus of Panama, lie continued fann-
ing and mining in California until 1873, then
came to Colorado and located at Fairplay, Park
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
county, where he served two years as fore-
man of the placer diggings owned by Messrs.
Clark & Smith. In 1875 he went to California
Gulch, but in the fall returned to his ranch
near Salida, a property which he and his
brother, E. J. Hills, had bought in 1X73, and
gave his attention to farming. Two years he
passed in ranching on that property, and in
1877 returned to California Gulch, near what
is now Leadville, to take charge of the Stephen
Wi k id & Lighter placer mines, holding the posi-
tion until the fall of 1878. At that time he
began prospecting for himself, and this he
continued to September, 1879, when he re-
turned to his ranch near Salida. Tn November,
1879. he bought his present property at Villa-
grove, and the next year sold his interest in the
Salida ranch and moved to his new home, the
only settler at the time in the neighborhood.
His place was used as a stage station and the
changes of teams were made there. A board-
ing house was also conducted on it until iSSi,
when Mr, Hills surveyed and laid out the town-
site of Villagrove, which he still owns in ad-
dition to his ranch here of five hundred and
twenty acres. Since locating here he has also
conducted a ranch and sheep feeding place in
the vicinity of Fort Collins, and in the years
1894 and 1895 he served as manager of the
Hydraulic mines at Salmon City, Idaho, he
longing to Messrs. Hageman & Grant. One-
half of his Saguache county ranch is under
cultivation and yields abundant crops of hay,
grain and vegetables. While he has been some-
what occupied with other enterprises, his chief
interest has been in this ranch and the sur-
rounding country, and to the development and
improvement of these he has given his best
energies and greatest attention. He has been
a leading man in this country, connected with
its progress in every helpful way. and inspiring
it- pei 'pie with his own spirit and determination
to make the most of it. In 1889. 1890 and
189] he served as county commissioner of
Saguache count)', and many of the most useful
and appreciated public improvements in the
county were made during his tenure of this
office and under his influence. Too much can
scarcely he said of his public-spirit and breadth
of view, or of the general esteem in which he
is held as the founder and one of the chief
promoters of the prosperity of the section. On
December 21, 1864, he united in marriage with
Mis^ Mary Allen, a native of Aurora. Erie
county. 'Xew York. They have had five chil-
dren. Of these Everill E. and William J. died.
and Mrs. Washington I. Covert, Calvin A. and
Mrs. John II. Parsons are living. All the fam-
ily are consistent and conscientious Seventh-
day Adventists in religious faith.
JOHN WASHINGTON PROFFITT.
The manly part for each of us, in the great
industry and economy of human life, is to do
with might and main what he can do and what
fate lays before him to be done. We may
have our several desires and aspirations not
altogether in consonance with our surround-
ings, but this does not excuse us from fidelity
in working toward the best results in whatever
is at hand and plainly within the sphere of our
duty. And those of us who accept destiny in
this spirit are never without profitable occu-
pation and the means to desirable ends. The
world is our tool-chest, and we are successful
just so far as we take up things into ourselves
and absorb the genius of our environment.
Tried by this severe but logical standard, the
subject of this memoir is a very wise and
useful man. in touch with his destiny and cheer-
ful acceptance of it. He sought in his young
manhood a new field for enterprise and en-
deavor, and although it brought him hardships
and privations, arduous toil without immediate
recompense, and long delay for the full fruition
FROGRESSIl'E MEN OP WESTERN COLORADO.
of his hopes, he patiently toiled on, seeing with
lofty faith the end of his efforts in substantial
prosperity and enduring welfare even amid the
clouds and difficulties of his early struggles.
Mr. Proffitt is a native of Richmond. Ray
county, Missouri, born on January 17. [834.
His parents. John and Katherine (Linville)
Proffitt, who were born in Tennessee, settled in
Missouri in [818, and remained there until
1865. They then, in company with his wife's
parents and their family, came over the plains
to Colorado, passing three months on the jour-
ney, and traveling with mule and ox teams,
and locating land near Fort Garland, in thq
San Luis valley. The long jaunt to this region
was not without adventure. The train in which
the Profhtts traveled numbered seven hundred
men and three hundred and sixty-five wagons.
Yet, notwithstanding its size, hostile Indians
attacked it. determined to massacre the com-
pany and take • their scalps. There would
doubtless have been considerable disaster but
for fortifications which were near at hand, and
behind which the threatened pioneers took
refuge and escaped the tragical fate intended
for them. The elder Proffitt's ranch comprised
one hundred and sixty acres, and on it he car-
ried 011 a flourishing ranch and cattle business
until his death. He rose to prominence in tin-
section, and had much to do with establishing
its early government and conducting its affairs.
Tn politics he was a pronounced Democrat, and
in church affiliation he and his wife were
Baptists. His wife died in 1837 and he in
1X7X. Four of their children survive them.
John W. received a meager common-school
education, the wants of the body in his day and
circumstances necessarily taking precedence
over those of the mind in the way of
training. In 1867 he located a ranch which is
now a part of the property owned by the Curtis
brothers. This he improved and lived on until
[888. when he sold it. He then pre-empted
his present tract of forty acres, which he has
made the best ranch of its size in the county.
Thirty-two acres of it are in a high state of
cultivation and it yields excellent crops of
hay and grain. The special products for which
it is widely known, however, are pears aid ap-
ples of superior quality, which are raised in
large quantities. Mr. Proffitt handles some cat-
tle also ana! finds profit in so doing. He is a
very progressive man and has the courage of
his faith. He has always been among the first
and most active in support of public interests,
helping to build the first school house in the
county and endeavoring to multiply the in-
dustries and products of its people by intro-
ducing the culture of bees and the production
of honey among them. He is, moreover, a
proverbially hospitable man, a very entertain-
ing companion, and a citizen who exemplifies
the finest spirit of the section in his daily walk
in life. In political affairs he is devotedly at-
tached to the principles of the Democratic
pan\ and gives it his continual and hearty
support. On March 12, 1861, he was married
to Miss Margaret Rebecca Ashley, a native of
Crittenden county, Kentucky, and a daughter
of Samuel and Mary B. (Swansey) Ashley, the
fi inner a native of Tennessee and the latter of
Kentucky, who moved to Missouri in i860 and
to Colorado in 1865, in the same train with Mr.
Proffitt and his parents. The two families set-
tled on adjoining ranches near Fort Garland,
where the parents of Mr. Proffitt died. Mrs.
Proffitt's father died in 1900 and her mother
in 1890, near Sagnache. They were Baptists
in religious faith, and the father was an honored
pioneer and successful rancher and stock-
grower. Of the children in the Ashley family
seven are living: Mrs. Proffitt. William T. (see
sketch of him on another page). Mrs. Oscar
Wilkins, Mrs. William Spencer, Mrs, George
Taylor, Samuel and Lee. Mr. and Mrs. Proffitt
have had six children. Of these four have died.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
587
John and Thomas, who were both born and
died in Missouri, Clara I. and Katharine. The
two living children are Mrs. Robert J. Allen
and Samuel Oscar, who was the first white
child horn in Saguache county. The attractive
and hospitable home of the family is one mile
east of the town of Saguache.
FRANK R. SMITH, M. D.
The great West of the United States, which
has gathered brain and brawn from even'
other section of our common country and
many foreign climes, numbers among its
valued contributions at Grand Junction, this
state, Dr. Frank R. Smith, of what is known
as the Middle West, he having been born in
Van Buren county, Iowa, on May 2cj. 185 1.
His parents, Samuel and Margaret E. (Ream)
Smith, were native in Maine and Ohio, respect-
ively, and came to Iowa in early life. There
they became acquainted and were married, both
being Van Buren county pioneers, and there
they passed their lives, dying at Fairfield, Jef-
ferson county. They were the parents of five
sons and five daughters, eight of whom are
living. The Doctor was the second born and
was reared in Van Buren and Jefferson coun-
ties of his native state, receiving there a public-
school and academic education. When twenty-
two years of age he began the study of medi-
cine at Fairfield under the instruction of Dr.
R. J. Moore, coming to this great work with a
mind broadened and sharpened by a judicious
preparation secured by several years teaching
in the public schools. In 1876 he was gradu-
ated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons
at Keokuk. Iowa, and at once located at Pleas-
ant Plain, that state, where he practiced twelve
years, then removed to Fairfield. In the fall
of 1891 he came to Colorado for the benefit
of his health, and after passing one year at
Colorado Springs, removed to Grand Junction
in 1892. Here he regained his health and has
since been actively engaged in a general prac-
tice of increasing magnitude and importance,
which has given him a wide acquaintance and
popularity in the county and brought him the
patronage and esteem of many of its leading
families. He is a member of the Mesa County
Medical Society and takes an active and
serviceable interest in its proceedings. ■ In
politics he is independent and not an active
partisan, although warmly devoted to the wel-
fare of his state and county. On July 9, 1884,
he was married to Miss Minnie L. Laird, a na-
tive of Henry county, Iowa, and daughter of
Joseph A. Laird, a prominent farmer of that
county. They have one son, Silmon L. The
parents are members of the Congregational
church. The Doctor served three terms as
coroner and during the greater part of twenty
years was a member of the pension board.
JOHN ROMIXGER.
John Rominger, who is one of Saguache
county's nmst substantial and progressive citi-
zens, and an extensive rancher and stock-
grower, and whose fine ranch of four hundred
and fifty acres, eight miles northwest of the
county seat, is one of the attractive, well im-
proved and highly cultivated tract.- of land
most worthy of commendatory notice in that
part of the county, was born at St. Joseph.
Missouri, on April 20, i860, and is the son of
Martin and Frances Rominger, natives of Ger-
many and among the first settlers in the county
of his present home. The father arrived in
America on April 18, 1853, and the mother on
August 2t. 1856. He located in Missouri and
she at Xew Orleans. Louisiana. After their
marriage, on January 18, 1858, at Xew Or-
leans, they took up their residence at St. Jo-
seph. Missouri, and opened the first hotel in
the city, which they kept for some time, then
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
mined to Dakota, Nebraska. But soon after-
ward, believing that Colorado offered better
opportunities for the profitable employment of
his energies, the father left his family at Da-
kota in 1805 and crossed the plains to Denver.
Here he started an enterprise in the boot and
shoe trade, and six weeks later returned t<> Ne-
braska for his family, which he brought to
Denver. His first trip to the capital city took
three weeks and was without incident worthy
of special mention. The party met bands of
roving Indians, but suffered no depredations
from them. He carried on his business at Den-
ver until 1870, having a large trade and doing
well, then sold it for thirty thousand dollars
and moved to Granite, where he engaged in
mining, but without success. In the same year
he made a trip to what is now Del Norte, but
was then an unnamed village, and located a
claim which he afterward sold. He then moved
to Bismarck, then a postofhce. and was ap-
pointed postmaster there. In 1S71 he secured
land in that neighborhood mi homestead ami
pre-emption claims, ami this be improved and
increased in size until at the time of his death,
mi \pril 25, 1882, it comprised nine hundred
and sixty acres, and had good buildings, an
abundant water supply, and supported a flour-
ishing ranch and stuck industry. He was one
of the first settlers in the county and by his
energy and thrift became one of its most sub-
stantial citizens, while his interest in local af-
fair- rmd his force of character made him one
of its leading men. He was the first justice of
the peace in the eastern part of the county and
bad a controlling influence in every element of
its public life. In politics he was a Republican
and in religious belief a Protestant, while his
wife was a devout Catholic. She died mi June
01. iXiii, and the remains of both were buried
in the Famih burying ground on the ranch. Of
their eighl children Emma died and the fol-
lowing are living: Mrs. Emil Tobler, lohn.
Frank. Mrs. Frederick Betray, Mrs. Bernhardt
Krachlaner, Mrs. Edward Stansel, Mrs. Frank
Hedwiger and Martin. John grew to manhood
111 Colorado and obtained such education as he
had opportunity fur in the comm'on schools.
He was obliged to take his place as a band on
the ranch at an early- age, and his schooling was
therefore limited. In 1881 he bought a ranch
three miles north of the home place, and on
this be remained until 1894, when he moved to
the one he now occupies. This he bought in
[892, and four years later he sold the one he
first owned, having greatly improved it and
brought it to an advanced state of cultivation.
At the time be bought it his present ranch com-
prised two hundred and forty acres, it being
the one located some years before by D. Ford.
Mr. Rominger has bought additional land until
be now lias four hundred and fifty acres, all of
which can be cultivated. It yields good crops
of grain, hav, vegetables and small fruits, but
raising cattle is the chief industry, and this is
carried on extensively and profitably. The
ranch is enriched with a commodious modern
dwelling and other good buildings, all built by
Mr. Rominger, is all enclosed with substantial
fences, and is plentifully supplied with water.
Tbe owner is a man of prominence in his sec-
tion, successful in bis business and diligent in
all the duties of good citizenship. His political
affiliation is with the Republican party, and bis
work in its behalf is effective and appreciated,
all the more so because be seeks no official sta-
tion for himself. On May 14. 1890, he was
joined in wedlock with Mis< Theresa Eiling-
hoff, a native of Prussia and daughter of Cas-
per and Louisa Eilinghoff, who also were born
in that country. Her father was a successful
sheep grower in Germany, and died there in
1875. Three of his children survive him. Cas-
per, Mrs. Rominger and Mrs. Matthew Laugh-
lin. His other daughter, Sophie, died prior to
his owai demise. In 1883 tbe mother brought
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
589
her children to the United States and located in
Saguache count)', this state. Here she soon
afterward married with John Schilling, of the
Cottonwood section (see sketch of him on an-
other page). She died at his home on August
4, [891. Mr. and Mrs. Rominger have five
children. Walter, Belinda. Hildegarde, John
and Frieda. Mr. Rominger became a resident
of the county almost at the dawn of its history,
and at a time when antelope were plentiful and
other wild game abounded on its as yet un-
broken soil, and his labors have been of great
service in bringing about the changes time has
wrought.
CESAR ZANOLA.
Comfortably and prosperously engaged in
farming on his beautiful ranch of one hundred
and sixty acres two miles north of Eckert,
which he took up on a pre-emption claim in
[883, and which he has since greatly improved
and brought to a good state of cultivation,
Cesar Zanola, of Delta county, has not been
disappointed in the hopes of advancement that
brought him to this country in 1875. and that
have inspired his efforts in several lines of in-
dustrial activity since then. His parents were
John and Elizabeth (Gonzo) Zanola. the
former a native of Italy and the latter of
France, and they were married after coming
to the United States. His father died in Italy
in 1862, at the age of fifty-five, and his mother
in the same country, at the age of sixty-three.
Mr. Zanola was born in New Orleans, U. S. A.,
in 1848. and in babyhood was taken by his
parents to Italy, and at nine years of age went
to France, where he passed his boyhood, living
there until 1875, and securing his education
at the state schools of* that country. In the
year last named he came to the United States
and settled in Nevada, where he was em-
ployed as a charcoal burner for five years.
From there he came to Colorado, and locating
al Leadville, worked in the mines at thai point
For .1 year, then moved to Lake City where for
two years he again engaged in charcoal burn-
ing. At the end of that time he came to Eckert,
in Delta county, and took up a pre-emption
claim of one hundred and sixty acres, on which
he is still living and prosperously engaged in
fanning. lie was married in 1 SS 4 to Miss
Rosa Giolzi, a native of Italy, who died on
April 29, [903, leaving three children, Mollie,
Josephine and Irene, who are living at home
with their father. Fraternally Mr. Zanola is
connected with the Order of Washington. In
reference to the development and progress of
the section in which he lives, he is active and
zealous, welcoming every undertaking that
promises well for his community and support-
ing it with ardor and substantial aid. Having
a lofty devotion to the political institutions of
the land of his adoption, he is faithful and pa-
triotic in advocating and sustaining them, and
being a gentleman of cultivation and geniality
of manner, he is an ornament to the social life
around him. as well as an inspiration to its busi-
ness interests and the real elements of pr< igress
and material greatness which are working out
its material resources to the best advantage,
standing high in the general esteem of the peo-
ple among whom he lives, and deserving
through his uprightness of life and his energy
in business all the respect which is accorded to
him, exhibiting in his daily walk and conver-
sation with his fellows the sterling qualities of
manhood and good citizenship which make his
native country great and have contributed so
essentially to the welfare of America.
DANIEL W. CHISHOLM.
Daniel W. Chisholm. of Pitkin county,
who is comfortably settled on a well developed
ranch of one hundred and fifty-seven acres lo-
cated near Snow Mass. where he carries on a
59°
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
flourishing general ranching and farming busi-
ness, has had variety of incident and fortune
in his career, but his native force of character
and general capacity have carried him success-
full}' through all changes and established him
firmly at last in the regard of the people
around him, by whom he is considered one of
the progressive and enterprising citizens of the
county. lie was born in Nova Scotia on July
21, [863, and is the son of William and Jennie
(McDonald) Chisholm, who were also born
and reared in that country, and after a long
and successful record as prosperous farmers
were laid to rest in their natal soil. They were
members of the Catholic church, and carefully
reared to maturity four of their nine children,
Michael, Laughlin, Daniel W. and Margaret.
The other five, Anna, Hugh, Anslem, Alexan-
der and Colin, have died. The mother died in
January. 1897, and the father several years
previous. Daniel \Y.. the third of the living
children, received a very limited public-school
education, being obliged at the age of twelve
to take his place and make a hand in the work
on the paternal homestead and in other labors
earn his own living. In 1882 he came to Colo-
rado, and during the next seven years was vari-
ously employed in Saguache, Chaffee and Lake
counties, being occupied most of the time in
prospecting- in and around Leadville. In Sep-
tember. 1889, he came to Aspen, and for six
years was employed in the Mollie Gibson, the
Smuggler and other mines near the town. In
1895 he moved to Cripple creek, where he fol-
lowed mining two years, ami mi January 20,
[898, left for the Klondike region, where he
remained three years mining with fair success.
On his return to Aspen he bought his present
ranch of one hundred and fifty-seven acres,
one hundred acres of which are under cultiva-
tion, the principal crops being hay and oats.
though some other grain, is raised. In politics
Mr. Chisholm is a loyal and stanch Democrat,
and takes an active interest in the triumph of
his party and helps to bring it about. ( )n July
22. 1896, lie was married to Miss Anna Stew-
art, a Nova Scotian by birth and daughter of
John S. and Catherine (McClain) Stewart, a
sketch of whom will be found elsewhere in this
work. Mr. and Mrs. Chisholm are Catholics in
church affiliation. They have two children.
John S. and Anna E.
WHITAKER JAYNE.
Since 1889 1 Ahitaker Jayne, of near Raven,
Garfield county, has been an industrious and
progressive resident of Colorado, and during
the whole of the time has been devoted to the
interest of the state and active in the promotion
of its welfare. He is a native of Wayne county,
Pennsylvania, born on June 2^,, 1842. and the
son of John W. and Deborah (Early) Jayne.
the father born in the state of New York and
the mother in Pennsylvania. They began their
domestic life in Pennsylvania in 1841. In 1854
they moved to Iowa, and when the Civil war
began both father and son joined Company
B, Eighth Iowa Infantry, in defense of the
Union. The son served until discharged on ac-
count of disabilities incurred in the line of duty.
At the battle of Shiloh the father was taken
prisoner, but was soon afterward discharged
through the Confederate lines because of his
physical disability and weakness. The late
years of his life have been devoted to the fire
insurance business at Lone Tree. Iowa. Whit-
aker was the only child born in the family, and
he and the father survive the mother, who died
on August 25, TS42, She belonged to the Bap-
tist church, as the father does now. lie is also
a member of the Grand Army of the Republic
and the Republican party. The son attended
the public schools at Muscatine, Iowa, and also
an academy. He remained with his father,
working in his interest, until he reached the
PROGRESSfJ'E MEX OF U'ESTERX COLORADO.
59]
age of twenty-one, then began fanning for
himself in Iowa. From 1854 to 1877 he lived
in that state, then moved to Franklin county,
Nebraska, but meeting with no sufficient suc-
cess in his efforts there, transferred his ener-
gies to Sherman county, Kansas. In [889 he
came to Denver, and locating about seven miles
northwest of Denver, began ranching and
raising stock, which he continued in that neigh-
borhood eleven years. In [900 he came to his
present location and settled on the ranch that
he now owns and operates. It comprises one
hundred and sixty acres, one hundred and fif-
teen of which can be cultivated, and raises
good crops of hay, grain and vegetables. He
also raises numbers of cattle which form a
profitable industry. Mr. Jayne was one of the
original incorporators and has been one of the
main promoters of the eighteen-mile high line
ditch, and is the present road overseer of his
district. He belongs to the Grand Army of the
Republic, and in politics gives his allegiance
without stint to the policies and candidates of
the Republican part}-. On February 25, 1864,
he united in marriage with Miss Alice Budlong,
a native of Oakland county, Michigan, the
daughter of Milton S. and Guli A. ( Uvord)
Budlong, natives of Xew York state. Leaving
their native state, they lived for a time in Mich-
igan, then in Iowa. In June, 1854, they moved
to 'Nebraska, and in 1872 returned to Iowa.
The father was a lawyer in active practice, and
during the later years of their lives both were
members of the Presbyterian church. The
mother died on February 8, 1884. and the fa-
ther on December 18, 1903. Their four chil-
dren all survive them : Susan A., wife of Fer-
dinand Furst, of Adair. Towa ; Mrs. Jayne:
Augustus, living at Salem, Oregon ; and Cas-
sius E.. at Salem. Oregon. Mr. and Mrs.
Jayne have had eight children. A son named
Ferdinand has died, and the seven living
are: Julius E., at Camden, Xew Jersey; John
YV., at home: Mary A., wife of Ernest Doug
las, at Sunnyside, Washington: Deborah E.,
wife of J. Ernest, at Raven, Colorado; Milton
R., at home: Gulie, wife of Edward Martin, at
Toppenish, Washington; and Morton S., al
home.
HON. DEXTER T. SAPP.
Dexter T. Sapp, one of the leading law vers
of the Western slope, whose home is at Gunni-
son, was born at Battle Creek. Michigan, on
Jul}- 4. 1847, and is the son of Rev. Rezin and
Margaret P. (Ferry) Sapp. the former a native
of Mount Vernon, < >hio, and the latter of Mon-
roe, Michigan. The father was a Methodist
minister in active itinerary work, and, owing
to his migratory life, his family had for no con-
siderable time a settled home. The education of
his children, five of the six of whom are living,
all sons, was necessarily irregular and subject
to interruptions. He and his wife died some
years ago. But before their demise their son
Dexter was able to complete, as far as his cir-
cumstances allowed, the course of instruction
furnished by the public schools of his native
state. In 1862 he entered the college at Al-
bion. Michigan, but two years later, bred by
devotion to the Union, he left the classic halls
of that institution and enlisted in the Federal
army as a volunteer in Company L, First Mich-
igan ( 'avulrv. in which he served to the close of
the Civil war, and afterward crossed the plains
with it to Salt Lake City to aid in quelling the
Indian outbreak in that neighborhood. There
he was mustered out of the service in the fall
of 1865. During that war he took part in a
number of important battles, the most sanguin-
ary being that of the Wilderness, but, although
his service was constant and active, he escaped
without serious wounds or other disaster be-
yond losing the hearing in- one ear. After his
discharge from the army he returned to his
Michigan home and pursued a course of com-
592
PROGRESSIVE. MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
mercial instruction at Mahew College. He
then began reading law at Kalamazoo in the
office of Hon. Henry F. Severns, at present
United States judge for the western district
of Michigan. He continued his studies in the
E Hon. Thomas F. Sherwood, now a
justice of the supreme court of Michigan, and
finished them in that of Hon. Josiah L. Hawes,
later a district judge of the circuit court in that
state. He was carefully trained under the dis-
cipline of these eminent men. and when admit-
ted to the har. in April, 1870, was well quali-
fied for the arduous and important duties be-
fore him by accurate and extensive knowledg'e
of both the letter and the spirit of the law and
the ethics of his profession, which he has al-
ways carefully observed. He practiced at
Greenville, .Michigan, until 1881, then came to
Colorado and located in Gunnison county. In
[894 he moved to Seattle. Washington, where
he remained two years and four months, at
the end of that period taking up his residence
again at Gunnison, which has ever since been
his home. From the time of his admission to
the bar he has devoted bis time exclusively to
bis practice, avoiding all the seductive allure-
ments of politics, and since coming to this
state has made a specialty of mining crises, in
which be is now a widely acknowledged au-
thority. In politics he was a Silver Republi-
can in the 'nineties, but is now an ardent Dem-
ocrat, and until recently never sought or ac-
cepted a nomination for public office. In the
fall of H)04 he yielded to the demand of the
Democratic constituency of the eleventh dis-
trict, and became its candidate for state sena-
tor from that district, which comprises Gunni-
son and Pitkin counties. At the election
which followed bis triumph was pronounced
although his opponent was a popular citizen, a
man of large business connections and an active
;md vigorous campaigner. Fraternally the Sen-
ator is a member of the Masonic order, belong-
ing to the lodge and Royal Arch chapter at
Gunnison, and a charter member of the lodge
of Knights of Pythias at the same place, as he
was of a lodge of that order in Michigan,
which he joined in 1871. He also belongs to
the Grand Army of the Republic, and has
served as commander of his post and judge
advocate for the department of Colorado, hold-
ing the latter office in [884. He was married
in 1873 and has one daughter, Reva. who is
engaged in newspaper work on the Rocky
.Mountain Xews at Denver.
GEORGE YULE.
Highly esteemed by all his friends and
neighbors and the citizens of Garfield county
generally as one of the best and most useful
citizens, with breadth of view and public-spirit
in reference to all public enterprises, and dili-
gent and aggressive in the management of his
private affairs, George Yule, of near New-
castle, has been a potent factor in building up
the section in which lie lives and a faithful
servant of its interests in local offices of trust
and importance. During his long residence of
nearly forty years in the state he has been tried
by many adversities, has faced many dangers,
has won many triumphs for himself and others,
and has ever performed with capacity and
cheerfulness the duty which seemed nearest at
hand regardless of personal consequence. He
was bom on June 20. [835, in Banffshire, Scot-
land, and is the son of John and Jeannette
(Thompson) Yule, descendants of long lines
of ancestry connected with the history of that
country. They left their native 'and when he
was five years old and emigrated to the United
States, settling in Ashland county. Ohio, where
they remained until 1840, when they moved to
Keokuk county, Iowa. The father was a stone
and brick mason but devoted the greater part of
his time in this country to farming and pros-
fEOBGE VTULE.
MRs. GEORGE Y 1
iKoKliK YULE.
MRS. CtEORGE YULE.
PROGRESSIVE MUX OF U'ESTERX COLORADO.
?'):-,
pered in the industry. Both were originally
members of the Presbyterian church, but after
locating in Iowa they affiliated with the Con-
gregationalists, there being no organization of
their church in their neighborhood. Ten chil-
dren were born to them, only five of whom are
living: George, Margaret (Mrs. Baughey),
Ellen (Mrs. Andrew Ramsey), Samuel and
Joseph, the first and last named being residents
of this state and the others of Iowa. The
father died in 1886 and the mother in 1899.
Their son George had the usual experience of
counry boys in the West, attending the public
schools when he could and assisting his parents
on the farm, until he reached the age of twenty-
one. In 1858 he moved to Mound City. Kan-
sas, where for two years he worked on a ranch,
his compensation being fifteen dollars a month
and his board. He was in that state when
much of its surface was burned over and the
crops were destroyed, and being dissatisfied
with the outlook, he returned to Iowa. In 1862
he enlisted in the Union army for the Civil
war as a member of the Fortieth Iowa In-
fantry, going in as a private and being dis-
charged as a second lieutenant at Davenport
in August, 1865. Wishing to try his fortune
in Colorado, he left Keokuk, Iowa, on October
10. 1865, and journeyed overland to Omaha,
where he joined a train for Denver, and ar-
rived in that city, or hamlet as it was then, on
December 2d. The train had some difficulty
with hostile Indians on the way, the savages
making an unsuccessful attempt to steal its cat-
tle. On arriving in this state he formed a
partnership with his brother William, who had
purchased a ranch near Denver. Soon after-
ward the grasshoppers ate up all their crops and
they turned their attention to mining'. George
mined at Rubi Camp and discovered the Bul-
lion King, which proved a fruitful property.
In 1870 he sold his interest in the ranch, and
four vears later moved to Gunnison county,
38
where he was engaged in ranching and mining
until 188 1. He then migrated to what is now
Garfield county and purchased a ranch on Gar-
field creek which he named in honor of the
martyred President. This is the ranch he now
owns and works. It comprises four hundred
and eighty acres of land, two hundrei
seventy-five of which he cultivates raising the
usual crops of the region and large quantities
of fruit. He is widely known as the grower of
the largest pears in the state. Of his other
products ha}- and cattle are the leading reliance,
and they are produce;', in abundance and are
excellent in quality. In 1903 he assisted in the
organization of the Citizens' National Bank of
Glenwood Springs, being one of the principal
stockholders and serving as its vice-president
and also a member of its directorate. Mr. Yule
is a prominent member of the Grand Army of
the Republic and for a number of years has
served as commander of the General Shields
Post at New Castle. In political allegiance he
is a Republican, and as such his rendered
valued service to the people in various local
offices. He was the first sheriti of Gunnison
count)', and in his present district has been
fi ir many years president of the school board.
On January 15. 1896, he was married to Miss
Lizzie A. McBurney. a native of Pennsylvania,
born in Cumberland count}', the daughter of
Hugh and Elizabeth McBurney. who were born
and reared in Ireland and emigrated to
America soon after their marriage, locating in
Pennsylvania, and after a residence of some
years there moving to New Jersey, where they
farmed and raised fruit extensively. In 1893
the} moved to New Castle. Colorado, where
the mother ended her days on November 11,
1899. The father is living on Garfield Creek.
In this state he was a merchant and both were
Presbyterians from early life. He is a Repub-
lican in politics and a Freemason in fraternal
life. They had five children, four of whom
594
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
are living: Mary J., wife of William Gant.
of New Castle; John T., living in New Jersey;
Mrs. Yule and her brother Joseph T., dwelling
on Garfield creek. A son named Arthur is de
ceased.
GEORGE STEPHAN.
George Stephan, of Delta, a leading attor-
ney-at-law, banker, real estate man and pro-
moter, who has borne a large share of the bur-
dens incident to developing and building up a
new country, and has done his work so wisely
and with such commanding enterprise and skill
that the results are most gratifying in magni-
tude and quality, is a native of Cleveland,
Ohio, born on March 30, 1862. and the son of
John G. and Elizabeth ( Watson) Stephan, who
were born, reared and married in Pennsylvania.
Soon after their marriage they moved to Cleve-
land, where the father practiced his profession
of dentistry for a period of twenty-five years.
On retiring from active practice he moved to
Kansas City, where he died in [899. His
widow now lives in New York. They had
seven children, three of whom are living.
George being the oldest of these. He was edu-
cated in the public schools of Cleveland, being
graduated at the high school there in 1878. In
i88_> he came to Colorado and located at Den-
ver, where he lived until 1888. He then passed
two years at Salt Like engaged in the real-es-
tate business. In 1800 he moved to Delta, ar-
riving in the spring, and at once became presi-
dent of the Delta Mercantile Company, which
he organized, but he sold his interest in the
company soon afterward. In [895 he bought
a one-half interest in the banking house for-
merly established by Blachly & Baldwin, and.
in partnership with F. E. Dodge, reorganized
the institution into the Farmers and Merchants
Bank, the name it now bears. In [898 he sold
his interest in the hank- and, in partnership
with Judge A. R. King, boughl the Delta Town
and Improvement Company of the Crawford
estate. This company soon afterward organ-
ized the Union Abstract Company, and .Mr.
Stephan has devoted his energies to the busi-
ness of these two corporations as president in
connection with his extensive legal practice and
his official duties as county attorney, an office
in which he is now serving his third term. He
was admitted to the bar in 1889. and since then
he has built up a large and representative prac-
tice and taken a high rank in the profession.
He is an ardent Republican in politics and is
prominent and influential in the councils of his
party, serving as secretary of its county cen-
tral committee and having a voice of potency
in its conventions, lie has also served accept-
ably as a member of the Delta city council. In
fraternal circles he is a thirty-second-degree
Mason and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine in the
same order. On June _>8. 1892, he was united
in marriage with Miss Helen Carr, a native
of Philadelphia and daughter of A. W. Carr.
one of the pioneers of Delta county. Their
beautiful home, over which Mrs. Stephan pre-
sides with grace and dignity, is a center of re-
lined and generous hospitality and intellectual
life, and both she and her husband are recog-
nized as among the leading citizens of the com-
munity.
FA.RMERS & MERCHANTS BANK.
The Farmers & Merchants Bank of Delta
was organized in 1890 as a private institution
by A. T. Blachly and D. S. Baldwin, and con-
tinued under their ownership and manage-
ment until March, 1S04. In September, [893.
Mr. Blachly, who was the cashier, was shot and
killed by the outlaws McCarty, who secured
a small .amount of money in their robbery, and
were soon afterward overtaken and killed. The
present cashier witnessed the holdup and kill-
ing of Mr. Blachly, he having become con-
'"
BONNIE BRAE RANCH, OWNED BY GEORGE YULI
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
~?\<~?
nected with the bank as assistant cashier in
[892. In March. 1894, the ownership of the
bank passed to F. E. Dodge and George
Stephan, who continued in charge of it until
July. 1895, when J. F. Sanders bought Mr.
Stephen's interest and the firm became Sanders
& Dodge. In 1901 Mr. Dodge retired, sell-
ing his interest to Mr. Wolbert, and the new-
firm was organized with Mr. Sanders as presi-
dent, Mr. Wolbert as cashier and H. W. Chiles
as assistant cashier, who are its present officers.
The institution formerly occupied the building
now used as the postoffice, but in [896 the two-
story brick banking house which it now occu-
pies was erected by Mr. Sanders at a cost of
about twenty thousand dollars. It has two
Store moms in addition to the quarters used
by the bank, and is finished with the best ma-
terial throughout, tiled floors, solid mahogany
woodwork, plate glass windows and mahogany.
glass and iron fixtures of the most approved
style, being considered the finest and most
complete bank building on the Western slope.
The bank is still conducted as a private insti-
tution. Its individual responsibility is five hun-
dred thousand dollars, and its credit stands as
high as any throughout the range of its terri-
tory.
Harry Howard Wolbert, the cashier of this
flourishing fiscal enterprise, and its main in-
spiration in its useful and productive activity,
was horn at Rochester, New York, on Decem-
ber 0. 1865, while his mother was on a visit
to that city, and is the son of Henry Patrick
and Louise (Bennett) Wolbert, the latter hav-
ing been horn, reared, educated and married
near Dover. Maine. In 1862 they moved to
Tennessee, locating at Clarksville. At the
close of the Civil war. all their buildings hav-
ing been burned, the family mined to Cleve-
land. Ohio, where the father died. The mother
died at San Francisco in 1892. Thev had two
children, Harrv. and an older sister, who is
married and lives in Alaska. The son was
reared in Cleveland and educated at the public
schools. When lie was thirteen years of age
he came with his mother and sister to Colo-
rado Springs, this state, and there he fin-
ished his scholastic training at the high school.
He lived at that place until [892, having gone
to work when he was fifteen in the office of the
Gazette Printing Company, where he was em-
ployed eleven years in various capacities. He
was then on the road as a salesman until June.
1892, when he became assistant cashier of the
hank at Delta. In 1894. when the bank-
changed hands, he took charge of D. S. Bald-
win's loan and real-estate business and re-
mained in charge of it until 1896. At that time
he returned to Colorado Springs and during
the next two years he was clerk of the board of
county commissioners at that place. In 1898
he went south, being interested in prospecting
and in building forty miles of railroad in Ar-
kansas, opposite and west from Greenville to
Hamburg. In the spring of 1901 this road
was sold to the Missouri Pacific system, and
he again moved to Delta, resuming his position
as assistant cashier of the hank. Within the
same year he bought Mr. I lodge's interest in
the bank and became cashier. He is a firm
and loyal Republican in politics, but is not an
aspirant for public office of any kind, although
he gives his party a cordial and helpful sup-
port at all times. On March 5, [889, he was
married to Miss Edith G Parker, a native of
Valley Falls, Kansas, and daughter of Nathan
E. and Burradilla (Dunham) Parker, who
were born and reared near Dover, Maine, and
are now- living at Colorado Springs. Mr. and
this Mrs. Wolbert had two children. Norma
B. and Ida M.. who survive their mother, she
having died in March, 1901. On June 11.
1903. Mr. Wolbert married a second wife.
Miss Evangeline Wilson Huntley, an Indiana
lady by nativity, horn at Indianapolis on Sep-
59^
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
tember 28, [882, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
J. P. Huntley, now residents of Delta. Mr.
Wolbert is a member of the Knights of Pythias
and the Dramatic Order Knights of Khoras-
san. and belongs to the Episcopal church. In
business circles and in social life he is highly
esteemed as a leading citizen and a potent force
for guild, in the community.
SMITH L. WHIPP. '
No man's destiny, and scarcely any man's
vocation, can he predicted with certainty in the
mobile conditions of life which obtain in the
United States. The land is full of opportuni-
ties and its institutions are in themselves an
education and a preparation for almost any
call to duty, and the conditions are continually
changing, so that the man we find at twenty-
five following one pursuit may be at forty en-
gaged in a very different one. Moreover, as
each one is in the measure of his capacities and
his willingness a sovereign and part of the
government, the invitation is always open to
a public career and participation in political
movements, which our young men have from
the dawn of their manhood, and often even be-
Eore, taken advantage of. It is therefore never
a matter of surprise when some worker in a
mechanical or other non-political field is chosen
by his fellow citizens to the administration of
important public functions. The wonder, if
there be any about the case, is that men not
specially trained to public office are so ready
and so ca])ahle in filling it and perform so cred-
itably il< duties. An instance worthy of more
than a passing notice is presented in the life of
the present county treasurer of Gunnison
county, this state. Smith L. Whipp, of Gunni-
son, who is now serving his third term in this
important position. Mr. Whipp was horn in
the state nf Iowa in [861, and is" the son of
Samuel 1). and Mary (Smith) Whipp. His
father was a native nf ( >hio and migrated from
that state to Iowa early in the 'forties, settling
in Jasper county, where he was married and
where he farmed until 1871. then moved his
family to Kansas, locating in Mitchell comity.
In 1859 he made a trip to Pike's Peak under
pres ure of the excitement then high over the
discovery of gold in that region. But after a
few months of unprofitable prospecting and
mining there he returned to his home in Iowa,
and he continued to live and farm there until
[891, when he came to Colorado to remain and
took up his residence at Crested Butte. Gunni-
son county. Here he died in 1902. aged seven-
ty-three years. He was a veteran of the Mexi-
can war, and a useful citizen wherever he lived,
giving to his fellow men an example of up-
rightness in private life and of energy in be-
half of the public welfare that was at once an
incitement and a fruitful source of good. His
wife was a native of Indiana and went with
her parents to live in Iowa while she was yet a
school girl. She died at Crested Butte in Jan-
uary, 1 So 1. at the age of fifty-four. They had
twelve children, their sun Smith being the third
in numerical order. His childhood and youth
were passed in his native state and Kansas.
After leasing school he learned the trade of a
blacksmith, and at the conclusion of his ap-
prenticeship in 1880 he came to Colorado. lo-
cating at Georgetown. The next year he
mi wed to Crested Butte and there worked at his
trade and followed prospecting and mining un-
til he was seriously injured in an accident in a
mine at Fairview, between that place and Ir-
win, in Gunnison county, his brother. Owen P.
Whip]), being killed in the same accident.
\ftcr that he took up his residence at Gunnison,
.and in 18117 was elected county treasurer as the
candidate of the Fusionists. At the end nf his
first term he was re-elected as the candidate of
the Republicans and Populists, and at the end
of "the second term was again elected, this time
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
597
as a straight Republican. In the fall of 1904
he wis again elected on the Republican ticket.
He has been an active and industrious man.
and has accumulated a competency of worldly
wealth. ha\ ing a fine ranch adjoining the town-
site of Gunnison on the north, and also inter-
ests in silver and gold mines, including the
Malibia claim on Ore creek in the southern
pari of the county. Throughout his mature
life he has been active in public affairs, and is
esteemed as one of the leading citizens and
public men in this part of the state. He was
married in 1891 to Miss Mary McCourt, a na-
tive of England, daughter of James McCourt.
of that country. Her father was an old-time
miner who came to Crested Butte in r88o and
was killed in a mine explosion in 1884. Mr.
and Mrs. Whipp have two children. Ethel and
Walter.
CAPT. GEORGE W. THATCHER.
Through a long series of successes and
reverses, the former more continued and pro-
nounced than the latter. Capt. George W.
Thatcher, a prominent and influential mining
man of Aspen, Pitkin county, has risen to com-
fort and prosperity in worldly wealth and a
high and firmly established position in the con-
fidence and esteem of his fellow men. He wa?
born in Shelby county. Kentucky, on July 11.
1844, and is the son of John and Martha A.
Thatcher, the former a native of Pennsylvania
and the latter of Kentucky. The father moved
to Kentucky when he was a young man and
served in the United States arm}', being
engaged in the Seminole Indian war in Florida
and holding the rank of captain. He also
looked after the disputed land claims in the
court-. In 1850 he moved to Missouri, locating
in Jackson county, where be followed farming
with good success. He was an active Whig
in politics and be and his wife were members of
the Baptist church. They had eight children,
four of whom have died. Those living are the
Captain. Mrs. Hugh Butler and Joseph A., of
Denver, the latter president of the Denver
National Bank, and Newton J., of Arizona.
The mother died in 1848 and the father in
1852. Captain Thatcher, who is generally
recognized as one of the best and most progres-
sive citizens of the Western slope, attended
only the common schools and had but limited
opportunities for a regular course at them. At
the age of fourteen he began the battle of life
for himself as clerk and salesman in a store
where he remained two years. At sixteen he
went to Mexico and engaged in mining, and in
1858 accompanied the troops under Generals
Harney and Albert Sidney Johnston as \j;agon
master and guide across the plains, having
entire charge of the Harvey outfit. He
remained with the army until i860, then
moved to Nevada where he resumed his mining
operations and also did freighting between
points in that state and California. In these
lines he was occupied two years with varying
success. In 1862 he went to Idaho and during
the next ten years was employed in placer min-
ing and 'ditching in the Boise basin. At this
time the Indians were troublesome in that por-
tion of the state, resisting with force and arms
the encroachments of the white and the advance
of civilization, attacking the freight outfits and
disturbing the miners at their work. In the
work of defense the Captain was a volunteer
and in command of the volunteer forces, and
they in connection with the regular :
cleaned the savages out and restored peace
throughout the region bordering Indian. Black.
Owyhee and Mahlem creeks. In 1872 Captain
Thatcher moved to Utah, where he remained
two years, then went to Nevada and again
engaged in mining', being connected with the
Comstock mines until t88o. At that time he
came to Colorado, and locating at Aspen, began
59 8
PROGRESSIl'E MEN -OF WESTERN COLORADO.
mining silver, in which he is still engaged. He
is active and prominent in the Masonic order,
and is an earnest and zealous Democrat in poli-
tics, taking a prominent part in the manage-
ment of his party as a member and chairman
of its committees, and serving as a candidate
for presidential elector in 1896 on the Bryan
ticket. In 1904 he was appointed commis-
sioner to represent Colorado at the St. I.. mis
World's Fair.
HENRY E. WOODWARD.
Prominent, influential and highly esteemed
in mining circles in Colorado, and ardently in-
terested in agriculture and the means of irri-
gating the soil to make it productive, Henry
1'",. Woodward, of Aspen, is one of the leading
citizens of the Western slope, and has for years
been active and serviceable in promoting its
progress and the development of its resources.
He was horn in Dane comity. Wisconsin, at the
city of Madison, on March 15, 1857. and is
the s,,n of George E. and Marion (Ashworth)
Woodward, both natives of England, the fa-
ther of Birmingham ami the mother of Man-
chester. The father came to the United States
and settled in Wisconsin when a boy. He at-
tended the public schools and the State Uni-
versity, being one of the first graduates from
the law department of this institution. In his
early manhood he was connected with the
newspaper business in connection with Judge
Welsch. who was also a lawyer. Later he prac-
ticed his profession at Madison and achieved a
gratifying success in the work. Although an
ardent Democrat in politics, he voted for Abra-
ham Lincoln for President on the slavery is-
sue, lie was a member of the Episcopal
church and of the Society of St. George.
Three children were born in the family. Henry
!•"... Mrs. Florence Hasting Disbrow, of Califor-
nia, and Mrs. Nettie 1.. Ingham, of ^spen.
Henry E., the first born, received his prepara-
tory education in the public schools and after
completing- the high-school course entered a
private school for a special course of training
in engineering. He then took np the study of
mining. In the spring of 1876 he made a trip
into the Black Hills, returning to Cheyenne
in the fall of the same year, where he became
employed as a clerk and bookkeeper, continuing
as such until 1878. Then, having- saved a lit-
tle money, he began mining on his own ac-
count, entering the mines at Leadville as a
common miner, pushing trucks and doing-
other work of the kind. He has since served
in every capacity in the business and at present
( 1904 ) is manager of some of the leading
properties in the neighborhood of his residence.
He has also done important engineering work
at different times and places. In 1886 he came
to live at Aspen, and here his first work was
in connection with the litigation in which some
of the mines were engaged. He then became
foreman of the Spar Consolidated Mining
Company under 11. B. Gillispie, then its mana-
ger and one of its principal owners. He next
took charge of the Percy Mining Company's
property as superintendent, and has been con-
nected with the properties of that company ever
since, even after the change of name to the
Percy-La Salle Mining & Power Company, fol-
lowing- the consolidation of the Percy with the
Castle Creek Tunnel & Power Company, a cor-
poration that now controls oxer two hundred
acres of good mining land. In politics Mr.
Woodward ardently supported Democratic
principles and candidates until the year [893,
when he joined the free silver party. In re-
ligious belief be is a firm Seventh-day Adven-
tist. On May 2, 1NS7, he was married to Miss
Emma Patton, a native of Greensburg, Deca
tur county, Indiana, and daughter of Nathaniel
So ill and Josephine Patton. Her father was a
captain in an Indiana regiment in the Civil war.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
599
ami after the close of the memorable contest
conducted the National Hotel at Terre Haute,
Indiana. He was a Whig and later a Republi
can in politics, and a member of the Masonic
order, and both he and his wife were Method-
ists in church affiliation. In his earlier man-
hood he was a farmer and school teacher.
Both parents died a number of years ago, leav-
ing two surviving children, William II. Patron
and Mrs. Woodward. Mr. Woodward is
largely interested in farming and irrigation in
Delta county, and by his intelligence and
breadth of view he has been of great and lasting
service to those interests in tint section. He
is highly esteemed as a wise and practical man.
a good citizen and a progressive force in all the
elements of count}' and state improvement and
advancement.
MELVIN S. STEINBERG
Melvin S. Steinberg, of Pitkin county, this
state, pleasantly located in a fine ranch in the
neighborhood of Watson, is universally
esteemed as one of the most progressive ranch-
men and best citizens of the county. He is
alert, energetic and knowing in his business,
enterprising and broad-minded in public affairs,
and earnest and serviceable in all undertakings
for the advancement of the community and the
comfort and welfare of its people. His life
began at Norfolk, St. Lawrence comity, New.
York, on October 18, 1847, ai1f l ne ' s : ' le son 0T
Daniel and Sarah Steinberg, the former a
native of Ontario. Canada, and the latter of
New York state. Soon after their marriage
they located in New York, and to the end of
their lives were prosperously engaged in
farming. They were members of the
Methodist church and stood high in the
public esteem of their community. Five
children were born to them, and of these
their son Melvin is now the only one living.
The parents also have passed away, the mother
dying in 1868 and the father in 1890. The son
received only a common-school education of
limited extent, and at the age of eighteen went
to work regularly as a full hand on his father's
farm, remaining at home until 1868, when he
reached the age of twenty-one. During the
next two years he worked on a neighboring
farm for wages, then moved to the adjoining
county of Franklin, wdiere he farmed for him-
self two years. He then sold out at a profit
and, moving to Canada, located in the province
of Ontario, engaging in general farming and
fruit culture on a farm which he bought. Ik-
remained there so occupied until the spring of
1881, at which time he disposed of his property
at a profit and came to Colorado, settling at
Denver. Here finding a demand for skilled
mechanics, and having a thorough practical
knowledge of carpentering, he worked at his
trade and did well. In 1886 he moved to the
neighborhood of Aspen, and in the summer of
that year located the excellent ranch of one
hundred and sixty acres on which he now lives.
This was virtually unbroken land almost in its
state of natural wildness when he took hold of
it, and now it is one of the best improved and
most productive in the region. On it he raises
cattle and hay extensively, and also a goodly
volume of grain, vegetables and small fruits,
currants and strawberries in particular, which
he produces in large quantities and of excellent
quality. In political party allegiance he is inde-
pendent, but he always lends a potent aid to
any enterprise for the good of the community.
He was married on March 22, 1871. to Miss
Tresig Mattin, a Canadian, born in the prov-
ince of Ontario, ami the daughter of Michael
Mattin, also a Canadian by birth, who devoted
his attention to farming and fruit-growing', and
he and his wife were members of the Episcopal
church. Of their eleven children only three are
living, George, who resides on the old home-
stead in Canada; Leslie, who lives in Califor-
nia: and Alice, wile of Herman Reynolds, of
6oo
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Denver. Mrs. Steinberg died on September
26, 1902, leaving two children. Lillian, and
George, who lives in Park county, this state.
Through all the chances and changes of life,
Mr. Steinberg has preserved a lofty demeanor
of manliness and courage, meeting every diffi-
culty with a determined spirit of self-reliance
and performing every duty with fidelity and
ability. He is one of the most respected as
well as one of the most progressive and enter-
prising citizens of Pitkin county.
WILLIAM II. HARRIS.
Coming as a pioneer into the neighborhood
of Basalt, Eagle county, when wild beasts and
savage men still claimed dominion over the
wilderness, as it was then, and devoting his
energies, with those of the few other civilized
men who were living there, to the development
of the country. William I!. Harris has wit-
nessed all the progress of the region toward
productiveness and an advanced stage of de-
velopment and has the great satisfaction of
having been a potent factor in bringing about
the gratifying results achieved. It was on July
To, tSqS, in Clinton county. New York, that
his life began, and his parents were William
and Catherine (Janes) Harris, natives of Mon-
mouthshire, England, who emigrated to this
country in the 'fifties, and after passing some
time in the state of New York, where the fa-
ther worked at burning charcoal, moved to
Wisconsin in 1861. Merc they prospered until
the great flood of [859 swept away all their
possessions. While living in England both
parents were members of the Anglican church,
but after coming to this country they became
Methodists. The father took an active part
in \merican politics and was an ardent mem-
ber of the Democratic party. They had a fam-
ih oi nine children, two of whom met with
11 !" deaths. Cvrus was killed in a railroad
wreck in Minnesota, and Louise, then Mrs
John Killem. was drowned while fording a
stream in Wyoming. The seven who survive
are: Mary, wife of Charles Elkie. of Sey-
mour, Wisconsin; Eliza, wife of George Snow,
of the same place; Fannie, wife of John Nuen-
bury. of the vicinity of Carbondale; Annie,
wife of John Carey, of Appleton, Wisconsin;
David and Charles H., living near Carbondale;
and William II.. the subject of this brief re-
view. The last named was reared on the pa-
ternal homestead, assisting in its labors from
boyhood, and was educated to a limited extent
at the public schools. At the age of eighteen
he began to earn his own living, devoting Ins
timle to whatever he could find to do. He
worked two years in a stave factory and one
year as a farm hand, then lived a year and a
half in Towa, after which he came to Colorado
in July. 1881, and located a ranch, taking up
a squatter's claim which he afterwards pre-
empted. This comprised one hundred and sixty
acres and was the nucleus of his present ranch
of eight hundred and sixty acres, the rest hav-
ing been acquired by subsequent purchases.
Here he has since resided, devoting bis ener-
gies to improving his land and bringing it to
an advanced state of cultivation and productive-
ness. He raises good crops of hay, grain and
fruits, and also large numbers of cattle and
horses, hay and cattle being the principal
products. Idle ranch is well supplied with wa-
ter from private ditches belonging to it. and
its cultivation is therefore merely a matter of
energy and skill, both of which Mr. Harris sup-
plies in abundant measure. In political matters
he has not been a blind follower of any party
dictation, but he now firmly supports the Re-
publican principles. For a period of twelve
years he served as a member of the school
board, and when he resigned the position his
wife was elected to succeed him. lie also
serwd as road commissioner nine vears. Dur-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
601
ing the past eighteen years he has been con-
nected with the Masons, Elks, Odd Fellows,
Kniglits of Pythias, Daughters of Rebekah and
the Rathbone Sisters. When Mr. Harris came
to this location the land on which he settled was
a part of the Ute Indian reservation, and deer,
elk and all other sorts of wild game were plenti-
ful. His mother was the second white woman
in the valley, and the whole region was a veriv
able wilderness. In early days he received one
hundred and sixty dollars a ton tor hay sold
at Aspen. In July. [881, in company with
Jack Morgan, commonly known as "Black
Jack.'* he crossed the Independence pass with
their blankets packed on their backs, and built
a cabin for their shelter. They were not mo-
lested by the Indians, hut were prepared for
their reception in case of an attack, holes be-
ing left on all sides of the cabin through which
to shoot. The ditches belonging to the place
were begun in [881 and completed in 1884.
There was no coal available at that time, and
the picks with which the digging was done
were sharpened at wood fires. Mr. Harris was
one of the seventeen men who built the road,
around the mountains near Emma. There
"ere only three cabins in the valley at the time,
and protection against marauding Indians was
insufficient, many cattle being stolen down to
i'-oN Mr. Harris is considered one of the
best and most progressive citizens of this sec-
tion and his ranch on the Roaring Fork, be-
tween Emma and Carbondale, is one of the
very best in this portion of the state. On Janu-
ary 31, 1894, he was married to Miss Mary
Carey, a native of Michigan, the marriage li-
cense being the first issued in Garfield county.
Mrs. Harris is the daughter of Michael and
Mary I Gleason) Carey, natives of Ireland, who
after their emigration to America settled in the
copper regions of Michigan, wdiere the father
acquired valuable interests. Some time after-
ward thev moved to Leadville. this state,
where he secured other rich claims, as he did
also at Cripple Creek, he being the owner of
the Oplin mines, which are located on the Lit-
tle Ella 11 ill. the mineral consisting principally
of gold quartz. Both parents are members of
the Catholic church, and in political relations
the father is independent. Three children
were horn to them. Mary, wife of Mr. Harris,
Timothy, living at Altaian, Colorado, and
Margaret, wife of Mert McKenzie, of Cripple
( 'reek. The parents live in Denver. In the
Harris family the following children have been
born : One died in infancy. Irene in February,
1894. a,1 'l Bryan in February, 1S05; the three
living are William A., a graduate of the Basalt
high school, and now a student at the State
Agricultural School at Fort Collins, and Ralph
C. and Raymond F., living at home.
WILLIAM FORKER.
William Forker, of Garfield county, living
on a well improved and highly cultivated ranch
eight miles northeast of Glenwood, in Spring
valley, is a native of that great hive of produc-
tive industry of almost every kind. Pennsyl-
vania. He was born in Venango count)', that
state, on April 23, 1843. and there he was edu-
cated in the public schools and reared to
of industry and thrift on the farm. His p
were Levi J. and Isabella (Bell) Forker, natives
of the same state, the father 1 if Venango o iunty
and the mother of Westmoreland. In that
state they were reared, educated and married,
and .there they passed the whole of their lives,
the father dying on March [9, [888, .
mother in 1891. At the end of their long and
useful lives their remains w-ere laid to rest
beneath the soil which was hallowed by their
labors and amid the people who held them in
the highest esteem. The father was a pros-
perous farmer and stock-grower in occupation,
first a Whig and after the death of
602
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COEORADO.
that party a Republican in politics, and
a member of the United Brethren church
in religious affiliation. The mother also
belonged to this church. They had a fam-
ily of twelve children, eight of whom are living.
John B.. Jane (Mrs. Wesley M. Brown) and
Samuel are residents of their native county of
Venango, Pennsylvania; William, of whom
this account is written, is living in Garfield
county, this state: Perry dwells at Gilsonburg.
Ohio; Charles W. in the state of Washington;
and Myra (Mrs. Addison Ogden) in the same
state. William assisted his parents on the home
farm until he was twenty-one years old. In the
meantime he also worked on oil wells when his
services were not required at home. After
reaching his legal majority he continued work-
ing on oil wells until 1869 when he embarked
in the production of the oil on his own account.
After sinking several wells at Parker's Land-
ing, mi the Allegheny river, and at Mt. Hope,
Pennsylvania, he went into the machine busi-
ness, manufacturing oil well drilling tools and
did repair work of all machinery pertaining to
the production of oil, following the business
until 1880, at which time the mining boom in
Colorado lured him from his native state. He,
in company with his brother Charles W.,
landed at Silver Cliff in Mountain valley and
prospected all the way from there up the river
to Buena Vista ; thence to Camp Harvard near
Cottonwood Hot Springs ; thence over the Cot-
tonwood mountain to Tincup ; thence up the
Taylor river and over Taylor range to Ash-
croft and Aspen and while, in company with his
brother, C. W. Forker, he was prospecting and
hauling west of Aspen, discovered the fertile
valley where he now resides, christening it
"Spring Valley" from the numerous springs
arising in it. This being an ideal place for a
hunter, game being very plentiful of all kinds
common to these mountains, they built what
might he called .1 hunter's lodge, making their
headquarters here until the Indians were
removed and the land opened formally to real
settlers by the United States government. At
the time of locating here, in July, 1881, the
nearest postoffice and place of procuring sup-
plies was at- Aspen, forty-two miles up the
Roaring Fork, and as there were no wagon
roads west of Aspen transportation of game
meats to market and provisions hack to camp
was all done hy pack animals. Glenwood
Springs at the time boasted of but one building,
and that a log cabin occupied by a hunter claim-
ing the place as a townsite, but as soon as roads
were built so that the afflicted could get there,
the town sprung up like a mushroom. Soon
after locating in Spring valley. Porker discov-
ered coal on Fourmile creek and opened and
equipped a mine with all necessary machinery
and as soon thereafter as there was a demand
for fuel in Glenwood in 1885, opened the first
coal yard. In 1SS7 they sold their entire inter-
ests in the coal business to the Colorado Fuel
and [ron Company and Mr. Forker went back
to his pre-emption claim of one hundred and
sixty acres to improve and bring it into cultiva-
tion, which was no small task, it being covered
with sagebrush and water, about seventy-five
acres being a marsh or slough which has since
been thoroughly drained and brought into a
high state of cultivation and yields good crops
of the farm products common to the region.
He also raises cattle and conducts a dairy busi-
ness with good profits. In political matters
Mr. Forker is independent of party control.
While in the oil business be invented and pat-
ented a number of devices for the benefit of
the industry and since locating here has
invented a camp stove which is of the take-
down pattern and is very conveniently carried
on a pack animal over rough trails in the
mountains, and is in great demand where it has
been introduced, being the tourists' favorite,
1 'resident Roosevelt and party having used one
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
603
of them while here on his last bear hunt near
Glenwood Springs. His last patent, bearing
date of August 25, 1903, consists of a dehorn-
ing device. With it, horns are quickly removed
from calves in such a manner as to effectually
stop farther growth of horn. In connection
with his other business, Mr. Forker is man-
ufacturing the last two named articles to meet
the rapidly increasing- demand for them. In
1865 he was married to Miss Hannah M.
Atwell, a native of the same county as himself,
who died in 1867, leaving no children, the two
they had having died in infancy. In 1870 he
married Miss Melissa Sopher, of Mercer
county, Pennsylvania. By this marriage he had
one son, George H. Forker, who after growing
to vigorous manhood, served his country as a
private soldier all through the Cuban war.
being honorably discharged soon after peace
was declared. He now lives at Spokane Falls.
Washington. The subject's third marriage
occurred on August 17, 1897. and was with
Mrs. Tillie <iilison, a daughter of James and
Eliza Welsh, also Pennsylvanians and success-
ful farmers in their native state. The father
was a Repuhlican and both were Presbyterians.
Of their six children, only three are now living,
Henry and Lucy (Mrs. S. N. Bell), in Pennsyl-
vania, and Tillie, in this state. Mr. Forker is
well pleased with Colorado as a place of resi-
dence and of great opportunities and has an
ardent devotion to her welfare and the ad-
vancement of her interests.
GEORGE W. MELTON.
George W. Melton, of Angora, Rio Blanco
county, this state, has tried his hand at various
pursuits and has won a fair success at all. He
was born in Joe Daviess county, Illinois, on
September 1. 1840, the son of William and
Mary (Holoway) Melton, who were born and
reared in Kentucky and became residents of
Illinois soon after their marriage and while the
state was yet in an undelevoped condition. In
1856 they moved to Wisconsin where they
engaged in farming and raising stock. The
father died in 1863 and the mother in 1871.
They had a family of thirteen children, but six
of whom are living: William, of Mason City,
Iowa: Louis, of Wheatland, California; George
W. ; Louisa, wife of Martin Finlay, of Mason
City, Iowa: Benjamin ¥.. of Gunnison, Colo-
rado, and Mary, wife of John Elkhorn. of
Hamilton. Missouri. During the boyhood and
youth of Mr. Melton the educational facilities
of the section of country in which he dwelt were
primitive and scant. Teachers were employed
to go from house to house to instruct the chil-
dren and as the population was widely scat-
tered the visits were necessarily few. But the
conditions were such that the demands for the
aid of every hand were imperative; and so with
but little teaching in books, but ample training
in useful labor, he reached his twenty-first year
011 the paternal homestead. He then left home
and rented a farm for himself in Wisconsin,
which he farmed two years. The next three he
passed as a pilot on the Mississippi, and then
returned to shipping wood down the river on
boats, and at the same time conducted a hotel at
Fairyville, Wisconsin, continuing these pur-
suits three years. At the end of that time he
bought the old homestead in Wisconsin, which
he sold two years later and himself unwed to
Iowa, where he remained and farmed until
1877. He then moved to Kansas and farmed
in that state until 1881, then came to Colorado
and located at Gothic, Gunnison county. Here
he followed mining and also freighted between
Gunnison and Crested Butte and other points,
making his home at Gothic for six years. At
the end of that period he moved to Crystal, this
state, and has since continued mining and
freighting. In 1893 a stock company was
formed for mining purposes known as the
6o4
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Crystal Mountain Mining and Draining Com-
pany, of which he served as manager until the
ci impany leased its holdings under contract
four years ago. The outfit is equipped with
first-class machinery for mining purposes and
does a flourishing business. Before forming
it Mr. Melton made several trips to California.
In 1894 he moved to his present location pur-
chasing a seventy-acre ranch near the town of
Angora, on which he raises cattle and he also
continues mining. He supports the Republican
party in political matters, and is a member of
the Masonic order in fraternal life. For a num-
ber of years he was also an active Odd Fellow.
( In Vpril 4. i860, he was married to Miss Mar-
tha Copper, a native of Van Wert count}-,
Ohio, the daughter of Joseph and Matilda
(Boyd) Copper, who were born in Pennsyl-
vania and located in Ohio soon after their mar-
riage. In [855 they moved to Wisconsin
where the father worked at his trade as a car-
penter and also farmed. He was a Republican
in political affiliation, and the father of two
children. Mrs. Melton being the only one living.
He died in 1876 and the mother in 1879. Mr.
and Air-;. Melton have had seven children.
Three died in infancy and the living are Mary.
(Mrs. Frank Fortsch, of Plateau Valley-); Alice
(Mrs. James Jones, of Carbondale) ; Charles
R. and Gladys (Mrs. Lyman Thompson), on
White river. The father served in the Twen
ty-Seventh Iowa, Company B, during the
Civil war. and before its close wa.s v igqn
master of the Sixteenth Army Corps.
EDWIN II. STROUSE.
Edwin 11. Strouse, a successful and pros-
ranchman and mechanic of Garfield
county, with a pleasant and productive home
one mile and a half due west of Newcastle, was
born near Mrs Moines, fowa, on January 28,
■! brought by bis parents to thi
when he was about one year old. He had but
little education in the schools, being obliged
fn im an early age to work on the farm in the
interest of his parents, who had a large family
to support and slender means to do it on. When
he reached the age of twenty-one he began to
learn the blacksmith trade at Evergreen, Jef-
fersi m county. Two years later he began
ranching at Morrison and continued until 1885,
then moved to Divide creek, Garfield county,
where he remained until 1887, at which time he
changed his residence to Newcastle and opened
the first blacksmith shop in the place. The next
year he traded this shop for the ranch he now
occupies, which comprises seventy acres, all
under cultivation, twenty acres being in fruit,
thirty in hay and the rest in grain and vege-
tables. He also raises some cattle, and in addi-
tion to his ranching interests devotes a portion
of his time to blacksmithing at Newcastle, as
he has since 1902. He is a member of the
Knights of Pythias, the Odd Fellows and the
Woodmen of the World. On May [3, [883,
he was married to Miss Mary F. Nugent, who
was born in Chicago and is the daughter of
Patrick J. and Arminta (Shadley) Nugent, the
father a native of Ireland and the mother of
Illinois. They located at Chicago early in their
married life, and there the father won prosper
itv as a merchant. The great fire of 1871 swept
away everything he had. and the family then
moved to Denver, this state, where the father
kept a hotel. They next moved to Jefferson
county, and there he opened a meal market at
Morrison and served as postmaster for a num-
ber of years. Finally they took up their resi-
dence at Newcastle, where For many years he
was a justice of the peace. He was a stanch
Dem icrat, and all the family are membei of
the Catholic church. Nine of the eleven children
bom in the family survive the parents, who
dn-d some wars ago, the mother on December
8, iSSS. and the father on November 1;. [894.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
605
John lives at Denver; William, whose where-
abouts are uncertain; Lizzie (Airs. Hardin
Howell), at Humboldt, California; James, at
Sacramento, California; Airs. Strouse, in this
state; Augustus, at Cripple creek, in the vicin-
ity of Goldfield; Grace (Mrs. Guy Cramer),
at Denver; Belle (Airs. Bert Shuffield), at Den-
ver; and Ilattie (Airs. William Pennie), at
Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Mr. Strouse's
parents were John A. and Lovina Strouse, the
father a native of Pennsylvania and the mother
of New York state. After living- the earlier
years of their married life in Indiana they
moved to Iowa, and soon afterward came to
Colorado. Of their ten children only four sur-
vive them, Edwin H.. Andrew J., living at
Telluride, William N., of Racine. Wisconsin,
and Alary E., wife of Howard Poston, of Mor-
rison, Colorado. The father was an ardent
Democrat and a member of the Masonic
order. Air. and Airs. Strouse have seven chil-
dren, Pearl, Edward, Roy, Nellie, May, Wil-
liam and Ruth.
CHARLES SMITH.
So long as the West or any other porti< m of
the yet unsettled country in our domain re-
mains bountifully supplied with game and the
latter has its fastnesses for shelter so long will
hunters seek it and guides be necessarv and
esteemed for their services, especially by those
who have the benefit of them. Among theinen
of this class who are now living in this portion
of the country none is entitled to a higher
esteem for skill and daring, for a knowledge of
game and its haunts, for readiness in emergen-
cies and acquaintance with the means to meet
them, and for a geniality of disposition in con-
ducting parties than Charles Smith, of Buford,
this state. His reputation is well established
as a successful hunter and his knowledge of the
country is so extensive as to make him unusu-
ally well qualified as a guide. His place of
nativity was Norway and he was born there on
A larch 2, 185 1. At the age of fourteen lie
emigrated to the Cnited States. He soon after-
ward became a sailor and made two \ •
from New York around Cape Horn, sailing
also across the Atlantic and through the Medi-
terranean, devoting ten years of his young life
to the sea with his established place of depart-
ure at New York, and rising from the post of
cabin boy to that of steward. In 1872 he came
west and, settling in Wyoming, was engaged
in getting out ties for the railroads during the
next six years, part of the time working for
others for wages and part under contract for
himself, supplying the Union Pacific until
1S7S. Then, after spending a short time pros-
pecting and mining in North Park with moder-
ately good results, he came to the White river
valley and located on the ranch now owned by
J. H. Frahm, pre-empting it for himself and
devoting himself to its improvement witit well-
applied industry. Later he sold this ranch Of
one hundred and sixty acres at a good profit>
and turned his attention to hunting and trap-
ping. In this hazardous but exhilarating occu-
pation he- has since been almost continuously
engaged and in connection with it has been
a well-known and much-sought guide for tour-
ists and hunting parties. He has the reputation
of having killed more bear than any other man
in Colorado and is widely esteemed as a suc-
cessful hunter of all kinds of game. He is also
credited with being the first guide of promi-
nence in the White river country. At present
he is living on a leased ranch owned by Dr.
Carver of Denver, which is used as a grazing
ground, although much of it is under cultiva-
tion and produces plentiful supplies of hay and
grain, the water being sufficient for tilling sev-
enty-five acres. In his adventurous career he
has had many thrilling experiences and nar-
row escapes, but has enjoyed his life of hazard
6o6
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
with the instinct of- a true sportsman. He is
earnestly interested in the welfare of bis sec-
tion of the country and takes an active part in
local affairs as a Republican. In the commun-
ity at large he enjoys the regard and good will
of bis fellow men.
ANDERSON BROTHERS.
Olaf and August Anderson, who compose
the firm of Anderson Brothers, extensive and
prosperous ranch and cattle men living on a
fine and well-developed ranch of four hundred
and forty acres in Rio Blanco . county, and
there togther conducting a large general ranch-
ing and cattle business whereby they help to
swell the tides of commercial life in their
neighborhood, are natives of Sweden and sons
of Andrew and Anna (Olson) Anderson who
were also born in that country and who were,
descendants of families long resident there.
The father was a good and prosperous farmer,
who labored diligently and lived creditably to
the end of his days, which came on July 6,
1878. His widow and ten of their eleven chil-
dren survive him. The children living are
Assarina, Johanna. Nels. Botilda. John, Olaf.
Charles, Peter. August and Maria. Both
parents were raised in obedience to the tenets
of the Lutheran church. The sons who are the
subjects of this sketch were educated at the
state schools and acquired habits of useful
industry on the paternal homestead. Olaf, who
was bom on April 19, 1858. emigrated to the
United States in 1881 and located at Glen-
white, Blair county. Pennsylvania, where be
mined cord under contract until 1883. He then
returned to Sweden, and after passing a year
there came back to Pennsylvania, and six
months afterward migrated to Colorado and
took up bis residence at Aspen. Here he was
employed until 1886 sorting ore for Hooper &
Company. At the end of that period he moved
to his present location and pre-empted one hun-
dred and sixty acres of good land on which he
started a ranching and stock business which is
a part of the enterprise now conducted by him-
self and his brother. The latter. .August An-
derson, came to this country in 1881, arriving
on June 19th, and settled in New Jersey. Some-
time afterward he moved to Staten Island. For
awhile he was employed on farms for wages,
then learned the cooper trade. In 1882 he went
to Pennsylvania and thereafter engaged in min-
ing coal until 1SS8. when he came to Colorado
and locating at Aspen, engaged in mining
until 1805, part of the time for wages and the
rest under contract. In the year last mentioned
he joined his brother Olaf at their present
home and pre-empting one hundred and sixty
acres of land, formed a partnership with him
for uniting their efforts and interests in a busi-
ness of greater magnitude. They have since
bought an additional tract of one hundred and
twenty acres and now have two hundred and
fort}- acres under cultivation in bay and grain,
and also run a number of cattle and horses for
the market. The water supply is good and the
tillage of the land vigorous and skillful, the
returns for the time and labor invested being
large and steadily increasing. The brothers
are reckoned among the leading men in their
portion of the county, and they well deserve
the esteem in which they are held. Both sup-
port the principles of the Republican party in
policies from conviction and without reference
to official reward. When any undertaking for
the advancement of their community is under
consideration they are among the first to help,
longest to stay and most substantial to assist.
CHARLES E. BAKER.
Born with a love of adventure, whether by
inheritance from his ancestors or from the
harmonious union of his own individual char-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
6 i/
acteristics. Charles E. Baker, a prominent and
successful ranchman of Routt count}', and pro-
prietor of the Bal er Hou e a1 I raig, one of the
best known and most appreciated hosteleries of
the Western slope of this state, has through
life followed his bent, and in doing so has
found abundant gratification for his taste in
rambling in many parts of our country and
meeting various phases of frontier life, with its
attendant dangers and privations, and at the
same time has used the opportunities thus
afforded him to his own advantage and greatly
to the benefit of the sections where be has
lived. He was born on September to, [862, at
Lancaster, Erie county. Xew York, twelve
miles east of the city of Buffalo, on a farm
which became the home of his parents. Horace
S. and Susan E. Baker, when but five acres of
it were cleared for cultivation, and on which the
father died in 1894, and the mother is still liv-
ing. His father grew to maturity and on reach-
ing his legal majority he could have bought
land which is now well within the city limits of
Buffalo and covered with buildings of great
value at two dollars and a half an acre, but he
did not invest, because it was all swampy and
the chance of its growing into value was
remote, and at that time seemed highly improb-
able in his lifetime. Mr. Baker received ,1 good
academic education at the Clarence Acad-
emy near his home, and followed it with a
special course of thorough training in penman-
ship in Michigan, having mastered in bis aca-
demic career the ordinary English 1 (ranches.
science and bookkeeping, as far as they were
then taught in the school he attended. His
mind is eminently practical and combines good
business faculties with the power of scholastic
attainments, and the imagination that has im-
pelled him to seek adventures and a wide
knowledge of the country, and the qualities of
self-reliance and resourcefulness which make
him equal to any emergency and ready to get
the most out of any opportunity that pn
itself in the way of business or enjoyment. At
an early age he developed a great fondness for
hunting and when he was but fifteen year- of
age he bought a shot gun for two dollars and
a half, without the knowledge of his parents
and much to the alarm of bis mother, who said
when she found out about his purchase, that it
would be the cause of his death. He was in
that period of bis life a very venturesome
youth, and after visiting Forepaugh's circus mi
one occasion be tried some of the trick riding
be witnessed in the show, succeeding in stand-
ing on a horse's back and riding it for a dis-
tance of two hundred or three hundred yards,
to a point where the animal jumped from the
grassy roadside to the middle of the road and
threw the rider on his head. From boyhood
he had a burning desire to come west to follow-
bis favorite occupation of hunting and trap-
ping, believing he could make a fortune
at the business. His parents opposed his
desire vigorously, and at the age of
sixteen he determined to run away from
home to gratify it: and by way of prepar-
ation he rolled up a bundle of clothes and sup-
plies for his journey. But when night ap-
proached, and he realized the difficulty of find-
ing a safe and suitable place at which to pass
the night, and irhpelled also by filial regard for
his parents and their wishes, he quietly unrolled
bis bundle and determined to remain at home a
while longer. Lest fear should be accounted his
chief cause for giving up his design, it should
lie recorded that he was -a very conscientious
youth, with a sense of obedience to the com-
mands of his parents as his ruling impulse. One
evening at this period of his life at home, he
told his mother an untruth which so worried
him that he was unable to sleep the greater
part of the night, and hung like a pall on his
spirits all next morning. At dinner he burst
out crying and confessed his error, and then
6o8
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
his sky cleared and became bright with sun-
shine once mi ire. After leaving school he
became a clerk in a large store; but not liking
the business, at the end of six months he took
charge of a school of eighty-six pupils, which he
taught to the end of the term for that year. He
then put in two summers gardening for the
Buffalo markets, but finding one of the seasons
too dry and the other too wet for profitable
gardening, he determined to seek a more cer-
tain and remunerative employment, and went
to Tuscola county, Michigan, and in less than
a month was again clerking in a store, and soon
afterward was teaching school in his new loca-
tion. He had as a pupil in his school a young
lady named Miss Cora A. Miller, with whom
he fell in love, and at the end of the second
term they were engaged to lie married. Being
troubled with catarrh and learning of the bene-
ficial effects of the climate of Colorado to suf-
ferers from that and kindred complaints, he
came to this state,. promising to return for his
bride in five years. His first winter in Colo-
rado, that of 1884-5, ne passed as principal of
the public school at Castle Rock, and at the
close of the school year located in Routt
county, where he took up a body of ranch land.
A number of subsequent winters were spent in
teaching school and the summers in improving
and developing his ranch. In the spring of
1889 he returned to Michigan, and on March
14th of that year he was married at Kintner,
that state, to Miss Miller, who came with him
to Colorado soon afterward and has ever since
been a resident of the land of incalculable min-
eral wealth, boundless plains, varied industries,
unprofitable sage brush and almost perennial
sunshine. There was only one white woman
besides Mrs. Baker within a radius of ten miles
(if her home when she came hither and the
nearest doctor was twenty miles distant. But
she was inured to frontier life and met its haz-
ards and hardships with a resolute and cheerful
spirit. Her grandfather cut a trail fourteen
miles through the forest to his Michigan land
when he located on it, and there she was reared
amid the scenes and experiences of the wilder-
ness, acquiring therefrom the courage and self-
dependence characteristic of and recjuisite on
the frontier. Since the marriage she has in all
respects done her part faithfully and diligently
to advance the common interests of herself and
her husband, proving herself a helpmeet in
word and deed in his every trial and difficulty.
They have one daughter, Maud S.. who was
born at Hahn's Peak on April 2$, 1890, twen-
ty five miles from a doctor and snowshoeing
being necessary for fifteen miles of that dis-
tance. In the fall of 1889 Mr. Baker was
elected county clerk and recorder, and at the
end of his term in 1891 declined a second nom-
ination because the last preceding legislature
had passed a salary and fee law of which he did
not approve. He has always adhered to the
Republican party, but it has been his invariable
custom to vote for the men he considered best
for the offices for which they were nominated
with nit regard to party claims. While not a
believer in fraternal societies, regarding them
as more detrimental than beneficial to men in
the main, he belongs to the Woodmen of the
World because of the beneficial features of the
organization. He was reared in the faith of the
Church of the Disciples, but has broadened his
views to the belief that men should be judged
by their daily walk and conversation rather
than by their church affiliations and profes-
sions. After leaving the office of county clerk
and recorder, Mr. Baker settled on his ranch
on Fortification creek, and found he had an
expensive property to develop, as a long ditch
and large reservoir were required to irrigate
the land to productiveness. These he built at
considerable expense of labor and money, hut
his enterprise has been rewarded by securing
to him one of the best range properties in the
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
609
county. In addition to this ranch and the ex-
tensive horse business which it supports, Mr.
Baker operates two mail lines, and conducts
the Baker House at Craig. This hotel has an
excellent reputation and is especially favored
by those modern knights errant, the commer-
cial tourists, who find in it a comfortable home
for such time as they can spend there, with a
table unsurpassed in range and excellence of
provision, good rooms well furnished and a
genial and obliging landlord and landlady, who
are always solicitous for the substantial com-
fort and best interests of their guests. Their
own experience in privation and danger, in toil
and perseverance, have given them an impres-
sive knowledge of the wants of the traveling
public, and they lay all their resources under
tribute to provide for those wants in ample
measure and the best style attainable under the
circumstances. In working out the past prog-
ress of Routt county they have done well their
utmost in several lines of active usefulness, and
in the new day of increased railroad facilities
and other advantages now opening for this
region it is not to be doubted that they will reap
the reward of their fidelity.
JAMES J. DAVIDSON.
It is of old Pennsylvania stock that the sub-
ject of this memoir comes, his parents, George
W. and Nancy Davidson, being natives of that
state and belonging to families long resident
on its prolific soil. The elder Davidsons farmed
in their native state and in Ohio, Missouri and
Illinois, the latter being their final home. The
father served on the Union side in the Civil
war. going in as a private and being mustered
out as a captain. He made a good record and,
although in many important engagements, he
escaped unhurt. He was also successful in
farming. He ardently supported the Republi-
can party in politics, and both he and his wife
39
were Methodists. They had a family of nine
children. Maria, John, George, Joseph, Hiram,
lames J., William. Nancy and Katharine.
Joseph and George are dead. James J. was bom
in Trumbull county, Ohio, on June 30. [831.
He attended the common schools and early in
life took his place in the ranks of the world's
workers so as not to be a charge on his parents
or others. He remained on the home
farm in Illinois until 1847, tnen started
on a trip to California with an ox-
team, but on reaching Utah he aban-
doned the journey temporarily and accepted
employment in caring for stock. In [849 he
completed his trip to the Golden State and after
arriving below Auburn on the American river,
he located some placer mines which proved to
be rich and very profitable. The failure of his
health obliged him to seek a milder climate and
he went in 1850 to southern California, locating
in San Bernardino county and afterward mov-
ing to Los Angeles county. There he gave
attention to ranching and raising stock and also
engaged somewhat in teaming. He remained
until 1875. then disposed of all his California
interests and moved to Wyoming, locating on
Snake river, taking a squatter's right to a good
tract of land which he improved and lived on
until 1880, then sold at a good profit. During
that year he changed his residence to Colorado,
making his home with his son George, who
owns one of the best ranches of its size in R< nut
county, productive in grain, hay and vegetables
and is furnished with good buildings and other
improvements, containing a wide grazing range
for the cattle which are produced in numbers,
and well watered for purposes of irrigation.
When the son located here the nearest settler
was Mr. Perkins, on Snake river, sixteen miles
distant. Mr. Davidson is a Republican in politi-
cal conviction and action and a serviceable
worker for the success of his party. He was
married on September 4, 1851, to Miss Lydia
6io
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Shepherd, a native of Clay county, Missouri,
the daughter of Samuel and Charity Shepherd,
who were born in Vermont, and who, after liv-
ing in a number of places, finally located in
California, where they ended their lives. The
father was a soldier in the war of 1812, a
wheelwright by trade and in later years of his
life a farmer. He died in October, 1877, hav-
ing survived his wife just six months. Their
only living child is Mrs. Davidson. She and
her husband have had fourteen children, but
six of whom are living: Viola, wife of Lycur-
gus Colbert; George W. ; Winifred, wife of
William Ham; Ethel, wife of Price Sims; An-
drew and Carl. The ranch in which Mr. Dav-
idson is interested is managed by his son
George W., who married on February 17,
1883, to Miss Emma Lamb, a native of Iowa.
The son, like the father, is a Republican.
JOHN CHARLES TEMPLE.
Although the son of parents born in Scot-
land and reared in Ireland, the prominent and
progressive ranch and cattle man who is the
subject of this article is a native of Colorado
and has passed the whole of his manhood so
far within the state. He was born in Clear
Creek county on January 7. 1867, and is the son
of James E. and Rebecca Temple, who emi-
grated to the United States soon after their
marriage and located at St. Louis, Missouri.
There the father served as captain on a steam-
boat on the Mississippi until i860, then came to
this state and took up his residence near Black
Hawk, Gilpin county, where he followed min-
ing two years without success. In [862 he
moved to Clear Creek county, and after farm-
ing there a short time returned to Black I [awk
and resumed his mining operations, which he
continued at that place until 1869. In that year
he moved his family to New Mexico, and
there he was more fortunate, locating several
valuable mines, among them the Touse at Cim-
maron. In 1871 he turned his attention to the
raising of cattle and conducted a dairy busi-
ness in connection with the industry at Cim-
maron. Two years later he moved eastward
in the territory but kept on in the same lines of
activity three years longer. In 1876 he began
to devote his attention to raising cattle exclu-
sively and carried on the business extensively.
He was a successful man in his various enter-
prises, and in political faith was a stanch
Republican. He died in March, 1886, and
his wife passed away in 1899. Six of their chil-
dren are living, Edward J., Joseph R., William
O., John Charles, Harry R. and Frank L. John
Charles is practically a self-made man. He
attended the common schools, but in an irregu-
lar way owing to the migratory life of the fam-
ily. When he was approaching manhood he
had an opportunity to attend two terms at the
Denver University, and being quick and stu-
dious, he made good use of his time there.
From boyhood he assisted his parents, remain-
ing with them in New Mexico until 1885. He
then returned to Colorado and took up his resi-
dence at Maybell, Routt county, on Bear river.
Here he was employed in looking after cattle
and remained until 1890. There were but few-
settlers on the river then and the life of Mr.
Temple was almost devoid of congenial associa-
tions. But he had a fund of entertainment
within himself, and the ministrations of nature
were always pleasing and fruitful of inspira-
tion to him. She opened to him a theater of
boundless life, and held forth a cup brimming
with redundant pleasure, of which he could
fearlessly drink, gaining new vigor with every
draught and finding no dregs of bitterness at
the bottom. In [890 he purchased the ranch
he now owns and occupies, which was one of
the first located in the vicinity of Hayden, and
now one of the best. It comprises seven hun-
dred and twenty acres, of which he can culti-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
6j
vate four hundred in hay, grain and vege-
tables, but hay and cattle are his chief produc-
tions and most profitable resource. He has
made many fine improvements on his ranch
and carried its cultivation forward to a high
state. His cattle are grade Shorthorns and they
have an exalted rank in the stock industry of
the state. Politically Mr. Temple is a Republi-
can and fraternally he is an Odd Fellow and a
W Iman of the World. He was married on
December 24, 1895, to Miss Daisy Dowden, a
native of Colorado, born in Jefferson county.
They have four children, James R., Laura M.,
Frank L. and Dora. Mrs. Temple is the
daughter of Samuel M. and Anna L. Dowden,
natives of Indiana who came to Colorado to
live in 1866 and are now prosperously engaged
in farming near Grand Junction. The father
was a soldier in the Civil war. Politically he is
a Democrat. Eight children were born in the
household, six of whom are living, Anna R.
(Mrs. Walker), Nellie E., Carrie C, Ella G.,
Mrs. Temple and Willie. While living in New
Mexico Mr. Temple saw Indians who were
wards of the government and supposed to be
entirely peaceful and who drew their supplies
at Cimmaron, massacre white persons and steal
cattle. His people were living remote from the
main roads and on that account escaped injury.
The fighting Indians were Utes and Apaches.
JOSEPH J. JONES.
Joseph J. Jones, sheriff of Routt county
since 1901. when he was first elected as a
Republican, having been a devoted supporter
of that party during all his manhood, and one
of the prominent and progressive ranch and
stock men of the county, is a native of Mahas-
ka county, Iowa, where he was born on Janu-
ary 31, 1869. He is the son of Price and Dor-
cas (Long) Jones, who had two children, Alva
and Joseph. The father was a Freemason fra-
ternally and a Republican in politics. He
served as a soldier during the Civil war, being
a member of the Sixth Iowa Infantry. He died
in March, 1882. ten years after the death of his
wife, which occurred in 1872. Their son Joseph
received a limited education at the public
schools, and in 1882 left home to make his own
way in the world, being thirteen years old at
the time. In 1880 he accompanied his parents
to Kansas and the next year to Pitkin, tins
state, where he was employed by the railroad
company. From 1882 to 1886 he worked on
farms in Iowa, then passed a year going
through various parts of Iowa, Kansas and
Nebraska. In 1887 he became again a resident
of Colorado, but after a short residence in Den-
ver, went to Rawlins, Wyoming, where he
passed a year engaged in various kinds of
work. From 1888 to 1892 he had charge of
the Mcintosh horse ranch in Routt county. In
the year last named he moved to Routt county
and located near Hayden. Here he was a mem-
her of the mercantile firm of Carlev & Jones
until 1896. when he turned his attention to the
cattle industry, serving as foreman for T- L.
Norvell. In 1898 he bought the Ed. Smith
ranch, which comprises five hundred and twen-
ty acres, of which three hundred and fifty acres
are under cultivation in hay and grain. Cattle,
horses and hay are his chief products and these
he raises in good qualities and extensivelv. In
1 901 he was elected sheriff of the county and is
still filling the office. Fraternally he is con-
nected with the Odd Fellows and the Modern
Woodmen of America. On June 11, 1895, he
united in marriage with Miss Ada Hormald. a
native of Iowa. They have one son. Gilbert J.
In his business Mr. Jones is upright, reliable
and progressive; in the discharge of his offi-
cial duties he is honest, fearless and attentive,
and in all the relations of private and social
life he is correct, straightforward and manly.
He is one of the universally popular and es-
612
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
teemed citizens of the county, whose names are
as household words in every section and indica-
tive of the best attributes of American citizen-
ship.
WILLIAM M. HITCHENS.
Born at Cornwall, England, on January
20. 1861, William M. Hitchens was bred to
the occupation of mining, in which his fore-
fathers had been engaged for generations. And
it was but natural that when he left the un-
promising land of his birth and sought the
greater freedom of choice and wealth of op-
portunity in this country, he should betake
himself to the same occupation and seek ad-
vancement in the region of its greatest activity.
And although he probably knew it not when he
set sail for the new horizon of his hopes, it
was equally natural that when he found here
mining to be but one of the many industries
open to thrift and enterprise, and a boundless
domain of unoccupied land waiting for the call
of the husbandman to bring it forth to pro-
ductiveness and beauty, he should find a rest-
ing place and a permanent home on a ranch,
which offered good returns for his labor with-
out the uncertainty and danger of prospecting
or working in the mines. This has been the
lut of thousands of his countrymen and others
in this land of varied fruitfulness, who have
turned from seeking what is far under ground
tu the more welcome and agreeable task of find-
ing what its surface will yield to systematic
and well applied industry. Mr. Hitchens had
but limited opportunities for attending school
and received only a common-school education.
He remained at home and worked in the in-
terest of his parents until he reached the age
of nineteen, then in 1880 came to the United
States and located for a few months at Johns-
town, Pennsylvania, where he found employ-
ment in the steel works. In the autumn of that
year he became a resident of Colorado, settling
at Central City, where he engaged in mining
for wages and on leased properties until 1886,
fortune smiling on his efforts and enriching
him with good returns. In the year last named
he determined to turn his attention to ranch-
ing, and to this end he pre-empted a portion
of the ranch he now owns and settled on his
claim. He has increased his tract to two hun-
dred acres, all of which is tillable and yields
good crops of the products usual in the neigh-
borhood. His principal resources are, how-
ever, cattle and hay, and these he produces in
great abundance and the best quality, his cattle
being - Shorthorns and Herefords, and his
horses of the most admired strains. He owns
two celebrated stallions, Grover Cleveland and
Teddy Roosevelt, and raises the best horses
in the country. His ranch has been so well
improved by his own enterprise and skill that it
is considered one of the best of its size in the
county. It is well located eight miles north-
west of Steamboat Springs, abundantly watered
and judiciously cultivated. It also contains the
first oil well bored in the county, and in this
shows promise of great value by further de-
velopment. In addition to the ranch Mr.
Hitchens owns a body of very promising coal
land on the Twenty-Mile road. He is a stanch
Republican in political allegiance, an Odd Fel-
low in fraternal life, and a progressive and
prominent citizen in the general estimation of
the community. On April 16, 1885. he was
united in marriage with Miss Edith Young, a
native of Darlington, Yorkshire, England.
They' had four children. William H.. Ethel,
Percival D. and George E. Their mother died
on January 31, 1898, and in July, 1899, the
father married a second wife, Miss Ellen
Blight, a native of Cornwall, England. They
have one daughter, Retta S. Mr. Hitchens is
the son of Henry and Harrietta Hitchens,
English by nativity, who passed the whole of
their lives in their native land, where the father
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
613
was a hard-working and prosperous miner, and
both were devoted members of the Methodist
church. The mother died on September 6,
1885, and the father in 1896. They had a
family of nine children, one of whom died in
infancy, and the other eight are yet living,
William M., James H., Richard. John, Joseph.
Frederick, Mary A. and Amelia. Air. Kitchens
is loyal to the land of his adoption and takes an
active and intelligent interest in all its affairs.
He seeks no post of honor or profit in the coun-
cils of his political party, being' content to aid
in its success from purely patriotic motives and
to give the benefit of his influence and energy
to local matters of value without regard to
party considerations. He has been of substan-
tial service in developing and improving the
section in which he lives, and has the respect
and good will of its people to a marked degree.
JAMES II. HITCHENS.
The three Hitchens brothers. James H.,
William M. and Joseph, who in youth or early
manhood left their native land and became
members of the hardy band of pioneers who
were destined to redeem from the wilderness
and transform into productive and smiling
settlements a vast area of this great state, are,
as they deserve to lie, recognized as among the
best citizens of Routt county, and have given
character and force to the spirit of progress in
the region which has the benefit of their resi-
dence. For although they live many miles
apart, and in many of the older communities
of our country would scarcely be thought of as
residents of the same vicinity, are in this re-
gion of sparse settlement and magnificent dis-
tances near neighbors and impelled by the
same aspirations, connected with the same in-
terests and share a common destiny with widely
scattered families. Of these worthy men the
subject of this review is the oldest and he was
the first to start a career in Colorado. 1 [e was
born at Port Quinn, England, on January 4.
[853, the son of Henry and Harrietta Hitch-
ens, of whom more extended mention is made
in the sketch of William M. Hitchens, to be
found elsewhere in this work. He received a
very limited common-school education in his
native land, where he remained until he reached
the age of twenty, from his boyhood working
there in the mines in the interest of his parents,
hi 1873 he emigrated to the United States and
at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, devoted some time
to work in the coal and iron mines. From
there he went to Centralia, in the same state,
and passed six months in the same occupation,
then returned to Johnstown, where he contin-
ued mining twelve months longer. He then
came to Colorado in 1875 and for a month
followed quartz mining at Georgetown. At
the end of that period he moved to Central
City, and after eight months of work in the
mines there for wages and on leased claims on
bis own account, he returned to England 1 in a
visit, which he protracted into a stay of two
years. In 1878 be returned to this country
and once more located at Johnstown. Pennsyl-
vania, where he remained until the spring of
1879. when he again came to Colorado and
engaged in quartz mining, at which he was em-
ployed until 1883. During the next four years
he was busily occupied in hauling ore under
contract. In 1887 he sold all his teams and the
rest of his outfit except enough to move him to
the ranch on which he now lives in the neigh-
borhood mi Pool, Routt county, and begin the
work of clearing and cultivating his land. He
journeyed to this section by way of Birthned
pass and Middle, overland with bis teams, and
took up the land on a homestead claim. From
that time until the present he has lived on his
ranch, steadily improving it. enlarging' bis
arable acreage and building up his cattle indus-
try. The land has proven kind and responsive
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
•yields him
' 1
crops
of hay, grain and hardy vegetables, and
he has provided il with good buildings am-
ple for his uses. At the time of his arrival
there were but few settlers in this part of the
county and wild game was so abundant that
he could kill almost everything he wanted
with rocks and stones. Through his efforts
and those of others impelled by the same de-
sires, the conditions have keen changed from
those of a frontier wilderness to a state of ad-
vanced and advancing civilization and prog-
ress. A vast extent of productive country and
its abundant yield of cereals, hay and cattle
have been added to the available wealth of the
country and a new county has risen to adorn,
dignify and enrich the state. To this transfor-
mation Mr. Hitchens has contributed his full
share of the necessary labor and support, and
in the direction of public sentiment and the
government of local interests he has had a po-
tential and wholesome influence. He is a Re-
publican in political allegiance, and since 1900
he has rendered his community good service
as postmaster. On January 20. 1876, he was
united in marriage with Miss Emma Blight, a
native of county Cornwall, England, and nine
children have blessed their union. Of these an
infant. James H.. Harrietta and Annie have
died, and Eliza (Mrs. Church Van Cleve),
Henry. Mary E., Chester A. and Albert R. are
living.
JOHN N. WESTON.
A native of Prussia, born on March 17,
1S44. John N. Weston, of near Steamboat
Springs. Routt county, is passing the evening
of In's life f-ir from the scenes and associations
of his childhood, but has found in his new home
opportunity lor advancement beyond what was
ed in his native land and plenty of room
for the application of his native industry,
thrift and progressive spirit. He is the son
of Edward and Mary E. (Schwingel) Weston,
also Prussians by nativity, who emigrated to
this country in 1850, and after residing a year
at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, moved farther up
the Allegheny, locating in Armstrong county,
where they remained until death ended their la-
bors. The father was a blacksmith in his na-
tive land and followed farming in the United
States. In politics he supported the Demo-
cratic party and in church affiliation both he
and his wife were Lutherans. Their offspring
numbered fifteen, of whom but three are living,
Mrs. John Moore, Philip and John N. The
parents died many years ago. John N., the
youngest of their living children, assumed the
duties of manhood and began to make his own
living at the age of fifteen years. He received
but slender schooling except from the exact-
ing but thorough taskmaster experience, but
felt the force and appreciated that teacher's les-
sons early in his youth, lie learned the trade
of an upholsterer, but did not confine his at-
tention to it for any long continued portion of
time. Soon after leaving home he moved to
Ohio, and remained in that state, located at
Steuben ville and Carlton until 1879. In that
year he came to Colorado and took up his resi-
dence at Breckenridge, where he remained nine
years, working in the mines for wages and on
his own claims, lie was among the first set-
tlers at that once busy camp and his success in
his mining operations was very good. In t888
he moved to Routt county and located a ranch,
which after improving it he sold in 1903. then
took up his present ranch of one hundred and
sixty acres on Elk river through desert claims.
This he has also improved and reduced to ac-
tive productiveness. Being among the first
settlers on the Elk. he had choice of land and
location, and was able to make his real estate
ventures profitable through his foresight and
business capacity backed up with amide energy
and close attention to his business. 1 [e is pr< mi
inent in liis community and is looked upon as
one of the most progressive men there. But
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
615
his life hi : •! been wholly passed in the pur-
suits i'f peaceful industry and business. When
the impending cloud of a civil war burst up m
our unhappy land he promptly volunteered in
defense of the Union as a member of the Sev-
enty-fourth Pennsylvania Infantry, Company
}■'. and in the momentous contest served until
1864. being- mustered out of the service at
Fort Ethan Allen. During bis term of enlist-
ment lie was much in the field and faced death
in many forms, suffering also the hardships
and privations of military life in cam]), en the
march and where Red Battle stamped his im-
perious foot. On April 24, [865, be was mar-
ried to Miss Mary Patrick, a native of Pennsyl-
vania. She died on January 26. 1884, leaving
one daughter. Minnie, now the wife of George
Carey. On July 20, T885, Mr. Weston con-
tracted a second marriage, being united with
Miss Almaretta Hill, a native of Monroe
county, Ohio, the daughter of William and
Jane (Milligan) Hill, who were born in Penn-
sylvania and died in Ohio, whither they unwed
soon after their marriage. The father was a
prosperous and skillful shoemaker, and both
parents were devout Methodists. They had
five children, of whom two are living, Mrs.
Weston and Mrs. Nelson Benson. The mother
died 1 m June 26, 1848. and the father on March
27. T887. Mr. Weston did not find, even in
Colorado and in times of peace, all the condi-
tions 1 >f life agreeable or even affording the
common comforts. For months after settling
on bis present home he lived in a little log
shack hastilv erected without a flour except the
earth, the mother from which we spring and
the last resting place to which we are con-
signed.
PHILIP R. McKINNIS.
After trying bis hand at various pursuits in
different states and experiencing alternate suc-
cesses and reverses, which is the frequent lot
i'f wandering workmen, the subject of this re-
view came to Colorado in 1887 and became one
of the first settlers in the vicinity of Sidney,
Routt county. He had one dollar and sc\
five cents in money on his arrival, and with
nothing more than that sum and his hopeful
and self-reliant nature, determined to throw
himself on the bounty of the soil and work out
an estate in a wild but promising region which
then contained but one settler. He took up a
ranch of one hundred and sixty acres of wholly
uncultivated land under a homestead claim.
which was as yet virgin to the plow, was still
covered with its uncomely growth of sage and
had not long - ceased to echo the tread and bear
the footprints of its former savage inhabitants.
The denizens of the wilderness still abounded
ami they were not only unable and unwilling to
aid in the establishment of civilization and the
production of the fruits of cultivation, but stub-
In irnlv and ferociously resisted every attempt
toward such a change. Mr. McKinnis was,
however, not daunted by these conditions, but
resolutely set to work to reclaim his land and
make it habitable and productive. What it is
today he has made it. and if it should in justice
be said that his ranch is one of the good and
promising ones of this section, it must be al-
lowed, with equal justice, that he alone is en-
titled to the credit for the transformation, ex-
cept so far as his family have assisted him.
which they have clone with the same spirit of
energv and determination he has himself ex-
hibited. He was born at Knoxville, Marion
county, Iowa, on August 13, 1851. and is the
•son of Craner and Catherine McKinnis. the
former a native of Ohio and the latter of Penn-
sylvania. They moved to Iowa some years
after their marriage, and there they ended their
days, the father dying on October 1. 1898. and
the mother on October 12. 1900. They were
industrious farmers and had a family of ten
children, nine of whom grew to maturity and
6i6
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
are now living. They are John L., Theodore
T., Martha, Philip R., David W., Richard R.,
Bird D., Ernest C. and Ida. The father was
an active Democrat and took a good citizen's
part in the public affairs of iiis community.
Their son Philip received a good education, at-
tending the common and high schools, an ex-
cellent academy at Knoxville and Bryant &
Stratton's Business College at Burlington.
Iowa. He remained at home until he reached
the age of twenty-one, then began farming for
himself in his native county, following this
independent but exacting pursuit under such
circumstances four years. He then sold his
interests in Iowa and moved to Oregon, where
he engaged in saw-mill work near Summerville
until 1 88 1 , finding his business profitable, as
his farming has been. But the air around him
was full of invitation to the mining industry
with golden promises of speedy and easily ac-
quired fortune, and selling his outfit and other
property in Oregon, he went to prospecting,
following the will-o'-the-wisp, as that business
so often proves to be. through Idaho, Oregon
and Montana, not only winning nothing in the
pursuit but losing the results of his former en-
terprises. In 1886 he made a visit to his old
Iowa home, and the next year came to Colorado
and located on his present ranch in Routt
county, as has been recounted. Eighty acres
of his ranch are under good cultivation in hay,
grain and vegetables, and he has built up an ex-
tensive and expanding industry in raising good
cattle and horses for the market. He is about
seven miles south of Steamboat Springs, and
therefore finds easy shipment and ready sale
for his productions, and as the country around
him is rapidly settling up and improving, his
property is increasing in value by natural in-
crement as well as by the application of his own
industry and business acumen. Politically he
supp His the 1 )cm< icratic party, as his father did
him, hut not for that reason, being a
man of strong convictions by his own reading
and observation. Fraternally he is associated
with the order of Freemasons, finding pleasure
and profit in its mysteries and moral teach-
ings and in the good fellowship which it so
richly engenders.
JOHN L. HARRIS.
It is interesting in the career of any man
to have settled in a new country when in its
wild condition, abounding in the untamed prod-
ucts to which it has been given up for centur-
ies, when the primeval forest still shelters the
soil from the sunshine, when wild beast- ami
yet more savage men are its only forms of ani-
mal life, and its spreading prairies are verdant
with only the unprofitable vegetation or un-
tamed grasses and gay with only the wild flow-
ers indigenous to the uncultivated soil, and live
to see it blooming and fruitful with all the
products of cultivated life and abounding in
all the blessed concomitants of civilization, even
if he have no extensive part in bringing about
the change. Such a man is a connecting link
between the active, stirring anil often soul har-
rowing present, and the easy, listless, fruitless,
and seemingly inanimate past. But when it
can be added that he has contributed substan-
tially and essentially to effecting the change,
both in directing the forces that have wrought
it and in swelling their volume, the subject be-
comes one of striking and thrilling eventful-
ncss. Such a subject is he who now engages
attention in the person of John I.. Harris, of
Routt county, whose attractive and highly im-
proved ranch of two hundred and forty acres
of tillable land 1- ;\ pleasure to the eye, and
whose large and well managed cattle business
gives agreeable food for thought to the mind.
Mr. Harris is a native of Monroe county, Ten-
nessee, horn on April 7. [862, and the son ,.|
George W. and Mary E. Harris, also natives
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO-.
617
of Tennessee, where the mother died on Febru-
ary 8, 1896, and the father is still living. The
latter has been all his life a successful farmer,
a man of public-spirit, and a citizen ardently
devoted to the welfare of his country, and es-
pecially to that of his own county and state,
finding that welfare best provided for, accord-
ing 1" his convictions, in the principles and
miethods of government of the Republican
party, which he has loyally supported from his
early manhood. Ten children born to this
couple are living, Sallie C, wife of William
W. Adair, whose story is told elsewhere in this
volume; John L.. the immediate subject of this
writing; James; William: George; Martha,
wife <>f John Carpenter; Rebecca, wife of Jo-
seph Carpenter; Tennie. wife of Louis Myers;
Mrs. William Dehart and Mrs. James Stillion.
John L. bad in youth the usual experience of
country boys of his class and locality, attending
the country schools when he could and at other
times assisting in work on the farm. He re-
mained at home until he was twenty-one years
old. then started in life for himself, working on
farms, teaching school and clerking in stores in
his native state until t886. He then went to
Texas and remained there one year and in
[887 be came to Colorado ami located a ranch
at Cross mountain, at the same time engaging
wiili the Lily Lark Cattle Company as a range
rider and ranch hand, remaining with this com-
pany five years. In 1891 he quit its service,
sold his ranch at a good profit, and left for
Wyoming, where he passed nearly a year w< irk-
ing in the cattle industry and at other occupa-
tions. In [892 he returned to this state, select-
ing Steamboat Springs as his home, and there
he went into mercantile business with William
W. Adair, the connection lasting until 1897,
when he severed it and bought the ranch which
he now owns and occupies. This comprises
two hundred and forty acres, and on it he
made all the improvements it contains and
brought to cultivation the whole body of its
land. Here also be has built up a large and
profitable cattle business, giving close and con-
stant attention to its needs ami studying all its
features and details with the eye of an ob ei
vant master. To such an extent has he made
this study effective that be is regarded an au-
thority on all questions touching the industry
from its start to its end. He is a Democrat in
politics and as such takes an earnest and serv-
iceable part in the councils and campaigns of
his party, at the same time devoting an enlight-
ened intelligence and fruitful energy to the best
interests of bis community and county without
regard to party considerations.
SAMUEL CARMON REID.
Boldly daring the dangers and privations
of a remote frontier life, having been one of the
first four settlers in the Yampa valley, Routt
county, this state, where he is still living.
Samuel C. Reid has seen this section in its
state of primeval wilderness and has aided
greatly in bringing it from that to its present
condition of progress, prosperity and product-
iveness. He was born at Florence. Lauderdal
county. Alabama, on July 8. I045. and is the
son of John and Lethia (Stafford) Reid. na-
tives of near Nashville, Tennessee. They
moved early in their married life to Alabama
and there they ended their days, the mother
dying in 1863 and the father in 1868. The
father was superintendent of the old Florence
Bridge Company. Fie was a Democrat in
politics and enjoyed considerable local promi-
nence and influence. Both parents were
Methodists. They had seven children, of whom
three are living. Mrs. James ( i. Kerby, Mrs.
James Horn and their son Samuel. The last
named started out in life for himself at the
age of twelve years and since then has made
his own living. He secured a limited edu
6ii
PROGRESSIVE MEN OE WESTERN COLORADO.
in the common and preparatory schools of his
section of the country and remained in his
native state until he became thirty-five years of
age, most of the time being engaged in mer-
cantile pursuits as a clerk for others and in busi-
ness for himself. In 1880, impelled by failing
health, he came to Colorado and located at
Breckenridge, where for three years he served
as a salesman for Henry Wilcox. In 1883 he
took up a homestead eleven miles south of
Yampa, Routt county, and to this he has since
added an equal tract of land, making his whole
ranch now three hundred and twenty acres. The
land was all in wild sage brush when he settled
on it and wholly without improvements of any
kind. He took it as it had lain uncultivated
for ages, and has changed it into a good farm
and a comfortable home, rich in fertility, yield-
ing large quantities of excellent hay and sup-
porting a numerous brood of high-grade cattle,
and furnished with all the concomitants of a
comfortable home. Two hundred and twenty
acres of the combined tract are under vigorous
cultivation, and this acreage is steadily ex-
panding as the facilities for irrigation are en-
larged. Wild game was plentiful when he
came here and the arduous toil of the ranch
was regularly relieved by the sport of the hunts-
man, the rewards of which were abundant. Mr.
Reid is an ardent Democrat in politics and has
served as treasurer of the county, having been
elected to the office in 1898 and held it two
years. Fraternally he is an enthusiastic Free-
mason, being a past master of Ejaria Lodg'e,
No. 106, of the order at Yampa. He was mar-
ried on October 3, 1871, to Miss Ida Young, a
native of Lancaster, Ohio. During the Civil
war Mr. Reid saw active service under the
banners of the Confederacy as a member of
Company H, Fourth Alabama Cavalry, lie is
one of the most popular and progressive citi-
zens of Routt county, and justifies in all his
demeanor the high regard in which be is held
by all classes of its people.
ARNOLD POWELL.
Prominent and useful in his citizenship,
popular and highly esteemed in all parts of the
county, and for several years a valued official
as a county commissioner, Arnold Powell, of
the Yampa valley, Routt county, has found in
this state a fruitful field for his enterprise and
suitable opportunities for engaging his facul-
ties with success and profit. He was born in
London, England, on October 20, 1864, and
is the son of George H. and Mary R. Powell,
the father a native of England and the mother
of Scotland. The father was a successful mer-
chant in his native land and there both parents
died, the mother in 1885 and the father in 1890.
After receiving a good education their son Ar-
nold started to make his own way in the world
at the age of seventeen, and in this effort se-
cured employment at office work in his native
city until 1887, when he came to the United
States and located in Colorado near Florissant.
Teller county, where for three years he was
unprofitably engaged in ranching and raising
stock. In [890 he moved to the Yampa valley
in Routt county, where he now has two distinct
ranches comprising together six hundred and
forty acres, and carries on extensive ranching
and cattle-growing operations. One-half of
his hind is tillable and he produces large quan-
tities of excellent hay, grain and hardy vege-
tables. Hay and stock are his main reliances
and in the latter he gives special attention to
raising Shorthorn cattle and fine grades of
horses. Taking an active and helpful interest
in the progress of the county, he served as
county commissioner from 1899 to 1901 in-
clusive, and performed his official duties greatly
to his own credit and the benefit of the people.
He was married on July 10. 1889, '" Miss
Edith M. Sumner, a native of Buckingham-
shire, England. They have one daughter.
Edith Netta. It is the great benefaction of this
country that it has afforded ample opportunity
PROGRESSII'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
619
for occupation and fortune to hosts of the citi-
zen- of other kinds overcrowded with a redun-
dant population and gladly welcomed them
hither to enjoy that benefaction. And it is the
glory'of our immigrant population that it has
embraced the opportunities here afforded them,
and entering fully into the spirit of the times
and country, have coalesced with the rest of
the people and united in the stern and intense
endeavor to make the best of the situation and
bring forth for the use and blessing of man-
kind the boundless wealth of the domain, at
the same time helping to weld an mud their new-
home a chain of civilizing and elevating agen-
cies, so that while the material wealth of the
country has been developed its moral and social
welfare has not been neglected. In this work
Mr. Powell has cheerfully borne his share and
to its progress and full fruition has, in his day,
contributed all the force of his active and in-
ventive mind and the vigor of his tireless en-
ergy. The result is his high standing as a wise
and useful citizen and a leading and represent-
ative man in his section of the county in which
he has cast his lot.
SAMUEL FIX.
This early settler and prominent and very
progressive citizen of Routt county, who lives
on and operates a fine ranch of his own located
two and one-half miles southwest of Yampa,
comprising five hundred and sixty acres, which
he secured on homestead, pre-emption and tim-
ber culture claims, in a region where he was the
first settler, is a native of Reading, Pennsyl-
vania, where he was born on April 22, 1848.
His parents. Michael and Mary (Kissinger)
Fix, were also Pennsylvanians by nativity, and
moved from their native state to Indiana, and
in 1857 from the latter state to Kansas, where
they passed the remainder of their lives. They
were prosperous farmers wherever they lived.
and laid down their earthly trust at advanced
ages a number of years ago. Their offspring
numbered eleven, three of whom died and eight
are living, Samuel, Mrs. Larch, Mrs. Simon,
Mrs. Schade, Mrs. Thierer, Mrs. Falk, John
R. and Mrs. A. C. Bower. Samuel was edu-
cated in the common schools of Kansas and
remained at home assisting his parents until
1869. He then passed some time as a clerk in
a store and learned the trade of a carpenter,
which he followed for a number of years. In
icS-o he became a resident of Colorado, making
the journey to this state overland from Wichita.
Kansas, starting there as a cowboy and working
his way westward as such until he reached
Georgetown, Gilpin county. He made this
town his headquarters and prospected for
mines in the vicinity until 1879, when he moved
to Montezuma and a few months later to Lead-
v'ille. At Leadville and Kokomo he worked at
his trade until 1883, in which year he moved to
his present residence, becoming the first settler
in the neighborhood of Yampa. At the time of
his arrival in this section he found himself the
lone occupant of a vast waste, unprofitably gay
with wild sage and given up to the untamed
habitants which roamed at will over its broad
expanse, contesting his right to invade their
hitherto unquestioned domain, yet yielding
their tribute to his needs at the behest of his^
unerring rifle, as occasion required. He at once
began the great work of creating a comfort-
able home and a productive farm in this waste,
and has so far succeeded that he now has four
hundred acres of his land under good culti-
vation and has improved the ranch with com-
modious buildings and other structures, mak-
ing it one of the choice properties of the district.
Hay and cattle are his chief products, and these
he raises in abundance, but he also produces
large crops of grain and hard}' vegetables. In
1893. f° r his own profit and to supply the needs
of a rapidly growing community. Mr. Fix
620
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
opened the first general store at Yampa, and
this he carried on until 1902. He has also
invested largely in town property at Yarnpa
and is one of the chief real estate owners in
the neighborhood. In political allegiance he
is a pronounced Democrat, and in fraternal
relations an active and earnest Odd Fellow.
While he has never married, he maintains a
comfortable home on bis ranch and there dis-
penses a generous hospitality which ministers
to the pleasure of his friends and the wants of
the chance comer. Many a way-worn traveler
has found the shelter of his roof and the
sustenance of his table in this region almost de-
void of public entertainment, and gone on his
way invoking blessings on his head. In the
public affairs of the county he has a potent
voice, and his influence is seasoned with wis-
dom and alive with energy. Among the pro-
gressive and representative men of the section
he has deservedly a high rank.
CHARLES HENRY McCOY.
While fate laid upon the pioneers of this
and other states a heavy burden of care, toil
and danger, and freighted the argosy of their
hopes with hardships and privations, she did
not leave them wholly without some recom-
pense besides the chance to win a good estate
from her wildernesses, in that she gave them
opportunity to build an enduring memorial of
their early trials and later triumphs in some
town or county named in their honor, which
marked the outpost of civilization at which
they camped and thus inscribed their
names on fame's imperishable records,
to signalize their courage and persever-
ance in settling a new section after
the march of progress and enlightenmenl of
development and industrial life, of civilization
and culture had gone fir beyond them. This
was the fate of the subjeel of this brief memoir,
who came to the portion of what is now Eagle
county, in which he now lives, when it was
still the abode of the Indian and the beast of
prey, and started its redemption from the waste
to the uses and profit of mankind. Mr. Mc-
Coy was horn in Adams county. Illinois, at the
village of Clayton, on April 15, 1842, and is
the son of John and .Martha J. (Watson) Mc-
Coy, natives of Kentucky, the former born in
' iarrard and the latter in Boyle county. They
moved from their native state to Illinois soon
after their marriage and there they passed the
remainder of their lives, successfully engaged
in farming. The father was an earnest and
active Republican in political affiliation and an
elder in the Presbyterian church, to which his
wife also belonged. He died in 1884 and she
in 1892. They had a family of five children.
Three of them, Emma, Alta and John D., are
dead, the latter dying two years ago in Lords-
burg, California; Blatchford A. and Charles
Henry are living. The last named received a
common-school education of limited extent in
his native state, remaining with his parents un-
til the beginning of the Civil war. when he en-
listed in defense of the Union as a member of
the Third Illinois Cavalry. He served in this
regiment until September 4, 1864, when he
was mustered out at Springfield, Illinois. He
then located in Knox county. Missouri, where
he was engaged in farming until 1879. In that
voir lie came to Colorado and located at Lead-
ville, where he remained ten years, prospecting
and mining with varying success there and at
Kokonio, conducting also at times a teaming
and hotel business, lie expended a consider-
able amount of his gains in developing mining
properties, and from some of his ventures
reaped rich rewards, while from others he got
nothing. In [889 lie purchase.] bis present
ranch of oni hundred-ai I sixty acres in I ■■'
county, and when a postoffice was established
on it it was named McCoy in his honor, lie
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
has one hundred and twenty acres of his land
in good tillable condition and raises large crops
of hay, grain and fruits. The improvements
he lias made on the place are substantial and in
good style, making his ranch one of the most
attractive homes in the county. He carries on
an extensive cattle business, favoring thorough-
bred Herefords. of which he has a large num-
ber. From the foundation of the office he has
been the postmaster at McCoy, and he now
enjoys the distinction of being the oldest post
master in the county by length <>< continuous
service. He also served on the school board
and as a justice of the peace and notary public
many years. In political faith he is a stanch
Republican, and in fraternal life belongs to the
Grand Army of the Republic and the order of
Odd Fellows. He is now also engaged in the
hotel business at McCoy, in addition to his
ranching and stock industry, and is credited
with conducting the best hotel in western Colo-
rado. On September 4. 1865. he was married
to Miss Rebecca Burke, a native of Adams
county, Illinois. They have had six children.
of whom Edgar, Bertram and Francis C. have
died and John F.. Charles B. and Frederick C.
are living, highly respected by all.
CHARLES B: ROBERTS.
Charles B. Roberts, who is one of the most
extensive ranch and cattle men in Routt
county, having a ranch of eleven hundred and
twenty acres, of which nine hundred acres are
under cultivation, eighteen miles south of
Yampa, was bom in Cook county, Illinois, on
January 1, 1S64, on land that is now far
within the limits of Chicago, which was then
a city of less than thirty years old but had
alreadv a population of nearly one hundred
and seventy-five thousand. He is the son of
William and Harriett Roberts, natives of Eng-
land who emigrated to the United States soon
after their marriage and located near Chicago,
where the father started and fur years con-
ducted a sash, blind and door factory, the first
of the kind in that part of the country. He
died there in May, 1896, and the mother is
still living there. The father was an a
Republican in political allegiance and always
gave earnest and effective service to his party.
Two of the children in the family are living,
Alice M., wife of William Cuthbert, and
Charles B. The latter had good educational ad-
vantages while at home and supplemented
them by attending school after he started in
life for himself. He became a resident of
Routt county in 1883. and purchasing three
hundred and twenty acres of land in Burns
basin, began ranching and raising cattle, and
he has so prospered in his undertaking that he
has increased his ranch to its present size by
subsequent purchases from his earnings on the
first tract, and out of the same revenues has
made all the extensive and valuable improve-
ments of the place. The ranch was one of the
first two located in that section of the county,
the one owned by Dr. Butler and James Sanden
being the other. The water right appertaining
to it is the first one from the source of supply
and is independent. It furnishes a good body of
water and has helped to make the place so
fruitful and valuable, with nine hundred acres
under cultivation and the rest good pasture
land. When Mr. Roberts made his first pur-
chase there were but five settlers in all this
region and the nearest trading post was
Georgetown, more than seventy-five miles
distant. All the products suited to the soil and
climate are raised abundantly, but the main re-
liance is on hay and cattle. The owner has so
expanded his business and so successfully con-
ducted it that he has stimulated others to in-
creased activity and aided greatly in opening
the region to additional settlers. Since August,
1903. he has been carrying on a meat market
622
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
at Yampa, handling range cattle principally.
Politically he is a Republican in national affairs,
and in fraternal circles is an ardent third-de-
gree Mason. He has at various times made
diligent efforts to locate paying mining claims,
but in this has not been very successful He
owns, however, considerable real estate of
value in addition to his ranch, one piece being
one of the most imposing and complete resi-
dences at Yampa. Venturing his all as a yi iung
man on the wild llanos of a remote and un-
settled section of the country, and waiting with
lofty and enduring patience for the good re-
sults that he felt must follow persistent and
well-applied labor, this prominent and progres-
sive citizen is now reaping the rewards of his
confidence and industry in a large and steadily
increasing income, and has the satisfaction of
knowing also that he has helped to give to
the wealth and comfort of the world a new
domain of vast extent and enormous worth.
THOMAS CAROLAN.
It is much to say in a man's praise that he
is a self-made man; and when it can be added
that he is also generally respected, prominent
and progressive, and meets all the requirements
of an elevated citizenship with fidelitv and use-
fulness, not much more could he attributed to
him that is worthy of human regard. All this
can be truthfully said of Thomas Carolan, one
of the prosperous and enterprising ranch and
cattle men of Eagle county, who was born near
Quincy in Adams county. Illinois, on Febru-
ary 23, i860, and is the son of Andrew ami
Bridget (Riley) Carolan. natives of Ireland,
who emigrated to this country in early life
and located in Illinois in 1832. The father is
a successful farmer, a Catholic in religion and
a pronounced Democrat in politics. His wife
also belongs to the Catholic church. They still
live in Illinois and four of their eight children
are living. Mary, Catherine. John and Thomas.
The last named was reared to the age of twenty
on his father's farm and educated in the com-
mon schools. In 1880, assuming the burden of
life for himself, he came to Colorado and lo-
cated at Florence in Fremont county. 'There-
he was m the employ of the Adams Express
Company two years, then late in 1881 he moved
to St. Elmo, Chaffee count}', and turned his
energies to prospecting in quartz, following
this industry eighteen months. He next
moved to the Bear river country, with head-
quarters near Craig, going there in the fall
of 1884, and started there a cattle business
which he carried on until 1896. In that year
he sold his cattle and the ranch which he had
improved and returned to Illinois, intending to
locate again in that state. But because of the
recollection of the opportunities for advance-
ment open to thrift and enterprise in Colorado,
he determined to return to this state and make
it his permanent home. In 1900 he purchased
his present ranch in Brush creek valley, Eagle
county, comprising one hundred and sixty
acres, of which one hundred can lie cultivated.
The ranch is well watered and yields abundant
supplies of hay, grain and vegetables, but hay
and cattle are his chief products. Being only
eight miles east of Eagle, he has a ready mar-
ket of easy access, and is able to conduct his
business with every facility for quick sales and
the best prices. Politically he supports with ar-
dor the Democratic party. On August 11.
[896, he united in marriage with Miss Mary
E. Rogers, who, like himself, was born in
\dams county. Illinois. They have a pleasant
home in which both are greatly interested, and
stand well in the regard and good will of all
who know them.
JOSEPH LeROY CUNNINGHAM.
Of Irish and Canadian parentage, and in-
heriting the commendable traits of the two
peoples, Joseph LeRoy Cunningham, of near
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
623
Avon, Eagle county, where he conducts a pros-
perous and profitable ranch and cattle industry,
has made good use of his faculties and oppor-
tunities, and in so doing- has contributed es-
sentially and substantially in helping to open
to settlement and cultivation a new region in
the wilds of this state, and causing it to bloom
and fructify with all the products of civiliza-
tion. He is the son of Conn and Ellen Cun-
ningham, the former a native of Ireland and
the latter of Canada, who moved to Illinois
many years ago and there ended their days in
the peaceful and independent life of a good
farm, the mother dying in 1888 and the
father in 1895. Their son Joseph, the last born
of their six living children, came into the
world on August 26, 1853, at Pittsburg. Penn-
sylvania. He attended the common schools
and the Christian College at Abingdon, Illinois.
remaining with his parents until 1880, assist-
ing on their farm and farming other land in
addition. In the year last named he left the
parental roof and came west to Carson. Iowa,
where he passed two years in profitable farm-
ing, then, in 1882, came to Colorado, and lo-
cating at Leadville, conducted a grocery in
partnership with his brother Thomas H. five
years. They prospered in the enterprise, and in
1887 Joseph returned to Illinois, where he re-
mained nearly a year, coming back to G il< iradi 1
in the spring of 1888, and taking up his resi-
dence at Gilman and there starting another
grocery store. This happened to be a credit
community, however, and lack of payments
by his patrons obliged him to give up the
business. From 1892 to 1897 he worked at
quartz mining for wages, and in the latter
year purchased his present ranch of one hun-
dred and thirty acres, all tillable land and well
supplied with water. Since buying the land he
has made many improvements on it and largely
increased its arable acreage, and he now has
a good farm which is cultivated with ordinary
ease and yields good crops of the products
usual in the neighborhood, hay and cattle
being his main reliance. Politically he sup-
ports the Democratic party, but he is too pro-
gressive and broad-minded to be bound in party
chains where matters of local improvement are
concerned. On January 1, 1879, he united in
marriage with Miss Mary F. Tippett. a native
of Fulton county, Illinois. They have seven
children. Alberta I., Mary E., Genevieve.
Charles F., George C, Josephine and Row Mr.
Cunningham has four sisters, Elizabeth, Mary,
Margaret and Isabella, and one brother, Rob-
ert.
JOHN LAWRENCE.
John Lawrence, the largest sheep-raiser in
Saguache count}', and who is one of the men
who had that county cut off from Costilla, and
was prominent in the establishment of its gov-
ernment and its early history — who. in fact,
may not inappropriately be called the father of
the county — was horn at St. Louis. Missouri,
on November 15. 1835, and is the son of Henry
and Mary (Young) Lawrence, natives of Ire-
land who emigrated to the United State- and
located at ■St. Louis in the early days, remain-
ing there the rest of their lives and dying dur-
ing the childhood of their son. The father
was a school teacher and his services in that
capacity were advanced in method ami highly
appreciated. The son was thrown on his own
resources at the age of eight with but little ed-
ucation which he obtained by short and irregu-
lar attendance at the public schools, and going
to Iowa, worked on farms in that state and
Minnesota until 1859. He then came to Colo-
rado and located at Denver for a short time.
having made the trying and dangerous jour-
ney over the plains driving six yoke of oxen,
and consuming sixty days between Leaven-
worth. Kansas, and Denver. The party met
manv Indians on the way, but found them all
624
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
pi iv ml and more disposed to help than to hurt
the travelers. At Denver Mr. Lawrence took
his pack on his back and started on foot to the
site of the present Central City on a prospecting
tour. There were but few people living- at the
place when he got there, and soon afterward
lie enlisted under Captain Golden to go in
search of and punish the Indians who had killed
I "j>< 'iter and Elliott. Failing to find the In-
dians in nine days, the company determined to
give up the chase. On the return they became
somewhat scattered and Mr. Lawrence, being
almost alone, went three days without food,
although during most of the tramp going and
returning wild game was plentiful. After this
expedition he went into Russel gulch and
worked in the mines as a laborer, accepting the
engagement for a short time to get a start for
something better. This accomplished, he
nil wed to the ranch of Mr. Rowley to attend the
stock for the proprietor, and soon afterward
bought the ranch and stock and took Dudley
Fletcher in as a partner in the venture. They
carried on the business until the fall of 1859.
then fearing heavy snows for the winter, they
sold the cattle and Mr. Lawrence returned to
Denver, where the receipts from the sale were
divided, and passed the winter freighting be-
tween that place and Central City. The winter
was severe and the hardships of this business
were many and difficult to bear. He was
obliged to camp out every night and he often
suffered severely from the cold. In the mean-
time he took up a ranch between the two cities,
which lie sold for horses, wagons and some
cash after improving it to some extent. With
the outfit thus purchased he went to Omaha and
got a load of freight which he brought to Den-
ver and sold at a good profit. The excitement
■ wer the discovery of gold at Baker's Diggings
1 where Silverton. Colorado, now is) impelled
him to go there, but he first formed a company
which he took to the place as passengers, ar-
riving mi Christmas day. [860, at Fort Gar-
land in the San Luis valley. Here he sold one
team of horses to get more money and moved
on to Conejos, reaching that place in January,
1 No 1. Snow had fallen to such an extent that
he and others were obliged to winter there,
and get on to the diggings in the spring. They
readied the site of the present town of Silver-
ton, where the diggings were located on April
4th. and the men went to prospecting while
Mr. Lawrence stood guard at the camp. They
were unsuccessful in their undertaking, and it
was then agreed that all who wished might
leave the place, and Mr. Lawrence returned to
Denver in June. With a new stock of provis-
ions he, Maxwell Ballsinger, John Wright and
a Mr. Cunan went to a new camp a few days
old in Georgia gulch called Buffalo Flats.
There he started a store and bought some
mines which proved of no value, and on Janu-
ary r. 1 86 1 . was again in Denver, making the
return trip on pack horses. His next jaunt
was to Conejos in company with Nathan Rus-
sel and F. R. Harris, and he remained there
until 1867. He and Mr. Russell were partners,
and soon after his arrival at Conejos he was
appointed county and government assistant as-
sessor, serving two years as county assessor
and five years as government assistant asses-
sor. On March 7, 1867, he moved to Sag-
uache, where there were at that time only
three or four men, but it was the seat of a new
count}' of the same name which he had been
largely instrumental in having cut off from
Costilla county and organized, it having been
agreed that if he should succeed in his effort a
large number of men would move into the new
division and help to settle it. These men ar-
rived on June 18th and at once organized a
meeting and appointed the necessary county
officers, he being appointed assessor and in-
structed to make the assessments according to
his own judgment, which all agreed to abide
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
625
by. He filled the office for five successive
terms, although a Democrat and all the carrf-
missioners were Republicans. About six
months before moving up there he had gone
up and located a ranch three miles west of the
proposed county seat, which is now the finest
ranch in the county. In the fall of 1867 he
was elected to the territorial legislature by twice
the majority received by the next highest man
on the ticket. Since then he has served the
county which he founded one term as assessor,
two as county judge, one as county commis-
sioner and three as interpreter of the territorial
legislature, an office he also filled while living
at Conejos. In 1898 he was elected again to
the legislature. In 1896 he entered into part-
nership with John H. Williams to carry on a
hardware store and it is now the largest one
in the county, with an extensive general stock
carefully selected and kept up-to-date so as to
meet all the requirements of its large and grow-
ing trade. He also served as postmaster of
Saguache three years under President Cleve-
land. On his ranch, which he conducted twenty-
two years, from 1867 to 1889. he gave his at-
tention principally to raising sheep and became
the most extensive sheep-raiser in the county.
He has made considerable money on the
ranch, but he put it all back on the place in im-
provements. He is a charter member of Olive
Branch Lodge, No. 32, Ancient Free and Ac-
cepted Masons, at Saguache, which was organ-
ized in 1876. and also a member of Salida
Lodge, No. 808, Benevolent and Protective Or-
der of Elks. Politically he is a zealous and
loyal Democrat and has always taken an active
part in the campaigns, voting at every election
since he came into the state. By common con-
sent he is the oldest continuous white settler in
the San Luis valley, and one of the most influ-
ential citizens. He was married in 1895 to
Miss Julia Ana, a native of New Mexico, who
died on November 3, 1901. When the county
40
was formed the Indians were numerous within
its bounds, but they seldom gave the settlers
any trouble. In 1880 a treaty was made with
them and Mr. Lawrence served as interpreter
in making it.
BENAJAH PARHAM STUBBS.
The embattled hosts of civilized warfare
have abundant horrors of great magnitude to
contend with, undoubtedly. The deluge of
death which sweeps over their sanguinary
fields is bound to endanger all and engulf
many ; but there is ever present with them the
stimulus of numbers, discipline, a compre-
hensive base of supplies near at hand, and the
want of direct personal responsibility. On the
other hand, in the contests of a few bold and
hardy pioneers with infuriated savages on the
American frontier, and even in the more ex-
tensive wars with the Indians, wherein well
disciplined and properly accoutred troops take
the field, the men in danger are remote from
civilization and have no means of sustaining
their conflict but such as they have gathered
by their own sporadic and unsystematic efforts
under great privations and difficulties. In most
of these every man is obliged to act largely
for himself, taking his individual life in his
hands against great odds and a wily foe that
has the superiority in woodcraft, knowledge of
the country, and almost everything else except
his munitions of war, and often in these also.
Moreover, the fiendish cruelty of the enemy,
in and after battle, which is restrained by no
considerations of humanity, adds to the strife,
an element of horror that is wholly wanting
to regular war. Happily in our day, such con-
tests with savage fury are almost unknown,
and this species of peril has passed into a
memory. But some contests with the Indians
which have occurred on the soil of Colorado,
worthy of all praise for the heroism they ex-
626
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
hibited and the important results to the section
they wrought out, and some local fights of a
few men with hordes -if hostile savages, while
planting the seeds of our civilization, as type
of what many had to undergo in winning an
enduring triumph over nature here, should lie
preserved in story lest they perish from the
memory of man. Of such are the one-hundred-
days war with the Indians of the Sand creek-
region, and the other experiences with blood-
thirst}- aborigines herein narrated, in which the
subject of this sketch took an active part. Mr.
Stubbs was born on December 7, 1840, at West
Elkton, Preble county, Ohio, and is the son
of Robert and Delilah Stubbs, natives of that
state who moved to Iowa in 1856, and remained
thereuntil 1801. when they came overland with
ox teams to Denver, this state, making the
journey by the Platte river route, be-
ing fifty-six days on the way. They lo-
cated at South Park, and for eighteen
months kept a hotel there, then moved
to the vicinity of Colorado City, where thev
took up and improved land, remaining from
1803 to 1870. In the year last named they
changed their residence to the Gunnison valley,
and after passing a year there ranching and
raising stock, moved to what is now Saguache
county, where they passed the rest of then-
lives, the father dying on July 21, 1893, and
the mother on June 10, 1000. At their last
home the}' carried on an extensive and profit-
able dairy business. The father was prominent
in the public life of the various counties in
which he lived, serving a number of years as
county commissioner in El Paso county, elected
as a Republican. Four of their children sur-
vive them, Lindley M., Joseph A.. Mis. Flora
E. Tevis and Benajah P. Being among the
earl}- pioneers of the state and first residents
of the Gunnison valley, they were familiar with
all the phases of frontier life in its earliest
Stage, and bail man}- thrilling experiences.
While they were living in the South Park the
family was molested on one occasion by hostile
Arapahoes and Cheyennes, as related by B. P.
Stubbs, who was an eye witness of the occur-
rence. Peter Shook, a former neighbor of the
family in Iowa, who had come west and en-
camped near their cabin, was preparing his
breakfast, and cut off a slice of ham for the
purpose, put the rest back in his wagon. Soon
afterward a stalwart Indian climbed into the
wagon and took the ham. Mr. Shook re-
covered it from him. and by way of rebuke
for his audacity, struck the Indian in the face
with his fist. The latter left at once with
mutterings of revenge, and the inmates of the
house, anticipating trouble, hastily secured
what they could of their belongings and fas-
tened up their cabin, hiding Mr. Shook under
one of their beds upstairs. Within a few
minutes a hundred or more Indians surrounded
the house and demanded that the man who had
struck their brother be delivered up to them.
On being refused, the}- broke all the lower
windows, and shot arrows through the upper
ones, ^ome of which stuck in the ceiling. They
then poured into the house and repeated their
demand; and on again being refused, went into
every part of it, the inmates on account of
their small numbers being able to make but a
feeble resistance. Finding the man they were
in search of, they dragged him out of doors,
beating him over the head, breaking several of
his ribs with a wagon felloe, and otherwise
treating him with great cruelty. During the
melee an Indian thrust a revolver into Mr.
Stubb's face, threatening death, but did not
shoot, as there seemed to be no hostility toward
the family. At a later date there was another
raid on the family in which some <<i the live
stork was killed, all the dairy supplies on hand
were consumed or destroyed, and a number
of articles useful to the family and which they
could not replace, but which were of no use
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
627
to the thieves, were carried off. In the fall oi
[862 Mr. Stubbs and his father filed on home-
steads, and in the following spring- sowed grain
on their land. About harvest time a messenger
was sent out from Colorado City to warn the
settlers of an Indian uprising and request them
to come to the city for protection. The women
and children, and such necessary articles as
could he quickly collected and conveniently
taken with them, were placed in a wagon and
taken to the fort, where they were left while
the men harvested their crops as best they
could. Wheat and oats were selling at twelve
and one-half to fifteen cents a pound at the
time, and they could not afford to let the crops
go to waste, notwithstanding the danger in
saving them. In 1864 Mr. Stubbs sold one
hundred bushels of wheat at his door for four
hundred and fifty dollars, the price being seven
and a half cents a pound. During this year an
Indian raid resulted in the death of a young
man named Everhart and two boys named
Robinson who were herding sheep, and a Mr.
McEntyre was scalped and left as dead on the
field; but he still lived, and enjoyed telling
how he took off one of his boots and fought
with his assailants. In 1866 all the residents
were once more obliged to build a fort for
protection, and the men were forced to go
hack and forth in the midst of constant dan-
ger to look after the effects at their homes. In
one of these trips a cousin of Mr. Stubbs was
killed by the Indians. Mr. Stubbs received a
common-school education, limited to a very
meager extent by the exigencies of the time,
and remained with his parents until he reached
the age of twenty-eight, accompanying them
in all their wanderings. In 1877 he went
overland with horses and a wagon to Nebraska,
and until the fall of 1878 was engaged in
farming at Vesta, near Tecumseh. that state.
He then returned to Saguache county, this
state, and there he has since made his home.
He has always taken an active part in political
affairs a a pronounced Republican, and on
several occasions has been chosen to offices of
importance and responsihility by his fellow
citizens. In 1866 he was elected clerk of El
county for a term of two year-, and in
1881 was appointed deputy clerk of Saguache
county. In the latter position he served ten
years and a half, holding an appointment under
four different clerks. From the latter p
189 1 to the close of 1894 he freighted between
Villagrove and Saguache. On January 25,
1895, he was appointed bookkeeper in the
Saguache County Bank, a position which he is
still filling acceptably. He is one of the promi-
nent men of the county, universally esteemed
for his generosity and public-spirit, an ardent
Republican and an influential member of the
Woodmen of the World. On February 9,
[869, he was married to Miss Sarah A. Paster,
a native of Ohio. They had two children, .if
whom Minnie Pearl died in infancy and Dallas
P.. is living. They also have an adopted daugh-
ter. Ethel.
The Sand Creek Indian Fight. — This
memorable struggle for the permanent im-
munity of southern Colorado from strife with
hostile Indians began on September 9th and
ended on December 29, 1864, thus lasting one
hundred and twelve days. Mr. Stubbs was an
active participant in it from the beginning to
the end, as a member of Company G, Third
Colorado Cavalry. His company was formed
at Denver and went into camp four miles be-
low Pueblo, and a few days later marched
down the Arkansas river to Fort Lyon, being
three days on the march and suffering many
hardships therein. The soldiers were obliged
to sleep on the snow, ami as the emergency
was great, all men whom they met on the road-
were impressed into the service despite its
hardships. At nine o'clock one night the force
was ordered out to march north and surprise
the enemy. After spending the whole night 1 m
the march, and being led by their scouts and
628
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
half-breed Indian guides through a pond, in
which the horses floundered and the men suf-
fered intensely from the cold, the Cheyenne In-
dian village was discovered at a distance of
three miles from the camp at sunrise on the
morning of November 29th. The men then be-
came wild with excitement and could not be
restrained, but rushed upon the Indians, who
were still sleeping and unprepared for the at-
tack. The noise awakened them and num-
bers succeeded in escaping, but five hundred
of the nine hundred in the band were killed,
with the loss of only one man of Company
G, whose fate was due to his own carelessness.
The battle lasted until five o'clock in the even-
ing and during its progress two cannon were
used by the whites to great advantage. Com-
pany G found a high enjoyment in burning the
tepees of the Indians after the latter were
routed. On the morning of November 30th
they marched to the junction of Sand creek
with the Arkansas and went into camp; but
they were soon ordered out again and after a
march at double quick for a distance of ten
miles, day dawning, they divided and marched
along the Arkansas, one-half of the command
on each side of the river, until darkness over-
took them, at the Santa Fe crossing into
Kansas. At four o'clock next morning the
force on the south side of the river crossed
over and united with those on the north side.
Nearby they found Indians in force and drove
them far into the plains. On December t,i\ the
company was ordered home. The experiences
of Company G are but a sample of the ardor
and exactions of the campaign, as other com-
panies had similar experiences and achieve 1
commensurate results. This war freed southern
Colorado from the danger of savage attacks
and established lasting security for the settlers.
Mr. Stubbs escaped without injury, although
his sufferings from cold and exposure were ex
treme at times.
Dallas B. Stubbs, the son of Benajah P.
and Sarah A. (Paster) Stubbs, was born on
February 3. 1873. at Colorado City, this state.
and was educated in the public schools of Sag-
uache, being graduated from the high school
there with the first graduating class of 1890.
He has been a resident of that town during
the last twenty-seven years, and is now en-
gaged in the real estate, abstract and fire in-
surance business, which he entered in 1896.
Under the able tutorship of E. P. Jones, one
of the most efficient abstractors in the state,
he helped to compile the abstract books of Sag-
uache county, a work of considerable labor and
great value to the people of the county. He
was deputy clerk of the county from 1898 to
1904, and in the latter year was the Republican
candidate for the county clerkship, but was de-
feated by a majority of sixteen votes. Fra-
ternally he belongs to the order of Elks and the
Woodmen of the World, and in the latter order
was clerk of Saguache Camp, No. 28, for two
years. On February 3, 1897, he united in mar-
riage with Miss Blanche ( 1. Loucks. a native
of Bedford, Iowa. They have two children,
their son Paul, horn on June 20, 1899, and
their daughter Blanche Pearl, born on May 9,
1902. Mr. Stubbs is one of the active and
progressive young business men of his county,
with an earnest intent in its improvement and
the advancement and welfare of its people.
He takes an active part in public affairs, and
is always ready to promote, by his influence
and his material assistance, every commendable
enterprise in which the substantial good of the
section is involved. He is widely known and
well esteemed in all parts of the county.
ARTHUR THOMAS SCOTT.
There is always room for a man of force,
and he makes room for many. One of feeble
perceptions and spirit, stepping into the wil-
derness after it has yielded somewhat to the
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
629
dominion of man. can see the farms that are
fenced and tilled, the houses that are built and
the other advances that have been made. The
strong man. in its first estate, sees the possible,
houses, farms, and civil and educational insti-
tutions, his eye sweeps the country with an
awakened ken, and its possibilities, with the
means necessary to develop them lie all in view
before him. The advent of such a man in a
new region is the beginning of its life of use-
fulness and power, and its latent wealth begins
lo open at the sesame of Ins imperial command.
Such a man is Arthur Thomas Scott, of Sag-
uache county, and such was the result of Ins
advent in the region of his present residence,
thirteen miles northeast of Del Norte, m [882.
lie found the country with almost no settlers,
yet full of promise of good to many, and his
example and influence here have been potential
in building up the section, increasing its popu-
lation and starting it on a career of large and
beneficial development. Mr. Scott was born at
Montgomery City, Missouri, on May 13. 1855.
His parents, Thomas and Julia ( Pervis) Scott,
who were natives of Kentucky and Virginia,
respectively, married in Missouri and made that
state their final earthly home. The father was
a life-long farmer and stock-grower, successful
in his undertakings and prominent in his
county. Tde was a Democrat in politics and a
man of public spirit and breadth in the matter
of local improvement. His wife died in Mis-
souri in tRqq and he in 1890. Nine of their
children survive them. Elizabeth. Arthur T.,
Strother, Mrs. Lucy McQuay, Mrs. Amanda
Hudnall, Mrs. Jennie Stevens. Walter. Rich-
ard and Mrs. Mattie E. Barker. Their son
\rthur received his scholastic training in the
common schools, and acquired his primary
knowledge of farming on the parental home-
stead, remaining under its roof until he reached
the age of twenty-one. He then began farm-
ing and raising' stock on his own account, and
also dealt in live stock, buying and selling ex-
tensively. In the spring of 1882 he came to
Colorado, and locating near Fort Collins,
hauled lumber to build the Highland ditch un-
til March, when he moved to Saguache county
and homesteaded on a ranch twenty-live mile-
southeast of the county seat. He remained 1 .11
this until r8Rq, then leased the Dunn ranch,
which he occupied until 1895. In that year
he moved to his present home ranch, which he
had bought in 1889 an 'l m the meantime had
been getting into condition for a home. It ci >m-
prises three hundred and twenty acres, is im-
proved with good buildings, fences and other
necessary structures, well watered and highly
productive, yielding excellent crops of hay.
grain, potatoes and peas, and generously sup-
ports the large herds of cattle which are raised
on it as one of its principal products. In addi-
tion to this he owns another ranch of three
hundred and twenty acres, all tillable land and
under advanced cultivation. Mr. Scott is prac-
tically a self-made man and although he had a
little capital when he came to Colorado, he has
built up his estate substantially from nothing,
as what he had only gave him a foothold until
he could' get under way. He has been one of
the progressive and enterprising forces in devel-
oping the region and is looked upon with a re-
spect and public esteem commensurate with his
services and his character and elevated citizen-
ship. He is a valued member of the Masonic
order and the Woodmen of the World, and in
their benevolences and mystic rites he takes an
earnest and fruitful interest. In the public life
of the county he is also active and helpful, wise
in counsel, energetic in action and stimulating
by his zeal and the force of his example. On
July 20. 1877, be united in marriage with Mi^s
Virginia Sailor, a native of Missouri, who died
on December 2T. T805. leaving six of their ten
children to survive her. three having died in
infancv and a son named Thomas T. at a more
630
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
advanced life. The children living are Mrs.
Julia Fyock, Clarence, Chester, Claude, Bern-
ard and Francis. On March 22, 1903, Mr.
Scott married a second wife, Miss Rachel Hal-
lum, also a Missourian, and born in Vernon
county. They have one child, their son
Marvin S.
i. BROWN.
The real and lasting victories of all time are
thos< of peace and not of war. The man who
helps to plant and people a hitherto unproduc-
tive wilderness is none the less a soldier of hu-
manity although his contest is with and his
victory is over the opposing forces of nature.
and when his banner is unfurled in triumph,
hi i hi have the pleasing satisfaction of know-
ing that his battle has helped to whiten no
plain with the bones and redden no river with
the blood of his fellow men. The chivalry of
industry invades no human right and tramples
on no human feeling. And although its con-
flicts are arduous and often long continued, in-
volving dangers, hardships and efforts equal in
magnitude to those of any military campaign,
they are all for and not over mankind, and
every advance made is a substantial and en-
during gain to every good cause. In this chiv-
alry Frank Brown, of Saguache county, living
seven miles southeast of the county seat, has
been a valiant knight, and bravely has he worn
the emblems of his knighthood. He was born
in Bavaria, German}-, on November 11, 1836,
and is the son of Joseph and Walberger
Brown, of that country, who came to the
United States in early married life and located
;ii Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where they passed
the rest of their days. The father was a car-
penter and prospered at his work. The family
comprised five children who are living, John,
Frank, Michael, Sebastian and Matthew. The
parent^ were members of the Catholic church,
and the head of the house warmly espoused the
Democratic cause in American politics. Their
son Joseph was killed in a saber contest on one
of the bloody fields of the Civil war. Frank
was educated in the common schools of his na-
tive land, and was twelve years old when the
family moved to this country in 1848. He also
attended school three years at fond du Lac,
Wisconsin. After leaving school he spent
eight years at hard labor in the lumber woods
around Lake Superior and seven in other occu-
pations in Wisconsin. In 1806 he came to
Denver, this state, crossing the plains with ten
wagon teams hauling corn, the route being by
way of Fort Kearney and up the Platte Cut Off
near Junction. His brother John was in the
party, and after their five weeks of trying travel
on this journey, in which Frank served as night
herder, they formed a partnership in freighting
between Denver and Central City , having
seven yoke ox teams and hauling hay princi-
pally. The life was full of hazard and priva-
tion, but the profits were large; and while it
strained all their faculties, it gave them com-
pensation, not only in the monetary returns,
but in the increased spirit and energy it awak-
ened. In 1870 they gave up freighting and
moved to their present location in the San Luis
valley, continuing their partnership until 1S74,
then harmoniously dissolved it. Mr. Brown's
ranch comprises one hundred and sixty acres
and has been well improved by his own energy
and hard work. It is well fenced and is plenti-
fully watered by two line artesian wells. The
buildings are ample for bis accommodation and
in keeping with the spirit of enterprise that
dominates all his movements. Haw grain and
cattle are abundantly raised, the two last prov-
ing the chief resources. There were no settlers
in the neighborhood when he pitched his tent
here, and the presenl development of the re-
gion is the result of his bold and Stimulating
example and his helpful influence, which has
never been withheld from .-111}- undertaking of
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLOR
631
advantage to the section. In fact, the interest
he has taken in the progress and building up
of the county has placed him among its most
prominent and esteemed citizens. Me is a loyal
Democrat in political allegiance, and as such
served as county commissioner from 1881 to
the close of 1883 and from 1895 to 1900, in-
clusive. While there are yet vast possibilities
in the region of his home to be developed and
made serviceable. Air. Brown is doing his part
in his day and generation in its behalf, and
making a record of usefulness and benefit to his
community the influence of which will not cease
to be effective and will lie ever remembered to
his credit.
GEORGE FRANKLIN HOFFMAN.
Although a native of Kentucky, where he
remained until he was twenty-one years old,
and was warmly attached to his native state,
George F. Hoffman, of Saguache county, has
been a resident of Colorado nearly one-half of
his life, and is now as ardently devoted to the
state of his adoption as he ever was to that of
his nativity. Coming into the world with a
somewhat feeble constitution ami uncertain
health, his physical condition drove him abroad
from the home of his parents when a young
man. and through what seemed a hardship then,
and what involved additional hardships after-
ward, found opportunities for substantial ad-
vancement in a worldly way as well as greater
vigor of body and enlarged enjoyment of life.
Mr. Hoffman was born on January 3, 1 S 3 7 , at
Covington, Kenton count)-. Kentucky, and
is the son of Henry and Jane Hoff-
man, the former a native of the same
place as himself and the latter of Dayton,
Ohio. The son received a common-school edu-
cation, which has been abundantly supple-
mented by the lessons of a wide and varied
experience and good general reading since he
left school, so that he is now a well ini
and reflective man, with a rich and read}- fund
teral practical information. His parents
were prosperous farmers, and their estate of-
fered him a good chance for substantial gains
in the neighborhood of his home. But soon
after reaching his majority, he was obliged to
afety for his health in a different climate.
and "ii the tsl da\ of March, 1X7S. he went to
[llinois, where he remained until the 4th day of
July next ensuing. He then returned home,
hut two years later found himself under the ne-
cessity of again going elsewhere on account of
lu's health, and on the 1st day of March. 18S0,
arrived at Parsons, Labette county, Kansas.
["wo 3 ears later he left this place for Rhea
Springs, Rhea county, Tennessee. On April
3, [888, he arrived at Del Norte. Colorado, and
since then he has been -a resident of this state.
He came hither in search of renewed health
and has remained to engage in and carry on a
profitable business, making his way to both
ends steadily and with gratifying results
worthy of almost any sacrifice of sentiment and
home feeling. lie has an excellent ranch of
one hundred and sixty acres twenty-two miles
southeast- of the town of Saguache. He has
improved his ranch with good buildings,
fences and other needs, and by assiduous ef-
forts, in which he has flourished physically,
and at the same time made himself one of the
most useful and highly respected citizens of this
section of the spite. Essentially a self-made
man, his success is the result of his own fore-
sight, industry and business capacity, and the
esteem in which he is held is the natural con-
sequence of his honorable manhood, correct
business methods, generous disposition and
public-spirit and breadth of view in reference
to methods of promoting the enduring welfare
of the county and its people. In public affairs
he is not bound by party ties, but looks ever
to the best results for the public interests in-
6 3 ;
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
v< >lve<l. but he never slights the duties of citi-
zenship, and always performs them with intelli-
gence and a stern sense of his liability to his.
fellow men. Fraternally he is connected with
the Improved Order of Red Men.
JOHN WILLIAM WILLIS.
The clarion call of duty to a man of high
aim and the insurance of a just employment is
like the bugle sound of a charge in battle, awak-
ening his highest powers and nerving him for
any contest. It puts everything else out of his
mind except the work immediately before him.
and stimulates him to bend every energy to the
accomplishment of that. Such a call was heard
and obeyed by John William Willis, of Sag-
uache county, this state, when, in r888, the
voice of southern Colorado proclaimed the mer-
its of the section to him and invoked him to
come forward and take a share in the benefits
here awaiting for men of enterprise and endur-
ance, who were willing to work and wait. He
came hither armied with bis physical health and
determined spirit, and taking his place in the
ranks of the developing army, fought against
nature" s opposing forces and all the hardships,
dangers and privations of frontier life until the
region began to -row docile and obedient and
yield its rewards to honest and continued ef-
fort. And although he afterward abandoned
bis enterprise temporarily, he never lost inter-
est in the section and soon returned to engage
once more in the good work of building up a
healthy portion of a miighty commonwealth
which was rich in material advantages and
worth}- of man's best energies in their use and
improvement. Mr. Willis is a native of Ma-
coupin county, Illinois, born near the town of
Palmyra on July 31, [839. His parents, Elijah
and Lucilla 1 Solomon) Willis, were natives of
North Carolina though reared in Kentucky.
Soon after their marriage they located in Mor-
gan county, Illinois, near Jacksonville. There
they were farmers until 182c;. when they
moved to Macoupin county, in which they lived
until 1850, taking up wild land and improving
it to value. In the year last named the family
moved to Texas, where the father bought a
farm, but after a residence of three months on
it, he sold it and changed his residence to Bar-
ton county, Missouri, where he purchased a
farm on which he and his wife passed the re-
mainder of their lives. The father was an
earnest working Democrat in political faith,
and served his county as constable and justice
of the peace many years in his early days. John
W. and bis brother Josiah are the only living
members of the family. The former was edu-
cated in the common schools and remained at
home until he reached the age of nineteen. He
then learned the carpenter trade and after
working at it some years farmed in Macoupin
countw Illinois, for a period. In the years
1873 an( l u ^74 he served as treasurer of that
county and also was at one time assessor and
tax collector of his township. In 1883 he
came to Barton count}-. Missouri, and there he
was engaged in farming five years, holding the
office of township assessor a portion of the
time. In 1888 he came to Colorado, and lo-
cating in Saguache county, homesteaded on a
tract of land in the "Fort}- -one Country," on
which be remained two years, then returned to
Illinois and during the next two years con-
ducted a hotel at Chesterfield in his native
count}-. In 1802 he came again to this state
and took up bis residence at Center. Saguache
county, buying ;; ranch there and settling down
to its permanent improvement and occupancy.
He was made county assessor soon after his
arrival, and his previous work in this line en-
abled him to give the people excellent ami sat-
isfactory service in the office. I lis ranch coin
prises one hundred and sixty acres, all Fenced
and well supplied with water. Good crops of
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
633
hay and grain are raised, and the ranch is pro-
vided with buildings suitable to its needs, mak-
ing it one of the comfortable and productive
rural homes in this prolific region. The dwell-
ing is a modern house of ample dimensions, and
all the appointments of the place are in keeping
with it. The town of Center, five and one-half
miles from the ranch, affords a good market
easily attainable for its productions, and the
surroundings are all favorable to a high state
of advancement and a steadily increasing value
in the property. Mr. Willis is a third-degree
Freemason and in politics an ardent and active
Democrat. On November 25, 1868, he was
married, but his wife died on March (>, 1901,
leaving four children. One of these, a daugh-
ter Mary, died on March 6. 1903, and the oth-
ers are living. They are Arthur. Merida and
Robert. When Mr. Willis settled in this neigh-
borhood there were but five settlers in the
"Forty-one Country." but the work of improv-
ing it, although for a time left to a few hands,
ami trying them to their utmost capacity, has
gone steadily forward, and the results of their
labors are a sufficient proof of their enterprise,
breadth of view and skill. No citizen of the
region is more worth}' of public esteem, and
none enjoys it more generally or more consid-
erably.
JOHN FARRTNGTOX.
A close and keen observation of men dem-
onstrates that success in human life is largely
a natter of constitution, depending on a healthy
state of mind and bod)- with a resolute, domi-
nating spirit in addition, all which arc ele-
ments of power, work and courage. The com-
bination is not deterred by difficulties or
daunted by dangers. It moves forward in its
chosen lines of progress without regard to cir-
cumstances, and compels the success it desires,
making even its obstructions servants to its
needs. This fact is aptly illustrated in the
career of John Farrington, of Saguache, this
state, wdio has been a resident of Colorado
since 1873, and during the whole of this period
has been a valued and material contributor to
the advancement of the state, promoting es-
pecially in the region of his home at any time
works of public improvement and leading for-
ward to the development of the country and
the elevation of taste among its people. He
was born on March 24. 1842. near London,
England, which was also the place of nativity
for his parents, James and Jane Farrington,
who passed their lives in their native land pros-
perously engaged in farming, the father dying
a number of years ago and the mother on Sep-
tember 7. 1903. Their son John is their only
living child. He received a common school
education and at the age of sixteen assumed the
burden of life for himself, learning the trade
of a carpenter and builder, and doing at any
time whatever offered good returns and was.
worthy of his powers. \n 1806 he emigrated
to the United States and located at Chicago,
where he worked at his trade three years. He
then moved to Milwaukee, but after two years
of mechanical employment there, returned to
Chicago-, where he remained until the fall of
1873. At that time he joined the tide of emi-
gration westward, coming to Colorado and
taking up his residence at Pueblo and remain-
ing there working at his trade until 1876. He
built the first brick house on the mesa at the
head of the viaduct there, and within the same
year changed his residence to Saguache county.
Crestone was the location he selected for his
home in this county, and he was the first settler
at that point. While there he engaged in pros-
pecting and mining, and also in building. He
became prominent and influential in a short
time, and was a leading spirit in setting off that
part of the county as a separate district, pre-
siding over the meeting at which the new
division was organized. He also served on the
6 3 4
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
school board and gave an impetus to the cause
of public education which it has never lost. His
prospecting and mining ventures were unsuc-
cessful, but his building operations were profit-
able. In 1878 he helped to put up the first
furnace for Crook Brothers. Since 188] he
has made the town of Saguache his home, and
been prominent in all its public affairs. He
built all the principal buildings in the town, in-
cluding the county courthouse, and many in
other parts of the county, being considered the
most reliable builder within its limits. From
[885 t'i 1890 he served on the town board, and
during this service started tree planting to
adorn the municipality and also secured pro-
vision for and laid out the park. Afterward
he was twice elected mayor on the citizens'
ticket. From 1881 to 1902 he was occupied in
ranching and raising cattle in addition to his
other employments, having a ranch of one hun-
dred and sixty acres nine miles northwest of
Saguache, one-half of the land being under
cultivation. In 1902 he rented the place to a
tenant, and since then he has not been actively
connected with its work. Mr. Farrington is
one of the county's self-made, substantial and
most public-spirited men, a stanch Republican
in politics, a third-degree Freemason in fra-
ternal life, also a Woodman of the World, ami
as a citizen is held in the highest esteem every-
where. On October 6, 1867, he was married
to Miss Ellen Lawley, a native of Birmingham,
England. They have three children. Mrs.
< )scar B. Mack, Matilda and George L. In ad-
dition to his ranch and his town dwelling Mr.
Farrington owns other real estate in the town
and county. No element of the county's great-
ness and progress has escaped his n< itice 1 >r been
without the aid of his wise and active mind.
Tal ing firm hold of (he forces of the people,
and seeing clearly the needs of the section, he
has devoted his best efforts to make the most
of the situation for himself and others, and
lias been of the most substantial service in
bringing about the present state of advance-
ment for which it is noted.
JOHN WELTY.
John Welty. of Saguache county, one of its
most extensive and enterprising ranch and cat-
tle men and most prominent and influential citi-
zens, who came to this state in the spring of
1879 with almost no capital and has won his
way to consequence here by hard knocks and
persistent effort, is a native of Maryland, born
near Smithburg, Washington county, on Octo-
ber 9, 1853. His parents, Jacob and Anna
(Sanger ) Welty, were natives of Pennsylvania.
Franklin county, who moved into Maryland
early in their married life and made that state
their permanent home. They were successful
farmers, and in politics the father earnestly
supported the principles of the Republican party
from its foundation. 1 Ie died in 1892, his wife
in [899. Six of their children survive them,
Mrs. Calvin Spielman, John, Jacob, Abraham,
Mrs. John Frantz and Samuel. One daughter
named Ida died a number, of years ago. Their
son John's educational advantages were limited
to those provided by the common schools of
his native state. He remained at home, work-
ing on the farm until he reached the age of
nineteen, then joined a party of emigrants to
Kansas in 1872. He passed one month at Wil-
son Station in that state, and not being pleased
with the outlook, moved to St. Joseph, Mis-
souri, where he worked at the butchering busi-
ness two years. In the winter of 1874 he went
back east and located in Pennsylvania, where
he butchered until the close of 1875. In the
spring following he returned to St. Joseph, and
there he worked at his trade and on farms for
wage> until August, then boughl an eighty-
acre farm in Andrew county, Missouri, which
he fanned until the spring of 1870. At that
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
635
time lie sold all his personal interests in Mis-
souri and came to Colorado. Locating in the
Platte canyon, he gave his attention to saw-
mill work and cutting logs, remaining there
until August, 1S79, then moving to the vicin-
ity of Greeley and Evans, where he was occu-
pied in ranch work until fall. He then re-
turned to Missouri, but in the spring of 1880
came again to this state, traveling overland by
way of the Platte route and Denver to Lead-
ville. and being fifty days on the journey. He
reached Leadville in the latter part of .May and
at once engaged in hauling wood and lumber,
which he kept at until the spring of 1882, when
he put in four months freighting between
Buena Vista and Aspen, and also did some haul-
ing from Granite and Park counties. These
occupations he continued until the spring of
1888, when he moved to Saguache county, and
by pre-emption, homestead and timber culture
claims secured a large tract of land. He re-
mained on this land seven months, and at the
end of that period bought the improvements on
his present ranch, to which he has added until
it comprises one thousand nine hundred and
twenty acres, all fit for cultivation, well fenced
and supplied abundantly with water from ten
artesian wells bored on the place. The dwell-
ing is a fine modern stone house, the barn is
first-class, and the other buildings and struc-
tures are in keeping with these, making the
ranch one of the most highly improved in the
county, while his skill and industry in cultivat-
ing it have made it one of the most productive.
In addition to this he owns another ranch
which comprises one hundred and sixty
acres and is located in the "Forty-one Country,"
and which yields eighty tons of hay annually.
It is supplied with water from three artesian
wells. On the home ranch wheat, oats and bar-
ley are raised with success, and large numbers
of cattle, hi >rses and hogs are maintained. This
ranch is five and one-half miles northeast of
Center, in a well-favored region and close to
a good market. Mr. Welty ha- been active and
serviceable in the local affairs of the county
from his location here. He was one of the
county commissioners in 1899, 1900 and 1901,
and for man} yeat has been a member of the
school hoard. I!e is a self made, prosperous
and prominent citizen, and is well and favorably
known throughout the county. On June 7.
1891, he was married to .Miss Elizabeth Walte-
math, a native of Warren county, Missouri,
who died on February 1, 1901. They had five
children. Of these two died in infancy and
Samuel, John and Ada are living. Mr.
Welty's present prosperity and conse-
quence gave no indication of the trials and
t< iil through which his triumphs have been won,
except to one who is familiar with the condi-
tions of pioneer life; neither does his mild and
benignant disposition show forth in any im-
pressive way the stern endurance and unyield-
ing determination with which he encountered
every difficulty and disaster of his long and
eventful career. But the facts are all in his
memory, and by the contrast they heighten the
enjoyment of his present estate, and make him
all the more appreciative of the opportunities
for advancement he found in the state of his
adoption, to whose welfare and lasting prosper-
ity he is ardently devoted.
GEORGE FREEMAN BENJAMIN.
Men wdio have a surcharge of arterial blood
and the high spirit it engenders can never lie
content with the tame insipidities of ordinary
life. They cannot languish in the lap of luxury,
or dawdle with the toys and playthings of an
overgrown civilization. They pine for ad-
venture, and must go to some unsettled coun-
trv where they can find it in times of peace, and
to the front of unrolling columns in the midst
of war. They would rather die by the hatchet
6 3 6
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
of an Indian than sit all day and every day
at a counting-room desk. They are made for
war, for the sea. for hunting, mining, clear-
ing, for hair-breadth adventures, huge risks
and the joy of eventful living. Their surplus
energy and exaltation of spirit is all good,
only it must go to the right place for its exer-
cise, and find room for achievement in a con-
genial atmosphere and environment, and there
it will convert all impediments into instru-
ments, all enemies into power. Such a man
was the interesting subject of this sketch in his
early life, and such to a considerable degree he
is yet; and he found the outlet for his surplus
force in the required conditions because he
sought it with intelligence and good judgment.
Mr. Benjamin was horn in the province of
Nova Scotia, Canada, on Xovember 20. 1858,
and is the son of Nathan and Nancy (Westcott)
.Benjamin, who also were born in that country,
and there for many years the father engaged
in farming and did some mining. In 1852 he
went to California, making the trip overland by
way of Minneapolis and across the plains, con-
suming six months on the way. and meeting
with a great variety of adventures character-
istic of the trackless waste of that day. He
passed four years in California placer mining
with good results, and in 1856 returned to his
Canada home, where he remained a few
months, and then made a second trip to the
new gold fields of the Pacific slope, sailing
thither by way of ("ape Horn. This argo-
nautic expedition was successful also, and in
1 No 1 he returned to Canada well fixed finan-
cially and content to pass the remainder of his
days in the peaceful pursuits of agriculture
amid the scenes of his childhood and youth.
His wife died on July 4. 1874. and he in \pril.
[899. Four of their children are living, Mrs.
John Haywood, Mrs. John Jerdon, Pierce
Benjamin and George Benjamin. The parents
were members of the Baptist church. Their
Si 'ii ( iei >rge received a good common-school
education. He remained at home employed by
and in the interest of his parents until he
reached the. age of twenty-three, then, on Janu-
ary 2, 1882, he moved to Massachusetts, where
he was variously occupied for four months. On
May 7th of that year he arrived in Colorado,
determined to seek his advancement where
there was some spice in life and some breadth
and fertility of opportunity. He located at
Kokomo, and until 1885 lived there and at
Leadville, all the while engaged in logging,
mining and teaming, working hard but receiv-
ing good returns for his labor. In 1885 he
nn wed to Saguache count}' and located a ranch
hve miles east of the county seat, which he im-
proved and in 1899 sold to P. M. Jones. In
1891 he bought another, and this he sold to
Michael Jordan in 1897. lie then purchased
the one he now owns and occupies near the
town of Center. This comprises one hundred
and sixty acres, is well watered and all fit for
cultivation. Grain is produced with success,
and general ranching and a flourishing stock
industry are carried on with vigor and profit.
Horses, mules, cattle and hogs are raised ex
tensively. In addition to his home ranch Mr.
Benjamin has four hundred and eighty acres
of good land leased, on which he raises large
crops of wheat, oats and peas. All the elements
of his enterprise are successful and he is one of
the prosperous, progressive and prominent men
of the county, self-made and self-reliant, hut
always with proper consideration for the public
interest and the general welfare of the section
and its people. In political faith lie belongs to
the Republican party, and in its campaigns he
is on all occasions of material service to the
cause. In fraternal life he is connected with
tin- order of Odd Fellows and the Woodmen
of the World. On March 14. [895, he was
united in marriage with Mrs. Sarah V (Delo
zier) Bell, the widow of Mhert Bell, and a
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
637
native of Cooper county, Missouri. Her first
husband was a school teacher and farmer. He
died on August 22, 1881, leaving three children,
Claude W., Georgia M., and Anna C, now
Mrs. Peter St. Clair. When Mr. Benjamin ar-
rived in Colorado he had but fifteen dollars in
money, and almost no other possessions besides
the clothes he wore, so that the estate he has
and the prosperity he now enjoys are the fruits
of his own labor, enterprise and capacity. But
his success has not awakened vanity over his
achievements, but rather thankfulness for the
opportunities he has had and the endowment
to see them clearly and use them wisely, for his
own advantage and that of the region of his
home.
CHARLES H. COVEY.
Charles H. Covey, a prominent contractor
and builder of Grand Junction, who has been
largely engaged in that business at various
places and has erected a number of imposing
and costly buildings, was born at Ottawa, Le-
sneur county, Minnesota, on July 5, 1857, and
is the son of John H. and Anna E. (Wilson)
Covey, the former a native of Indiana and the
latter of Ohio. They were among the pioneers
of Lesueur county, Minnesota, where they mar-
ried in 1855. The father built and for a num-
ber of years conducted a hotel at Ottawa in
the early days, and later engaged in merchan-
dising at Cleveland. In 1862 he removed his
family to Hutchinson and they were there
when the Indian massacre occurred, the home
being burned soon after the family fled. Their
neighbors all around them were killed, but they
escaped without injury but with scarcely any-
thing in the way of worldly possessions except
the clothing they had on. In 1863 the father
enlisted in the Union army as a member of
Company I, Eleventh Minnesota Infantry, in
which he served to the close of the Civil war.
He is now living at Camp Supply, Oklahoma,
and conducting a hotel. The mother died in
northwestern Iowa in 1872. There were nine
children in the family, four of whom are liv-
ing. Charles was the first born and passed his
early life in Minnesota, being thirteen years old
when the family moved to Iowa, and nineteen
when the change to Kansas was made. He
lived at Beloit, Kansas, five years, and in his
various places of residence received a common-
school education. At the age of fifteen he be-
gan to learn his trade as a carpenter, at which
he worked until 1870. when he engaged in con-
tract work, carrying it on five years in Hamil-
ton county. Kansas, and in the Arkansas valley
in eastern Colorado. During this time he had
contracts amounting to three hundred and six-
ty-five thousand dollars, among them one for
the erection of an opera house at Coolidge,
Kansas, at a cost of forty-eight thousand dol-
lars. In 1 89 1 he was employed by the Santa
Ee Railroad to build a round house at Denver,
and from the time of its completion until 1895
he lived at Harper, Kansas, then came to Grand
Junction, where he has since resided and car-
ried on an extensive and profitable business in
his chosen line, contracting and building, put-
ting up residences and business blocks princi-
pally, his operations aggregating about thirty-
five thousand dollars a year. In 1878 he was
married to Miss Lucy Fowler, a native of Vin-
ton, Iowa, by whom he had one child, his
daughter Bessie, now the wife of F. H. Lescher,
of Los Angeles. California. Mrs. Covey died
in t88i at Vinton, Iowa, and in 1883 he mar-
ried a second wife. Miss Lizzie Bollway, a na-
tive of Illinois, the marriage taking place at Van
Horn, Iowa. They have two children, Charles
L., now twenty years old and a carpenter at
Los Angeles. California, and Ruth, aged nine.
In politics their father is a Republican and
takes an active interest in the affairs of his
partv. He has served two terms as alderman
at Grand Junction, and in a similar capacity at
6 3 8
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
other places where he has resided. Hi
also county surveyor of Hamilton county,
Kansas, two years, and was mayor of Coolidge,
in that state, when he lived there. In fraternal
relations he belongs to all branches of Odd Fel-
lowship, the Modern Woodmen of America, the
United Workmen, the Knights of the Golden
Eagle and the Order of Washington. He and
his wife are members of the Congregational
church.
WILLIAM D. SPENCER.
After a residence in several states and vary-
ing fortunes in a number of different pursuits,
William D. Spencer, of Mesa county, one ofj
the progressive and successful ranchmen and
fruit-growers of the Western slope, finds him-
self comfortably settled on a fine ranch of nine-
ty-three acres four miles northeast of Fr'uita,
and pleasantly occupied in a general ranching
business and the cultivation of fruit, bees and
other products incident to an agricultural life.
He was born on December 7, 1833, in Richland
county, Illinois, and is the son of William and
Miriam (Dee) Spencer, the former a native of
Kentucky and reared in Indiana, and the latter
a native of Vermont from where she moved to
Ohio with her parents when she was twelve
years old, The father was a farmer and one
of the pioneers of Richland county, Illinois. In
the spring of [835 he moved to Grant county,
Wisconsin, and there also he was a pioneer.
Twelve years later he moved to Vernon county
in the same state, then known as "Bad Acts."
a name given to it by the Indians. There the
father died at the age of eighty-three. His
life had been a useful one wherever he lived,
and in all places where he was known he was
highly respected. In his young manhood he was
a soldier in the war of 1812, and throughout his
life he took an active and earnest interest in
the affairs of the locality of his home. The
mother died at the home of her son William at
Saguache in this state in 1.884, aged seventy-
nine. They were the parents of five daughters
and three sons, all of whom grew to maturity.
William was the third in the order of birth and
is the oldest of the four now living. He was
but little more than a year old when his parents
moved to Wisconsin, and reached manhood in
that state. The country in which the family
lived was new and undeveloped, and while
the demands for the labor of every able hand
were exacting and unceasing, the opportunities
for schooling- we re correspondingly limited and
the school methods and appliances were primi-
tive. He remained at home until he was
twenty-two. then went to Minnesota and took
up a tract of land which he afterward sold. In
June, 1857. he started with ox teams overland
for Kansas, reaching Beatrice, Nebraska, in
July, just after the town was started by colon-
ists. He concluded to remain there and in the
fall took up an abandoned claim of one hun-
dred and sixty acres adjoining the townsite.
Of this he fenced forty acres and broke and
cultivated twenty. The Pike's Peak gold ex-
citement in the spring of i860 induced him to
abandon his claim at Beatrice and come to
G '1' irarlo. The Nebraska town has since grown
over the greater part of his land, and so he
lost an opportunity for fortune there. On bis
arrival in the vicinity of Pike's Peak he spent
two years mining and prospecting without suc-
cess. During the next six years he was em-
ployed on a ranch near Denver. In 1868 he
moved to Saguache count) - , and there he again
took up land which he improved with a good
dwelling and other buildings, living there until
[890. He then sold out in that section and
took up his residence in Mesa county on a tract
of one hundred and sixty acres which he
bought. Of this he has since sold forty-seven
acres, and has greatly improved and developed
the re<t. He does a general ranching business
with good results, ami makes specialties of
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
639
fruit and bees. Seven acres of his land are in
choice fruit trees which are yielding good re-
turns for his labor. And the portions of the
ranch under cultivation are responding' liber-
ally to his faith and persuasive husbandry. It
was all new and undeveloped land when he
bought it, and whatever it now shows in the
way of development and cultivation is the re-
sult of his well-applied industry and skill. On
May 3, 1870, he was married to Miss Mary
A. Ashley, a native of Kentucky. They had
one child, their daughter Grace. Mrs. Spencer
died on December 29, 1901. In politics .Mr.
Spencer is a pronounced Prohibitionist. He is
a member of the Baptist church in which he
was ordained deacon more than twenty years
ago.
In concluding this brief mention, it may
he stated that from boyhood Mr. Spencer has
enjoyed a reputation as a hunter, being an un-
usually good rifle shot. At the age of fourteen
years he killed his first deer at the
first shot. The following year his father
presented him with a gun and from
that time on while he remained at home
he saw to it that the table was well supplied
with meat. Since that time he has invariably
carried off the honors in every hunting party
with which he has been connected. During the
winter of his seventeenth year he accompanied
a party of men on a hunting trip to the west
branch of the Kickapoo river, in Vernon
county, Wisconsin. The only boy in the party,
he was also the hero of the crowd. During its
first seven days they killed fourteen black bear,
six of which were trapped by one man in a cave
in the high bluffs along the stream. Of the
remaining animals the subject killed three,
being so close that their fur was powder-burnt.
He also killed more deer and other game than
any other man in the party. Several times well-
known hunters have come to the San Luis
valley with the avowed intent of "doing him
up" on the hunt, but he has always maintained
his well-won reputation as a crack-shot and
successful hunter.
NELS C. MOUNSON.
Born, reared and educated in Sweden, and
well trained in agriculture by a long and exten-
sive practical experience there. Nels C. Moun-
son, of Mesa county, Colorado, living on a
fine little fruit ranch of seventeen acres lying
four miles northeast of the village of Fruita,
has transferred to the land-of his adoption his
spirit of progress and enterprise, and with the
dogged and persistent industry, and the intelli-
gence and breadth of view characteristic of his
people, has built up in this western wilderness
a comfortable home and a profitable business.
He was born on September 9, 1848, in Sweden,
where his ancestors lived for many generations,
and where his parents. Christopher and Eva
(Ingeburg) Mounson, were native and lived
and labored until death, that of the mother oc-
curring when her son was yet an infant and the
father's in 1875. The father was a farmer and
the son was reared on the paternal homestead,
where he remained until he reached the age of
twenty-one. He was well educated in the 'state
schools, and after he attained his legal major-
ity, being desirous of devoting his life to agri-
culture, he attended a school devoted to that
branch of industry, remaining there two years.
After leaving that institution he became super-
intendent of a farm of over two thousand acres,
holding the position seven years. In 188 1 he
came to the United States, and making his way
direct to Colorado, turned his attention to pros-
pecting for a year in the vicinity of Silver Cliff.
The next year was passed working in a smelter
at Pueblo, and he then went to Montana and
Idaho, where he was engaged in mining about
a year. After that he spent several years min-
ing at Leadville, and while there served two
640
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
years as county jailor. In March, 1896, he
moved to Mesa county, and in partnership with
Gavin Leslie bought a fruit ranch. The next
year the partnership was dissolved and Mr.
Mounson bought the ranch of seventeen acres
on which he now lives, paying one thousand
nine hundred dollars for it. Much of it had
previously been set out to fruit and he has since
extended this area and made good improve-
ments in the way of buildings and other neces-
sary equipment. Here he has a comlfortable
home with sixteen acres of orchard which pro-
duces bountifully, his net returns in 1903 being
in excess of two thousand dollars. On Novem-
ber 1, 1876. he was married to Miss Mary
Pearson, a native of Sweden and daughter of
Peter Pearson, a farmer and carpenter there.
Mr. and Mrs. Mounson have had one child,
their son Xels Otto Mounson. who was
drowned in Sweden at the age of four years.
In politics Mr. Mounson is a Republican, and
fraternally he is connected with the Order of
Washington. He and his wife are member- of
the Lutheran church. For some years Mr.
Mounson has been a cripple, the result of a
cave-in on him while working in the mines at
Leadville which crushed and mangled his left
side badly, laying him up for a year and leav-
ing him with one leg about two inches shorter
than the other. Yet he has been energetic and
progressive in conducting his business, and has
taken a genuine and serviceable interest in the
local affairs of his community in every line of
useful activity and enterprise.
DENNIS HUGHES.
A skillful mechanic and during the greater
part of his life working diligently at his trade
of blacksmithing under a great variety of cir-
cumstances and in many different places, Den-
nis Hughes, of Aspen, the leading blacksmith
of the town and an active dealer in farming
implements, has seen life through his toil in
many phases and from even the hardest con-
ditions has wrung by his energy and well-ap-
plied industry a substantial success financially,
acquiring at the same time a store of that
worldly wisdom which comes only from ex-
perience. He was born at Port Henry, Essex
county, New York, on February 22, 1853, and
is the son of John and Mary (Nathan) Hughes,
the former a native of Ireland and the latter
of Vermont. On his arrival in this country
the father located at Sherrington in the
province of Quebec. There he learned his
trade as a blacksmith and also acquired a good
practical knowledge of farming. When he was
about twenty-one he moved to Albany, New
York, and there wrought at his trade about
eight years. He then went to Westport in the
same state, and during the next two years
worked in the blast furnace there, at the end
of that time removing to Port Henry, where he
was employed in the same line of work for
eight years longer, starting in business for him-
self in 1861. The next year he enlisted in the
Union army as a blacksmith in the Twenty-
fifth New York Regiment, under command of
Gen. Phil Sheridan, in which he served to the
close of the war. He then returned to his
former home at Port Henry and resumed work
at his trade, continuing until his death in 1901.
His wife died in 1857. He was an active
Democrat in politics and a Catholic in religion ;
and belonged to the Grand Army of the Re-
public in fraternal relations. There were eight
children in the family, three of whom, James,
Michael and May, have died. Those still liv-
ing are John, William, Elizabeth, Mary ami
Dennis. The last named, who is the immediate
subject of this writing, had but little educa-
tional advantages, being obliged to look out i< >r
himself at an early age. When he was ten he
hired out to work on a farm at two dollars and
fifty cents a month during the summer and in
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
64 1
the winter worked for his board so that he
could attend school. The next year he received
ten dollars a month for farm work in the sum-
mer and in the winter spent his time in his
father's blacksmith shop learning his trade.
This sort of occupation was continued until
he reached the age of sixteen. After complet-
ing his apprenticeship in 1870, when he was
seventeen, he started in business for himself,
locating at Maria Center. New York, where he
remained until 1876, when he moved to Mis-
souri, and after living a year at Kansas City.
took up his residence at Gosneville. Clay
county. Two years later he returned to his
native state and there he carried on a shop one
year. In 1879 ne came to Leadville, Colorado,
and until April 1, 1880, worked there for wages
in the Andy Johnson mine. From there he
moved to Kokomo and did blacksmithing for
the stage company, then after spending two
weeks at Denver, went to Conjoes, New
Mexico, and worked six months for wages. At
the end of that time he bought a twenty-two-
inch bellows and opened a shop of his own at
Boydsville. His next location was at Bear
creek, where he took in a partner, Robert Shaw.
and three months afterward moved to Charma
river, where he carried on independently. From
there he changed to Almargo and then to
Aberlease. The soldiers and Indians drove out
everybody in the village, and he opened a shop
at Durango, this state, remaining until the end
of 1881. During the next three years lie was
employed at his craft in various places in his
native state and Colorado, and settled at Aspen
in 1885, early in the year. He bought Joe
Cole's shop and conducted it a year and a half,
then sold out and bought ranches on Capitol
creek, where he turned his attention to raising
cattle, in 1887 and 1888 owning more stock
than any other person in the neighborhood. In
1889 he returned to Aspen and purchased the
shop where he is still engaged. In 1805 he dis-
41
posed of his ranch and added to his enterprise
a business in farming implements of all kinds.
He has been steadily successful in all his wan-
derings, and is now well established in business
to his taste and in accordance with his best
capabilities. In political faith and alliance he
is an ardent Democrat, and in fraternal circles
is connected with the order of Odd Fellow-. In
November, 1870. he was married to Miss
Katharine Coyne, a native of Clinton county.
New York, daughter of Patrick and Eliza
(Conners) Coyne, the former a native of Ire-
land and the latter of Canada. They settled in
Xew York in early life, and there they ended
their days, both devout members of the Catholic
church. The father was an accomplished rail-
road man and an accepted authority on all sub-
jects connected with the business. He '
Democrat in politics and zealous in the service
of his party. They had eight children, six of
whom are living. The father died in 1884 and
the mother in 1900. Mr. and Mrs. Hughes
have had four children. One son named Harry
died in New York state in 1880, aged four,
and another named Frank R.. at Lake City, this
state, on September 8, 1002, after a short
illness. He was out looking up a suitable loca-
tion for establishing a profitable blacksmith
sin ip. which he found at Lake City, but died
after living there only five weeks. He had been
active in business and public life in Pitkin
county, carrying on for a number of years a
profitable grocery store and later a blacksmith
shop. The two children living are Edward F.
and Mae.
CH \RLFS LATH \M SWEET.
This interesting subject of biographical
mention, whose life from youth has been de-
voted to mercantile pursuits .and who has
risen by steady and merited progress to a posi-
tion of leadership in his chosen line of activity,
6 4 2
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
being now considered one of the most promi-
nent and successful merchants of western Colo-
rado, acquired his masterful knowledge of his
business in an extensive and varied career in a
number of different places and amid popula-
tions of widely differing characteristics. He
was born on March 2, 1850. at Brooklyn,
Windham county, Connecticut, and is the son
of Robert L. and Electa S. (Gardner) Sweet,
both belonging to old New England families,
the former a native of Connecticut and the lat-
ter of Rhode Island. The parents passed the
greater part of their lives in Connecticut, the
mother dying there in 1892 and the father in
1900. He was a stanch Republican from the
foundation of the party to his death, and in
business was a contractor and builder. The
family comprised ten children, four of whom
are living. George, a resident of Plainfield, Con-
necticut, John H.. of Lake City, Colorado. Mrs.
Joseph Michaels, also of Lake City, and
Charles L. In the frequent visits of death to
the household six were taken away: James 11.,
who died in 1901 ; William A., who laid his
life on the altar of his country in one of the
terrible battles of the Civil war; and Adelaide,
Anna, Thomas and Daniel, who died at home.
Charles L. received his elementary education in
the public schools at Plainfield in his native
State, and afterward attended the academy here,
securing some higher scholastic and a general
business training. He remained with his par-
ents until he reached his sixteenth year, then
boldly took up the burden of life for himself,
going to Hartford. Connecticut, where he re-
mained twelve years employed in different mer-
cantile houses. In the latter part of 1XK5 and
the earl) pari of (886 he was a salesman in
the commercial house of Tibbets & Garland,
and had an interest in the business. He next
came west to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and served
as a salesman in a store there until the spring
of 1SS7. wsen be moved to Denver in this state.
and after a period of valued service in the com-
mission house of P. L. Buckfinger. became a
salesman for the wholesale grocery establish-
ment of Williams & Wood, of Denver, whom
he represented as a traveling salesman in west-
ern Colorado until [892. In that year he lo-
cated at Lake City, where he formed a part-
nership with Mr. Whinnery under the stvle of
Whinnery & Sweet, and carried on a general
merchandising business in this connection until
[895. The partnership was then dissolved har-
moniously, and he united with Charles Walker
in another, and they engaged in the same busi-
ness at another location. Four years later this
partnership was dissolved, and since that time
Mr. Sweet has been conducting an establish-
ment of his own. In this he carries a full line
of general merchandise, comprising groceries,
hardware, queensware, mining supplies and
fresh meats. His stock is one of the most com-
plete and and his store one of the most conven-
ient and best managed in Lake City and a large
extent of the surrounding country, and has an
excellent reputation for the strict integrity, en-
terprise and accommodating spirit with which
it is conducted. Mr. Sweet is also interested in
mining properties and has a number of promis-
ing claims. In his civic and political activity
lie is especially interested in the cause of public
education. In politics he is an unwavering Re-
publican. While his business has always had
his care and most earnest attention has always
been given to his own and the general wel-
fare of the county and its people, he has not
neglected a proper cultivation of his musical
talent, and lias become an accomplished per-
former on tlie violin, an instrument which is
the hope of the amateur because he doesn't
know its possibilities, and the despair of the
mister because he does. On all nmtters con-
cerning this instrument and the music that can
lie invoked from it he is an acknowledged au-
thority, and with the devotion of a genuine
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
643
enthusiast, he has got together a valuable col-
of violins, all of which are of the first
order of excellence, and some are renowned in
their history and of great value, one, which is
one hundred and thirty years old, being e
worth five hundred dollars. On December 21,
[888, he united in marriage with Miss Belle
McGookin, a native of Scotland. They had
four children, of whom Electa and Emma died
and Elsie S. and Emory VV. are living. Their
mother died on May J 1 . [903, and 0.1 July 2,
1904. the father married a second wife, Mrs.
Jessie ( Kirker) Sleeper, a native of Ohio
reared at Lake City, Colorado. She is the
daughter'of Thomas II. ami Mary (Simpson)
Kirker, who came to Colorado and located at
Lake City among its early settlers. There the
mother is now living, the father having died
in [899. He was an ardent Republican polit-
ically and a miner and prospector in business.
His church affiliation was with the Presbyter-
ians, with whom the mother still affiliates.
Four of their children are living, Thi .mas, I \ »le
man, Mrs. Sweet and Mrs. George S. Mott.
The second Mrs. Sweet had, prior to her mar-
riage, a wide and high reputation as a successful
-cli- 11 il teacher. She taught many years at Lake
City, and was highly esteemed for her success
with children, especially in preparing them for
public exhibitions of histrionic skill, and her
good influence in molding their characters and
manners.
JUDGE CHARLES CLEMENT HOL-
BROOK.
This highly esteemed, universally trusted
and in every way worthy citizen of Conejos
county, Colorado, who is now serving his third
term in an exalted official station to which he
was once elected to fill a vacancy and has been
twice re-elected, and which he has highly
dignified and adorned, was born in Russell
county, Virginia, on July 13, 1X48. His par-
ents, S. V. ami Mary M. (Johnson) Holbrook,
were also natives of the old Dominion and
moved from there to Kentucky in [862
father was a successful farmer.- When the
dread cloud of civil war descended on our un-
happy country and divided the sections with
bitterness that could only lie wiped out with
fraternal blood, he espoused the cause
Union, stumped a portion of Virginia .1
secession, and, as was inevitable, lost heavily in
property and the fruits of his enterprise. He
died in 1879 and his widow in 1902. Two of
their children. Capt. E. M. Holbrook and the
Judge, survive them. The latter received a
common-school education and afterward at-
tended an academy at Greenup. Kentucky.
Later, while teaching school, he pursuied his
academic studies and prepared himself for the
bar, to which he was admitted on March 10.
1876, at Greenup, Kentucky, and there he prac-
ticed until April. 1877. Lie then 'left the scenes
and associations of his youth for what was at
that time a far western land, coming to Colo-
rado and arriving at Castle Rock in Douglas
county, on April 15th. He practiced his pro-
fession at that place until the middle of 1 )ecem-
ber, 1882, when he removed to Alamosa, where
he has since lived. In 1881 he was elected dis-
trict attorney of the fourth judicial district of
the state, and he also served as county atti rrney
first of Elbert and then Costilla county, an ag-
gregate of seven years. In 1891 he was elected
judge of the twelfth judicial district to fill an
unexpired term of three years, and at its end
in 1894 he was elected for a full term of six
years, and in 1900 was re-elected to another
of equal length. In political faith he is an
unwavering Republican, and was president of
the first Roosevelt Republican club in Colorado,
which he organized. He is a third-degree
Mason and an Odd Fellow, fraternally, and
affiliates with the Seventh-Day Adventists in
644
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
religious belief. This sect he joined on July 4,
1896, and in August next ensuing he was or-
dained an elder, a position he still holds in the
organization. On August 15. 1882, he was
married to Miss Lillian Booth, the oldest
daughter of Levi and Millie A. Booth. They
have had four children, of whom one, a son
named Booth, was accidentally drowned on
June 24, 1898; the other three are living and
are Millie M. a graduate of the Alamosa high
sell' nil. and who. at her graduation, was
awarded first prize for oratory in the oratorical
contest of the San Luis valley high schools, Lil-
lian and Glen A., residents of Alamosa. In
the performance of his official duties the Judge
has met every requirement of his exalted sta-
tion and satisfied every expectation raised by
his well known high character, strict integrity
and extensive legal learning. In his citizen-
ship he has been faithful and serviceable to
every interest of the people ami the section of
his residence; and in his social life he has con-
tributed to give character and elevation to the
whole outward expression of the public and
domestic institutions of his people. Lie is an
ornament to the state and a fine example of up-
right and progressive American citizenship.
CHARLES A. WILSON.
Charles A. Wilson, of Gunnison county, a
prosperous and progressive ranchman, has had
successes and adversities in life, but through
them all he has preserved his equipoise and de-
termination of spirit, and by his admirable
qualities of head and heart he has finally be-
come well and permanently established in
worldly comfort and public esteem, lie was
born in Summit county, < Ihio, on February 25.
[844, and is the son of Sullivan S. and Samui-
tha 1 ( 'lark > Wilson, the father a native 1 >i \ er
monl and the latter of Massachusetts. Both ac-
companied their parents to Ohio when young,
and in that state they were reared and married.
The father was a prosperous farmer and a man
of prominence in his county, serving as its
treasurer for a number of years. He died in
Michigan in 1892, aged eighty-one years. The
mother died in Ohio in [876. Mr. Wilson's
paternal grandfather, Jonathan Wilson, was a
soldier in the war of 1812. His grandson grew
to manhood in his native county, being reared
on a farm and educated at. the district schools
and at a good academy located at Tallmadge.
He remained at home until 1862 when he en-
listed in Company C. One Hundred and Fif-
teenth Ohio Infantry, in defense of the Union
during the Civil war, but after less than a year
of service he was discharged on account of se-
vere illness contracted in the line of duty. In
0S71 he moved to Kansas and, locating in
Wood on count)-, took up one hundred and
sixty acres of land and bought one hundred and
sixty more. There for more than twenty years
he was actively engaged in die live-stock busi-
ness, acquiring a competency which he after-
ward lost through drought and low prices.
Then borrowing money for the purpose, he
came to Colorado in 1892. and soon after his
arrival bought on time the ranch which is now
his home and is located six miles northeast of
< runnison on the < iunnison river. It comprises
one hundred and seventy acres of land, practic-
ally all under irrigation, and yields excellent
crop of haj and grain. When be bought the
place much of it was covered with timber, but
he ha u nearly all cleared now. In addition to
his ranching operations Mr. \\ ilson conducts a
flourishing live-stock industry here, and
through hard work, strict economy and close
md 1 ireful attention to every detail of his work
he has prospered, and is now one of the sub
stantial citizens of the county. Politically he
is independent ami fraternally has belonged to
the Masonic order since [876. On November
1 1. 1 Sox, he was married to Miss Sarah Wool
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
645
dridge, a native of England who came to the
United States with her parents when she was
five years old. She died in Kansas on May 1 1,
[886, leaving nine children, all still living,
Laura A., Delberta, S. Albert, Orlena, Sanian-
tha. Amy, Joel W., Kate and Fred. On June
22, 1890, their father married a second wife,
Mrs. Elizabeth (Klinkinbeard) Alvy. a native
of [owa. They have two children, their daugh-
ters Mabel and Cecil.
CLINTON I. LAWRENCE.
Clinton I. Lawrence, the leading real estate.
lumber and insurance man of Crested Butte.
Gunnison county, has reached his eminence in
business circles and his high place in the public
esteem of his community through a long course
of faithful service in various capacities, chiefly
in railroad work as agent and manager of the
office of the ci impany at different places. He is
a native of Saratoga county, New York, born
on February S. 1853. and the son of Harlow
and Elizabeth ( Raynolds) Lawrence, both na-
tives of New York also, where they passed the
whole of their lives. The father was for many-
years the agent of what is now the Delaware
& Hudson River Railroad. The family com-
prised four sons and four daughters, of whom
two sons and two daughters are living. Clinton
being next to the youngest. He was reared
and educated in his native county, and when
-sixteen years "Id began working in the rail-
road office under his father. There he learned
telegraphy and for a long time thereafter was
employed in railroad work. In 1S81 he be-
came a resident of Colorado and entered the
employ of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad
Company as agent at Crane's Park, then the
terminus of the road. Some little time later he
became the road's agent at Tennessee Pass, and
in June, 1882, was transferred to Kezar, again
the terminus of the road, going from Salida
west. In September following he changed to
Saperino, and in January, 1884, to Crested
Butte. He was one of the pioneer empli >\ ee of
the company and none was more fully trusted,
so that wherever there were important duties
to perform and critical conditions to meet, he
was .me of those sent as best qualified for satis-
factory service. In December. 1891. he lie-
came agent at Grand Junction and later at
Ouray, afterward returning to Crested Butte.
In 1902 he left the railroad service and suc-
ceeded to the real estate and insurance business
of his father-in-law, the. late Volney Axtell,
who had just died there. In this enterprise
he has since been continuously engaged and
been very successful. Politically he is a Re-
publican, but he is not an active partisan, al-
though lie has served in the city council. Fra-
ternally he is a Master Mason with member-
ship in the lodge at Ouray. His first marriage,
which occurred in 1873. was with Miss Effie
Porter, a native of Minnesota. They had one
child, their son Harlow, now assistant cashier
in the First National Bank of Gunnison. This
wife died in 1885, and in 1 891 he contracted a
second, uniting" with Miss Mary II. Axtell. a
native of Chicago, the daughter of Volney F.
and IVIary'( Dayton) Axtell, who were born in
New York. Mr. Axtell was one of the pio-
neers of Gunnison county, locating at Crested
Butte in 1879, and there engaging in mercan-
tile pursuits in partnership with Mr. Holt un-
der the firm name of Holt & Axtell. Later he
turned his attention to real estate, lumbering
and insurance, beginning his work in these lines
about 1884 ami continuing it until his death in
1902. He was one of the leading business men
of Crested Butte for years and by his probity,
acumen and breadth of view gave the town a
high reputation in business circles. In politics
he was a Republican but not an active party
worker, vet he served the town well in several
minor offices, being one of its first mayors and
at times a member of the city council. Mrs.
Axtell still has her home at Crested Butte.
646
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
ALBERT H. McCONNELL.
Amid the many gainful occupations of Col-
orado, which include almost the whole range of
productive human activities, none is more en-
titled to the considerate and careful attention
of iis people and its governing powers than the
ranch and stock industries which form so large
a part of its material wealth and employ com-
fortably and contentedly so many of its citi-
zens. The men who conduct these industries
and keep them vigorous and prosperous are for
the greater part men of brain and brawn, inde-
pendent in thought and action, forceful and en-
ergetic as promi iters of the public weal and with
an interest in the soil that makes them devot-
edly patriotic to the state. One of this class
who is worthy of honorable mention in any
compilation of the doings of the progressive
men of the state is Albert H. McConnell, of
Gunnison county, whose ranch of one thou-
sand acres and herd of six hundred cattle, one
mile and a half east of Doyleville. are valuable
additions to the agricultural and stock inter-
ests of the county, while the manner in which
they are managed is an example of thrift and
business capacity well worthy of emulation.
Mr. McConnell was born at Marysville, Califor-
nia, on December 2^, 1862, and is the son of
David and Mary E. (McMath) McConnell.
the former a native of Pennsylvania and the lat-
ter of Michigan (see sketch of them on another
page). When the son was ten years old the
family moved to Marquette, Michigan, and
three years later to Missouri. In the fall of
1877 he came to ( lolorado and took up his resi-
dence in I [insdale county, where his father had
preceded him. hi [879 the Familj moved from
MisM mri t< 1 ( runnisi >n county and located in the
ir Doyleville. I fere they
v -re pioneers, finding more Indians in the val-
ley then than there are white people now. In
1SS1 Mr. McConnell took up land near Parlin,
which he improved and lived on until [892,
then sold it. and bought his present ranch
which comprises one thousand acres and is all
under irrigation and in an advanced stage of
development. It yields six hundred tons of
good hay a year and comfortably supports his
herd of six hundred cattle, besides grain
and other crops, there being considerable of
this land set apart for pasture. He for a num-
ber of years had an average of eight hundred
cattle, but has found it judicious to diminish
the number recently, for a time at least. He
carries on a brisk and flourishing business of
his own. and gives to the local affairs of public
interest around him the same careful and ener-
getic attention he bestows on his business, be-
ing one of the progressive, public-spirited and
enterprising men of the county, with an abid-
ing care for its welfare and a breadth of view-
highly commendable in applying his efforts.
In political faith he is a stanch and serviceable
Republican. On October 25. 1901, he was
united in marriage with Miss Marie (Johnson )
Bracewell. who was horn in Virginia and is
the daughter of John and Virginia (Elliott)
Johnson, also natives of the Old Dominion,
where the father .lied in 1884. After that
event the mother moved to Wayne county.
low a, where she still lives. Mr. and Mrs. Mc-
Connell have one child, their son Harry Alex-
ander.
GEORGE WISTER.
The interesting subjecl of this brief review.
who is now just in the prime of life with all
his faculties in full vigor and active exercise,
and whoso judgment is matured and his knowl-
edge of business is full, accurate and service-
able, and who may therefore hope to grow in
prosperity and usefulness, is a native of Jei
ferson county, Kansas, horn on October 28,
[863 Mis parents, George A and Pauline P..
(Wvant) Wister. were natives of Pennsyl-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
647
vania, burn in Franklin county, and moved to
Kansas when they were young. The mother
died on Christmas day. [902. They had a fam-
ily of five children, of win mi only two are liv-
ing, the son George being- next to the oldest in
order of birth. When he was three years old
the family moved from Jefferson to Jackson
county in his native state, and there he re-
mained until r884, receiving a common-school
education and acquiring habits of providence,
industry and usefulness in his father'-, flour
mill. In the year last named, when he was
about twenty-one years of age, he came to Col-
orado and took up his residence at Colorado
City, where he remained until [891. At that
time he moved to the vicinity of Palisades and
pre-empted a tract of one hundred and twelve
and one-half acres of land. In the spring of
1894 he set out four acres of fruit trees, and
he did the same every year afterward until his
planting covered twenty acres, one-half of
which is now in good bearing order and yields
large returns for his enterprise and skill. In
the season of 1903 his net revenue from the
orchards was over two thousand dollars, and
there is every prospect that this will increase
from year to year as time passes ami more trees
come into bearing. lie was married on De-
cember 7. 1887, in Jackson county, Kansas, to
Miss Mary Clonch, who was born at Sever-
ance. Doniphan county. Kansas, on April 27,
[862, and is the daughter of C. C. and Martha
(Buster) Clonch, natives of Pulaski county,
Kentucky, who moved to Kansas, as a young
married couple and lived there until their
deaths. Mr. and Mrs. Waster are the parents
of four children. Earl. Vernon, Cecil and Dean,
all living -and all born on the ranch which is
now their home. In political relations Mr. Wis-
ter trains with the independents, and in fra-
ternal life he belongs to the ()<\<\ Fellows and
the Woodmen of the World. Me is an enter-
prising and progressive man and is highly re-
garded 1 m ah sides on account of h
ness capacity, his sterling north and his use-
fulness as a citizen.
HARRY W. BULL.
Activelv engaged in raising fruit, .general
ranching and feeding cattle on contract, Harry
W. Bull, of the Western slope in this state, liv-
ing four miles northwest of Eckert, Delta
county, finds his time and energies fully occu-
pied in useful labors and profitably rewarded
for the outlay. He is an enterprising man.
wide-awake to bis opportunities and diligent in
making good use of them at all times. Like
many another of the progressive men who have
helped to make Colorado great and wealthy, he
is a native of the far East in this country, hav-
ing been born in the state of New York, in
Orange county, on January 10, 1865. His par-
ents. Sidney and. Ruth (Cooley) Bull, were
born in New York and New Jersey, respect-
ivelv. and in 1869 moved to Missouri, where
they are now living. The father was a farmer
there until recently, when be retired from active
pursuits and took up his residence in the town
of Cameron. Six of their seven children are
living, five of them in Colorado. Their son,
who is the theme of this article, left home in
the spring of t886. soon after reaching the age
of twenty-one years, and coming direct to this
state, located in Delta county on a ranch of one
hundred and sixty acres adjoining the one he
now owns and occupies, which he took up as
a pre-emption claim and afterward sold. His
present ranch was purchased in January. 1898,
and- required his immediate and vigorous at-
tention to make it habitable and productive.
He built a comt trtable dwelling 1 -n it and began
at once to devote his energies to its culti
and development. Fifteen acres of the tract are
in fruit, and the orchards are kept up by re-
peated plantings, and one hundred and twenty
6 4 8
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
acres are devoted to growing alfalfa, which is
his principal crop as the orchard is not yet in
full hearing order. In 1903 his harvest was
eight hundred tons of good hay, on which he
realized an average of five dollars a ton by feed-
ing it to cattle under contract. He also sold
three hundred boxes of peaches and one hun-
dred boxes of apples. In the stock industry he
confines himself to raising a number of hi >rse>
each year. On June 8, 1898. he was married
to Miss Bertha Atwood, a native of Buchanan
county. Missouri, whose father, Charles At-
wood, was born in [Massachusetts in 1847, ani '
her mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth
Marshall, in Canada in 1853. The father was
a molder in his earlier manhood and later
turned his attention to merchandising. Both
parents are living in Missouri, whither they
moved in 1868. All of their five children are
living, but only one, Mrs. Bull, is a resident of
Colorado. She and her husband have son,
Ernest A., who was born in 1899. The father
is a Knight of Pythias and a Woodman of the
World. He supports the Republican party in
political matters, and both he and his wife be-
long to the Presbyterian church.
C.ERHARD JUTTEN.
Of the foreign population which has helped
to make the United States great and prosper-
ous, probably no clas h; dom more for the
advantage of the country than the Germans,
and few if any have suffered greater hardships.
They have gone, in man) cases to the very
limits of the territory within reach of help in
time of danger, and often even far beyond it,
and had. in addition to all the wild conditions
of an unsettled and unpeopled land, the diffi-
culties of a foreign tongue to contend with.
many of whose sounds are difficult for them
to make, so different from their own resonanl
and vigorous language. This has keen the
experience of Gerhard Jutten. of Montrose
county, this state, and his family. When they
came to this country he was forty-three years
old and had no knowledge of English at all, and
his wife, although somewhat younger in years,
was as ignorant of English as himself. The
industrial triumphs they have won in the face
of great difficulties, and their mastery of the
language to such an extent that Mrs. Jutten
has for years been a valued official in the school
system of their new home, are all the more to
their credit, and stamp them as persons of unu-
sual force of character, mental power and per-
sistent determination. Mr. Jutten was born ii\
Germany in 1839, the son of Peter Jutten, also
a native of that country. His father was a
farmer there in times of peace, and a soldier
in times of war. He was in active service in
the French army at various times, his last
engagement in this organization being at the
time of the revolution of 1848 when Bonis
Philippe was driven from the throne and. Lam-
artine became the ruling spirit in France. Mr.
Jutten' s mother, whose maiden name was Cath-
erine Nelison, died in 1842, aged about twenty-
eight years, leaving three children, of whom
he was the first born. He grew to manhood
and was educated in his native land. After
leaving school he engaged in farming there
and continued his operations in this line until
he reached the age of forty-three. He then
came with his family, consisting of bis wife and
five children, to the United States through the
persuasion of his brother-in-law. John Rade-
macher, and after reaching Gunnison, this
state, journeyed by wagon on to his pn enl
locality, reaching it in the spring of [882. He
settled at first across the river from the place
on which he now lives, taking up a pre-emption
claim. Here he began to gel accustomed to his
surroundings and the customs <A the country,
and to facilitate his efforts in this direction sent
his daughter to live in the family of a neighbor
PROGRESS! I'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
649
in order that she might learn the English lan-
guage and teach it to the rest of the household.
The) at once started to improve and cultivate
their land, but found themselves in the midst
of great difficulties. They had but little money
left, provisions were very costly, and the land
was slow in response to their demands for the
products of modern husbandry. With pain and
toil they struggled on, however, and every foot
of progress they made was firmly held, so that
in a little time they were more comfortable,
and by thrift and persistent industry not only
made their home agreeable and attractive, but
accumulated other property and extended their
cattle business until now they own about eight
hundred acres of land in good condition, the
most of which is devoted to raising alfalfa and
grain, and carry on one of the leading cattle
industries of the county. Their progress in other
respects has been commensurate with that they
have made in their business operations. They
have risen to influence in the social and public
life of the community, and are recognized as im-
portant factors in all lines of its proper develop-
ment and improvement. Mr. Jutten raises in
the orchards of bis own planting the best fruit
of all kinds for the use of his family, and the
finest quality and most approved breeds of cat
tie. He also owns and operates a steam thresh-
ing outfit which he makes of great service to
the farmers around him and throughout a wide
scope of country. He was married in [869, in
( iermany, to Miss Wilhelmina Rademacher. a
.daughter of Gerhard and Anna Gertrude
(Schwilles) Rademacher, whose families had
lived in the fatherland from time immemorial.
Her father was a wheelwright and passed all
of his life in that country industriously working
at his craft, dying in 1853. at the age of <ixty
llve or seventy. Mrs. Jutten was well educated
in her native land and it is strong proof of her
strength and flexibility of mind that coming to
this country, as she did with five children and
having not only the cares of a large family but
also domestic duties of an unusually difficult
and burdensome character on her hands, she
has still mastered the English language and
given a g 1 portion of her time to public
duties in the community, serving for a number
of years as president of the local school hoard
and, since retiring from that office, as its treas-
urer. In these positions she has been able to
give an inspiration and a quickening impulse to
the school forces of the district that have been
a great value to the schools, raising their stand-
ards and enlarging their usefulness in many
important respects. The children born in Ger-
many are Ida, Mary (deceased), Henry, Ger-
hard. Anna, and John, Adolph and Josephine,
deceased, the last three being buried there.
Those born in America are John, Joseph,
Theresia and James, all living. Among the
people living in their part of the county no fam-
ily is more generally or more highly esteemed
and none is more worthy of public regard than
the Juttens and no couple has done more for
the elevation and substantial benefit of the com-
munity than the parents of this household.
ROBERT II. RIVES.
Belonging to one of the oldest and most
distinguished families of Virginia, and reared
in the best circles of its cultivated society, Rob-
ert B. Rives, of Cimarron, Montrose count}'.
with the manly '-elf -reliance and force of char-
acter for which his people have been noted in
all their American history, accepted with alac-
rity and cheerfulness the destiny of toil and pri-
vation which was his portion in this western
world tor a number of years, and turned his
very circumstance- of difficulty and danger into
the means of helping him to a firmer fiber of
physical manhood and incidentally to a better
estate of worldly comfort. Tie was born in
Franklin countv of the Old Dominion in 1828,
6=,o
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
and is the son of Joseph and Frances i Prunty)
Rives, natives of that state and descended from
some of its earliest and best colonial settlers.
His father was a large planter and tanner and
prominent physician there, a Whig- in politics
until the death of thai party and afterwards
a Democrat. He was prominent and active in
the social life and government of his county.
and for twenty years served its people as sher-
iff. He was born in 1782, not long before the
close of the Revolutionary war, and died in
[868, not long after the close of the Civil war.
and was buried by the side of his wife in the
family burying ground in his native county.
She was the daughter id' Robert Prunty, and
died in 1856, aged about seventy years. The
paternal grandfather, Frederick Rives, was a.
soldier under Washington in the Revolution,
and an intimate friend of that great com-
mander. His wife's maiden name was \\;w\
Stegall. Their lives were passed on their plan-
tation in their native state. Mr. Rives of this
writing was the last born of the ten children
who composed the household of bis parents,
and was reared and educated on the paternal
homestead. At the age of twenty-one he be-
came a planter on bis own account and contin-
ued in the business until the beginning of the
Civil war when be promptly enlisted in de-
fense of his convictions in the Tenth Virginia
Cavalry. Having his leg broken in the service,
be was discharged, but a- soon as it was well
again he re-enlisted in the Thirty-seventh Vir-
ginia Battalion under Gen. L. Lomax and
served in that command to the end of the mo-
mentous conflict. After the war be returned
to his plantation and remained there until
[880, then came to G ilorado, and after a short
residence at Colorado City moved to Kokomo.
A year later be located at Maysville, eleven
miles west of Salida, and during the next two
years prospected and mined in that region. Tie
tin 11 came to Cimarron, Montrose county, and
for two or three years was engaged in railroad
work. At the end of that period he took up a
pre-emption claim on which he still resides and
on which the first house in this part of the'
count;,- was built. Back of his dwelling is
where the United States troops were drawn
up to tight the Ute Indians on the opposite side
of Cimarron creek. Among the earliest per
manent settlers here, he has also been one of
the most useful and influential. He served
seven and a half years , , n the local school b »ard,
and was prominent in all movements for the
improvement of this section. When there
seemed to be sufficient population for the pur-
pose he started the agitation that resulted in
the organization of Montrose county, and in
the early history of the new organization was
one of the leading men. Tn 1854 he was mar-
ried to Miss Martha Mackenheimer, a native
of Virginia where the marriage took place.
She died in 1866, at the age of twenty-six,
leaving three children, Jacob, Francis P. and
Josephine, all residents of Virginia, the first
named being a prominent tobacco merchant in
that state. In 1884 he married a second wife.
Miss Mary FYances Smith, a daughter of Wil-
liam C. Smith, a merchant and planter of Vir-
ginia. Mr. Rives's place is a model of thrift
and skillful cultivation, and its products are of
high quality and abundant in quantity. He is
one of the leading farmers of the neighborhood
and one of its most representative citizens.
HENRY ALERTON.
Born and reared in the midst of the high-
est civilization, with all the blandishments
ami enjoyments of cultivated life around
him, as manhood opened before him with
radiant promise. Henry Alerton neverthe
less .lid not hesitate to turn away From it
all and seek a destiny of tod and hard-
ship in the western wilds of this , lii
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
6 5 ]
try, and with manly and intrepid spirit n
its burdens, braving extremes of heat and cold,
of drought and flood, of loneliness and hunger,
in order that he might in his own way work
out a career without the aid of adventitious cir-
cumstances or fortune's favors, and gratify a
love of adventure that was inherent in his na-
ture. Tie was born at Lockport in western New
York in 1848, the son of John and Hannah
i Newboldt) Alerton. llis father, a native of
England, settled in that portion of tin- state
when a young man and there followed the busi-
ness of a merchant tailor until his death, in
[857, at the age of forty-five. His wife died
when her son Henry was hut two years old,
leaving- nine children, of whom he was next to
the last. He was reared by his uncle. George
Reading, a boot and shoe manufacturer of On-
tario, Canada, and when he was eighteen went
to work in a grocer}- store ami bakery to re-
main two years. At the end of that time he
returned to Lockport and learned photography
under F. B. Clench, of that city. He then
started westward without any settled destina-
tion, hut eager no see the country and find if he
could a desirable location wherein b > establish
himself and accumulate a competency. In the
course of two or three years he reached Trini-
dad, this state, just in time to take part in what
is known locally as the Trinidad war, a sli >r1
and sharp con diet hetween Americans and
Mexicans. His first occupation in this part of
the country was driving cattle for Loring &
Goodnight, cattle kings of that day, in whose
service he made a trip to Texas. \iter tint
he hauled saw logs to the mill to he sawed into
lumber for use in the construction of the new-
Port Lyon, and after the logs were all in he
went into the mill and helped to saw them,
continuing 'it this work until the contract w is
fulfilled, which occupied about six months.
From there he went to Denver and took em-
ployment as clerk for the Tucker Lumber ( Com-
pany, and remained in their service six months.
then going to Cheyenne. Wyoming-, where he
worked for the Union Pacific Railroad until it
was completed, when he went to Califi
and from there made his way to the Comstock
mine in Nevada. During the next five years
he worked in Sutro Tunnel, then made a trip
from Virginia City, that state, to Colorado,
traveling a distance of three thousand two hun-
dred miles through California, New A! ico
and Arizona to Alamosa, this state, crossing the
desert in July when the thermometer regis-
tered one hundred and twenty degrees and go-
ing over the mountains when it was forty de-
below zero, making the whole trip with a
team and wagon. Locating- at Lake City, he
remained five year- conducting summer re-
sorts on the lake, then transferring his 1'
operations to the Uncompahgre valley, he en-
gaged in the cattle business, taking up a part
of his present ranch at the mouth of Happy
Canyon in 1886. The land was covered with
sage brush and all his acquaintances who knew
the conditions prophesied tint he would fail to
make the place productive or continue to live
on it. Plis work was difficult here and full of
discouragements. Put he persevered until now
he has one of the best ranches in this part of
the state, having succeeded in his venture be-
yond all expectations. He has added one hun-
dred and sixty acres to his original tract and
has that also in a good state of cultivation.
Por some years he. was extensively engaged in
the dairy business, raising Shorthorn aid
Jersey cattle and. making large quantiti
butter, hut of late he has given his attention
mainly to fruit culture, having a. very prolific
orchard and raising the finest varieties and
best quality of fruit, his "Flaming Tokey"
grape being unsurpassed, single clusters weigh-
ing as high sometimes as fifteen pounds. He
also has a fine residence and beautiful flower
gardens. He was married in 1869 to Miss
Pliza Furst, a native of Troy, Xew York, who
ably seconds all his efforts.
6.S2
PROGRESSIFE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
STEPHEN WATERS.
Stephen Waters, of Gunnison county, liv-
ing about four and one-half miles from the
interesting little town of Doyle, is one of the
most extensive and enterprising stock-growers
and general farmers of the county, and is one
of the leaders of the stock industry in the
standard and quality of his output as well as
in the extent and importance of his operations,
breeding generally pure Shorthorn and Dur-
ham cattle, and giving them every care that a
wide and studious experience suggests to keep
their standard high and their condition good.
Mr. Waters is a native of the good old state of
Pennsylvania whose record is glorious in peace
and war. on whose soil have grown up mighty
industries which contribute enormously to the
wealth of the country- and the comfort and c< >n-
venience of its people, and from whose teeming
millions go forth to defend their land in times
of attack, vast armies of patriotic men, inspired
by the same zeal for the common welfare when
danger threatens as they exhibit in productive
labor when only the thriving industries of
peace require attention. The place of his birth
was Lebanon county, and his life began there
in 1876, the son of Andrew and Jennie (Mc-
Master) Waters, both natives of the state in
which he was born and passing their lives on
its fruitful soil. The father died in 1879, and
when the subject was three years old, while the
mother is still living at the home of her son .11
Crookston. They had five children. Stephen
being the first born. He remained at home
with irregular and brief attendance at the pub-
lic schools until he reached the age of thirteen,
then took up the burden of life for himself bj
entering a machine shop to learn a useful trade,
and alternating his labors there with \\
neighboring farms. After spending a number
- in this way lie concluded to try his for-
tune in the West and came to Kansas, where lie
remained four or five years engaged in farming
at different places. In 1899 ne settled in Colo-
rado and after a residence of about a year and
a half purchased one hundred and sixty acres
of his present home, which now comprises six
hundred and forty acres, and at once started a
cattle industry on a foundation which promised
large proportions that have been attained even
in sin n't time devoted to building it up. He has
prospered abundantly in his undertaking, in-
creasing his acreag-e as has been stated, and
improving his land with excellent buildings,
modern in completeness and equipment, and
con st meted on a scale of magnitude commen-
surate with the increasing demands upon them.
In January, 1893, Mr. Waters was married to
Miss Bettie Anderson, a native of Ohio, daugh-
ter of Jacob and Mary S. (Kinsley) Anderson,
of her native state. Her father was a carpenter
and farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Waters have had
seven children, Ruie, Eva, Ola and Harry, liv-
ing, and Hattie, Mamie and Evelyn deceased.
LOUIS LUCERO.
Louis Lucero, of Howeville. about twenty-
one miles north of Gunnison, is. as his name
would indicate, of Spanish ancestry and was
born in New Mexico in i860. His father was
Refufio Lucero. and he remained on the pater-
nal homestead until he reached the age of
twenty. He was educated at the schools near
his home and in the varied experience in life
which he has bad since leaving home. For nine
years he lived at various places and was em-
ployed in different occupations as circum-
stances or his inclination directed. In [889 he
settled in Gunnison county, this state, on a
ranch of three hundred and twenty acres near
East river, which he still owns and conducts.
and on which he has built up a thriving and
profitable stock business n\ magnitude and
high character, managing the enterprise with
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
653
skill and systematic industry, and giving to
every detail of its requirements his own per-
sonal and careful attention. He has improved
his land with good buildings ample in scope and
complete in equipment, and adorned with many
evidences of good taste and a progressive
spirit. Being one of the leading men in his
neighborhood he has necessarily a voice of
influence in the affairs of the district and hav-
ing large interests at stake is .wise as well as
active in promoting every element of industrial
and commercial progress and all institutions
of educational or moral usefulness. Mr. Lucero
was married in 1888 to Miss Mary Wilson, a
native of New Mexico. They have six chil-
dren, Emma, Claud. Florence. Louis, Mary
and Garfield. Mr. and Mrs. Lucero are among
the most highly respected citizens of their por-
tion of the county, and have hosts of friends.
SAMUEL H. FARMER.
Samuel H. Farmer, owner and manager of
the properties formerly belonging to the Delta
Orchard Company, located two miles and a
half south of Delta, where he has one hundred
and eighty-five acres of good land and exten-
sive and thrifty orchards, all in a state of abun-
dant productiveness, is a native of Maryville.
Tennessee, where he was born in 1863, and is
the son of Joseph and Angeline (Henry) Far-
mer, who were like himself natives of that
state. The father was a farmer until the
breaking out of the Civil war, and during his
residence in the county was elected sheriff.
When the war began he enlisted in the Union
army and was stationed at Unity in western
Tennessee, where he remained during the term
of his enlistment. When returning home after
his discharge he was drowned in the Missis-
sippi river in 1866. at the age of thirty-four
years. Soon after his widow moved with her
family to Kansas, where she died in 1879, at
the age of thirty-five, and was buried in Chero-
kee county, that state. Their son Samuel passed
his school days at Melrose. Kansas, and at the
age of seventeen started in life for himself.
going to the Indian Territory and there w< irk-
ing at day labor. In 188 1 he received an inher-
itance, a part of which he invested in a livery
business at Siloam Springs, Arkansas, which
he conducted until August. 1883, then sold out
a month later and entered college at Glasgow,
Missouri, where he remained two years, and
being taken ill then was obliged to return to his
Arkansas home at Siloam Springs. After
remaining there a year he came to Pueblo, Col-
orado, in June, 1887, for his health and re-
mained there until the following' September,
when he hired to the Knight-Basic Cattle ( ',< >m-
pany, with which he remained until November
1st. After that he worked for A. L. Bonney
for a year herding cattle. The next two years
were passed by him in improving property on
the California mesa in Delta county. In the
fall of 1890 he began ranching for himself and
in the next three seasons raised over eighteen
thousand bushels of grain on the California
mesa. In the fall of 1893 he moved to south-
west Missouri where he remained eighteen
months engaged in the grocery business, return-
ing to Delta, this state, in the spring of 1895.
During the next six years he was employed in
contract work in ditching and planting
orchards, and followed that until February.
1891, at which time he bought out the Delta
Orchard Company, securing a tract of one hun-
dred and eighty-five acres of land which was
well improved and had fine and productive
orchards already on it. hut which he has since
made much more attractive and valuable with
the improvements he has added, and far more
fruitful by the attention he has given the
orchards ami the additions he has made to
them. He is recognized as one of the leading
fruit-erowers of this section of the state, and
654
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLOR
raises also large quantities of grain and general
farm produce. On January i. 18(33, ne was
united in marriage with Miss Susie M. Dun-
lap, at their present home, and six children
have blessed their union, J. Floyd, Elison Les-
ter, Chester H., Helen A., Joseph S. and Har-
old P.
CHRISTIAN BOSSE.
Christian Bosse, one of the prominent and
successful ranchmen of Montrose count}-, with
a beautifully located ranch on the California
mesa, six miles south of Delta, is a native of
Elsas. one of the provinces of Germany which
was wrenched from France by the unhappy for-
tunes of war, and was born there in 1835, the
son of Henry and Mary (Madalena) Bosse.
His father was a German by nativity, but was a
Frenchman in feeling, and served for years on
the staff of the great Napoleon, and often
regaled the ears of his offspring with thrilling
incidents of the wars conducted by that mighty
commander. The mother was a thorough
Frenchwoman, true to the interests of her
country, and filled with admiration of its great-
ness. She died in 1864, at the age of sixty
years. Their son Christian remained at home
in his native land until he was ten years old,
and in 1846 came to the United States to live
with an uncle in New York, with whom he re-
mained two years, then went to Philadelphia
and learned the carpenter's trade. That city
was his home until the beginning of the Civil
war when he enlisted in the Union army as a
member of Company B. Forty-fifth Pennsyl-
vania Infantry, for a term of nine months. At
the end of this term he re-enlisted, becoming
a member of Company D, One Hundred and
Eighteenth Pennsylvania Infantry, in which
he served to the end of the war. being dis-
charged at Washington. I). C., on July 6, 1N0;.
His regiment was in active field service during
most of the contest and he saw much of the
hardships and suffering of war, and faced
death on many a sanguinary field, but escaped
without serious disaster. After the war he
lived in Ohio for nearly three years engaged in
farming, and from there went to Iowa where
he worked at his trade for about a year and a
half, leaving in 1869 for Colorado. Here he
was engaged at carpenter work and farming
for about twelve years in various localities. In
[882 he came to Montrose county and settled
on the California mesa, where he has since fol-
lowed ranching with industry and vigor and
with gratifying results, and given intelligent
and valued aid in developing and building up
the section. In politics he is a Republican, but
he is not a hide-bound partisan, usually voting
in local affairs for the man he considers best
fitted for the office. He was married in 1870
to Miss Margaret Jess, and they have two chil-
dren, William L. and Mary. He and his wife
are highly esteemed by a large circle of cordial
friends and their home is much sought as a
place of pleasant entertainment.
WILLIAM WEBBER.
William Webber, of Mount Carbon, Gun-
nison count}', living on a ranch which he pur-
chased some years ago one mile east of the vil-
lage, is a native of England and was connected
with the coal mining interests of the section in
which he lives for a period of twenty-one years.
Ilis parents were James and Harriett Webber,
also natives of England, as their forefathers
were For generations. The}- lived, labored and
died in their native land, and their remains rest
beneath its soil. William, the son, was reared
and educated in England, ami there acquired a
practical knowledge of mining. When he
reached years of maturity he emigrated to
America, and coming to Colorado, settled at
Baldwin, Gunnison count}-, where be lived
twenty one years connected with the coal min-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
ing industry there, during much of llie time
running- an engine for In listing coal. At the
end of the period named he bought the ranch
on which he now has his home in the neighbor-
hood of Mount Carl ion, and since then has been
profitably engaged in ranching and raising
cattle, although he still has an interest in the
mines. His advent into this part of the coun-
try was at an interesting time, when the rail-
road was just completed, and gave him an op-
portunity to cross Alpine Ridge on the first
passenger train that made its way over that
elevation. In politics Mr. Webber is a firm
Republican, but while he takes an earnest inter-
est in the success of his party he does not him-
self seek its honors or positions of profit, being
content with the management of bis business
which affords scope for all bis time and energy,
except what may lie required and is freely
given to aid in the general welfare and ad-
vancement of the community. He is held in
good esteem by his friends and neighbors, and
throughout the community generally.
HARVEY W. STANLEY.
Many a man of vigor and enterprise, who is
willing to face fate in almost any held without
craven fear of consequences, after being tossed
by circumstances or led by inclination into
numerous localities and various occupations for
years, even if commanding them to his advan-
tage, turns at last with some degree of eager-
ness to the vocation of the old patriarchs and
finds in it the peace of mind and health of body
others have failed to give, and also sources of
fortune's pleasing smiles. In this number must
be placed Harvey W. Stanley, of Gunnison
count}-, Colorado, one of the prosperous and
contented ranchmen and stockgrowers of the
Western slope, dwelling- on his own estate
about nine miles north of Gunnison. He has
tried his hand at several lines of work in differ-
ent places, and while a number yieldei
returns, lie has found in what now engages
him employment best suited to his taste and
opportunities for permanent success and pros-
perity. He was born at Whitehall, Michigan,
in i Si 17, the son of John and Avira L. (Young),
Stanley, now esteemed residents of Gum
county. The father was a native of Indiana.
and after a short residence in Michigan, went
in 1874 to western Kansas, where he bought
a small tract of land on which he founded the
town of Hill City. He was somewhat in
advance of the tide of emigration and the coun-
try was wild and unproductive. The conven-
iences and even many of the ordinary comforts
of life were unattainable, and the necessaries
were often scant in volume and unpalatable in
condition. He and his little band of associates
suffered many hardships, and in the spring of
1880 Mr. Stanley left his venture to its fate
and moved to Denver, this state. Here he
engaged in raising sheep two years, then
migrated to Canada where he remained seven-
teen years. At the end of that period he
returned to Colorado and settled permanently
in Gunnison county, where he died June 15,
1904. His wife, who is a native of Canada, is
still living and pleasantly situated after her
many wanderings. They w-ere the parents of
seven children, five of whom are living. Harvey
being the sixth in the order of birth. His boy-
hood was passed in Michigan, Kansas and
Colorado, and owing to the circumstances of
the family and their migratory life, his oppor-
tunities for attending school were very few
and broken. At the age of seventeen he appren-
ticed himself to learn the trade of a machinist.
At the end of his three years' apprenticeship
he located in the neighborhood of Colorado
Springs and turned his attention to raising-
stock and ranching, w^hich he followed two
years. After spending six months thereafter
in Gunnison county he took up his residence at
65.6
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Telluride and for three years was in the employ
of an electric company. Returning to Gunni-
son county, he engaged in lumbering four,
years, then bought the ranch he now owns and
i hi which he has since made his home. It com-
prises two hundred acres, affording an excel-
lent basis for his stock industry and the farm-
ing incidental thereto, being well fitted for the
purpose in location, improvements, state of
cultivation and equipment. Mr. Stanley was
married in 1893 to Miss Elizabeth Stevens, and
three children have come to brighten their
household and sanctify their domestic altar,
William A., Grace E. and Thomas E.
GEORGE SMITH.
George Smith, of Mesa county, one of the
foremost and most successful bee-culturists in
this portion of the state, is a native of Pennsyl-
vania, born in 1861, and the son of Michael
and Sarah Smith. His parents were both
natives of Pennsylvania, the former born near
Pittsburg and the latter in Bedford county.
The father was a baker in Pittsburg and died
there about forty years ago. The mother soon
afterward moved to her native count}' and is
now living there, aged about sixty-five. Their
son George remained at home until he was
aboul eight years old. and then the circum-
stances of the family obliged him to go out and
do what he could to earn his own livelihood.
He secured employment on farms in the neigh-
borhood, and devoted himself to farm labor
and other odd jobs until he reached the age of
twenty-two, in the meantime finding opportun-
ity 1" attend the district schools near at hand
in an irregular and fragmentary way at inter-
vals, thus scooping, as it were, here and there
a handful of the invigorating waters of knowl-
edge as they bubbled and sparkled across bis
hard and toilsome way. In 1887 he began his
course westward, coming to Nebraska where
he was occupied on a ranch about eighteen
months. He then came to Colorado and, loca-
ting in the South Park, became a valued helper
on a cattle ranch, remaining at that post about
two years. He soon afterward moved to the
ranch which is his present home, and on which
he conducts a flourishing industry in bee-cul-
ture and the production of honey of the finest
grade. He has made a study of the business
and has been eminently successful in the man-
agement and development of it. His apiary is
equipped with every modern device approved
in the industry, and his colonies are of the
highest grade and most healthy strains. His
enterprise is one of the interesting and profit-
able productivities of the community, and adds
life to trade and wealth to the county. He is
well esteemed as a leading business man and a
wholesome factor in public life. In 1885 he
was married to Miss Amanda Metz.
J. M. HARRIS.
The cattle industry of Gunnison count;.'.
Colorado, is great in magnitude and mighty in
commercial importance, and every day on the
ranges and in the valleys where it is conducted
are enacted the comedies and trag-edies whose
vivid portrayal in the mimic arena thrill the
older communities with interest and delight,
but here they are only ordinary experiences and
scarcely awaken more than a passing thought.
Still, through them and the volume and im-
portance of the business, the industry has laid
all sections of our common country under trib-
ute to its expanding requirements, and as the
demand for its products increased the produc-
ers have kept coming and the business has con-
tinued to grow. Among the number of men of
brain and brawn who have been attracted to its
promising fields is J. M. Harris, of Howeville,
who lias a well improved and productive ranch
.if two hundred acres in the East river country,
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
and who is one of the energetic and progres-
sive contributors to this vast volume of trade.
He is a native of Ohio, born in 1848, the son
of Eli and Marris (Eveline) Harris, who were
natives and worthy citizens of that state. The
father died there in 1891, having survived his
wife twenty-six years, she having passed away
m 1805. Their son, who is the subject of this
narrative, grew to manhood and was educated
in his native state, and after reaching years of
maturity rented a farm there and conducted it
for two years. In 1872 he moved to Missouri
and there worked in the mines for seven years.
He then came to Leadville, this state, which
was at the time the Mecca of gold seekers from
all over the world, and for two years was
engaged in freighting to and from that camp.
In 1883 he moved to Gunnison county and set-
tled permanently on the ranch he now occupies
near East river. Here he has devoted his ener-
gies to the production of a high grade of cattle
for the markets, at the same time giving proper
care to keeping up the breeds and maintaining
the standard of condition and general excel-
lence at which he aimed in the inception of his
enterprise. Mr. Harris is unmarried, but is
none the less interested in the general growth
ami progress of his section of the county, ami
omits no effort en his part to advance its ele-
ments of substantial good and promote its wel-
fare in every way. He is accorded a high
place in the respect and good will of his fellow
men as a force of potency and influence in the
public life of the community, and a citizen
whose daily life accords with elevated ideals of
public duty and private worth.
DR. B. B. SLICK.
Active in several lines of life. Dr. B. B.
Slick, one of the leading professional men of
Ouray county, one of its prominent physicians
and surgeons, and a noted hunter throughout
a wide scope of the western country, illustrates
admirably the versatility and general adaptive-
ness of American manhood and its indifference
to circumstances as a controlling force in any
essential way. He was born in Washington.
D. C, September 6. 1867, and is the son of I >r.
Josiah and Caroline (Ferris) Slick, the former
a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Fair-
fax Court House, Virginia. When he was yet
very young his parents moved to Iowa, and
from there soon afterward to Albion, Nebras-
ka, then to Gibbon, Nebraska, where the Doc-
tor received his scholastic training in the public
schools. After leaving school he was for a
number of years a range rider. In that danger-
ous and invigorating life he gained strength
and suppleness of body and independence of
spirit, with reliance on himself for almost any
emergency and a resourcefulness that made
him ready for it. In 1887 he began the study
of medicine at the Gross Medical College in
Denver, and was graduated from that institu-
tion in 1891. He then settled at Minturn.
Eagle county, and engaged in the practice of
his profession there until 1892, when he came
to Ridgway. where he has since been similarly
occupied. Here he has become well established
in the profession and also in the public life of
the community. He has built up a large and
lucrative business in his chosen line which num-
bers aiming us patrons many of the leading and
most representative citizens of the county. In
his professional work he makes a good use of
the natural good judgment with which nature
has endowed him in applying the results of his
careful and systematic study, and has withal
a' wide and accurate knowledge of human
nature which is of very material service in his
practice. But devoted as he is to his profes-
sion, and exacting as he finds it, he is still able
to indulge and cultivate his taste for outdoor
manly sports, and continues in the maturity of
his manhood the habit of hunting which was
i'lWu.-RESSll'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO-
one of the acquisitions of his early life; and
as a Nimrod he has a wide and well-earned
reputation both for his general knowledge of
the sport and his success in the enjoyment of it.
He is also interested in mining to good pur
pose. In 1891, at Minturn, he was married to
Miss Lela M. Palmer, a daughter of Dr. N. E.
Palmer, of Iowa. They have five children, Nel-
son Earle, Bee. Bessie, Bruce and Dorothy.
H. VON HAGEN.
H. Von Hagen, the largest land owner in
Ouray county, and 1 iccupying one of the most
beautiful and completely equipped rural homes
in Colorado with an extensive and profitable
stock industry to furnish him a reliable and
considerable income, seems proof against the
winds of adversity and may laugh a siege oi
fortune's buffets to scorn. What is more to his
credit and comfort, his possessions are the
legitimate results of his own industry, thrift
and business capacity and those of his parents.
Mr. Von Hagen was born in Germany in 1862,
the son of Otto and Adelaide Von Hagen, also
natives there, and emigrating from that coun-
try to this state in 1869. On their arrival here
they settled near Colorado City and engaged
in the stock business on a large scale. In 1876
they changed their residence where their son
now lives, and continued their industry, build-
ing up an unusually extensive business and
making their ranch one of the choice estates
in this part of the commonwealth. It is known
as the Pleasant Valley stock farm and com-
prises two thousand, five hundred acres of r\
cellent land, on which Mr. Von Hagen now
runs about one thousand, five hundred thor-
oughbred and high grade cattle and a large
band of well-bred horses. The ranch is located
six miles west of Ridgway. and by means of
tin' railroad there is a ready means of ship-
ment for the output of tin- place and easy reach
to the best markets. Mr. Von Hagen is a
careful herdsman, feeding his stock all winter
and thereby suffers no losses through exposure
to the weather and scarcity of provender. On
this place his parents expended the energies of
their later life, and here when their labors were
ended they lay down to their long rest, the
father dying in 1893 and the mother in 1897.
Their offspring numbered eight, four of whom
are living, but the subject of these paragraphs
is the only one residing in this neighborhood.
In the public life of the community he has
always taken an active and serviceable interest,
contributing everything for the erection of his
home schoolhouse, and leaving his impress in
generosity and enterprise on almost all under-
takings for the advancement and general im-
provement of the section in which he lives. He
is known far and wide as one of the most pro-
gressive and public-spirited citizens of the
county, and stands well in the esteem of all his
fellow citizens, not only for his qualities as a
broad-minded and capable aid in the develop-
ment of the region in which he has cast his lot,
but also as a man of high character, generous
impulses, agreeable social qualities and a
wealth of world wisdom which is everywhere
and always useful and freely available to all
who seek his counsel. He is a member of the
order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias and the
Modern Woodmen of America, and each of
these orders has felt the force of his influence
and the benefit of his energy. In 1895 he was
married to Miss Lucy Woodhouse, a native of
Xew Jersey, who came to this section with her
parents in early life. Their family consists of
four daughters, Alma, Elizabeth, Hilda and
Dora.
GEORGE E. OVERMAN.
Pleasantly established on an excellent ranch
of eighty-five acres three miles west of Ridg-
way, and a pioneer of the county who came
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
659
here in 1877, George F. Overman is a good
representative of the Ouray county fanner,
who by thrift and industry lias acquired a com-
petence and is securely fixed in the confidence
and good will of his fellow men. He is a native
of Indiana, burn on August 16, 1855. the son
of John and Maria Overman, the former a
native of Kentucky and the latter of Indiana.
In early life the father emigrated with his
parents to the place of the mother's nativity
and there grew to manhood, was educated and
when he reached maturity was married. When
their son George was thirteen years old they
moved to Missouri, and after a residence of
two years in that state, came farther west to
Kansas. There George reached years of matur-
ity and completed in the public schools of that
state the education he had begun in those of
Indiana and continued in those of Missouri. In
1877, at the age of twenty-two, he drove a band
of cattle from Kansas to this state and find-
ing the country promising, he homesteaded a
tract two miles above the land on which he
now lives. In 1887 he sold that and bought
his present place and has since been engaged
in the stock business. He now has a beautiful
ranch of eighty-five acres on which he has
built a comfortable and commodious residence
and other necessary buildings, and which by
systematic and skillful labor he has made one
of the attractive and valuable farms of his sec-
tion. His stock industry comprises horses and
cattle, and he omits no effort on his pari to
keep his standards high and the condition of
his stock first-class. In 1879 his parents also
came to this count}-, and here the father died in
1897, since which time the mother has lived
at Ridgway. Mr. Overman was married in
1888 at Portland, Colorado, being united with
Miss Lizzie Hays, a native of Texas, and they
have one^ child, their son Clyde. In the affairs
of the county, and particularly those of his im-
mediate communitv the head of the house takes
an active and helpful interest. In November,
1904, he was elected a county commis:
for a term of four years, on the Democratic
ticket. He has been especially zealous in the
cause of public education, serving for a number
of years as a member of the school board. In
all the relations of life he has lived acceptably
and he stands well in the communitv.
james r. Mcdonald.
James R. McDonald, one of the prominent
and successful farmers and stock-growers of
Ouray county, is a typical pioneer, well versed
in woodcraft, fearless of danger from man or
beast or the elements, laughing hardships and
privations to scorn, and ever ready for any
duty that fate may mete out to him. He has
lived in Colorado since 1868, and has partaken
of all the phases of life incident to her early
settlement and subsequent growth and develop-
ment. He was born in Glengarry county, On-
tario, Canada, on the banks of the St. Law-
rence, in 1845, and is the son of Ronald and
Margaret McDonald, of the same nativity as
himself. He comes of a martial strain, his
great-grandfather, John McDonald, having
fought in the French and Indian war under
Washington, and borne himself valiantly in the
struggle. After the war he settled in Canada,
and there he and his wife ended their days.
There also the father and mother lived and
died, and there the son grew to manhood and
was prepared for the 'duties of life. After
reaching his maturity he emigrated to Pennsvl-
vania, and a few years later moved to Michi-
gan. In both states he followed lumbering,
spending six years in the pine forests oi the lat-
ter as bookkeeper. He then made a trip
through the territories looking for business
opportunities, but returned to Michigan, where
he remained until 1872. In that year he came
west again and located in what is now Park
6oo
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
county, Colorado, where he engaged in mining
for a year. In 1873 he moved to the San Jaun
country, and there he continued his mining
operations until 1875. Then he came to Ouray
county and, in company with George Scott, he
built the first house in what is now the town of
Ouray. In 1877 he was appointed the first
marshal of the district and in 1878 located the
farm on which he now lives, and began the
enterprise in farming and raising stock in
which he has ever since been engaged. He has
(Hie hundred and sixty-seven acres of fine val-
ley land on which he raises excellent crops and
breeds superior grades of stock, having as
pleasant a home and all the necessary appur-
tenances for the vigorous and successful man-
agement of his business. Like others of the old
settlers, Mr. McDonald experienced all the hor-
rors of Indian warfare and all the cruelty of
Indian treachery. He was in this country and
took an active part in suppressing the outbreak
of 1875 and elsewhere and in an individual
capacity he confronted the arrows of savage
hatred of the white race and helped to over-
come its resistance to the onward march of
civilization. He had many thrilling adventures
and numerous narrow escapes. In his mining
operations also he experienced all the varied
emotions incident to the calling, now successful
in this work, discovering some very valuable
properties, and now losing all he had in unex-
pected and unavoidable turns in fortune's
wheel. He was married at Colorado Springs
in 1878, to Miss Mary Hasmer. a native of
.Missouri. They are the parents of seven chil-
dren. Ronald. John A.. Alexander, James,
Neal, .Mamie and Kate.
HOX. JOHN M. WARDLAW.
Popular as a citizen, esteemed in social cir-
cles, having a high rank in his profession, and
loi ked upon as a progressive ami broad minded
man, Hon. John M. Wardlaw, county judge of
San .Miguel county, has honestly won by his
own merits and capacity the high position in
which he stands among the people of his
county and his professional brethren. He is .1
native of South Carolina, born on November
2. 1870, and a pioneer of 1889 in Colorado.
His parents were Andrew C. and Mary F.
(Smith) Wardlaw, like himself native in South
Carolina, and there he lived until he reached
the age of seventeen, being educated in. the Uni-
versity of Anderson, at Anderson, South Caro-
lina. He then sought a new home and the
expansion of his fortunes in Wisconsin, and as
a preliminary to his future efforts, entered a
business college in that state where he followed
a complete commercial course and in due time
was graduated. After leaving this institution
he took up his residence in Chicago, and was
employed by the Western Union Telegraph
Company as an operator in that city. After
two years passed in the service of the company
there he was sent to Missouri in the same
capacity: and from there he came to Pueblo,
this state, where he continued in the same line.
In 1891 he was transferred to Telluride as
manager of the company's office in that city. In
the meantime, during his wanderings he had
been industriously occupied in the study of law.
and in 1896 was admitted to the liar. In the fall
of that year he was nominated by the Republi-
cans as their candidate for county judge, but
was defeated in the election. He resigned his
position with the telegraph company and
devoted himself to the practice of his profes-
sion; and in 1898 he was again nominated for
county judge and was elected. At the expira-
tion of his term in kjot he was re-elected, hav-
ing discharged his official duties in a manner
eminently satisfactory to all classes of people.
In the interim between his admission to the bar
and his first election to the judgeship he was
also engaged in newspaper work, and is now
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
66i
the owner and editor of the San Miguel Exam-
iner, one of the progressive and wide-awake
journals of southwestern Colorado. In frater-
nal relations the Judge is connected with the
Masonic fraternity, and in its progress and
beneficent work he takes an active interest. He
was married at Telluride in 1893 to Miss Min-
nie Behm, a native of Chicago. In all the ele-
ments of the progress and improvement of the
section in which he has cast his lot the Judge
is deeply and intellectually interested : and he
approaches all public questions with a broad
and catholic spirit that is in harmony with the
genius of American institutions. Young in years
and in professional and official life, vigorous in
mind and body, and with all his aspirations in
touch with the loftiest ideals and the best attri-
butes of American citizenship and the spirit of
the age, he would seem to have a long and use-
ful career before him.
ALBERT HOLMES.
Albert Holmes, of Telluride. who during
the last twenty-one years has faithfully served
the people of San Miguel county as a justice of
the peace, and the town of Telluride seventeen
years as police judge, is a native of New York
city, where he was born on November 10. 1829.
He is the son of Albert and Johanna Holmes.
the former a native of Massachusetts and the
latter of New York. Their son Albert grew to
manhood in the city of his nativity, and was
educated in the public schools. After leaving
school he learned the trade of carpenter, and
in 1855. when he was twenty-six years of age.
went to Michigan where for a number of years
he was employed at his trade and engaged in
the furniture business. He also served three
years at his trade in that state as a justice of
the peace. In 1882 he came to what is now
San Miguel count}-, this state, and went to
work at his trade. But in the fall of that year
he was elected to the office of justice of the
peace, and he has held the office continuously
since that time by successive re-elections. Dur-
ing this long period of twenty-three years he
lias also served seventeen years as police judge
of the city of Telluride, and in both capacities
he has given such general satisfaction that
there has been no demand for a change in the
personnel of the official. He was married in
Michigan, in 1862, to Miss Clementine Dolly,
also a native of New York city, whose parents
moved to Michigan in its territorial days. She
died at Telluride on July 7. 1891, leaving no
children. The Judge has a pleasant home in
the city which is a center of generous and con-
siderate hospitality, where his hosts of friends
are always sure of a cordial welcome. Besides
being an important factor in preserving the
peace of the community and establishing the
forms and administering the spirit of the law,
he has been active in even- good work for
building up and improving the county and
increasing the comfort and conveniences of its
people. He is highly esteemed as a citizen,
held in cordial regard as a friend, and has the
ci nifidence and good will of the whole commun-
ity.
CHARLES S. WATSON.
Charles S. Watson, county superintendent
of the public schools in San Miguel count)-,
this state, and for nearly a quarter of a century
active in the development and progress of the
state, is a native of Canada, born on the soil of
the dominion on April 21, 1845. ail( l the son
of Stephen and Hannah M. (Kinyon) Watson,
the former a native of England and the latter
of New York. The father came to the United
States with his parents when he was but a year
old, and after reaching years of maturity and
getting married moved to Canada, and while
he and his wife were living in that country,
their son was horn. When he was three years
662
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
old they returned to New York and two years
later moved to Michigan. There the son
Charles grew to manhood and received his edu-
cation, attending high and normal schools in
that state, and afteward took a thorough col-
lege course at his home. In 1866 he went on
the Mississippi river and learned the business
of a pilot, at which he was employed two years,
then returned home and engaged in farming
in ilie summer seasons and in teaching school
in the winters until 188 1, when he came to
Colorado and settled at Telluride. The town
had just been started and for a time he turned
his attention to mining, later building a hotel
which he conducted for a number of years. In
18S3 he was appointed clerk of the district
court and for fifteen years in succession he was
continued in this office. In 1887 he was also
elected county clerk and to this office he was
once re-elected, serving two terms in all. At-
tracted by the gold excitement of 1898 in
Alaska, he made a trip to that country in that
year, going two thousand miles into the inter-
ior. The next year he returned to this state,
and in 1900 went to Prince of Wales
Island. Coming back to Washington, he
made another trip to Alaska, going to
Cape Nome, and from there returned
once more to Prince of Wales Island
where he bought a small sailing- vessel in which
he came again to the Pacific and then made a
prospecting trip over Washington, Oregon,
Nevada, Arizona and Mexico. He located a
number of valuable properties in Arizona which
he still owns. In 1902 he once more took up
his residence at Telluride and was appointed
county school superintendent, a position which
he is still filling and in which he has won gold-
en opinions for his capacity and the vigor of
his administration. Mr. Watson's life has been
a busy one, and he has employed his opportuni-
ties to good purpose. He owns considerable
town property at Telluride and elsewhere, has
mining claims of value, as has been stated, and
has other possessions of extensive worth. He
belongs to the Masonic fraternity, being a
charter member of the lodge at Telluride, and
in its welfare he takes an active and intelligent
interest. In 1875, while living in Michigan,
he was united in marriage with Miss Almira
McClellan, a native of that state. They have
two children, their son Charles Lee. the law
partner of Congressman Hogg of this state,
and a resident of Telluride; and their daughter
Belle, the wife of Harry Turner, of Durango,
and former superintendent of the schools in
San Miguel county.
VINCENT U. RODGERS.
Vincent U. Rodgers occupies two impor-
tant positions in the public life of San Miguel
county, being clerk of the district court and city
treasurer of Telluride, and has risen to the con-
sequence and high standing that he enjoys
through the exhibition of business capacity,
good character and a diligent and intelligent
attention to duty. He is a native of Pennsyl-
vania, where he was born on May 6, 1869" and
the son of D. S. and Eleanor (McLaughlin)
Rodgers. also natives of that state. In his
home state he grew to manhood and received
his education. After completing the public
school course in the vicinity of his home he
attended the Bryant & Stratton Business
College at Buffalo, New York. In 1887 the
family moved to Colorado and located at Du-
rango, where the father engaged in mining and
the son in newspaper work, he having previ-
ously learned the trade of a printer, lie moved
to Telluride in 1894 and became bookkeeper
and stenographer for the Tomboy Mining
Company, remaining in its employ two years.
He then entered the employ of Mr. Painter in
the insurance business at which he continued
until he was appointed clerk of the district
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
663
court in 1898. He then established an insur-
ance and real estate business of his own. and
this he has built up to good proportions and
made very profitable. In 1003 he was elected
city treasurer of Telluride, and re-elected in
1905, and since then he has performed his dual
official functions with the same diligence and
conscientious attention that he gives to his
private business. He also owns valuable ranch
property and stock and has a one-half interest
in the lease on the San Bernardo mine. He is
prominent in the Masonic order, belonging to
lodge, chapter, commander}- and consistory, and
serves as secretary of each of the local bodies.
He also belongs to the order of Elks and is
secretary of his lodge at Telluride. His suc-
cess in life is the legitimate result of his enter-
prise and public-spirit and he has honestly
earned the general esteem in which he is held
throughout the county. Young, active and
capable, with vigorous physical health and
worthy ambitions, he may confidently look
forward to a career of usefulness and honor.
MILTON EVANS.
A pioneer of 1876 in Colorado, and one of
the first miners in what is now San Miguel
county, where he has ever since been an active
and prominent man deeply interested in all
public affairs, and giving his time and atten-
tion freely to their proper management, Milton
Evans, of Placerville, has witnessed the growth
of the region from a wilderness practically
unbroken save for the numerous mining camps
which were opened in it from time to time, to
its present prosperous and progressive condi-
tion blessed with all the elements and fruitful
with the products of civilized and cultivated
life. He was born in Ohio on May 13. 1834,
and is the son of James and Mary O. Evans.
He remained at home until he readied the age
of twentv-one and received his education in
the schools of his native county. Then in 1856
he turned eagerly from the associations and
scenes of his childhood, youth and early man-
hood to the inviting fields for enterprise in the
farther West and moved to Iowa where he
remained ten years engaged in farming'. In
1866 he crossed the plains with his own ox
teams to Salt Lake City, and from there made
a trip northward through Idaho and Montana,
stopping for a time at Fort Benton. He there
took passage on a steamboat down the Mis-
souri river to his former home in Iowa, and
during the next eight or nine years was occu-
pied in the grain and stock business. In [876
he came to Colorado and located in what is
now San Miguel count}-, which later he helped
to organize. Here in the neighborhood of the
present town of Telluride he engaged in min-
ing, being the first man to follow the industry
in that section. He was also an early prospec-
tor and miner where Ophir now stands, and
was actively concerned in opening up the whole
region to the hopes and the employments of
men. In 1877 he bought an interest in the
Nevada Mining Company, soon after selling a
part of his stock for seven thousand, five hun-
dred dollars. He has since been offered forty
thousand dollars for the rest of his stock in this
company, but has refused to sell and still owns
it and has charge of the property. He also has
interests in other mines in this locality, and has
shipped ore from ten of them. In 1890 he set-
tled at Placerville, and here he has charge of
the Copper Basin Mining Company and the
Placerville Gold and Copper Mining Company.
At the same time, while looking out for his own
interests and building up his own fortunes, he
has been active and zealous in promoting the
welfare of the section and aiding in its progress
and development. He was influential in organ-
izing the county and served as one of its first
county commissioners, holding the office eight
vears. For many vears he has belonged to the
664
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
order of Odd Fellows and has been active and
influential in its work and history. He was
married in 1856 before leaving Ohio, to Miss
Eliza Brown, a native of Virginia, who died in
1878 in Iowa, leaving four children. James W.,
Herbert C, Milton A. and Sarah. The sons
live in San Miguel county, Colorado, and the
daughter is a resident of Minneapolis. He was
married a second time in 1884, being united on
this occasion to Miss Nellie Steele, a native of
New York, the wedding occurring at Durango,
this state. She died in 1887, leaving no chil-
dren.
HENRY COPP.
Henry Copp, merchant and postmaster of
Norwood, San Miguel county, a pioneer of
1872 in this state, is a native of England, burn
in 1832, and the son of Josiah and Eliza Copp,
who were also natives of that country. When
their son Henry was twelve years old the fam-
ily emigrated to the United States and located
at St. Louis, Missouri, where he grew to man-
hood and was educated. In 1852 he crossed
the plains with ox teams to California and.
locating at Nevada City, followed there his
trade as a baker, which he had learned before
leaving home. After a few years in this voca-
tion he engaged in mining at that point until
1861, being at one time a partner of that fam-
ous miner, John Mackey. In 1861 he made a
prospecting tour through Idaho and Montana
in which he was very successful in discovering
and locating valuable properties. In 1872 he
came to the San Juan county, this state, and
followed mining in the Silverton and Ouray
districts, and also conducted a linker}- at Ouray
for five years. During a portion of this time he
was associated in his mining operations with
Judge Stevens and they sold one mine for forty
thousand dollars. In 1887 he located where
Norwood now stands and built the first house
on the mesa, paying fifty-nine dollars per thou-
sand feet for the lumber used for the purpose,
all of which had to be transported to the site on
pack horses. He took up a homestead here and
in 1888 got a postofnee established and was
appointed postmaster, a position that he has
held continuously since that time. He has also
been engaged in merchandising here for a num-
ber of years, and has served twelve as a notary
public. He is an earnest member of the
Masonic order, having organized the
lodge to which he belongs and served
as its first master. He was first married
to Miss Annie Lidcly, a native of New
Orleans, in California, where she died, leaving
one son, Herbert J. Copp. who is still a resi-
dent of that state. In 1896, in San Miguel
county, he married a second wife, Miss Lucy
J. Cooper, a native of Ohio. Mr. Copp owns a
fine ranch adjoining the town of Norwood and
also considerable city property. He is one of
the leading and representative men in this part
of the county.
ALFRED DUNHAM.
Alfred Dunham, who owns and lives on an
excellent and highly valuable ranch of four
hundred and eighty acres adjoining the tc w n of
Norwood, San Miguel county, is a native of
the farther West in this country, and in
spirit, enterprise, breadth of view and inde-
pendence, as well as in business capacity, is
wholly one of its admired products. He was
born in California on January 22, i860, and is
the son of John and Susan (Rae) Dunham.
natives of Pennsylvania and Ohio respectively.
In 1849 tne bather joined the argonauts to 1 lie
Pacific coast, crossing the plains to California,
where he engaged in raising stock until 1873.
Then the family moved to Colorado, locating
in Huerfano county. Here they continued
their operations in the stock industry for two
years, then moved the business to the Durango
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
665
region, and conducted it there until 1880. At
that time he moved to the Dolores county, and
from there soon afterward came to the Disap-
pointment. Here he remained until 1809, when
the son came to Norwood and bought the land
on which he has since made his home. In addi-
tion to the home place of four hundred and
eighty acres he owns range land on which he
runs about one thousand cattle which are bred
with care and kept up to a high standard of
excellence. Mr. Dunham has been very suc-
cessful in bis business and has become one of
the wealthy and influential men of the county,
having a potent voice in the promotion of every
commercial, industrial and educational enter-
prise, and occupying a leading place in every
line of public life. Of the fraternal societies
numerous and admired among men he has
joined but one. the Knights of Pythias. His
first marriage occurred at Dolores in 188] and
was with Miss Annie Johnson, a native of Mis-
souri, who died in 1894 leaving five children,
Mabel, Arthur. Ollie. Ethel and Alfred, the last
named being since deceased. In 1898 Mr.
Dunham married a second wife. Miss Lizzie
Rusk, also a native of Missouri. They have
two children, their daughter Florence and son
Roderic. Mr. Dunham's mother died in [880,
and his father is also deceased.
CHARLES TRUAX.
Charles Truax, who was one of the lead-
ing business men and extensive merchants of
Norwood, San Miguel county, has lived in this
state since he was three years of age. and has
been active in the development of its resources
and the advancement of its progress from his
youth. lie is a native of New Mexico, born
on January 16. i860, and the son of James am!
Paulina Truax. the former born and reared in
Canada and the latter in New Hampshire. In
[863 the family moved to Colorado and lo-
cated at Denver, having their home where the
heart of the city now is. There the parents
passed the remainder of their lives and ended
their days. There also their son Charles grew
to manhood and received his education. After
leaving school he engaged in business in the
capital city for a few years, and in 1888 moved
to San Miguel county where he took up land
and began farming and raising stock. He fol-
lowed this business for some years, then sold
his farm and opened a merchandising estab-
lishment. He had a fine, large stone store
building, and his enterprise embraced trade in
all lines of a general mercantile business, car-
rying a large and well selected stock of all kinds
of commodities suited to the community. He
also carried on extensive operations in the meat
industry, conducting' a lively and up-to-date
meat market with every appliance for its most
judicious management, and a stock of goods
well adapted to every need of bis patrons.
Nothing in the way of enterprise, breadth of
view and good business capacity was wanting
to the completeness of his various departments
or the wise and vigorous management of the
business. In the public and social life of die
community Mr. Truax is also wisely and earn-
estly interested, and his time and energy is
freely given to the promotion of every element
of progress in the town and county. He is
looked upon as one of the leading and most
representative citizens of this portion of the
state, and by his industry and public spirit jus-
tifies the estimate. With membership in the
Masonic order, the Odd Fellows, the Daugh-
ters of Rebekah ami the Woodmen of the
World, lie is prominent in fraternal circles and
of great service in their various activities. He
was married at Denver on February 1. 1881,
to Miss Annie Johnson, a native of Sweden,
and they have had one child, their son Harold,
now deceased. Mr. Truax's brother George
is the inventor of the Truax automatic ore cai
666
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
He also has a brother named Warren and a sis-
ter named Ruse, who are die only surviving
members of the family.
JAMES Q. WAGGONER.
James O. Waggi mer, one of the prominent
and progressive farmers and stock men of the
Paradox valley in Montrose county, and an im-
portant factor in the public life and system of
improvements in this section, is a native of
Norwalk, Ohio, where he was bom on April 2,
1837, and is tne son of Cyrus and Lorilla
(Osier) Waggoner, who were born and reared
in Xew York, and came to Ohio when young.
Wben their son James was eight years old the
family moved to Michigan and five years later
the father was accidentally killed by a horse.
Mr. Waggoner then went back to Norwalk and
there served a three-years apprenticeship to a
wagon and carriage maker. After learning his
trade lie worked at it for a number of years in
various places, among them Chicago, St. Louis,
Xew Orleans and Detroit. In 1870 he settled
in Kansas and located land in the Osage Nation
reservation. From there he moved soon after-
ward to Independence, that state, and in the vi-
cinity of that city engaged in farming and
fruit-growing. "He came to Colorado in 1880,
and took up his residence at Leadville, but
moved a little later to Cebola, and from there
not long afterward to where he now lives in
Paradox valley, settling here in 1883. He lo-
cated land here and has since bought additions
to it, and at once began the stock and farming
industry which be is now conducting. He
served four years as mail contractor and is now
water commissioner of all the water of the Do-
lores river and its tributaries, having been ap-
pointed to this important position by Governor
Pi ibody in June. 1903. He has one-hundred
and sixty acres of the best valley land in his
farm, and has ii thoroughly irrigated, having
procured the water and provided for the con-
tinuance of the supply by tunneling into the
mountain. He runs a small herd of cattle of
grade and high standard. He also has a thrifty
and fruitful orchard of choice varieties of fruit
on his place which yields abundantly every year
and is a source of considerable profit. Mr.
Waggoner has been particularly active and re-
sourceful in procuring the advantages of thor-
ough irrigation for this section of the county,
and his efforts in this behalf have been highly
appreciated, so much so in fact that in June.
1903, as has been noted, he was appointed wa-
ter commissioner for a large extent of coun-
try which is watered by the Dolores and its af-
fluents, and his appointment met with general
approval. He was a member of the jury be-
fore whom the famous Packer case was tried.
On March 23, 1877, at Independence, Kan-
sas, he was married to Airs. Carrie M. East-
man, a native of Indianapolis, Indiana. They
have one child, a son named Louis H. Mrs.
Waggoner had a daughter by her former mar-
riage who died a few years ago leaving two
daughters, Myrtle and Fernie Good, who live
with their grandmother.
THOMAS RAY.
Thomas Ray. of Montrose county, com-
fortably settled on one of the best ranches in
the Paradox valley, and not far from the vil-
lage of Paradox, has won from the reluctant
hand of an adverse fate a competence for life
and a leading place in the regard of his fellow-
citizens of the county he has done much to im-
prove and develop. He is a native of Ten-
nessee, -born in 1840. and lost his parents so
early in life that he newer knew them. He
was reared to manhood in his native state,
under the care of strangers and with the hard
condition of being obliged to earn his own live-
lihood almost from childhood. Opportunities
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO,
667
for engaging in large affairs, for the advan-
tages of scholastic training, and for the bland
amenities of social life, were all denied him.
ami every step of progress he made in the
toilsome ascent to prosperity and consequence
was a conquest of his own over and not with
the aid of fortune. In 1865 he sought the
freer air and larger opportunities of the un-
settled West, moving to Missouri, where he
remained six months, then came to Colorado
and settled at Denver. In 1869 he went to
Idaho and pitched his tent where Weiser now
stands and from there in 1870 moved by team
to California. There he remained seven years
engaged in farming with moderate success. In
1877 he turned his face again toward the ris-
ing sun, coming to Utah and locating near the
Colorado line in the vicinity of the La Sal
mountains. Here he again engaged in farm-
ing and also in raising stock, remaining until
1885. He then sold his property at that place
and moved to where he now lives. He has de-
veloped a tract of wild land into a beautiful
home and made of it a very productive and
valuable farm, improved with good buildings
of every kind needed for its purposes, and en-
riched with one of the best orchards in the
state. The farm comprises three hundred and
twenty acres of excellent land and generously
supports his fine herd of over five hundred
cattle, all of which are well bred and wisely
cared for. He was married in Tennessee in
1859 to Miss Lean Maxwell, a native of that
state, born in 1S44. They have ten children,
Cornelius, Mary, Fannie, William, Emma,
Emla C, Marion, Philander, Hugh and
Lavernie.
ANDERSON BROTHERS.
Lewis and Fred Anderson, who compose
the firm of Anderson Brothers, prominent
stock men and farmers doing business on their
large and highly improved ranch lying about
sixteen miles south of Norwood 111 San Miguel
county, which comprises several hundred acres
of excellent land, and also an alfalfa farm one
mile south of Norwood, are native- ol Colo
rado, born where Leadville now stands. Lewis
in i860 and Fred in 1866. They are the sons
of Harrison and Margaret (Tull) Anderson,
who were born, reared and married in Iowa,
and came to this state in i860 only a shi >rt time
before the older of the boys came into the
world. The father died in Colorado, and the
mother is still a resident of the state. The
sons grew to manhood in this state and have
passed the whole of their lives here except
that Lewis lived five years in Minnesota. After
leaving school they engaged in the cattle in-
dustry and carried it on extensively in < run-
nison comity until 18S0, when they located
wdiere they are now living, and taking up land
for the purpose, have continued their oper-
ations on their present ranch with increasing
magnitude and profit until they have built up
one of the most extensive and important enter-
prises in their line in this part of the country.
Their herds are large, well bred and valuable,
their farming is conducted on a scale of con-
siderable size and is up-to-date in every respect,
and the business capacity with which they
manage their work is highly commended and
of a character to command success and general
respect. In fact, whether considered in its
scope, the manner in which it is carried on, or
the standard of its output, their business has a
high rank among the industries of Colorado
with ramifications in many other parts of the
country, and affects the welfare and comfort
of hundreds of people in various ways. Lewis
Anderson has never married ; but Fred was
married in 1886 to Miss Elizabeth Guire, of
Monument, El Paso county, where the cere-
mony was performed, she being, like himself, a
native of the state. They have two sons. Alva "
o68
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
and Rodney. The Anderson brothers are well
esteemed and highly appreciated throughout
the county as good business men and excellent
and valuable citizens.
SANFORD H. MATTHEWS.
A Colorado pioneer of 1878, and settling
in the portion of the state in which he now
resides when it was entirely new to civilization
and settlement, Sanford H. Matthews, of Dun-
ton, Dolores county, has been a forceful and
effective power in organizing this section of
the county and pushing forward its progress,
being from the first in full sympathy with the
aspirations of the Western people, and only
needing a place in which to make his influence
felt and his breadth of view impressive and
serviceable. He was born in Canada on No-
vember 1, 1859, and is the son of Alexander
J. and Mary (Bothwell) Matthews, the former
a native of Canada and the latter of Glasgow,
Scotland. In 186 1 they moved to the United
States and settled in Wisconsin. Soon after-
ward the father enlisted in the Union army
as a member of the Twenty-first Wisconsin
Infantry, and in that regiment he served
through the Civil war. The parents now reside
at Marshalltown, Iowa. Their son Sanford
remained with them until he was nineteen, re-
ceiving a district school education and being
trained to the pursuit of agriculture on his
father's farm. In 1878 he came to Colorado,
and a few months later went back to Iowa.
In 1881 he again became a resident of this
state, living for a short time at Denver, and
going f r ,,m there to Leadville, where he en-
gaged in prospecting. From Leadville he
moved to Aspen and for two years was busy
mining in that region. He then was some time
at Gunnison in the livery and feed business,
and from there began a prospecting tour over
southwestern Colorado, with headquarters al
Ames. Two years were also passed in general
merchandising at this place and a short time
in various occupations at Rico. From 1887 to
1892 he was merchandising at Placerville. For
some months thereafter he lived at Norwood
where he carried on an active business, prin-
cipally in the line of developing the country.
He built the first house at Sawpit, and in many
other ways contributed substantially toward
opening up the region to settlement and pro-
ductiveness, among them organizing the
Morell mining district. He then moved to
Telluride and during the next five years was in
business there. After that, in partnership with
R. W. Rogers, he bought the townsite of Dun-
ton, including the hot springs, and since that
time he has done an active and profitable busi-
ness in the building up and development of the
town. He is also interested in a number of
rich mining properties, and has profitable re-
turns from them. In 1885 he was married at
Ames to Miss Jennie Evans, a native of that
place, which was founded by her father, Wal-
ter Evans, who became a resident of Colorado
in 1859. Mr. and Mrs. Matthews have three
children, Nathan, Paul and Susan.
S. D. WINBURN.
Passing the evening of life in retirement
from active business, and in peace after many
conflicts, in comfort after many hardships and
privations with an estate that assures him a
competence and which he wrested from ob-
durate conditions and by continued and well-
applied industry and frugality. S. D. Winburn,
of Cortez, Montezuma county, can look back-
over his long and active career with the satis-
faction of having never faltered at the call of
duty or shirked a responsibility that was
properly his. In addition to the struggles in-
cident to making his way unassisted in the
world through the channels of peaceful
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
669
industry, he has had his share of trial and
danger in the fields of more strenuous en-
deavor, where in the midst of unrolling col-
umns in the din of battle he dared death in
defense of convictions or in protection of
whole communities from the cruelty of savage
fury. For he is a veteran of the Civil war on
the Southern side and followed the flag of his
section from Sumter to Appomattox, fighting
much of the time under the direct commands of
the great military leader of "the lost cause;"
and afterward he was an active participant in
the wars with the Indians in this state after
the strife between the sections was ended. Mr.
Winl mm is a native of North Carolina, born
in 1833, and the son of Cornelius and Tabitha
(Hendricks) Winburn, also natives of that
state. He was reared and educated in his na-
tive place, and there learned the trade of a
carpenter. When the Civil war began he fol-
lowed his convictions into the service of the
Confederacy, and remained in the Southern
army until the war was over. In 1866 he
moved to Missouri, and soon afterward crossed
the plains with a mule train from St. Joseph to
Denver. In 1867 he located at Pueblo and
wrought at his trade for a few years, then
bought a ranch and engaged in farming until
1873. At that time he returned to Pueblo and
during the next two years was again employed
at his trade. In 1875 he went back to his
ranch, and after several years of earnest ap-
plication in improving and farming it, spent
a year at Rosita. In 1884 he sold his ranch ami
after remaining a short time at Mancos moved
into the Montezuma valley and took up the
ranch which he now owns four miles from
Cortez. His land is very productive and yields
abundant crops of grain and hay; and on it
he supports a large band of well bred horses,
always keeping the standard high ami his stock-
in excellent condition. In addition to his farm-
ing land he owns one hundred and sixty acres
which he took under a timber claim. Recently
he retired from active business and turned his
land and stock over to the management of his
sons, and he is now living at the town of
Cortez. respected by all his fellow citizens, and
with the force of his example and the influence
of his personal presence and the wisdom ac-
quired in his long and active life still effective
in the community. He was married in Fre-
mont county, this state, in 1876 to Miss Mollie
Baldridge. a native of Aiissouri. They have
five children, all sons, Edward. Richard. Wal-
ter, Lee and George.
JOHN KELLEY.
Although born almost under the shadow
of the great institution founded by Jefferson
for the liberal education of young men, the
University of Virginia, John Kelley, of Cortez,
did not have the benefit of its bounty or other
means of an extended education. He had
before him a destiny of toil and privation, and
his education was practical rather than tech-
nical, and was gained in the exacting school
of experience more than at any institutions of
learning. He came into the world at Char-
lottesville. Virginia, on November 25, 1833, the
>on of Williamson and Eliza Kelley. natives of
the old Dominion, who moved to Missouri
while he was yet a child. He grew to man-
hood on the paternal homestead in the new
state, and there amid all the ungenerous con-
ditions of frontier life learned useful 1.
of industry and frugality which have been of
great service to him in his subsequent career.
At the age of twenty he set out to make his
own way in the world, crossing the plains to
California where he engaged in mining and
raising stock. From there he went to Mexico
to follow the same lines of industry and some
vears later, in 1871, came to this state, locat-
ing at Denver. Soon afterward he made a
6/0
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
trip East, and in 1872 returned to Denver.
Since then he has been continuously a resident
of Colorado. For a short time he lived at
Pueblo, then went to Del Norte and to Lost
Trail, prospecting and mining- along the way.
He remained in those regions until 1884, when
he moved into the Montezuma valley and lo-
cated the land on which he now lives. He also
has an extensive tract of state land under
lease, and carries on a large and profitable
stock business. He has prospered in most of
his undertakings, and has converted his sav-
ings into real estate, owning a business block
and other property of value at Cortez in ad-
dition to his ranch. Although a bachelor, and
having the future interests of no family to look-
out for, he is deeply interested in the endur-
ing welfare of his county and state, and aids
in its promotion by every proper means. He is
a member of Sitting Bull Tribe of Red Men at
Durango, and belongs to the Pioneer Associ-
ation at San Juan. He served the country two
years as deputy sheriff and two years as con-
stable.
HON. CHARLES J. SCHARNHORST.
In every walk of American life the Ger-
man race has been conspicuous and serviceable.
Its representatives have helped to lead our ar-
mies in battle, they have thrilled attentive thou-
sands with their eloquence on the hustings,
they have adorned our highest forums with
their statesmen, illuminated our technical
51 hools with their learning, quickened and en-
larged our business currents with their ingenu-
ity and enterprise, put in motion mighty ener-
gies of industrial progress, adorned our trib-
unals with their exalted character, judicial ac-
quirements and breadth of view, and dignified
''in - itizenship with all the elements of its best
development. To this race Hon. Charles J.
Scharnhorst, of Cortez. the county judge of
Montezuma county, belongs, and in his career
among our people he has exemplified many of
its most admirable traits. He was born in
Hanover, Germany, on January 5. 1842. and
is the son of Carl L. and Louise (Prinzhorn)
Scharnhorst. His family has been distin-
guished in the fatherland, one of his great-
grand-uncles, the great General David Scharn-
horst, having earned by his service to his coun-
try in war and peace such public regard that
his statue adorns one of the public squares of
Berlin. Judge Scharnhorst himself was a gal-
lant soldier in the army of his native land and
was awarded a bronze medal for conspicuous
bravery on the field of battle, which he still
wears. He was reared in his native country
and there, after receiving a good education in
the state schools, learned his trade as a shoe-
maker. On October 12, 1866, when he was
nearly twenty-five years old. and approaching
the full maturity of his powers, he landed in
the city of New York, having determined to
make his home and seek his fortune in this
country. A short time after his arrival on the
shores of the United States he proceeded to
Fort Wayne, Indiana, and in March. 1867, to
St. Louis. Missouri. He remained there one
year, then moved to Kansas City, where, in
March. 1869, he was made captain of a squad
of men who marched afoot across the plains
to Denver, this state, to aid in the settlement
and development of the farther west. After
spending a few months at Denver he located
at Georgetown, where he wrought at his trade
two years. He then returned to Denver and
there engaged in mercantile business for a year.
From the end of that year until 18S1 he was
in business first at Del Norte and lateral Lead-
ville. his family meantime living at Denver.
In 1882 he came to Montezuma comity and lo-
cated land, then went to Durango and during
the next three years worked at his trade at that
place. In 1885 he located at Dolores and for a
year thereafter was engaged in general mer-
chandising. He then settled in the Montezuma
PROGRESSIVE MEN Ul ; WESTERN COLOh
671
valley and look up a homestead and a pre-emp-
tion claim which constitute the farm which he
nov\ owns and which comprises two hundred
and forty acres of good land. On this he
planted an orchard which has grown thrifty
and fruitful, and built up an extensive ami
profitable stock industry, having now a large
herd of well bred cattle. Taking an active and
intelligent interest in public affairs, he served
four and one-half years as postmaster at Cor-
tez. and in 1898 was elected county judge, hav-
inf previously prepared himself for the position
by private study of the law as a profession.
He was re-elected in 190 1, and again in 1004.
and is now serving his third term. In the dis-
charge of his official duties he has given general
satisfaction and won high commendation for
fairness, legal learning and earnest devotion
to the best interests of the county and its people.
In 1872 the Judge was united in marriage with
Miss Wilhelmina Schultz. like himself a native
of Germany, the marriage taking place at Den-
ver, and of this union four children were born
namely: Augusta, who is now postmistress
at Dolores ; Carl, Louise and Minnie. The
Judge, having been a widower for some years,
was, in the spring of 1905, again united in
marriage, at Durango, Colorado, with Miss
Marie Sturm, of Denver, Colorado, a native of
Baden, Germany. Having been active and
serviceable in the early history of this section,
the Judge has an earnest interest in all that
pertains thereto, and is a zealous and valued
member of the San Juan Pioneer Association.
He is one of the substantial, prominent and in-
fluential citizens of the county whom all classes
respect, and whom the people delight to honor.
JOHN W. WING ATE.
John YY. Wingate, of Durango. a retired
merchant whose career has been active and
fruitful in this state, is a pioneer of 1870 in
Colorado and of E873 in the San Juan coun-
try. He was born on July [6, 1845, a1 Boston,
Massachusetts, and is the son of Moses and
Martha Dunham (Walker) Wingate, th< for-
mer a native of Dover, New Hampshire, horn
on the old Wingate homestead, on which the
family settled in 1658. In 1849 the parents of
John Wingate moved to Rome, New York,
where he lived until the Civil war called him to
other scenes of usefulness. On August it,
iSOj. he enlisted in Company E, ( )ne Hundred
and Seventeenth Xew York Infantry, and
served until June 8. 1865, his only mishap be-
yond the general privations and hardships of
the service being a slight wound received at
the explosion of the mine before Petersburg
July 30. 1864. After his discharge from the
army he returned home, and in 1867 moved to
Council Bluffs, Iowa, ami later changed his
residence to Cheyenne. Wyoming, where he
worked at his trade as a carpenter, helping to
build Fort Russell. In 1868 he moved to Kan-
sas, ami two years later came to Colorado, lo-
cating at Denver. In 1871, however, he went
to New Mexico in the employ of a large Eng-
lish company, but a year later he returned to
this state and went to the head of Cherry creek
in company with O. P. Posey and Milton H.
Mark, of Denver. Here they rented a ranch
ami raised potatoes until 1873 when he and
Mr. Posey came to Colorado Springs and en-
gaged in contracting and building. Then, in
company with former Governor Alva Adams,
they started a hardware business at Del Norte.
Some time afterward, leaving Mr. Posey in
charge of this enterprise. Mr. Wingate went
to Baker's Park, and in partnership with others
built a sawmill in 1873. They were obliged to
construct their road into the park, crossing the
Rio Grande fifty-three times. Returning to
Del Norte he remained a short time, then went
to the Summit camp and assisted in opening
the Golden Queen mine, of which he was one
672
PROGRESSIVE MEN OP WESTERN COLORADO.
of the owners, it is now a part of the Con-
suls Gold Mining' Company's property, and he
is one of the stockholders in the company.
Some time was passed in prospecting-, after
which Mr. Wingate took charge of the Hotch-
kiss mine near hake City, and in the ensuing
fall he took control of the Summit mine and
mill at Summit gold camp, but soon after re-
turned to Lake City, where he took charge of
the VanGieson Lixiviation Works and re-
mained until 1878. At that time they opened a
hardware store at Silverton and he assumed the
management of it. They also had a store at
Alamosa which Mr. Adams managed. The
firm dissolved during 1878. Posey and Win-
gate took the Silverton store and continued un-
til 1882, when they took in another partner,
Col. H. G. Heffron. In 1884. with Alva Ad-
ams and William Bayly, they organized and in-
corporated the San Juan Hardware Company,
with stores at Silverton, Durango, Ouray and
Telluride. In 1S93 Mr. Wingate sold out his
interests in all and retired from active business
pursuits. On January 8. 1885. he was married
to Miss Juliette A. Conger, a native of New
York, and they had two children, John C, who
died in infancy, and Oliver E., who is living.
Their mother died on October 4, 1890, ami on
June 7, 1893, at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Mr. Win-
gate married a second wife. Mrs. Susan Greene,
a native of Ohio. They have one child, a
daughter Martha, who was born on April 18.
1896. In 1 S<>5 the family took up their resi-
dence at Durango. Mr. Wingate has served
three years as mayor of Silverton and a num-
ber of years as alderman. In 1888 he was
elected a delegate to the Republican national
convention at Chicago which nominated Har-
rison for President. Mr. Wingate is still in-
terested in mines and real estate. He is a
prominent member of the Masonic order, be-
longing to lodge, chapter and commandery, and
1 also active in the Grand Army of the Re-
public, holding the rank of post commander.
In the San Juan Pioneers Association his mem-
bership is very active and serviceable, he being
secretary and treasurer of the body, and having
served as its second president. In all public lo-
cal matters he is diligent and aggressive, look-
ing always to the general weal of the commun-
ity rather than to the advancement of any per-
sonal or factional interest.
THEODORE W. WATTLE.
One of the first settlers on the Mancos and
now the oldest resident of Montezuma county
by continuous occupancy of her soil. Theodore
W. Wattle is one of the patriarchs of this sec-
tion of Colorado and has been a prominent
fig-ure in all phases of its history. He was born
in Mercer county, Ohio, on May 25, 1840. and
is the son of Augustus and Susan E. Wattle,
the former a native of Connecticut and the lat-
ter of Massachusetts. In 1855 the family set-
tled in Kansas, and they lived in that state
through all the troublous times of the border
wars and the agitation begun by old John
Brown, who was an intimate friend of Mr.
Wattle's parents. On July 24. [861, Mr. Wat-
tle enlisted in defense of the Union as a mem-
ber of Company D. Fifth Kansas Cavalry, in
which he served until September, 1865. hav-
ing many trying experiences and seeing all the
horrors of war at close view. He participated
in a number of the leading battles of the con-
test but escaped unharmed. After his dis-
charge he returned to Ins Kansas homte and en-
gaged in farming there until 1870, when he
moved to this state and settled for a short time
in La Plata county. During the same year he
took' up the ranch on which he now lives, be-
ing one of the first settlers on the Mancos, as
has been noted. For a number of years there-
after he was occupied in prospecting, and in
1885 he turned his attention wholly to farming
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
673
and the development of his stock business. He
has transformed his wild land into a beautiful
and productive farm, and from a small begin-
ning has built up a stock industry of good pro-
portions, handling only pure bred Shorthorn
cattle, of which he has a large herd. He also
conducts on his place an extensive and profit-
able apiary, its product having a high rank in
the markets and being sought after with eager-
ness. When Montezuma county was organized
he was appointed county assessor, and he was
afterward once elected to the office. He is a
member of the order of Odd Fellows, belong-
ing to Taltec Lodge. No. -/$, at Mancos. In
1885 he was married at Durango to Miss Mel-
vina Hammond, a native of New Brunswick.
They have two children, their son Howard H.
and their daughter Ruth.
W. C. CHAPMAN.
W. C. Chapman, a leading merchant,
prominent citizen and influential civic force at
Durango, La Plata county, is a pioneer of 1868
in this state, and since that time he has been
actively identified with its progress and de-
velopment. He was born at Albany, New-
York, on September 9, 1838, and is the son of
John W. and Hephzibah (Gibbons) Chapman,
also native at Albany. He grew to manhood at
Syracuse, New York, and after reaching years
of maturity, engaged in business there until
1868, when he came to Colorado and settled at
Georgetown. Here he was occupied in mining
until 188 1. In February of that year he lo-
cated at Durango and opened a hardware store
which he has conducted ever since, and which
he has made one of the leading emporiums in
its line in this part of the state. He is also
vice-president of the Colorado State Bank and
is interested in various other business enter-
prises. In public life he has been zealous and
serviceable, giving the town an excellent ad-
43
ministration of its affairs when he was mayor
and as president of the school board during
the last ten years holding the educational forces
of the community up to a high standard of
ability and usefulness. He is also an active
church worker, and in the two fraternal orders
to which he belongs, the Freemasons and the
Elks, his membership is highly valued
and of great service. In July. i88<j,
he was married at Durango to Mrs. Ella
Hovey, a native of Missouri. They have one
daughter, Mary M. Mr. Chapman is a mem-
ber of the San Juan Pioneer Association and
takes a great and serviceable interest in its
proceedings. He is one of Durango's leading
and most representative citizens, and has a wide
and potent influence for good throughout a
large extent of the surrounding country. As
one of the makers and builders of the town,
and one of its leaders of thought and action
he is widely known and generally esteemed;
and as a business man of capacity, enterprise
and breadth of view he has given its com-
mercial forces a high rank in the business
world. Among the progressive men of west-
ern Colorado he is entitled to a place in the
front rank.
ADAM LEWY.
The genial and gracious proprietor of the
Clifton House at Cortez, Montezuma county,
who is a Colorado pioneer of 1849, was born
on December 31, 1848, in the state of Missouri,
and is the son of Henderson and Mary Lewy,
the former a native of North Carolina and the
latter of Ohio. In 1849 tl le family, with a
number of others, started across the plains and
when they reached Elk river nearly the whole
party was massacred by hostile Indians, all of
Mr. Lewy's immediate family except himself
and one sister being slain. He was taken prison-
er, but his sister hid and made her escape. He
was then an infant, and soon after he was res-
674
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
cued and brought to Huerfano county, this state,
where he was reared to the age of ten by an
aunt with whom he lived except during a sec-
ond short captivity among the Indians when
he was two years old. At the age of ten he
returned to Missouri where he remained three
years, then came west again in the employ of
the Kelchum & Pugsley Cattle Company, with
which he remained a number of years. He
then moved to San Antonio, Texas, and en-
gaged in herding stock. From 1872 to 1874
he was inspector of live stock at Medicine
Lodge, and in the year last named he joined
the command of Captain Hull in his chase after
and James and Younger brothers. He was
present when Captain Hull was killed.
At the close of this engagement he re-
turned to Huerfano county, Colorado, and in
1876 moved to Silverton, and until 1879 ran
a pack train of his own between that place
and Del Norte. After a short residence at
Animas and at Durango, he settled in the
Montezuma valley in 188 1, entering the em-
ploy of the L. C. Cattle Company, for which
he was foreman five years. In 1889 he was
elected sheriff of the county and at the end of
his term was re-elected. He is widely known
f.u- his resolution, persistency and courage, and
is a terror to evil doers. He has also served a
number of years as deputy United States mar-
shal. Twenty-five miles below Cortez Mr.
Lewv has a fine ranch and a large band of
excellent and well bred horses. In June, 1903,
he engaged in the hotel business as proprietor
of the Clifton House at Cortez, and since then
he has devoted himself strictly to this enter-
prise, making the house a popular resort and
winning for himself a host of friends among
the traveling public. At Durango, on Novem-
l>er 18, 1889, he was united in marriage with
Miss Mary Johnson, a native of Leadvillc, this
state, and the daughter of Joseph and Mary A.
Johnson, who were very early settlers in Colo-
rado. Mr. and Mrs. Lewy have six children,
Vivian, Ernest, Charles, Helen, Marcella and
Grace. The head of the house has seen the
horrors of Indian warfare, having served from
time to time in various subduing parties, and
has had man}' a hair-breadth escape from vio-
lent death at the hands of the savages.
JACOB Z. SPIERS.
Jacob Z. Spiers, of Montrose county, living
two miles from Olathe on a fine fruit and hay
ranch which he redeemed from the wilderness
and has made fruitful with the products of
cultivated life, and in a good modern dwelling
which he has recently erected, was born in
Harrison county, Missouri, on July 16, 1868.
His father, Samuel Spiers, was a native of
Kentucky, born in 1822. and his mother, whose
maiden name was Sarah C. Bell, was born in
Tennessee in 1842. They moved with their
parents in childhood to Missouri, and there
they were reared and married. There also they
passed the rest of their lives prosperously en-
gaged in farming. The father died on March
21, 1884, and the mother on April 1, 1903.
Their son Jacob grew to the age of twenty on
the Missouri farm and was educated in the
neighborhood district schools. In May, 1888,
he came to Colorado and located in Montrose
county in company with C. C. Christie, who is
now his brother-in-law. For a time after his
arrival in this state he worked out for wages,
then in partnership with the Christie boys he
bought the C. E. Church ranch on which he
lived one year. In 1892 he purchased the
ranch on which he now lives, comprising one
hundred and twenty acres of which he has
since sold forty acres. After making this
sale he built a new house on another part of
the ranch, and in that the family have since
had their home. A portion of his eighty acres
is in hay and the rest in general farm products
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
675
except one acre and a half which he has re-
cently planted in fruit, the orchard on the place
when he bought it having- gone with the forty
acres he sold. He also has a herd of good cattle
on the range in the hills in summer but shel-
tered in winter. On October 15, 1891, he
united in marriage with Miss Lizzie Christie,
a native of Missouri, born on May 13, 1870,
the daughter of Henry B. and Martha E.
(Burton) Christie, and a sister of Charles C.
Christie, a sketch of whom will be found on
another page of this work. Mr. and Mrs.
Spiers have four children, Ethel. Earl, J.
Everett and Mary F. They have lived in this
neighborhood ever since their marriage, and
from the time when they purchased their pres-
ent home they have devoted their time and
efforts to its improvement and development,
working to good advantage and steadily gain-
ing ground in the accumulation of worldly
wealth and the good will and respect of those
around them. Mr. Spiers is a faithful Demo-
crat in political affiliation, and he and his wife
are loyal members of the Baptist church.
SAMUEL A. GAINES.
During the last twenty-one years Samuel
A. ( iaines has been a resident of Colorado,
and for more than half of this period has lived
at Olathe warmly interested in tine progress
and development of the town and county and
doing his share of the work to promote them.
He came to the state in 1883 and located in
Delta county, pre-empting a claim on California
mesa. But as there was no irrigation of the
section at that time and the land was wholly
wild and unimproved, he was obliged to carry
on his farming operations elsewhere until by
the united efforts of the settlers a ditch was
constructed and the general cultivation and
improvement of the section began more vigor-
ously, since which time it has been dilieentlv
pushed forward and is now one of the most
productive and progressive regions in this
part of the state. Mr. Gaines was born in
Crittenden county, Kentucky, on January 28,
1859, and is the son of Benjamin B. and M.
C. (Bozier) Gaines, the former a native of
Tennessee and the latter of Kentucky. They
moved to Missouri in i860 and the father took
up a homestead in Wright county. The family
lived on this land until 1864, when they moved
to Arkansas where the father bought another
tract on which he lived until his death in 1874.
The mother now makes her home with her
son Samuel at Olathe. He grew to the age of
twenty on the paternal homestead, aiding in its
labors and attending the district schools in the
neighborhood in the winter months. In 1879
he took charge of his mother's farm and man-
aged it two years. He then bought a place
for himself in Arkansas and farmed it two
years. In the fall of 1883 he came to Colorado
and located in Delta county, taking up his resi-
dence on a ranch in the bottom land along the
river two miles from Delta. At the same time
he pre-empted his claim on the California mesa,
but, as has been stated, there was no irrigation
in the region and he continued to farm else-
where until that was provided for. He built a
dwelling and other buildings on his land in
1884, but did not go there to live until after
the completion of the ditch which supplies it
with water in 1S86. In 1888 he sold this
ranch and bought another in the bottom along
the river on which he lived until 1892. In
October of that year he sold out and moved
to Olathe where he has since resided. He has
taken an active part in the affairs of the town
and county, and is now road overseer, a posi-
tion to which he was elected in the fall of 1902.
Since moving to this county he has been en-
gaged principally in prospecting and mining
with varying success. But he is a substantial
citizen and well-to-do. On January 30, 1879,
676
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
he was married to Miss Harriet E. McCoy, who
was born in Arkansas on December 14, 1859.
She is the daughter of James A. and Emeline
(Sothard) McCoy, natives of Tennessee and
now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Gaines have four
children, Zetta E., Paris A., Ethel C. and
Leila A., all living at home. Mr. Gaines's
father served three years in the Civil war on
the Confederate side, in the command of Capt.
John Puryer, of Missouri, and Mr. Gaines him-
self has served as constable in both Delta and
Montrose counties. He belongs to the Odd
Fellows, is a member of the Christian church
and supports the Democratic party in politics.
He also holds a commission from the Rocky
Mountain Detective Association, and he has
rendered efficient service under this commis-
sion.
JOHN B. RATEKIN.
The clearness of vision to see and the
alertness to seize the opportunities that come
to men in life are among the most useful and
valued faculties that nature gives or practice
acquires; and the men who have them are in-
dependent of circumstances, triumphant over
obstacles, undaunted by adversities and always
ready for emergencies. The subject of this
review is a man of this kind, and has won the
guerdon of his endowment in a comfortable
estate and a well secured place in the regard
and good will of his fellow men. Without the aid
of fortune's favors or outside help he has made
a steady and substantial progress from the
time when, as a young man, he began the strug-
gle for supremacy among men with no capital
but his resolute will, stout heart and ready
hand. He was born in Richardson county,
Nebraska, on August 3, 1867, and is the son
of William and Mary (Vaughn) Ratekin, who
were born in Ohio and are now living in Ne-
braska, where for many years they have been
engaged in farming. They have had thirteen
children, ten of whom are living, one daughter
and their son John being residents of Colorado.
The latter was reared on the paternal home-
stead and educated at the district schools near
by. He remained at home until the year 1889,
then came to Colorado, and after a short stay
at Denver passed three years at Gunnison,
working there at whatever he could find to do.
He was employed for a time in the stone quar-
ries, and during this period he helped to get
out the stone used in the construction of the
state capitol building at Denver. After leaving
Gunnison he located in Delta county and in
1892 pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres
of land near Cedar Edge, which he sold in
1900, following the sale by the purchase of
the ranch on which he now lives. This com-
prises two hundred and forty acres and is a
fine body of land. Seventy acres are in alfalfa
and ten in fruit, and from both of these tracts
the yield is abundant and profitable. The hay
is consumed on the place by his own cattle, of
which lie always keeps enough fur the pur-
pose, but the fruit is raised for market. His
net income from the latter averages about
seven hundred dollars a year. He also has one
hundred stands of bees, and these prove to be
very profitable too. bringing in an annual
revenue of more than five hundred dollars. He
came to this section with three hundred dol-
lars in money, and he has now about twelve
thousand dollars worth of property free from
incumbrance. On February 18, 1892. he was
united in marriage with Miss Myrta E. Edgar,
who was born in Kansas on October 5, 187 1,
and is the daughter of William and Martha
(Lyons) Edgar, natives of Ohio. Mr. and
Mrs. Ratekin have four children. Juanita F.,
William E., Roy E. and Alva J. The father is
a member of the order of Odd Fellows, the
Woodmen of the World and the order of
Washington. In political affairs he supports
the Democratic party. He is an energetic and
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
677
progressive man who has made almost every
day of his life tell for his own advancement
and has not been sparing in his devotion and
service to the general progress and develop-
ment of the community in which he lives.
Esteeming his fellow men, and always inter-
ested in their welfare, he is well esteemed by
them in return.
FRANK SCOTT.
While the lessons of adversity are not al-
ways salutary, sometimes calling into vigorous
action the splenetic humors of human nature
which lie near the surface and are easily
wrought upon, in most cases there is no more
salutary discipline for the young and scarcely
any better stimulus to the development of man-
ly character and self-reliance than to be thrown
on their own resources with the world before
them and their only capital within. This well
known fact is aptly illustrated in the career
of many thousands of American citizens, among
them Frank Scott, of Routt county, a promi-
nent and successful rancher and cattle man
who lives near Pagoda, and is one of the lead-
ing men in his business in that part of the state.
He came to Colorado soon after attaining his
legal majority, and since his arrival has been
connected in a serviceable way with several of
the leading industries of the state, aiding in
their development while advancing his own fur-
tunes through their aid. Mr. Scott was born
in St. Lawrence county, New York, on July
12, 1837. and is the son of John and Mary
Scott, who were also natives of New York
state, where they passed their lives and were
finally laid to rest in the soil which was hal-
lowed by their labors. The father was a land
agent, a veterinary surgeon and at last a far-
mer. He was a Democrat in politics and a
man of influence in his neighborhood. Their
son Frank assumed the burden of making his
own way in the world while he was yet a
mere boy. He attended the district schools
when he had opportunity during his boyhood
and received a limited education. In 1853,
when he was but sixteen years old, he left his
native state and made his way to Dodge county,
Wisconsin, where he passed two years in dif-
ferent occupations, then located in Lawrence
county, Kansas, and there he worked first as
helper on a saw-mill and later as engineer for
the same. In the fall of 1858 he became a
resident of Colorado, wintering at Denver, and
in the ensuing spring going to the mountains to
begin a career in prospecting and mining. This
was continued through the summer in this state
and Mexico, and about all he got out of it was
experience in hard labor and privations, being
obliged on one occasion to go without other
food than meat for a period of fifteen days, and
the meat was nearly all wild game. In the
autumn of 1859 he returned to Kansas, in
i860 went to St. Louis and afterward to Pitts-
burg. From there he went to Washington, D.
C. and when the Civil war broke out he found
employment with the government as a black-
smith, he having learned the trade in his wan-
derings. After fifteen months' service in this
capacity he opened a sutler's store at Alex-
andria, Virginia, and made good profits out of
sales to the soldiers. After the close of the
war he conducted a store and restaurant for
awhile, then engaged in farming, and later sold
out all his property and opened a blacksmith
shop, which he carried on two years. In 1884
he again came to Colorado and located at Den-
ver, where during the next two years he
worked at his trade in a shop of his own. In
1886 he changed his base of operations to the
vicinity of Evergreen and there conducted a
hotel and blacksmith shop for a period of two
years, being very successful in both lines of
enterprise. Selling out there he moved to
Pine and continued blacksmithing there one
678
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
summer at the end of which he gave up the
shop and went to work for the Morris Mills
near Pine. In 1890 he returned to Evergreen
and found occupation until midsummer when
he bought the improvements on a part of the
ranch which he now owns and occupies. He
had added to his original purchase until he
has three hundred and twenty acres, of which
one hundred and forty are under cultivation.
The ranch is one of the most desirable on the
Williams Fork, and on it he has large herds of
cattle and raises abundant supplies of hay and
grain for their proper maintenance. As a
public-spirited citizen Mr. Scott performs his
share of service to his community by helping
along the development of every worthy object
for the advantage of its people. In political
faith he is an unwavering Democrat, in social
life he is genial and companionable, and in the
duties of citizenship he is faithful and elevating
in his aspirations and his example.
JESSE W. OSBORN.
Jesse W. Osborn, one of the leading
merchants of Grand Junction, handling ex-
tensively live stock, grain, feed, meats, gro-
ceries and kindred commodities, and conduct-
ing his business with a wisdom and breadth of
view acquired in an extensive and varied ex-
perience in different places, is a native of Geor-
gia, burn in Towns county on November 26,
1X52. He was a boy of nine when the Civil
war began and his people were active and
earnest participants in the sanguinary con-
flict between the sections, so that he not only
witnessed many of its horrors, but bears in his
estate if not in his person the marks of its bur-
dens. His parents were James M. and Polly
(Carter) Osborn, who were natives of Georgia
ami who passed the whole of their lives as resi-
dents of that state. The mother died when
her son Jesse was seven years of age, and two
years afterward the father joined the Con-
federate army as a lieutenant of cavalry, and
Jesse made his home with his grandfather Os-
born, by whom he was reared to the age of
twenty-one. The mother's people were exten-
sive planters- and slave owners, and both
families had been prominent in their section
for many generations. There were five children
born in the immediate family, of whom three
are living. Jesse was the next to the oldest.
He received a liberal education under the care
of his grandfather, and soon after attaining his
legal majority he married and engaged in grist
and saw-milling. His father was a prominent
contractor and builder, and worked many years
in Atlanta, and also in other parts of Georgia
and in the adjoining states. But this line of
industry was not to the son's taste and he chose
another for himself. In 1879 he came to Colo-
rado and. settling in Huerfano county, engaged
in the cattle industry for a period of nine years.
He then moved to Mesa county and located at
Fruita, where he continued his cattle business
two vears longer. At the end of that time he
opened a general store at Fruita which he con-
ducted nine years. Selling this then, and also
disposing of his cattle, ranches and other
property, he moved to Pueblo, where during
the next two years he carried on a large gro-
cery store, employing ten persons in its various
lines of work. At the end of two years he sold
out there and returned to Mesa county, taking
up his residence at Grand Junction, where he
has ever since resided. He at once opened an
emporium for the sale of flour, feed, grain and
live stock, and recently he has added an ex-
tensive line of meats and groceries to his stock,
making his store one of the most general and
extensive in this part of the state. In political
faith he is an uncompromising Democrat, and
in the campaigns of his party he always renders
earnest and effective service. On November
24, 1873. he was married in Georgia to Miss
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
679
Zoe H. Mauldin, who was born and reared in
that state and is a daughter of Mac and Mary
(England) Mauldin, also Georgians by birth
where they owned a large plantation and num-
bers of slaves. The parents are now deceased,
and they left to their children a legacy of good
names and the record of useful lives. Mr. and
Mrs. Osborn have five children, William C.
Florence, wife of Chester E. Jaynes, Ora, a
partner in his father's business, Urah and Pearl.
FRANK E. WHEELER.
To write the personal record of men who
have raised themselves from humble circum-
stances to a position of influence and compara-
tive affluence in a community is no ordinary
pleasure. Self-made men, men who have
achieved success by reason of their personal
qualities and left the impress of their individ-
uality upon the business and growth of their
place of residence and affect for good such in-
stitutions as are embraced within the sphere of
their usefulness, unwittingly, perhaps, build
monuments more enduring than marble obe-
lisk or granite shaft. Of such we have the un-
questioned right to say belongs the gentleman
whose name appears above.
Frank Elon Wheeler is a native son of Col-
orado, having been horn in Jefferson county on
February 1, 1862. He is the son of John S.
and Amelia D. Wheeler, the former of whom
came to Colorado in 1859 and during the sub-
sequent years occupied a conspicuous and in-
fluential place in public affairs. He was a
member of the state constitutional convention,
and in 7878 was the Democratic candidate for
secretary of state, being defeated by N. H.
Meldrum. He was the first probate judge of
Weld county, having been elected to this of-
fice in 1866. He was a farmer by vocation
and commanded the respect of all who knew
him. The subject is able to trace his ances-
tral lines back to sturdy "Mayflower" stock
and in his own life have been exhibited many of
those sterling traits which characterized the
men who. for consciences' sake, left home and
native land and sought that liberty which ev-
ery true man desires. Mr. Wheeler received
his elementary education in the common schi mis
of Weld county, this state, being forced by cir-
cumstances to cease his school attendance at
the age of fifteen years. His education did not
stop then, however, as he has through all the
subsequent years been a wide and liberal reader
ami a close and thoughtful observer of men and
events, so that today he is considered a well-in-
formed man. In 1879 he engaged in mining,
believing that that field of effort offered great
opportunities for acquiring wealth. His suc-
cess was but moderate, however, and in 1885
he accepted the position of assayer at the
United States mine in Denver, holding this
position until removed by an incoming Repub-
lican superintendent. He immediately secured
a position as manager of the Idaho Springs
Sampling Works, but on March 1. 1892. he
resigned this place and went to Creede, where
he engaged in mining and assaying, with very
indifferent success. When Mineral county was
organized Governor Waite appointed Mr.
Wheeler a commissioner of the county, and he
was twice afterwards elected to the position.
In 1894 and again in 1Q04 he was the candi-
date on the Democratic ticket for auditor of
state, but was defeated together with the bal-
ance of the ticket..
A stanch Democrat in politics. Mr. Wheeler
holds decided opinions regarding public poli-
cies and economic questions affecting the wel-
fare of the American people. He is a firm be-
liever in the republican form of government
and stands stanchly by the national constitu-
tion, believing that under it the American peo-
ple will always be capable of self-government
and the military always subservient to the civil
68o
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
authority. He believes that the great wrongs
now imposed on the industrial classes can only
be righted through the instrumentality of the
Democratic party and that the national govern-
ment should control all trusts, combines and
corporations in the interests of the majority of
the people.
On the 17th of January, 1888, Mr. Wheeler
was, by Myron Reed, united in marriage with
Miss Wallie Sutter, who was born in Heidel-
burg, Germany, where the father, a musical
instructor, was royal chapel master to the king.
Fraternally Mr. Wheeler is a member of the
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, the
Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent and Pro-
tective Order of Elks, the Woodmen, the Im-
proved Order of Red Men, the Dramatic Or-
der Knights of Khorassan, the Western Federa-
tion of Miners, and other bodies. In the
Knights of Pythias he filled every office in the
local lodge, was three times elected grand rep-
resentative, and for three years was a member
of the grand tribune, being chairman of the
judiciary committee during 1904-5. In 1902
he represented the local lodge of Elks in the
grand lodge which met at Baltimore. He is
not affiliated with any religious denomination,
but governs his actions by that greatest of all
commands, the Golden Rule. In every avenue
of life's activities in which he has been placed
he has honestly and faithfully performed his
part and is today the recipient of the highest
meed of respect and confidence, not alone in
his own community, but throughout a large
portion of the state.
JAMES M. DOWNING.
James M. Downing, of Aspen, one of the
most prominent and successful lawyers in his
section of the state, and one of its most pro-
gressive, enterprising and liberal-hearted men,
was born in Illinois on March 6, 1856, the son
of David R. and Mary Downing, prosperous
farmers of that state, who were early settlers in
Virginia and pioneers in Kentucky, where they
lived until 1840, when they moved to Illinois.
There they passed the remainder of their lives,
cultivating the fruitful soil and holding an ele-
vated place in the regard of all who knew them.
The father died in 1897, at the age of ninety,
after having been for some years retired from
active pursuits. Four children were born of
their union, of whom three survive: John F.,
president of the New England National Bank
of Kansas City. Kate (Mrs. C. W. Creus),
who lives at Pueblo. Colorado, and James M.
The last named was reared on a farm in his
native state, and obtained his education in the
public schools and an excellent college at Jack-
sonville, Illinois, from which he was gradu-
ated in 1879. He came at once to Colorado,
locating at Eeadville, where he followed min-
ing and studied law. He was admitted to the
bar in 188 r. then moved to Aspen, his present
home, where he has lived ever since, except
during two years which he passed in Denver.
He has been very successful in his practice, and
his success is due to his studious habits, close
attention to business, and fine natural abilities.
He has the largest law library on the Western
slope, it is said, and his success at the bar and
in counsel shows that he has made a diligent
and judicious use of it. He has been in active
practice at Aspen since 1881, and has for years
been at the head of the bar there. He has also
been actively associated with the mining indus-
try as a member of the Cowenhaven Mining
Company of Aspen and one of its leading men
and chief inspiration and controlling force. He
is well posted in both the technique and prac-
tical side of the law and mining, and under-
takes nothing that he does not do well and with
success. In political faith he was a Republican
until 1896, and frequently represented his dis-
trict in the state conventions of that party. In
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
68 1
the year last named he joined forces with the
Silver Republicans and at once became one of
the most influential forces in the organization.
He was once a candidate for the office of dis-
trict attorney, and in 1892 was nominated as
lieutenant governor. In 1885 he was united in
marriage with Miss Alice Hitter, a daughter
of Col. Richard Ritter, of Sedalia. Missouri.
Thev have one daughter, Alice.
HENRY J. W. HERNAGE.
As the head of the Hernage Mercantile
Company of Yampa, one of the largest and
best conducted enterprises of its kind in west-
ern Colorado, Henry J. W. Hernage is very
widely known in business circles, and as a pro-
gressive and public-spirited citizen he is one of
the potential factors in the development and
prosperity of Routt county. He has been a
resident of this state since. 1871, more than half
of his life, and during his residence here has
taken an active interest in the walfare and
growth of the state and tried his hand at several
of its leading industries, rising by merit to a
position of consequence and esteem among its
people, and in all the relations of life has done
well his part as a far-seeing and enterprising
business man and a high-minded and upright
citizen. He was born at Nottingham, England.
on May 22, 185 1. and is the son of Henry J.
and Maria Hernage. The father was a mem-
ber of the Royal College of Surgeons in Eng-
land, and house surgeon of the Western Dis-
pensary at Westminster, London. The son
was educated at the Latin Grammar School,
London, and at Shoreham, on the southern
coast of his native land near Brighton. He
did not complete his course, however, and left
England without receiving his degrees, though
for a time he served as dispenser at the Western
Dispensary, where his father is now the house
surgeon. He came to the United States in
1X07, when he was but sixteen, and located first
at Omaha, but left there almost immediately
and went to Dunlap, Iowa. In 187 1 he came
to Colorado and took up his residence in Boul-
der count} - , where he remained three years, then
started for the Black Hills, but stopped at
Hahn's Peak in what is now Routt but was
then Grand county. Here he mined for a time
and carried the United States mails, but some
months later moved to Eagle river, Summit
county, where he remained until 1876, when
he went to mining at Red Cliff. He took up
the first ranch on Eagle river, his location being
on Brush creek. In 1885 he returned to Routt
county and at once engaged in merchandising,
a pursuit he has followed steadily and success-
fully ever since. While living on Eagle river he
served as deputy sheriff of Lake and Eagle
counties. He joined the Masonic fraternity in
1894 and by his activity and zeal soon attained
prominence in the order, serving as secretary
of Lodge No. 106 for a time and as its wor-
shipful master in 1903. His interest in the
fraternity has not been limited to the blue lodge,
but has carried him through the higher
branches, and he received the thirty-second de-
gree in 1904. He is well known in Masonic
circles as an active worker for the good of the
order, and has a standing of commanding in-
fluence in it all over the state. But he has al-
lowed nothing to interfere with his business,
and this he has augmented to very large pro-
portions and carried to a high state of excel-
lence in management, enterprise and success in
meeting the wants of the people. His em-
porium carries complete lines of general mer-
chandise, staple groceries, ranch supplies, and
hats, caps and clothing. He is ever affable and
accommodating, and always conducts his trans-
actions on a high plane of integrity and honor.
One of the specialties of his trade is a brand
of flour which he has made with great care
and to which he has given his name. A por-
682
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
tion of his earlier life in this country was de-
voted to hunting and prospecting. On De-
cember 15, 1885, he was married at Notting-
ham. England, to Miss Annie Frances Smith,
of that city. They have had nine children. Of,
these Gertrude, May and Elizabeth have died,
and Henry J., William J., Alpea A., Arthur
Edward, Frances Edith and Henrietta I. are
living.
JAMES L. HURT.
Left an orphan by the death of his father
when the son was but thirteen, and by that of
his mother half a year earlier, James L. Hurt
of Center, Saguache count}', ill prepared as
he was for the battle of life, took up his burden
courageously and has bravely borne it ever
since, making his own way in this struggling
world, but using all his opportunities to good
purpose and making his every effort tell to his
advantage. He was born on May 2.6, 1854,
near the town of Roanoke, Howard county,
Missouri, and is the son of Thomas A. and
Miranda (Lee) Hurt, who also were born and
reared in Missouri, and remained there until
death, that of the mother occurring in Septem-
ber, 1867, and that of the father in February,
1868. The father was a farmer and dealer in
live stock, shipping numbers of cattle, horses
and other stock to Eastern markets, and was
successful in his business until the outbreak of
the Civil war called him to the service of his,
section, when he joined the Confederate army
under Capt. William McCowan. His military
service broke up his business and as the whole
South suffered severely in the war, he died too
soon after its close to pass the critical period of
that part of the country, and retrieve his for-
tunes. Four of the children survive their par-
ents, William, John R., James L. and Mrs. W.
K. Manis. The father was an earnest and de-
voted Democrat in political faith and took an
active interest in the affairs of his party. James
L. was educated in the country district schools
and the high school at Roanoke, Missouri, and
after the death of his parents he secured em-
ployment in farming and raising stock in his
native state, where he remained until 1881,
when he came to Colorado, proceeding almost
immediately to the San Luis valley and locat-
ing in Saguache county. He purchased the
interest of W. T. Downing in a mercantile es-
tablishment, Mr. Downing being a partner in
the business with Samuel Jewell. Messrs. Hurt
and Jewell carried on the enterprise with fair
success until 1885, when they sold it and turned
their attention to raising sheep and cattle. This
they did together until 189 1. and in that year
Mr. Hurt bought Mr. Jewell's interest in the
business and has since conducted it extensively
alone. He has been a large and active shipper
to various markets and has made a pronounced
success of his industry. By 1885 he had ac-
quired four hundred and eighty acres of land,
and in 1898 he bought two additional ranches.
those of Bedell and Wilson, comprising two
thousand six hundred acres, and by subsequent
purchases he has increased his holdings to four
thousand acres, all good land and well ad-
vanced in cultivation. He introduced mules
into the neighborhood and has since raised
them and horses in large numbers, running also
large herds of cattle, and making every effort
to secure the best grades and output in each.
His favorite breeds of cattle are the Galloway
and the Polled Angus, and of horses the Per-
cheron. In 1897, realizing the need of a town
in his vicinity, he located the townsite of Cen-
ter, he then owning the quarter section of the
land on which it is plotted, and he now has the
finest residence in the town. When he moved
into this valley there was not a house or even
a fence stake where Center has since grown
to a promising size and importance, and the
only house between Crestone and Alamosa was
one owned by George Taylor and used as a
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
683
half-way road house. Mr. Hurt has greatly im-
proved his original farm, the others being im-
proved when he bought them, and has mads
it one of the most valuable and attractive of
its size in the county. He has been steadily
• prosperous in all his undertakings, and is es-
teemed as one of the best business men in his
section. He is a third-degree Mason, with
membership in Vulcan lodge. No. 432. at
Hooper. He also belongs to the order of
Woodmen of the World. In politics he was
for years a Populist, and as such was twice
elected to the legislature, but he is now a
stanch Republican. He is a prominent and in-
fluential citizen, well known throughout a wide
extent of country and held in the highest re-
gard everywhere. Having endured many trials
and hardships in his early life, he knows how
to sympathize and judicially aid others in like
circumstances, and is ever genial and generous.
On February 26, 1885, he was married to Miss
Ida B. Reed, a native of Johnson county, Mis-
souri, reared in Colorado. Her parents are
Thomas D. and Mary E. Reed, natives of
Delaware who moved to Missouri and after-
ward to Colorado, remaining in this state until
1900, then changing their residence to Cali-
fornia, where they are now living. The father
farmed and raised stock in Missouri, and in
Colorado mined and prospected. Mr. and Mrs.
Hurt have three children, Thomas C, Minnie
P. and Lulu B.
ORION WAINWRIGHT DAGGETT.
At twenty-one years of age, O. W. Dag-
gett was one of the first settlers of Gypsum
valley. He was born at Monitor, Tippecanoe
county, Indiana, on January 4, 1 86 1. He comes
of a race of pioneers and in his own career has
been faithful to the customs and traditions of
his family. His great-grandfather's seventh
ancestor, John Daggett, was a pioneer of Mas-
sachusetts, coming to that state in 1630 with
Governor Winthrop. Later on his ancestors
were pioneers in the states of Connecticut,
Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Naplithali Dag-
gett, great-grandsire of the subject of this
sketch, was Doctor of Divinity of Yale College
from 1755 to 1766, and president of that insti-
tution from 1766 to 1777. He was one of the
first martyrs of the American Revolution, being
wounded while leading the students against
the British. He was taken prisoner and died
from the effects of their mistreatment.
Orion Wainwright Daggett is the son of
Alfred and Emma (Britan) Daggett, the for-
mer a native of New Haven, Connecticut, and
the latter of Birmingham, England. They set-
tled in Lafayette. Indiana, where the father
was for years an extensive manufacturer of
woolens, linseed oil and flour, and a general
merchant. The son attended the common
schools and a high school' at Lafayette. Indi-
ana, and while a youth spent the summer vaca-
tions working in the woolen factory, and later
began clerking in a dry goods store at Sheldon.
Illinois. At the age of eighteen he became a
purchaser for his father's grain business, thus
earlv in life learning the art of dealing with
others to advantage. In 1882 he came to Colo-
rado, and after inspecting Denver and Leadville
as sites for business, turned his back upon the
work to which he had been trained and became
a ranchman. On May 25, 1882. he located in
the Gypsum valley, becoming one of its first
settlers, there being at the time only four
ranches taken up between Redcliff and Glen-
wood Springs and no wagon road into the val-
ley. The four settlers whose ranches he passed
on his weary pilgrimage on foot were Joseph
Brett, H. J. Hernage, Webb Frost and John
Bowman. There was not a ditch or an enclos-
ure in this part of Colorado then, and every-
thing necessary to make the region habitable
was vet to be done. But Mr. Daggett went to
684
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
work resolutely, after filing the first homestead
claim for this section, and began to bring about
the settlement and improvement of the country.
He built the second ditch in the county and in
course of time erected a dwelling for himself,
until then living in a tent. There were of
o iurse no buildings in the neighborhood, but
Indian teepees were plentiful across the creek;
still their occupants were not unfriendly and
gave him no trouble. For a long time he saw
only nine white men in the valley. His first
occupation here was hauling game to Aspen
and Leadville for sale, and as the product was
abundant the business was profitable, he haul-
ing i an on one occasion two wagon loads of elk
which he secured on the Flat Tops. Beaver
were also plentiful in the creek on his place,
and so wild game not only furnished meat for
his table but the means of securing other sup-
plies. He continued to hunt and sell game in
this way two or three years. His ranch com-
prises one hundred and sixty acres and is four
miles south of Gypsum. It was covered with
sage brush when he took possession of it. but
he has improved it in every way since then,
and now has not only a comfortable home on
it. but a source of considerable revenue from
its products. In 1891 and 1892 he was associ-
ated with other gentlemen in merchandising as
a member of the Daggett. Shiff & Company es-
tablishment a; Gypsum, and from 1893 to 1902
was in the mining and milling and general mer-
chandise business of the firm of Daggett &
Evans at Fulford, Colorado. With this taste,
which is almost inevitable to even,- energetic
man in this part of the world, he expended
a considerable lot of money at different periods
in developing mining property in the Fulford
district. Tn 1902 he sold out the business he
was then conducting and returned to his ranch
at Gypsum to which he has since given almost
his whole attention. From 1883 to 1887 he
freighted between Redcliff and Glenwood
Springs, hauling part of the Ute Chief, the first
printing press, into the latter place. From the
dawn of his manhood Air. Daggett has earn-
estly suppi >rted the Republican party and in all
its campaigns he has lent a willing and effective
hand to the cause. His ranch is widely known.
and favorably mentioned on all occasions as the
Red Rock Ranch. On January 4, 1891, he
united in marriage with Miss Sarah F. Haines,
who prior to her marriage was a prominent
school teacher in Indiana and Salt Lake City.
She died on February 24, 1900. Two chil-
dren were the result of this marriage, both of
whom died. On November 4. 1903, he was
married to Miss Harriet D. Patterson, a native
of Pittsburg. Pennsylvania, his present wife.
On December 13. 1904. was bom to them a
little girl, Elizabeth Patterson Daggett.
GEORGE DWIGHT BARDWELL.
George Dwight Bardwell. a leading attor-
ney of the southwestern section of the state,
was born on July 29. 1866. in Franklin county,
Massachusetts, and is the son of George W.
and Anna Bardwell. The father was a farmer
and politician, being a member of the Massa-
chusetts house of representatives at the time
of his death. Mr. Bardwell has been engaged
in mining and practicing law for eighteen years
in Colorado, at Aspen, Leadville, Gunnison.
Lake City, and throughout the San Juan coun-
try. He was admitted to the bar in May. 1893,
and has ever since had law offices in Gunnison
and Hinsdale counties. He has been a director
and the secretary of the Dupre Mining Com-
pany which owns the Isolde mine from its or-
ganization in 1898. He was city attorney of
Lake City and county attorney of Hinsdale
county from 1894 to T 9 5- Tn politics he was
for years a Democrat but is now a Republican.
and has been during the last six years. Fra-
ternallv he belongs to the Woodmen of the
PROGRESSIVE MEX OF WESTERN COLORADO.
68c
World, the United Workmen and the order of
Elks. On July 6, 1896. at Eureka, Colorado,
he was married to Miss Hannah Cunningham,
and has three children, Anna B., Mary Esther
and T. G. This brief outline of the life of a
prominent public man and lawyer gives no ac-
count of the success with which he has con-
ducted every line of activity with which he
has been connected, the fortitude with which he
has met and overcome every difficulty that has
confronted him, or the general esteem in which
he is held by all classes of the people every-
where he has been, and but hints his high
standing at the bar and in the business world,
all of which would be told at greater length did
not his modesty forbid.
LOUIS C. DAPPEX.
Honorable in all his dealings with his fel-
low men and in all the relations of life, popu-
lar among the people of his county, progressive
and public-spirited in his activities, and gen-
erous in his disposition. Louis C. Dappen. of
Saguache county, with a fine ranch of valuable
land comprising six hundred and forty acres.
located five miles northwest of Center, and
two others aggregating six hundred and forty
acres additional, one located near Hooper and
the other near Center. Louis C. Dappen is
easily one of the leading and most substantial
citizens of Saguache county. And his posses-
sions are all the more creditable to him in that
they are the results of his own unassisted thrift
and enterprise, and have been won through dif-
ficulties and over many obstacles. Mr. Dap-
pen was born on June 15. 1867. in Atchison
count}'. Missouri, and is the son of Benjamin
and Mary Dappen. the former a native of
Switzerland and the latter of Germanv. Dur-
ing the early days of his residence in this coun-
try the father followed stage driving, but the
latter part of it was devoted to farming. Ne-
braska was his final earthly home, and there
he died in 1892, having by twenty-three vears
survived his wife, who passed away in
Three of their children are living. Benjamin.
Henry W. and Louis C. The last named re-
ceived only a common-school education, and
that of a limited extent, as he was early obliged
to make his own living by working on the farm.
He remained in his native state until 1888,
when he came overland to Colorado with all
that he possessed, two teams, two sets of har-
ness, one wagon and eighteen dollars in money
The time required for the trip was twenty-
eight days, and on his arrival in the San Luis
valley he at once secured one hundred and sixty
acres of land on a pre-emption claim. After
improving this he sold it in 1890 at a loss, but
in the meantime, with a view to other pur-
chases in the neighborhood, he helped to build
the Farmers' Union ditch, in which he still
has an interest. After selling his first ranch
he located another, and being unsuccessful in
improving this in four years' effort, he gave it
up, and in 1896 bought one of four hundred
and eighty acres, which he sold in 1898 to J.
M. Warden, a sketch of whom will be found on
another page. He then, for a year, rented a
ranch of one hundred and sixty acres, and in
1899 bought his present home ranch of six
hundred and forty acres, which is superior land
and very valuable. The place is well supplied
with water, all substantially 'fenced, and im-
proved with a good dwelling and other neces-
sary buildings. In addition to this, as has been
noted, he owns a ranch of four hundred and
eighty acres near Hooper and one of one hun-
dred and sixty near Center, making one thou-
sand two hundred and eighty acres in all, all
the tracts lying within convenient distances of
one another. He raises excellent crops of peas.
hay. wheat and oats, and carries on an exten-
sive stock industry, especially in hogs and cat-
tle. His start in life was next to nothing, and
686
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
all he has he has made himself, and his hold-
ings rank him among the large landholders of
the county, while his prosperity demonstrates
that he possesses first-rate business qualifica-
tions. Fraternally he belongs to the Modern
Woodmen of America and the Woodmen of
the World. His first marriage occurred on
November 22, 1888, and was with Miss Mat-
tie Warren, a native of Iowa. They had two
children who died in infancy. He married a
second wife on June 3, 1896, Miss Ella Hayes,
who was born in Kansas. They have three
children. Cora E., Perry L. and Ina L. His
first wife died on March 4, 1892. and the sec-
ond on December 17, 1900. Mr. Dappen is,
in the matter of public improvements, in-
terested in the Farmers' Union Ditch Company
and the Rio Grande Land & Water Company.
JAMES P. VEERKAMP.
This prominent professional man of the
San Luis valley, who owns and occupies one of
the finest residences in Monte Vista, and en-
joys a high rank at the bar and one of the
most lucrative and representative practices in
that part of Colorado, is almost wholly a self-
made man, having earned by his own exertions
the money to pay his way through the higher
schools and the law department of Missouri
University at Columbia, was burn near Troy,
Lincoln county, Missouri, on May 7, 1862, and
is the son of Bartholomew and Sarah (Brown)
Veerkamp. the former a native of Hanover,
( Germany, and the latter of Lincoln county.
Missouri. The father was successful in farm-
ing and raising live stock, and an esteemed citi-
zen of his locality. He was a Democrat in
political allegiance until 1861, then became a
Republican over the issues involved in the Civil
war. He died on November 17. 1003. at the
age of seventy-eight years. The mother is
still living at the old Missouri home. The son
attended the common schools until he was about
twenty years old, then taught school in Texas
and Missouri to earn money for the purpose of
securing a more advanced and a professional
education. At the age of twenty-three he at-
tended high schools at Dexter, Iowa, and in
1886 entered the law department of the Colum-
bia (Missouri) University, having previously
prepared himself for his professional course in
that institution by diligent study and attentive
reading of the text books on law while teach-
ing school. He was examined and admitted
to the bar at Mexico. Missouri. In 1892 he
opened a law office at Stockton, Missouri, and
continued his practice there until 1899, then
moved to his present location, Monte Vista,
this state. He has a general practice, appear-
ing before all the courts and conducting all
kinds of cases, and is looked upon as one of
the leading attorneys of the San Luis valley.
In addition to his legal reputation, be has that
of being a public-spirited and progressive citi-
zen, and a generous and considerate man. and
the distinction he enjoys in all respects is well
deserved and based on demonstrated merit.
Fraternally be is connected with the Odd Fel-
lows and the Woodmen of the World. He
is a Republican in politics, and while living in
Missouri served as docket clerk in the state
senate in 1892 and 1893. On February 16,
[896, he was married to Mrs. Emma Hedges.
a native of Missouri, born in Pulaski county.
VICTORIA HOTEL COMPANY.
The excellent hostelry conducted by this
company, which is one of the best and most
popular bouses of entertainment in southwest-
ern Colorado, is under the management of a
partnership composed of C. A. Biggs, Mrs. E.
A. Shields and Leonard M. Wingert. and Mrs.
Shields has the direct charge of its domestic
affairs. She is a native of Berlin. Germany.
PROGRESSITE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
687
and has been engaged in keeping hotel since
1897, carrying on the business from that year
until 1900 at Chama, New Mexico, and since
1900 at Alamosa, Conejos county, this state.
The Victoria is a two-story stone structure,
with thirty-two sleeping rooms, and keeps one
of the best and most satisfactory tables in the
business in this part of the world. The rates
are three dollars a day, and, with enterprise
characteristic of the section and of people who
understand their business, the management ar-
ranges to meet guests at all trains and furnish
them free transportation to the house. Gener-
ally speaking, the accommodations are excellent
and fully justify the reputation and popularity
of the house. Mrs. Shields, the manager, is a
very superior caterer, and a lad}- of the most
genial and accommodating disposition. She
welcomes all comers with cordiality, and pro-
vides for their entertainment with the utmost
care, making them feel at home in her house
and exhibiting to all the judicious solicitude of
a mother.
Leonard M. Wixgert, the other active
factor in conducting the business of the hotel,
is an old-timer in Colorado, having come to the
state in 1S77. and thoroughly understands the
wants and customs of the people here. He was
born on January 13, 1869, near Chambers-
burg, Pennsylvania, and there attended the dis-
trict schools, receiving a good business educa-
tion. After his arrival in Colorado he devoted
many years to running stationary engines for
the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company at Florence
and the Florence Metallic Extraction Company.
Since 1900 he has been actively associated with
Mrs. Shields in the practical management of
the Victoria Hotel. He is congenial and oblig-
ing, and has a widely extended and favorable
reputation for bis business sense and genuine
and elevated good-fellowship. He is a mem-
ber of the Masonic lodge at Alamosa and of the
Knights of Pythias lodge at Canon City, and
in politics is a firm and loyal Republican. On
< >ctober 25, 1899, he was married to Miss Mat-
tie Eowlby. a native of Ohio. They have one
daughter, Frances Ellen, who was born on Sep-
tember 20, 1903. Mr. Wingert is a son of
Adam B. and Rebecca Wingert, natives of
Franklin county, Pennsylvania. Thev were al-
ways farmers and successful at the business.
In 1877 they came to Colorado and located at
Pueblo, having lived a short time in Kansas.
The mother died on July 31, 1889, and the fa-
ther on March 14. 1905, at Seattle. Washing-
ton.
WILLIAM CLINTON SLOAN.
One of Mineral county's best and most
prominent citizens, and most enterprising mer-
chants, a member of the Creede Lumber Com-
pany, and a man of influence in the fraternal
and public life of his community. William Clin-
ton Sloan, of Amethyst, has builded his own
f irtunes and ranks high among the self-made
men of the state. He was born at Laceyville,
Pennsylvania, on November 13. 1863, and is
a son of David and Phoebe Sloan, the former
a native of New York state and the latter of
Pennsylvania. They were successful farmers
in the latter state, where the mother died in
February, 1871, and the father in August, 1881.
Five of their children survive them. Edna,
Margaret, Carrie, Lucy and William C. The
father was a Republican in politics and be-
longed to the Knights of Pythias. The educa-
tional advantages of Mr. Sloan were limited,
and after the death of his mother in 1871 he
began to work for himself, and by saving his
earnings and applying them to securing a more
advanced education, he made of himself a well
informed man. In 1RS2 he came to Colorado
and located at Pueblo for a short time. The
next year he went to Platte canyon in the em-
ploy of John Morris, and there he remained
until the fall of 1888. when he went to Nov-
ess
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
elty. Missouri, and attended school, passing
through a business and a classical course. In
December, 1889, he returned to Colorado and
had his headquarters at Leadville until 1892,
when the boom at Cree.de led him to that town,
which has since been his home. While at
Leadville he sawed lumber, and on his arrival
at Creede he started a lumber enterprise, after-
ward becoming a partner of Albert W. Der-
rick, of Amethyst, in the Creede Lumber Com-
pany. This company carries an extensive
stock and is prepared to meet every demand in
the line of its trade. Since July 19, 1903, Mr.
Sli tan has also been serving as postmaster at
Amethyst, having been appointed on the resig-
nation of M. G. Woodruff, and he was one of
the county commissioners of Mineral county
from 1897 t0 r 9°3' an< l a member of the
twelfth general assembly of the state. He is a
Freemason in all the degrees of the York rite
and thirty-two in the Scottish rite, and a mem-
ber of the Mystic Shrine ; also an Elk and a
Woodman of the World. Politically he is an
earnest and active Republican. On December
26, 1889, he was married to Miss Nellie E.
Hunter, a native of Carroll county, Illinois.
ALFRED G. BORAH.
This prominent old settler and progressive
citizen of Eagle county, who is held in the
highest esteem by the people of his neighbor-
hood, and wdio has been of great service to it
in pushing forward its improvement and de-
veloping its resources, was born at Morgan-
town. Butler county. Kentucky, on February
3, 1845, an d * s the son of Jacob and Susan A.
( Taylor) Borah, also natives of Kentucky, who
passed their lives in that state, the father dying .
there in 1847 and the mother in 1862. The
father was a successful farmer and an ardent
Democrat. He established Borah's ferry, on
Green river, in his native state, and conducted
it many years. Six children were born in the
household and but two of them are living,
Alfred G. and Jacob E., both being residents
of Colorado. Alfred was educated at the com-
mon schools and remained at home until he
reached the age of nineteen, then, after win-
tering in 1864-5 m Adams and Tazewell
counties, Illinois, he came to Colorado in the
spring of 1865 and took up his residence in
Boulder county. While living there he helped
to build the toll road from the mountains into
Boulder valley and also worked in saw-mills
for wages. In 1868 he moved to Coffey
county, Kansas, where he kept a hotel and
livery barn for awhile, then dealt in real estate
and insurance. He returned to Boulder county
in this state in 1875, without capital but with
a determination to make some, and during the
next three years worked at day labor and min-
ing to get a start. In 1878 he moved to Lead-
ville, where he prospected and mined with vary-
ing success until 1882, then with other early
settlers moved to his present location in Brush
creek valley. In company with his brother
Jacob ( see sketch of him elsewhere in this
work ), he passed three years hunting and trap-
ping and guiding tourists through the country,
finding the business very profitable. In 1885
he pre-empted a portion of his present ranch, a
tract of unbroken wild sage and willows, which
he at once began to improve and reduce to
cultivation with such success and profit that
he was soon able to buy an additional tract of
three hundred and twenty acres, so that he now
owns four hundred and eighty acres in all, one-
half of which is in a fine state of productive-
ness. He has made extensive improvements on
his land and brought it to notice as one of the
best in Eagle county. A beautiful stream runs
through the middle of it. enhancing its attract-
iveness and furnishing abundant water for its
irrigation. Hay and cattle are his chief prod-
ucts, but he also raises quantities of excellent
ALFRED (i. BORAH.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
grain and vegetables. He has taken great in-
terest in improving the live stock in the county,
to this end becoming one of the principal stock-
holders in the Eagle County French Coach and
Percheron Breeders Association and serving as
its president. In school work also he has
always been actively and service-ably interested,
having served as secretary of his schi n >1 district.
Brush Creek No. 10, since 1889. In politics
he is an earnest and loyal Democrat. On June
6, 1871, he was married to Miss Mary Craw-
ford, a native of New York state. She died on
February 11, 1881, and on April 16, 1889, ^ e
married a second wife, Miss Mary S. Grant, a
native of Illinois. They have one child. Mettie
Alda. Mr. Borah has kept a diary of his life
since 188 J in which are recorded many events
of thrilling interest, hardships and privations
from the wildness of the country, hairbreadth
escapes from the rage of wild beasts and savage
men, the fury of the elements and winter's cold.
It also records his struggles for advancement in
a worldly way, describing many trials and tri-
umphs, many reverses and successes, and makes
altogether a very interesting and graphic sti iry
of the conquest of a resolute and resourceful
man over difficulties of great moment.
JOHN Y. CARPENTER.
This most wide-awake and progressive citi-
zen of Monte Vista, Colorado, whose restless
energy and unconquerable spirit have led him
into many sections of the country and a great
variety of pursuits, and who has shown that he
could be as courageous and gallant in war as
he was industrious and many-handed in peace,
was born at Lafayette, Tippecanoe county,
Indiana, on June 8, 1838, and is the son of Ji ihrt
and Ellen (Youel) Carpenter, natives of Ohio,
who some years after their marriage moved to
Indiana and there passed the remainder of
their lives, the mother dying there in 1843 and
the father in 1873. Five of their children are
44
living. Mrs. Lafayette Booth, of Cincinnati,
Ohio, Mrs. David Ward, of Crowley, Louisi-
ana, Mrs. John Kerr, John Y., and Benjamin
C, who lives at Perry ville, Indiana. John Y.
received a limited common-school education
and in i860, when he was twenty-two, his
father started him in the drug business at
Rainsville, Warren county, his native state.
When the Civil war broke out he enlisted 111
the Eleventh Indiana Infantry under Colonel
(afterward General) Lew Wallace, and though
he served until November 15, 1863, and was in
several fiercely-fought battles, among them the
capture of Fort Donelson and the engagement
at Shiloh, he received only a few slight flesh
wounds. After sixteen months' service in the
infantry he was promoted to the Second Ar-
kansas Cavalry, Troop C, and was mustered
out as captain of that command. He returned
to Indiana on leaving the army, and farmed
until September, 1865, when he moved to Ben-
ton county, Missouri, where he resumed farm-
ing and raising stock, and followed that occu-
pation eight years. He then kept the National
Hotel in Sedalia, Missouri, three years and a
half, and in 1877 moved to Joplin, the same
state, where he engaged in mining lead until
July, 1879. when he crossed the plains with a
party of seventy persons conveyed by thirteen
wagons drawn by horses, to San Juan in south-
eastern Utah. The party separated at various
places until Mr. Carpenter was left alone. He
crossed the mountains in this state, going over
Walsenburg La Vesta pass, by Fort Garland
and Conejos, and across Cumbers, the principal
pass of the Rockies. The silver excitement
took him into the Indian country wdiere the
savages were still hostile, and he had many
thrilling adventures with them. He pros-
pected in Utah seven months without success.
He then came into Colorado, and during the
next two years kept a hotel and prospected at
Parrot City in La Plata county. In 1883 he
changed his residence to what is now Monti
690
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
zuma, where he located land and began farm-
ing and raising stock, which he continued until
1889. when he sold all his interests, and lo-
cating at Durango. again turned his attention
to mining, being interested in the Tempest
Mining & Milling Company at the head of the
Florette river. In 189 1 he moved to Summit-
ville and continued his mining operations with
the aid of his sons. The Pass-Me-By Tunnel,
Mining & Milling Company was formed by
them and its properties developed, and from
its organization Mr. Carpenter has served as
its secretary. From 1902 to 1904 he conducted
the Blanco Hotel at Monte Vista. The Pass-
Me-By has one thousand two hundred feet of
tunnel on surface work and four thousand feet
on the water level, cross-cutting eleven claims,
and is equipped with as fine machinery as can
be had. Its ores are mainly gold, with very
little silver or copper. Mr. Carpenter and his
sons are engaged in the business of breeding
the Angora gnat in Colorado, and have bred
the stock with great success and profit. They
have eight hundred acres of land, well im-
proved and sufficiently irrigated for the culti-
vation of seven hundred acres. On this they
conduct a general ranching industry and raise
cattle and horses extensively. Mr. Carpenter
was married on March 2, 1864, in Warren
county, Indiana, to Miss Marian Mitchell, a
native of that county. Four of their seven chil-
dren are living, Ulysses G., promoter and presi-
dent and general manager of the mining com-
pany already mentioned and the Asiatic Mining
& Milling Company, west of it; Orion P., a
ranchman; Clarence J., a practical miner; and
Tula. Both father and sons are earnest Re-
publicans in politics and belong to the order
of Elks ; and the sons also belong to the Mac-
cabees. Their ranch is three miles and a half
easl of Monte Vista, and has the second best
water right on the Rio Grande. It is improved
with good buildings and in a forward state of
cultivation.
GEORGE CHAFFEE WILDER.
This enterprising citizen of Amethyst,
Mineral county, is a native of Colorado, born
at Denver on July 15, 1864, and was named for
his father's close friend and business associ-
ate, the late United States Senator Jerome B.
Chaffee, in whose honor Chaffee count}- was
also named. He is the son of William F. and
Esther (Mann) Wilder, the former born in
New York state and the latter in Wisconsin.
The}- were married at Buckskin Joe. now Alma,
Colorado. Previous to coming to this state
the father was engaged in the wholesale gro-
cery trade in Cincinnati, Ohio, and had some
business interests in Omaha, Nebraska. In
1859 he, Mr. Chaffee and David H. Moffat
crossed the plains in a private conveyance con-
sisting of a vehicle drawn by four mules, and
after their arrival at Denver, put in a line of
freighting teams and opened a commission
house. They equipped one of the finest trains
in the west, using in its service three hundred
mules. This was demolished in part by the
Indians, and after its restoration was confis-
cated by the United States government at the
beg-inning of the Civil war. The elder Mr.
Wilder then enlisted as captain of the First
( a 1I1 irado Volunteers, and served for the time
of his commission, fighting in 1863 in the bat-
tle in which the Texans were defeated, after
which he was promoted major. He also
fought valiantly in the Sand Creek battle with
the Indians. In 1863 tne government paid for
the teams previously taken, and with the
money Mr. Wilder and Mr. Chaffee went to
mining at Central City. They located good
claims, increased their output, bought a large
claim in addition, then went broke. They con-
tinued mining, however, going to Leadville in
1879, securing paying properties, retaining
them until the company was formed to oper-
ate the Maxwell grant. Soon afterward the
main man in the enterprise died, lint they con-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OP WESTERN COLORADO.
6gi
tinned operations two years, then abandoned
their undertaking and sought other fields which
they worked until 1886. when they moved to
Denver, where they made their headquarters
and continued to work their Leadville interests
until 1892. Then Wilder returned to his Gil-
pin county claims. The flood of 1892 in the
property made it necessary that the mines he
retimbered, which Mr. Wilder did, at a cost
with other improvements, of twenty thousand
dollars, and after all was completed, the entire
work caved in and all was lost. Mr. Wilder
was a radical and influential Republican in
politics, ami a Freemason in fraternal life. He
died on February 10, 1893. Five of his chil-
dren survive him. George C. ; Fred W., a mine
superintendent at Cripple Creek; Mrs. Edwin
L. Coats, of Boulder; Clifton H., of La Jara.
a member of the last Colorado legislature, and
Rose, who lives at Littleton.
George C. Wilder attended the common
and high schools and the State University at
Boulder, receiving a good commercial educa-
tion, spending two years at the university. lie
did good business in Denver as a sign writer
and in the paint and wall paper business, and
opened the first meat market at Littleton, in
partnership with Charles Cummings. At the
end of two years and a half he sold out and in
1888 and 1889 served as foreman of Mann &
Archer's stock ranch on Platte river and Deer
creek. In the winter of 1891 he was associated
with the Union Live Stock Company and in
1892 moved to Creede and took a hand in the
mining industry, leasing mines and sub-leas-
ing them, continuing this line until 1896, and
in 1894 and 1895 served as foreman at the
Bachelor mines when the tunnel was made on
through to the Commodore mines. He and his
men are credited with having struck the first
pick on the Commodore, and he also received
the first checks issued by the Commodore com-
pany. In 1896 he purchased what was left
after several months' business in partnership
with Samuel Motz, bought him out, since when
he has conducted the paper and its adjunct job
printing alone. He has made many improve-
ments in his plant and equipment until he now
has one of the best printing offices in the south-
western part of the state. His paper is a
weekly, and has a large general circulation in
its tributary territory, and the office is also able
to meet all demands of the jobbing trade. Mr.
Wilder, like his father, is a Republican in
politics, unwavering in his faith and untiring in
his service to his party. Fraternally he is an
Elk. a Mason and a Woodman of the World.
He has shown his interest in the welfare of his
city by serving as alderman. He is also chiet
of the Creede fire department. On December
11, 1895, he was married to Miss Lola E. Motz,
a native of Guthrie county, Iowa. In addition
to his newspaper and printing business, Mr.
\\ ilder has mining interests and city property
of value.
HEXRY H. WASON.
This well posted mining man and success-
ful ranch and stock man. whose home and inter-
ests are in Mineral county, where he is one of
the prominent and influential citizens, was horn
on January 5, 1S69. m Philadelphia, Pennsyl-
vania, and is the stepson of Martin V. and son
of Harriet L. Wason, the former a native of
Xew Hampshire and the latter of England.
The mother was the author of three books
which have been popular and had an extensive
sale. They are "Letters From Colorado,"'
"Tale of the Santa Rita Mountains" and "The
Legend of Manitou Caverns." The father was
a successful ranch, stock and mining man. who
came to Colorado in 1873 an( ' the same year
was married at Del Norte. In 1879 he took
up a homestead two miles south of Creede,
which he increased to a ranch of two thousand
acres, and became the first settler in the neigh-
692
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
borhood. He raised hay and cattle extensively
and was active and successful in the mining in-
dustry. In 1873 he began mining at Silverton
on King Solomon Mountain and acquired the
controlling interest in one mile of the North
Star vein and the property in which it is lo-
cated. He retained a one-half interest in the
Shenandoah and all of Shenandoah No. 3, also
two-thirds of the Dives claim and one-half of
the Yellow Jacket, silver and lead mines. At
one time he owned also a one-third interest in
the Bachelor mine at Creede, but sold out at a
good profit. When he came to Colorado he
had two hundred horses, and so had something
to make a good start with, and as he was a
careful prospector, all his efforts were success-
ful. In early life he was a Whig in politics,
lint in later life a Democrat. He was one of the
leading men in the mining industry in his day
and locality, and highly esteemed as a public-
spirited and progressive citizen, of benevolent
disposition ami widely-known generosity. His
life ended in December. 1903. and that of his
wife in August, 11)04. Henry H. is their only
surviving child. He attended the common
schools at Del Norte and the Denver high
school, and also passed two years at the State
School of Mines in Golden. After making this
preparation fur the business he spent ten
months in the King Solomon mines to acquire
a thorough practical knowledge of mining, and
thereby became well learned in all departments
of the industry, hie remained with his parents
until death ended their labors, and since then he
has carried on the business which his father
built up to such great proportions, retaining all
the property and keeping every line of the busi-
ness, mining, ranching and raising stock, in full
activity with enlarging profits. Politically he is
a Democrat and takes a lively interest in the
affairs of his party. In fraternal relations he
is a W lman of the World, an Odd Fellow
and an Elk. In March, t8oi, he was married
to Miss Frances Rogers, a native of Golden,
Colorado, and daughter of Loren P. and Eliz-
abeth Rogers, pioneers of Colorado, the father
being very successful in mining. They now
live at Golden. Mr. and Mrs. Wason had two
children, their daughter Norma M. and their
son Loren H. Their mother died in 1900.
WILLIAM STONE.
This popular citizen and valued public of-
ficial of Mineral county, this state, is a native
of Colorado, born on Greenhorn range in
Pueblo county on July" 28, 1880, and the son of
Charles and Apollonia (Kohn) Stone, natives
of German)- wdio emigrated to the United
States in 1873 an( ^ hved in Rhode Island until
1877, then came to Colorado. While in Ger-
many the father was a sailor and traveled on
many vessels to many ports. During his resi-
dence in Rhode Island he followed blacksmith-
ing with profit, and after his arrival in Colo-
rado adhered f< >r a time to the same craft. He
has also engaged in mining here with good suc-
cess. He is a Democrat in politics and has
served as alderman. Three of the children born
to the family are living. Carl F.. who resides
at Bizbee, Arizona: Albert E. R.. and William.
The last named obtained a good business edu-
cation, attending the Hinsdale school at Pueblo
and schools at Creede. He has had extensive
business experience, having been deputy post-
master at Creede a number of years, and after-
ward a clerk for the Denver & Rio Grande Rail-
road at the same place. Since 1901 he has
been county clerk and recorder of Mineral
county, and has filled the office with great credit
to himself and satisfaction to the people. He
is a Democrat in political faith and allegiance,
and lias proven himself to he a wide-awake and
competent official, and a public-spirited citi-
zen. Fraternally he is allied wit' the Knights
of Pythias, the F.Iks and the Masons. In all
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
693
the relations of life he has met the require-
ments of duty with manliness and uprightness,
and is universally esteemed throughout the
county.
HON. OMER M. KEM.
Tt is only within a very reent period that
the great West of our country has been able
to make itself heard in any effective way in its
demand for the aid of the general government
in developing its vast arid regions and bringing
them into productiveness and fertility through
systematic and sufficient irrigation. To all ap-
peals on this score prior to a few years ago
the congress of the United States turned a deaf
and often defiant ear. apparently unable or un-
willing to see that the waters of the Rocky
mountain region, if properly stored and dis-
tributed, would not only fructify the great
plains that stretch away from it to the Mis-
sissippi, but would also be restrained from cre-
ating the disastrous floods which spring after
spring for centuries have wasted many, many
times the wealth required for their proper use
in this way. Among the broad-minded and
aggressive representatives of the West whose
persistent efforts at last compelled an attentive
audience to this subject and secured provision
for the mighty means of beneficence and local
and national aggrandizement involved therein.
Hon. Omer M. Kern, a member of the fifty-
second, fifty-third and fifty-fourth congresses
from Nebraska, but now an esteemed resident
of Colorado, is entitled to special consideration
and credit. From the time of his entry into the
halls of national legislation to the close of his
valuable services there he was a persistent and
able advocate of the scheme, and labored in-
cessantly in committees and on the floor of the
house of representatives in its behalf. His ef-
forts and others' have at length been crowned
with success, for the government is now en-
gaged in constructing immense irrigation
works throughout the West, which solves for
all time the irrigation problem. If there were
nothing else in his life worthy of regard, his
efforts in this behalf would entitle him to be
enshrined in the loving remembrance of the
Western, people for all time. Mr. Kem was
born in 1855 at Martinsdale Creek, Wayne
county, Indiana, and is the son of Madison and
Malinda (Bulla) Kem. His father was a na-
tive of West Virginia, and at the ace of six-
teen emigrated to Indiana, then a newly opened
territory and an almost unbroken wilderness.
He was a carpenter by trade and settled in
Wayne county, with his parents, Joseph and
Lucy (Helms) Kem. who were among the first
settlers there, what is now the city of Rich-
mond having at the time of their arrival only
three log cabins as the sum of its human habi-
tations. Both father and grandfather passed
the remainder of their lives in that state, the
latter dying at the age of eighty-four and the
former at that of seventy-five. Mr. Kern's
mother was a native of the state, her parents
having come thither from North Carolina pre-
vious to her birth. They died while she was
a young girl, and she passed away in 1883.
aged sixty-five vears. leaving eight children, of
whom Omer was the last born. His boyhood
and youth were passed in Indiana and in her
district schools he received his education. At
the age of fifteen he engaged in farming there,
remaining until 1880, when he moved to Illi-
nois and during the next two years farmed in
Vermilion county, that state. He then moved
farther west to the frontier of Nebraska and
settled on a homestead in Custer county near
what is now the city of Broken Bow, the
county seat. Here he farnied and improved his
land, and gave earnest attention to the public
affairs of the section, aiding in developing its
resources, multiplying its conveniences, raising
the standards of life among its people, and
doing all that a man of public-spirit, breadth
694
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
of view and patriotic devotion to his com-
munity could do to accelerate its progress and
better its condition. In 1890 he was selected
deputy county treasurer and served in that
capacity till July of the following year. He
was nominated by the People's Alliance party
for representative in the fifty-second congress,
and at the ensuing election was successful. He
was twice re-elected, serving in three successive
congresses, and during that service of six years
was of great benefit to his state and section in
many ways. He fully understood the people he
represented, and was in full sympathy with
their aspirations and thoroughly imbued with
their spirit. Moreover, he knew the needs of
the region, was familiar with its history, had a
comprehensive conception of its resources and
possibilities, and was entirely loyal and devoted
to its interests. It was inevitable that a man
so prepared and equipped, and with the ability
to use his forces effectively in set arguments or
running debate, and withal possessed with a
courtesy and geniality of manner that almost
disarmed opposition to begin with, should
prove to be a most valuable and serviceable
representative, and his people set the seal of
their approval on his usefulness by continuing
him at bis post so long. After the close of
his congressional career he moved to Colorado
and settled on the farm of one hundred and
sixty acres which is his present residence, three
miles west of Montrose. On this be has planted
an orchard of twenty acres, containing apple,
apricot, plum and cherry trees, and a vineyard
of select varieties of grapes, and has erected a
fine brick dwelling of modern pattern and
ample proportions, with all the needed out-
buildings and other appurtenances for the stock
industry which be conducts in connection with
bis fruit culture. In Colorado he has taken
but little part in politics, but he is none the
less keenly alive to the enduring welfare of
the state, and neglects no opportunity to aid in
promoting it. Mr. Kern has been married
twice, the second time in 1884 to Miss Maria
Lockbart. of Ohio, a daughter of Robert and
Rachel (Welch) Lockhart, of that state. The
father was a minister there and died in 1877,
and his widow is now living at Paonia, Colo-
rado. By this marriage Mr. Kern became the
father of seven children, five of whom are
living, Huxley Darwin. Iris. Myrtle. Victor and
Kathleen. Another son, Bert, and a daughter.
Marie, are deceased. His first marriage was to
Miss Lenora Benson, a native of North Caro-
lina, who died in 1882. at the age of thirty-four ;
leaving three children. Maud. Malinda and
Claud. Two others, Edwin and Earl, died in
childhood.
The following extracts are from a speech
delivered by Congressman Kem in the national
house of representatives on Fridav, August 10.
1894, on the question of government irrigation.
It is entitled to special interest as being the
first speech ever made in congress publicly ad-
vocating government irrigation and also be-
cause the government is now practically follow-
ing out the ideas embodied therein.
Mb. Chairman: The question that this commit-
tee is now discussing is one of the greatest questions
that Congress has ever been called upon to discuss.
We are to-day face to face with this problem, and it
is one that we have got to solve whether we wish to
or not, because the logic of events is driving it fast
upon us.
The supreme importance, the crying need of irri-
gation was never so keenly realized by the people of
the West as it is to-day. An awful calamity has fallen
on the people of the trans-Missouri corn belt. An
extraordinary period of drought and hot winds has
almost annihilated the great staple crop of that sec-
tion. Mr. Chairman, the people of the West are
brave, hardy, and proud-spirited. Nevertheless they
are forced by the extreme necessities of the present
to cry aloud for help in some form. Thousands and
tens of thousands of them will be compelled to accept
charity before another crop can be raised.
■Nearly one-half the total area of the United States
lies in the arid and subhumid district, all of which
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
695
needs irrigation for successful agriculture. The dis-
trict is composed of the following seventeen states
and territories: North Dakota, South Dakota, Ne-
braska, Kansas, Indian Territory. Texas. Montana,
Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Idaho, Utah, Ne-
vada, Arizona, Washington, Oregon and California.
Narrow strips in the eastern and western borders
of this great district are well watered naturally. Con-
tiguous to these strips are considerable tracts that are
classed as subhumid. The rainfall in these tracts is
often sufficient to produce good crops, but it cannot
be depended on year after year. This subhumid re-
gion includes about half of the Dakotas, Nebraska,
Kansas. Indian Territory and Texas.
This arid and subhumid region contains about
2,000,000 square miles of territory, or l,2S0,O00,O00
acres, 100,000,000 acres of which may be irrigated in
time. This at a fair estimate gives ample room for
1,250,000 rural homes, sheltering an agricultural pop-
ulation of 6,250,000. Along with these will come
other millions to engage in various trades and pro-
fessions. Just as irrigation spreads out over this
vast region will it become populated and brought
within the pale of a higher civilization.
Just as the supply of water which is daily run-
ning to waste on its way to the sea. is gathered up
and utilized in irrigation, the farmers will reach out
and take possession of the fertile plains and valleys,
the forests that cover the mountain sides will be
utilized, and the mountains will surrender the stored
wealth of ages. It is estimated by high authority that
the full development of this mountainous region alone
would create a market equal to that of all Europe.
In short, the possibilities of this country under a
proper system of irrigation cannot be computed by
the mind of man.
This vast region offers the opportunity and the
raw materials for almost every occupation known to
mankind. It produces the cotton and tropical fruits
of the Sunny South, the cereals, vegetables and hardy
fruits of the North.
On its eastern and western slopes are great tracts
of fertile plains the settlement of which has only well
begun. Throughout the entire mountain region are
innumerable valleys, whose soil of unsurpassed rich-
ness is unbroken by the plow of the husbandman.
On the mountain sides are vast forests of valuable
timber, in which the ring of the woodman's ax has
not been heard. Within the strong recesses of the
mountains an almost inexhaustible supply of all the
principal minerals of the planet lie untouched. I be-
lieve, Mr. Chairman, I am justified in saying that
nowhere on the globe is there a country, virtually un-
occupied as this is. which offers such varied and
abundant opportunities as that part of the United
States lying west of the ninety-seventh meridian.
And all these opportunities are open to man on one
condition only — proper irrigation.
It is not difficult to see, Mr. Chairman, the im-
portance of establishing as perfect a system as man
is capable of devising, a system in which all the nat-
ural rights of the citizen shall be secure regardless
of his station in life or the location of his habitation.
In my opinion this can only be done by nationalizing
the system and placing the distribution of the water
under control of Federal law that shall apply through-
out the entire arid region alike. I do not suppose
for a moment that this suggestion will meet the ap-
proval of a majority of this Congress, for I have long
since discovered that it is built on the way-back plan,
and belongs to the ages that were.
But I have great hope that Congress may soon
be modernized, when it will be able to meet the re-
quirements of the people, by keeping abreast with
civilization. Without irrigation this region can nevi r
be settled, and its civilization must and will dwindle.
Not only the welfare but the absolute existence of
unborn millions rests wholly upon the success with
which this irrigation problem is worked out.
I think there ought to be no question about a
measure being national when it affects directly mil-
lions of our citizens and reaches over seventeen dif-
ferent states and territories, as this does. It affects
not only our own people directly, but it affects equally,
though not so directly perhaps, the people of the East,
for it solves, in a measure at least, another grave
problem, namely: What shall be done with the sur-
plus of humanity which is accumulating as it never
did before? Upon the proper solution of the one de-
pends largely the solution of the other. Heretofore
in all history westward the course of empire has
steadily taken its way.
I desire before proceeding further to notice
briefly the principle involved in this proposition, rec-
ognizing that, before Congress will agree to anything
of the sort, it must be convinced that the principle is
a true one.
I believe. Mr. Chairman, the principle of govern-
ment control to be both true and safe. I believe it is
the only solution of many problems with which we are
confronted at this time. The rights of one should be
the concern of all. It is the duty of the national gov-
ernment to step in at any time and protect the rights
of the citizens as individuals, or collectively as a
state.
When the rights of the citizens of one state are
jeopardized by the conduct of the citizens of another
state, then it becomes the duty of the general govern-
ment to act. Every great public improvement which
is not confined to one state should be taken charge
696
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
of and controlled by the general government. Mat-
ters pertaining to the welfare of the citizens of two
or more states and governed by the different laws
of their respective states are always a fruitful source
of evil in pecuniary loss by clash of interests.
One general law should govern all such interests,
regardless of state lines. In short, the principle in-
volved is this: National control of all matters which
are not strictly local in their nature and effect, such
as railway, telegraph, and telephone lines, finance and
irrigation. The application of this principle would
save to the people millions that otherwise go into the
pockets of private individuals as profits on fictitious
capital, commonly known as "watered stock." We
should abolish the present system, by which private
corporations control these great public necessities and
build up colossal fortunes for a few by robbing the
many. These necessities should be controlled by one '
gigantic corporation, composed of the whole people.
I believe, Mr. Chairman, in that sort of trust in
which every one shares the profits. This method
would yield the greatest benefits at the least cost. All
the advantages which a large business has over a
small one would accrue to the people, and the cost of
service would be reduced to a minimum. Under na-
tional control employes would be paid such fair and
regular wages that strikes and labor troubles would
entirely cease.
The work of redeeming these arid wastes through
a system of irrigation is more gigantic and fraught
with greater good to humanity than any work ever
undertaken in this country. It is so colossal both in
size and benefits that the mind of man can scarcely
comprehend it, and no power on earth can successfully
grapple with it, except that of the whole people com-
bined operating through the national government.
But this power can solve the problem successfully,
cause this desert to blossom as the rosf. and dot its
hillsides and valleys with prosperous, happy homes.
This government owes it to the thousands it has
deceived to begin the work at once, and by irrigation
make that country what the settler had the right to
believe it was when, fifteen or twenty years ago, he
entered it under the alluring enticements of the
homestead and pre-emption laws, to find after years of
dreadful experience that he had been deceived. What
the government had led him to believe was a country
with sufficient rainfall, he learned to his sorrow can
be depended upon for a crop only at intervals. I
say the government deceived these people by failing
to make a proper division of the country. Millions
of acres of these western lands were opened to settle-
ment under the provisions of the homestead and pre-
emption laws that should have been opened under the
desert land act. If this had been done no one would
have been deceived, and these people would not have
lost their all in a hopeless fight against fate.
Scattered all over the Eastern slope of this vast
empire are thousands of as fair women and brave
men as the sun ever shone upon, whose honesty, in-
tegrity, frugality, and industry are unsurpassed the
world over. Thousands of them have been bravely
fighting a hopeless battle for years in their endeavor
to build up homes where there is not sufficient mois-
ture to enable them to produce crops with certainty.
Many of these, after exhausting their little all, desti-
tute and heart-sick, are drifting back to the already
crowded East where they come in direct competition
with the millions who now are struggling for bread,
thus making the lot of both more miserable.
Common justice to these people demands that the
government take hold of this matter and, so far as
possible, make this country what it said it was when
these people entered it. More than three hundred
million dollars have the settlers of this region paid
into the national treasury for these lafids. One-third
of this amount will suffice to carry this work of irri-
gation to a point where it will be self-supporting and
not cost the government a cent. Now is the accepted
time lor this Congress to begin the work of rescuing
this country and people from the blast of hot winds
and the curse of railroad monopoly.
Two of the greatest enemies of reform in legis-
lation are the precedent hunter and the constitutional
objector. One can not see to go forward because he
is always looking backward for a precedent. The
other can not advance because he fears he may tram-
ple on the constitution. * * * If a measure is pro-
posed which seemingly encroaches somewhat upon
old ideas, the man after precedents is sure to rise and
want to know if there is a precedent for it. He at
once begins to search among the musty files of past
ages to learn if at any time in the dim savage past
any of our barbarous ancestors did the same thing.
If he finds that they did, the proposition is all right;
but woe unto it if he fails to find a precedent. * * *
The precedent hunter is a back number, stale and
mossgrown, standing in the shade of the glory which
belongs to dead ages. Afraid of the bright light of
a higher civilization, he endeavors to prevent others
from entering it by his persistent demands for prec-
edents. * * * If a reform measure escapes the
precedent hunter, it is sure to be run down by the
constitutional constructionist, who always stands
ready to hurl the constitution in the way of all prog-
ress. He has been at it from the foundation of the
government, and I presume he will keep at it till the
end of time, lor he seems never to learn anything.
Mr. Chairman, I have as high regard for the
organic law of my country as I think should be re-
quired of any man, but I do not place an iron-clad
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLOR.il>' >
697
construction' upon it. as did the Jews upon their law,
which visited the penalty of death upon one found
gathering fagots on the Sabbath day. The constitu-
tion was made for man and not man for the constitu-
tion. It is the creature of the people, made to give
them greater liberties and benefits. If time has
proved it not sufficiently elastic to permit the people
to reach outward and upward in improvement and
reform, then a little more elasticity should he injected
into it, either by the construction of the courts, or by
proper amendments. Nothing must stand in the way
of our progress, not even the constitution.
To my mind. Mr. Chairman, there are no consti-
tutional difficulties in the way of the present propo-
sition. They have all been removed by the action of
the government itself in the construction of the na-
tional road years ago. the building of levees on the
lower Mississippi to prevent overflow of lands, and
many other internal improvements. But if there be
any doubts in the matter, I think this a good time to
run the ship into the dry dock and give her bottom
a scraping. She will sail all the smoother for it in
the future.
In my opinion this Congress should at once es-
tablish an irrigation bureau under the Agricultural
Department with a competent chief at its head, whose
duty it should be to have sole charge of irrigation in
the United States. He should be allowed all the help
necessary to push the work. This bureau should he
made permanent, for it will take many years to com-
plete the work. Then under the supervision of this
bureau the army officers, in order to make first cost as
light as possible, should be put to work making a sys-
tematic survey of this whole region. The bureau
should ascertain (1) the amount of water available
under the different plans of obtaining water in the
different watersheds; (2) the cost of ditches and reser-
voirs 'for collecting and storing the water during the
season when it is not needed until the season of crop
growing: (3) the amount of irrigable land.
This work should begin first in the more thickly
settled portions of the territory to be irrigated in
order to give speedy relief to those who have been
struggling against drought and hot winds for years.
As fast as finished in these portions, the work should
be pushed into the wilderness, preparing the way for
the civilization that will follow fast in its wake.
The drainage of this country, as in all others,
consists of various basins or watersheds, each of
which is drained by a certain stream or streams.
For instance, in my district there is a section of coun-
try drained by the Platte and its tributaries. This
is one watershed.
Another section is drained by the Loup rivers
and their tributaries; another by the Elkhorn; an-
other by the Niobrara, and so on. Each one of these
basins forms a natural basis for a system of irriga-
tion. Each basin has its own water supply. Nature
has established the lines regardless of any arbitrary
boundaries established by man. This fact alone shows
the problem to be interstate, therefore national.
Hence the entire system must be operated regardless
of state lines; otherwise the laws of Wyoming or
Colorado might shut off the water supply of the citi-
zens of Nebraska, and so on throughout the whole
district.
When the surveys are begun in one or more bas-
ins, as may be thought best, the work in each should
be completed, ready for the work of construction to
begin before the survey in a new basin is taken up.
As soon as the survey in any basin is complete the
work of excavating should begin, and the water of
the entire basin available for irrigation or manufac-
turing purposes should be made applicable before the
parties having the work in charge are permitted to
enter a new field. In this way we shall have each
system complete in itself, and, although it may lie
in one or more states, the equal rights of all residents
of the same basin will be secure regardless of whether
they reside in one state or a half dozen states. The
government will begin to derive revenue from this
source just as soon as one system is complete, thus
making the work self-supporting almost from the be-
ginning.
We ask for no paternal gifts of any kind from
this government. What we ask for is fraternal help
to aid us in surmounting difficulties we can not sur-
mount alone. Neither are we proposing any Pacific
Railroad "confidence" or subsidy "skin games" of any
sort to fleece the people of millions. We propose that
the people already in this country and those to follow,
shall pay for all of the direct benefits derived from
this system of irrigation, and no citizen be robbed
of a dollar, while all will be greatly benefited. This
can be accomplished by the government retaining
control of all water rights and charging each user of
water a small annual water rental no larger than just
sufficient to reimburse the government in a reasonable
period, say thirty or forty years, for money expended.
.Mr. Chairman, there seems to be a disposition
on the part of some to confine this irrigation problem,
so far as the government is concerned, to government
lands. It is proposed to cede these lands to the states
and allow the states to assume full control of the
matter. As a representative in part of a state in
which the government has no agricultural lands left,
I protest against any such arrangement for various
reasons, any one of which seems to me a sufficient ob-
jection.
698
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
First. The lands owned by the government suit-
able for agriculture are but a small part of the arid
region, and if all were irrigated the problem would
yet be unsolved. In several of these states the gov-
ernment has no lands left that are fit for agricul-
ture, either with or without irrigation.
Second. If these lands are ceded to the states,
it will result in jobs and steals through state legisla-
tures, as so often has happened heretofore, by which
the water rights will pass into the control of com-
bines, and the agriculturist will continue to be their
victim.
Third. Each state can only control a small por-
tion of the arid district. This, as already stated, will
cause a conflict of interests between the citizens of
the different states, and result in endless litigation
and loss.
Fourth. It is an interstate question, therefore a
national one, and the federal power is the only
power capable of dealing with it successfully in a
way to secure to all citizens their just rights.
The principle of government is inherent in
man ,was born in him, and first appeared in the pri-
vate family as paternal government. Out of this came
patriarchal government through the banding together
of the several families of a community for mutual
benefit and protection, which they could not have as
single families. This simply means a fraternal or-
ganization, the principle of which underlies all true
government, and is that which we are contending for
to-day.
Our government was constituted by organizing all
of the families of this great country into one frater-
nal organization known as the national government.
The relation that should exist between the govern-
ment and the people is not the same which exists
between the parent and his helpless infant or a dot-
ing father and a favorite son. in which the father
lavishes upon the son all the good things of life,
while his brothers and sisters go hungry and ragged.
The true relation is that existing between the mem-
bers of a fraternal organization and its officers, the
members contributing to the support of the organiza-
tion according to their several abilities, the officers in
turn enacting and executing the laws in such a way
as to give protection to all alike.
But, Mr. Chairman, as above stated, I have no
hope of getting any relief from Congress as now con-
stituted. It is almost impossible to get even a hear-
ing on this matter, to say nothing of action that will
accomplish the work. Thousands of dollars are ap-
propriated for monuments to dead men, thousands for
firing the sundown gun, millions to build cannons so
large that it costs hundreds of dollars to fire them
once, and millions more for the general interests of
the East; but not one cent for irrigation, the West's
greatest interest, although we are more than willing
to repay it.
In conclusion, I will say that I have endeavored
to arouse the interest in this body which the impor-
tance of the proposition demands, and whether I suc-
ceed or not. I will have the satisfaction of knowing
I have done my duty.
A. N. PERREAULT.
A. X. Perreault, the proprietor of the lead-
ing hotel at Tincup, has learned the peculiari-
ties of his fellow man through a long experi-
ence in catering to his wants. During the
greater part of his mature life he has been a ho-
tel keeper, and in this capacity has been brought
into intimate relations with all kinds and con-
ditions of men. Probably no occupation in ac-
tive life enables a man to see more of the true
being and individual characteristics of his fel-
lows than that of a boniface whose patronage
is large and comprehensive. He has to deal al-
most wholly with their physical comfort, and
when this is at stake all the true inwardness
of a man is revealed. It must be said to his
credit that Air. Perreault has used his oppor-
tunities for observation to good purpose, and
is therefore able to understand and properly
provide for his guests, and this is one reason
for his popularity as a host. He is a Canadian
by nativity and was born at Montreal in 1846.
His parents, Joseph and Charlotte ( Dannels)
Perreault. were also Canadians, passing the
whole of their lives in the Dominion, the
mother dying in T862, aged seventy, and the
father in 1867, aged eighty-four. Their fam-
ily numbered eleven children, of whom the sub-
ject of this review was the last. At an early
age he was sent to Xew York city, and there
he grew to manhood and was educated. At the
age of twenty-three he began keeping a hotel
in that city and remained there so occupied un-
til 1X75. At that time he became a traveling
salesman and during the next five years was
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
699
employed in that interesting but trying capac-
ity. In 1879 he came to Colorado, and after
spending six months in Denver, located at Tin-
cup where he has since resided. For some
years he was engaged in prospecting and min-
ing, then again entered the hotel business, to
which he has since adhered, at the same time
holding on to his interests in the valuable min-
ing properties which had become a part of his
possessions, among which the most important
are the Wolverine, the Deacon, the Bull-do-
Mingo, the Black Warrior and the Duchess.
The part Mr. Perreault has borne in the devel-
opment of the country in which his activities
have been employed is well appreciated by his
fellow citizens, and the part he has borne in
ministering to their comfort as a caterer is held
also in high regard, lie has been active in all
channels of material improvement, and the com-
munity owes him much in this behalf'; and he
has as well given serviceable aid to all means
for the increase and improvement of the educa-
tional and moral forces of the district, for
which he is equally if nut more entitled to re-
spect and admiration.
JAMES TRIMBLE.
The prairies of the Mississippi valley, with
their fecundity in agricultural products, their
wealth of wild game, their fruitful rivers, and
their onward stride in the march of civilization
and progress, were once the theme of song and
story, and engaged the pen of the historian in
recitals of their wonderful opportunity and
promise. But they have long since given way
to the more thrilling stories of life in the far-
ther West where all that they offered for ad-
miring contemplation is coupled with a mineral
wealth that surpasses the wildest dreams of the
Arabian Nights in prosaic realities, and almost
staggers the imagination in its untold and per-
haps but dimly conceived magnitude. In the
career of James Trimble, of Montezuma
comity, who is the proprietor of an excellent
ranch of two hundred and forty acres with an
extensive range for his cattle, about ten miles
west of Dolores, the romance and the reality of
the two regions are harmoniously commingled.
He was born and reared in the one, he has
thriven and flourished in the other, and he thus
illustrates in a forcible manner the breadth and
flexibility of opportunity for systematic indus-
try in this country, and how the lessons learned
in one section can be profitably applied and use-
fully employed in another. He was born in
Indiana on October 25, 1855, and is the son of
John and Margaret (Raney) Trimble, natives
of Kentucky. When he was about two years
old the family moved to Missouri, where he
reached the estate of manhood and received his
education. In 1881 he became a resident of
Colorado, and since that time he has been ac-
tively connected with the progress and develop-
ment of this state. His principal industry has
been rearing and preparing for the markets a
fine grade of well bred cattle, Herefords and
Shorthorns being his favorite strains, and at
this time his enterprise in this line has grown
to such .magnitude that he handles annually
about one thousand head of these breeds, all of
which he keeps in prime condition. The fruits
of his industry and business capacity are large
and multiform. He is easily the most extensive
cattle owner in Montezuma county, he stands
high in the public regard, not only as a man of
enterprise and progressiveness, but also as a
far-seeing and public-spirited citizen, and he
could count to his credit, if his modesty did not
forbid, a widely ramifying source of beneficence
to individual industry and ambition, and a vol-
uminous contribution to the general industrial
and commercial activities of the portion of the
country in which he lives and operates. Of
the fraternal societies so numerous and so justly
admired among: men, he has favored with his
yoo
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
membership but two, the Knights of Pythias
and the Elks. He was married in Clay county,
Missouri, in 1880, to Miss Alice King, a native
of that state. The}- have four children, Lottie,
John, James ami Winnie, and their pleasant
and comfortable home in Dolores is the center
of a charming social circle.
ALBERT M. PUETT.
Albert M. Puett, one of the ieading stock
men and general farmers of southeastern Colo-
rado, living on a fine ranch of two hundred
and fifty acres about two miles from the town
of Cortes, Montezuma county, is a pioneer of
1874 in the state and a native of Indiana,
where he was born on December 1, 1865. In
1874. when he was but a youth, the family
moved to Colorado and settled in Wet Moun-
tain valley, where they remained two vears.
They then located at the site of the present
town of Durango and built one of the first
dwellings erected in the town of Animas. They
also staked off the first ranch on the Lower
Animas, and there engaged in farming and
raising stock. On this ranch Albert Puett grew
to manhood and learned the duties of life. Here
also his father died in 1888 and his mother in
1893. I" lS8 4 fie moved to Dolores county,
driving stock there, and he has ever since
been connected with the stock industry. In
1888 he came to the Montezuma vallev and
bought the land on which he now lives, and on
this he has since conducted a flourishing stock-
business, rising from a small beginning to a
position as one of the leading stock men of this
part of the state, and running large bands of
both cattle and sheep, and having as well a
potent influence in every phase of the public
life of the community. Mr. Puett was married
at Cortez to Miss Nellie Tarsner, a native of
Michigan and daughter of T. J. Tarsner. They
have four children, Albert L., Harlord M..
William E. and Glen E. Mr. Puett saw this
section of the country when the advancing foot
of civilization was first invading it, and he has
witnessed its progress from a state of savage
nature to its present development and condition
of mighty promise for the future. It is much
to his credit, too, that in the transition he has
borne a conspicuous, serviceable and fruitful
part, assuming his full measure of responsibility
and discharging his full share of the duties in-
cident to the case with fidelity and ability. He
is justly esteemed as one of the leading and
representative men. of the county
JAMES O. KINNEY.
Coming to Colorado in 1S61, when he was
but thirteen years old. and living in the state
continuously since then, James O. Kinney, of
Mesa county, a prosperous and successful min-
ing man and fruit-grower living one mile and
a half east of Grand Junction, has had abund-
ant opportunities to aid in the development and
progress of the state, and he has used them to
its advantage and his own. He was born on
September 9. 1848, at New London, Canada,
while his parents were on a visit there. They
were Calvin and Phoebe M. (Starr) Kinney,
the former a native of St. Lawrence county,
New York, and the latter of Canada. The
father was a cooper and worked at his trade in
his native state until 1853, when he moved to
Black Hawk county, Iowa, locating at Water-
loo. Here he became a contractor in lumber,
and later built a fine hotel in the town which
he conducted until it was destroyed by tire.
Then, in 1861, the family came to Colorado
where the family engaged in mining at Central
City and other places. He died at Hot Sulphur
Springs in 1892. While living in Jefferson
county he served two terms as sheriff in the
early days when Golden was the capital of the
territorv. His widow died in Mesa countv in
PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF WESTERN COLOR. 1 I'd.
1902. When the family arrived in this state
it was a new and undeveloped country, and the
facilities for education of country boys were
crude and primitive; so that Mr. Kinney is
mainly a self-educated man. He remained al
home until he reached the age of eighteen,
working some in his father's mines, and at thai
age began a mining career for himself which
has been very successful. He continued his
operations in this line for a number of years
and still owns promising and valuable proper-
ties in Clear Creek county, among them the
Christie, which he owns individually, the
Everglade, which he owns in partnership with
Judge Caswell, of Grand Junction, and the
White Talk, which he owns in partnership
with Judge Caswell and John Lumsden. Mr.
Kinney discovered these properties and also
the Cameron Consolidated group in Gilpin
county. He sold his interest in this group in
1882 for fourteen thousand dollars. In 1877
he moved to Grand county, and locating at Hor
Sulphur Springs, engaged in the stock industry,
which he carried on successful}- for twelve
i ears, raising standard bred cattle and horses.
He lost considerable money in horses, but on
the whole found his stock business profitable.
Two notable racers. Troublesome and Ray-
mond M., were bred by him and proved a good
enterprise. The former won a ten-thousand-
dollar purse at Independence, Iowa, in 1897,
and won forty thousand dollars in purses dur-
ing that year. In 1894 he sold his interests in
Grand county and moved to Mesa county,
where he bought the forty-five acres of land on
which he now lives, a mile and a half east of
( Irand Junction. He has since sold all but ten
acres of his original purchase, and these he
devotes wholl) to fruit. He is also still in-
terested in stock, having now ten or twelve-
standard bred horses. On August 11, 1883, he
united in marriage with Miss May E. Eubank.
who was born near Ouincv. Illinois, and is the
daughter of James T. and Minnie (Hewitt) Eu-
bank, the former a resident of Mesa count)
and the latter deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Kinney
have five children, Victor G., Nina M., Inez,
( rladys and Bessie. In politics the head of the
house is an earnest working independent.
While living in Grand county he servt
term as sheriff and two as under sheriff.
JOSEPH HAHN.
This hardy pioneer and daring discoverer,
whose monument is the noble mountain in
Routt count)-, this state, which bears his name
and received it in his honor, belongs in the
front rank of the adventurous men who laid
the foundation of civilization in Colorado and
opened it to settlement and made its mineral
treasures and other advantages known to the
world. But little is known of his early life ex-
cept that he was born in Germany, and was
reared and well educated in his native land. In
1848, when he was twenty-four years old, he
fought in the German army under Sigel. His
party being unsuccessful in the war. he fled to
Switzerland to avoid being taken prisoner, and
a few years later he came to the United States,
landing at New York in 1852. After a short
residence in .Michigan, where his success was
not such as he expected and desired, he came to
Colorado, arriving in this state in i860 with
two companions. He always wrote bis name
Henn, but pronounced it Hahn. He was a
powerful man physically, standing five feet ten
inches 111 height and weighing one hundred and
seventy-five pounds. In disposition he was
mild and generous, always kind to man and
beast, and always optimistic, never looking on
the dark side of a condition. Companionable
and genial, he was a good comrade, and ever
enjoyed the highest esteem of his associates.
Mr. Hahn and William A. Doyle met. early in
1863, and the former told the latter of the great
JQ2
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
find lie had previously made in the neighbor-
hood of what is now Hahn's Peak, and they
agreed to unite and organize a company and
prospect the country thoroughly. But in the
meantime Mr. Doyle joined the army in de-
fense of the Union, and it was not until 1865,
after the close of the Civil war, that they under-
took the expedition. Then Hahn, Doyle and
Capt. George Way, with others, moved for-
ward into the unknown region to make their
investigations. In a superficial prospecting
of the country they found gold enough to make
them feel justified in making further develop-
ments, but winter overtaking them, they de-
ferred further efforts to a more favorable sea-
son and separated for the winter, Mr. Hahn
going to Atchison, Kansas, and met again in
the spring of 1866. It was about the middle of
August before these men, with a company of
about fifty others, could arrange the prelimin-
aries and begin their tedious journey, and even
at that late season they met with almost insur-
mountable difficulties. The snow was deep
and the cold intense before they reached the
region for which they started. They outfitted
with a complete equipment for starting a new
mining camp, and had about one hundred miles
to travel before them in a line almost due north-
west between Empire, where they started, and
the place of their destination. They passed over
the Berthould into Middle Park, camping at
Hot Sulphur Springs, and from there kept
north of Lower Muddy Buttes, near the present
town of Kremmling, crossing the Muddy
above Hilt creek. Here Hahn took the party
in charge, leading them over the range by a
pass east of Rabbit Ear peak which he discov-
ered in 1861, and which was known only to
him. On August 27, 1866, they threw off their
packs and made camp beneath the shadow of
that noted mountain that rises twelve thousand
feet above the sea level into the clouds. The
only sign of human life they found in the deso-
lation was a lone Ute Indian who was hungry.
Captain Way wished to kill him. hut Mr. 1 I aim
insisted on feeding him and treating him with
kindness, and as there were hundreds of Utes
in the district, that one act of humanity made
them all the friends of the party and saved it
from extermination. The men in this adven-
turous party went to work at once, dividing
their forces, some prospecting, some building,
and 1 ithers doing other necessary work for the
enterprise. Leaving Hahn in camp. Mr. Doyle
and Captain Way after a hard climb reached
the extreme top of the mountain. In a baking
powder can that had a top screwed on and was
water proof, Doyle placed a paper relating
some of the incidents of the journey, some data
as to directions of route followed, and lastly
"This is named Hahn's Peak by his friend and
comrade. William A. Doyle, on August 27,
1865." the climbing of the mountain and nam-
ing it occuring during the first visit of the pio-
neers, a year before the incidents last related
above. In the fall of 1866 all left the region
but Hahn and Doyle. During the winter they
wbipsawed lumber, first building a substantial
cabin for their shelter. They suffered dread-
ful privations and hardships, and Mr. Doyle is
unable now to tell how they lived through the
winter. On April 22, 1867, they packed up
and began their long journey on the backward
trail to Empire. On April 29, near the banks
of the Muddy they sat down on a snow bank-
to rest, and while gazing out over the desolate
wastes of snow, a flock of snow birds flew o\ er
them, one of which lighted on Mr. Hahn's
head. "That is a bad omen." said Doyle, but
Hahn made no reply. They went forward and
apparently all was well. That night they
reached the Muddy and rested until about nine
o'clock. When they attempted to go on Hahn's
strength failed and he staggered like a drunken
man. They spread their blankets on the snow
and couched themselves as comfortably as pos-
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
703
sible. After a night of wakefulness and delir-
ium, Halm died next day, while Doyle was
away looking for help. The latter left his dead
comrade on the banks of the Muddy in his
winding sheet of snow, and made his way back
to civilization through almost incredible hard-
ships, often being near perishing. Joseph
Halm's remains lay bleaching on the banks of
the Muddy from April 30, 1867, until the next
November, when his friend. Paul Lindstrom, of
Empire, sent a man out to recover them and
give them proper burial. His grave by the side
of the stream where he died is unmarked and
the exact spot is now unknown. But in the far
distant ages of the past a monument was
erected by omnipotent power, which stands to
his everlasting memory, and which towers
above the earth as his manhood and force of
character made him tower above common men,
while the record of his deeds, now known and
commended by the beneficiaries of his great
courage and foresight, is reserved as a fitting
theme for a lofty epic, when the time shall
come in which our mercenary and striving for-
getfulness of heroism shall have yielded to a
calmer pulse, and the sons of men shall have
brought forth a poet capable of embalming in
immortal verse the deeds of this and other men
of the heroic pioneer mold.
AYLMER F. REEVES.
This successful business man, energetic pro-
moter, wise civic force and influential citizen of
Montrose in this state, is a scion of the Irish
race, whose versatility of talent, exuberance
of spirits and wonderful adaptability to cir-
cumstances and conditions enable them to
mould a shapely destiny out of any plastic ele-
ments that fate may fling before them, and find
enjoyment in life even in the midst of alarms
or under the burdens of oppressive trouble. He
was born in Dublin. Ireland, nn September 26.
1857, where his parents. Robert T. and Jean
A. (Shane) Reeves, also first saw the light of
this world. The father was of English and the
mother of Scotch ancestry. The elder Reeves
was a lawyer and a barrister for a number of
years at Dublin. He visited the United States
in 1854, and in the early 'sixties moved here
with his family, locating in New York city.
While (Hi a business trip to Dublin in 1865 he
died in that city. The family then lived three
years in London, the mother devoting her time
to literary work, fur which she was well quali-
fied. In 1868 they all became residents of New
York again, and there the mother died after
many years of usefulness as a writer for the
American Trad Society, passing away in 1894.
Seven children were born in the family, three
sons and four daughters, and all but the oldest
son are living. Aylmer was the sixth child.
He resided in London until he reached the age
of eleven, then came to New York witli his
mother. He was educated by private tutors,
in the public schools of New York and at Irv-
ing Institute at Tarrytown, New York. When
he was sixteen he entered the employ of Al-
fred, Marion & Company, foreign bankers,
with whom he remained nearly two years. Prior
to this, however, in 1870. when' he was a lad of
thriteen, he passed a year and a half in Ne-
braska and Kansas during which he
formed the acquaintance of General Cus-
ter, Colonel Cody ("Buffalo Bill") and
other frontier celebrities. and acquired
a taste for the wild life of the plains
which has never left him. So after leaving the
banking house he went to Texas and soon
afterward joined an outfit driving cattle to
Colorado. He made two trips to old Mexico
and from there drove the stock over the trails
to this state. In 1878 he located at Denver,
and not long after settling there he went with
a party on horseback over the greater part of
the state, passing through the Ute reservation
and over the ground on which Grand Junction
and Montrose now stand in 1879. and also
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
through the San Juan region. Returning to
Denver, he bought an interest in a hardware
business and during the next two years the
store was conducted under the firm name of
Reeves & Adams, Mr. Reeves being also in-
terested in mining at the same time. After
selling his interest in the hardware establish-
ment, he mined for a few years in various parts
of the state, and in February, 1885, settled at
Montrose, then a prosperous freighting and dis-
tributing point for surrounding towns. He at
first engaged in staging with the Great West-
em Mail. Stage & Express Company, oper-
ating two or three lines of stages to different
towns. In 1886 he started the furniture firm
of Reeves & McFann, which passing through
several changes of partnership, continued in
successful business with Mr. Reeves at its head
until 1890. In that year he sold his interest in
this firm and turned his attention to the real
estate, loans and insurance business, in which
he has ever since been engaged. He has been
one of the active and progressive business men
(if Montrose ever since he located there, and
has contributed very materially to a number of
enterprises for the improvement and advance-
ment of the community, helping to construct
ditches and other beneficial works, and giving
close and intelligent attention to the proper de-
velopment and concentration of public senti-
ment for the general weal. For seven years he
was a member of Company I, Second Regi-
ment, Montrose State Militia, serving on the
staff of General Brooks, and during this period
he saw many stirring times. In political alle-
giance he is a thoughtful and reflecting, but un-
wavering Democrat, and in the service of his
party he has been ever active, earnest and
forceful, now and during the past six years act-
ing as chairman of the seventh judicial district
party organization. Governor Thomas ap-
pointed him superintendent of Division No, 5
of the irrigation district, embracing nearly all
the counties of the Western slope, and Gover-
nor Orman re-appointed him to the position,
which he held until the beginning of the Pea-
1« idy administration. He also served six years
as a member of the city council of Montrose.
He belongs to the Masonic order through all
its departments to and including the thirty-
second degree in the Scottish rite, and is also
a Knight of Pythias. On May 8, 1883, he
was married to Miss Pauline M. Ott, a native
of New Orleans, Louisiana, and daughter of
Jacob and Pauline (LeFaure) Ott, of that city.
The father was a contractor and builder, and
during the Civil war had charge of the con-
struction of military wagons for the Confeder-
ate army at New Orleans. He moved to Phil-
adelphia after the war, and later came to Den-
ver, where he died. His widow then returned
to New Orleans where she is now living. Mr.
and Mrs. Reeves have five children, Jean, Her-
bert, Aylmer, Thomas and Alfred.
EDWARD E. SHINN.
Edward E. Shinn. of Montrose, is one of
the most extensive and successful sheep-
gr< iwers in Colorado, carrying on his business
on a scale of great magnitude, and with vigor
and breadth of view that challenge adversity
and defy competition. He was horn at Tren-
ton, in Grundy county, Missouri, on February
15. 1X56. His father, Oliver Shinn. was a na-
tive of Indiana, and his mother, whose maiden
name was Louisa Clempson, was born in South
Carolina. Both died in California. They had
a family of six children, four of whom are liv-
ing. Edward, the third in order of birth, when
four years old accompanied his parents from
their Missouri home across the plains with ox
teams to this state. The incidents of that
memorable trip, through a wild, unbroken
country, beset with dangers from wild beasts
and savage men and fraught with hardships
PROGRESSIVE MEN OE WESTERN COLORADO
/05
and privations of many forms, are indelibly im-
pressed on his memory, as is the welcome sight
of Denver after the long and trying journey,
although that now imposing and beautiful city
was then but a hamlet of log cabins, black-
smith shops and the other uncanny concomit-
ants of a frontier village, just struggling into
being. The family remained at Golden until
the spring of 1861, then traveled with ox teams
to Oregon. The father had previously gone to
California in 1850 and remained two years
And he still had a longing for that state. Ac-
cordingly, after a residence of ten years in Ore-
gon, they moved into nothern California,
where they remained until the parents died.
Edward was fifteen years old at the time of
this removal, and owing to the migatory life
of the family and the lack of school facilities in
the West at that time, his education in the
schools was very scant. After the death of his
father he carried on a flourishing meat busi-
ness for a time. In 1884 he returned to Colo-
rado, locating at Montrose. Here he started
and for three years conducted a wholesale and
retail meat market, then turned his attention
to the stock industry, devoting his energies
mainly to the production of sheep on a large
scale. In this branch of that great industry
he has ever since been successfully engaged,
running- now over winter from year to year
some eight thousand to nine thousand slice]),
and having on the range in summer about six-
teen thousand. He owns two large ranches,
one of three hundred and twenty acres located
ten miles east of Montrose. For the irrigation
of this he has recently completed a ditch thirty
miles long, in company with others, which
takes water from the Cimarron river and has
a capacity of one hundred and twenty feet of
the fluid and ability to properly irrigate fifteen
thousand acres of land. The ditch was con-
structed by a company of which he is a leading-
stockholder and the president, and cost about
45
sixty-five thousand dollars. Mr. Shinn's other
ranch comprises two hundred acres and is in
the mountains, affording an ideal summer
range for his stock. In all commendable enter-
prises for the benefit of his section of the state
he takes an active and intelligent interest. He
was one of the original stockholders and organ-
izers of the Western Slope Bank of Montrose,
and is now a director in that institution. On
February 20, 1884, he was married to Mrs.
Nettie (McKissick) Harris, a native of I ali
fornia and the daughter of John McKissick, a
prominent stock man of that state. Both of
her parents are deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Shinn
have had four children. Three are living. John.
Walter and Cecil. A daughter named Ethel
died several years ago at the age of sixteen
months. Mr. Shinn is a Republican in politics,
but he is not an active partisan. He belongs to
the order of Woodmen of the World.
HENRY A. MEREDITH.
Henry A. Meredith, an honored citizen of
Montrose, and one of the builders and makers
of the town, has a high reputation for ability.
skill and enterprise in his chosen line of work.
and ranks among the leading men of the city
be has done so much to beautify and adorn, lie
is a civil engineer by profession and a builder
and contractor in business, and as such he has
erected most of the best residences in Montrose
and a number of business blocks, but he gives
his attention mainly to putting up first-class
residences. He was born near Batavia, New-
York, on July 27. T842, the son of Stephen M.
and Mary (Smith) Meredith, the former a na-
tive of Chester county, Pennsylvania, and the
latter of near Batavia. New York. The father
was a miller and for a number of years oper-
ated the Genesee County Mills at Batavia,
which did an extensive business, he being as-
sociated with the Holland Purchasing Com-
~o6
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
pany in carrying them on. Later he retired
from milling and engaged in farming, and at
the time of his death in 1845, at tne a g' e OI nt ~~
ty-one, owned the largest farm in the county.
His wife survived him forty years, dying at
the old home in 1885. He was a cousin of Hon.
.William M. Meredith, the distinguished secre-
tary of the United States treasury during the
'forties. Onlv two of their nine children are
living, Henry A. and an older brother William,
the latter residing at San Bernardino. Cali-
fornia. Another older brother served four
years in the Civil war, enlisting in an inde-
pendent battery which was afterward merged
in the Ninth New York Heavy Artillery. He
was in many important engagements, but being
modest and retiring, he declined to accept his
commission when the time came for a promo-
tion which he had richly earned. He died in
Nebraska in 1895. Mr. Meredith grew to man-
hood in his native state and there received a
liberal education. He was prepared for col-
lege, but the Civil war took his brothers away
from home and he was obliged to stay and help
his widowed mother conduct the farm. He.
however, 00k a course of instruction in civil
engineering but was unable to do anything in
the profession for a number of years. He re-
mained at home until he was twenty-six years
old. then became a traveling solicitor and col-
lector for a firm of Syracuse, New York. After
that he was occupied for twelve years mer-
chandising at different places in his native
state. Tn this business he passed through two
financial panics and met with many reverses.
In [880 he settled at Pitkin, this state, and
joined the engineer corps under Major Evans
which was engaged in locating and construe
tion work for the Denver & South Park Rail-
way, devoting three years to this employment
Early in 1884 he moved to Montrose, and since
then he has resided at that town continuously
and been occupied in contract and building
work. He is the oldest and most prominent
contractor and builder in the town, and the
work of his well trained mind and skillful
bauds is to be seen in every part of the place.
It was a small village when he moved there,
and he has been the principal factor in building
it up and making it comely with good resi-
dences and substantial business blocks. Mr.
Meredith is an earnest Democrat in politics
and is ever active in public affairs. He was
married on December ly, 1870, to Miss Mary
L. Gregory, a native of Batavia. New York,
the daughter of James and Louise (Grant')
Gregory, the former born in England and the
latter in New York. Both are deceased. The
father was a veteran of the Civil war. Mr. and
Mrs. Meredith have one child, their son Harold
H., a physician at Montrose, a sketch of whom
appears elsewhere in this work. Mr. Meredith
belongs to the Knights of Pythias.
HAROLD H. MEREDITH. M. D.
Dr. Harold H. Meredith, one of the bright
and promising young physicians and surgeons
of Montrose, may almost be said to be a prod-
uct of that city, as he has lived there from the
time when he was six years old, having come to
this state and that town in [884, from his na-
tive city of Batavia, New York, where he was
born on September 11, 1878. He was educated
in the public schools of Montrose, being gradu-
ated from its high school in 1894. He then
began the study of medicine under the instruc-
tion of Dr. Johnson, of Montrose and in [895
entered the State University, intending to pur-
sue the course in the medical department. But
1 iwing to changes in the course and a conse-
quent delay in completing it, he left that insti-
tution and attended the Gross Medical College
in Denver, where he was graduated with the
degree of Doctor of Medicine in [898. By com-
petitive examination he secured the position
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
707
of resident physician at the Arapahoe County
Hospital, where he passed a year and a half in
study and clinical work, lie then returned to
Montrose and began an active general practice
which he has been continuously engaged in ever
since. He has exhibited care and skill in his
professional work, and a conscientious devotion
to the highest interests of the science of which
he is a practitioner, being a diligent student
and close observer, with excellent judgment in
applying practically the results of bis study and
obesrvation. He is also a gentleman of high
character and pleasing manners, and has won
in a marked degree the confidence and regard
of the people among whom he moves. With
youth, health and a proper ambition on his side,
and with devotion to lofty ideals in bis line of
usefulness, his success is assured and already
begun. He has built up a representative prac
tice of good proportions which is steadily in-
creasing in magnitude and importance, and he
is rapidly rising to a front rank in professional
•circles, such as he already occupies in social
life and general citizenship. He is a member
of the International Society of Railway Sur-
geons and secretary of the local pension board.
Fraternally he belongs to the Knights of Pyth-
ias, and politically he is a steadfast Republican.
On April 25. 1900, he was married to Miss
Florence McCartney, who died in September,
1902. leaving one daughter, Florence Louise.
On June 3, 1903, the Doctor married a second
wife, Miss Harriet Ellingwood, an accom-
plished and popular lad} - . Dr. Meredith's pa-
rents are H. A. and Mary L. (Gregory) Mere-
dith, pioneers of Montrose, having located at
that town in 1884. They have been active and
serviceable in promoting the growth and prog-
ress of the town and county, and are held in
high esteem by all classes of the people among
whom they live. A sketch of them will be found
on another page of this work.
DANIEL KENNEY.
From his youth Daniel Kenney, one of the
leading ranch and cattle men of Mesa county,
has been connected with the stock industry of
the West, and in his career has well illustrated
the truth that singleness of purpose and con-
stancy of effort are winning factors in the bat-
tle of life. He is a native of the section of coun-
try in which he now lives, born at Holden, Mil-
lard county, Utah, on April 18, 1872. and the
son of John and Phoebe (Aldeh) Kenney. He
was reared in the place of his nativity to the age
of seventeen, and educated in its public schools.
Then, in 1889, he became a resident of Colo-
rado and, locating in Plateau valley in Mesa
count)-, entered the employ of the Aha Land
& Live Stock Company, with which he re-
mained three years. At the end of that period
he returned to Utah, and during the next seven
years he was employed by the Webster City
Cattle Company. In the fall of 1893 he once
more took up his residence in Plateau valley
and bought the ranch on which he now lives
two miles and a half west of Plateau City. This
comprises one hundred and sixty acres, sixty-
live of which are irrigated and yield abun-
dantly. He gives his attention principally to
the cattle industry and is making it pay with
increasing volume in its profits. On July 3,
1897, he was married to Miss Mary Anderson,
a native of Ellsworth county, Kansas, and
daughter of David and Jessie (Scrimgeour) An-
derson, a sketch of whom will be found on an-
other page. Mr. and Mrs. Kenney have one
son, William Thomas. Mr. Kenney is a Re-
publican in politics and fraternally he belongs
to the order of Odd Fellows and its adjunct
organization, the Daughters of Rebekah. hold-
ing his membership at Collbran. He is es-
teemed as an excellent and progressive citizen
in all parts of the county-
708
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
HERMAN EILEBRECHT.
Herman Eilebrecht, of Gunnison county.
whose well improved and well cultivated ranch
of seven hundred acres of good land, of which
about six hundred acres are under irrigation, is
a lasting tribute to his enterprise in business
and his skill in husbandry, as well as to his loy-
alty to the genius of improvement, and is lo-
cated in a highly favored region on Ohio creek
six miles north of Gunnison, is a native of
Prussia, and was trained in the severe hut
wholesome discipline of that progressive coun-
try, whose people are distinguished for thrift
and industry wherever they pitch their tents.
and are always likely to make the most of their
opportunities and of the conditions with which
they are surrounded. His parents, Herman
and Carolina (Stork) Eilebrecht, were also
Prussians by birth and belonged to families
resident in their native land for many genera-
tions. They never wandered from their home
country, but passed their lives there usefully
emploved in the peaceful pursuits of agricul-
ture. Their offspring numbered eight, five of
whom are living, Herman being the fourth
born. His life began on November 9, 1855.
and he was reared on the paternal homestead
and educated in the common schools of the
neighborhood. After remaining at home until
he reached the age of twenty-four, he was mar-
ried on November 22, 1879, to Miss Frances
Michaels, of the same nativity as himself, and a
daughter of John and Carolina ( Wintermeier)
Michaels, who were also natives and life-long
residents of Prussia. In 188 1. with his wife
and infant son, Mr. Eilebrecht came to the
United States, and after lingering a week in
the city of New York, and three weeks at Hays.
Kansas, where he intended to locate and build
a home, turning the virgin prairie of that pro-
lific state to his purposes, but did not find the
outlook agreeable for farming just then, left
his family there and came on to Colorado, ar-
riving at ( lunnison in June. During the rest of
the summer he worked on the Denver & Rio
Grande Railroad and the South Park branch,
and in the fall returned to the Mississippi val-
ley and took up his residence in Illinois, where
he remained two years employed in the coal
mines at Pontiac and Mannk. In the spring of
[883 he brought his family to Colorado, and
again located in Gunnison county, where dur-
ing the next four years he performed faithful
and appreciated service at whatever he found
to do. In 1887 he bought one hundred and
sixty acres of the ranch on which he now lives,
which he has since then enlarged to seven hun-
dred acres, and transformed into one of the
most valuable and desirable properties of its
kind on the creek, having it improved with a
good modern dwelling and outbuildings to cor-
respond, well watered with ample ditches which
irrigate six hundred acres of it, and yielding an
annual return for his labor of some five hun-
dred tons of hay with good crops of grain and
other products. He has also gradually worked
into cattle and now has about four hundred
well-bred Shorthorns. He constructed his own
ditches, one of which is six miles long and cost
him two thousand dollars. He has in addition
a fine dairy outfit in which he has averaged for
a number of years forty to seventy-live pounds
of butter a week. When he settled on his land
it was nearly all given up to an unprofitable
growth of wild sage brush and desitute of im-
provements of every kind. His first habitation
here was a rude shack, such as many pioneers
live in until they win from the soil means of
building a better, and although such dwellings
were crude and inconvenient, they were no
roofs to conceal guilt but the homes that shel-
tered men. and contented spirits and quiet con
sciences dwelt within them. In political faith
Mr. Eilebrechl is a Democrat, but he is seldom
active in campaign work and has never aspired
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
709
to public office. Fraternally he belongs to the
Woodmen of the World with membership in
the camp of the order at Gunnison. He and his
wife are the parents of eight children. Herman.
Frank, Joseph, Lena. Fred, Charley, Emma
and Tillie. It is from material like that in this
worthy man that the more useful qualities of
American citizenship are fashioned, the bone
and sinew of the country, which takes its broad
and bountiful benefactions at first hand and
makes them fruitful of good to the world and
develops in the very wilds, remote from the
haunts and blandishments of cultivated life, a
civilization that meets all the requirements of
a free and independent people and commands
the admiration of mankind.
THOMAS P. NTSBETH.
Thomas P. Nisbeth, of Gunnison county,
whi 1 is comfortably established on a good
ranch on Carbon creek one mile north of Mt.
Carbon, where he is conducting a prosperous
ranching and stock industry, has come to his
present estate of worldly ease and firmly fixed
place in the regard of his fellow citizens
through an experience of hardship and priva-
tion, toil and perseverance under very trying
circumstances and over difficulties that were
hard to surmount. But with the true spirit of
tlic pioneer, he has met every obstacle with a
determination to surmount it, gaining headway
all the while in the struggle for advancement
and steadfastly holding every foot of his prog-
ress. He is a native of Birmingham, England,
born on March 5, 1849, and the son of William
and Charlotta (Clark) Nisbeth, the former a
native of Herefordshire. England, and the lat-
ter of Birmingham. The father worked on
farms by the day or month in his native land
until 1865, when the family he hart then around
him accompanied him to this country, where
he sought and not in vain larger opportunities
and better conditions than he had at home. His
first two years in the United States were passed
in Indiana at work on farms for wages. In 1867
he moved to Macon county, Missouri, where
he bought a small farm on which he and his
wife lived until death ended their labors. They
were the parents of fifteen children, six of
whom are living, the eleventh in the order of
birth being their son Thomas. Owing to the
moderate means of his parents he had little
chance to attend school, and was obliged to go
to work for himself at an early age. In 1863,
when he was but fourteen, he came to America
with an older brother, and for nearly two years
thereafter he worked on a railroad in Vermont.
In the spring of 1865 he moved to Indiana, and
after working on a farm near Evansville in
that state several months, changed his residence
to Macon county, Missouri, wdiere he passed
the next ten years of his life. During the
greater part of this time he was employed in
coal mines, but he also joined his father in the
purchase of some land which they farmed to-
gether. The winter of 1882 was passed by him
in arduous labor in coal mines in Indian Terri-
torv. and in the spring of 1883 he came to Col-
orado arid located at Gunnison. In the follow-
ing January he moved to his present ranch,
having taken up eighty acres of it in the previ-
ous fall. When be settled on this land the
prospect was dreary in the extreme. It lay
under six feet of snow, and was without the
shadow of a building for his accommodation
except a rude and inartistic log cabin which
he had built, with nothing around it "but the
great out-doors beneath the overhead." The
prospect would have deterred any but a resolute
and self-reliant man, and he was of that caliber.
He went to work with a will to make his place
habitable and productive, and in this effort he
has so well succeeded that he now has a com-
fortable home of his own construction and an
expanse of fruitful and profitable ranch land
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
which yields good annual crops of hay, grain
and vegetables. He has bought additional land
until he owns three hundred and eighty acres,
about one-third of which is under irrigation,
and on this he has steadily prospered, although
his progress at first was slow and his hardships
were many. Soon after taking possession of
his first tract he started a stock business which
has grown in magnitude until he has an aver-
age of one hundred cattle, all well-bred Short-
horns. He is so well fixed and his home is so
comfortable and well provided that he can
now laugh the summer's storms and floods and
the winter's siege to scorn, and enjoy life in
every season with a fullness of content. Thus
does bountiful America reward men of industry
and thrift wherever they ask her favors with
the spirit of determined seekers, and thus does
she wait upon .the faith of the pioneers who
come upon her soil with eyes to see, skill to use
and energy to develop the opportunities she
has always at their command. Being an early
settler in his section of the state, Mr. Nisbeth
has necessarily been deeply interested in its wel-
fare and active in the development of its re-
sources and the promotion of its people's wel-
fare. He is an ardent Democrat in political
faith, especially in state and national affairs,
and an equally ardent advocate and aid of
every commendable enterprise for local ad-
vantages without regard to partisan consider-
ations, bestowing upon local public matters the
same foresight, energy and breadth of view
which have characterized his management of
his private business. It follows that he is one
of the useful and respected citizens o'f his
county, and has the general good will of all the
others. On March 17, 1872, he married with
Miss Louisa Cundiff, who was born near Du-
buque, Iowa, and is the daughter of Greenbury
and Dorcas (Warren) Cundiff, the former a
native of Ohio and the latter of Indiana, both
of whom died in Missouri, where they passed
the latter years of their lives as well-to-do
farmers. Mr. and Mrs. Nisbeth have one
child, their son William Wallace. In all his
undertakings and his efforts to accomplish them
Mrs. Nisbeth has been a true helpmate to her
husband, and no small part of his prosperity is
due to her industry, resourcefulness and ac-
complishments. She is a lady of indefatigable
energy, giving her close and helpful attention to
all her domestic duties, and in the summer of
1904 in addition made about two thousand
pounds of cheese which was eagerly bought at
good prices in the mining camps of the county.
She also finds, time to gratify her taste for
works artistic, having a wide range and high
order of ability in fancy work. During the
past few years she has pieced more than
twenty-five bed-spreads, one alone having over
four thousand pieces in its construction. Be-
sides all this she is skillful in making lace and
has a fine collection of man)- beautiful patterns,
all the work of her own hands.
JOHN P. BROWN.
John P. Brown, one of the pioneers of Mesa
county, was one of the very first settlers in the
Plateau valley. He located land here in 1882
adjoining the well-improved ranch on which
he now lives near the postoffice of Mesa, and is
now one of the most prosperous and substantial
stock and ranch men of the county. He was
born in Rush county, Indiana, on July 20,
1846, and is the son of John E. and Sarah A.
( Fry) Brown, who were natives of Pennsyl-
vania and married in Indiana, where they were
engaged in farming to the end of their lives.
Their son John was reared in his native county
and obtained a limited education in its com-
mon schools, attending whenever he could be
spared from the labors of the farm, which was
during the winter months of a few years. At
the age of eighteen he enlisted in defense of
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
the Union in Company L. Twelfth Indiana
Cavalry, entering the service in July. 1864. His
regiment fought its way through Tennessee
and went down the Mississippi to New Or-
leans. From there the command to which it
was attached made a campaign into Alabama
and back to Yicksburg, where he was dis-
charged December, 1865. He took part
in the siege of Mobile and in the skirm-
ishes around Nashville during the bat-
tle at that city. In 1866, moved
with his love of adventure and the
promise of its gratification, and also by the
hope of better opportunities to be found in the
Northwest, he journeyed to Montana, and in
that young but great and promising state, he
was for some time engaged in freighting be-
tween Fort Benton and Helena, "whacking
bull teams" for the Billiard freight outfit.
GEORGE J. SMITH.
Georg-e J. Smith, of Gunnison county, is in
more than one sense a pioneer in Colorado and
comes of a family of pioneers. He was an
early settler in the state, coming here in 1880,
and he was the first man in the neighborhood
of his present home, or, indeed, in this part
of the state, to demonstrate that vegetables
could be successfully raised at the altitude of
his present home, carrying on there for fifteen
years a prosperous vegetable garden industry.
Mr. Smith was born in Greene county, Ohio,
on October 30, 1843, and reared in the ad-
joining county of Clark. He is the son of Levi
and Emily (Johnson) Smith, the former born
near Winchester, Virginia, and the latter in
Clark county, Ohio. The families of both were
early pioneers in Ohio, and the father died
there in 1845, the mother surviving him many
years. In the fall of 1856 she, with her son
George and two daughters, moved to Iowa,
locating in Louisa county, where they were
pioneers. The son was then about thirteen
years old. He received a common-school edu-
cation, and in 1865 became a pioneer of Madi-
son county in the same state. Later he was
among the early residents of other counties in
the state, helping to build the first store at
Kellogg in Jasper county, and renting the first
postoffice box after the office was established
at Dexter in Dallas county. He farmed in
that vicinity for a number of years, improving
and selling farms to good advantage. In [878
he moved to Nebraska, and after working at
his trade as a carpenter about two years, he
came to Colorado in March. 1880. and the
following year crossed the range to the West-
ern slope in a wagon accompanied by his
family. He lived two years in the vicinity of
Tincup and put up the first frame store build-
ing at that place. In 1883 he took up the
ranch on which he now lives on the Gunnison
river, seven miles northeast of Gunnison, se-
curing it through a pre-emption claim. It com-
prises one hundred and sixty acres and when he
took possession of it it was all raw land, virgin
to the plow and without the suggestion of a
human habitation. He has improved it with
good buildings and other structures needed for
its purposes and brought it to an advanced
stage of cultivation and productiveness. For
fifteen years after getting a start here he car-
ried on market gardening on a large scale,
being the first man in the region to raise vege-
tables, it having been previously supposed that
the altitude was too great for vegetables. The
ranch is now devoted principally to raising hay
and stock in which he is extensively engaged.
He has been a leading man in the section and
is highly esteemed as a far-seeing and enter-
prising citizen. In political faith he is a pro-
nounced Republican in national affairs, but is
bound strictly by party ties in local matters,
considering always the best interests of the
county rather than the behest of any political
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
organization. In 1870 he was married to Miss
Sarah A. Shuck, a native of Ohio. They have
had seven children. Three died in infancy and
Emma H., wife of Jasper Tidd, of Shelton,
Washington, Elbert E., May, wife of Lee Leh-
man, of Gunnison county, and Glenn G. are
living.
GEORGE W. ANDREWS.
This progressive ranch man and stock-
grower of Gunnison, whose well improved and
highly cultivated ranch of four hundred and
seventy acres lies about four miles west of
( mnnison, has seen many parts of this country
and had valuable experience in each. He was
horn in Canada on March. 2. 1866, the son of
Elkney H. and Jane (Phillips) Andrews, both
natives of the Dominion, where they grew to
maturity and were married. The family moved
to Buena Vista count}-, Iowa, in 1869 and to
Colorado in 188 1. The mother has been dead
a number of years and the father is now living
in Denver. They had six sons and three
daughters, all of whom are living, George
being the seventh born. He was three years
nld when the family located in Iowa and twelve
when they came to Colorado. His education
was obtained in the common schools and he was
reared on a ranch, or rather two of them. The
parents were in straitened circumstances and
every available hand in the household was in
requisition to aid in making the living, so that
from an early age Air. Andrews was inured to
labor, and he has never shirked his portion of
whatever was at hand to do. The Gunnison
county home was twenty-five miles southwest
of the county seat, and on this the son remained
and worked until he reached the age of twenty-
one. Then, starting out in life for himself, he
was employed as a hand on other ranches
several years and also bought, improved and
sold farm lands. In 1890 he went to California
and during the next seven years was engaged
in farming and other occupations in L03
Angeles county, that state. Returning to this
state in 1897, ne nas since followed ranching
in Gunnison county, and raising live stuck,
principally cattle, having now about two hun-
dred head of Shorthorns. His ranch of four
hundred and seventy acres is four miles, west of
Gunnison and is highly improved and about
all under irrigation. Hay is his principal crop
and of this he raises an average of two hun-
dred and fifty tons a year. He is enterprising
and progressive, omitting no effort on his part
to secure the best results from his work, and
the skill with which he manages his affairs is
shown by the condition of his property and the
profits of his business. In political matters he
is independent and fraternally belongs to the
lodge of Woodmen of the World at Gunnison.
He was married on April 12, 1892, to Miss
Clara May Kinman, a native of California, the
daughter of Nathan and Mary (Craw) Kin-
man, who were born and reared in Pennsyl-
vania and moved from that state to California
aiming its pioneers of 1849, crossing the plains
in wagons and heing more than a year on the
journey. They still have their home in Cali-
fornia. Mr. and Mrs. Andrews have two chil-
dren, their daughter Edith Fay and their son
Rov.
RICHARD H. ANDREWS.
Since 1882 Richard H. Andrews, one of
Gunnison county's most prosperous and pro-
gressive ranch and stuck men. has been a resi-
dent of Colorado, and during all hut two
years of the time of the county which now has
the benefit of his productive industry and
elevated citizenship, lie is an older brother of
George W. Andrews, of the same county and
neighborhood, a sketch of whom appears else-
where in this work in which the family record
will he found. Air. Andrews was horn in
Canada on December 26, i860, and when he
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
was but little over eight years old moved with
his parents to Buena Vista county, Iowa, where
he was reared on a farm and received a com-
mon-school education. He remained with his
parents during his minority, then in January,
1882, came to Colorado, and during the first
two years of his residence in this state worked
with a pack train at the mines near Durango.
He then became a range rider in the southern
part of the state, and in this employment lie-
came thoroughly familiar with the stock busi-
ness in every detail from its foundation
through all the gradations of its interesting
and multiform extension. In 1885 he moved
into Gunnison county, and after two' years of
faithful and efficient work on ranches for other
men, bought for himself the one on which he
now lives, a tract of raw land without improve-
ments of any kind and lying in its state of
primeval nature as it had for uncounted ages,
a portion of it being secured on a desert claim.
He set to work diligently to make it habitable
and productive, and now has it practically all
under irrigation, supplied with commodious
and comfortable buildings and the other struc-
tures necessary for his business, and yielding
annually four hundred tons of good hay. < hi
this ranch he carries on an extensive and profit-
able cattle industry, owning five hundred to six
hundred first-rate cattle which he keeps in good
condition with every consideration for their
comfort and the maintenance of the high stand-
ard his output has in the markets. It may be
truthfully said that his prosperity is the result
of his own industry and thrift, coupled with his
business capacity and knowledge of the work in
which he is engaged. He has paddled his own
canoe from his early manhood, and has steadily
advanced it through troubled waters and over
dangers until it is fairly afloat on the smooth.
pleasant surface of a large and well sustained
success. Politically he is independent, and fra-
ternally is connected with the order of ( >< 1 < 1
Fellows and the Woodmen of the World at
Gunnison. As a citizen he is well esteemed
and one of the men to be depended on when-
ever any good undertaking is on foot for the
improvement of his county or the comfort and
advantage of its people. On February 14.
1889, he was married to Miss Anna Perkins,
a native of Franklin county. Kansas, the daugh-
ter of Fli Perkins, a prosperous farmer of that
state. They have two children, their son Ray
R. and their daughter Mabel.
JOHN T. PARLIX.
John T. 1'arlin, the first and only post-
master at the village of Parlin, Gunnison
county, which was named in his honor and was
the second postoffice established in the county,
in which he has handled the mails continuously
for a period of twenty-five years, and has be-
come thereby the oldest postmaster in un-
interrupted service in the state, was born at
Norridgewock, Maine, on February 12, 1832.
and is the son of Seth and Nancy C. (Tufts)
Parlin, both natives and life-long residents of
Maine, where they both died; the mother died
in 1853. They had a family of four children,
of whom their son John was the first born and
is the only one living. After the death of his
first wife the father married again, and of the
second union three daughters were born, all
of whom are living. Mr. Parlin was frugally
reared on his father's farm and there acquired
habits of thrift and useful industry which well
fitted him for the stirring scenes and trials of
his later life on the wild frontier of this and
other states, and was liberally educated in good
schools at Augusta and the Waterville Insti-
tute in his native state, passing four years at
the institute. He studied medicine a year, and
in 1856. at the end of that period, the gold ex-
citement took him to California by way of the
isthmus of Panama, the trip keeping him
7i4
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
t\\ entv-two davs on the ocean before he reached
San Francisco. In the neighborhood of that
city he worked at placer mining one year with-
out success, after which he was employed in
mines for wages in California and Nevada.
He next passed some two years in the service
of water companies constructing reservoirs for
the mining industries, and during the construc-
tion of the Central Pacific Railroad he was
employed on that great highway as foreman
from Newcastle to Truckee, California, spend-
ing two years and a half in that capacity. In
the spring of 1867 he moved to the Sierra
valley and bought a ranch which he sold after
living and working on it four years, with good
financial results. His next venture was to re-
turn east and engage in the live stock business
in western Kansas; but after three years of un-
profitable operations in this line there, he came
to Colorado in 1874 and located near Laveta,
Huerfano county. Here he again engaged in
raising stock and also kept a hotel for three
years. In June, 1877, he moved to Gunnison
county and bought a squatter's right to one
hundred and sixty acres of land, which is a part
of his present ranch. This now comprises
three hundred and twenty acres and is well
watered from the Tomichi and Quartz creeks.
which How through it. and has been brought to
a high degree of fertility and well improved
with good buildings and other structures neces-
sary to its proper management. He is one of
the oldest settlers in this part of the county,
and being a man of enterprise with a genius
for improvements, he has borne his full share
of the labor and cost of building up and de-
veloping the section. Two years after his lo-
cation on the ranch the postoffice of Parin was
established, the second in the county, and he
was appointed postmaster, an office which he
has filled ever since, lie has also kept a hotel
from the time of his arrival on the ranch until
now, having it on the main stage roads of the
region and making it one of the principal stage
stations before the railroads were built
through here, and since then on those lines of
travel, both the Denver & Rio Grande and the
Colorado Southern passing through his ranch.
On the place he cuts one hundred and fifty
tuns i if good hay a year and feeds one hundred
cattle. He had cattle with him when he set-
tled on the ranch and for years conducted a
profitable dairy. The early days of his resi-
dence here were prolific in good prices for
everything he raised and handled, hay being
seldom less than eighty dollars a ton and often
. me hundred dollars. The times were flush
and the travel through the region was large,
and its enterprise, new and undeveloped as it
was, was striking. In political belief Mr.
Parlin is a pronounced Republican, and while
he is not a hide-bound partisan, and seeks
neither the honors nor the emoluments of
public office, he has taken such an interest in
the welfare of his community, that he on one
occasion overbore his repugnance to official,
station and served as county commissioner
from 1878 to 1S81. When he was first elected
to this office in the fall of 1878 there were but
ninety-two voters in the county. He also
served many years as a justice of the peace, the
sparseness of the population and a public neces-
sit) seeming to require this service of him. He
is one of the best known and most highly re-
spected men on the Western slope, and in all
his demeanor in public and private life he has
justified the confidence and esteem which he
so largely enjoys. In fraternal relations he is
a charter member of the Masonic lodge and
the Royal Arch chapter at Gunnison. In 1866
he was married at San Francisco t.> Miss
Nancy C. Gould, a native of Norridgewockj
Mamc. They have live children, Tda. Walter
S„ Robert H. Frank J. and Edna M.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
7*5
FRANK E. SONGER.
Frank E. Songer, the present capable, oblig-
ing and popular postmaster of Crested Butte,
who was the choice of a large membership in
his party for the position because of his recog-
nized fitness for it and his zeal, efficiency and
constancy in party service for many years, is
a native of Clay county, Illinois, horn on Janu-
ary 14, 186 1, his parents being John and Anna
(Maudlin) Songer, the former born in Illinois
and the latter in Indiana. The family moved
to Colorado in 1864. among the earliest settlers
in this part of the West, and here the father is
still engaged in mining. Their son Frank was
but little over three years old when the move to
this state was made, and he was accordingly
reared on its soil and educated in its public
schools. In the spring of 1879 he moved with
his parents to Gunnison count}-, where they
were pioneers and where the mother died in
1883, the home being at Crested Butte. He
mined for a time and then turned his attention
to teaming, and also carried the United States
mails between Crested Butte and Irwin and
Gothic for a year. In November, 1903. he was
appointed postmaster at Crested Butte and has
held the office since that time, performing its
duties with a skill and assiduity that are highly
creditable to him and generally satisfactory to
the patrons of the office. He has also served
the community well as a member of the city
council. In political faith he is an unwavering
Republican, always active and effective in the
service of his party, doing yeoman work him-
self and stimulating others to similar efforts.
Fraternally he is a Master Mason with charter
membership in the lodge at Crested Butte, of
which he served three consecutive terms as the
worshipful master, and belongs to the Royal
Arch chapter and the commandery of Knights
Templar at Gunnison. On June 17. 18S4, he
was joined in marriage with Miss Levina A.
Swan, a native of Kittanning, Pennsylvania,
where her father was for many years a large
manufacturer of brooms, and where he died.
his wife soon afterward coming with her
children to Colorado. She died some years
ago at Hotchkiss, Delta county. Mr. and Mrs.
Songer have had nine children, seven of win mi
are living, Mabel F., Olive M.. Edgar J.. Cora
K., Samuel R., Marguerite S. and Charles C.
Two suns, Elgin M. and Arthur T., died a num
ber of years ago. Mr. Songer is also interested
in the publication of the Elk Mountain Pilot,
the oldest newspaper in Gunnison county. His
daughter, Mabel, is the associate editor and
business manager of the paper, and performs
her part of the work in a manner that has w< >n
her general commendation as a bright, ready
and resourceful writer and a capable and care-
ful business woman.
CHRISTIAN J. DIEL.
Among the various occupations of mankind
there is scarcely any that within its limits
ministers more directly and specifically to the
public comfort and convenience than a good
hotel. If it has the dignity of age upon it. it
•is in small an epitome of the history of the
community in which it is located. All the
lights and shades of the life around it are re-
flected in its own. All types and tides of pei >ple
flow through its corridors from time to time.
Honored men and winsome ladies sleep beneath
its roof. The political conference, the business
interview and the social confab find shelter be-
hind its doors. The caucus whisper, and traf-
fic's dark intrigue, shunning- the open air. creep
round from mouth to mouth in its secluded
chambers; and moist, merry men use it for
their mirth when they are festive. Such a
political, business and social center was the Elk
Mountain House at Crested Butte under the
popular management of Christian J. Diel. it
7 i6
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
being then and now the leading and most at-
tractive hostelry of the place and much patron-
ized by the better class of tourists and the
general public. To the comforts provided by
its ample rooms and artistic furnishings was
added the gracious savor of the proprietor's
pleasing manner and hospitable disposition.
Mr. Diel is a native of Germany, born at Bad
Aras on April 9, 1858, and the son of Peter
and Margaret (Auster) Diel, who passed their
lives in that country, profitably engaged in
farming. They had four sons, all of whom
are living in Germany but the subject of this
review, who was the first born in the family.
He grew to manhood and was educated in his
native land, remaining at home until he reached
the age of twenty-six. In May, 1886, he emi-
grated to the United States and took up his
residence in Macoupin county, Illinois, with
thirty dollars in money and his clothes his
only earthly possessions. There he worked in
the coal mines a year and in 1887 came west to
Idaho, and during the next three months was
employed in the mines near Silver City, that
state. On September 8, 18S7, he arrived at
Crested Butte, in Gunnison county, this state,
and soon afterward went to -work in the coal
mines, continuing his engagements there about-
three years. In the meantime he had acquired
an interest in a furniture store, and in the fall
of 1890 rented the Elk Mountain Hotel and
became one of its proprietors, being in partner-
ship with Mr. O'Toole. under the firm name
of O'Toole & Diel. He bought the furniture
in the house in 1891, and in 1895 the partner-
ship with Mr. O'Toole was dissolved and he
became the sole proprietor of the hostelry.
Four years later he bought the hotel and be-
came its sole owner. In [901 he refitted and
refurnished it throughout and conducted it as
a In si class hotel in every respect until the sum-
mer of 1904, when he retired from active pur-
suits, selling the furniture and leasing the build-
ing. He owns considerable other real estate
of value in and around the town and is one of
the substantial men of the community, his suc-
cess being due entirely to his own industry,
thrift and good management. Politically he is
independent and fraternally belongs to the
Woodmen of the World at Colorado Springs.
On October 19, 1893, he was married to Miss
Minnie Ouinlisk, a native of Iowa. Her father
died in Kansas where her mother now has her
home. Mr. Diel is universally recognized as
a good citizen and a representative man of his
county, and is highly respected by all classes
of its people with whom he mingles.
JOHN A. PORT.
Pleasantly located on a small fruit and a
larger grain and hay ranch about three-fourths
of a mile west of Palisades, Mesa county, and
there carrying on a prosperous fruit and gen-
eral ranching industry, John A. Port has not
miscalculated his chances for advancement in
a worldly way in this part of Colorado, but has
accepted his opportunities with the determin-
ation to make the most of them, which he has
done. He is a native of Linn county, Iowa,
born on January 20. 1868, and the son of John
and Catherine M. (Armstrong) Port, the
father born in England and the mother in the
State of New York. Early in their married life
thev moved to Linn county, Iowa, where the
father died in 1880 and the mother is non-
living. Four of their seven children are living.
of whom John is the youngest. He remained
at home and worked on the farm until he was
twenty, then after working two years in dif-
ferent parts of his native state as a carpenter
he came to Denver. Colorado, in 1890, where
he spent five years in the employ of the street
car company. In 1895 he moved to the vicinity
of Palisades and bought fifteen acres of new
land, ten acres of which he prepared with care
PROGRESSIVE MEN OE WESTERN COLOR
and set out in fruit trees of different varieties,
but principally in peaches and apples. Two
years later lie planted the rest of the tract in
fruit of the same kinds, but mure peaches than
anything- else. In 1902 he sold five acres of
this place, and 111 [903 he realized three thou-
sand two hundred dollars from the fruit raised
on the other ten. He has also bought ad-
ditional land to the extent of one hundred
acres, of which he has sold twenty acres for
two thousand two hundred dollars, it being
raw and unimproved. The eighty acres which
he still owns of this parcel arc worth about
twenty-eight thousand seven hundred dollars.
On January 6, 1896, he was married at Denver,
this state, to Miss Theresa Callahan, who was
born in England in 1871. and three children
have blessed their union, Melvin C, Dorothy
W. and Katie M. Mrs. Port's parents are
Matthew and Winifred C. Callahan, the father
born in Ireland and the mother in England. In
politics Mr. Port supports the Republican party
and in church relations he and his wife are
Methodists. He belongs to the Woodmen of
the World and takes an active interest in the
proceedings of his camp in the order. Through-
out the section in which he lives he is well
thought of and has a host of friends.
ROBERT J. COFFEY.
Robert J. Coffey, of Delta county, who
lives half a mile northwest of the town of the
same name and is one of the experimenting,
progressive and successful fruit-growers of the
Western slope, giving studious attention to his
business at all times and seasons, and applying
the results of his study and observation in
such a way as to secure the largest returns
for his labor and intelligence. He was born
in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, on April
14. 183c), and is the son of James and Eliza
(Savage) Coffey, the father born at Wilming-
ton, Delaware, on April 11, 171)5, an d the
mother in Baltimore, Maryland, on October
12, 1803. They both moved to Pennsylvania
in childhood with their parents, and 111 thai
state they passed the remainder of their lives,
the mother dying on August 30. 1N71, at the
age of sixty-eight, and the father on October 2,
1S7S, at that of eighty-three. The father was
a farmer and lumber merchant, and owned
and operated four saw^ mills. Their son Rob-
ert received a good education, remaining at
school until he reached the age of nineteen.
He then began teaching in his native county
and continued two years. The Civil war
breaking out soon after the end of that period,
lie gave up the mercantile business in which he
had been a partner for about one year and
joined the Union army in a troop of one thou-
sand five hundred volunteers called at that
time, the spring of 1861, the Minute Men of
the Border. This troop preserved its separate
identity until the fall of 186 1 and was then
merged in the One Hundred and Thirtieth
Pennsylvania Infantry, in which Mr. Coffe)
served until the fall of 1864, when he wen! into
the Two Hundred and Second Pennsylvania
Infantry,' and in that regiment he remained to
the close of the war. The regiment was at-
tached to the Army of the Potomac and partici-
pated in more than twenty-eight battles, all
the leading' ones in which that great fighting
organization took part. In the battle of Cold
Harbor his troop lost over one thousand one
hundred men. After the war Mr. Coffey re-
turned to his Pennsylvania home and taught
a term of school. In the fall of 1866 he en-
gaged in newspaper work, becoming editor and
proprietor of the Valley Sentinel, published a!
Shippensburg. He conducted this paper until
1S72. at which time he sold it and established
another in the same town, of which he was pro-
prietor three years. In 1875 he sold the sec-
ond paper and moved to Lansing, Michigan
7 i8
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
where he worked for the Lake Shore & Michi-
gan Southern Railroad as purchaser of timber
until the spring of 1888. He then changed his
residence to Ellsworth county, Kansas, where
he established a paper called the Eagle. In the
same fall he established another called the
Junction City Sentinel, and he conducted both
until April, 1890. Then selling both, he came
to Colorado on a visit to a brother-in-law in
Delta county. He was so well pleased with the
country and its promise of future growth that
he determined to remain. He started the
Labor, a newspaper at Delta, which he man-
aged for a year, then dropped it and turned
his attention to raising fruit, taking up for the
purpose the forty acres of land on which he
now lives. This was the last camping place
of the Ute Indians before they left their reser-
vation for Utah, and on it they spent their
last night in this section. This land was also
the tract on which the United States soldiers
were stationed in their last trouble with these
Indians. Two of them were killed and buried
on this land, and Mr. Coffey gives their graves
careful attention. He took up this land in the
autumn of 1890, cleared it of the timber which
then covered it. and in 1893 set out one hundred
fruit trees. Since then he has planted twenty
acres in fruit, making first careful experiments
as to what variety are best adapted to the soil
and clmate of this section. He has now so
many trees that he can hardly make a fair
estimate of what his yield will be when all
are in good bearing order. But he has a good
orchard and is accounted one of the wisesl
and most judicious fruit men in the county. On
September 12, 1866, he was united in mar-
riage with Miss Mary E. Brown, a native of
Elmira, New York, born on February 15. 1841.
Her parents were Daniel D. and Mary L.
( Bulklin) Brown, who were born in New York
state. The father died on Septembers. 185 t.
Mr. and Mrs. Coffey have had four children.
Fannie L. and Rena J., who are deceased,
and Mary E. and Daisy L., who are living. In
politics Mr. Coffey is a Democrat, and in fra-
ternal circles belongs to the Masonic order,
the Odd Fellows, the Red Men and the Knights
of Pythias. He has been a prominent and pro-
gressive man in several states, and his record
appears in Bates's History of Pennsylvania,
the History of Cumberland County in that
state, the History of Medina County, Ohio, a
History of Michigan published in 1887, and a
History of Kansas published about 1889.
CARL DOUGHTY.
Farm hand, mechanic, clerk and book-
keeper, and ranchman, Carl Doughty, of Delta
ci unty, Colorado, has tried his powers in a
variety of occupations in different states and
has won success of greater or less degree in all.
He was born on September 11, 1864, in Pepin
county, Wisconsin, the son of Henry and Chris-
tiana (Cook) Doughty, the former a native of
Long Island, Xew York, and the latter of Ohio.
The father was a wagonmaker and worked at
his trade from his young manhood until 1894.
He found it a profitable occupation during the
whole of his residence in Wisconsin, where be
and his wife settled soon after their marriage.
The son remained at home until he was fifteen
and received a good public-school- education.
In 1879 he started in life for himself, becoming
a hired hand on farms in the neighborhood of
his home, and continuing at this occupation
until 1890. He then went into a flour mill to
learn the trade of milling, the mill l>eing lo-
cated in South Dakota. After passing five
years in the business and mastering every detail
of the craft, in 1895 he came to Colorado and
took up a ranch in Delta county. On this he
spent a year in bard work, improving the
property and preparing the land for cultivation,
then went into the mountains as a time and
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
719
bookkeeper for a large lumber and mercantile
company. He remained with the company two
years, and in 1898 returned to bis ranch on
which he has since resided and employed his
energies. It comprises eighty acres, the
greater part being under cultivation. Here he
raises good crops of hay, grain and vegetables
for market and runs a large herd of cattle. His
business is well conducted and vigorously
pushed for the best results, and Mr. Doughty
finds it steadily growing in magnitude and in-
creasing in profit. On February 9, 1895, he
united in marriage with Miss Addie L. Gil-
bert, a native of Olmstead county. Minnesota,
the daughter of O. D. and Cornelia (Saxton)
Gilbert, who were born and reared in the
state of New York and moved to Minnesota
when young, and came to Colorado later. The
mother died in this state on February 2, 1901.
and the father is still living here. Mr. and Mrs
Doughty have one child, their son Gilbert H.,
now (March, 1904) nine months old. Mr.
Doughty is a Republican in politics and a mem-
ber of the Masonic order in fraternal life.
He has given much time and effort to the de-
velopment and improvement of the section
in which he lives, and is accounted one of the
reliable and useful citizens of his part of Delta
county.
CHARLES C. CHRISTIE.
This industrious, enterprising and pro-
gressive ranch and stock man of Montrose has
passed almost the whole of his life on the
frontier and has aided in the development and
improvement of two or three portions of the
country in an efficient and serviceable way. He
was born in Daviess county in northwestern
Missouri on December 12, 1859, and there he
was reared to the age of thirteen, when he left
home and went to work for himself as a farm
hand in Harrison county adjoining his native
one on the north. His parents were Henry B.
and Martha E. (Burton) Christie, the former
born in Kentucky on June 2, 1839, an( l tne
latter in the same state on August 21, 1843.
The father was brought to Missouri at the age
of ten, and after he grew to manhood he taught
school in the winter and farmed in the summer
for a number of years. He has retired from
active pursuits with a good estate and is now
living in the town of Hampton, Missouri.
Twelve children were born in the family, of
whom nine are living, three of them in Mont-
rose county, this state. Charles left home in
1872, when he was but thirteen, and began
making his own living working for wages on
farms in Harrison county, in his native state,
where he remained until 1888. Then, in com-
pany with a party having five teams, he came
overland to Colorado and located in the vicinity
of Olathe. In 1890 he bought the place on
which he now lives, which he had previously
rented for two years. This is favorably located
one-fourth of a mile west of Olathe and com-
prises one hundred and sixty acres. He has an
acre and a half in fruit and produces some of
the best of this commodity raised in the county,
but his enterprise in this line is only for his own
use. His principal crops are grain and hay.
.iinl these he produces in abundance and first-
class condition. He also raises large quantities
of potatoes, to which the soil of his farm seems
well adapted. Mr. Christie has been a farmer
all his life and makes no pretention to ex-
tensive learning outside of his business. He
knows that well, however, and he applies to its
operations the knowledge he has. conducting
them with skill and wisdom, and securing the
best results in his efforts. He carries on a
general farming industry and also has a herd of
good cattle on the hills in summer which are
properly sheltered and cared for in winter.
When he moved into this locality the house in
which he now lives was the only frame building
in the valley, the others being all rude log
720
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COEORADO.
Cabins. To the development and improvement
of the section he has given ready and efficient
aid, and its present state of advancement is
largely due to his work and the stimulus of
his example on others. On February 22, 1872.
he was married to Miss Julia Spiers, a native
of Missouri, daughter of Samuel and Sarah
(Bell) Spiers, of that state, and a sister of
Jacob Z. Spiers, in whose sketch on another
page of this work the family history is re-
corded. In the Christie family three children
have been born. The oldest is nineteen years
of age and the youngest fifteen. Mr. Christie
and his wife are members of the Baptist
church. He is an earnest Democrat in political
allegiance, and has served his party well in
public office and his private station. He was
general road overseer two years and has been
school director six. He is also one of the
trustees of his church.
AMOS E. WALTHER.
Banker and stock-grower. Amos E. Wal-
ther, of Ouray county, has been an important
factor in the development of this portion of the
state, and by his own energies and business
capacity is just at the beginning of what
promises to he an active and useful career.
having passed the peril id when a desperate
struggle for maintenance sharpens the faculties
and calls for the expenditure of all the vital
forces in reaching and securing a foot-hold and
establishing himself well and worthily in the
confidence of his fellow men. Mr. Walther is
a pioneer of 1872 in Colorado, having come
with his parents to this state when but eight
years old. He was horn at Hoboken. Xew Jer-
sey, '>n August 14, [864, ami shortly there-
after his parents moved to Syracuse. New
York, lie is the Son of Frederick ami Mary
(Amos) Walther, the former a native of Ger
mam and the latter of Syracuse, Xew York.
( >n account of the ill health of the father, the
family moved to Colorado and settled in Den-
ver in 1872, where the father was engaged in
the drug business until 1877, when he was
o impelled to retire on account of ill health, and
died in 1895. Their son Amos received a
public school education in Denver, which
terminated in 1878, and, leaving Denver in
1 87c). he accepted a government position at
the Uintah Indian agency, Utah, following the
removal of the White River Indians from. Colo-
rado. In 1883 he came to Montrose county
ami was engaged in placer mining on the lower
San Miguel river. He came to Ouray in the
spring of 1884 and during the four years fol-
lowing was engaged in various occupations; in
1888 he accepted a position in the Miners &
Merchants' Bank of Ouray and severed his
connection with that institution in 1891 to ac-
cept the position as cashier of the Bank of
Ridgway in the then new town of Ridgway,
ten miles north of Ouray. This position he
held until 1 901, at which time he purchased the
bank and has since been its owner, controlling
spirit and inspiration. He also owns large
herds of a superior grade of cattle, several fine
ranches and is interested in valuable mining
properties and real estate. Successful in all
his ventures, he is attentive to the wants of
the community in which he lives and devotes
his time and energy to the promotion of its
best interests. He may lie said to be entirely a
self-made man. with all his acquisitions as the
fruits of his earnest labor, thrift and business
acumen. On November 8, 1801. he was
united in marriage with Louise A. Corbett, a
native of California and daughter of Miles S.
Corbett, an Ouray county pioneer of [878.
Their offspring numbers one. a daughter,
Mary Elizabeth, who was born at Ridgwa) on
August 25. 1892. Mr. Walther served five
years in the Colorado state militia and in the
service was promoted to corporal and after
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
ward to sergeant, being discharged at the end
of his term with the latter rank. In this line
of duty, as in all others, he was faithful and
capable, omitting no effort necessary to the suc-
cess of the cause with which he was in
sympathy and doing his part at all times with
his utmost skill and energy. He is one of the
substantial, progressive and enterprising men
of the county and the general esteem in which
he is held demonstrates that his qualities of
manhood and his public spirit are highly ap-
preciated by his fellow citizens of every grade
and condition.
SAMUEL JAY.
Samuel Jay, of Delta county, living one
mile and a half west of Cory, one of the
prosperous and enterprising fruit-growers of
the county, is a native of Indiana, born on
August 29, 1835. His father, Isaac Jay, was
a native of South Carolina and his mother,
whose maiden name was Ruth Jay, of Ohio.
Her father was a distant relative of her hus-
band, and the various and distant places of
birth of the son and his parents furnish a
forcible illustration of the harmony of the
American people and the facility with which the
different sections mingle and enter into a com-
munity of effort in the industries of the coun-
try. Mr. Jay's parents were farmers who set-
tled in Henry county, Iowa, in 1840, at a time
when there were but few families in that now
populous and progressive county. Mount
Pleasant, now a thriving little city of some five
thousand inhabitants, was then a straggling
village and the largest town in the county.
Indians were still numerous in the region, but
they were peaceable and the new settlers had
in 1 trouble with them. The parents passed the
remainder of their lives there, the father's end-
ing in 1857. There were five children in the
familv. The only son besides Samuel died
46
about the same time as his father, and the
management of the farm fell to the lot of
Samuel. He remained with his mother until
April, 1863, then near the end of that month
started with an ox team for Denver, this state
where he arrived on June 20th following.
The tedious and trying trip across the plains
was devoid of incident worthy of special men-
tion. There were large numbers of Indians
and buffalo on the plains, but the train was
not disturbed by either. On his arrival at f >en-
ver Mr. Jay bought some town lots and built
a boarding house on them which he conducted
until the next spring, when he moved to the
Arkansas river below Pueblo. Here he rented
a ranch and farmed it until Christmas day
1864, when the family started with a four-
horse team for Denver. They left this city
on January 1, 1865, on their way to Iowa, and
reached Nebraska City, Nebraska, on the last
day of the month. Indians attacked parties
before and behind them, and they also lost five
men of their party through savage fury. Mr.
Jay went from Nebraska City to Kansas, sold
his stock and team, and then proceeded to his
old home in Iowa, where he remained until
1870. In that year he returned to Kansas,
taking a saw-mill with him, and in that state
he located a pre-emption claim on which he
farmed and ran his saw-mill until 1875. He
then came again to Colorado, and during the
next seven years he mined and prospected at
and near Leadville. In 1882 he moved to
Sargents, near Marshall pass, and in 1885 to
Dallas. There he conducted a hotel until
the building was destroyed by fire in 1890.
after which he passed five years on a ranch
in the neighborhood. In 1895 he moved to his
present ranch, then wholly wild and unim-
proved. It comprises ten acres, all of which
he planted in fruit trees the second year after
his arrival, and he now has an excellent orch-
ard just in the first vigor of its first maturity
722
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
and productiveness. On April 10, 1859, Air.
Jay was married to Miss Eliza Ann Harper,
the daughter of Elisha and Ann (Davis)
Harper, all born in Pennsylvania. Her parents
moved to Ohio in 1843, and ten years later to
Iowa, where the father died on November 18,
1854. and the mother on February 7, 1890.
Five of their six children are living. Mr. and
Mrs. Jav have had nine children, Elisha H.
Annie C. Etta C, Sidney S., Ruth A., Wil-
liam D., Ethan A., Minnie and Lida E. Three
of the daughters and all of the sons are living.
All are residents of Colorado and have their
homes near that of their parents. In political
conviction Mr. Jay is a Socialist, but he is not
an active partisan although taking a leading
part in many local interests and the advance-
ment and improvement of his community.
GEORGE W. MILLER.
George A". Miller, of Hotchkiss, who since
November 19. 1903, has been the dutiful and
attentive postmaster of the town, and was for
many vears prior to that time one of the active
and progressive promoters of the state's in-
terests in a number of commendable ways, was
born in Delaware county. New York, on May
19, 1842. He is a brother of Charles R. Mil-
ler, of near Hotchkiss, a sketch of whom will
be found elsewhere in this work', and the son
of Putnam G. and Margaret (Roff) Miller, na-
tives of the same county as himself. In 1854
they moved to Iowa, and years afterward they
died there. In 1861, when he was but eighteen
vears of age, Mr. Miller enlisted in the Union
army for the Civil war, becoming a member of
Company II. Fourth Iowa Cavalry, his regi-
ment later becoming the veteran of the army, it
being the first to re-enlist at the end of its first
term. It was first under the command of Col.
A. P.. Porter and later under that of Col. Ed
ward F. Winslow. The command formed a
part of General Grant*s army at the siege of
Yicksburg and in 1864 was with Sherman. Mr.
Miller was taken prisoner on October 1 1, 1862.
and kept in captivity about three weeks. He
was then under parole three months before he
was exchanged. In a desperate charge his
horse fell with him and seriously crippled him.
but this did not keep him from again seeking
active service. In August, 1865, he received
an honorable discharge and returned to his
home in Iowa, where he remained until 1872.
He then came to Colorado and located in Clear
Creek county for a short time, being eng-aged
in mining. In the summer of 1876 he was in
the Black Hills of South Dakota, while that
region was at the height of its boom and min-
ing excitement, but in the fall of that year re-
turned again to Iowa, remaining until the fall
of 1880, when he came back to Colorado and
located at Pitkin, where he passed the time
until 1883 in mining. In that year he made
another visit to Iowa and Dakota, and again
in the fall becoming a resident of this state
located in Delta county, where he started an
enterprise in ranching and raising stock, which
he conducted until 1891, then opened a drug
store at Hotchkiss and included an extensive
line of harness in his stock, hut still retained
his ranch of forty-five acres adjoining- the
town, of which he has twenty acres in fruit.
In the spring of 1900 he sold his store and
devoted his time to his ranch thereafter until
November 19, 1903, when he was appointed
postmaster at Hotchkiss. an office he is still
tilling capably and with satisfaction to its pa
trons. His ranch was raw land when he bought
it in 1891, and the improvements he has made
on the first purchase and an additional forty
acres which he pre-empted in 1893, are a " tne
result of his own enterprise and well .applied
industry, making the property into one of the
best fruit ranches in that part of the county.
Mr. Miller was married on September 2, 1866,
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
to -Miss Mary Mead, a native of Rockford, Illi-
nois. Some years after her birth her parents
moved to Chickasaw county, Iowa, where the
mother died and the father is still living. Mr.
and Mrs. Miller have three children, Gertrude,
Harry and C. Lloyd, all living in Colorado.
The head of the house belongs to the Grand
Army of the Republic and is a Republican in
politics, though seldom an active partisan.
BARNEY McQUAID.
Born in county Tyrone, Ireland, in 1837,
and remaining there until he reached the age of
sixteen, then shipping on a freighting vessel
for New York and following the sea three
years, in which he visited many parts of the
world and went to California by way of the
isthmus of Panama, and after that locating at
California gulch in this state when the whole
country was new and wild, Barney McOuaid
has had many thrilling adventures and interest-
ing experiences in his eventful career and is full
of entertaining reminiscences of them. But he
is no idle story teller. He is one of the sub-
stantia] and progressive citizens of Chaffee
ci uuit}-, actively and profitably engaged in the
great cattle industry of the state and still con-
nected in a promising way with its mining in-
dustry. Me arrived at San Francisco in 1861
and, determining then to quit the sea. left his
vessel and went to the southern part of Cali-
fornia, where he passed six years busily en-
gaged in mining with fair success. At the end
of that period he came to this state and. locat-
ing at California gulch, continued his mining
operations three years longer. In 1873 he
bought his present ranch, which is four miles
and a half southeast of Buena Vista, and which
was at the time of his purchase all wild and
unimproved. He and others in the neighbor-
hood arranged to irrigate their lands from the
waters of Cottonwood creek, and did so for
some years. Then the development of the
country requiring a greater supply of water,
they dammed the Arkansas and got a plentiful
supply from that river. This has made it pos-
sible to cultivate the region extensively and the
enterprise of its occupants has made it bl< >ssom
as the rose. Mr. McOuaid, who is one of the
oldest settlers in the section, has one of the
best and most highly improved ranches there,
and his example and influence have been poten-
tial for good in the development of the sur-
rounding country. He is a public-spirited and
progressive citizen, and always foremost in any
good undertaking for the advantage of his
community; but he has never been active in
political affairs as a partisan, although support-
ing loyally the Democratic party in all its cam-
paigns. He was married in 1861, at Lowell,
Massachusetts, to Miss Adelaide Starr, a native
of Ireland. The marriage occurred in the
morning, and on the afternoon of the same day
they boarded the vessel for the Pacific by way
of the isthmus, making their wedding trip on
the two great oceans. They have had eight
children, five of whom are living: Rosa (Mrs.
Welch ) ; Thomas, who is engaged in raising
stock in Park county; Alice (Mrs. McGuire) :
Maggie (Mrs. Luney) ; and Mack, who lives
in New Mexico and is in the cattle industry.
A son named Andrew is deceased and two
other children who passed away in infancy.
HUGH MAHON.
Hugh Mahon, of Chaffee county, one of
the most enterprising and progressive ranch
and cattle men of this part of the state, and for
many years an active and effective worker in
the cause of the Democratic party in Colorado,
whose fine ranch on Cottonwood creek, one
mile west of Buena Vista, is one of the best in
that valley, is a native of Ireland, born July 16.
1831, in Kings county. He remained in his na-
724
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
five land until he reached the age of sixteen,
then came to the United States. Meeting with
an accident soon after his arrival in this coun-
try, the greater part of his first year was
passed in a hospital. After his recovery he
went to New Orleans, and two years later lo-
cated at Kansas City, Missouri, where he did
grading and other work under contract with
the railroads, remaining in this business nine
years and having a number of contracts during
the Civil war. Here he also had a brick yard
from which he carried on an active and exten-
sive trade. In the spring of 1863 he moved
to California gulch, this state, which was then
a new mining country, but busy with placer
mining only. He took his turn at mining, and
buying a herd of Jersey cattle, also conducted a
dairy. At the end of five years he came into
the Arkansas valley, and after looking it over,
located on his present ranch and started the
industry he now conducts in raising cattle and
horses. In addition to this he passed some
years freighting between the city of Denver
and Cache creek and California gulch. He has
never abandoned his interest in the mining in-
dustry, however, and still owns a num-
ber of claims in promising properties.
His ranch, which is his chief business
concern, is one of the best in the valley
and is managed with every consideration
for seaming the most desirable returns for the
labor and care expended on it. Politically Mr
Mahon is a stanch Democrat and has always
taken an active part in the affairs of his party.
In the early days of his residence in this sec-
tion it was all Lake county, and large as the
domain was he campaigned all over it many
times in the interest of his political faith. In
1863. the year 01 his arrival at California
gulch, he was elected county treasurer, serving
one term. Afterward he was elected county
coroner, and served one term as county road
overseer. During his service as coroner there
were two strong factions fighting for suprem-
acy in Lake county and he was kept bus}- with
his official duties, as there were many deaths
on account of the feuds and consequent strife.
He has also served many years on the district
school board and was deputy sheriff of the
county. He is a man of active public-spirit and
breadth of view in reference to public prog-
ress and the general weal, and has aided the
development of his section at all times and by
all proper means at his command. In April,
i860, he was married at Kansas City, Missouri,
to Miss Mary Whalen, a native of Ireland.
They had fourteen children, only two of whom
are living. She died in 1883, and in July of
that year Mr. Mahon married a second wife.
Miss Ellen Shine, also born in Ireland. They
have had three children, two of whom are liv-
ing.
L. C. ELLINGTON.
Fortunate in a large measure in the charac-
ter of her soil and the conditions of life upon it
after it became somewhat settled and developed,
and rich in nature's bounty in every way, Col-
orado is scarcely less highly favored in the
character of her early settlers, the men of brain
and brawn who accepted nature's tender in
good faith and went to work to build up the em-
pire here which was waiting for their enterprise
and foresight to call it into being and deck it
with all the concomitants of cultivated life.
Among the men who came into the state early
and turned their attention to the development
of its resources, was L. C. Ellington, who is
now one of the leading and representative citi-
zens of Delta county, where he has an excel-
lent ranch of eighty acres, four miles and a half
northwest of Hotchkiss, on which he has a
flourishing orchard of forty-five acres of su-
perior fruit and ten acres of alfalfa from which
he gets fine crops of first-class hay, averaging
about six tons to the acre and worth five dol-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
725
lars a ton. He is also engaged extensively in
dairying and the cattle industry, producing
large quantities of butter for market and rais-
ing numbers of the best cattle. Mr. Ellington
was born in Platte county. Missouri, on August
19, -1848, the son of Alpheus and Tabitha (Old-
ham) Ellington, who were born in Kentucky
and came to live in Colorado in 1865. Mr. El-
lington, their son. began his business career in
1871 as a cattle man in El Paso county, this
state, on the frontier, where he remained until
1880, then moved to White Pine, Gunnison
county, where for eight years he carried on a
liven- business and did some mining. In 1888
he moved to Colorado Springs, and during the
next two years was engaged in the transfer
business there. Then losing his health.' he
sold his outfit and bought the ranch on which
he has since had his home. This comprises
eighty acres, with forty-five in fruit, all in good
bearing condition and very profitable, yielding
an annual revenue of about $300 an acre. He
also has ten acres, bountiful in alfalfa, from
which he gets nearly enough hay for his cattle,
and in addition conducts, as has been stated, a
flourishing- dairy business. On September 13,
1876, he was married to Miss Eva Terrell, a
native of Iowa, a daughter of Amos H. and
Mary T. (Hutchins) Terrell, who were also
born in Iowa. The father was a cattle man,
and died in 1903 at Colorado Springs, this
state, where the mother is now living. Mr. El-
lington was one of eleven children born to his
parents, and his wife was one of three born to
hers. They have had three of their own. two
of whom are living. Rollin T. and Alva E.
Their father is a Democrat in politics and be-
longs to the Methodist Episcopal church. In
1891 he built the first irrigating reservoir ever
put up in this part of the country. This was
the Miller reservoir and he afterward built the
Crater reservoir, being the pioneer in construc-
tions of the kind here. He has since sold his
interest in one of these for the sum of one
thousand six hundred dollars. Always enter-
prising and public-spirited, he has borne his
full share of labor and care in helping to de-
velop the country, and stands well in the re-
gard of the people in consequence.
JOHN SMITH HALSEY, Jr.
John Smith Halsey, Jr., the younger of the
two living sons of John Smith Halsey, a sketch
of whom appears elsewhere in this work, and
one of the enterprising and progressive young
business men of Chaffee county, Colorado, was
born at Swatow, China, on May 16, 1873. He
was a boy of about eight years old when the
family located at Buena Vista, and he received
his early education in that town, his father em-
ploying a tutor for his two sons. He afterward
attended the public schools, and later a college
at Faribault, Minnesota. After leaving col-
lege he was for two years a student at the
Golden (Colorado) School of Mines. He then
became interested in the mining industry, 1 open-
ing an assay office at Buena Vista. In the
spring of 1898 he went to old Mexico and dur-
ing the next three years, or nearly that period,
was in the employ of a mining companv near
the city of Mexico, returning to Buena Vista
in the fall of 1900. After the death of his
mother he was associated with his brother in
the drug trade until in the division of his
father's estate the drug store was assigned to
his brother. He then bought the book and
stationery store which he is now keeping. Fra-
ternally Mr. Halsey belongs to the order of
Elks, with membership in the lodge of the
order at Leadville. On August 30, 190 1, he
united in marriage with Miss Margaret E.
Ryan, a native of Tennessee, the marriage tak-
ing place at Leadville. Mr. Halsey has in-
herited in a large measure the energy- and pub-
lic-spirit of his father, and is always ready to
726
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
do his part in an}' undertaking for the advance-
ment of the community in any commendable
way. He is recognized as a young man of
force and capacity, and is held in the highest
esteem throughout the county.
JOHN SMITH HALSEY.
The late John Smith Halsey, of Buena
Vista, Chaffee county, who was one of the
leading mining men of central Colorado, had
an eventful and interesting career. Four
times he journeyed around the world,
passed many years in the customs service of a
foreign country, and declined citizenship with
the emoluments of a high official station in
another. Some of his children were born in
China, and with him and bis wife saw many
parts of the globe. He located in the central
part of this state when it was largely wild and
unsettled, and he bravely bore his part in
bringing about its settlement and civilization,
and in developing its resources and making
them help to swell the tides of industrial and
commercial life. Mr. Halsey was born in 1830
at Greene, Chenango county. New York, and
passed bis boyhood days there on his father's
farm, remaining at home until he reached the
age of eighteen, and getting his education at
the district schools in the neighborhood. Filled
from childhood with a desire to go abroad and
see the world, be left home at the earliest prac-
ticable date, and joined an uncle at Adrian,
Michigan, who did an extensive business with
his boats on Lake Michigan. P>ut his restless
disposition soon carried him back to his na-
tive state and from there through various parts
of the Fast. He then turned once more toward
the setting sun and crossed the plains to Cal-
ifornia. Having somewhere picked up a jew-
eler's book which he read attentively, on arriv-
ing at San Francisco he opened a jewelry
Store, and after conducting it for awhile, went
to Honolulu, where he started a similar enter-
prise. But the roving spirit still possessed him.
and disposing of his interests in Honolulu, he
crossed the Pacific to the Philippine islands.
In 1857 ne entered the employ of the Chinese
government as one of its leading customs of-
ficials, and in this service he was from time to
time stationed at the various ports of the em-
pire. Pie remained in China until the fall of
1879, and then being granted a furlough for
two years as an evidence of the high esteem in
which he was held by the government, at full
pay. he visited hi- native land. But before
coming home, he was offered the post of gov-
ernor of the Philippines by the Spanish govern-
ment, which bad noted his ability and fidelity
to duty, the condition of his appointment being
that he should become a citizen of Spain. But
being true to bis own country, although so long
absent from it. he declined the flattering offer
and followed his wife to the United States,
whither she had come in 1876 with their three
-Miis b^rn in China. In the fall of 1879 he
reached bis native place, and the next spring
came to Hancock, Chaffee county, this state.
Here he became interested in mining, taking
the management of the Stonewall mine at Han-
cock, and here his family joined him in 1.881.
In 1882. his furlough approaching its end. he
returned to China and resigned his position
under the government. While there he sold
the Stonewall mine to English capitalists, and
closing up bis affairs in the Orient, came back
to Colorado after an absence of about two
months. Soon after his arrival he formed the
Brunswick Mining & Milling Company at Tin-
cup, Gunnison county, of which he was one of
the principal stockholders and manager until
his death in October, 1805. always having his
home at Buena Vista after settling his family
there in 1881. Politically be was a supporter
of the Republican party, but be never took an
active part in political contentions, although he
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN O .
served for a time as mayor of Buena Vista.
For many years he was an active and enthusi-
astic member of the Masonic order. He was
married at Greene, New York, to Miss Ann
Amelia Ripley, a native of the place and one
of his old schoolmates, he coming; home from
China for the purpose. At the time of his
marriage Mrs. Halsey was instructor of paint-
ing in LaSalle Female Seminary. After their
marriage they made a tour of the world, and
then returning to China, he resumed his duties
there. They had four children, all horn in
China : One daughter who died in that coun-
try; Cady Ripley and John Smith, Jr., sketches
of whom will he found in this work, and Albert
Meal, who died at Greene; Xew York, in [877.
After the death of her husband, Mrs. Halsey
remained at Buena Yista with her sons until
her death, on May 2, 1902. The remains of
both were buried in that town.
THOMAS J. EHRHART.
.Although lorn at Council Bluffs. Iowa,
Thomas J. Ehrhart, of Chaffee county, has
been for so nearly all his life a resident of
Colorado that he may be said to be practically
a product of the state. His life began on
January 28, 1850, and when he was less than
four years old the family moved to Denver.
The father came to the state in i860, and the
family followed in 1863. Soon after their ar-
rival they moved to what is now Chaffee but
was then a part of Lake county. Here they
took up land that is now a part of Mr. Ehr-
hart's home ranch. The father prospected
and mined during- the summer mouths and
wintered on the ranch. He carried on a gen-
eral ranching business in a small way and
raised as many cattle as the circumstances
would allow, prospering at the work and find-
ing congenial winter employment in conducting
it. On this ranch the son Thomas J. grew to
manhood, using with profit such school facili-
ties as were then available in this new and
unsettled country, which comprised a term of
three months or less each year, interrupted by
stress of weather and other unfavorable condi-
tions. But while the school terms were short
and irregular, the arduous labor on the ranch
was constant and exacting, and he was from
boyhood obliged to take his part of it and did
so with cheerfulness and willing obedience. He
was the only child of his parents and grew to
maturity under their personal care; and when
his father died he took charge of the ranch and
conducted its interests for the benefit of his
mother, who remained with him until her
death in 1898. On January 2. 1882. at Na-
throp, Chaffee county, he was married to
Miss Margaret Evans, a natiye of Illinois.
They haye two daughters and one son. Mr.
Ehrhart has passed almost all of his life so far
in this particular portion of Colorado, and has
been a material contributor to its growth and
development. No phase of its expanding and
aspiring life has failed of his ardent support
or quickening influence. In the ranch and
stock industry he has become a leader, in the
general public affairs of the county and section
he is prominent and forceful, and in political
activities he occupies a position of command-
ing loftiness and weight, being one of the lead-
ers of the Democratic party whose standard he
has borne to triumph in more than one hard
fought contest. He has seiwed two terms as
county commissioner, one beginning- in 1885
and the other in 1899. Between these terms in
that office he held others, being elected to the
state house of representatiyes in the fall of
1896 as a representatiye of Fremont and Chaf-
fee counties, and to the state senate in 1898 to
represent the twentieth district. From his
youth he has been zealous and active in party
work, eyen when just past twenty-one years of
age being the candidate of his party for asses-
728
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
sor, and although defeated then, his zeal never
flagged and his ardor never cooled. In addi-
tion to his other business Mr. Ehrhart has been
interested in mining from time to time and
owns claims in various places which promise
to he of great value when fully developed. In
fraternal relations he is connected with Salida
Lodge of Elks and also the Knights of Pythias
of that town.
DANIEL H. STALEY.
This progressive, public-spirited and prom-
inent business man of Chaffee county, whose
life in this state has been productive of much
good to its mercantile and industrial interests,
is a native of Mason county, Illinois, born on
March 25, 1867. He was reared on his father's
farm and attended the district school in the
neighborhood of his home, remaining under
the parental roof until he reached the age of
eighteen. He then went to Hamlin, Kansas, and
during the next two years conducted a con-
fectionery business at that place and studied
bookkeeping. In 1887 he moved to Portis in
the same state and took a position in a bank
there which he held for about one year ami a
half. In April. 1891, he came to this state and
located at what is now Hooper, Costilla county,
but was then called Garrison. He became cash-
ier of the bank there and also engaged in mer-
chandising in partnership with his brother, they
having two stores. About the year 1895 he ac-
cepted the position (4 cashier of the bank at
Creede and moved to that town. Three years
later he and his brother sold one of their stores
at Hooper and organized the Costilla County
Bank, with his brother Wesley as president and
himself as cashier, and in 1901 they disposed
of their other store at Hooper. Mr. Staley
then organized the State Rank of Salida. with
a capital stock of thirty thousand dollars, which
was increased the next year. Dr. F. N. Coch-
ran was made president, Mr. Staley vice-presi-
dent, and J. M. Whitmore cashier. In 1903
the bank was re-organized with Mr. Staley as
president, E. R. Naylor vice-president and Mr.
Whitmore cashier. Under their management
the bank has flourished, greatly increasing its
volume of business and growing strong in the
confidence of the people. It is now one of the
esteemed and firmly established financial insti-
tutions of the western or central part of the
state, with a large body of well satisfied patrons
and a steadily expanding trade. Mr. Staley is
also a director of the First National Bank of
Monte Vista, which was organized in 1904
being a consolidation of the Costilla County
Bank and the Exchange Bank of Monte Vista.
Of this his brother Wesley is cashier and gen-
eral manager. In political allegiance Mr. Sta-
ley is an ardent Democrat and always takes an
active part in the affairs of his party. He is
chairman of its county central committee in
Chaffee county, and the vigor and earnestness
of its campaigns there are largely due to the
skill of his management and the spirit he in-
fuses into its activities. Fraternally he belongs
to the Knights of Pythias and the order of
Elks at Salida. In the former he is a member
of the finance committee of the grand lodge,
and in the latter is treasurer of his lodge at
Salida, of which he is a charter member. He
also belongs to a number of other fraternal
orders and is ever active and helpful in lodge
work.
NELSON CYR.
Nelson Cyr, who has been active and help-
ful in the ranching and cattle industry of Colo-
rado, and also concerned in a forceful and serv-
iceable way in the public life of his section in
the state, is a native of near Montreal. Canada,
bom "ii May 2. 1845. In his native land and
under the paternal rooftree he grew to man-
hood, and in the neighborhood of his home
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
729
began life's work for himself as a farmer. He
remained there so occupied until the year 1879.
then at the age of thirty-four, in the prime of,
his manly vigor and mental force, he became
a resident of Colorado, well prepared for the
exactions of its strenuous life and eager to
enter into the contest which they embodied. He
remained in the state two years then made a
visit to his old home in Canada. Returning to
Colorado in 188 1, he located at Leadville and
found employment in the mines and at the
smelter for about three years. In 1884 he
turned his attention to farming, taking up a-
ranch four miles from Buena Vista, not far
from the town of Riverside. After a year passed
here he returned to mining and spent three
vears in that industry, then once more became
a farmer. In 1895 he sold his ranch and began
to carry the mails between Buena Vista and St.
Elmo under contract. He did this for a year,
then sub-let the contract and took up his resi-
dence at Buena Vista, where he was variously
employed until 1900, when he again started
ranching on a location fifteen miles west of
Salida. In the spring of 1904 he moved to the
ranch he now occupies, which is seventeen
miles from Salida, and is well improved and in
an advanced state of tillage. Mr. Cyr was
married on January 30, 1866, to Miss Amelia
Duclos, a native of Canada where the marriage
occurred. They have three sons and three
daughters.
DR. FINLA McCLl'RK.
Under the most favorable circumstances the
life of a country doctor is one of toil and to
some extent of hardship and privation. And
when it is passed on the frontier, with a terri-
tory of enormous extent and sparsely popu-
lated to ride through, without roads, bridges
or other public conveniences in many places,
with danger ever near and the means of avert-
ing it often scarcely attainable, it becomes a
destiny of great exactions and slender rewards.
all the unfavorable elements being many times
multiplied and the compensations rendered at
the same time more uncertain and less profita-
ble. On the other hand, however, the nature
of his work and the wild life of exposure and
hardship fashions the practitioner into a man
of rugged health, strong nerve, ever ready re-
sourcefulness, and commanding influence,
makes him the friend of every settler and all
of them friends of him, elevates him into a per-
sonage of universal regard, and gives him a
controlling voice in the life of the region if
he should choose to have it. Such as this has
been the experience of many a good physician
in the West, and among them Dr. Finla Mc-
Clure is worthy of high mention. He was
born at Dundee, Illinois, on March 23, 1840,
and six months later moved with his parents
to Elgin, where he lived until he reached the
age of ten years. The family then moved to
Chicago, and in that city he completed his
academic training at the high school and en-
tered Rush Medical College for his profes-
sional course. He was graduated from the
medical college in February. - 1876. and at once
began practicing in Chicago. He continued
his work there until the spring of 1S80. when
he came to Colorado and located in Chaffee
county at a town then called Junction City but
since rebaptized Garfield, which was a small
mining camp. The Doctor opened an
office in a tent there and was soon
actively engaged in a large mining prac-
tice. He also, imbibing the spirit of the
place and time, became interested in the mining
industry, and this taste then acquired has never
left him. as he has had an interest in mining
properties ever since. He practiced medicine
nine years at Garfield, serving as surgeon for
all the large mines and companies, then in 1889
moved his office and residence to Salida. where
73°
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
he has since made his home and enlarged his
practice. He is the oldest physician in the
county and is easily in the front rank in his
profession in this part of the world. He has
also from the beginning of his career here been
active and forceful in political matters. He
was a Republican until 1895. then became a
Populist and was elected mayor of Salida as
such, and since then he has served for a number
of years as a member of the city council. In
1903 he was again elected mayor, he being at
the time out of the state on a visit to Michigan.
His interest in the growth and improvement
of the city has been unflagging and has been
shown in actions of wisdom and breadth of
view. He is largely entitled to the credit for
the fine streets of the city and for many other
features of utility or enjoyment for its people.
He started the work of improvement during his
first term as mayor, ami it has steadily pro-
gressed ever since, receiving a new impetus
during bis second term. He has also rendered
efficient and valued service to the people as
county physician, and to the fraternal life of
the community as a Royal Arch Mason and a
member of the order of Elks. He was mar-
ried at Elgin. Illinois, on October 17. 1877, to
Miss Leah S. Anderson, a native of that state.
VORHIS C. DAVENPORT.
For the ordinary conditions of human life
in this country, and for many of the extraord-
inary conditions prevalent in portions of the
country not yet reduced to full subjection and
systematic culture and development, there is,
in the main, no better preparation than a boy-
hood and youth passed in the invigorating and
health-giving pursuits of rural life, in close
communion with nature, with her ministra-
tions of strength for the body and breadth and
self-reliance for the spirit. It was in such an
experience that Vorhis C. Davenport, of Sa-
lida. was reared and prepared for life's duties.
He was born at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, on
May 26, 1856, and near that city and Stevens
Point, in a near-by county, to which his parents
moved when he was twelve, years old. After
leaving school he served a few years as clerk
in a grocery store at Stevens Point, then in
1876, when he was twenty years of age, he left
his native state for the Black Hills of South
Dakota, a region then attracting the attention
of the world because of the discovery of gold
in its midst in what seemed almost fabulous de-
posits. He made the trip to the Hills by way of
Cheyenne and arrived at Custer City in Aug-
ust. Soon afterward he went on to Deadwood,
which at the time contained only a few log
houses and tents, and at Lead there were but
two or three houses, or rude shacks. One day
when he had not been long in the place he
started to stake out a claim where the now fam-
ous Homestake mine is, but a Californian who
appeared to know much about mining
yet was unfamiliar with the formation
at this point, persuaded him to abandon the
project as the ground was of no value for min-
ing purposes. Thus once at least Fortune
knocked at his door, but as she did not receive
a cordial encouragement to abide with him she
passed on to others for that time. Instead of
becoming- owner of a great mine he became as-
sistant agent for Clark's Pony Express, at
Deadwood, and while the returns were by no
means so extensive, they were more immediate
and readily available. In the spring of 1877 he
helped to found the town of Spearfish and in
its vicinity he engaged in raising cattle and hay
and also operated a saw-mill until 1879. In
July of that year he moved to Canon City,
Colorado, and found employment in the lumber
yard of Esley & Thomas. Three months
later he took charge of a lumber yard for this
firm at Cleora, a then promising place just
below Salida which had not yet been started
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
73 l
Following this enterprise, he managed a yard
for the firm at Poncho Springs and later one at
Maysville. In 1880 he bought the yard at
Maysville and during the next two years car-
ried on its business. The town showing signs
of decadence then, he moved his stock to Sa-
lida and purchased the lumber yard he now
owns and manages, and which does an exten-
sive business, the largest in this part of the
state. During the whole of his residence in
Colorado he has been interested in mines and
mining, and still owns many claims of promise.
In 1900 he bought the Wellsville Hot Springs,
six miles east of Salida on the Denver & Rio
Grande Railroad, and by continuous effort he
has made extensive improvements and erected
the place into a popular summer resort which
grows in favor every year. The waters are
highly curative and beneficial, the place has
many natural attractions and is well conducted,
and being on the highway of a great traffic it
is easily accessible. Mr. Davenport is an earn-
est Republican in political faith, warmly inter-
ested in the success of his party, but without
desire for any of its honors or emoluments. He
still takes a most active interest in the lumber
industry in every way, and is now president of
the State Association of Lumber Dealers. Fra-
ternally he is a Woodman of the World with
membership in the camp of the order at Sa-
lida. and in business outside of his own im-
mediate commercial channel he is a stockholder
in the First National Bank of Salida, a stock-
holder and vice-president of the Building &
Loan Association, and a stockholder and the
treasurer of the Fairview Cemetery Associa-
tion.
ERIC ANDERSON.
Leaving his native Sweden in company
with his parents at the age of nineteen to em-
brace the larger opportunities presented to
young men of enterprise and capacity offered
by this Western world, Eric Anderson, of
Montrose county, comfortably settled on an at-
tractive little farm of forty acres located four
miles west of the town of Montrose, is realiz-
ing his hopes and at the same time aiding in
developing and building up the section of the
state in which he has settled. He was born in
Sweden in 1855, and is the seventh of the
twelve children of Andrew and Christina
(Ericsson) Anderson. His parents were Swedes
by nativity and of Swedish ancestry running
back to the time when the Norse kings held
sway < iver the northern seas and made all
Europe tremble at their power. They were
prosperous farmers in their native country,
and came to the United States in 1874, making
their home at Denver, this state, where the
mother is now living at the age of eighty-three,
and where the father died in 1897, aged
eighty-seven. They felt that they had finished
their life work when they left their native land,
and from the time of their arrival in this coun-
try they lived retired from active pursuits, en-
joying the fruits of their previous fruitful
labors and winning - the regard of the people
around them by their sterling worth and genial
manners'. At his death the father was laid to
rest in that beautiful city of the dead. Fair-
mount Cemetery, in Denver. Their son Eric
was well educated in the state schools of
Sweden, and came to his new home on this side
of the Atlantic well prepared for the stirring
activities in which he was destined to engage.
He at once began prospecting on his own ac-
count and acquired valuable claims, among
them the Trapper and the Independence mines
in Idaho, and worked them for a period of
eleven years. He then turned his attention to
merchandising at Montrose which he followed
for a year, then settled on the beautiful ranch
which he now occupies, on which his principal
industry is the production of choice varieties of
fruit, although he does some farming in a gen-
73*
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
eral way, and raises a few cattle. When he
took hold of his place it was nearly all given up
to wild sage brush, and would have looked un-
promising to any but a man of enterprise and
indomitable spirit. But Mr. Anderson went
to work on it with the energy characteristic of
his people, and has transformed it into a garden
of fertility and beauty, and enriched it with
substantial buildings and other improvements,
enduring and attractive in character and mod-
ern in style and equipment. He also has in-
terests in a mercantile business conducted by
his brother, A. L. Anderson, in St. Louis. Mr.
Anderson was married in 1895 to Miss Math-
ina Nelson, a native of Sweden and daughter of
Nelse Nelson, who passed his life in that coun-
try and is now deceased. One child has blessed
and brightened the Anderson household, Wil-
liam T. Anderson. During his mining days the
head of the house did not confine his operations
to one locality, but tried his hand at Leadville
as early as 1878, and later also at Cripple
Creek. He is prosperous in his present business
and deserves his success as he does the general
esteem of his neighbors and friends which he
richly enjoys.
JOHN E. PELTON.
John E. Pelton, of Montrose, receiver of
the United States land office at that point, was
bom at Folsom, Ohio, in 1857, and is the son
of Benjamin H. and Mary Dorothy (Harhar)
Pelton, the former a native of that state and
the latter of Pennsylvania. The father was
successfully engaged in farming in Ohio until
the beginning of the Civil war when he enlisted
in Company A, Eighth Ohio Infantry. He was
soon at the front with bis regiment and laid his
life on the altar of his country in a skirmish at
Cumberland Gap, Virginia, while the opposing
armies were playing for the possession of that
important base of operations in the great cam-
paigns which were then impending. The
mother moved with her parents in her girlhood
from Pennsylvania to Ohio and was there mar-
ried after reaching years of maturity. After
the close of the war she removed her family
to Colorado and in 1897 she died at Salida,
this state, at the age of sixty-eight. She was
the mother of seven children, John being the
sixth. He remained at home to the age of
fifteen and in 1872 came west alone, and lo-
cating at Central City or Blackhawk, in what
is now Gilpin county, began following the al-
most universal occupation of that section,
prospecting and mining. In 1881 he dis-
covered and located a valuable mine which he
named the Leo, after his oldest daughter,
Leonora. Two years later he left this section
of the state and took up his residence at Crip-
ple Creek, remaining there and continuing his
mining operations until the Alaska excitement
broke out, when he went to that far northern
country and remained until 1893. Then re-
turning to Colorado, he settled on a ranch two
and a half miles west of Montrose and devoted
his attentions to the production of high grade
cattle and fine fruit. For two years he also had
a warehouse at Montrose and was deeply inter-
ested in the improvement of that portion of the
state, being the first man to agitate the Gunni-
son irrigation project which has resulted in so
much benefit to this section. He has made his
ranch one of the best and most valuable in its
neighborhood by industry and skill in its culti-
vation and excellent judgment in its improve-
ment, adding to its attractions, in addition to
the necessary features which subserve the utili-
ties, many that please the eye and contribute to
the enjoyment of his family and his numerous
friends. One of these is a lake of good size
which he has stocked with Eastern brook trout,
his move was an experiment of doubtful suc-
cess, but it has succeeded in a way that realizes
his most ardent hopes concerning it, and has
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
'33
become so popular and interesting to the com-
munity that his place has been named in con-
sequence "Pelton Lake Farm." In politics Mr.
Pelton has been through life an active Repub-
lican, always devoted to the interests of his
part\ and doing his part of the work necessary
to the success of its cause. On February 15,
1901, he was appointed receiver of the United
States land office at Montrose and has since
been engaged in the performance of his official
duties. He is a zealous member of the Ancient
Order of United Workmen and of the Wood-
men of the World. On February 28. 1881, he
was married to Miss Katie Anderson, a native
of Sweden and sister of Eric Anderson, of near
Montrose, a sketch of win mi will be found
elsewhere in this work. They have four chil-
dren, Leonora S., an accomplished musician,
carefully trained at one of the leading con-
servatories; Edna D., engaged in teaching
school; George S., and Herbert E., a recent
graduate of the Montrose high school.
JOHN J. TOBIN.
Whether impelled by the hard conditions in
their native land, their natural restless energy,
the thirst for gold or the inviting prospects of,
advancement in the United States, the Irish
people have left their own flowery island by
thousands and spread themselves out over this
country greatly to its advantage and their own,
quickening every active impulse toward im-
provement wherever they have settled, and at
the same time winning the reward of faithful
toil in worldly comfort and political and social
consequence. John J. Tobin, of Montrose, this
state, is the son of Irish parents who have
shared the benefits of American freedom and
opportunity, and have poured out their energy
and skill in building up the section in which
they made their home as he has done. He was
born in 1865 at Columbus. Wisconsin, the son
of John and Catherine (Kiernan) Tobin, na-
tives of Ireland who came with their parents
to this country in childhood. The father was
brought over when he was but a year and a
half old. His parents lived for a time in the
city of New York, then moved to Pennsylvania
and later to Wisconsin. At an early age he
started in life for himself, driving a team on
the Erie canal, and when he grew tired of this
occupation he came on to Wisconsin from the
end of his division by stage. Here he was em
ployed by a milling company until he retired
from active pursuits at the age of seventy-three
at Columbus, where he had been living for
many years. Here he was married when a
young man to Miss Catherine Kiernan, a na-
tive of Ireland also, daughter of Bernard and
Mary Kiernan, who were early settlers and
prosperous farmers in Wisconsin. She died in
1872, aged seventy-two, leaving three daugh-
ters and four sons, John being the third of the
si his. He remained at home until he reached
the age of seventeen and received an ordinary
district school education. At that age he went
to Chicago and secured a position in the em-
ploy of the Hayden Brothers, proprietors of
large department stores in that city and
Omaha. In 1882 he quit their employment
and came to Denver. Colorado, where be
taught school in Harman's Addition, then a
newly opened portion of the city. After teach-
ing two years he came to Montrose in [884 and
was made principal of the Montrose schools,
serving four years in that capacity and the
next five as county superintendent. During his
tenure in this office he made many improve-
ments in the school system of the county, mod-
ernizing its methods, raising its standards and
increasing its efficiency in thoroughness and
breadth. His administration was highly com-
mended, and the evidence of his wisdom and
energy is still apparent in the excellent condi-
tion and work of the schools. In the mean-
734
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
time he bought a tract of unimproved land
three miles and a half west of the town, and ex-
pended his spare time and energies in improv-
ing it and getting it ready for habitation. It
has for some years been his home and is one of
the most complete and desirable rural homes
in this part of the county, having a productive
orchard and an unusually well furnished dairy
among its features worthy of special notice.
He has been for a number of years a member of
the state board of control. Fraternally he is
connected with the Ancient Order of United
Workmen. In 1891 he was married to Miss
Catherine McTiernan, a native of Wisconsin
and daughter of James and Mary McTiernan.
of Irish nativity, both now deceased. In all
undertakings involving the advancement or im-
provement of the county Mr. Tobin has been
active and serviceable, approaching public
questions with breadth of view and a spirit of
enterprise which have been effective in helping
to secure the best results. He is looked upon
as one of the county's leading and most pro-
gressive citizens, an estimable man and an ap-
preciated force for good in this section of the
state.
E. A. LOPER.
For more than twenty years F. A. Loper,
nf Montrose county, has been a resident of
Colorado, having come to the state to live in
1883. He then settled on the place where he
now resides, securing it as a pre-emption claim
of wild sage brush land, and devoting the time
since he took possession of it in redeeming it
from the waste and making it fertile and pro-
ductive. He is a native of Fulton county. 111-
nuns, born in [852, and is the son of Isaiah
and Mary (Stone) Loper, Eastern people who
were among the early settlers of the great Prai-
rie -t.ite. The father was born in New Jersey,
of German parents, and as a young man came
west to < )hio, wlu-re lie lived a number of years
and was married. In 1850 he moved his
family to Fulton county, Illinois, and after ten
years of faithful work as a farmer in that
state, died there in i860. His wife was a na-
tive of Vermont, and accompanied her parents
to Ohio while she was young. After the death
of her husband, she continued to live in Illinois
until 1869. when she came with her son. the
subject of this brief review, to the neighbor-
hood of Atchison, Kansas, and lived with him
there on a farm until 1883. The trip from
their Illinois home was made by team overland,
but while tedious and long drawn out in the age
of steam in which it was made, it lacked the
elements of danger and privation of such
journeys in earlier times, the greatest part of
the country through which they traveled being
well settled and supplied with the conveniences
of life. In 1883 the son sold his property in
Kansas and together they came to Colorado,
settling in Montrose county, where she died in
the summer of 1903, aged eighty-nine years.
Her remains were buried at Olathe. Her off-
springs numbered twelve. E. A. being the
ninth. He remained at home assisting in the
farm work in Illinois until he reached his
eighteenth year, and then with his mother
moved to Kansas, as has been stated, remaining
in that state farming in the vicinity of Atchison
until the autumn of 1883. He then determined
to come farther west, and disposing of his farm
in Kansas, he came to Colorado, and going at
once to Montrose county, located on a pre-
emption claim of one hundred sixty acres,
about six miles west of the town of Montrose.
This was wild sage brush land and altogether
unimproved and uncultivated when he moved
on it. By assiduous and systematic industry
since then, continued in spite of many .lis
couragements and diffiulties, lie lias In-, night
it to a high state of productiveness,
improved it with good buildings. and
adorned it with trees and shrubbery
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
73?
which make it attractive as a rural home and
valuable as a piece of well developed property.
Soon after settling on it he planted an orchard
of apple, peach, plum and cherry trees, which
he has carefully nurtured, and which is now
repaying his care with abundant yields of ex-
cellent fruit for which he finds a ready market
either near or far, and out of which he realizes
a handsome income. He is also engaged ac-
tively in general farming and stock-growing,
and is making both lines of industry pay well.
He was married in 1902 to Mrs. Myron
(White) Gravestock, widow of the late John
Gravestock, an old settler of the section who
died about ten years ago. They have one son.
Eugene Wesley. A farmer in three of the
great states of the Union, Mr. Loper has a
comprehensive knowledge of the agricultural
industry in this country, and his varied and ex-
tensive experience has given him capacity of
a high order for conducting it successfully.
He is regarded as one of the wide-awake and
progressive ranchers of the county, and one
of its most estimable citizens.
ALBERT G. WACHTER.
The thrift, the frugality, the persistent in-
dustry of the German race tells and leaves its
impress wherever it is applied; and it matters
not what the line of life may be, or what occu-
pation engages the subject, the qualities of suc-
cess are inherent in him, and he can bring them
into service if he will. Albert G. Wachter, of
Montrose county, this state, belongs to this race
and in his career has exhibited the character-
istics of his people. Although a native of New
York, born at Waterloo, Seneca county, in
1864, he is but one generation removed from
the fatherland and was trained in the school of
stern discipline and attention to duty which
has raised the German nation to its present
rank and consequence. His parents were
Ernest W. and Julia A. (Ailing) Wachter,
the former a native of Prussia and the latter
of Cattaraugus county, New York. The
father was the son of a prominent physician in
his native land and was educated for the same
profession, being graduated from a medical
college before leaving home. In 1856 he came
to the United States a young man and located
at Elmira, New York, where he practiced his
profession for several years, then removed to
Seneca county, after living short times at dif-
ferent other places, and there died in 1886 at
the age of fifty-six. During the last two years
of the Civil war he was surgeon 'of the One
Hundred and Fifty-sixth Xew York Volun-
teers, and rendered services to his companions
in arms that were highly appreciated. His wife
was a daughter of Samuel Ailing, a well-to-
do farmer of Cattaraugus county, Xew York,
and is now living at Stockton, California,
aged seventy-seven years. Albert is the fifth
of their seven children. He was reared and
educated in his native county, and at the age of
twenty began to make his own way in the
world by clerking in a grocery store at Wa-
terloo, his home town. After two years of this
unpromising employment he came to Colorado,
and locating at Montrose, entered the employ
1 if Matthews. Reynolds &- Goodwin, extensive
orchard and fruit-growers. He remained with
them five years, then set up in farming for
himself, purchasing the place he now owns
and occupies on which he is actively engaged
in a general fanning and stock industry, his
principal crop, however, being hay. In 1903
he was appointed deputy water commissioner
under W. O. Hershaw, of Olathe, a position
well suited to his capacity and his tastes, as he
had given the subjects involved in his official
duties study and reflection, and is familiar
with their various phases of interest. In 1888
7&
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
he married Miss Lillie M. Kemp, a native
of Brighton. Canada, daughter of John Kemp,
a prosperous farmer of that part of the Do-
minion. They have two children. E. Earl and
Leo Pauline.
JACOB E. BORAH.
Jacob E. Borah, a younger brother of Al-
fred G. Borah, a sketch of whom will be found
elsewhere in this work, was born at Morgan-
town, Butler county, Kentucky, on April 13.
1847. Mr. Borah obtained a meager common-
school education and began to make his own
living at the age of fifteen. He remained in
Kentucky until July, 1868, then moved to Mis-
souri to look up a location. Not being pleased
with the outlook, he soon afterward went to
Grant county. Wisconsin, where he remained
until 1872 and farmed with profit. In the year
last named he changed his residence to Chero-
kee county, Iowa, and after three years of dif-
fering employments there came to Boulder
county, this state, joining his brother Alfred
as a partner in mining operations. On June
14, 1S78, they moved to Leadville, and from
there they prospected in various parts of the
Western slope. Their success was good until
[885, when Jacob located at Gypsum, and since
then he has been continuously engaged in hunt-
ing, trapping and serving as a tourists' guide,
his reputation in the latter capacity being first-
class and wide-spread. He has an outfit of sev-
enty-five pack animals with mess wagons and
twenty hounds, and knows all the country in
Wyoming, Idaho, New and Old Mexico and
( blorado, and besides he has a pleasing person-
ality and an obliging disposition which make
him very ppoular as a guide. Many large par-
ties of tourists from different parts of the
world have had the benefit of his services, and
have gone away afterward singing his praises
wherever their duty or inclination took them.
As an illustration of his success in his profes-
sion it is only necessary to state that during
the year of 1904 forty-three bears and thirty-
four mountain lions were killed by the different
parties he escorted. In one instance during the
season they killed six bears in twelve days,
which included the entire time they were out,
including moves, etc. Mr. Borah was married
on October 14, 1S90, to Miss Minnie H.
Hockett, a native of Cedarville, Kansas. They
have two children, L. J. and LeRoy. This
hardy trapper and guide has not lost his fond-
ness for ease, security, and all that civilization
reckons among the goods of life ; but the wilder-
ness, rough, harsh and inexorable as it is, has
charms for him more potent in their seductive
influence than all the lures of luxury and sloth.
True, his path is often choked with difficulties,
but his body and soul are hardened to meet
them ; it is beset with dangers, but these are the
very spice of his life. And he has, in addition
to his knowledge of woodcraft and other
qualifications as a guide, the happy faculty of
putting those who are with him in touch with
his spirit in this respect and making them enjoy
to its full the rugged life of the wilderness,
wherein mew, beasts and nature herself seem
armed against them.
ENOS H. NORTON.
The scion of old New England families,
whose traditions of the dignity of labor he fully
inherited and whose habits of industry he
formed, anil reared amid the hustling activities
■ if that section of the country, well educated too
in accordance with the custom of that hive of
intellectual productiveness, and having all the
proverbial Yankee's thrift and self-reliance,
Enos II. Norton, of Montrose, Colorado, came
tn the West well prepared for the exactions of
u- strenuous life and equipped to bear his part
creditably in almost am - field of its ninltitudin-
JAroB E. BORAH.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
73/
ous opportunities. He was born in New
Haven, Connecticut, in 1851, and is the son of
Hart Z. and Emily (Hine) Norton, both natives
of Connecticut, and their only living offspring,
his brother Eugene having died in childhood.
His mother died at the age of twenty-three
years, when he was only six months old, and
he was reared under the careful supervision of
his father, who in his early manhood was in the
insurance business in New Haven. In 186] he
moved his family to South Norfolk and there
engaged in the manufacture of steam boilers
until 1873, when he was burned out. After this
disaster he moved to New York city and be-
came a prominent plumber and steam fitter, in
the meantime having married a second wife,
Miss Sophia Hine, the sister of his first wife
who is still living at the age of sixty-two. The
elder Norton continued in the plumbing busi-
ness until his retirement from active pursuits in
1895, and is now living in New York at the
age of eighty-three. All of his life he has been
a Democrat in politics and active in the service
of his party. In 1870 he was a member of the
Connecticut legislature, and during the Civil
war was the United States recruiting officer at
Norfolk, that state. In his business he was a
far-seeing and progressive man, ever on tin-
lookout for new devices, and for years was the
only manufacturer on the American continent
of patent wire ferules for holding the bristles
fast in paint brushes. In fraternal relations he
is an Odd Fellow and a member of the Masonic
order, belonging to lodge, chapter and com-
mandery for many years. The first five years
■ if Enos Norton's life were passed in his na-
tive city, and he then went with the rest of the
family to Norfolk where he grew to manhood.
He was liberally educated, completing the pub-
lic school course of instruction, and then at-
tending a good college at Fort Edward. New
York, from which he was graduated in 1868.
Four years later he came west to Chicago, and
47
for two years thereafter was employed on the
editorial staff of the Fireside Friend, a literary
paper published in that city. Returning in
1874 to Connecticut, he engaged in plumbing
in association with his uncle, Morris Norton,
for a year. In 1875 he came to Colorado and
located at Lake City as the representative of
Colonel Hopkins, of Denver, and the mercan-
tile house of Swetzer & Company. He re-
mained in their employ until the winter of
187a then went to Leadville where he followed
the real estate and insurance business until
1 88 1, returning at that time to New York city
to take part in his father's plumbing business.
Two years were passed in this association, and
he then branched out for himself, opening an
establishment in the upholstering, hardware
and jobbing trade, which he conducted until
1886. when he became the New York repre
sentative of Cushman Brothers, of Boston,
dealers in wood and brass upholstering sup-
plies. In 1890 he was sent to Staunton, Penn-
sylvania, as superintendent and manager of the
Kroder Woodenware Company, in whose in-
terest he erected a manufactory and remained
in charge of it until 1895. He then once more
turned his steps to the western slope of the
Rockies, coming to Montrose, this state, as
chief bookkeeper for the A. J. Mathers Mer-
cantile Company, with which he remained a
year. At the end of that time he entered busi-
ness on his own account as a real estate and
insurance agent. Since then he has served four
years as chief game warden of the thirteen
si lUthwestern counties of the state, and justice
of the peace and police magistrate of Montrose
for two years. During his residence at Lake
City he was clerk of Hinsdale county from
1878 to 1880. In politics he is a Populist, and
he proves his faith in the principles of the
party by giving its platforms and candidates
loyal and effective service in every campaign.
He is also prominent in the fraternal life of the
73§
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
state, belonging to the Masonic order, the
lodge and encampment of Odd Fellows. Mr.
Norton was married in 1880 to Miss Hettie A.
Simons, a native of Ohio who came to Colo-
rado with her parents in 1865. She is the
daughter of Peter and Hettie Mackelroy. Her
father, a native of Ohio, came to Colorado by
ox teams in 1859 and settled in Denver. In
1870 he moved to Kit Carson, in 1873 to Colo-
rado Springs, in 1875 to Lake City, in 1879 to
Leadville, and in 1886 back to Denver, where
he is now living at the age of seventy-two. He
is a lawyer by profession, and in 1878 was
county judge of Hinsdale county. His wife
is also living and aged seventy-two. She and
her daughter, Mrs. Norton, were the first white
women in Lake City. Mr. and Mrs. Norton
have had five children, Esther, Hettie (who
died at the age of eighteen). Russell, Irene and
Enos, Jr. Mr. Norton's career and character
are highly appreciated wherever he is known,
and his capacity has been of great service in
many places where he has lived.
ROBERT SAMPSON
Reared to rural life in the Emerald Lie.
where a snug cottage and a few pliant acres are
all that the ordinary farmer can hope for, it is
characteristic of the flexibility and scope of the
mental outfit of his people that Robert Samp-
son, of Montrose, was able to easily embrace
and properly use the opportunities for agri-
cultural pursuits offered in the western part of
the United States, where miles rather than
acres form the unit of measure and nothing is
small or cramped, the spirit of our institutions
being in due proportion to the spread of our
territory. He was born in county Down,
north of Ireland, in 1858, the son of William
and Mary (McCoule) Sampson, whose fore-
fathers were for many generations tillers of
the generous soil of that bright little island.
the home of gallant men and winsome ladies,
the land of poetry and song. His father, fol-
lowing the family vocation, was a farmer there,
and died in 1877, aged sixty years. The
mother was the daughter of Robert and
(Allen) McCoule, also farmers and the
descendants of long line-, of farmers in the
northern part of the country. She died, leav-
ing as her offspring five daughters and three
sons. Robert being the oldest of the sons. He
was reared and educated in his native county,
and looked forward, doubtless, to settling down
there to the occupation of his people, and
with little prospect of fame or fortune beyond
their own. And in fact, after reaching years
of maturity he did engage in farming for a year
1 ir two near his home. At the age of twenty-
three, however, he heard the voice of nature
within him calling him to larger opportunities
in a foreign land, and turned with eager long-
ing and high hopes to the land across the sea
wherein so many of his countrymen have won
distinction and wealth, and have rendered
signal service to the cause of human progress.
Accordingly, on the last day of April, 1870, lie
set sail for the United States, and on the 2y\
day 'if May following he landed at New-
York. Soon after he went to the state of Dela-
ware where he remained three months, then
transferred his energies to the vicinity of
Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, where for twenty-
two months he was employed on a farm. He
then entered the employ of the Pennsylvania
Railroad as a fireman, and in that capacity and
as an engineer he served that great corporation
until February, 1884. On the 22(1 of that
month he reached Montrose, this state, and
purchasing one hundred and sixty acres of sage
brush land, .all unimproved and virgin to the
plow, he turned his attention to general fann-
ing and raising stock. His first work was.
however, one of t,.il and faith. It was neces-
sary to get a portion of the land into condition
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
739
for cultivation and await results, and to this
he addressed himself with ardor and confidence.
After making considerahle progress in this di-
rection with his first tract, he purchased an
addition of one hundred and twenty
acres of similar land and began to im-
prove and fertilize that. He has been
c< instant and assiduous in his industry, while
wide-awake and intelligent in the application
of his labor, and far-seeing enough to build
and work for results of magnitude and perma-
nency rather than for immediate returns of
small value; and time has demonstrated the
wisdom of his course. He now has a body of
the finest grain land in the county, and his
stuck, principally trotting horses of the 11am-
bletonian and Messenger strains, is worthy of
the pride he feels in it. He was married in
1876 to Miss .Maggie Westbrook, a native of
Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, whose parents
were also natives of that state and lived there
all their lives, the father being a train des-
patcher for the Pennsylvania Railroad. They
have five children living, Sarah, George, Mor-
gan, Thomas and Katie, and one, William, de-
ceased. While improving his own fortunes
with diligence and judgment, Mr. Sampson
has not neglected the claims of the community.
but has been a forceful factor in its proper de-
velopment and progress.
PERRIN PORTER.
Perrin Porter, an esteemed citizen and a
progressive stock man and farmer of Mon-
trose county, living about four miles from the
county seat, is a descendant of old Maryland
and Virginia families of Scotch ancestry, who
were early settlers in the neighborhood of
Booneville, Cooper county, Missouri, where he
was born in 1S42. His parents were John and
Hannah (Ellis) Porter, the former a native of
Marvland who settled at Booneville in his
young manhood and engaged in mercantile life
and farming, remaining there until his death
in i860, at the age of fifty-eight. The mother,
a daughter of William and Nancy (Ball)
Ellis, of Virginia, was also born in the Old Do-
minion and came with her parents in her girl-
hood to Cooper county, Missouri, and there
grew to womanhood and was married. There
also she died, passing away in 1876, aged fifty-
four or fifty-five, and was buried on the home-
stead where the remains of her husband also
repose. They were the parents of seven chil-
dren, of whom their son Perrin was the first
born. His school days were passed in his na-
tive state, where he remained living at home
and taking his part in the work of the farm
until he reached the age of twenty-three or
twenty-four. He then came to Colorado, st< ip-
ping first at Animas in what is now La Plata
county, and from there began prospecting in
the San Jaun region and mining in various
parts of that prolific mineral belt. For seven
years he followed this precarious occupation in
connection with lumbering at times, then deter-
mined to seek a more stable and enduring field
for his energies in ranching and raising stock,
and for this purpose homesteaded on a part of
his present ranch. Eighteen years have passed
since then, all expended by him in diligent ef-
forts to improve his land. He has purchased
additional land from time to time, and by the
same judicious and systematic industry lias
transformed it, as he has the first tract, from a
waste of wild sage brush into fields of waving
grain, orchards bending with luscious fruit,
vineyards rich in the clustering wealth of the
vine, and meadows verdant with the promise
of winter food for his cattle. His chief in-
dustry has been the breeding and handling of
high grade stock and the production of alfalfa
for their maintenance. His aim has been to
have and produce the best cattle in the county,
and by so doing improve the quality of this
74Q
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
commodity throughout its limits. At one time
he was also a breeder of fine horses, but his
energy as a breeder is now devoted almost ex-
clusively to cattle. He takes a lively and help-
ful interest in public local affairs and gives a
due share of his time and substantial aid to all
projects for the elevation of the people,
the development of the resources and
the expansion of the material interests of the
county and the improvement of the social life
around him, as well as the management of the
governmental concerns of the section in which
he lives. He is an ardent Democrat in political
faith, and makes good his allegiance by faithful
support of his party. In 1884 he married with
Miss Rose Croycroft, a native of Maryland and
daughter of Aaron Croycroft, of that state,
who settled in Missouri during her childhood
and there remained until his death engaged in
farming. She died in 1900 at the age of fifty-
two, leaving one child, her daughter Flattie.
A son named Benjamin died before she passed
away. In 1902 he was married a second time,
his choice on this occasion being Miss Elise,
Baughman, a New Yorker by nativity.
ALFRED KELLER.
Alfred Keller, who during the last eighteen
years has been a resident of Colorado and one
of the esteemed citizens of Montrose county,
living on a large and well improved farm
about four miles from the count}' scat, is a na-
tive of Sauk county. Wisconsin, where he was
born in 1859, and is the son of Fredonia and
Rosena (Stuckey) Keller, of that slate, where
their lives were passed in the peaceful pursuits
of agriculture, the father dying in 1881, at the
1 - of seventy, and the mother at the same age
in [889. Four sous and four daughters com-
prised their family, Alfred being the youngest
of the sons. He was reared on the homestead
and educated in the district schools, remaining
at home until he was twentv years old. then
going out to learn his trade as a miller. After
completing his apprenticeship he worked at the
trade three years in Grant county, the same
state, then came to Colorado in 1885 and locat-
ing in Montrose county on a portion of the ex-
tensive body of land which he now owns, gave
himself up wholly to the leading industry of the
section, ranching and raising cattle. He ac-
quired the land by purchase and proceeded to
improve it and bring it to fertility. This in-
dustry lie has continued until he has raised it
to a high degree of productiveness and pro-
vided it with comfortable and commodious
buildings of every kind needed for the business
he conducts on it. The home place contains two
hundred and forty-five acres, and he has three
hundred and twenty more in other tracts, also
well improved. He raises cattle and horses of
good breeds and takes every care to keep them
in first-class condition. In the fraternal life of
the community he is affiliated with the Ancient
Order of United Mechanics, belonging to the
lodge at Montrose. And while he has never
married lie ha- shown a good citizen's helpful
interest in the welfare of the county and town,
and been a substantial aid to all good projects
for its promotion. He has a fine apple orchard
of fifty acres on the home farm, and in addition
to his land in the country owns valuable town
pn 'peru at Mi mtri tse.
PETER FITZPATRICK.
'lorn and reared on a farm in Ireland, and
having there acquired a taste for tilling the soil
and a thorough knowledge of the business,
Peter Fitzpatrick, of Montrose county, on his
ranch just south of Cimarron, near the ( kmni
on county line, has returned to the occupation
of his young manhood and of his father's, after
passing main- years in mining and various
• ■tiler occupations of promise and profit. His
life began in county Down. Ireland, in [836,
and he is the son of Owen and Catherine Fitz-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
patrick, who were well-to-do farmers in that
country and whose families had been engaged
in thai line of activity for many generations.
The father died in [883, at the age of sixty-
five, and the mother in 1891, aged sixty, and
their bortes rests with those of their ancestors
in their native soil. Seven children were born
to them, 1 if whom their son Peter was the third.
He remained at home until he reached the age
of twenty, and had the advantage of such edu-
cational facilities as were available to one in
his station and locality. In 1856 he came to
the United States and went to mining in Penn-
sylvania, remaining there so occupied eight
years. During the next sixteen years he was in
a number of different places and engaged in a
variety of vocations. In 1880 he settled in Col-
orado, and after remaining a few months at
Alma. Park county, spent two years at Del
Norte at different kinds of work. In 1883 he
moved to Cimarron, and pre-empting a part of
the place which he now owns and occupies, be-
gan farming and raising cattle in which he is
still engaged, improving his land and increas-
ing his acreage by additional purchases as
time passed. His ranch is a large and valuable
one. well located and completely equipped for
the business in which he is engaged, and as a
progressive and enterprising farmer and also
as an influential and broad-minded citizen, he
enjoys in a high degree the respect and good
will 1 if the whole surrounding country. In
7871 he was united in marriage with Mis-;
Eliza McClan, a daughter of Patrick and Sarah
J. (Bannon) McClan, natives of Ireland, where
she also was born. Her mother died in 1886
and her father in 1896. Mr. and Mrs. Fitz-
patrick have had seven children, Helma. Pat-
rick. Kate. Peter (deceased). James. William
and Sarah. Mr. Fitzpatrick is well established
in his business and conducts it with success and
enterprise, and is also actively interested in
the progress of the community.
FRANK H. MOORE.
Among the progressive men of Colorado
who have helped to develop her resources and
build up her industries, her educational and
benevolent agencies and her social life, Frank
H. Moore is worthy of more than a passing
notice. For forty-four years he has lived in the
state, about half of the time in Montrose
county, and has expended the energies of al-
most the whole of his life so far in the activities
which engage her people. He was born in 1854
in Arkansas, the son of P. D. and Mar}- A.
(Steele) Moore, the father a native of Tennes-
see and the mother of Missouri. His father
moved from his native state to Missouri when
he was a young man and carried on farming
and trading. After a residence of some years
in that state he moved his family to the vicinity
of Little Rock, Arkansas, where he remained
until 1859, when they came to Colorado dur-
ing the Pike's Peak excitement, and located on
Cherry creek on a part of the land which the
city of Denver now covers. Here he remained
until 1865 engaged in farming, then moved to
Pueblo county and later took up his residence
near Colorado Springs where he was occupied
in farming and raising stock until 188 1. In
that year he moved to Montrose comity.
then a part of Gunnison county, and
there he ended his days in September, 1808, at
the age of sixty-eight. He was in all respects
a progressive man, eager for the growth and
development of the community in which he
lived, and ever willing to give time and atten-
tion to this end. He took great pride in his
farming operations and conducted them
on a high plane of intelligence and skill.
He also had the first three fish ponds in
the county stocked with trout and carp, being
at the time the only man in the county who
gave attention to interests of that kind. He was
a Democrat in politics and was twice elected
74-'
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
county commissioner of Pueblo county and
twice to the same office in Montrose county.
His father was Davis Moore, a life-long resi-
dent and a prosperous farmer of Tennessee. P.
D. Moore was a soldier in the Mexican war and
was taken a prisoner twice during that contest.
His wife, mother of Frank, was the daughter
of Matthew W. Steele, of Missouri, where she
was married. He came to Colorado in 1859
and lived the rest of his days at Denver and
Pueblo, dying at the latter place. Mrs. Moore
died in 1899, aged sixty-six, leaving five chil-
dren, Frank H. being the second. At the age
of four he came with his parents to Colorado,
and moved to Montrose county at the same
time they did. He took up land by pre-emption
on Uncompahgre river, five and one-half
miles south of Montrose, on which he lived
about fourteen years, residing in the same
vicinity until November, 1902, when he came
to live at his present home on the Big Cimar-
ron, where he is busily engaged in raising
Shorthorn cattle and general farming. He is a
Democrat in politics and has filled a number of
local offices. In [876 he was married to Miss
Ida P.. Cropper, a native of Missouri, daughter
of L. and Tabitha (Owsley) Cropper, who came
from that state to Colorado in 1859. Their
residence was at Denver six years, and in their
dwelling they had the first paneled door in the
town. From Denver the)- moved to Pueblo,
remaining three years, then located at Colorado
Springs where the father died in 188 1, at the
age of sixty years. His wife preceded him to
the grave many years, dying j n [864, aged
twenty-seven. Mr. and Mrs. Moore have had
six children, five of whom are living. Matthew,
Maud, Earl, Jessie and Dora. A son named
Edward is deceased. When .Mr. Moore came
in his childhood to Denver there was but one
tent and one log cabin as the beginning of the
present great and progressive city. The family
crossed the plains in a prairie schooner, the
usual mode of travel in these parts at that lime.
After their arrival they had considerable
trouble with the Ute Indians on different oc-
casions.
W. D. CONKLIN.
A resident of Colorado for more than a
third of a century and more than two-thirds of
his life, W. D. Conklin, living six miles south
of Montrose where he is actively engaged in the
cattle business, is well acquainted with the
people of the state and is in close touch and
harmony with their ambitions, deeply inter-
ested in their abiding welfare and full of loyalty
to every better aspiration among them. He
was born in "Missouri in 1851. the son of Hobbs
and Margaret (Hendricks) Conklin, the
former a native of ( )hio and the latter of Ken-
tucky. The father emigrated to Missouri early
in his life and settled in Schuyler county where
he prospered as a farmer and became prominent
in the local government of the county, serving
as sheriff for many years. At the beginning
of the Civil war he enlisted in the Confederate
army, starting as a private under Colonel
Green and coming out as quartermaster, having
served to the end of the contest. After the war
he went to Texas and, locating in Denton
count}- near Pilot Point, followed farming
there for a number of years. He then moved
to Brownwood, Brown county, to spend his
remaining days and died there in 1890, aged
sixty-four years. He was through life an ard-
ent believer in the principles of the Democratic
party and on all occasions gave its candidates
a loyal and hearty support. For a long time
he was an enthusiastic Freemason; and always,
w herever he was, took an active and serviceable
interest in the welfare of his community. His
wife was a native of Kentucky, of Scotch an-
cestry, daughter of John and Henrietta Hen-
dricks, and moved in her girlhood to Mis-
souri with her parents. The\' were farmers
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
"43
in that state, and died there. The father was
a zealous Whig in politics and a man of promi-
nence in his section of the state. Mrs. Conklin
died in Missouri in [863 at the age of forty-
six. She was the mother of five sons and one
daughter, W. D. being the third child. He
was reared to the age of sixteen and received a
limited education in the public schools. In
1868 he started out in life for him; elf. coming
to Denver, this slate, where he remained until
1872, engaged in freighting to and from vari-
ous points near and far in this part of the West.
This was prior to the construction of the rail-
road through here, he having come to this sec-
tion with a freight team from his Missouri
home. In 1872 he went into the lumber busi-
ness on the divide between Denver and Color-
ado Springs, and followed that business with
varying fortunes until 1881. The next two
years he passed at Colorado Springs, and in
18X4 moved to Montrose and. homesteaded on
eighty acres of his present ranch which was at
the time wild, uncultivated land given up to the
unprofitable gayety of sage brush, and never
yet commanded to productiveness for the bene-
fit of man. lie Ins cleared it of this and made
it valuable through judicious and skillful culti-
vation and with costly improvements, one of
which is a tine brick dwelling of good size and
convenient in arrangement. He is engaged
principally in the cattle industry and carries
it on with vigor and system, giving every de-
tad of the business bis careful personal atten-
tion. In politics he is a faithful Populist and
as the candidate of that party has served the
count)' as county commissioner. In 1881 he
was married to Miss Mary Cropper, a native of
C >li irado, a daughter of the late Levin Crop-
per, an old settler of the Colorado Springs
section where be died. Mr. and Mrs. Conklin
have one child living, Rose, and two dead,
Stella and Walter H. Both are buried in Fair-
view cemeterv. at Montrose.
THOMAS C. MOORE.
Thomas C. Moore, the second son and old-
est child now living of the eleven torn to his
parents, Joseph D. and Jane (Brown) Moore.
is a native of Morgan county, Ohio, where his
life began in 1827. His father was a native of
Pennsylvania and when a young man came to
Ohio, then the far West of the country, and
settled on a farm in what is now Morgan
county. He was a black-smith by trade ami
worked at his craft, for which there was great
need in the sparsely settled country in which
he lived at that time and conducted the opera
tii >iis of his farm also. In 1855 he moved his
family to the vicinity of Des Moines. Iowa,
where he remained until his death in 1865, at
the age of sixty-five. He was a son of Joseph
and Mary (Clemson) Moore, Pennsylvanians
by nativity and Quakers in religious belief.
Joseph was a blacksmith and his son learned the
trade under his instructions. The father of
Joseph was James Moore, who was born and
reared in Ireland and came to this country a
yi lung man, settling in Pennsylvania where he
passed his life working at his trade as a black-
smith. Thomas C. Moore's mother was born
in Perry count}-. Ohio, the daughter of Isaac
and (Clayton) Brown, of that state.
Her father came from Ireland with his parents
when be was a child and they took up their
residence in Ohio, where be grew to manhood
and remained until his death. She was the
mother of eleven children, and died in 1881,
aged seventy-five. Air. Moore grew to man-
hood in Ohio and Kentucky, and after reaching
his legal majority lived six years in Indiana,
taking up a tract of uncultivated land in White
ci unity and making a good farm of it. He then
moved to Iowa where he did the same, and on
the farm which he redeemed from the wilder-
ness in that state he lived thirty-five years. At
times in the various places of his residence he
744
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
has worked at the carpenter trade, which he
learned before leaving Kentucky. In 1893 he
came to Colorado and settled on the farm of
eighty acres which has since been his home.
Soon after taking possession of it he planted
about half of it in fruit trees and these have
been in good bearing order for several years,
and growing in value and increasing their yield
from year to year until they are now in full.
vigor and very productive and profitable. He
conducts a stock business of good proportions
but distinguished more for the quality of its
product that its extent, his chief concern in this
line being the breeding and handling superior
horses of Hambletonian strain. He was mar-
ried in 1851 to Miss Elizabeth Betts. a native
of Ohio, who lived on the farm adjoining that
of his father, and with whom he was in almost
constant companionship from childhood. She
died in 1897 at his present home, aged sixty-
seven years, and was buried at Grandview
cemetery at Montrose. Having no children of
their own. they reared a niece and an adopted
son, Francis Moore, who married Miss B. W.
Marsh, of Montrose. Mrs. Moore's parents
were Jordan and Nancy (Smith) Betts, the
fromer a native of Virginia and the latter of
Ohio. They lived many years in Ohio, then
moved to Illinois where thev both died.
JOSEPH MOORE.
Joseph Moore, brother of Thomas, who in
his younger days was a school teacher and held
certificates of qualification as such from four
states, was born in Morgan county, Ohio, in
1830. He lived in Ohio, Indiana, Iowa near
the Nebraska line, and Colorado. In 1897 he
was stricken with paralysis, and since then has
done no active work. He is a joint owner with
Thomas of the farm on which they live, and has
never married. His services as a teacher were
highly appreciated by all who had the benefit
of them, as he was a most progressive educator
and far ahead of his day in the profession in
many ways, and while possessing breadth of
view as a theorist was highly endowed with
executive ability and teaching power. He also
exhibited high character and admired courtesy
of manner in his work.
J. A I. KELSEY.
Among the most fertile and productive
regions of this country is the renowned Wa-
bash valley in Indiana. Nature there has en-
riched the soil with every element of fruitf ill-
ness, and seems to have pleasure also in suiting
the climate with generous hand to its advant-
age, making the seasons just as they should be
for the best results, retarding the approach of
winter until the crop is ripened and harvested,
yet not withholding the benignant smiles of
spring too long for their proper planting. And
the population that inhabits this region is in
keeping with its munificence. After its first
wild condition was transformed to one of
comeliness and salubrity, its bounty to the toil
of the husbandman became impressively ap-
parent, and men grew broad, progressive and
forceful in consonance with the conditions
around them, so that now the region is a con-
tinuous succession of highly cultivated farms
with stirring marts of commerce and indus-
trial productions at frequent intervals, and is
rich in schools and colleges, churches and li-
braries, hospitals and asylums, and all the other
concomitants of cultivated life. It was in this
region, at Crawfordsville. Montgomery county,
that J. M. Kelsey, one of the esteemed farmers
and apiarists of Montrose county, this state,
was born, reared, learned farming and prac-
ticed the art for more than half a century. His
life began in [826, and he is the son of Edward
and Eliza (Miboer) Kelsey ami the third of
their family of sown sons. His father was a
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
745
native of Ohio, born near Springboro, Warren
county, and settled near Crawfordsville, In-
diana, in 1825, among the first hardy adven-
turers who occupied that section and who laid
the foundations of its present prosperity. He
remained there, a well-to-do farmer and a lead-
ing citizen until his death in 1859, at the age of
sixty-seven. In politics he was an uncompro-
mising Democrat of the old school, and in
church connections a Methodist. His parents
were old Ohio pioneers, and he and his family
helped to repeat on the soil of Indiana the
triumphs they had aided in winning on that
of Ohio. The mother was a native of Wales,
daughter of Jacob and Rhoda Miboer, and ac-
companied her parents from that country to
this in her childhood. They lived awhile in
New Jersey, then moved to Ohio where she
grew to womanhood and was married. She
died in Indiana in 1877, at the age of seventy-
four, having seen two states of that section of
the country redeemed from barbarism and
prow to greatness within the short space of her
life. Mr. Kelsey's early years were passed on
the paternal homestead in whose labors he took
his part as a boy and a young man. He at-
tended the schools of the neighborhood, ac-
quiring a fair degree of book knowledge and a
substantial equipment of common sense and
practical utility under the ministrations of the
typical "Hoosier Schoolmaster," and at the age
of twenty-one began farming in his native
count}- for himself, and soon after was mar-
ried and doubtless felt that he was established
for life among his own people. He rose to in-
fluence in local affairs, served the county well
as sheriff, filled with credit other county of-
fice-, and was regarded as one of the substantial
yeomen of his district on whom its present
safety and future hopes depended. For fifty-
three years and longer he lived on that same
1 trm and concentrated his efforts on its im-
provement and development and built up there
a profitable agricultural business. In 1880 he
sold the farm and his other real property, and
came to the mountains of Colorado to prospect
and mine for the precious metals. He fol-
lowed this interesting but uncertain occupation
tor six years in the vicinity of Ouray and
Telluride, and located a number of promising
claims. He then turned again to the vocation
of his former years, purchasing the place on
which he now resides and giving himself up
to its improvements and the development of the
general farming industry which he started on \\
and which he conducted until about 18S4. At
that time he conceived the idea that there was
room in this locality for the cultivation of bees
and the production of honey on a large scale,
and with all the ardor of a man of strong con-
victions he went into that business. He has
confined his efforts mainly to the Italian breeds
of bees and since the inauguration of his enter-
prise in this line has handled more than four
hundred colonies "of their best and most vig-
orous workers. In politics Mr. Kelsey was in
early life an ardent Democrat; but being at
heart in earnest opposition to slavery, he joined
the Republican party at its organization and
cast his vote in i860 for Lincoln for President.
Since coming to Colorado he has trained with
the Populists, and while not an active partisan
in the sense of seeking or desiring office, has
given the principles and candidates of that
party effective support. For many years he
has been an enthusiastic Odd Fellow, holding
membership in Crawfordsville Lodge. No. 29,
of the order. In 1847 ne xvas married to Miss
Mercuria Harlan, who was born and reared on
the farm adjoining that of his father in In-
diana, the daughter of George and Ruth
( Gregg) Harlan, natives of Ohio who settled
in that portion of Indiana in 1825. about the
time the Kelseys did. Her father was a farmer
of note in his day and locality, and an influen-
tial Whig and Republican in politics. Mrs.
746
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Kelsey is still living' and has reached the age
of seventy-three. They have had four children,
Josephine; Hortense, who died in Indiana and
was buried in the Masonic cemetery in Mont-
gomery county: Eva; and Ruth E., who died
after the arrival of the family in Colorado and
is buried at Montrose.
JAMES A. FENLON.
The endless variety, the high spice, the full-
ness of incident and excitement and incident of
life in the Rocky Mountain region of the coun-
try has been a fruitful theme of romance and
. narrative, yet the most improbable stories told
of it cannot out-do the facts or overstate them.
Many may lie entirely untrue but none is more
wonderful in fiction than many that are true in
the experience of the pioneers, and have been so
frequent in that experience as to excite in the
minds of those who have had it more than a
passing comment. Most days in their early
years brought events of tragical interest, many
had much of this element and some were full of
it, the plain unvarnished tale of some single
lives on the frontier or amid the mines would
furnish material for several plays of thrilling
interest, while the aggregate of human history
in this section in the early days makes up a
volume of life that is complete in itself and
unique and unmatched in any ether time or
place. The career of James A. Fenlon, of CJn-
compahgre, the genial and accommodating
postmaster of the town for almost a quarter of
a century, is one of this unusual and spectacular
kind. He was born in 1850 in the state of
Pennsylvania, the son of Patrick and Mary
1 Milicr) Fenlon, natives of Dublin, Ireland,
who came separately to the United States late
in the 'thirties and settled in Pennsylvania near
Blairsville. The father was a young man
when he came, and soon after bis arrival be-
came a contractor in the construction of the
Pennsylvania Central and the Allegheny Valley
Railroads. He continued to follow this line of
occupation until he was killed by accident at
Ashtabula, Ohio, in 1873, at the age of fifty-
four. During the Civil war he was a member
of the Home Guard military organization at
Blairsville, and wherever he lived took a lively
interest in the development and improvement of
the country. His wife was a daughter of
Thomas and Mary Maher, who were natives
and residents of Dublin, and came with them
to America from that city in 1838 or 1839.
They settled on a farm near Blairsville, Penn-
sylvania, and there the remainder of their lives
were passed, the father dying in 1843 and the
mother in 1856, and both being buried at
Blairsville. The elder Fenlons were the parents
of eight children, of whom James was the first
born. His education was begun at the public
and parochial schools of Blairsville and con-
tinued at St. Francis College at Loretto in the
adjoining county. At the age of fifteen years
he left college and began to make his own liv-
ing as a clerk in a store at Hillside. Westmore-
land county, where he remained until the spring
of 1867. He then went into the oil regions not
far away and for several months sought for-
tune's winning smile in the unctuous fluid
poured forth from the depths of earth that made
many men rich beyond their wildest dreams
then and afterward. In the fall of that year,
having saved money from his earnings for the
purpose, he returned to St. Francis to complete
his education, and in February following came
west to Fort Leavenworth. Kansas, and en-
tered the service of Carney. Fenlon & Com-
pany at that place, remaining in their employ
until fall, at which time he left them and ac-
cepted a position with Price & Nichols, post
traders and sutlers, for whom he clerked until
the spring of 1879. He then took a long de-
sired vacation and made a visit to his old Penn-
sylvania home. In the fall of 1879 he again
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
747
came west to Alamosa, Colorado, and engaged
as a clerk with Field & Hill, who were promi-
nent in the mercantile, forwarding and com-
mission business. The spring of 1880 found
him transferred to Fort Garland anil making
ready to take charge of the traders' stores of
Kinney and Erwin on the expedition against
the Utes commanded by General McKenzie.
The expedition left Fort Garland on May 20,
1880, and arrived at the Uncompahgre Ute
agency on June 1st. After remaining there a
few days the body moved down the Uncom-
pahgre valley some twenty miles and estab-
lished a permanent camp which was called the
"Camp on the Uncompahgre." Here they
waited until the waters were fordable. then
started up Douglas creek and White river to
the agency, where Mercer was massacred. A
number of days were passed there, after which
the expedition advanced over the mesa, con-
structing roads and bridges, holding its camp
on the mesa until September, when it broke
camp and came to the place where Air. Fenlon
now lives, then called the Cantonment, arriving
on October 1st, the day of the Jackson massa-
cre; but instead of resting from the march, the
whole body was at once put in motion t< 1 g< 1
forward and quiet the Indians. Mr. Fenlon
has remained here ever since, literally holding
the fort, as his embraces a part of the old Fort
Crawford post, including the parade ground,
which he has preserved in its old military form.
Until 1 89 1 he was engaged in business for the
government and with the Indians, and since
then has been carrying on a general merchan-
dising establishment. He has seven hundred
acres of fine land whose principal crop is hay.
On this he has made many and costly improve-
ments including an elegant brick dwelling on
which he expended several thousand dollars.
He also has a fine and well-developed orchard
and from it he gathers ]arge quantities of su-
perior fruit. He has been connected in a lead-
ing way with all the important industrial
and commercial enterprises in this part of
the state — was president of the Farmers
& Merchants' Milling Company, one of the
founders and directors of the Bank of
Montrose, which collapsed during the panic,
and a prominent and influential man in every
line of productive activity in his locality. In
politics he is an active Democrat and has been
his party's candidate for the offices of county
treasurer and county commissioner, but went
down under a hopelessly large majority for the
other side which is normal in the county. Fra-
ternally he is a valued member of Uncom-
pahgre Lodge, No. 68, Independent Order of
Odd Fellows, and has been postmaster of the
town since 1880. In 1882 he was married to
Miss Elizabeth C. Clark, a native of Fort
Leavenworth, Kansas, daughter of Hartford
and Mary A. (Desanno) Clark, who settled at
Fort Leavenworth after the Civil war, in which
the father was a captain. At the time of his
death on June 7, 188 1, he was serving as hos-
pitaj steward at the fort. His widow died in
November, 1892, at the fort. Mrs. Fenlon is
living and is forty-three years of age.
G. H. LANDO.
A man who has had extensive experience
in various lines of activity, and whom emer-
gencies have frequently thrown on his own re-
sources without previous notice or warning, if
he have spirit and self-reliance, can lie de-
pended on to turn every situation to his ad-
vantage in at least enduring with commendable
fortitude adverse circumstances and overcom-
ing them to the extent of securing his own
temporary welfare and future good. This is
forcibly illustrated in the career of G. H.
Lando. a prominent and prosperous rancher
and stock man of Gunnison county, with three
hundred twenty acres of superior land located
748
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
four miles and a half from the town of Gunni-
son, on which he carries on a thriving farming
and stock industry which is one of the leading
enterprises of its kind in this part of the state.
He began life's duties for himself at the age
of- sixteen as a prospector and trader in the
wilds of Michigan along Lake Superior, and
since then has been a soldier in the Civil war,
a miner, an earnest worker in industrial and
commercial lines, and a successful and progres-
sive leafier in the business in which he is now
engaged. Mr. Lando first saw the light of this
world in 1836 at the little village of Essex,
New York, which is beautifully located on Lake
Champlain in the midst of a historic region
in which have been fought some of "the big
wars that make ambition virtue." it being at> >ut
half way between old Fort Ticonderoga and the
city of Plattsburg. His parents were Francis
and Elizabeth (Morris) Lando. the former a
native of France who came to that portion of
Xew York when a young man and there lived
the remainder of his days, prosperously work-
ing at his trade as a shoemaker. The mother
was born and reared in Canada and when she
reached years of maturity moved to Xew York
where she was married and where she also
lived out her earthly existence, dying in tS?J.
at the age of seventy-six, and leaving ten
children as her best legacy to mankind. The
father passed away in 1856. The subject was
the fourth of their children, and remained at
homo until he reached the age of sixteen, at-
tending school as he had opportunity and aid-
ing his father in his work as he could. When
he determined to look out for himself he came
west to the shores of Lake Superior, and in
the then almost unsettled wilds of northern
Michigan busied himself in trading with In-
dians and the scattered whites, and in explor-
ing the country in search for mineral pine
lands. He remained there so occupied for
nearly ten years. In 1862, in response to one
of the stirring calls of the President for volun-
teers to defend the Union, he enlisted in Com-
pany Pj. Twenty-seventh Michigan Infantry,
and thereafter was with that regiment
through the thick of the war, serving three
years and being mustered out at Louisville,
Kentucky. He remained in that state, located
at Lexington, until the spring of 187 1, when
he moved to Kansas City and until 1880 he was
in business in that then young but aspiring
western metropolis. In 1S80 he came to Col-
orado, and the next three years were passed
by him at Gunnison in various occupations. He
then bought a ranch of one hundred and sixty
acres which, with a homestead of equal extent
taken up at the same time, constitutes his
present fine country estate and the seat of his
extensive and flourishing stock business and
general farming industry. He was married in
1871 to Miss Fannie E. Porter, a native of
Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
JOHN L. GRIFFING.
Born and bred to the life of a farmer, and
having followed it at times since leaving the
parental roof-tree, John L. Gritting, of Gunni-
son county, living four miles from the town
of Gunnison, on a very attractive and desirable
ranch of three hundred and sixty acres which
he has brought to a high state of cultivation
and on which he has made extensive and valu-
able improvements, came to his present occupa-
tion as one of the leading farmers and stock-
growers of western Colorado both through
natural inclination and favorable circumstan-
ces. Flis early life was passed on his father's
farm near Crystal Lake, McHenry county. Illi-
nois, where he was born in 1856. His parents
were Franklin and Lodema (Thompson) Grif-
fihg, natives of New York who settled in Mc-
Henry county, Illinois, in 1836. and from that
time until near the death of the father were
PROGRESSIVE MEN OE WESTERN COEORADO.
: 49
actively engaged in farming in that county.
In 1878 the father's failing health brought the
family, or those members of it who were still
at home, to Colorado Springs, this state, but
too late for much advantage to him, as he died
in 1879, at the age of sixty-four. He was a
veteran of the Civil war, having enlisted in
Company A. Seventy-second Illinois Infantry,
and served three years, participating in some of
the severest battles of the conflict. The
mother survived her husband twenty-two years
and died at Colorado Springs in 1901, aged
seventy-seven years. They were the parents of
six children. John I., being the last born. He re-
mained at home until 1876, except that some of
his school days were passed in Chicago. In the
year last named he came to Colorado ami lo-
cated where the town of Gunnison now opens
its hospitable doors to tourists and pleasure-
seekers from all over the world, there being
then at that point no evidence of civilization or
progress except one little country store. From
this place as a base of operations he followed
freighting and prospecting for four years. In
t^So he took up as a homestead half of the
place he now owns and occupies, and has added
to its extent by subsequent purchases until he
now has a beautiful expanse of three hundred
and sixty acres, rich in natural fertility and
brought to abundant productiveness by judi-
cious, energetic and skillful husbandry. His
principal product from the soil is a fine quality
of hay which he grows in large quantities, and
he also conducts a flourishing and profitable
stock industry, rearing and dealing in superior
grades of well bred cattle. He has enriched the
place with commodious, comfortable and at-
tractive buildings and other improvements,
which are capacious in extent and equipped
with appurtenances for the requirements of the
business that are of the most approved modern
patterns. Mr. Griffing gives every detail of
his large business his personal attention, and
the results are commensurate with the outlay
of skill and industry. As a citizen he stands
high in the public regard as a wide-awake and
progressive man. with admirable breadth >t
view and public-spirit, and with excellent busi-
ness capacity wherewith to put his views in
practice for the advancement of his community
and the advantage of its people..
COLUMBUS L. STONE.
Made an orphan by the death of his father
when he was but nine years old, Columbus L.
Stone, of Gunnison county, a prosperous and
enterprising farmer and stock-grower whose
life in the county has been a source of advan-
tage to the people in the commercial influence
and improvement it has helped to bring about,
and in the example of productive industry and
business energy it has given, early began to
rely on himself for advancement in life, and to
acquire the spirit of resoluteness and determin-
ation fi>r which he is well known. He is a native
of that great hive of varied and all-conquering
industry, Pennsylvania, born at Waverly,
Lackawanna county, in 1857. His parents
were Hannibal and Clara (Parker) Stone.
Pennsylvanians by birth and residents of that
state until after the Civil war. when they moved
to Illinois and were prosperously engaged in
farming on the virgin prairie of that state until
death struck down the father in 1866 at the age
of thirty-one. The mother took up the burden
<>f carrying on the business and rearing her
five children, and steadily persevered in her
heroic work until death ended her labors also.
passing away in 1889. at the age of fifty-one
Columbus was the first born of their children.
and it fell to his lot to aid his mother in provid-
ing fur the family while he was yet very young
so that his opportunities for securing an educa-
tion were very limited, except what were of-
fered in the hard but effective school of exper-
75°
PROGRESSIl'E .VEX OF WESTERN COLORADO.
ience and practical work. At the age of twen
ty-one he started in life for himself as a farmer
in Illinois. A year later, in 1879. he came to
Colorado and located at Seboya where he did
as well as he could whatever his hands found
to d". but was principally engaged in farm
work during the next three years. At the end
of that time he took up one hundred and sixty
acres of land on the Indian reservation, near
which he had been employed, and there began
ranching and raising stock. He was capable
and industrious, attentive to his work and
skillful in doing it, and had at his command a
ready and resourceful business capacity. He
throve in his venture from the beginning, not-
withstanding there were many delays and dis-
appointments, and he encountered frequent
events and circumstances of a very discourag-
ing nature. He persevered in spite of all ad-
versities, improving his ranch with diligence
and judgment, and rising by his qualities of
elevated citizenship and breadth of view in the
public esteem and becoming an influential fac-
tor in the general life of the community, serv-
ing as postmaster at Seboya and afterward as
justice of the peace, and in many other ways
contributing to the general weal. For eighteen
years he lived and labored in that section, and
steadily won his way in every line of activity in
which he took a hand. He then desired
a larger field for his enterprise and bought the
ranch of four hundred acres which is now his
home and four and one-half miles from Gunni-
son. Here he has continued his stock and
farming business, and the place has been
greatly increased in value by judicious im-
provements. He was married in 1887 to Miss
Mary Andrews, a native of Iowa, the daughter
of !•'.. II. Andrews, and his family consists of
five children who are living, Clifford. Earl,
Lawrence, Ralph and Helen. A twin sister of
Helen named Gladys died when she was four
months old.
HERMAN and HENRY RAUSIS.
The Rausis brothers, Herman and I lenry,
ranchers and general farmers of Gunnison
county, with a fine farm of four hundred acres
which they own in partnership and conduct to-
gether, learned much of the business in which
they are engaged in their native land of Switz-
erland, whose stock industry is extensive for
the size of the county, and whose dairy prod-
ucts are known and enjoyed in all parts of
the world. Herman was born in that country
in 1871 and Henry in 1875. They are the
children of John and Pauline Rausis. who were
also Swiss by nativity, and who passed their
lives in Switzerland industriously engaged in
farming, the mother dying at the age of thirty-
five in 1881, and the father at that of sixty-
four in 181)3. They had four children, of
whom Merman was the first born. At the age
of seventeen Herman, having secured a fair
education in the state schools and acquired a
good knowledge of farming as it is carried on
in his home country, emigrated to the United
States, willing to accept its larger conditions
and eager to embrace its larger opportunities.
He came at once to Colorado in 1888, and lo-
cated at Gunnison where he began to put into
practice in the service of others the practical
knowledge of agriculture and raising stock
wh'ich he had gained at home. He was, how-
ever, looking out for his own chance for pre-
ferment, and being joined by bis brother
Henry in 1895, they together bought their
present valuable property and turned their at-
tention fully to its development and improve-
ment, realizing that if. while working for
others with machinery and on land in which
they had no interest, they could earn a subsist-
ence, scant v and precarious though it might be.
should they work for themselves with machin-
ery and on land which they owned, they might
hope for better paw more Steady employment
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
and larger prospect of improvement. In their
stock industry their favorite production is a
high grade of pure bred Durham cattle for
which they have an established reputation and
in handling which they have dune much to raise
the standard of cattle in their own and ad-
joining counties. They have also shown com-
mendable enterprise with reference to the pub-
lic life of the community and its most judicious
progress and development, taking an earnest
interest in all matters of general public advant-
age, and giving to local governmental con-
cerns a close and intelligent attention althi nigh
themselves not political partisans in any ardent
way. The brothers are not married and are
wanting in the higher enjoyments of domestic
life, yet they are not lonely and do not long
for the blandishments of society. They have
plenty to occupy their minds and engage their
faculties in their work and the interests they
have in charge, and in the beauty and variety
of the country around them nature opens a the-
atre of boundless and satisfying entertainment,
holding forth a cup brimming with redundant
pleasure from which the mind properly attuned
may fearlessly drink, and gain new vigor and
a heightened zest with every draught and find
no dregs of bitterness at the bottom.
FRANK DUNN.
Frank Dunn, living four miles from Doyle.
on a ranch which he has improved and fertil-
ized to a great extent since he purchased it, is
one of the enterprising young farmers and
stock men of Gunnison county who are the stay
of her present and the hope of her future
prosperity. Mr. Dunn is a native of Hardin
county, Iowa, where he was born on April 7.
1 87 1, and where he lived with his parents.
John and Malinda A. (Hyatt) Dunn, until he
reached the age of fourteen when they moved
to Kansas. His father was a native of Illinois
and moved to Iowa when he was twenty-three
years old. There he worked at his trade as a
carpenter until 1885. then sought a new home
wherein his hopes might expand and flourish
in Kansas, settling in the northwestern part of
the state. He lived there to the end of his days,
dying in 1890, at the age of seventy-three.
His wife, an Indianian by birth, is still living at
( iunnison, Colorado, at the age of sixty-seven.
They were the parents of five children, Frank
being the second in the order of birth and the
oldesl son. His education was begun in the
schools of Iowa and completed in those of
Kansas. At the age of nineteen he came to
Colorado and, locating in Gunnison county,
bought the farm which has since been his home,
and which represents in its high state of im-
provement and cultivation, and in the pros-
perous and vigorous stock industry he has built
up on it. the labor and skill of his subsequent
years and the progressiveness and breadth of
view he exhibits in all enterprises to which he
gives his active attention. The principal fea-
ture of his stock production is a high grade of
Shorthorn cattle which are well bred and well
cared for, and which have a deservedly secure
and strong hold on the confidence and approval
of breeders in his section of the county and
elsewhere where they are known. His efforts
to bring and keep them up to a high standard
have stimulated others to the same aspiration
and have aided in realizing it, so that he has
been a direct and positive benefit to the com-
munity in the improvement of its stock. He
has also given a close and intelligent attention
to the public affairs of the county, and having
selected this part of the country as his per-
manent home, has a patriotic and active interest
in its welfare in every way, which he exhibits
by a substantial and helpful support .of every
good undertaking for its advancement or im-
provement. Although an active participant in
political affairs, he is by no means a self-
75 2
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
seeking or ambitious partisan, but approaches
public questions with a view to the general good
rather than from a desire to immediately pro-
mote his own advantage. He belongs to the
Republican party, and gives its principles and
candidates his allegiance and support. In the
fall of 1893 ne was un ited in marriage with
.Miss Edna Hardman, a daughter of Henry
Hardman. Their union has been blessed with
four children, Emma, Harry, Oscar and
Georgia.
FRANK DONLAVY.
Frank Donlavy, one of the prosperous and
enterprising farmers of Montrose count), liv-
ing on his highly improved and well tilled
ranch one mile north of Olathe, is a native of
Columbiana county. Ohio, and is the son of
John and Anna (Long) Donlavy, the former a
native of Ohio and the latter of Ireland. His
father was a well-to-do farmer in Ohio, re-
maining there until 1868. when he moved his
family to Kansas, and there he passed the re-
mainder of his life, dying j n 180.5, at the age
of sixty-two. His wife also died in that state,
pa sing away in 1S70, aged forty-nine. Their
son Frank was reared to habits of industry on
the farm, and began his education in the dis-
trict sclionls of ( )hio and completing it in those
of Kansas, removing to that state with his
parents when he was twelve years old. He re-
mained at home until he was fourteen and then
came to this state, settling at Denver where he
was employed as a cowboy until iSy^. In that
year he vent hack to Kansas and was married
to Miss Lizzie Wilt. After his marriage he re-
turned to Colorado and worked in logging
camps until 1881, when he settled at Olathe
and was there employed in a sawmill
until a few years later, at which time
he formed a partnership with Preston
1 Potchkiss for the purpose of earning on a cat-
tle business. They continued this enterprise
until [885, the partnership being then dis-
solved and Mr. Donlavy going to farming on
the place which he now occupies and owns, and
which comprises one hundred and ninety-seven
acres of excellent land. His household has
been blessed with four children, three boys and
one girl. They are John H. Jesse E.. Morton
V and Anna G.. all living and at home. Mr.
Donlavy's farm is in an excellent condition of
development and cultivation and is well im-
proved with good buildings, much the result of
hi n energy and skillful industry; and his
career illustrates forcibly the possibilities of
American manhood and the opportunities open
to thrift, capacity and enterprise in this western
world. He came to Colorado without a dollar
in money and with little else besides the
clothes he wore, and is now well fixed as to
worldly comforts; and what he has acquired
by his own efforts without the aid of adventi-
tious circumstances or the favors of fortune.
He is also well established in the confidence
and good will of his fellow citizens, being a
man of public spirit and deeply and serviceably
interested in the welfare of the community. He
has been connected with many undertakings for
the general good, and is now one of the eleven
directors of the water association of Montrose
countw
WILLIAM W. WOLL.
In the veins of William W. Woll. of Tin-
cup, Gunnison county, one of the men of busi-
ness capacity and progressive enterprise on
whom the commercial welfare of that portion
of the country largely depends, the blood of
the sturdy German and the vivacious French-
man commingles in harmony and produce a
combination of qualities which off set and bal-
ance one another in an agreeable poise, and
form a character of rare excellence for almost
any form of productive energy or serviceable
manlv force. \nd in his career he has utilized
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
753
them to great advantage. Mr. Woll was born
in the state of Indiana in 1858, and is the son
of Lewis and Mary (Barrett) Woll. His
father was a native of Germany and his
mother of France. They came to the United
States in 1848 and settled in Indiana, where
the mother died in i860, when their son was
but two years old, and the father in 1876 at
the age of fifty-two. the son being then eigh-
teen. At the death of the mother she was
about thirty. They were the parents of three
children, William being the second. He was
reared by his father and given such educational
advantages as the times and circumstances al-
lowed, and after the death of his father began
the work of providing for himself as a furni-
ture dealer and undertaker in his native place.
After following this business four years he
came to Colorado in 1880. and making his
headquarters at Gunnison, prospected and
mined in that section until 1887. He then again
entered the mercantile life by opening a gen-
eral store at Tincup which he is still conduct-
ing with great enterprise and success, it being-
one of the best known and most popular estab-
lishments of its kind in the whole section of the
state in which it is located. He also still holds
valuable interests in a number of mining prop-
erties rich in their yield, among them the Im-
perial Group, the Forest Hill, the Italian
Mountains, The West Gold Hill and the Cross
Mountain. Secure from adverse winds of for-
tune by a liberal share of worldly wealth, and
firmly fixed in the regard of his fellow men by
his uprightness and the usefulness of his life
to the community in which it is passing. Mr.
Woll has many elements of happiness in his
lot. and is blessed with a cheerful and sunny
disposition that adds greatly to their value to
him and to others. He was married in r886
to Miss Clara Weston, and their domestic
hearthstone has been brightened and cheered
by three children, their son Wilford and their
48
daughters Maud M. and Abbie. Among the
people of the Tincup region no family is held
in higher or more general esteem and good will
than this. Air. Woll has been one of the
builders and developers of the region and has
the meed of his usefulness in the admiration
and appreciation of those who are the benefici-
aries of his enterprise and public-spirit.
AUGUST SCHUPP.
August Schupp, a prosperous ranchman
living twelve miles north of Gunnison, Gunni-
son county, is a native of Germany, born in
iSjN. and has put in practice in the land, of his
adoption the habits of thrift, frugality and per-
sistent industry which he acquired in that of
his birth, and for which the people of his race
are everywhere distinguished. They are the
great and continuous toilers in any field or
mine, whether it be in the physical or the men-
tal world, and they leave their impression in
beneficent results wherever they plant their
feet. Mr. Schupp's parents were Christian
and Schupp. who were also na-
tives of the fatherland, where the mother is still
living and the father died in i860, aged sixty-
two years. He was a blacksmith, and during
the whole of his mature life wrought diligently
at his trade, and was much esteemed as a skill-
ful mechanic and an estimable man. Their son
August was reared and educated in his native
land, and remained there until 1882. when
seeing but little chance for improvement in his
prospects there, he determined to join the great
army of industrial progress that America was
recruiting for the conquest of her vast unculti-
vated regions and their transformation into civ-
ilized and serviceable communities. In that
year he came to the United States, and passing
by the older settlements made his way at once
to Colorado, settling at Crested Butte where he
was employed in the coal mines for seven year-;.
754
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
I [e then embraced an opportunity to turn his
attention to a more pleasing- occupation, and
taking up a ranch of eighty acres at East river,
settled down to the cultivation of the soil and
the rearing of cattle, in which he is still en-
gaged. His business is flourishing and he
stands well in the community as a good farmer
and a useful citizen.
OLIVER E. WILLIS.
Although Colorado is yet very young among
the states of the Union, and her whole history
must be reckoned in decades rather than cen-
turies, she is old enough to have produced a
generation of active workers devoted to her
farther progress and development, and the
spread of her power and fame throughout the
world. To this new birth on her prolific soil
beK ngs Oliver E. Willis, located near the vil-
lage of Howeville, Gunnison county, on what
is known as the Jack's Cabin ranch, one of the
first tracts of land in this part of the country
to fall under the dominion of the white man
and yield tribute to the skill and labor of the
husbandman. Air. Willis was born in Boulder
county, this state, in 1S6S, and is the son of
William A. and Rachel (Eggleston) Willis,
who reside near bis home on a valuable ranch
and are engaged in farming and raising stock.
The father is a native of Kentucky and the
mother of Iowa. They came to the state in
1864 and settled where they now live. Their
son Oliver is wholly a product of Colorado,
born on her soil, educated in her schools,
learning the duties of life in her industries, and
quickened with patriotic love of country amid
her grand inspiring mountains. At the age of
nineteen, filled with the spirit of her enterprise
which waits not for years to ripen nor time
to mellow the energies of man. but seizes with
ready hand the opportunities that come, he be-
gan the mutest of life for himself by purchas-
ing a ranch and for fourteen years thereafter
he was busily employed in developing, im-
proving and cultivating this property. He
then sold it to good advantage and purchased
the one on which he is now settled, which is
one of the oldest and best known ranches in
tins part of the state, being the old Jack's
Cabin ranch whose history is almost co-exten-
sive with that of the commonwealth itself, if
it does not precede even that. Here Mr.
Willis is actively conducted a flourishing and
expanding stock and general farming industry,
growing in the esteem and good will of the
people around him by the enterprise and
breadth of view which he displays with refer-
ence to the general welfare and progress of the
community. He was married in 1895 to Miss
Ida Jones, ami they have one child. Lloyd lb
ROBERT IMOVERSTEG.
The subject of this brief sketch, whose life
story has in it many interesting features and
events, is a native of the bind of William Tell,
among whose impressive mountains and
breathing in their air of freedom ami inde-
pendence, his forefathers lived and flourished
for countless generations. Ami when he left
its inspiring scenes and history to seek a home
in the new world, it was not unfit that he should
find it, after efforts in other localities, amid the
great mountains of its West, nor is it to be
wondered at that lie should there turn to the
occupations of his fathers as the proper field
for his energies. He was born in Switzerland
in [852, the son of Frederick D. and Mary
(Hardi) fmoversteg, both members of old
Swiss families engaged from time immemorial
in tilling the soil and tending flocks and herds,
although bis father did not follow specifically
and wholly the avocations to which he bad been
bred, but became a valued teacher and a pros-
perous merchant. He died in Switzerland in
[898, at the age of seventy-five years, llis
widow survived him but a year, dying in [899
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
755
at the same age as himself. They were the
parents of nine children, their son Robert being
the fourth in numerical order. He was reared
and educated in his native country, remaining
there until he was seventeen. Then with high
hopes and a spirit of determination to brave
every danger and endure every hardship, and
also to make every effort necessary to success
in life, he embarked for the United States and
made Toledo, Ohio, his first stopping place for
work and advancement. In the vicinity of that
growing metropolis of the inland seas he was
employed in farm labor for two years. Then
going to the city he clerked in a store for four
years. From Toledo he went to Hartford.
Connecticut, and after clerking a year there,
opened a store of his own and carried it on
successfully for a year. He had a longing,
however, for the far West that would not he
-tilled, and selling- out his business in 1876, he
came to Colorado and accepted a position as a
clerk in Denver which he held about three
years, .at the end of that period buying out the
proprietor and during the next two years run-
ning the store himself. Toward the end of
1880 he sold out all his interests in Denver and
bought the ranch of three hundred ami twenty
acres of excellent land on which he has since
lived and conducted a vigorous and progressive
farming and stock raising industry. His land
is located near the banks of the East river, and
not far from the postoffice of Oversteg, derived
from his name and named in his honor, lie
was married in 1876 to Miss Mattie Hall, and
they have nine children. Emma, Ida. Fred.
Olive. Rachel. William, Robert, Jr.. Reese and
Luretta.
THOMAS VIRDEN.
A native of Illinois, born on March 14.
183 1, and reared on a farm in that state, then
going at the age of twenty-one to Iowa and for
six years farming the productive soil of that
state and following this with four years of the
same occupation in Nebraska, when he came
to Colorado in 1862, Thomas Virden, of Mesa
county, was well prepared for the business of
farming and raising stock in which he is now
profitably engaged. And he was also thor-
oughly imbued with the spirit of the West and,
ready for any phase of life it might lay before
him, having had experience in a variety of pur-
suits particularly incident to the state of this
country at the time of and for years after his
arrival here. His parents were William and
Martha (Williamson) Virden, the former a
native of Delaware and the latter of New Ter-
sey. The father was by occupation a farmer,
and followed that line of useful industry in his
native state, Kentucky. Illinois and Iowa. In
the last named state he died in 1863, aged
sixty-seven years. His widow survived him
thirty-three years, dying in Iowa in 1886, at
the age of ninety-four. Their offspring num-
bered nine. Thomas being the ninth. He
remained in his native state and on the
paternal homestead until he was twenty-one
years old, then went to Iowa, where he
was engaged in farming six years, and by in-
dustry and capacity he made his work profit-
able. At the end of the period named he
moved to Nebraska where he remained four
years farming and carrying the mails. Decid-
ing then that there was greater opportunities
for him in the farther West, he came to Colo-
rado, and settling at Denver, then a small but
promising city, he conducted a flourishing
freighting business between that place and
Omaha for five years. He next located in Fre-
mont county, this state, and turned his atten-
tion to farming and raising stock, which he
continued for about fifteen years in that
county, then moved to Ouray county, where
he was occupied in the same industry until
t888. at which time he moved to where he now
lives, and where he has developed and im-
756
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
proved his property into a fine ranch and his
business into one of large proportions and
profitable returns. Wherever he has lived Mr.
Virden has taken an earnest interest in public
affairs and rendered good service to his district
and county. He was assessor of Fremont
county in 1872. and when the Indian outbreak-
occurred he volunteered as a member of the
Third Colorado Regiment and was for one
hundred days in the war that was waged
against the savages, taking part in several con-
tests, among them the battle of Sand creek, in
which the whites lost one hundred men and
the Indians five hundred. Mr. Virden was
married in 1867 to Miss Emma Strong, of
Shellsburg, Iowa, and they have had three
children, Minnie and Walter, who are living,
and Frank, who died at the age of eighteen.
AUGUSTUS HALL.
From that land of thrift and industry, pa-
tient plodding and large achievements, ( Ger-
many, which has contributed so largely and
so serviceably to the development of this coun-
try, came Augustus Hall, of Mesa county, liv-
ing 1 not far from the village of Whitewater and
about twelve miles southwest of Grand Junc-
tion. He was born in the fatherland in 1843,
and is the son of John and Elizabeth (Ruland)
! tall, also natives in that country. They came
to the United States in 1846 and settled at
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, but after a residence
of a few years there moved to Missouri and
afterward to Iowa, where the mother died in
1886, at the age of sixty-five. The father later
took up his residence in Illinois where he died
in 1894, aged eighty-four. Their son Augus-
tus was reared and educated to a limited ex-
tent in Missouri, and there he learned his trade
as a blacksmith. He wrought at the craft for
two years at Canton, in that state then moved
to Keokuk, Iowa, where he passed four years
in the same pursuit. In 1883 he came to Colo-
rado and settled at Grand Junction. Here he
found his trade in great demand and was em-
ployed at it for ten years. He was handy at
other mechanical work also, and made the first
brick ever molded in the place. From Grand
Junction in 1893 ne moved to Whitewater,
where after following blacksmithmg for some
time he acquired a ranch on which he now re-
sides near the village. Here he carries on a
promising and expanding farming and stock
industry, and has a very pleasant home. In
1 Soi, he was married to Miss Nancy Nyemas-
ter and they are the parents of seven children,
Laura L., John A., William H. (deceased),
Milton L., James E., Estella (deceased) and
David S. Mr. Hall has been and is an indus-
trious, enterprising man, with his eves open
for opportunities and his energies in training
to use them to advantage. The first brick he
made at Grand Junction were produced in the
summer of 1883, and his product was so much
esteemed that he was unable to supply the de-
mand for it. It gave a new impulse to the
growth of the town and changed the character
of both business blocks and residences.
A. J. DODGION.
A. J. Dodgion, a prosperous and enterpris-
ing ranchman and stock-grower of western
Colorado, ami a resident of the state since
iXoo or [870, and living now about twelve
miks south of Grand Junction, near White-
ater postoffice, Mesa county, is a native of
North Carolina, where he was born in [835,
the place of his nativity being ] [aywi >od county,
in the western part of the state, and amid its
mountains and mineral regions. His parents
were William and Mary (Henderson) Dodgion,
the former born and reared in South Carolina
and the Inter in North Carolina. His father
was a planter in the old North state until 1874.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
757
when lie moved to Kansas where he died at the
age of seventy-four. The mother is also dead.
Their son remained at home Until he was about
twenty-three years old, then began the business
of life for himself by engaging in farming until
the beginning of the Civil war. when he es-
poused the cause of his section and state and
joined the Confederate army as a member of
Company G, Twenty-fifth North Carolina In-
fantry. He served to the end of the war. and
when its embattled hosts melted away from the
field of carnage and mingled once more with
the pursuits of peaceful industry, he returned
to his home and for four years followed his
former occupation. At the end of that period
he determined to seek better opportunities in
the new regions of the West than the wasted
conditions of the South then seemed to offer,
and came to Colorado, settling in Huerfano
county where he was actively and profitably
occupied in raising stock for eight years. In
1880 he purchased the ranch of one hundred
and sixty acres, on which he now resides, and to
its development and improvement he has since
devoted his energies to such good purpose that
it has become one of the most valuable and at-
tractive in his portion of the county. His stock
industry has grown to good proportions, and
even-thing about him proclaims his enterprise
and prosperity. He married Miss Sarah Pat-
terson, of his native state, and they have four
children, Olive, Samuel. Mary and Ruby. Mr.
Dodgion is an ardent Republican in politics,
but seeks no political honors for himself.
J. B. NOLAN.
The East, the West, the North and the
South, and almost every foreign clime in the
civilized world has contributed to the settlement
and development of Colorado. But J. B. No-
lan, of Mesa county, living in the Whitewater
section, twenty-four miles southeast of Grand
Junction, is wholly a product of the state. He
was born in the San Luis valley in 1 S 7 7 . \
reared on the parental homestead in that por-
tion of the state, was educated in the district
schools near his home, and since leaving school
has employed his energies in developing the
resources of the state, and improving the con-
dition of her business interests and promot-
ing her general welfare. He passed his child-
hood and youth in the section of his nativity,
attending school when he could, and as soon
as he was able working- on farms near his
home. In 1002 he was married to Miss Effie
Gill, and they have one child, their son George
E. After his marriage Mr. Nolan settled on
the place he and his family now occupy, twenty-
four miles southeast of Grand Junction, Mesa
county, where he carries on a stock and farm-
ing business of good size and gratifying profits.
This he conducted with care and vigor, devot-
ing to it all his time and energy and winning
the rewards of his toil and attention which he
issuredly earns. Having cast his lot in this
section of the state, he is earnestly interested in
its welfare and like other good citizens aids in
promoting all good enterprises tending to this
end, giving them active and intelligent support.
J. V. GEIGER.
J. V.Geiger, of Mesa county, with an attrac-
tive home on a productive and well cultivated
ranch sixteen miles southeast of Grand Junc-
tion and in the vicinity of Whitewater, is a
native of Pennsylvania, and was torn on De-
cember 9. i860. His parents were Andrew
and Mary (Mott) Geiger, natives of Germany,
where their forefathers had lived for genera-
tions before them. They emigrated to the
I nited States not many years after their mar-
riage and settled in Pennsylvania, where they
passed the remainder of their days, the mother
dvinsf in 1886. at the age of fifty-five, and the
75§
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
father in 1887, at that of sixty-seven. Their
son passed his boyhood at Williamsport in his
native state, and was educated in the public
schools of that progressive city. About the
age of eighteen he started in life for himself,
coming west to Missouri, and after remaining
in that state about six months, moving to the
neighborhood of Leavenworth, Kansas, and
there engaging in farming f( >r a year. He next
came to Fort Collins in this state, and worked
in the stone quarries there about six months,
then went to New Mexico where he was em-
ployed for a year in railroad construction work.
At the end of that time he returned to Color-
ado, and after spending about four years in
prospecting, he bought the ranch on which he
now resides ,-md which has ever since been his
home. To the cultivation and improvement of
this property he has devoted himself with care
and industry, and he has made his labor pay-
in the increased productiveness and value of his
land and the greater comfort and attractiveness
of his buildings. He is a progressive and far-
seeing man and works with system toward his
desired ends. In 1894 he was married to Miss
Minnie Virden and they have four children,
Frank, Man-, Gertrude and Annie. Born and
reared in the East, and having lived for a num-
ber of years in the middle ami farther West.
Mr. Geiger lias a comprehensive knowledge of
the extent and wealth of our country, and to
its interests he is earnestly devoted, giving es-
pecially to his own section his best aid in its
advancement.
CHARLES T. JENKINS.
After years of useful industry in various
lines and different places, Charles T. Jenkins,
of Mesa county, settled down to the occupa-
tion of the old patriarchs, and has since been
successfully conducting- and developing his val-
uable and productive ranch on the George
mesa, in Plateau valley. He was born in [852,
in Fulton county, Illinois, and is the son of
Joseph X. and Melinda (Ellis) Jenkins. The
father was horn at Washington, D. (.'.. and
came to Fulton county, Illinois, in 1832, where
he was married to Miss Ellis. Some years
later he moved to Kansas, and after a residence
of many years in that state, came farther west,
settling at Denver, Colorado, where they have
since resided. They are the parents of five
children, of whom their son Charles is the old-
est. He lived with his parents in Illinois until
1874 and then accompanied them to Kansas.
His education having been finished in the
schools of his native state, on his arrival in
Kansas he engaged in farming and continued
in this line of work until he was twenty-nine
years of age. He then turned his attention to
the grocery and hardware trade and followed
that until 1888. In that year he moved to
Grand Junction, this state, where he remained
nine years working in the round-house and fin-
ally running a locomotive on the Denver & Rio
Grande Railroad. Tiring of railroading at
the end of this period, he bought the ranch
which he is now operating and which has been
his home continuously since that time. It is
located in one of the best agricultural regions
in his part of the state and has been made very
productive by his well applied industry and
rendered valuable by the improvements he has
made mi it. He was married in 1881 to Miss
Mary Beye, and they have had seven children,
four of whom are living, Floyd, Hazel, Bessie
and Clarence. Three others, Edna. Clyde and
Winifred, died in childhood. Mr. Jenkins is
industrious in his farming operations and pro-
gressive, as he has been in all other pursuits,
and he is winning a gratifying success. He
also stands well in his community and is gener-
allv esteemed.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
759
ROY E. JONES.
The sturdy yeomanry of Wales have for
centuries been among- the productive toilers in
any line of work that engages the attention of
men, and have shown capacity to adapt them-
selves to all conditions and circumstances and
turn even adverse fate to their advantage.
They are limited in their native land to small
areas and few occupations, but wherever they
locate amid the more expansive realms and
larger opportunities of the United States they
are ready for every call to duty and can use
their chances well and wisely both for their
own substantial good and that of the section
in which they live. To this adaptable and ca-
pable people Roy E. Jones, of Mesa county,
a prosperous and progressive farmer living in
Parker basin, in Plateau valley, belongs; and in
his career and his present condition of com-
fort and prosperity, which be has won by bis
own efforts and ability, be illustrates forcibly
their salient characteristics. He was born in
Iowa in 1875. and is the son of Jethro and
Hannah L. (Robinson) Jones, the father a
Welchman by nativity and the mother born
and reared in Ohio. His father came to the
United States when he was young and settled
in Illinois. There he lived for a number of
years and was married. Some time after this
event he moved with his family to Iowa, where
he was living at the beginning of the Civil war.
Strong in his devotion to the Union, he was
one of the early volunteers in its defense, en-
listing in 1861 in Company C, Thirty-eighth
Iowa Infantry, and in that command serving
tn the close of the contest. After its end be
returned to his Iowa home and resumed bis
farming operations, which he continued in that
state for a number of years, then moved to
Wisconsin and remained there eleven years.
From there he came to Colorado and now re-
sides in Plateau valley. Mesa county. His
wife is still living and abides with him at their
pleasant home, where they are visited by large
numbers of admiring friends. Their son Roy
passed the most of his early life in Wisconsin,
and received his education there. He accom-
panied his parents to this state, and soon after-
ward bought a ranch in partnership with his
brother. This they conducted together until
recently, when he sold his interest and pur-
chased another ranch of his own, the one on
which he now lives in Parker basin and which
he manages with success and profit. He has
improved it with good buildings and brought
it to a high state of development, making it a
very attractive country home of appreciating
value. In 1889 Mr. Jones united in marriage
with Miss Alice Mott, and they have one child,
their son Clyde R. Jones.
HANK BOCERT.
Hank Bogert, of near Mesa, is one of the
strong-minded, self-reliant and hardy men
who have been taught by the sharp lesson-, of
adversity and the necessity for speedy action
how to handle themselves in emergencies, to
whom the great West is indebted for her open-
ing to commercial and industrial importance,
and all the blessings of cultivated life. He was
born on Long Island, New York, on August
3, 1868, and is the son of Charles L. ami
Amelia (Hamilton) Bogert. both natives of the
same state as himself. The father was an arch-
itect and well esteemed in his profession. He
served in the Seventh New York Volunteers
during the Civil war, and after its close re-
turned to his home and resumed bis profes-
sional work to which be adhered until his
death. His wife died soon after he did and
their son Hank was left an orphan at an early
age and obliged to look out for himself. He had
few advantages of schooling except in the
bard school of experience, but was always
/6o
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
ready for any employment he could get, and
was never without work. At the age of nine-
teen he came west to Utah, and in that state he
rode the range and herded cattle for about fif-
teen years, then moved to the neighborhood of
his present home. He kept a general store at
Mesa, in the Plateau valley, for four years,
and at the end of that time moved to the ranch
he now occupies and which he has since made
his home. Here he has continued his cattle in-
dustry, and in the management and expansion
of it he has greatly prospered. In 1893 ne was
married to Miss Adeline Mitchell, and their off-
spring number six, Bertha, Margaret, Vir-
ginia, Esta, William and Julia H. Mr. Bogert
has been actively connected with the develop-
ment of this section ever since he came here to
live, and his worldly wisdom and breadth of
view have been of valuable service to the com-
munity, as has also the influence of his example
of industry, enterprise and progressiveness. Mo
man in his neighborhood is more highly re-
spected, and none deserves to be.
M. C. THOMPSON.
M. C. Thompson, of Parker basin, Plateau
valley, in Mesa county, Colorado, was born in
Butler county. Pennsylvania, in 1875, and is
the sun of James and Rosa (Covert) Thompson,
both natives of that state, where they were
reared, educated and married. They were
fanners by occupation and prosperous in their
work' until the beginning of' the Civil war,
when the father, thoroughly patriotic and de-
voted to the Union, enlisted in Company C.
Eleventh Pennsylvania Infantry, and on June
27, 1862, laid his life on the altar of his coun-
try at the hattle of Gaines Mills, Virginia. The
hereaved and stricken mother took up the bur-
d< n of rearing her family as best she could and
with patience, perseverance, great devotion to
duty and loftv faith, bore it to a successful con-
clusion, living to see her offspring well settled
in life and putting into daily practice the les-
sons of fidelity and industry she had labored
so sedulously to teach them. She died in De-
cember, 1902, aged seventy-eight years. Their
offspring numbered ten, M. C. being the sixth.
His opportunities for attending school were
necessarily limited, as at the age of fourteen he
was obliged to begin to earn his own livelihood,
which he did by working on farms near his
home until 1878. He was then twenty-one.
and determined to seek in the West larger op-
portunities than his home county afforded, es-
pecially to one in his circumstances, and moved
to Illinois, locating at Kewanee. where he
farmed for two years. From there he moved
on to Nebraska in 1880, and after five years of
farming in one part of that state with varying
success, he settled in Custer county, in the cen-
tral part, where he remained until 189.;.. en-
gaged in the same pursuit. In that year he
came to Colorado and took up his present ranch
in Parker Basin, on which he has since resided
and keen industriously occupied in an expand-
ing farming industry with gratifying results
and increasing prosperity, succeeding in his en-
terprise and building himself up in the esteem
and good will of the people, and exhibiting
among them an elevated and serviceable citi-
zenship. In 1888 he was married to Miss Cora
M. Kitchen, the daughter of John and Eliza
(Emerson) Kitchen. They have had seven chil-
dren, six of whom are living, Elmer B., Anna
M.'. Edwin X.. Allen P.. Beulali S. and Roy E.
A daughter named Ethel died when she was
two months and four days old. Mr. and Mrs.
Thompson are ornaments to the social life of
their community, and he is one of the enter-
prising and representative men of the section
in all matters of public importance.
Mrs. Eliza Emerson Kitchen, who lias
for nearly ten years been a resident of
Plateau valley, Mesa county, has had an in-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLOR, inn.
-6i
teresting and varied career, involving much of
the tragedy of life as well as its sunshine and
cheer. She was bom in Luzerne county, Penn-
sylvania, in 1834, and is the daughter of John
and Jane (Kendrew) Emerson, natives of Eng-
land, who came to the United States in [829,
and settled in the place of her birth, where they
were prosperously engaged in farming. The
mother died in 1837 and the father in 1888,
aged eighty-four. They were the parents of five
children, of whom Mrs. Kitchen was the
fourth. She passed her girlhood in her native
state and was married there to John Kitchen,
a native of England. When the Civil war was
nearing its close he enlisted in Company A,
One Hundred and Eighty-eighth Pennsylva-
nia Infantry, and served to the end of the con-
test, being discharged on December 1, 1865.
They then moved to Nebraska and were again
engaged in farming until bis death in March,
189 1, at the age of sixty-two. In 1894
Mrs. Kitchen came to Colorado to live,
and located in Plateau valley, where she
has since made her home, her daughter, Mrs.
M. C. Thompson, and husband coming with
her. She and her husband were the parents of
five children. Jennie. Mary D., Thomas E..
Ella, Anna M. I deceased). Cora M. (Mrs.
Thompson) and Charles A. Mrs. Kitchen is
widely known and highly esteemed in this
country, and finds her residence in Colorado
pleasant and satisfactory. She is well pleased
with the state and warmly attached to its peo-
ple as they are to her.
JOHN M. BERTHOLF.
John M. Bertholf. of Plateau valley. Mesa
county, is one of the very early pioneers of the
section, arriving in it when there were 110 con-
veniences of life available, and every foot of
ground that was occupied and made product-
ive had to be literallv wrested from the wilder-
ness and its savage denizens. He helped to
lay out and construct the first county road 111
the county, and to begin many other of its
works of public utility. He brought the first
cooking stove into the county, packing it in on
the back of a bull. Thus starting with the very
dawn of civilization in this region, he has been
helpful and effective in fostering and develop-
ing all its interests since then, and building it
up into a progressive and wide-awake commun-
ity, full of earnest activity and the promise of
future greatness. Mr. Bertholf was born in
Lee county, Illinois, in 1846, and comes of a
race of pioneers. One of his paternal ances-
tors in the direct line came from his European
home to the wilds of America as a missionary
in 1666: and since then the family have been
among the foremost of the emigrants to the
farther West at all times, finding pleasure in
the wild life of the frontier and the conquests
they were able to win in its untrodden domains.
The parents of this particular member of the
family were Andrew H. and Electra (Macum-
ber) Bertholf, the former a native of New Jer-
sey, and the latter of Ohio. His father moved
to New York when a boy and lived in that
state until he was eighteen years old. then be-
gan a steady progress westward through Ohio,
where be was married. Indiana, Illinois, and
on to Iowa, where he ended his clays as a pros-
perous farmer, dying in 1878, at the age of
seventy-four. The mother lived until 1S83.
when she passed away, aged sixty-seven. Their
family comprised twelve children, John being
the eighth. Although born in Illinois, he
passed his early life to the age of twenty in
Madison county, Iowa, remaining at home un-
til then assisting on his father's farm and re-
ceiving wdnat education he could at the neigh-
boring public schools. He then began farming
for himself in Iowa and continued to be so em-
ployed there until 1874. At the time he came
to Colorado and located in Chaffee county,
762
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
where he was engaged in mining until 1880,
when he determined to turn his attention to
ranching, and for this purpose took up a tract
of land in the Plateau valley which he occupied
and farmed until 1901. He sold it in that year
and since then has made his home at Plateau
City, Mesa county. As has been noted, the
country in which he settled in 1S80, although
promising, was wholly undeveloped, and there
were but few people living in it at the time.
And those who were, with himself, are entitled
to great credit for the rapidity with which they
opened it up and brought its resources into the
markets of the world. In its present condi-
tion of advancement and progress, it stands a
monument to their enterprise and daring, and
the comforts with which it is now filled, and
the blessings of civilization which it enjoys,
only emphasize the privations of their early
day and the heroic spirit with which they en-
dured and overcame them. Mr. Bertholf was
married in 1867 to Miss Sarah E. Moore, and
they have had six children, of whom five are
living, Elmeda and Elnora (twins), (den.
Fred and Roxie. A son named Wilbur die'
in 1881, aged three years.
H. M. VAN CLEAVE.
The place of nativity of H. M. Van Cleave.
a highly -esteemed and successful farmer of
Garfield county, residing on an excellent ranch
of his own located fifteen miles north id' the vil-
lage of Debeque, is a native of the state of In-
diana, where he was bom in 1845. His parents
were Benjamin and Nancy (Van Cleave) Van
Cleave, cousins, the former a native of Indiana
and the latter of Kentucky. They maintained
a residence of many years in Indiana, where
they were prosperously engaged in farming.
The father died in 1879, aged sixty-three ; the
mother had preceded him to the other world
some sixteen years, dying in [863, at the age
of forty-five. Their offspring numbered eleven,
of whom H. M. was the fifth born. He re-
mained at home attending the district schools
and working on the farm until he reached the
age of eighteen, then in 1863 enlisted in the
Union army for a term of three years or dur-
ing" the war as a member of the Twelfth Mis-
souri Cavalry. He served until the close of the
contest and was in several important engag-e-
ments. Being mustered out at Leavenworth,
Kansas, in 1866. he returned to Missouri, but
soon afterward moved to Iowa, where he was
busily employed in farming during the next
twelve years. At the end of that time he came
to Colorado, and locating at Leadville, en-
gaged in prospecting and mining until 1884,
when he settled on the land he now occupies
and turned his attention to farming and raising
stock. His land is in the midst of the fertile
region watered by Roan creek, and its fertility
and productiveness fully justify the hopes of
its early occupants of whom Mr. Van Cleave
was one. He has seen the region transformed
from almost primeval wilderness to a state of
advanced cultivation and enriched with all the
blessings of a progressive civilization: and he
has aided materially to bring about the change
and build up the industries with which the sec-
tion is now so abundantly crowned. Among
the people of this portion of the county none
is more widely known or more highly es-
teemed; and none is more worthy of the public
regard and approval.
GEORGE STODDARD.
George Stoddard, of near Mesa, Mesa
.county, Colorado, who is successfully engaged
in ranching and raising cattle, is a native of
California, born at San Bernardino in [862.
His parents were Rufus and Martha (Weaver)
Stoddard, the father a native of Canada and
the mother of Missouri. In [849 the father
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
763
made a trip to California and rinding the coun-
try agreeable and the conditions of life favor-
able, he decided to remain, and engaged in the
cattle industry there for many years. He is
now a retired ranchman living in Utah. His
wife, whom he met and married in California,
is a native of Missouri, and is still living, hav-
ing her home with him in Utah. Their son
George was but a child when they moved from
California to Utah, and he passed the greater
part of his boyhood and youth in the latter
state. At the age of fourteen he began to help
to earn his own living by herding horses near
Salt Lake City. After spending about a year
in this employment, he was connected with the
cattle industry about four, then followed min-
ing until 1882, when he came to Colorado and
settled on the land on which he now resides,
and where he has a comfortable home, a well-
cultivated farm and a growing stock business.
He was married in 1887 to Miss Susie Buz
zard, and they have two children, Ethel, aged
thirteen years, and Hazel, aged six. Mr. Stod-
dard has been frugal and industrious through
life, and has realized the reward of his course.
Realizing early that his success must be wholly
the result of his own efforts, he lost no time
and wasted no energy, but made every hour
and every faculty count to his advantage. His
example in this respect has been a stimulus to
others, and has opened to more than one de-
spondent or indifferent fellow worker a new-
door of hope and opportunity.
JOHN LARKIN.
A native of Ireland and the son of an Irish
father and a Scotch mother, John Larkin. of
Mesa county, Colorado, living two miles south
of Debeque, possesses the more admirable
characteristics of both races, the versatility and
resourcefulness of the Irish, and the keenness
of perception and sturdy industry and frugality
of the Scotch, and has made them tell
in his American career to his own advan-
tage and the substantial gain of the places
in which he has lived. He was born on
the Emerald Isle in 1829 and is the son
of John and Eliza (McCitric) Larkin'. the
former of the same nativity as himself and the
latter born in Scotland. His mother died in
[838, when he was but nine years old, and soon
afterward he began to provide for himself by
working around in the neighborh 1 of his
home, at the same time attending school when
he could, and thus receiving a limited knowl-
edge of the common branches of education.
His father was a fanner in his native land and
followed the same occupation in this country
after he emigrated thither in 1841. After his
arrival in this country he settled in Pennsyl-
vania where he ended his days, dying in [871,
at the age of seventy-three. His son John
came over a year previous and located in Xew
York city where he engaged in making cigars
until 1847. He then went to Pennsylvania and
worked for his father in the lumber business
until 1855. In that year he moved to Illinois,
and a year later to Louisiana. After a residence
of a few months in that state he returned to
Illinois, and then came west to Nebraska.
In that state ami Missouri he passed the time
until [864, then came to Colorado, and locat-
ing in Laramie county, was employed in driv-
ing a team. In 1869 he made a trip through
the Blackhawk and Central City section of
Gilpin county, prospecting, and remained there
until 1880, when he went to Gothic in Gunnison
county. He remained there and at Durango
mining until the autumn of 1881. At that time
he moved to where he now lives and in com-
pany with a partner took up a ranch near De-
beque. At the period of their arrival the land
in this portion of the county was not yet sur-
veyed, and all the conditions were primitive and
undeveloped. They gave themselves with ar-
764
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
dor and energy to the improvement of the sec-
tion, starting a movement which resulted in the
construction of the Larkin irrigating- ditch, and
stimulating the industries of the region toward
the building of other public improvements
which have resulted in great good to the com-
munity. Mr. Larkin is a representative man
in this neighborhood, with a voice of influence
in local affairs, and a warm place in the re-
gard of his fellow citizens, deserving his place
among them by his merit and the breadth of
view and public-spirit with which he considers
all matters of general interest, and by the ex-
cellence of his private character and the up-
rightness of his daily life.
CHARLES A. CHADWICK.
Born and reared far from the scenes of his
present labors, and occupying the years and
energies of his younger manhood in vastly dif-
ferent pursuits from those in which he is now
engaged, the native force and adaptability of
Charles A.- Chadwick, of Garfield county, this
state, are such that he turned readily and suc-
cessfully to his present occupations, and has
made them profitable and well worthy of his
own continued application and the general es-
teem in which his management of them are
held. He is a native of Kennebunk Port,
Maine, where his life began in 1845, and is
the son of Nathan and Mary A. (Carlton)
Chadwick, then residents of that place. His
father was a native of New York who moved
to Vermont in early life and afterward to Mas-
sachusetts. Not long before the birth of the
son. who was the third of seven children, the
family settled at Kennebunk Port, and there
the father died in 1874, aged seventy-two
years. The mother died in the 'sixties, at the
age of sixty-eight. Their son Charles grew to
manhood in his native town, and received a
common-school education there. At the age of
twenty one his father started him in business
as a grocer at Biddeford, Maine, and he con-
tinued the enterprise there four years. He
then engaged in business in the woolen indus-
try at Bridgton, in the same state, in which he
was occupied until 1864. At that time he
moved to Massachusetts and became a con-
tractor in furnishing building and other stone,
remaining there so occupied until 1879. In
that year, the Leadville, Colorado, mining ex-
citement being at its height, he became a resi-
dent of that place, and during the next five
years he followed the exciting but delusive
work of prospecting and mining, losing all he
had accumulated. From Leadville he went to
Helena. Montana, where he again became a
stone contractor, and in the four years during
which he was engaged in this business at that
city he partially retrived his fortunes. In 1884
he again came to Colorado and settled at Den-
ver where he remained two years. At the end
of that time he took up his residence on the
ranch he now occupies on Roan creek and
turned his attention to farming and raising
stock. His land was practically unimproved
and virgin to the plow, but by assiduous labor
and the application of common sense and an
awakened intelligence to his new occupation he
has brought much of it to a high state of culti-
vation and built up his stock industry to a large
and profitable business. His ranch, which is
located in one of the most fertile and prom-
ising sections of the state, in Garfield county
about fifteen miles north of Debeuue, has been
transformed into a desirable and valuable coun-
try home, and is well known throughout that
region for the excellence of its products, its
attractive appearance and the skill and vigor
with which it is managed. In 1861. before
leaving his native heath. Air. Chadwick was
united in marriage with Miss Abhie F. Chick,
a native of Maine like himself. They have
had live children. Charles A., who died in
1865; Fred D., who died in 1868; and George
M., Charles A. and Edward E., who are living.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLOR. WU.
rO;
GEORGE H. GOODRICH.
The son of English parents who left their
native land early in their married life and
rami' to seek their fortunes in this country,
George H. Goodrich, of Garfield county, lias
well exemplified the pluck' and determination
for which they were noted, and by his own per-
sistence and systematic industry has wrung
from adverse conditions a comfortable estate
and a secure place in the regard and good will
of his fellow men. He was born in Pennsyl-
vania in 1850. and is the son of John and Man
(Iliff) Goodrich, who followed farming in
England for a few years after their marriage
there, then in 1853 canie to the United States
and engaged in the same pursuit in Pennsyl-
vania. Some years later they removed to West
Virginia, where they continued fanning, and
where the father died in July, 1903, aged
seventy-nine. The mother is still living there
at an advanced age. Their offspring numbered
eleven, George being the fifth. The greater
pari of his boyhood was passed in West Vir-
ginia, and in the public schools there he re-
ceived his education. He learned practical
farming on the paternal homestead, remaining
there until he reached the age of twenty-two
when he came to Colorado, arriving in the state
in 1881 and locating at Silver Cliff. After a
short residence there he moved to Leadville
where he was employed eight years hauling
ore. In 1889 be took up a line body of kind on
the Grand river, in Garbed county, and on this
he has since made his home, developing and
improving it, adding to its value by judicious
husbandry and well arranged buildings, and
bringing it to an advanced condition of pro-
ductiveness. He was married in 1898 to Mrs.
Emma E. (Ward) Doughten, a widow with
three children. Emmet. Dora and Wilson, the
last named having since died at the age of
thirteen. The condition and appearance of Mr.
Goodrich's ranch proclaims him as an enter-
prising and progressive farmer, and his pub-
lic-spirited and breadth of view make him a
valuable factor in the public life of the com-
munity, lie is regarded as a representative
man of high character, and has the esteem and
good will of all classes.
CHARLES McKINNEY.
Charles McKinney, who has been actively
connected with the ranching and stock indus-
tries of Colorado for a period of twenty-one
years, and in that time has suffered the usual
ups and downs of the business, but is now com-
fortably and profitably established on a good
ranch near the village of Mesa, Mesa canity.
lias contributed essentially to this portion of
the state, and especially to building up and im-
proving the line of activity to which he belongs.
He is a native of North Carolina, born in 1859,
and the son of Henry and Sarah (Wiseman)
McKinney, who were living in McDowell
county at the time. Both are natives of the old
Xorth state and are now living there in Mitchell
county. There also their son passed his child-
hood and youth and received his education, re-
maining at home until he was about twenty
years of age. He then engaged in general
farming for two years and at the end of that
time moved to St. Joseph, Missouri, where he
worked in a dairy for six months. From there
he came to Leadville, this state, and at that
point he followed mining for a year and a half.
The next two years he spent in Garfield
county, where be was again employed in dairy
work, and then moved to Plateau valley in
[885 and settled on a ranch. This he sold and
bought another which proved to be of no value,
and in the deal he lost all he had in it. He
bought the ranch 0:1 which be now lives in
1888, and since then be has devoted his ener-
gies to its development and improvement and
766
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
the expansion of his business with gratifying
results and cumulative profits. In 1892 he was
united in marriage with Miss Mary Wallace,
and they have five children, Henry L., David
1\. Adelbert L., Jessie J. and Clara B. Mr. Mc-
Kinney Iris been connected with the growth
and development of the county in a leading
way. and is one of its influential and represen-
tative citizens, widely known and generally re-
spected on all sides.
JOHN B. HURLBURT.
A pioneer in raising sheep and cattle in
Garfield county, the first man in his neighbor-
hood to plant and cultivate fruit trees, one of
the founders of the Christian church at Para-
chute, and a leading man in the public life of
this portion of the state. John B. Hurlburt. of
Parachute, has lived to good purpose in his
community, and rendered signal and appreci-
ated service to its people. He was born on Oc-
tober 4. 1839, in Scott county. Iowa, and is the
third of seven children of his parents, Isaiah
and Rebecca (Breeden) Hurlburt. His father's
parents were citizens of the United States, but
he was born in Canada. His youth and early
manhood were passed on the great lakes where
for six years he was captain on a steamboat.
He afterward lived in Michigan, Iowa and
Missouri, and in [854 moved his family to Cal-
ifornia where he was engaged in farming until
his death in 1891, when he was eighty-two
years old. Mr. Hurlburt's grandfather. John
1 furlburt, a native of Connecticut, was a soldier
in the Revolution, and lost his brother Consi-
der in one of the decisive battles of that war.
The mother of Mr. Hurlburt was a native of
Kentucky and died in 1846. Pier son, John B.,
passed his boyhood in Iowa and California,
and at the age of sixteen began to make his
own way in the world by mining in Placer
county, California. In i8<5Q he moved to Ore-
gon, where he was employed for a short time
splitting rails. He then returned to California
and, locating- in Butte county, gave his atten-
tion to farming until 1869. and from then until
i88j lived in Lawson county, that state. In
[882 he came overland to Parachute. Garfield
county, this state, and during the first two
years of his residence here he was occupied in
raising sheep, but was obliged to abandon that
enterprise because of the shameful killing of
all of the sheep in the neighborhood by cow-
hoys. In 1804 he turned his attention to deal-
ing in real estate, and since then he has been
actively prosecuting and building up his busi-
ness in this line. He has been devoted to the
development of his section and the promotion
of all its interests, helping to organize the
Christian church a.t Parachute, starting the
planting of orchards in this vicinity, serving
two years as president of the Farmers' Club,
which embraces Garfield, Eagle and Pitkin
counties in its membership ami operations, and
in many other ways aiding in pushing forward
the general welfare. He has given special at-
tention to school matters, serving as secretary
of the local board and bringing to the manage-
ment of educational matters in his district a
breadth of view and enterprising spirit which
have been of great benefit to the cause in which
they have been employed. In [871 he was
married to Miss Martha A. Rock, and they
have twelve children. Francis P., Luther L..
Mark P., Minnie P.. Rebecca P.. Alice (de-
ceased), Martha M.. Lottie P... Jessie, Fred-
erick, Winifred S. and Daisy J.
GEORGE LUDINGTON YOUNG
The breadth and variety of American life
afford scope for all sorts of abilities and op-
portunities to give every capable and energetic
man an opening whatever his circumstances.
Born to excellent educational advantages and
PROGRESSIVE MUX OF WESTERN COLORADO.
intended for advanced scholarship, yet driven
by failing health to an outdoor life in the dry
atmosphere of the Rocky .Mountain region,
George Ludington Young, of the Thompson
creek section of Pitkin county, this state, has
become one of the extensive and successful
stockmen and ranchers of this part of the coun-
try, and conducts his operations on a scale of
magnitude which would probably have aston-
ished him to contemplate in his earlier years
and ambitions. He was born on November
19, 1875, the son of George and Jennie ( Lud-
ington) Young, the former a native of New
York and the latter of Chicago. The mother
died in 1902, aged fifty, at Chicago, and the
father now has his home there. George is
their only child. He passed his boyhood in
Chicago, and his education was carefully at-
tended to. After completing preliminary
courses of study in good schools, he was grad-
uated at the Phillips-Andover Academy, and
entered Yale University in 1896. but on ac-
count of his health he was obliged to leave the
university in 1S98. He then came west and
remained a short time in Wyoming, but soon
afterward came to Colorado and purchased
what is known as the Swan ranch on Thomp-
son creek in Pitkin county. It comprises about
seven hundred and fifty acres, of which he has
two hundred and fifty under irrigation and the
rest in course of rapid improvement fur cul-
tivation. He runs about eight hundred cattle
and has produced six hundred and fifty tons
of alfalfa, two thousand, three hundred bushels
.of grain and eight thousand, five hundred
sacks of potatoes in one season. He is easily
one of the most enterprising and extensive
farmers in his part of the state, and one of the
most representative and highly esteemed citi-
zens. To abandon the empire of letters is not
pleasant when the taste for it is decided, and
to win an empire in industrial and commercial
life is not always easy. Mr. Young has done
both to his credit under a sense of duty, and is
probably winner in both directions.
JOHN G. BENNETT.
The subject of this brief review has lived
tlie greater part of his life in this state and be-
come thoroughly identified with its interests
and the aspirations of its people. He is one
of them in feeling and purpose, and all his en-
ergies are bent to help in building up the state
and multiplying its resources in every element
of industrial, commercial and moral greatness.
Mr. Bennett was born at Franklin, Indiana,
in 1876, and is the son of John and Frances V.
(Fisk) Bennett, also native in Indiana. In 1SS4
the family moved to Colorado and located at
\-1kmi. Some little time after their residence
was changed to the ranch on which he now
lives and there they lived until the property
was purchased of the father by the son, since
which time be and his mother has occupied it
and the father is now bookkeeper in Wan
Luck's hardware establishment at Aspen. Mr.
Bennett, the younger, is actively engaged in
ranching and raising stock, and in developing
his land and bringing it under cultivation with
systematic industry and regularity. His plans
for its improvement are laid on a broad 1 1;
enduring value, and while there is no attempt
at striking or occasional effects, there is steady
and substantial progress in his work. His
cattle are cared for with judicious attention
which keeps them in good condition and
every effort is made to keep the breeds pure
and the standard high; and with reference to
the agricultural products of his land as much
care is given to securing good qualities as
large quantities of produce. Mr. Bennett is a
member of the Independent Order of Odd Fel-
lows, belonging to the lodge of the order at
PROGRESSIVE MUX OF WESTERN COLORADO.
( arbondale, and also of the Woodmen of the
\\ < ii Id. belonging to Camp No. 405 at the same
place. He is held in general respect and esteem
as a good citizen, a serviceable and productive
force in his business operations, a man of in-
fluence on the public life of the community
whose efforts are all in behalf of its best Inter-
ests, and a social factor of decided and bene-
ficial activity and usefulness.
FRANCIS SMITH.
Having come to Routt county, this state, to
live some seventeen years ago, Francis Smith,
living sixteen miles northwest of Steamboat
Springs, is one of the early settlers of the
count}-, and his success as a ranch and cattle
mail on two good ranches which were taken
up and improved by him, marks him as one of
its most progressive and enterprising citizens.
Fie is a native of Bedford, Taylor count)'. Iowa,
horn on September 17, 1868. His parents,
Ernest and Elizabeth Smith, were born in Ger-
many and Ireland, respectively. On emigrat-
ing to this country the}- settled in Iowa, then
moved to Missouri. Kansas and Colorado in
turn. The father was a barber and followed
his trade for many years, but after becoming a
residenl of Colorado devoted Ins attention to
mining, the livery business and ranching, one
after another. He was a Democrat in politics
and active in the service of his party. His suc-
cess in litiMiH'-s was good and the esteem in
which he was held was high. The mother died
mi [880 and he in 1^97. They were Metho-
dists in religious faith. Their offspring num-
bered nine, of whi mi hut four are living, 1 >anii !.
William. Francis and Ernest. Francis re-
mained with In- parents devoting his earnings
to their assistance until he reached the age of
twelve, then started in life for himself as a
farm lend in Kansas. Tn 1X70 lie came to < '"1
orado, ind after a residence of two years at
Denver, located at Louisville, Boulder county,
where he found employment in the coal mines
for a year, at the end of which he moved to
Breckenridge. Here he worked a year in the
quartz mines and in 1883 joined his father in
a livery and feed business at Dillon, which they
conducted in partnership and with good results
until [885. Disposing then of his interest in
the business at an advantage, he went to Lan-
der. Wyoming, where he took a contract to
cany the mails between that city and South
which he held until the spring of [887,
being in partnership with William Pierce. At
the time last mentioned he once more became
a resident of Colorado, homesteading a ranch
on Deep creek, "in Routt county. This he mi-
ni ived and in [889 turned it over to his father,
who owned and managed it until his death. At
the same time he bought the ranch on which he
now lives. It comprises one hundred and sixty
acres and one hundred and forty acres are in
a good state of cultivation. Hay and cattle and
horses are his chief products but he also raises
good crops of grain. The land was without im-
provements when he bought it. and all that it
now contains he has made. His prosperity
here has been continued and ever on the in-
crease, ami the smiling and fruitful condition
m!' the country around him at this time presents
a striking contrast t< • the scene when he located
here as one of the first white men to venture
into this region which was still infested with
Indians and wild beasts, and the habitations of
civilized life were almost unknown. The In-
dians at one time, soon after his arrival, gave
the settlers a scare hut did not molest them.
Mr. Smith is a firm and loyal Democrat in na-
tional politics. He was married on September
27, Mio'.i. to Miss Cora E. Jones, a native of
Buena Vista, Colorado, and the daughter of
William (i. and Phoebe V Jones, the former
horn in C mad 1 and the latter in Illinois. They
ire now living near Sidney, in this state. The
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
769
father was for many years a merchant but is
now engaged in ranching. He is a Democrat
in politics. Of their eight children five arc liv-
ing, Edwin D., Guy, .Mrs. Smith, Ida and
Neva. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have two children,
Edwin E. and Ernest W.
CHARLES C. IRWIN.
For a full quarter of a century Charles C.
Irwin, of Routt county, has been connected in
a progressive and productive way with the
ranching and cattle industries of Colorado,
and within this period he has also given the
mining industry of the state some attention,
somewhat to its advantage but not to his own.
He is a native of Ohio, born at Sciotoville on
July 7, 1862, and the son of George W. and
Mahala Irwin, natives of that state who moved
to Illinois late in their lives and there ended
their days, the mother dying in 1872 and the
father in 1881. The father was a prominent
business man in Illinois, carrying on extensive
operations in farming, merchandising and
milling. He owned the controlling interest in
the Hungarian Mills, then the largest enter-
prise of its kind in the state. He was an active
Republican and a prominent Freemason. Of
the nine children in the family six are living.
Charles C, Albert R., Maud E. (Mrs. Owen
M. Biler). Emma J. (Mrs. William Puyalls),
Minnie (Mrs. Guy W. Ward), and George G.
Charles was educated at the common and
graded schools of his native county, and re-
mained at home working for his parents until
he reached his sixteenth year. He then moved
to Bowling Green Valley. Missouri, and leased
a farm which he managed for a year. In the
autumn of 1879 he came to Colorado and dur-
ing the next two years conducted a ranch on
Ralston creek. In 1882 he began a search for
a more desirable and suitable location, and in
the fall of 1883 took up a homestead near
49
Slater which he improved and afterward sold.
Then, after devoting several years to ranch-
ing and raising cattle with good results, he
took his earnings and tried to develop mining
properties in the vicinity of Hahn's Peak. The
venture was disastrous to him and in it he lost
a large sum of money. With what he had left
he bought in 1900 his present ranch on Elk
river. This he has greatly improved, erecting
good buildings and bringing one hundred and
twenty acres of his one hundred and sixty
acres to a high state of cultivation. His ranch
is eight miles west of Steamboat Springs,
which affords him a good market easily avail-
able, and is pleasantly located and well sup-
plied with water. Cattle and hay are his prin-
cipal resources, and these are raised in large
quantities. He also has the Milner ranch near
by under lease. In fraternal circles he is con-
nected with the Masonic order and the Odd
Fellows, and politically he supports the prin-
ciples and candidates of the Republican party.
He is a progressive and highly esteemed citi-
zen, full of practical zeal and activity in behalf
of all good undertakings for the benefit of the
community and deeply interested in the endur-
ing welfare of his county and state. At one
time he lived neighbor to the well-known Jim
and John Baker, old Colorado pioneers on
Snake river, and he has many graphic and in-
teresting reminiscences of these renowned
characters, high types of a race of heroic men
that has almost passed out of American life.
Mr. Irwin is himself something of a pioneer
and he saw many phases of frontier life in its
earlier and more rugged days.
GIDEON COOKMAN.
Gideon Cookman, one of Pitkin county's
most successful and progressive ranchmen at
this time, has had a chequered career of success
and failure, yet through the darkest adversities
77Q
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
he maintained his serenity and elevation of
spirit, his unyielding courage and his persist-
ent determination to win out in the end. He is
a native of Lewis county. West Virginia, born
on February 25, i860, and the son of William
Cookman, like himself a native of West Vir-
ginia, where he was successfully engaged in
farming. They were of English parentage,
and had ten children, four of whom have died,
one in infancy and Florence, Ellen and Vir-
ginia later in life. The six living children are
Minerva, Louisa, Phoebe, George, John L. and
Gideon. The parents were Methodists and
have paid nature's last debt, the mother dying
in March, i860, and the father in July. 1897.
Their youngest living son, Gideon, received a
limited education at the schools near his West
Virginia home, and at the age of twelve went
to work for his father on the farm. He re-
mained at home so occupied until he was twen-
ty-one, then in 188 1. came to Colorado and lo-
cated at Denver. Here he worked in a brick-
yard at two dollars and seventy-five cents a
day for two months, after which he found em-
ployment on a ranch at thirty dollars a month
and his board. Six months later he returned to
Denver and shipped to Gunnison, where he de-
voted his energies to railroad grading at two
dollars and fifty cents per day for a time, then
grubbed out willows until June 1. 1882. At
that time he returned to Gunnison and engaged
in the express and transfer business at forty
dollars a month and his board, continuing this
occupation until fall, when he moved to Grand
Junction and went to ranching for wages. The
water did not agree with him, and he moved
hack to Gunnison and took up a pre-emption
claim of one hundred and sixty acres on which
he spent three years, then sold it at a profit,
as it was a promising ranch and he had made
comfortable improvements and brought much
of the land under cultivation. The place was
eighteen miles northwest of Gunnison on Ohio
creek. After selling this he went to prospect-
ing, but with such poor success that he lost all
he had accumulated and was obliged to work
again for wages, which he did at Kokomo, this
state. Eight months afterward be again took
up his residence at Gunnison and started a new
transfer business which he conducted eighteen
months. In 1887 he moved to Aspen and
rented a ranch on Capitol creek near the one
he now owns and occupies. He was unsuccess-
ful here and in two years again went broke and
was soon obliged to do ranching for wages.
This he continued until 1892, then became
purchasing agent for Frederick Light, an ex-
tensive cattle man, having also an interest in
the business himself. FPe next engaged with S.
P. Sloss in the cattle industry, and at the end of
1897 took charge of his share of the stock and
purchasing a ranch of eighty acres of John
Carlton, has since carried on a cattle business
of his own. His land is located on Capitol
creek, and he has increased his holdings by a
subsequent purchase of one hundred and sev-
enty-three acres and a desert claim of seventy-
three acres, giving him a total of three hundred
and twenty-six acres, about two hundred of
which are under cultivation and produce good
crops of hay and grain. He also has an ex-
tensive range near his ranch and is largely en-
gaged in raising cattle and some horses. In
politics he is a Democrat and in fraternal rela-
tions an Odd Fellow, and belongs to the
Daughters of Rebekah, the Woodmen of the
World and the Order of Woodcraft.
SAMUEL W. WATSON.
During almost a quarter of a century the in-
teresting subject of this review has been a resi-
dent of Colorado, and in that time has won
from her soil a good estate in worldly posses-
sions, and by his public spirit and enterprise
in behalf of the affairs of the town ami county
PROGRESS 11' E MEN OE WESTERN COLORADO.
771
in which he lives has attained to a high place
in the respect and confidence of the people, be-
ing now considered one of the best and most
representative men in his section of the state.
He was burn at Cincinnati, Ohio, on March 12,
1861, the son of James and Carrie (Whitcomb)
Watson, the father a native of West Virginia
and the mother of Terre Haute. Indiana. The
father moved to Ohio when he was a young
man, and for a time was engaged in keeping
a hotel. Later he practiced law and rose to
prominence in his profession and in public
life, lie belonged to the Odd Fellows ami the
United Workmen. He died in December,
1891, and his wife in January, 1S92. Both
were members of the Methodist church. Their
offspring numbered four, three of whom are
deceased. A daughter named Ella died in in-
fancy; Benjamin passed away later in life, and
James went to Alaska and ended his days at
Cape Nome, in 1900. Samuel attended the
public schools at Clearmont Academy, in his
native state. He helped his parents as clerk in
the hotel until' 1SS0, when he came to Color-
ado and located at Aspen. Here he engaged in
freighting between that town and Granite and
Leadville for three years. In 1883 he located
his present ranch, or a portion of it a pre-emp-
tion claim of one hundred and sixty acres, and
afterward took up a desert claim of one hun-
dred acres and purchased an additional one
hundred and sixty acres, making a total of four
hundred and twenty acres which he now owns.
Of this land three hundred acres are under cul-
tivation in alfalfa and timothy, and an extens-
ive cattle business is carried on. with enough
horses included in the products to supply the
needs of the ranch. The ranch is located six-
teen miles west of Aspen, and is well adapted to
the purposes to which it is devoted, and here
Mr. Watson has prospered abundantly. He is
an ardent Democrat in politics and belongs to
the Woodmen of the World. During- the five
years of his residence in this section there was
an occasional scare on account of the Indians.
They never attacked the settlement, but threat-
ened to do so from time to time with such per-
sistency and determination as to keep up a con-
tinual state of alarm. In his business and as a
leader of thought and action in behalf of the
promotion of the best interests of the commun-
ity he has been very successful, and the elevated
position he holds in the public regard he has
fully earned by his merit and his valuable and
appreciated services.
EMANUEL GANT.
Almost two decades of human life have
passed since the subject of this brief review
settled on Main creek, Garfield county, where
be lit i\\ lives, and during the whole of that time
he has been an important factor in the develop-
ment of the country in which he has cast his
lot. He was born in Jackson county, Iowa, on
the banks of the Mississippi, in 1856, and is the
son of John and Elizabeth (Grant) Gant, both
natives of England, who came to America in
the 'forties and settled in Canada where they
maintained their home about ten years. They
then moved into "The States." locating in
Iowa, where their son Emanuel was born, as
has been noted. A short time afterwards they
changed their residence to Kansas and are still
living in that state, the father aged eighty-fi >ur
and the mother eighty-two. Their offspring
'number eight and Emanuel is the seventh in
the order of birth. He remained at home in
Kansas until he was twenty and then began
working wholly for himself, running cattle in
that state. In 1884 he became a resident of
Colorado, locating on Main creek not far from
the village of Rifle. Garfield county, where he
has since lived, and where he has built up a
flourishing business in ranching and the stock
industry. Mr. Gant was married in 1891 to
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Miss Eunice Gozad, and they have two chil-
dren, Lawrence and Helen R. The practical
knowledge which Mr. Gant has gained in his
wide and varied experience and the acquaint-
ance with men which it has given him, has
been of great service to him in his private busi-
ness and enabled him to take the active part
in the public affairs of his community for
which he is fitted by endowment, taste and ca-
pacity, with credit to himself and benefit to the
people. He is esteemed as one of the leading
representative men of this section of his county,
and justifies the respect in which he is held
by a broad and intelligent view of public mat-
ters and an earnestness and zeal in their pro-
motion that is in every way highly commenda-
ble. At the same time he neither seeks nor de-
sires political honors for himself.
ROBERT A. ROBERTSON.
Robert A. Robertson, who has developed an
excellent ranch on Main creek, Garfield county,
this state, within the country tributary to the
village of Raven, and whose fruit industry
there is one of the leading enterprises of its kind
in this part of the state is a native of New
York state, born at the town of Gouverneur,
in St. Lawrence county, in 1862. He is the
son of Archibald and Ellen (Hill) Robertson,
the former a native of Scotland and the latter
of New York. About the age of eighteen
years, in 1831, the father came to this country
and settled in Vermont. Some time later he
moved to New York, where he was married
and lived for a number of years. He then mi-
grated with his family to Nebraska, and a
few years afterward to Webster, South Da-
kota, where he died in t88(), at the age of sixty-
seven. His wife died in 1889, at the age of
thirty-three, leaving two children, of whom
Robert was the first born. Her parents were
Scotch by nativity and residence and after long
lives of usefulness they passed away in their
native land and were laid to rest beneath the
soil that was hallowed by their labors. She
also had a brother on the Union side in the
Civil war who, in the struggle made a good
record for valor and other soldierly qualities.
Robert Robertson accompanied his parents in
their wanderings, remaining at home until he
was about twenty years of age and enjoying
such educational advantag-es as his circum-
stances afforded. In 1882 he became a resident
of Colorado, locating in the South Park where
he remained about a year, then moved to Lead-
ville. There he was employed in the smelter
until September, 1883. when he went to live
at Denver, and during the next two years he
was variously employed in the vicinity of the
capital city. In June. 1885. he moved to the
neighborhood of Main creek, Garfield county,
and in 1890 took up the land on which he is
now living and he has since devoted his time
and energies to its improvement and develop-
ment, and the expansion and successful man-
agement of his profitable ranching- and fruit
business. He is prosperous in his venture, and
highly respected in the community.
MICHAEL T. ROWNAN.
The interesting though modest subject of
this sketch belongs to the race of versatility and
resourcefulness, of sentiment and poetry, who
have dignified and adorned every walk of life
in their own and this country, and given to
history some of its most engaging themes and
to song many of its loftiest aspirations. He
was born in Ireland on March 6, 1874. and is
the son of Thomas and Mary Rownan, natives
also of the Emerald Isle, where they were pros-
perous small farmers and passed lives of useful-
ness and uprightness. The father is still liv-
ing there at an advanced age, and the mother
died in 1876 and was laid to rest in the soil
PROGRESSIVE MEN <>!■ WESTERN COLORADO.
773
hallowed by her labors. Both belonged to the
Catholic church, of which the father is yet a
devout and loyal member. They were the par-
of eleven children, seven of whom are
living. Timothy, Michael, John, Thomas, Brid-
get. Daniel and Jennie. The four who died
were Thomas, Julia, Mary ami Margaret.
Michael attended the common schools and as-
sisted his parents on the farm, remaining at
home until he was nearly twenty-five, then in
I NX;: came to the United States, and located at
Colorado Spring-- this state, where he | ive
his attention to railroad work for over a year.
He next was employed on a ranch, first at
thirty, then at forty-five dollars a month and
his board, in the neighborhood of Carbondale.
Tie now has a ranch of his own eighteen miles
west of Aspen, comprising one hundred and
sixty acres of good land on which he raises gen-
erous crops of hay, grain and vegetables, and a
lot of live stock. He has been successful in his
business and attentive to the duties of citizen-
ship, so that he is well esteemed by all who
know him. He is a Catholic in religion and a
Democrat in politics.
JOHN S. STEWARD.
One of Pitkin county's oldest and mi ist es-
teemed ranchmen and worthiest citizens, John
S. Steward's life among its people has been
an example of value to the younger generation,
and of political influence in the development
and progress of the county. He is a native of
Nova Scotia. Canada, born on December 5,
1834, and the son of John and Margaret (Ro1>
inson) Steward, natives of Scotland. The
father devoted his life to farming and both
parents were Presbyterians in religious faith.
He was a liberal in politics and took an active
part in public local affairs. There were seven
children born in the family, only two of whom
are living, James and John S. The father died
on Ma\ 10, 1874, and the mother on May 27,
1XN7. Their son John S. attended the public
. and when a mere boy began assisting
his parents on the farm, remaining at home
until 1882, when he came to Colorado to col-
lect some money that was due him here, he be-
ing engaged in the manufacture of carriages
in his native country, where he also served as
a justice of the peace by appointment. On his
arrival in this state he was pleased with the
climate and promise of prosperity and con-
cluded to remain. He was offered a compen-
sation of five dollars a day to work at black-
smithing, a trade he had learned and followed
in Nova Scotia, and at once began operations
at the work at Leadville. He remained there
until 1884, when he moved to his present loca-
tion, and in partnership with J. D. Hooper
leased mining property in Tourtellotte Park.
The next seven years were devoted to the de-
velopment of this property with fair success,
and in 1885 he purchased the ranch he now
owns and occupies, comprising one hundred
and fifty-seven acres, and turned his attention
to raising stock and general farming. His land
is productive and under his skillful cultivation
yields abundant crops of hay. grain and other
farm products, and generously supports the
cattle and horses which he raises in large num-
bers. Here he has taken a warm and service-
able interest in the affairs of the community,
supporting the Republican party and serving
the people faithfully as a justice of the peace
elected on that party's ticket. He was married
on April 18. 1855, to Miss Sarah Boggs, a na-
tive of Nova Scotia, and daughter of John and
Margaret Boggs, also natives of that country,
and prosperous farmers there. Their family
comprised six children, only one of whom is
living, their son John, who resides in Nova
Scotia. Both parents of Mrs. Steward died
after reaching the age of ninety. To her and
her husband there were born nine children.
774
PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO .
Three of these, John A., Joseph M. and Janei
Agnes, have died. The six living are Sarah,
now Mrs. Joseph Spanks, of Nova Scotia ;
Mary, now Mrs. Norman Robinson, of Bos-
ton; John Hy; Elizabeth, now Mrs. Robert
McCann, of Boston; Carolina M. and Joseph
M. Their mother died on August 14, 1873,
and on November 26, 1874, Mr. Steward mar-
ried a second wife, Miss Catherine McClain,
also a Nova Scotian by nativity, born in No-
vember, 1844, and daughter of Hugh and
Sarah McPherson McClain, successful farm-
ers there. Both of her parents are deceased,
the father dying in October, 185 1, and the
mother in August. i8m5. They were members
of the Catholic church and had a family of nine
children, two of whom died in infancy. The
living are John S., Duncan, Agnes, Mary.
Sarah, Margaret and Catherine. Of Mr. Stew-
ard's second marriage five children were born.
Three of them, Daniel J., Ronald M. and Janet
A., have died. Hugh and Annie are living, the
latter being the wife of Daniel W. Chisim, of
Pitkin county, living near Snow Mass. Now
in the evening of life. Mr. Steward can look
back over his career with the satisfaction of
seeing a clean record of duty well and faith-
full}' performed and opportunities wisely and
worthily used. He is secure in the regard and
good will of his fellow men, and sees bloom-
ing around him the results of a tremendous
effort in peaceful industry to develop the coun-
try in which he has lived so long, and to whose
progress he has contributed largely and sub-
stantially and to effective purpose.
ROBERT C. DIRLAN.
Robert C. Dirlan, of Aspen, Pitkin county,
Colorado, is a native of Saxony, Germany,-
where he was born on October 18. 1855, the
son of Robert C. and Rosina (Elsing) Dirlan,
also born and reared in the fatherland; and
from his native land, although he came to the
United States with his parents when he was
less than a year old, he brought the thrift and
enterprise of its people which conquers all dif-
ficulties and make their mark wherever they
are put in motion. In 1856 the family emi-
grated to this country and settled in Winona
county, Minnesota, where they remained until
1874, when they moved to Dixon county,
Kansas. There they were engaged in farming
with varying success until 1892, then they
look another flight toward the tropics, remov-
ing to Oklahoma Territory, where they con-
tinued their farming industry. The father was
a furrier until he came to America, and after
that he remained continuously occupied in
farming at which his success was only moder-
ate, owing, to unfavorable circumstances and
conditions. He was a Democrat in American
politics and both he and his wife were devoted
Lutherans. They had ten children, eight of
whom have died, three passing away in in-
fancy. The two living are Elma, now Mrs.
Eliza Hunt, of Aspen, and Robert C. the im-
mediate subject of this writing. The father
died in 1889 and the mother on March 4, 1890.
Robert C. Dirlan, their only living son, at-
tended the public schools in Minnesota in the
winters of his boyhood, passing the summers
in arduous labor on the home farm in the in-
terest of his parents. When he reached the
age of sixteen he hired on neighboring farms
for wages, passing five years so occupied in the
adjoining county of Fillmore. He then moved
to the vicinity of Sioux Falls, South Dakota,
and continued at farm work there two years, at
the end of which he passed a short time in
Wyoming, and in 1883 came to Colorado, lo-
cating at Littleton near Denver. He remained
there until December, then wintered at Calu-
met, this state, and in the spring of 1884
moved to Crested Butte. Tn that neighbor-
hood be was engaged in mining independently
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
until the spring of 1885. From there he went
to Cripple Creek, and there was employed in
mining until the spring of 1900, when he
moved to Aspen. He has found the conditions
of life very agreeable in Colorado, and has
been successful in his efforts for advancement.
He is deeply interested in the welfare of the,
state and its people, taking an active part in
public local affairs as a Democrat, the party of
his choice and one of the objects of his solicit-
ous and serviceable attention. Wherever he is
known he is highly respected as a wise coun-
selor and an upright man and an excellent citi-
zen.
JACOB JACOBSON.
Comfortably located on a good ranch of
eighty-three acres, all of which is naturally til-
lable and productive, eighteen miles northwest
of Aspen, and carrying on there a profitable
industry in general farming and raising stock,
Jacob Jacobson may seem to snap his fingers
in the face of fate and smile at fortune's frowns.
Fie was born in Denmark on September T4,
1861, and when he was live years old came with
his parents to this country and settled in Ber-
rien county, Michigan, where the family pros-
pered as farmers and won a competence of
wordly comfort. His parents were Peter and
Mary jacobson. also Danes by nativity and
long descent. They are now living in Michi-
gan retired from active pursuits and spending
the evening of their days in quiet contentment,
enjoying the fruits of their earlier labors and
rejoicing in the progress and prosperity of the
new country which they helped to civilize and
build up. Both are members of the Lutheran
church in the old country but have affiliated
with the Christian church in the new. Nine
children were born in the household, of whom
five have died. Two passed away in infancy,
and Carrie, Hannah and William, at more ad-
vanced ages. The four who are living are:
Lizzie, wife of John Stump, of .Michigan; So-
phie, wife of George Wagner, of Michigan ;
Carl, residing in Wyoming; and Jacob, of Pit-
kin county, this state, lie received a limited
education in the public schools, and at an early
age was put to hard work on the paternal
homestead. Me remained at home until he
was twenty-one. then came to Colorado, and at
Longmont, Boulder county, passed two years
as a ranch hand at twenty-seven dollars a
month and his board. From there he moved
to Aspen, and until the spring of 1888 was em-
ployed at various occupations. At that time he
took up his present ranch, a pre-emption claim
of eighty-three acres, and since then he has de-
voted his time and energies to its improve-
ment and cultivation, and the expansion of
the stock business he is profitably conducting
on it. He is earnestly interested in the prog-
ress and development of his county and state,
but in political matters he is independent of
part} - control and exercises his own judgment
as to measures and candidates. On February
14, 1899, lie united in marriage with .Miss Ellen
Kelley, a native of Ireland, the daughter of
John and Ellen (Comely) Kelley. who were
also born in Ireland and prospered there as
farmers. Two children were born in the fam-
ily, Mrs. Jacobson and her sister Alan-, now
Mrs. Joseph Bryant, of Cincinnati. The par-
ents were both devout Catholics, ami both are
now deceased.
JOHN HENRY STEWARD.
The present accommodating and well qual-
ified postmaster at Snow Mass. Pitkin count},
who is also interested extensively in mining,
became a resident of Colorado in 1881, and
since then has been devoted to the improve-
ment and development of the state and the prog-
ress and welfare of its people. He is a native
of Nova Scotia, born on the 15th day of July.
77 6
PROGRESS! rii MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
[860, where his parents, John S. and Catherine
(McClain) Steward, a sketch of whom appears
mi another page of this volume, were also
born and reared. He remained with his par-
ents, attending the public schools and aiding in
the farm labor until he reached the ag'e of four-
teen, then he began to earn his own living by
working on lei hhorhood farms and doing
other work that was at hand. In 1881. when
he was about twenty-one. he came to Colorado
and settled at Leadville, where he followed
mining for two years. In 1883 he returned to
his old Canadian home, and during the next
seven years conducted the operations of 'his
father's farm. In t8qo he came back to this
state and located at Aspen, and until 1899
working in Percy mines. lie then took up a
part of his present ranch, a homstead claim of
one hundred and seventy-eight acres. This he
has since increased to three hundred and thirty-
eight acres by purchase of an additional quarter
section. About half of his land is under cultiva-
tion and yields excellent crops of good grain
and hay. In iqot he was appointed postmas-
ter at Snow .Mass. and is still tilling the office
with credit to himself and satisfaction to its
patrons. He is also interested in mining, and
litics is 1 faithful Republican. Success-
ful in business and influential in local affairs,
be is easily one of the leading citizens of the
town, and as such is universally esteemed.
DONALD McLEAN.
It was in Rosshire, Scotland, on March 12.
[868, that the life of the interesting subject
of this brief review began, and his parents.
Angus and Margaret McLean, were also na-
tives of that country, where they passed their
lives in farming with success and profit, both
dying in 1898. They had a family of six chil-
dren, three of whom are living, Donald, Mur-
dock and Hester. The three who died were
Duncan, Isabella and Finley. Donald, who is
one of the early settlers in Colorado, having
come hither in 1871, received a slight common-
school education in his native land, and assisted
in the work on the home farm until he was
nearly twenty years old. He then came to the
United States and after working three years as
a farm hand in New York. South Carolina
and Pennsylvania became a resident of this
state in 187 1. During the next seven years
he was engaged in butchering at Black Hawk.
Central. Fairplay and Alma. In 1878 he was
attracted to Leadville by the gold excitement
over that place, and there he followed mining
until 188 1, when he came to Pitkin county and
located a homestead. In 1883 he moved to his
present ranch, which comprises one hundred
and sixty acres, of which one hundred and
twenty are under cultivation. Timothy and
alfalfa hay of good quality are raised in abun-
dance and also grain, horses and cattle. The
ranch is four miles north of Aspen, and is nat-
urally well adapted to farming. In political
activity Mr. McLean is an independent Demo-
crat, and fraternally he is connected with the
order of Odd Fellows. On July 29. 1879. he
married with Miss Macbeth, a native of Bu-
reau county, Illinois, born on October 8, 1857,
a daughter of Duncan and Ann Macbeth, win.
were born and reared in Scotland and belonged
to families resident in that country from time
immemorial. The father was a successful
farmer in business and a Republican in politics
and both he and his wife belonged to the Pres
byterian church. Lie died on November 26,
1887, and the mother on February 26, 1903.
Three of their seven children are living, Mrs.
McLean; Anna, wife of John Buchanan, of
Norton, Kansas; and Finley, of Kewanee. Illi-
nois. Those deceased were Elizabeth, Mrs.
John McPherson, of Denver. John and James.
Their mother lived to the age of ninetj 0:1c
years. Mr. and Mrs. McLean have had seven
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF 1VESTERN COLORADO.
children, one of whom, Finley, died on April
25, 1887; those now living are John, Angus,
Duncan, Anna, Donald and Elizabeth J. The
parents are members of the Presbyterian
church and highly esteemed citizens of their
community. Mr. McLean's parents belonged
to the Free Presbyterian church and were ac-
tive contributors to its support and its works
of benevolence.
EDWARD E. EGLEE.
Edward E. Eglee, manager of the Boston
Coal & Coke Company at South, Canon, Colo-
rado, five miles west of Glenwood Springs.
which is one of the largest and most active
mining corporations in the state, is a native of
Queens county on Long Island, New York,
born on October 26, i860, where he grew to
manhood and was educated, being a graduate
of the Flushing Institute. After leaving school
he devoted his time to building public works
until 1902 when he came to this state in the in-
terest of the corporation with which he is now
so prominently connected. This company has
an output of excellent quality amounting to
four hundred tons a day, and within a short
time this will be increased to two thousand five
hundred tons a day. The property belonging
to the company comprises three thousand five
hundred acres of the finest mineral land, and
on its development three hundred and fifty
thousand dollars have been expended, whereas
when Mr. Eglee took charge of the industry
the whole tract was an undeveloped wilderness.
The coal produced is of high grade suitable
for both domestic and steam utilities, and the
company is capitalized at one million five hun-
dred thousand dollars. The works are run by
electric power generated at the central station,
six separate mines have been opened, three
hundred operatives are employed, and the
progress in development is so rapid and so
profitable that before long the plant will be
one of the largest, best and most complete in
the state. Mr. Eglee gives his whole time to
the enterprise, and the results of his intelligent
activity are highly creditable to him and satis-
factory to the owners of the mines. In politics
he is independent, not wanting in interest in
the affairs of the community and county, to
which he gives a good portion of his attention
in a commendable way, but not subject to party
control in the exercise of his franchise and
public-spirit. He is very prominent in the
community and has a commanding influence
with the people. His parents. Charles E. and
Elvira Eglee, were like himself natives of New
York state, where the father was a merchant
in his earlier life and later a banker, and was
very successful in both lines of business.
Three children were born in the family, one.
Carrie Louise, dying at the age of eleven years.
Both parents are also deceased, the mother hav-
ing died in 1870 and the father in 1889. The
two living children are Charles Henry, county
treasurer at Brookline, Massachusetts, and
Edward E. The latter was married in June,
1887, to Miss Mary Geneva Sullivan, a native
of New York state. Mr. Eglee's industrial
activity and skill have greatly benefited the
state of Colorado and his broad-minded and
progressive citizenship has been an ornament
to her. He is highly esteemed by all classes
of her people, and is fully deserving of the
standing he has among them.
TRUE ALBERT SMITH.
Prominent and successful as a miner, a
business man, an early settler and a stock-
grower and ranchman of Pitkin county. True
Albert Smith, of near Watson, is wholly a
product of Colorado. In this state he was
born, in its public schools he was educated, on
its fertile soil he learned and has practiced the
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
art of agriculture, and among its people he lias
grown to consequence and general public es-
teem. His life began at Denver on April 7,
1864. and he is the son of Jonathan M. and
Jennie M. Smith, the former of whom was born
in Maine and the latter in Iowa. When the
1 'ike's Peak excitement over the discovery of
gold in the neighborhood of the famous eleva-
tion broke out the parents left their Iowa home
and came to Colorado, and here the father, who
had been an industrious shoemaker up to that
time, became an equally industrious miner, fol-
lowing the business in the vicinity of the Peak
and Denver until 1879, when he moved to the
neighborhood of Aspen, and continued his op-
erations there for a time, then turned his at-
tention to ranching which he followed up to
his death in 1896, his last few years being
passed in California. His wife preceded him
to the other world twenty years, dying in 187(1.
lie was an earnest Republican in politics and
a member of the Masonic order fraternally.
They were the parents of six children, three
of whom have died, Edward, Clarence and
Xama. The three who are living are Frank
E., a resident of Routt county, this state, and
occupied in raising cattle near Bear river;
Delia, the wife of Frank Yates, of Aspen, who
is a prominent Freemason and connected in
business with the L. H. Thompkins Hard-
ware Company, ami True Albert, the subject
of this sketch. The latter was educated at the
public schools and after completing their cour.se
pursued one in special business training at the
Bryant & Stratton Business College at Chicago.
He also attended the high school at George-
town, this state. At the age of seventeen he
began making his own living by leasing and
working mines and also ranching. Afterward
be managed a ranch, and finally purchased the
one he now owns and conducts, acquiring the
ownership of it in [894. It comprises three
hundred and twenty acres and about one-half
of it is in a good state of cultivation, producing
excellent qualities of hay, grain and vegetables.
Mr. Smith also carries on a flourishing cattle
business and raises horses to a limited extent.
His principal crops are alfalfa and timothy
hay. and of these his product is large and su-
perior, lie may properly be called one of the
fathers of this region, as he was one of its
first settlers, one of its earliest prospectors, and
one of its most valiant defenders against hos-
tile Indians. When their threats of violence
alarmed and drove away a number of the early
settlers he was one of the thirteen men who
remained and after some effort drove out the
Indians themselves. There were at that time
but two rifles in the party, and he owned one
of them. In political action he ardently sup-
ports the Democratic party and in fraternal cir-
cles is connected with the Odd Fellows and
the Modern Woodmen of America. On June
15. 1892, he was married to Miss Nettie A.
Bourg, a daughter of Benedict and Eulalia
(Raroux) Bourg. a sketch of whom will be
found on another page of this work. Mr. and
Mrs. Smith have one child, Beloit E., who is
living at home and attending school.
CHARLES M. RHYNE.
Born near Charlotte. North Carolina, on
September 21, 1859, and having his childhood
darkened by the terrible shadow of the Civil
war, Charles M. Rhyne began life under very
adverse circumstances, which were continued
throug'hout his boyhood, youth and early man-
hood. Four of his brothers served in the Con-
federate army, and three of them laid down
their lives on the altar of their convictions,
being killed in battle. His parents were David
and Malinda Rhyne, also born in the ( >ld
North state, where the father was a farmer
and tanner and was winning a fair success
when the war began. He supported the
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
779
Democratic ticket, and lie and his wife were
members of the Methodist church. Their off-
spring numbered fifteen, six of whom are dead,
John, George and Joseph falling in battle on
the Southern side, Frank and Mary dying in
childhood, and Sibie, then Mrs. James Cobb,
passing away in mature life. The living chil-
dren are : James and David, who also served
in the Confederate army; Laban, Robert, Ed-
ward, Davidson, Sarah (Mrs. Adolphus Hobis),
Katharine (Mrs. Buchanan), and Charles M.
Charles had very limited school facilities, re-
maining and working with his parents until
death ended their labors. He then rented a
farm, but soon afterward gave up the enter-
prise and became a laborer in railroad con-
struction work, being made foreman after a
short time as a laborer. He moved to Chil-
licothe, Missouri, and in 1890 came to G >!' >-
rado, where he worked for the Midland Rail-
road eleven years. In 1900 he bought his
present ranch of two hundred and forty acres,
one hundred and forty of which can be culti-
vated. The land is of good quality and the
water rights belong to it. Excellent and
abundant crops of hay, grain and vegetables
are raised, and a considerable body of stock is
also produced. The ranch is two miles and a
half north of Carbondale, so that a good
market for its products is easily available. Mr.
Rhyne is a Democrat in national affairs, and a
man of progressiveness and public-spirit in all.
He belongs to the Odd Fellows and the Wood-
men of the World. On August 5, 1880, he
united in marriage with Miss Martha Gregory
of the same nativity as himself and the daugh-
ter of Sanford B. and Emily Gregory, whi 1
were born in Virginia. They were successful
farmers and members of the Baptist church,
and they had a family of eight children, two of
whom have died : Frances, then Mrs. Joel
Clonigar, in 1884, and Charles F. in 1880. The
living: children are: William, of Galveston,
Texas; Thomas F., of North Carolina; George,
of Pineville, South Carolina; Sarah, the wife
of James Abennaphy, of North Carolina ;
Martha, the wife of Mr. Rhyne, and Julia, the
wife of Fred Gill, of Cripple Creek, Colorado.
The father was killed in the Confederate army
during the Civil war. Mr. and Mrs. Rhyne
have had seven children, of whom Lawrence,
John B. and Mattie are deceased; and Made
F., Georgia, Irene and Lucile are living. The
parents' belong to the Methodist churh. Mr.
Rhyne is enthusiastic over Colorado, and
highly estimates the opportunities it furnishes
to men of enterprise and industry for advance-
ment in the world.
DAVID S. JAMES.
Perhaps by natural endowment, perhaps by
inheritance from his ancestors, this now pros-
perous and successful stock man and rancher
was possessed in early life with a desire to go
abroad from the narrow confines of his home
and see the country and make his own way
wherever fortune or inclination might lead
him. At any rate when he was twenty years
ulil he freely gave up bright prospects in the
mercantile line, and turning his back upon the
scenes and associations of his childhood and
youth, and the pleasures of a peaceful fireside,
he came into the wilds of the west with but
little capital beyond high hopes, a stout heart,
g I health and a first-rate education, here to
encounter danger and disaster, hard work with
slender compensation, privation, loneliness and
cheerless outlooks, until by native force and
the exercise of good judgment he made a lodg-
ment against fate and commanded circum-
stances to his service, winning prosperity by
sheer determination and perseverance. He
was born in Bedford county. Pennsylvania, on
December 18, 1845. tne son OI J onn an ^ Eliza-
beth James, the former a native of England
780
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
and the latter of Maryland. They settled in
Pennsylvania in their early married life, and
there the father became a prosperous merchant
and banker. In politics he was a Republican
and in church affiliation a Methodist. The
mother was a Lutheran. She died in 1875 and
he in 1898. Their family comprised seven
children. Mary, then the wife of Jacob Earn-
hardt, died at the town of Bedford, Pennsyl-
vania, and Sarah at her father's house. The
living; children are : William, living at Charles-
ville, Pennsylvania; Maria, the wife of John
Emig: John, at Rainsburg, Pennsylvania;
Rachel H.. in Ohio; and the subject of this
brief review. The latter received a good edu-
cation, attending the public schools and the
Missionary Institute located at Seal's Grove
on the west bank of the Susquehanna. At the
age of eighteen he received from his father a
one-half interest in his mercantile business,
and for two years he gave his attention to the
enterprise with zeal and industry. At the end
of that time, being dissatisfied with the occu-
pation, he abandoned his interest and started
west to find something more congenial. He
stopped at Nebraska City, Nebraska, where he
secured employment as a clerk in the postoffice
at a compensation of fifty dollars a month.
He remained there so employed three years.
then came to Gunnison, Colorado, and began
prospecting. During the two years he devoted
t'> this business he suffered many hardships
and privations, with all the danger and dis-
comfort incident to life in a wild mining camp^
Giving up prospecting as a bad job, he located
the ranch on which Carbondale has since been
built, but two years later sold it to Elsey
Cooper for three hundred and fifty dollars,
after which he purchased another ranch which
he sold three years afterward to Mr. Crane of
the vicinity. He had tried to improve it, but
the survey for the ditch was made wrong ami
the water was unavailable. In 1884 lie moved
to Aspen, where he remained until July of the
next year without accomplishing much, then
changed to the vicinity in which he now lives
ami bought a ranch of Mr. Campbell for fifty
dollars. The ranch comprised one hundred
and sixty acres and was located six miles north-
east of Carbondale. Retaining this, he re-
turned to Aspen, and during the next three
years he drove a transfer wagon in the interest
of Mr. Stephens. He then moved back to his
ranch and remained there five years, at the end
of that period selling the property at a good
profit. His next venture was the purchase of
one hundred and fifty-eight acres of the ranch
which he now owns, to which he has since
added one hundred and sixty-six acres, making
his holding at this time three hundred and
twenty-four acres. Of this he cultivated two
hundred acres, raising hay, grain, potatoes and
other vegetables. His crops are first-rate in
quality and generous in quantity. The water
right is good and the supply sufficient, and the
land responds readily to skillful tillage. Mr.
James has also devoted some time and atten-
tion to raising horses. In national politics he
is a Republican, and in fraternal circles he is
connected with the Odd Fellows, the Wood-
men of the World and the Patriotic Sons of
America.
MARSHALL JAMES NUCKOLDS.
The subject of this brief review has special
interest for the readers of this work in the fact
that he is a native of the state of Colorado and
has passed the whole of his life so far within
its limits, drawing vigor from its sources of in-
spiration, getting intellectual development and
culture in her seats of learning, and practic-
ing the inspiring duties of citizenship as part
of her body-politic and a participant in her
beneficent civil institutions. He was born at
Denver on March Q, 1870, ami is the son of
PRUGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
781
Emmet and Maria Nuckolds, the former a na-
tive of Virginia and the latter of Nebraska.
They located at Denver in i860, and moved to
Leadville in 1878. There the father dealt in
feed and followed mining in conjunction until
1895, when the family moved to Pueblo, where
he opened a packing house which he is still
conducting with gratifying success and increas-
ing profit. He is a Democrat in political faith
and ever ready to render effective service in
the campaigns of his party. The} - have had
four children, one of whom is dead, a son
named Isaac. The three living are Harvey,
living at Pueblo and manager of the packing
house; Marshall J., living near Rifle, Garfield
county; and Israh, at Pueblo. Their mother
died on May 17. 1875. Marshall attended the
public "school at Leadville, held in a little log
shanty, far from weatherproof and largely de-
void of comforts and conveniences of every
kind necessary for its purpose. It was the
first school opened there, and uncanny in ap-
pearance as it was, and primitive in equip-
ment and scope, was yet a source of pride to
the community and of profit to its younger
members. Subsequently he pursued a course
of business training at the Denver Business
College. At the age of seventeen he began to
make his own living, working as a ranch hand
until 1893. During the next ten years he
had charge of the cattle for the packing com-
pany at Pueblo, serving in this connection ten
years. In 1903 he took up the ranch of one
hundred and sixty acres which he now owns
and works, eighty acres of which are under
cultivation. The water supply for this ranch
is the best in the vicinity, and in return for
his persistent and skillful labor on it the land
yields an abundance of everything grown in
the neighborhood. He also raises cattle in
numbers and some horses. In politics he is an
earnest and working Democrat, and in fra-
ternal life belongs to the order of Elks. In his
business he is prosperous and progressive; in
reference to local affairs involving the welfare
of the community is enterprising and public-
spirited; and in social circles has a strong hold
on a host of admiring friends. He is one of
the rising men of his section and is generally
esteemed as a broad-minded, intelligent and
upright citizen.
HAGEN R. BERG.
All climes and tongues in the civilized
world have contributed of their brain and
brawn to aid in settling and developing the
Northwest of this country, and the section en-
joys in an unusual degree the benefits of the
conglomerate population which has resulted,
having at hand the best elements in the char-
acter of every race, and blessing all in return
with a wealth of opportunity almost un-
precedented in modern times. One of the
valued natives of Norway, the land of great
thrift and enterprise, of scientific research and
hardy manhood, of intellectual power and
physical force, is Hagen R. Berg, of Rio
Blanco county, who lives on a well-improved
and productive ranch of one hundred and sixty
acres in the vicinity of Meeker, five miles west
of the town. Mr. Berg's life began on Janu-
ary 16, 1853, and he is the son of Hans and
Maren Berg, also natives of Norway, where
they were thrifty and prosperous farmers and
devoted members of the Lutheran church.
They had a- family of eleven children, five of
whom are living. Gabriel, Olans. Hagen R.,
Mary and Julia. The father died in April,
1891, and the mother in April, 1897. Hagen
was educated at the state schools, and at the
age of fifteen and a half years he was ap-
prenticed to a blacksmith in Christiania, the
capital city of the country. He worked at his
trade in his native land until 1870, then came
to this countrv and settled in the Black Hills of
782
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COEORADO.
South Dakota, where he followed mining.
ranch work and blacksmithing. After some
months of profitable labor there he moved to
Deadwood and turned his hand to the carpenter
trade, securing employment in building flumes
for the Battle Creek Mining Company. In
1881 he changed his residence to Wyoming,
and locating at Cokeville, was there variously
employed from July, 188 1, to September,
1882, when he moved to Colorado and settled
on a ranch six miles west of Meeker on White
river. After improving this ranch he sold it
and pre-empted another which he proved up
on and sold. He then bought the one on which
he now lives. Of this tract one hundred acres
are under cultivation and yield abundant crops
of hay. grain and vegetables, and support
generously a large herd of cattle, the stock and
hay being the main source of revenue. The
water right is good and the supply sufficient
for the needs of the place, and the land re-
sponds kindly to the persuasive hand of Mr.
Berg's wise and skillful husbandry. In ad-
dition to running his farming and cattle in-
dustries he also works at his trade in the in-
terest of Harp & Riley, a firm that carries on
blacksmithing extensively. He is an earnest
advocate of the wholesome progress and de-
velopment of his community, and in political
allegiance is a stanch Republican. When he
first came to the White river valley game was
plentiful and Mr. Berg devoted a portion of his
time to hunting and trapping, in which he was
quite successful. He was married on January
22, [887, to Miss Bradine Holton, a native
of Norway and daughter of John and Andrenn
Holton, who were also bom in that country.
The father was a tailor in his young manhood,
but in later life became a successful farmer.
Both parents were Lutherans, and both have
been dead for a number of years. Of their
four children one, Mrs. Berg, is deceased, her
death having occurred on February 14, [903.
Andrew, Olie and Mary are living. To Mr,
and Mrs. Berg two children were horn. 1 [«■-■
man R. and Olaf M.
JOHN J. LANGSTAFF.
John J. Langstaff, of Rifle. Garfield county,
an extensive and prosperous stock man, was
born on February 14, 1855, in Grant county,
\\ isconsin, and was reared and educated there,
attending the district schools during the winter
months for a few years. At the age of twelve
he took up the burden of life for himself and
from that time until the present he has made
his own way in the world successfully. Being
obliged to work hard for a livelihood ami de-
pend wholly on himself in the effort, he learned
self-reliance and acquired a good knowledge
of his own capacities and the characteristics
and temperaments of men in general. He be-
gan by working nine years in the lead and
coal mines of his native state, then in 1876
went to Illinois and later to Cleveland, Ohio.
For two years he followed coal mining in those
states, and in 1878 turned his attention to farm-
ing, moving soon afterward to Minnesota,
where he farmed for wages. He determined
to return to the mining industry, and until
1880 was engaged in that pursuit in Utah and
Montana. In the year last named the gold ex-
citement at Leadville in this state led him
thither, and during the next two years he mined
both for wages and on an independent basis in
different parts of Colorado, meeting with good
success most of the time. In 1882 he pre-
empted a claim of one hundred and sixty acres
in Grand river valley, to which he added other
tracts until he owned six hundred acres, and on
this land he ranched and raised stock until
11)03. H e then s °ld t ne ' arR l ' >llt retained the
cattle which he has since kept and tended on
the open range. When he located in Grand
valley the country was wild and wholly tin-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
7*3
settled and the Indians were numerous and
hostile. They killed stock owned by other per-
sons in the neighborhood in 1885, but did not
molest his. Mr. Langstaff was one of the
earliest settlers in that portion of the valley,
and, with the help of William L. Smith and
H. G. Brown, buried the first white man who
died there. His name was William Gay and he
died in 1883. A coffin was made of wagon-
bed timber by James Moss and in this the body
was buried. Mr. Langstaff was the first mnty
commissioner elected in Garfield county,
and he also had charge of the bridge and road
building in the county at its organization.
There were then one hundred and twenty miles
of roads and four bridges, and the sum of
twenty-seven thousand dollars was appropri-
ated for their maintenance and extension. In
political faith and allegiance he has always
been an active working Republican, and in fra-
ternal- life has for many years belonged to the
order of Odd Fellows. His parents were Wil-
liam and Laura Langstaff, the former a native
of Yorkshire, England, and the latter of Michi-
gan. They located in Wisconsin at an early
period and the father built the first smelter in
that state. He was a successful business man
and died in 1871, his wife also passing away.
Both belonged to the Methodist church. Six
of their nine children are living: William, at
Cripple Creek; Mary A. (Mrs. James Wilson),
at Beloit, Wisconsin; John J., at Rifle; Jennie,
at Boulder; Margaret (Mrs. Edward Crane),
at Beloit, Wisconsin; and Bartholomew, at
Parachute, this state.
CHARLES L. TODD.
Doubly orphaned in his childhood by the
death of his mother at his birth and of his
father when he was nine years old, Charles L.
Todd, one of the successful and progressive
ranch and cattle men living in the neighbor-
hood of Rifle, Garfield county, this state, was
thrown upon his own resources early in life
and has been obliged to make his own way in
the world ever since. He was born at Levant,
Penobscot county, Maine, on November 7,
1855, and is the son of John and Helen Todd,
the father a native of Nova Scotia and the
mother of Maine. The father was a carpenter
and worked many years at his trade, but de-
voted the later part of his life to merchandising,
at which he was moderately successful. In
politics he was a Republican and in church con-
nection both were Methodists. The mother
died on November 7. 1855, the day her son
Charles was born, and the father in 1864. They
had four children, all of whom are living, Silas
at Leadville, Eva (Mrs. Charles Taylor) in New
Hampshire, Emma (Mrs. Robert Brenton) at
Rifle, and the subject of this review. At the
age of twelve the latter moved to AVisconsin
and found a home with Alonzo Wing, through
whom he received a good education, pursuing
a general course of instruction in the Jefferson
University in that state. After completing this
he entered a grocer}' store as clerk and book-
keeper, where he remained a year and half.
In the winter of 1871 he went to Chicago, and
there he associated with J. L. Sterner in busi-
ness, and later passed five years in some of the
eastern cities in a variety of occupations. In
April, 1879, he came to Colorado and located
at Georgetown, where he followed mining until
1885, at first working for wages and afterward
on his own-account, and was quite successful.
In the year last named he moved to Rifle and
located a ranch three and a half miles east of
the town in the Cactus valley. Here he is now
living and since settling on this land he has
been actively engaged in ranching and raising
cattle with increasing success and profit. He
has sold a portion of his land but still owns a
good ranch which has a plentiful supply of
water from a right of its own, and as he omits
7 8 4
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
no effort due on his part to make it productive
he realizes excellent returns from his labor. In
connection with his ranching he opened a store
on the place in 1886 which he conducted until
1888, then sold it. Afterward he organized
the Western Mercantile Company, whose in-
terests were afterward sold and are now a part
of the establishment of Hughes & Company.
In the autumn of 1898, on October 1st, he
started the store he is now conducting in part-
nership with Albert Ziezeniss. This is a first-
class, up-to-date gents' furnishing emporium,
with a complete stock of merchandise well
adapted to the community, and has in addition
a line of good millinery. It is one of the popu-
lar mercantile institutions of the section and
does a good business. In 1889 Mr. Todd was
appointed postmaster and in 1903 he was re-
appointed. He is a reliable working Repub-
lican in political allegiance and fraternally lie-
longs to the Odd Fellows. He owns valuable
mining claims in addition to his ranch and mer-
cantile business, and gives his personal atten-
tion to every enterprise in which he is in-
terested. In October, 1884, he was married
to Miss Minnie Holfernine, a native of Den-
mark. They have had five children. One died
in infancy, and May, Lillian, Gertrude and
Thelma are living.
BENJAMIN WHITEHEAD LEWIS.
The great American republic has in many
ways reset the conditions of life and changed
long established beliefs in numerous lines of
thought and action. Until the gigantic enter-
prises which distinguished the development ot
her enormous northwestern territories were pur
into successful operation no one thought of
looking for mercantile or business industries
of magnitude outside the mighty marts of com-
merce. America has taught the world that
they can lie conducted on an enormous scale in
the very heart of an almost unbroken wilder-
ness. One of the most impressive illustrations
of this fact is furnished by the career and
achievements of the late Benjamin Whitehead
Lewis, of Gunnison, whose death on October
23, 1903. after an illness of only a few hours,
left his great work unfinished but so far de-
veloped as to make it a lasting monument to
his executive ability, financial genius and ca-
pacity for large affairs. The business enter-
prises which he put in motion and conducted
with emphatic success were of such character
and magnitude as to forcibly engage attention
and almost stagger belief, even here in the west,
where men have their vision adapted to colossal
proportions in everything. Mr. Lewis was
born at Glasgow, Missouri, on August 14, 1840,
and was the son of Benjamin W. and Amanda
(Barton) Lewis, natives of Virginia, who emi-
grated to Missouri when young and were mar-
ried at Glasgow in that state. There the father
became a tobacco merchant on an extensive
scale, in fact, one of the largest in the United
States at the time, with warehouses also in Lon-
don. England. He and his wife died some
years ago in the town which had been the
scene of his great operations, and their remains
were buried there. Their son Benjamin was
reared in his native town and received a liberal
education from private instructors at Fayette,
Missouri. While yet a young man he entered
the business of his father, and during the Civil
war was its representative in London. Near
the close of the war he returned to Ins home
and assumed entire charge of the business.
Soon afterward he opened his principal office
in New York city, and about 1870. owing to
tin- high war tax on tobacco, he retired from
his chosen line and, going to St. Louis, or-
ganized the Merrimac Iron and the Big Muddy
Coal companies, which carried on extensive
liusiiK-ss with mines located in southwestern
Missouri, and works and blast furnaces at
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
785
Grand Tower. Later he became connected with
the Kansas City & Northern Railroad and was
made its president. During his tenure in this
office he extended the line from St. Joseph,
Missouri, to Council Bluffs, Iowa. When the
Wabash gained control of the road the presi-
dency of the system was offered him, but find-
ing himself in conflict with the Goulds, ho de-
clined the offer and retired from the railroad
business. Before doing so, however, he con-
summated the sale and transfer of the Missouri
Pacific from Commodore Garrison to Ja\
Gould, one of the largest deals of its kind in
the history of the country up to that time. He
next gave his attention to operating in grain
on the St. Louis stock exchange and acquired
considerable wealth by his operations. About
1880 he became interested in mines in various
parts of Colorado, principally at Leadville and
in the neighborhood of Gunnison, and came
into possession of some of the most extensive
iron mines in the country. His great ambition
was to make Gunnison a second Pittsburg on
account of its natural advantages in iron and
coal, and with this end in view he became one
of the leading builders and promoters of the
place. In 1883 he put up the La Veta Hotel,
one of the finest buildings in the state, four
stories high, one hundred by one hundred and
twenty-five feet in size, with one hundred and
fifty rooms for guests, and constructed of brick
and stone, the house and its furnishings cost-
ing about two hundred and fifty thousand dol-
lars. About the same time he organized the
Gunnison Gas & Water Company, which
furnishes light and protection from fire to the
city, and a little later built the electric light
plant of the city. In 1885 he built the Tomichi
Valley Smelter at Gunnison, at a cost of two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and ex-
pended large sums in operating it. but without
success on account of unfair discrimination in
railroad rates. He worked for years and spent
50
fortunes to bring about his one desired result,
that of making Gunnison a great smelting and
steel manufacturing town, and in his efforts
acquired extensive holdings in iron mines. At
various times he had good opportunities to sell
these to great advantage, but in every deal that
was undertaken he made it a condition that
w 1 irks should be established at Gunnison in
case the sale were consummated, and this con-
dition being unwelcome to the intending pur-
chaser, he retained the almost inexhaustible
iron ore deposits of this region to the day of
his death, in all things proving his unswerving
loyalty to the town of his choice ami benefac-
tions, which he did more to build up and de-
velop than any other man. In the midst of his
great usefulness, and while his mighty projects
were yet unfinished, he was fatally stricken and
died a few hours later. His wife and daughter
were at Hot Springs, Arkansas, at the time,
but they hastened home in season to be present
at the imposing funeral, which was held in
Denver, his remains being buried from the
home of Rev. Dean Hart, one of his intimate
friends in that city. He was married in 1867
to Miss Anna McCreery, a native of that city
and daughter of Phocion and Mary J. (Hynes)
McCreery, the former a native of Kentucky
and the latter of Nashville, Tennessee, both of
whom died in St. Louis. The father was a
member of the old and widely known dry
goods firm of Crow, McCreery & Company.
In the Lewis household eight children were
born. One son, Humphries, died in 1898.
aged seventeen years. Robert B., Marv Mc-
Creery, Amanda E., wife of K. L. Fahnestock,
of Leadville, William H., Anna E.. McCreery
and Irwin are living. On the fame of
this man of great enterprise and capacity.
whose life was devoted to pursuits of magni-
tude which provided employment for thousands
of willing heads and hands, and furnished com-
fort for hundreds of happy homes, time set be-
786
PROGRESS! I'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
fore he went hence the seal which is seldom set
except upon the fame of the departed; for he
was known throughout the country as a great
captain of industry long before his death.
JOHN D. MOOG.
Many lines of useful industry and the
claims of public office in the service of the peo-
ple occupy the time and energies of the in-
teresting subject of this sketch, who besides
being an excellent farmer and enteq^rising
stock man, is a good business factor, well
qualified official and one of the best surveyors
and civil engineers in the western part of the
state. He was born at Trarbacb. Germany, on
June 24, 1857, the son of John D. and Sophie
Mi H>g, who passed their lives in the fatherland,
as their forefathers did for many generations
before them, the mother, who died on Septem-
ber 10, 1901, having been laid to rest in her
natal soil. The father is still living where he
was born and is a prosperous miller and wine-
grower, owning large vineyards. He belongs
to the Lutheran church, as his wife did. Five
children composed their family, of whom three
are living, Sophie, John D. and Max. John
received a liberal education in his native land,
attending the public or state schools and also a
technical school where he learned civil
engineering and surveying. He served the
government in his profession three years, and
was afterward employed in the same capacity
in the land office. Coming to the United
States in 1880, he located in Nebraska, but
not liking the conditions in that state, he moved
to 'Colorado in 188 1. Here he soon found con-
genial and profitable employment in the office
of the assistant general superintendent of the
Rio Grande Railroad and also in that of the
general road master, and afterward as an ac-
countant for the same company. Tn 1889 he
moved to Meeker and located a ranch near
Yellow creek. The situation not being pleas-
ing to him, he bought the improvements 011
another ranch of one hundred and sixty acres
on Miller creek. He has made subsequent
purchases until he now owns five hundred and
sixty acres. He has made extensive improve-
ments and can cultivate two hundred and fifty
acres of the tract, and having the first water
right along the line, he produces excellent
crops of hay, grain and vegetables. He also
raises cattle and horses extensively, both being
of good grades, many of the horses of the
French coaching strain. The ranch is fifteen
miles southeast of Meeker. Taking a warm
interest in the local affairs of the county, Mr.
Moog has served as count)' surveyi ir since the
fall of 1893, and he also served as water com-
missioner from 1895 to 1904. Tn business he
is interested in the Meeker Oil Company and
other enterprises of value. He is a stanch
Democrat in political faith and always active
in the service of his party. In his profession
he has a high rank, being considered hv many
the best surveyor in the county, and in that
line of activity he has done a great amount of
very valuable work. He was married on May
28, 1900, to Airs. Jack Card, born Miss Mar-
garet Watson. Mr. and Mrs. Moog are the
parents of one son, John \Y.
JOHN B. GOFF.
A renowned hunter and trapper with a
large number of pelts to his credit, a tourists'
guide who has led many distinguished parties
to extended pleasures and triumphs of sports-
manship, and a ranchman of pronounced enter-
prise and progressiveness, John B. Goff, of
Meeker, is one of the best known men in this
part of the country and one of the most useful
and respected citizens of his county. He is a
native of Montgomery county. Indiana, born
on May 27. 1866, and was there educated to a
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF U'ESTERX COLORADO.
78:
limited extent in the public schools. At the
age of fifteen he began to work for himself as
a farm hand in Kansas, whither his parents
moved in 1868. He remained in that state
until 1883, then came to Colorado and located
at Meeker, which at that time had but twenty
inhabitants, four of whom were women. He
located a ranch on strawberry creek six miles
west of the village, which he retained two
years, improved, and sold at a profit. In 1886
he leased a ranch on Mesa which he held
two years, then sold his equipment and cattle
there, after which he freighted for two years
with a ten-horse team for Hughes & Company,
between Meeker and Rifle, an occupation which
inured him to privation and danger and gave
him readiness for any emergency. He next
turned his attention to hunting and trapping
and became a guide for tourists and bunting
parties, having for both pursuits special fitness
acquired in his long and varied experience in
western life. In these occupations he is -till
engaged, and has an outfit for the purpose com-
prising forty horses, pack and saddle animals,
and twenty-five hounds and dogs, and being
therefore fully equipped for almost am de-
mand the business may make upon his re-
sources. He has killed himself and treed for
other parties in all more than three hundred
and fifty mountain lions and one hundred bears
and has slain every other form of wild animal
to be found in Colorado, Wyoming ami
Mexico. He is thoroughly versed in every
phase of woodcraft, and well qualified to take
his part and upbuild his reputation in any
game country. As a guide be was with Presi-
dent Roosevelt in his five weeks' bunting t( >ur
of recent date. The ranch he now owns com-
prises one hundred and sixty acres eight mile-
west of Meeker, and the water supply is suf-
ficient for the cultivation of one hundred and
twenty-five acres. The crops are those usually
produced in the section, hay, grain and vege-
tables, and are abundant in quantity and excel-
lent in quality. His cattle and his business as
a guide are his main resources, however, al-
though the products of the soil furnish a sub-
stantial addition to his revenues. In the fra-
ternal life of the community he takes an in-
terest as a member of the Woodmen of the
World and in politics as a Republican. In
March, 1885, be was married to Miss Mattie
Myrick, a native of Iowa, reared in Kansas.
They have four children. Laura. Byron, Wal-
ter and Earl. Mr. Goff's parents are Byron
and Fannie Goff. the father a native of Ken-
tucky and the mother of Indiana. The father
is a carpenter and worked at his trade in
Kansas in connection with farming. The fam-
ily moved to Meeker in 1888, and here the
parents have since maintained their home.
Eight children composed their offspring, seven
of whom are living, Harry, Josiah, John B.,
Homer, Andrew. Bertha (Mrs. Joseph Ral-
ston), and Celia (Mrs. Jack Burns). The
father is a Populist in political allegiance and
has been successful in business. Both father
and son have lived usefully and creditablv and
have won the guerdon of their fidelity to duty
in the lasting regard of their fellow citizens.
WILLIAM H. GOFF.
One of the most popular citizens and suc-
cessful ranchers and cattle-growers of Rio
Blanco county is William H. Goff, who is com-
fortably established on a ranch of four hun-
dred and eighty acres fifteen miles west of the
village of Rangely and is an older brother of
John B. Goff, of Meeker (see sketch elsewhere
in this volume). He was born in Montgomery
county. Indiana, on November 29. 1855, ani '
there received a meager education in the public
schools. He assisted his parents on the home
farm until he reached the age of twentv-one.
then secured land in Kansas, where thev were
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
living at the time, in Osage county, and farmed
it, conducting a meat market and livery busi-
ness in addition, until 1882. In November of
that year he sold all his interests in Kansas and
moved to Colorado, where he at once secured
employment as a range rider for Ora Haley,
an extensive cattle-grower, with whom he re-
mained thirteen months. In January, 1884, he
moved to Meeker and secured a contract for
carrying the mails between that town and
Grand River, meeting the dangers of the busi-
ness with courage and self-reliance and endur-
ing its hardships of weather and privation
with fortitude and cheerfulness. At the
termination of this contract he began raising
and trading in stock which he continued to do
to 1893. At that time he moved to the west-
ern portion of Rio Blanco county on the state
line, where he took up a desert claim which
is a portion of the ranch on which he now lives.
He has added to its extent until he has four
hundred and eighty acres, of which one hun-
dred acres are under cultivation. His crops
are hay, grain, hardy vegetables and fruit, and
the yield is good. In addition to his ranching
industry Mr. Goff has for some years con-
ducted one in supplying the neighboring In-
dians with needed provisions, paying particu-
lar attention to raising cattle and horses for
this purpose. He is also interested in the Union
Oil Company, and formerly had some shares
of ownership in the Gilsonite mines, but dis-
posed of the latter to good advantage. In the
public and fraternal life of the community Mr.
Goff has ever been earnestly interested, being a
strong Democrat in political faith and belong-
ing to the Woodmen of the World. He was
married on March 9. 188 1, to Miss Mary R.
Hart, a native of Morgan county, Ohio, and
daughter of John and Mary A. Hart, also born
in that state. Her father is a prosperous
father ami busy saw-mill owner and manager.
The family comprises five children, Sarah,
Ella, Mary, Sherman and Emily, all of whom
are living. Mr. and Mrs. Goff have had four
children, two of whom died in infancy and a
son named Leroy on July 1, 1883. The living
child is their son Claude L. Mr. Goff is prac-
tically a self-made man and has made his own
way in the world. His progress has been steady
and continual, through effort and trial, not
showy or spectacular, but along the lines of
quiet and peaceful industry. He is an example
to others in the manliness with which he has ,
performed every duty and the courage with
which he has assumed every proper responsi-
bility ; and he is held in the highest esteem by
all classes of his community because of his
sterling worth and elevated citizenship.
EDDIE P. WILBUR.
When the active, enterprising and public-
spirited citizen who is the subject of this sketch
settled in Rio Blanco county in September,
1882, only two stock men lived in the White
river valley. There were few roads and almost
no bridges in the region. The land was in its
state of primitive nature, productive of its wild
growth of little use for civilized life and' yield-
ing grudgingly to the hand of the husbandman.
There were no ditches for irrigation and large
acreages were too arid for cultivation. In-
dians and wild animals still roamed about at
will insulting the lone majesty of night with
their hideous deeds, and white men, not yet
present in sufficient numbers to provide the
community of effort necessary for self-defense,
were practically at the mercy of nature's un-
tamed children who jealously resisted the in-
trusion and encroachments of the strangers.
Mr. Wilbur has therefore the distinction of be-
ing one of the patriarchs of the section and can
look around him and see in almost every evi-
dence of progress and improvement a tribute
to his daring, endurance, constructive enter-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
789
prise and breadth of view. He helped to build
the first ditch in the county and also the Old
Agency, Miller and Oakridge ditches, and the
Meeker townsite as well. He took an active
part in the inevitable Indian troubles, espe-
cially those occurring at the time when warrants
were issued for the arrest of troublesome Utes
in [887. Then he, Mr. Gilley, James Van
Cleve, and Frank Clark buried Jack Benner,
Mart Holden and Edward Archie, victims of
savage fury. He was the guide of the troop
that made the arrests and quelled the conse-
quent uprising, and one of its leaders in action.
He was the first juror summoned to service in
the county, Breckenridge then being the county
scat. He served as marshal of Meeker from
1890 to 1894, sheriff of the county from [893
to 1897, member of the county high school
board for many years, and since T897 has
teen secretary of the Coal Creek school board.
His life began in Schenectady county. New
York, on September 22, 1862, and he is the
son of David V. and Norine Wilbur, natives of
New York state. In his early manhood the
father was a farmer, but his later years were
devoted to work at his trade as a carpenter. I te
was a Republican in politics and both parents
were Methodists. Of their nine children six
are living, Charles E. H.. Julius R., Bradford
B., Eddie P., Aggie, wife of William Showers,
and Ella, wife of Frank E. Watson. The
father died in August, 1900. and the mother
is living at Meeker. Mr. Wilbur attended the
public schools and worked on the home farm
until he was seventeen. He then moved to
Chicago and for a number of years worked at
different employments, among them driving
piles at the docks, and boating between that
city and Buffalo. In 188 1 he came to Colorado
and located at Denver where he worked at hard
labor for several months. In March, 1882, he
moved to Cheyenne. Wyoming, and there con-
tinued working as a laborer, finally shipping out
on the Oregon Short Line for labor in the em-
ployment of that road; but being dissatisfied
with the boss in charge, he left the train and
went forward on foot, his blankets packed on
his back, the snow deep and troublesome, and
his provision along the hard and difficult way
being one meal a day, and that often a scant
one. After some considerable effort and
through hardships he will never forget, . he
reached Idaho and secured employment with
the Union Pacific Railroad. A short time after-
ward he went to freighting for the government
and in the spring of 1882 for Hughes &
Adams, at the same time furnishing hay and
wood for the government under contract. In
September following he located the ranch on
which he now lives, one hundred and sixty
acres of it, adding eighty acres afterward by
purchase. Of this tract two hundred acres are
under cultivation and yield good crops, while
cattle and horses furnish his chief resource.
Fraternally he belongs to the Woodmen of the
World and politically he is independent. On
Christmas day, 1888, he was married to Miss
Mollie E. Watson, a daughter of John A. Wat-
son (see sketch elsewhere in this work). Mr.
and Mrs. Wilbur have had five children, of
whom Ella P.. Arthur E., George D. and Mary
P. are living, and Frankie died in August,
1890.
FRANK A. HARKER.
Although born in the Cherokee nation. In.
dian Territory. Frank A. Harker became a
resilient of Colorado at so early an age that he
may almost be considered wholly a product of
the state. He has entered so fully into the spirit
of its enterprise and the pursuits of its people
that he has become one of its most progressive
and successful ranch men, and as such has
contributed materially to its advancement and
the business success which has made so much
of its interesting and wonderful history. His
79°
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
life began on November 3, 1859, and lie is the
son of George and Adeline Harker, the former
a native of England and the latter of New
York state. The father emigrated to America
at the age of thirteen. After residing and
working at various places in this country, he
moved his famih to Colorado in i860 and took
up a ranch five miles east of Denver. Here he
met with serious losses by the flood of 1864 and
by having one hundred and fifty horses and
three hundred cattle stolen by the Indians : but
notwithstanding these losses he achieved a
substantial success in his ranching and stock in-
dustries and became a man of standing and in-
fluence in his section. He died in 1864, a mem-
ber of the Masonic order and the Republican
party. In 1872 the mother and the rest of the
family moved to the neighborhood of Colorado
Springs and continued ranching and raising
cattle, Frank managing the business. There
were three children in the family. Annie, then
Mrs. Leon Marcolt, died in 1890, and George
is living at Cripple Creek. Frank was edu-
cated in the common schools, and after leaving
sen, 11 ,1 took charge of the home ranch which
he managed until 1882. In connection there-
with, in 1871). he freighted between Colorado
Springs and Leadville, and in this work he suf-
fered many hardships, one winter freezing his
feet so badly that he was obliged to quit work
and lie up for recovery during a period of five
months. He afterward followed mining undejr
contract and also prospected two years in the
San Juan country. In 1884 he returned to his
home and the next year he pre-empted one hun-
dred and sixty acres of land five miles and a
half east of Meeker, to which he has added by
purchase three hundred and sixty acres. Of
tlie whole tract he can cultivate three hundred
and fifty acres and on this body he raises good
crops of the products suitable to the region. He
has made all the improvements on the place
himself and by his vigorous and skillful man-
agement has made the place one of the most
productive and desirable in the neighborhood
of its location. He is a very enterprising and
progressive ranch man, full of the spirit of
modern advancement in which each year is ex-
pected to mark a substantial move toward bet-
ter and more profitable results. In fraternal
circles he is connected with the Modern Wood-
men of America and the Woodmen of the
World, and in political affairs he supports the
Republican party. On March 19. 1891, he
was married to Miss Mattie Proctor and they
have three children, Leon R.. William A. and
Cora \. In tins part of Rio Blanco county
there is no more esteemed citizen and there is
none more worthy of the standing he has
among his fellow men. In business, in social
relations, in the public local interests of the
community and in the ordinary duties of citi-
zenship he has met his responsibilities faith-
fully, regardless of opposition where that has
confronted him and in spite of difficulties
where they have beset his path.
HENRY PIERSON.
The life of Henry Pierson, of Rio Blanco
county, although passing along smoothly for
the greater part in useful labor, has not been
devoid of incident and adventure of an exciting
nature, nor free from danger and privation. He
was born on June 18, 1848, in Sweden, where
his parents, Peter and Hannah (Hanson) Pier-
si hi, were also native. The father was a miner
in his home country, and after the removal of
the family to the United States in 1878, he be-
came a well-to-do farmer in Nebraska, where
hi .tli parents ended their days. They had seven
children, and six of them are living, Ida. wile
of Swan N. Swanson, Henry, Anna, wife of
Olaf Windel. Carrie, wife of Nelson Wiudel.
Betsie and Ellen, wife of Peter Windel. Henry
attended the state schools in his native land.
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
79i
and after leaving school assisted his parents in
providing for his living, working in the mines
with his father. He emigrated to the United
States, reaching Chicago with but twenty-five
cents in money. In that city he was employed
in paving streets until 1863, when he enlisted
in the Union army in which he served to the
close of the Civil war. After the war he set-
tled in Colorado, and with headquarters at Cen-
tral City and Georgetown, engaged in mining
and prospecting from 1870 to 1885. When the
excitement over the discover) of gold in the
Black Hills broke out he joined the stampede
to that promising field, and when Leadville at-
tracted the attention of the mining world as a
new eldorado, he transferred his energies to
that camp. He was also among the first ar-
rivals at Aspen, locating there when the village
had only twenty white inhabitants. In 1885
he bought a ranch on Bear creek near Morrison
on which he was occupied in general ranching
until 1892. He then sold that property and
purchased the one he now owns, a ranch of one
hundred and sixty acres in the original bodj . to
which he has added one hundred and twenty
acres by a subsequent purchase. Here he has
sufficient water for the cultivation of one hun-
dred and sixty acres, and carries on farming
and raising cattle on a large scale. The ranch
is well located five miles west of Meeker, within
easy reach of a good market for its products,
and he has improved it with good buildings and
made it fruitful by judicious and industrious
cultivation. Mr. Pierson was married in 1873,
to Miss Mary Uawson, a native of Sweden.
who died on February 28. 1887, leaving six of
their seven children to survive her, Mrs. J. E.
Crook, Benjamin, Alfred, Minnie, Harry and
Edna. The other child, a son named Nelson,
died some years ago. On November 21, 1888,
the father married a second wife, Miss Betsie
Harbardson, also born in Sweden, the daughter
of Harbar and Mary (Ericsson) Harbardson,
who passed the wdiole of their lives in their na-
tive land. They were members of the Lutheran
church, farmers by occupation and the parents
nf six children, two of whom are living, Carrie
and Mrs. Pierson. By his second marriage Mr.
Pierson became the father of two children.
Claude and Peter. He supports the Demo-
cratic party in political affairs, and takes an ac-
tive interest in the progress of his county and
state. Among the incidents of thrilling inter-
est which he witnessed in the early days of his
residence in this state were the scalping of An-
derson and Burklin in the Black Hills and the
burning to death of a man tied to a tree at
Aspen in 1881, both attrocities perpetrated by
Indians.
JOHN DELANEY.
From the Emerald Isle, which has given so
much of talent, vivacity, versatility and useful
labor in various lines of productive effort to
our country, came the prominent and progres-
sive cattle and ranchman who is the subject of
this article. He was born in Ireland on April
23, 1847, the son of John and Mary Delaney,
also Irish by nativity, as their forefathers were
for many generations before them. The fam-
ily emigrated to the United States in 1854 and
took up their residence in the state of New
York. Here the father, who had been a whole-
sale grocer and liquor merchant at Dublin in
his native land, and also a farmer in the vicinity
of that city, became a manufacturer of paper.
and was making steady progress to a successful
business career in this country when in 1861
death cut short his life and usefulness, he hav-
ing for five years survived his wife who died
in 1856. Thus orphaned at the age of four-
teen, their son John, the second born of their
three living children, the other two being Mary
A. and Theresa, was thrown on his own re-
sources and, stimulated by the sharp spur of
necessity, began to make bis own way in the
792
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
world with commendable industry and frugal-
ity. He had received a limited education at the
common schools in the neighborhood of his
home, and in starting out for himself found
employment as a farm hand, an occupation to
which he adhered for a number of years in New
York and Pennsylvania. In 1880 he became a
resident of Colorado, and during the next
seven years devoted his time to mining at va-
rious places on the Western slope. In 1887.
having determined to turn his attention to
ranching and the stock industry, he took up a
ranch of one hundred and sixty acres by pre-
emption, the one on which lie has since made
his home. In addition to this he has pur-
chased three hundred and twenty acres, and of
the whole tract he cultivates three hundred
acres in the ordinary farm products of the re-
gion in which he lives. His principal reliance
in his business is, however, the cattle he raises
and handles, and in this line of enterprise he is
very successful, conducting his operations on a
large scale and with excellent results. He is a
leading citizen of his section of the county, an
earnest Democrat in politics, a cordial sup-
porter and helpful aid in all undertakings for
the good of his community and a widely known
and esteemed citizen. He was married in 1872
to Miss Sarah Durkin. They have had eight
children. John B. died on December 13, 1900.
and Mary, Sarah, James. Edward, Anna B..
Frank and Joseph are living. All the family be-
long to the Catholic church. In his life in this
state Mr. Delaney has seen some strenuous
times. In 1887, when there was an Indian out-
break in the vicinity of his new home, and lie
happened to be at Glenwood Springs, although
he bad plenty of money for the purpose, he was
unable to hire any one to take him home so
that he could assist in putting down the sav-
ages; -o he was obliged to make the trip on
foot, but he reached the scene of action in time
to be of material assistance in protecting the
community and restoring' peace.
FARRELL McLAUGHLIN.
More than sixty years ago the useful life
which it is the purpose of this writing to briefly
outline began in the western portion of Ireland.
The subject is a descendant of long lines of
Irish ancestry, who turned the glebe in the
isle of flowers for many generations, or other-
wise added by their labors to the commercial
or industrial wealth of the country. He was
lorn on April 25, 1843, and is the son of Henry
and Bridget McLaughlin, who emigrated from
their own hospitable shores to the larger liber-
ties and greater opportunities of the United
States and settled in the state of Xew York
at Troy. The father was a farmer, and took an
earnest interest in the political activities of his
adopted land as a leading Democrat in his lo-
cality. Both parents died a number of years
ago leaving three of their eight children to sur-
vive them, all of whom are yet living, Hugh.
Henry and Farrell. The last named attended
the common schools in his boyhood and early
youth, but has learned his best and most useful
lessons in the exacting but thorough school of
experience. In 1863, when he was twenty
years old, he left his father's home, and after
following a number of different vocations, in
T874 opened a produce commission house
which he conducted two years without much
success. In 187!) he became a resident of
Blackhawk in Gilpin county, this state, and dur-
ing the next three years engaged in mining for
wages and prospecting on his own account. In
1879 he moved to Leadville, then one of the
busiest camps in the state, and for live years
thereafter he did a thriving butchering busi-
ness in partnership with William L. Otterpach.
Then selling out his interest there, he changed
his residence to Rio Blanco county and gave
his attention to raising cattle on the open
range. At this time he located the ranch now-
occupied by James Ed Hall which he after-
ward sold to that gentleman. He then bought
PROGRESSIVE MUX OF WESTERN COLORADO.
793
another on Piceance creek which lie held until
1890, when he moved to his present home near
Rangely. He now owns two quarter-sections
and has two hundred acres of good land under
cultivation. He is also extensively engaged in
the cattle business with profitable returns. His
land is well irrigated from two ditches which he
owns, and as he omits no effort needed for its
proper cultivation, he realizes abundant harv-
ests from its fertile soil. Although by nature
and desire a peaceful man, Mr. McLaughlin
has not escaped the common lot of the pioneers
in trouble with the Indians. He assisted in
driving the hostile Utes out of his section of the
state in 1879, and did not hesitate to take his
place in other engagements with the savages
from time when occasion required it. In the
public life of the county he has ever been active
and serviceable. He served as count}* com-
missioner four years, and is generally con-
ceded to have been one of the best men the
count)' ever had in this office. He was elected
as a Populist, but had previously been a Demo-
crat. He was united in marriage with Mrs.
Conway Fitzpatrick. a native of Macon, Mis-
souri, and they have seven children, Belle :
Catherine. Hannah, Eliza, Ora, Reba, and one
other. The parents belong to the Catholic
church.
ROBERT REIGAN.
Coming to Colorado when he was but nine-
teen years of age, and with almost no capital
except his natural endowments of mind and
body and a slender common-school education,
through his quickness of perception and vigor
of action in the opportunities offered by the
state to men of energy and capacity, Robert
Reigan, of Rio Blanco county, has acquired a
large extent of property and built up a good
business in general ranching and raising cat-
tle. He has also risen to prominence among
the citizens of his localitv and made substan-
tial contributions toward the development and
improvement of the country. He is a native of
Iowa county, Wisconsin, where he was born on
September 25, 1858. His father, Patrick Rei-
gan, was born and reared in Ireland and came
to America when a young man. Here he mar-
ried, and soon afterward they moved to Wis-
consin, where they passed the rest of their lives
in profitable farming. Both belonged to the
Catholic church. Their offspring numbered
twelve, and of these their son Michael died in
1887, and two others, James and Patrick, were
killed in 1885 by an explosion of their home
arranged for by cattle rustlers whom they re-
fused to aid in thefts of stock from the neigh-
boring farms. They were sleeping when the
explosion occurred and had no chance to es-
cape. The nine living children are John, Mary,
Ellen, Thomas, Theresa, Robert, Johanna.
Morris and Alice. The parents are dead. Their
son Robert assisted them in the work of the
farm until some of the younger boys were able
to take his place, then in 1877, he came to Colo-
rado and located at Georgetown, where he
passed two years mining for wages and on
leased properties. In 1879 he transferred his
energies to Leadville, where he mined a year
under contract. From 188 1 to 1884 he was
manager of the Minnie A. Y. mines, and in the
latter year, desiring to turn his attention to
ranching and raising stock, he bought an out-
fit for the purpose at Denver which he brought
to Piceance creek and there he pre-empted his
present home ranch of one hundred and sixty
acres. He has since purchased three additional
quarter sections, and of the six hundred and
forty acres he now owns two hundred and fifty
are well watered and under cultivation. He
raises an abundance of farm products common
to the locality and large numbers of cattle. His
undertakings in these lines have been wisely
managed, vigorously developed and success-
fully operated. He has exhibited also such in-
794
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
terest and activity in the public life of the com-
munity that he has risen to prominence in the
councils of the Democratic party of which he is
an enthusiastic and influential member. On
December 17, 1890, he united in marriage with
Miss Minnie Lochrau, who was born in Ire-
land and reared in the United States. They
have had six children. Of these Louis J. is
deceased and Ellen, Robert, Alice, Patrick and
Catherine are living.
OWEN H. LUNNY.
The blessings of a free and unsettled coun-
try like the United States to the overcrowded
populations of the older lands, and which has
aptly been called the great charity of God to the
human race, can be fully estimated only by
those who have experienced them and their
benefits, and can not be overestimated by any-
body. Their voice has been loud and persuasive
for several hundred years, and has been heeded
by uncounted millions, who have come hither to
secure and enjoy them, and in doing so have
not only found wide and multiform opportuni-
ties for their own advancement, but have also
helped to magnify in volume and increase in
value their service to the race. Among the men
of thrift and substance, who in their youth
sought the benefits thus offered and have used
them to their own advantage, is Owen H.
Lunny, of Rio Blanco county, this state, win 1
came to our shores when he was a boy of fif-
teen, and has since been diligent in employing
his opportunities for his own good and the
good of the country itself. He is a native of
Ireland, born on May 26, 1866, and the son of
Owen and Ella Lunny. natives of that country
and belonging to families resident there from
time immemorial. The father was an indus-
trious farmer and raised cattle for market on a
small scale. There were nine children in the
family, seven of whom are living, Mary. Ella,
Owen H., Peter H., James, Hugh and Edward.
The father has been dead a number of years
and the mother is still living in her native land.
Owen attended the common schools in the
vicinity of his home when he could, which was
but seldom and not long at a time, for the en-
ergy of every member of the family was re-
quired to aid in the work on the home farm.
When he reached the age of fifteen he emi-
grated to the United States, and after remain-
ing in the state of New York two years, en-
gaged in any occupation that offered, he came
to Colorado, arriving in 1883 and locating at
Leadville. Here he mined for wages and under
lease, and also at times served as engineer in
running a steam pump. In 1885 he moved to
Rio Blanco county and pre-empted one hun-
dred and sixty acres of land on Coal creek,
which he at once settled on and began to im-
prove. As time passed and he prospered in his
enterprise, he added to his domain until he now
owns one thousand, five hundred acres of land
and has three hundred of it under cultivation.
He started early in the stock business and has
increased the scope of his interests in it to its
present extent, which is one of large propor-
tions and leading importance in his neighbor-
hood. As a helpmate in his labors and a partic-
ipant in his success, he secured by marriage on
July 2. 1803, Miss Anna S. .Meagher, his de-
voted wife and the mother of his one child.
They have lived prosperously and happily in
their new home, which has been improved and
developed by their own efforts, and they enjoy
in a marked degree the confidence and esteem of
those who know them throughout the com-
munity in which their useful lives are passing
ELIJAH B. THOMPSON.
From his youth the subject of this sketch
has been connected actively with the stock in-
dustry, and he has learned the business by prac-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLOR, tin*.
795
tical experience in even- department of it. His
life began in Tuolumne county. California, on
August 27, 1856, and he is the son of George
and Sarah (Blakesley) Thompson, farmers of
Virginia who moved to California soon after
the discovery of gold in that state. There the
father devoted his attention to mining and in
his work discovered and located several valu-
able properties, among them the Red Bluff gold
mine, which he discovered on March 9, [857.
There were two children born in the family.
Obediah and Elijah. The latter had no oppor-
tunities for attending school beyond a period
of six days. He reached man's estate through
labor and privation, enduring hardships and
encountering dangers of various kinds in the
wild, unsettled country in which his earlier
years were passed, and as soon as he was able
became a range rider in the cattle industry. In
the employ of the Pitchfork Land & Cattle
Company he drove cattle from Texas to
Rockyford. in this state, bringing them over
the trail in the absence of definite roads, and
also served the company in other ways during a
period of ten years, being their foreman seven
years of the time. He became a resident of
Colorado in 1884. and on May 30. 1890, pur-
chased a ranch of three hundred and twenty
acres on Snake river where he was busily oc-
cupied in ranching and raising cattle and hi irses
until 1900. Here he suffered many reverses,
but in spite of them he made steady progress.
On November 4, 1898, his buildings were de-
stroyed by hostile Indians who had risen
against the whites because their destruction of
game was ordered stopped by the game warden.
Thev gave the settlers a great deal of trouble
over this order, and as Mr. Thompson was able
to speak the Mexican language, he served as
interpreter in bringing about a settlement of
the dispute. One battle was fought in which
six Indians were killed, and during the tur-
moil he was himself marked for slaughter, the
notorious Tom Horn having arranged to kill
him and four other men on October 27th. The
plot was only partially successful, Isham Dart
being killed by the desperado on the date
named and Matthew Rasch by the same hand
on October 4th, the others, Mr. Thompson,
Joseph Davenport and Samuel Bassett. escap-
ing. From 1900 to May, 1904, Mr. Thompson
was engaged in the livery business and in deal-
ing in horses, and he is now located on a g 1
ranch of three hundred and sixty acres on Wil-
liams's fork. He has three hundred acres under
cultivation, raising good crops of hay. grain
and vegetables, and also carries on a thriving
cattle industry. In political life he is an earn-
est Democrat and fraternally belongs to the
Woodmen of the World. In May, 1890. he
was married to Miss Arm' da Bowner. who was
born in Wisconsin. Three children have been
born to them. One died in infancy and Lyman
B. and Anama are living. It should be men-
tioned as a matter of interest that there are
large deposits of bituminous dial on Mr.
Thompson's land and the outlook for the vig-
orous and profitable working of mines there is
very promising.
ROBERT H. GREEN.
Born and reared on the frontier, and mak-
ing his preparation for the battle of life amid
its incidents of thrilling interest, wherein often
every day was fraught with danger, all time
was laden with toil, and the lot of man one of
hardship and privation, Robert H. Green grew
to manhood in an environment well adapted to
produce courage and self-reliance in spirit,
strength and suppleness of body, and self-
knowledge of the most valuable kind. His op-
portunities for education were found mainly
in the rugged school of experience, and his
knowledge of men in boyhood and youth was
o-ained almost wholly from contact with the
"96
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
hardy and resourceful pioneers. He was born
on a farm near Springfield. Missouri, on
March 27, 1855. and even in his boy-
hood had contact with the stirring ac-
tivities of our progressive colonization
which found expression in his section in
the border wars over the question of slavery.
He remained with his parents until he reached
the age of twenty, bearing a cheerful and
serviceable part in the labors of the farm, and
in 1875 set out for himself in a new country,
as they had done in their early lives. Coming
to Colorado then, be passed a year in various
occupations at Denver. In 1876 he rented a
ranch on Plumb creek, and during the next five
years he himself devoted to its improve-
ment and cultivation. In 1881 he re-
turned to Missouri, but not finding con-
ditions to his liking, and making no
financial headway by his reallv vigorous
efforts, he once more became a resident of Colo-
rado, leasing a ranch in Douglas county on
which he lived until 1885. He then moved to
Routt county and took up a homestead of one
hundred and sixty acres eight miles east of
Craig, which he sold after improving it. In
[894 lie purchased another, a part of which is
his present home. His purchase was a quar-
ter-section, but he has sold all except forty
acres, enough to suitably employ bis energies
in the ranching and cattle business which he
conducts on it, raising good crops of hay,
grain and vegetables, and numbers of high
grade cattle, the latter being his main source
of revenue. He has taken an active part in the
public local affairs of his county and grown to
prominence and influence among its people.
Earnestly supporting the Republican party in
political matters, he is regarded by the members
of the organization as wise in counsel and vig-
orous and serviceable in action, and has been
chosen by them to official station of promin-
ence and responsibility. He was elected county
commissioner in 1900 and for many vears has
served as a justice of the peace, and also as
school director. He was married on February
11, 1875, to Miss Eleanora Hays, who w.i
born in Missouri. Of their seven children a
daughter named Laura died in infancy, and
Irwin E., Wesley, Willis, Robert, Eleanora and
Alice are living. Mr. Green is the son of
Louis and Nancy Green, natives of Tennessee
and early emigrants to Missouri. In early life
the father was a farmer, but he is now engaged
in the Christian ministry in the Baptist church.
The mother died in 1898. Nine children were
born to them, of whom are living, Frank.
James, Benjamin, William, Ida and Robert H.
GEORGE W. WALKER.
Born at a pleasant home in the sunny
South, and beginning life with fair prospects of
advancement, the career of George W. Walker,
of near Craig, Routt county, illustrates the
irony of fortune which so often mocks the
brightest hopes of men. and also the advant-
ages of pluck, persistency, industry and frugal-
ity in this land of boundless opportunities. His
life began in Franklin county. Alabama, on
February 12, 1856. and he is the last born and
only surviving child of Anderson and Martha
Walker, the former a native of Georgia and the
latter of Alabama. They had a family of eight
children of whom seven are dead. The father
was a prosperous farmer for his day and sec-
tion, but died when the son was only ten years
old, his wife having passed away three years
before. Thus orphaned at the early age of ten
years, Mr. Walker saw all his prospects for a
good start in life laid in the graves of his par-
ents, and from the time of his father's death
was obliged to make his own way in the world.
At this time he migrated to Illinois, where he
remained and worked on farms for wages until
1882. His next three years were passed in Ne-
braska in the same employment, and in 1885
he came to Colorado and located on Hear river.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
79)
Here he pre-empted a tract of land and home-
steaded on another, securing three hundred and
eighty acres in all. The land was wild and un-
broken, given up wholly to unprofitable sage
brush and grease-wood. But with characteris-
tic energy he went to work at improving it and
making it productive with the result that he
now has one hundred acres under good cultiva-
tion and one of the desirable and profitable
ranches in his neighborhood. His principal
resources are hay and cattle, but he raises first-
rate crops of grain, vegetables and small fruits.
All the buildings and other improvements on
the ranch have been made by Mr. Walker, and
the place is a tribute to his enterprise, skill and
business capacity. He has also taken a warm
and serviceable interest in the local affairs of
his community, sparing no effort on bis part
toward its development and wholesome prog-
ress. He helped to build the first church in
Routt county, laying the stone foundation him-
self, this being one of the popular church edi-
fices at Craig and in many other ways he has
contributed to the substantial advancement of
every worthy interest in the neighborhood. On
arriving in this state his entire capital in
money was fifty cents, but he had in addition
a firm determination to succeed, an unyielding
energy, a resourceful self-reliance, and a keen
eye for good opportunities. Through these his
present success has been won, and as a self-
made man he is a credit to American citizen-
ship, and as such is universally esteemed
wherever he is known. He was married on
June 9, 1889, to Miss Mary Breeze, a native of
Illinois. They have one child, their daughter
Jennie E.
JULIAN P. MORIN.
A man's life of usefulness to his fellows
and success in his own affairs is the best tribute
to the uprightness of his character, the lofti-
ness of his motives, the steadfastness of his
purpose and the proper employment of his time
and faculties. Tried by this severe standard
Julian P. Morin, of near Padoga, Routt
county, one of the most representative and pro-
gressive ranchers and stock men of the Wil-
liams fork region is entitled to a high regard.
Without ostentation or self-seeking, except in
the domain of making his way successfully in
the world and providing for his family or
others who may be dependent upon him, he has
gone his way through every trial, performing
with fidelity and industry every daily duty,
true to himself and therefore necessarily true
to his fellows. Mr. Morin was born in the
province of Quebec, Canada, on February 19,
1835, and is the son of Samuel and Mary
Morin, the former born in France and the lat-
ter in Canada. The father came to this con-
tinent when young and settled in the province
of Quebec where he was married and became
an industrious and prosperous farmer. He died
in 1873 and the mother in 1S88. Two of then-
children survive them, their sons Joseph and
Julian. The latter grew to the age of seventeen
111 his native place, was educated in the com-
mon schools, and learned practical farming on
the paternal homestead, on which he remained
until 1S52. He then emigrated to Massachu-
setts, where he remained until 1858 and thor-
oughly learned the trade of a blacksmith. In
the year last named he returned to his native
land, wdiere he lived and wrought at his trade
until 1870. Desiring then a further residence
in "The States," he again crossed our northern
boundary and located in Iowa. Here he fol-
lowed his craft for one year at the end of which
he became a resident of Colorado. Locating at
Hutchinson Junction, he opened a blacksmith
shop which he conducted four years, and he
was successful in his enterprise. At the end of
the period named he sold out at a good profit,
and after blacksmithing for a short time at
Lake City, moved to Antelope Springs, then
^
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
opening- to populous settlement, and during the
next two years engaged in ranching in that
neighborhood. From there he moved to Lead-
ville where he burned charcoal from 1S79 to
1884 and prospered in the work, it being a pri-
vate enterprise conducted solely for his own
profit. In 1884 he located the ranch on which
he now lives, and which has since been his
home, taking up first a homestead of one hun-
dred and sixty acres which he has since in-
creased to four hundred and eighty acres. A
considerable portion of his land is devoted to
the pn iduction of the ordinary farm products of
the neighborhood and the rest is excellent graz-
ing ground for his large herds of cattle which
form the greater part of his industry. The
land was wild and unbroken when he settled on
it. he being one of the first to locate in the re-
gion, and he has made all the improvements it
contains, both in buildings and cultivation,
himself, providing it with commodious and
comfortable structures for its purposes and
bringing the arable portion of the soil to a high
state of productiveness. He has become thor-
oughly attached to the institutions of the coun-
try, and is a loyal and serviceable citizen of
Colorado in whose prosperity and progress he
takes an earnest and helpful interest. He is a
Republican in national politics, but in local af-
fairs seeks to subserve by his efforts and bis in-
fluence the best interests of the community and
its people. He is very progressive and pub-
lic-spirited in his own business and in all that
pertains to the lasting welfare of his county and
state, and has a wide and well-founded popular-
ity throughout the section in which he lives.
Practically a self-made man, he has produced
his fortunes by his own effort and bis career
furnishes an example worthy of emulation by
young men everywhere and a substantial proof
of the value of thrift and enterprise, as well as
of integrity, in a land of really boundless op-
portunities.
SHAW BROTHERS.
The Shaw brothers, John, Graham O. and
Herbert, whose ranch of five hundred and sixty
acres, located in the neighborhood of Pagoda,
Routt county, is one of the best improved, most
highly cultivated and most productive in the
region, containing along with other improve-
ments a number of trees which are said to be
the oldest and largest in the county, are natives
of Pender county, North Carolina, where John
was born on October 13, 1855, Graham O. on
March 27. 1862, and Herbert on September 9,
18(15. They are the sons of Daniel and Eliza-
beth Shaw, who were also born and reared in
North Carolina, and were prosperous farmers
there. Eight of their children are living. oh.
James. Edwin, Daniel, Annie. John, Graham O.
and Herbert. The mother died in 1866, ami the
father in January, 1895. A portion of the ranch
on which the brothers live and which they are
successfully and vigorously operating, was
taken up by Graham in 1889, and he was joined
in the enterprise by Herbert in 1890 and by
John five years later. Additional land was pur-
chased and the operations have been enlarged
from time to time until these enterprising gen-
tlemen conduct one of the largest and most
flourishing industries in their line to be found
mi Williams Fork whereon they are so pleas-
antly and advantageously located. John Shaw
was educated in private schools in his native
state, but his opportunities for attending
school were neither main' nor long continued.
At an earl\- age he was obliged to make a band
on his father's plantation and perform a man"s
share of the labor. He remained at home so
occupied until 1882, when he came to Colorado
and located at Boulder. He engaged in ranch
work and quarrying, helping to get the stone
of which the count) court house was built. He
afterward leased a ranch in the vicinity and
continued farming there until [895, when he
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
799
joined his brothers on Williams Fork. He is
a Democrat in politics and takes an active part
in the campaigns of his party. He is also cord-
ially interested in the welfare of the county, as
are his brothers, and they omit no effort they
■can make to push forward its progress ami de-
velopment. Graham O. Shaw attended the
common schools and also the college at Greeley,
this state. He came to Colorado in 1882, when
he was twenty years of age, and after spending
a year at Denver variously occupied, moved to
Longmont in 1883, and there he operated a
baling outfit for the George Coffin Company
cue year, then became associated with Mr. Cof-
fin as a partner in the business, remaining with
him until 1889. In that year he severed his
connection with the enterprise and located a
portion of the ranch now belonging to him and
his brothers. Like his brother John he is a
Democrat in political faith, and, like him. lie
takes an active and serviceable interest in the
affairs of his party. Since 1900 he has been
one of the county commissioners of Routt
county. Fraternally he is a Master Mason, and
is ardently devoted to the interests of the 1 >rder.
Herbert Shaw came to this state in 1885, and
in 1890 became a partner of his brother Gra-
ham in the ranching and cattle business which
the three now conduct. On September 9, 1900.
he was married to Miss Sadie Turner, a na-
tive of Ray county, Missouri. His political
affiliation is with the Republican party, and he
is devoted to its welfare. Hay and cattle are
the staples produced on the ranch of the broth-
ers; but they also raise large quantities of
grain, vegetables and small fruits. They are
men of fine progressive spirit, commendable
breadth of view and loyal devotion to the sec-
tion in which they have cast their lot. They
are also prominent in all local affairs, and are
held in high esteem for their wisdom in conn
sel and their energy and diligence in action
where the best interests of the county are con-
cerned.
THOMAS DUNSTAN.
Thomas Dunstan, of near Pagoda, Routt
county, who is considered one of the most sub-
stantial and successful ranchers and stock men
in his portion of the state, is a native of Aus-
tralia, born on November 21, 1847. His parents
also were born in that country and emigrated
to the United States in 1872, locating in Kan-
sas where they passed the remainder of their
lives in profitable farming. The father died in
[886 and the mother in 1901. Thev had three
children, Mrs. George Jeniver, Richard J. and
Thomas, all of whom are living. Thomas, the
youngest, received a common-school education
and was well prepared for the business of life
and future usefulness on the paternal home-
stead. He came to this country with his pa-
rents in 1872 and lived with them in Kansas
until 1878. He then moved to Colorado and.
locating at Denver, farmed with varied success
for a few years. After following other occupa-
tions for a time, he furnished teams under con-
tract for grading the ground for the station of
the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad in that city,
excavated the ground for the round-house of
the same road and graded for the city water
works. In these works he was in partnership
with his brother Richard. They also shipped to
Pueblo and there they continued the same line
of operations. One of the profitable contracts
they had and completed was straightening the
railroad between Pueblo and Salida. Thomas
was afterward employed in the shops of the
Denver & Rio Grande at Denver as a machin-
ist's helper. In 1886 he secured by pre-emp-
tion a portion of his present ranch, and to the
original tract he has added fort}' acres by a
subsequent purchase. He has brought eighty
acres of this land to an advanced state of pro-
ductiveness in hay and grain, and the rest is ex-
cellent grazing ground for his cattle which he
raises in large numbers. From 1886 to 1802
his brother Richard was an active partner in
8oo
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
the ranching and cattle industry, but since the
year last named Thomas has conducted the
business alone. Mr. Dunstan is a zealous Re-
publican in political faith and is prominent and
influential in his party as he is progressive and
successful in his business. He is popular
throughout his neighborhood with all classes of
the people, and is given up to be one of the
leading and representative citizens in his por-
tion of the count}". Although not a native of
this country he is warmly attached to its in-
stitutions and thoroughly devoted to the wel-
fare of its people. His residence in various
parts of it has made him familiar with its fea-
tures and the interests of its different sections,
and this enables him to take a broad and liberal
view of its needs and see with a broad mind
and true public-spirit, and those who know him
well value him for his genuine patriotism, his
extensive general information, his tolerance of
differences of opinion and his strong devotion
to truth in every form without regard to sec-
tional prejudices.
JOHN LYONS.
Owing to the death of his father when the
son was but ten years old and to the fact that
he was next to the oldest living child in the
family, and was therefore obliged to assist in
providing a living for his mother and the rest
of the children, John Lyons, of Routt county,
one of the esteemed citizens and successful
ranch and cattle men living near Pagoda, felt
at a very early age the burdens of life and
found his youth clouded by the responsibility
and difficult}-, which, however, he bore cheer-
fully and with energy and courage. And it may
be truthfully said that his subsequent successes
and his present prosperity afford him all the
greater satisfaction because of his early trials.
He was born in Ireland on August 15, 1853.
and instead of going to school for any length
of time as most boys do, he was forced by cir-
cumstances to go to work, and so had almost no
opportunity for securing even the rudiments
of an education. His parents were Jeremiah
and Mary (Haley) Lyons, both Irish by nativ-
ity. The father was a farmer and in connec-
tion with his farming raised dairy cattle. He
died in 1863 leaving a widow and five chil-
dren in very moderate circumstances. The
children are Daniel, John, Nora, Margaret,
wife of Patrick Sullivan, and Michael. They
are all Catholics in church affiliation. John re-
mained in his native land variously employed
until 1 88 1, then coming to America he located
in New York state and for some years there
followed a number of different occupations.
Being willing and capable he was never long
without employment, and being thrifty and
frugal at the same time he soon found himself
making headway slowly, it is true, but steadily.
His principal work during these earlier years
of his American life was in the line of construc-
tion. He helped to build the long docks in
New Jersey, assisted in the construction of the
stock yards there and worked on the Brooklyn
bridge. In 1885, deeming that he would find
better opportunities for advancement in the
West, he came to Colorado, and locating near
Cardiff, pre-empted a claim which he sold after
making some improvements on it, Charles Dar-
row, of Glenwood Springs, being the pur-
chaser. For some years thereafter he ran cat-
tle on the Grand river, and in 1889 moved to
his present location, pre-empting a portion of
the ranch on which he now lives. He has added
to his original domain by purchase until he now
owns three hundred and twenty acres. He has
a considerable acreage devoted to general farm
products and a large range of grazing ground
for his cattle. The cattle form his staple pro-
duction and main reliance on the ranch. He
has made extensive and advantageous improve-
ments on the land and has a very comfortable
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
8oj
and desirable home. Having been the first set-
tler in his immediate neighborhood, he has been
one of the chief factors in its development and
progress, aiding by his means and labor and
stimulating by his example the interest of
others toward the construction of roads,
bridges, churches, schoolhouses and other pub-
lic improvements, and giving full sympathy
and active support to all undertakings in the
way of industrial and commercial enterprises
in which the welfare of the community seemed
to be involved. He was married on January
16, 1896, to Miss Elizabeth Hagerty. a native
of Ireland, who has been of great assistance in
his various undertakings and in full sympathy
with his enterprise and aspirations. Mr. Lyons
is a prominent and influential man, and has the
respect and good will of all who know him.
WILLIAM H. ROSS.
A native of the province of Ontario, Can-
ada, where he was born near the city of Lon-
don on April 22, 1850, and having been en-
gaged in farming, lumbering, mining, follow-
ing the life of a sailor on the great lakes, char-
coal burning and various other occupations,
William H. Ross, of Routt county, with a fine
ranch and a flourishing cattle business on For-
tification creek, not far from Craig, brought to
his present occupations and experience gained
in a variety of pursuits and association with
men in a number of different places. His pa-
rents were Peter and Louisa Ross, natives of
Canada and successful farmers in that country,
where the father died in 1884, and the mother
in 1900. They had a family of nine children,
all of whom are living, Mary, Rebecca, Mar-
garet, Elise, Albina, Charlotte, Sarah. Stephen
and William H. There was not much oppor-
tunity for William to secure an advanced edu-
cation, and at the age of fifteen he entered
actively on the work of the farm at home in the
interest of his parents, remaining there until
5i
1865. He then moved to Michigan where he
engaged in lumbering, farming and mining on
the shore of Lake Superior, and also was em-
ployed as a sailor on boats plying between Du-
luth and other points on the lake. In 187c) he
came to Colorado and located at Central City.
Here he was occupied in teaming and cutting
cord wood until 1887. when he moved to Aspen,
and there devoted two years to prospecting and
burning charcoal on his own account. In 1 88< >
he located his present ranch on Fortification
creek, taking up homestead and timber claims
and thus securing three hundred and twenty
acres of good land. This place he has greatly
improved and much of the land he has brought
to a high state of cultivation. He has abun-
dant water for proper irrigation, being the
1 iwner of the Little Bear ditch. His crops are
good, comprising all the products common to
the neighborhood, but hay and cattle are his
chief dependence. When he located here the
whole country was still wild and game was
very plentiful. There was but little in the way
of convenience for comfortable living in the
region as settlers were few and only meager
progress toward development has been made.
Now the whole expanse smiles with the prod-
ucts of cultivated life and pleasant "homes and
waving fields gladden the observer. In work-
ing out this change Mr. Ross has been an im-
portant factor, and he has his reward in hav-
ing become one of the most progressive and
prosperous ranchers on the creek. While not an
active partisan he supports the Republican
party in national politics. On August 7, 1902,
he united in marriage with Miss Hattie Thorn-
ton, a native of England.
JOSEPH A. CARROLL.
A farmer's son in Nova Scotia, and reared
to habits of useful industry on the paternal
homestead, beginning the battle of life for him-
self at the age of sixteen equipped with almost
802
PROGRESSII'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
nothing but his natural endowments of a stout
heart, a clear head, a willing hand and a deter-
mined spirit, Joseph A. Carroll, of Routt
county, 'this state, has made his way in the
world to a comfortable estate and a position
of esteem among his fellow men, through a
variety of scenes and experiences, it is true,
but wholly by his own efforts. He was born in
Halifax county, Nova Scotia, Canada, on May
2, 1866, and remained on the home farm of his
parents until 1882. He attended the local dis-
trict schools as he had opportunity but this was
only at short intervals in the winter months
and but for a few years. He is the son of John
and Mary A. Carroll, both natives of Canada
and well-to-do farmers there. The father died
in 1869 and the mother in 1872. Their off-
spring numbered two, Joseph and his older
sister Emma, both of whom are living. In
1882, wdien Joseph left his native land he came
at once to Colorado and was employed as a
stock tender by Mr. Perkins, an extensive stock
man, for a time, then became a range rider for
various other persons, continuing in this occu-
pation until 1888. In that year he moved to
Aspen and was employed in teaming and help-
ing to build the toll road between Aspen and
Hunter's creek. In these and some other occu-
pations he passed the time until 1891, and then
he located his present ranch, taking it up as a
homestead claim. It comprises one hundred
and sixty acres and he cultivates one hundred
acres in hay, grain and vegetables, the hay with
his cattle, however, forming his chief reliance
and main source of revenue. Mr. Carroll is a
very progressive man and runs his business
with all the energy and breadth of view of his
nature. He is making it successful and of ex-
panding value, and meanwhile he is rising into
a higher general esteem among the people of
his community the more be is known. Politi-
cnllv he is an earnest Democrat and fraternally
a W lman of the World. On August 24,
1891, he was married to Miss Sarah Slinkard,
a native of Pennsylvania, who came to Colo-
rado with her parents. Mr. Carroll's ranch is
located thirteen miles north of Craig. When
he took charge of it the only product of the soil
was wild sage brush and all its promise was
far from encouraging. But his energy and per-
sistent diligence, together with his skill and ca-
pacity as a farmer, have brought about a wel-
come change and transformed the waste into a
fruitful farm.
CHARLES L. CLAPP.
Having received a good scholastic training
in the schools of his native place, and having
since acquired in the practical and thorough
school of experience a more valuable education
in mechanical lines and knowledge of men and
affairs, Charles L. Clapp is a wise, well-in-
formed and very practical man and citizen, and
is generally esteemed as such. He was born in
Dutchess county, New York, on October 28,
1862, and after leaving school acquired a
knowledge of surveying and learned the trade
of a pattern maker. He had valuable exper-
ience as marine engineer on the Hudson river,
and also in other capacities in a mechanical and
professional way. In 1887 he came to Colo-
rado and with headquarters at Canon City he
became associated with the Denver & Rio
Grande Railroad in the capacity of bridge
builder, helping to build all the iron bridges on
the road between Denver and Grand Junction.
He was afterward associated with the Western
Coal and Machinery Company of Denver for
two years and installed machinery for it in
Iowa. Illinois and other states. For two years
previous to taking up his present ranch he was
interested in ranching on Elk Head creek in
Routt county in company with the same parties
in Denver. Then in November. 1891, he took
a homestead right to the ranch be now owns
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
803
which comprises one hundred and sixty acres
and is located on Fortification creek, twenty-
seven miles north of Craig. While general
farm products are raised in abundance cattle
and horses are the principal products of inter-
est and profit. Mr. Clapp has the reputation of
raising the best horses in this section of Routt
county. His stock is standard bred, his stud
including the well-known thoroughbred stallion
Don John. The ranch is considered one of the
best in the neighborhood and all its products
are of first-rate quality. Air. Clapp is a stanch
Republican in national politics and is public-
spirited and far-seeing in reference to local af-
fairs. He is a son of Clinton W. and Kather-
ine S. Clap]), natives of New York state. The
father is a broker and money lender at Wap-
pinger Falls, New York. They have had six
children, one of whom, Warren H., died in
March, 1879. The five living are Benjamin F. ,
George M., Charles L., Walter C. and Jasi <\\ I
Their mother died in 1870.
NORRIS W. BROCK.
Although a Canadian by birth, and trained
to the age of seventeen in the traditions and
political activities of his native land. Norris W.
Brock, of Routt county, this state, is none the
less loyal and devoted to the interests and in-
stitutions of the country of his adoption, and
during his residence of nearly thirty years here
he has all the elements of first-rate American
citizenship. He was born in the province of
Quebec on August 3, 1853, and is the son of
Harvey and Hannah Brock, who were success-
ful and prosperous farmers in the dominion
and prominent and active members of the Pres-
byterian church there. The father supported
the Liberal party in Canadian politics, and as
he was active in its campaign, the son imbibed
at an early age the spirit of its policy and felt
the ambitions which it awakened. The father
died in 1884 and the mother in 1892. Six chil-
dren survive them, Herbert, Norris, Edson,
Almand, Alo'nzo and Renzo. At the age of
seventeen Norris left his home to seek his for-
tune in the great world, and during the next
two years engaged in farming in Vermont. In
1872 he moved to Boston, where he worked at
the carpenter trade four years, then went to
Oldtown, Maine, and there passed the summer
of 1876 in a lumber camp on the Penobscot. In
the fall he came to this state, and after a short
residence at Georgetown, packed his bedding
and other worldly goods on horses and jour-
neyed on foot to Routt county. On his arrival,
having no money to begin operations for him-
self, he found employment on the ranch of
Smart Brothers, with whom he remained three
years. He then, in 1879, located a ranch for
himself on Elk Head, the one now owned by
Mr. Harrison. Afterward he was in partner-
ship with Thomas lies in contracts for carry-
ing the United States mails, and found the
business profitable, continuing it four years.
At the end of that period the partnership was
harmoniously dissolved and Mr. Brock, selling
the ranch he then owned to a Air. Halev, lo-
cated another which he sold in 1889 to the
Carey brothers. After this he bought the one
he now owns and occupies, which is one of the
most beautiful in the valley and comprises four
hundred and eighty acres, nearly all of which
are under cultivation. Here he raises good
crops of hay, grain, vegetables and small fruits,
but finds his staple in cattle. The trees with
which his place is so beautifully adorned were
planted by him. and now spread their umbra-
geous branches a monument to his taste and
enterprise. Mr. Brock is a prominent, pro-
gressive and representative citizen, a successful
ranch and stock man, and a leader in all public
undertakings of value to his section. He was
married on March 3, 1886, to Miss Anna
Wentworth, a native of the province of Quebec.
Canada. They have four children, Lonney,
Stanley, Tames and Bernice.
8c>4
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
SAMUEL B. REID.
Samuel B. Reid, of Hayden, Routt county,
and almost the first settler in that vicinity, is a
native of Cherokee county, North Carolina,
born on July 12, 1832. He is the son of Jesse
and Clarissa Reid, also born and reared in the
Old North state, where they passed the whole
of their lives. The father was a planter and
stock-grower, and both parents belonged to the
Baptist church. Three of their eight children
are living, Sarah L., Jane L. and Samuel B.
Samuel remained with the family until 1855,
working in their interest, and after the death
of the father aiding his mother in supporting
them. In 1856 he made a trip over the plains
to California, and on his arrival in that state
located on the Sacramento river, where he fol-
lowed mining, but with poor success. In 1858
he moved to Oregon, and there worked three
years in the mines for wages. He then changed
his residence to eastern Washington, and later
to Idaho, discovering in that now rapidly de-
veloping state the first mine around which a
camp was formed. Hiere he mined three
years, then farmed until 1868 in Idaho. In the
year last named he turned his attention to rais-
ing cattle, and the next year went back to Cali-
fornia, locating in the southern part of the
state. In 1870 he moved to Nevada, and there
he was engaged in ranching and raising stock
until 1873. After passing the winter of that
year at Denver, Colorado, he took up his resi-
dence in the spring of 1874 in Routt county, or
meant to live there; but finding the section he
had selected without settlers, he went on to
the Snake river country and located near the
present village of Beggs. Wyoming, where he
remained until the Meeker massacre, in 1879,
at which time they were burned out, losing al-
most their entire possessions. They then moved
to Bear river and later located on Elk river,
making the ranch now owned bv Charles Tem-
ple his home and being the first settler in this
region. This ranch he improved and gave
a stimulus to the occupation and improvement
of others near him by building the Reed &
Walker ditch. He also improved a portion of
the Byron-Shelton ranch. He kept the first
store at Hayden, hired the teacher for the first
school taught here, in 1884, and also helped to
build the Shelton ditch. In 1891 he sold out
in that neighborhood and went to Los Angeles,
California, where he remained until 1895, then
went to Tennessee and Alabama, returning to
Colorado in 1900. In political action Mr. Reid
is independent; and in reference to the interests
of the section in which he was so important a
pioneer, he is ever zealous, active and service-
able. In 1863 he was married to Miss Mary
E. Denney, a native of Delaware. The}- have
had five children, namely: Albert S., born at
Boise City, Idaho, in 1864; Martha J., born at
Helena, Montana, in 1866. became the wife of
Ephus Donnelson; Mary A., who is now de-
ceased, was born at Argenta, Nevada, in 1869,
and was the wife of Amos Whetstone, of Cali-
fornia ; Siren N., who was born at Bullion,
Nevada, in 1871, is the wife of A. F. Wilson,
of Iowa; Samuel A., born at Hahn's Peak,
Colorado, in 1879.
EPHUS DONNELSON.
Ephus Donnelson, of Routt county, living
on a fine ranch of two hundred and forty acres
five miles northeast of Hayden, is a native of
Knoxville, Knox county, Illinois, where he was
born on October 21, 1856. His parents, John
and Malinda Donnelson, were born in Norway
but reared in the United States. Their final
location, after living in a number of places,
was in Minnesota, where the mother died on
April 12, 1880, and the father on February 12,
1 90 1. They were members of the Lutheran
church, and the father was a Republican in
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
So:
political allegiance. They had a family ol
ten children, four of whom are living, George,
Ephus, Inger and Bertha. Ephus had butj
meager educational advantages, having oppor-
tunity only to attend the common schools and
then but a short time. He remained at home
working with and for his parents until he was
twenty-four years of age. Then, in 1880, he
started out in the world for himself, and com-
ing to Colorado, located at Breckenridge,
where he engaged in mining, working for
wages and prospecting on his own account, and
remaining there three years. In 1883 he
moved to Middle Park, and there he was em-
ployed on ranches two years. In 1885 he
changed his residence to the neighborhood in
which he now lives, taking up a homestead
claim on one-half of the land on which the
town of Hayden has since been built. His
ranch comprised one hundred and sixty acres.
This he improved and cultivated, and on it he
lived and carried on a flourishing ranching and
cattle industry until 1901, when he sold oul
there and bought the ranch which he now 1
and occupies. This comprises two hundred and
forty acres of excellent land, well supplied
with water and all under cultivation. Hay.
grain, small fruits and vegetables are raised in
abundance, but cattle and horses are the chief
and most profitable products. His cattle are
all well bred Shorthorns and Herefords and
his horses are of good strains. He has im-
proved his ranch with superior buildings and
other structures, and cultivates his land with
every consideration of skill and diligence look-
ing tn the best results. He not only has one
of the best ranches in his valley but is con-
sidered one of the best farmers in his locality,
having the distinction of being an old settler
and at the same time a modern, up-to-date
ranch and cattle man. Politically he supports
the Republican party. On March 15. 1887.
he united in marriage with Miss Martha J.
Reid, a native of Montana. They have two
children, their daughter Emma M. and their
son John G. Colorado offers plentiful oppor-
tunities to thrifty and industrious men, and
Mr. Donnelson is one of the vast number who
have taken advantage of her bounty and made
the most of it.
JOHN ED. McCOY.
A self-made and very progressive man.
John Ed. McCoy, of Routt county, located on
a ranch of one hundred and sixty acres of his
own, and one of the leading ranch and cattle
men in the country tributary to the town of
Hayden, is wholly indebted to his own efforts
and capacity for his advancement in life and
can justly attribute to himself the substantial
estate he has won from the hard conditions of
life in this western wilderness, which, although
it offers ample opportunity for thrift and' enter-
prise, exacts their full value in return in the
wav of arduous and systematic toil. Mr. Mc-
Coy was born on June 6, 1866, at St. Joseph,
Missouri, and there remained until he reached
the age of fourteen, attending the common
schools a few years during the winter months
and working as soon as he was able to provide
for his own necessities. In 1880 he came to
Colorado, and with headquarters at Denver,
went out into the mountains near Morrison
where he gave his attention to hauling wood
and saw-mill work until 1889. On July 19th
of that year he took up his present ranch in
Routt county on a homestead claim. This com-
prises one hundred and sixty acres and is in
an advanced state of cultivation, producing
hay and grain of unusually good quality in
great abundance. He also raises cattle in
goodly numbers and finds this a source of profit.
His ranch is near Dunckley postoffice and
about sixteen miles south of Hayden. It is in
a good and prolific region which is rapidly
8o6
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
improving under the industry of such
men as lie. and his land is steadily
growing in value. Politically Mr. McCoy is
a Republican, and fraternally he belongs to the
Woodmen of the World. He is the son of
David W. and Mary J. McCoy, the former a
native of Indiana and the latter of Iowa. The
father is now a resident of Denver, where he
carries on a prosperous butchering business
and maintains a pleasant home for his wife
and those of their nine children who are yet
living under his roof. He is a Republican ill
politics and is well esteemed in business cir-
cles. The children born in his household are
John Ed., Man-. Hannah, Mattie. Cora, Julia.
Robert, Macy and Minnie. The parents are
members of the Baptist church, and the father
belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic.
THOMAS MORGAN.
Born in Madison county, Wisconsin, on
April 22, 1859, and having made his own
living by continued industry and thrift since
he was seventeen, and, moreover, confronting
many of the dangers and hardships of the
Western wilds, Thomas Morgan, of Steamboat
Springs, Routt county, this state, has had
nearly thirty years of what is known as "the
strenuous life," but he has met every trial and
difficulty with a manly and determined spirit,
and fought every foe to his peace and his pros-
perity with the courage that always wins in
the end. Passing through reverses and periods
of adversity, but never losing his nerve or
waning- in his self-reliance, he has won the
tight and is now well fixed in a worldly way.
and stands well in the esteem of his fellow
citizens who have learned to know and admire
his worth. He is the son of William A. and
Mary (Prosser) Morgan, the former a native
of England and the latter of Wales. They
had ten children, nine of win mi are living.
Joseph, David. Charles, Mary, Sarah, Melcah.
William, Benjamin and Thomas. The parents
came to the United States in 185 1 and located
in Pennsylvania in 1S52. Both are now de-
ceased. Their son Thomas attended the district
schools, accompanying his parents to Colo-
rado in 1863, when he was but four years old.
The first location of the family in this state
was on Clear creek, where they remained until
1873, engaged in farming. In the year last
named they moved to the Cross mountain re-
gion on Snake river in Routt county, where
they found the Indians friendly and carried on
a profitable trading business with them. At
an early age Mr. Morgan pre-empted one hun-
dred and sixty acres of land at Cross mountain,
and during the next ten years raised cattle. In
[889 he moved to the neighborhood of Axial
where he homesteaded on one hundred and
sixty acres of promising land, which he im-
proved and devoted to raising horses and cat-
tle. After some years of varying success in
this line, he engaged in merchandise in part-
nership with his brother William on Snake
river until 1892. when he moved to Steamboat
Springs, and there he once more turned his at-
tention to the cattle industry, in which he is
still occupied. He was the first settler on
Snake and Bear rivers in the Lily Park vicinity,
and when he located in the region it was full
of buffalo and other wild game, and man}- of
his experiences in his lonely and remote situ-
ation were thrilling in the extreme. His start
in life was almost nothing, and his struggle for
years was arduous; hut he is now in comfort-
able circumstances, and one of the highly es-
teemed frontiersmen and pioneers of his sec-
tion of the state. Always a stanch Democrat
he was elected sheriff of the county as the
candidate of his party in t886 and proved him-
self to he a capable and fearless official. On
May 18, 1S92, he was married to Miss Grace
Vaugh, a native of New Mexico hut reared in
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
807
Colorado. She is a daughter of James and
Eliza (Woods) Vaugh, the father born in Ten-
nessee and the mother at Alton, Illinois. They
made Farmington, New Mexico, their final
earthly home, and there followed farming sue,
cessfully. Both are deceased, but eight of their
children are living. Mr. and Mrs. Morgan
have two children, their son Thomas P. and
their daughter Elsie L.
JAMES F. PRICE.
It was in that great nursery of American
enterprise, resourcefulness and good citizen-
ship, the ample farming life of our country
thai James F. Price acquired the salient char-
acteristics of manly independence, undoubting
self-reliance and vigorous industry which have
enabled him to forge ahead in the struggle for
supremacy among men, and build up a com-
petence for himself and secure a lasting place
in the esteem and confidence of his fellows. He
was born in Wayne county, Illinois, on July 22.
1850, the son of James and Elizabeth Price, the
former a native of England and the latter of
Indiana. Somewhat earlier in their married
life they moved to Illinois, and there they
passed the remainder of their days, the father
dying there in 1881, after surviving his wife
a quarter of a century, she having died in 1856.
He was a Freemason and an Odd Fellow, and
politically belonged to- the Republican party.
They had three children, Edward, Fannie and
James F., all of whom are living. James, the
last born, grew to the age of eighteen on the
paternal homestead and was educated at the
district schools in the vicinity of his home. He
remained in his native state until 1869, then
moved to Minnesota, where he passed one
summer as a farm hand at small wages. Re-
turning then to Illinois, he settled in Jefferson
county and spent ten years farming on his own
account. In 1879 he came to Colorado and
located near Denver, where he worked as a
saw-mill and ranch hand for a time. His next
move was to Rathbone. and here he engaged in
freighting between that place and Georgetown
until 1881. In that year he became a resident
of Routt county, homesteading on a part of his
present ranch and subsequently adding the rest
by purchase. He now has two hundred and
forty acres, of which one hundred and fifty
acres are under cultivation with good annual
results in hay, grain and hardy vegetables, al-
though cattle and hay are his principal
products. He was among the first set-
tlers in this section of the county, and he has
been prominently connected in a serviceable
way with all its improvements, local and gen-
eral. The buildings on and the productiveness
of his own land are the results of his own irp
dustry and thrift, and much that is of real aid
to the development and progress of the neigh-
borhood has had abundant help for him. Fra-
ternally he is connected with the Masonic order,
and in political allegiance he is a devoted Re-
publican. His ranch is well located, six miles
northwest of Steamboat Springs, in a region
renowned for its fertility and still undeveloped
possibilities, its resources being as yet but
slightly stirred, but as they are in the hands of
a highly progressive and enterprising people.
among whom he has an elevated rank as a pro-
moter, the day of their full development and
usefulness is not far distant. All honor to the
men of brain and brawn who have taken this
wilderness in hand and made it begin to blos-
som as the rose.
THOMAS R. DUCEY.
When in the fullness of time the settlement
and development of the great West of this
country became the natural order of events, the
men who essayed the task came from the ranks
of the toilers and producers, fitted and willing
SoS
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
to endure all forms of hardship, encounter all
manner of danger, put up with all measures of
inconvenience and undergo all requirements ot
the most exacting labor. They were not the
spoiled darlings of the highest social circles,
the sons of wealth and scholarship, or the scions
of a top lofty aristocracy. When a great work-
in human affairs is to be accomplished God
sends workers to do it. and he allows no mis-
take in the choice. To this class belongs
Thomas R. Ducey, of Routt county, who settled
there in 1887, early enough to be a pioneer, and
armed with the requisite qualifications to well
uphold the credit of the name. He was born of
industriqus parentage, and at an earl}- age be-
gan to make headway for himself through the
channels hallowed by their labors. And by try-
ing experiences and faithful attention to duty in
various fields of usefulness in a number of dif-
ferent places, he developed his 1 >wn manhood
and established his force of character. His life
began at Shullsburg, Lafayette county, Wis-
consin, on January 17, 1865, and he is the son
of Morris and Ellen Ducey, who were born in
Ireland, the former at Dublin and the latter at
Cork. Early in their married life they emi-
grated to the United States and located in Wis-
consin, where they passed the remainder of
their lives, both dying some years ago. The
father was a lead miner in early life and spent
his later years as an industrious and well-to-
do farmer. He supported the Democratic party
in political affairs, and both he and his wife
were devout Catholics. Seven children were
born of their union and four of them are liv-
ing, Thomas R., Maggie, William and John
1. Beginning his own active career at the age
of fifteen, in 1880, Thomas, who had enjoyed
but few and meager opportunities for securing
an education, worked at different occupations
in several states, particularly Wisconsin. Iowa,
Illinois and Nebraska, doing farming, saw-
milling and, various kinds of lumbering for the
Dubuque (Iowa) Lumber Company. In [885
he became a resident of Colorado, arriving on
April 2d at Denver, where he engaged in dairy
and ranch work for two years. In 18S7 he
moved to Routt county and took up his present
ranch under a homestead claim. It comprises
two hundred acres, all fit for cultivation and
now in a state of advanced productiveness,
although when he settled on it it was com-
pletely covered with sage brush and had not
on it the print of a white man's foot or the
sign of a human habitation. He made good
progress in improving it and making it profit-
able, and now has the abundant reward of his
labor in one of the comfortable and fruitful
farms of the section in which he lives, which
is the Deep creek country, his ranch being six-
teen miles northwest of Steamboat Springs.
Hay and cattle are the staple productions ami
both the land and the location are well adapted
to their being raised in large quantities with
ordinary ease and success. Mr. Ducey is an
ardent Democrat politically and by no means
neglects the interests of his party. He was
married on October 20, 1889, to Miss Roxie
E. Fly, a native of Barry county, Missouri,
the daughter of John W. and Charity Fly. the
former born in Missouri and the latter in Ten-
nessee. The father was a soldier in the Civil
war, serving from the beginning to the end of
the great struggle, and although in very active
service nearly all the time, escaping with >ut a
wound or being captured. The)- came over-
land through Colorado in 1884 and took up
their residence at Slater. Wyoming, where they
remained until 1887, since which time they
have lived in Routt county, this state, mi Elk
creek seven miles north of Steamboat Springs.
The father has always devoted his attention to
farming. They have five children, all living,
Mrs. Ducey. Fount E.. Miranda. Gertrude and
Elvira. Mr. and Mrs. Ducey have three chil-
dren, Rachel E., John E. and Morris D.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
8( >9
CHARLES J. FRANZ.
While the men of capital and industrial
enterprise who take the products of a country
and transform them into marketable commodi-
ties, or who develop its raw material on a
large scale and prepare it for manufacturing
purposes and put it into the channels of trade,
are entitled to great credit for the benefits they
confer on their fellow men and their country,
the other class of men, those who go boldly into
the unexplored wilds of new sections and there
plant the seeds of the civilizati< >n which follows,
preparing the way for the efforts of the greater
developers, are worthy of all praise also, and
are often entitled to even greater credit than
the former class, especially when it is remem-
bered what difficulties they have to contend
with, what trials and hardships they have t< >
undergo, and the sacrifice of most that men en-
joy they are required to make in connection
with the meager rewards they are frequently
obliged to accept for their daring and efforts.
To the class of adventurous pioneers rather
than to that of great developers belongs
Charles J. Franz, of Routt county, the first
settler on Elk creek and one of its progressive
and broad-minded ranch and cattle men. al-
though he is not to be deprived of the tribute
to merit due him for the work of developing
the county his opportunities and circumstances
have afforded him ; for these he has used to
the best advantage and greatly to the benefit
of his section. Mr. Franz is the scion of old
German families, although he was himself born
at Iowa City. Iowa, his life beginning there on
February 14, 1859. Receiving only a limited
common-school education, and providing for
his own advancement in the world from the
age of fifteen, he has yet made substantial and
steady progress, and that by his own individual
efforts without the aid of adventitious circum-
stances or any mentionable favors of fortune
beyond the maintenance of his health and self-
reliant disposition. After leaving school he
learned the trade of a painter and followed it
f< >r three years in various Iowa towns and
cities. In 1879 he came to, Colorado and lo-
cated at Leadville. There he worked at his
trade six months, then moved to Breckenridge,
giving attention there also to his craft and at
odd times prospecting and mining. His search
for mineral wealth has been rewarded with
good results, as he owns a group of eighteen
claims, containing combination ores of copper,
lead, gold and silver, which are located three
miles from his ranch. This he located in 1880,
securing the land, which amounts to seven
hundred and twenty acres, through pre-
emption, homestead, desert and timber culture
claims. Five hundred acres of the land is easy
of cultivation and the most of it is yielding well
in hay and grain although it was all wild .sage
gp iund when he settled on it. The tract is well
supplied with water from independent ditches
belonging to it, and it responds to his per-
suasion in cultivation with bountiful generosity.
In connection with his ranching industry he
raises cattle and horses of high grades ex-
tensively, producing principally Perchemn> in
the latter line. Since 1892 he has maintained
a private elk park also, which is stocked with
man>- noble animals both old and young. The
ranch is fifteen miles north of Steamboat
Springs, and the improvements he has made
on it are of such a character and the state of its
fertility is of an order so high, that it is justly
looked upon as one of the most valuable and
desirable in this part of the county. Mr. Franz
also conducts and operates a threshing outfit,
for his own benefit and that of the country for
many miles around him, and in that enterprise
is equipped to meet all the requirements of its
work under almost any circumstances. He
has not met with much difficulty in his resi-
dence here, but has not been free from the
8 ib
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
menace and actual experience of Indian hos-
tility, for when the outbreak in Middle Park
occurred he was present and took part in quell-
ing it. Politically he is a Democrat, and fra-
ternally is connected with the order of Odd
Fellows. His parents, Charles F. and Mary
(Rickert) Franz, were natives of Germany who
emigrated to the United States early in their
married life and settled in Iowa, where they
remained until the end of their lives, which
came some years ago. The father was a meat
merchant and followed this business all his life
from his youth. He also was a Democrat in
political affiliation and belonged to the order
of Odd Fellows. Both parents were members
of the Lutheran church. Five of their children
survive them, Caroline, John, Charles J.,
George and William.
WILLIAM R. WALKER.
It was far away from Colorado, in the
sunny Southland, and more than three-score
years and ten ago, that the interesting subject
of this sketch was born. His life began on
April 5, 1833, in what was then a part of Burke
but is now McDowell county, North Carolina.
mar the town of Marion. He is the son of
Daniel and .Anna Walker, who were born in
the old North state and moved to Georgia in
1849. They were successful farmers and de-
vout Christians, the father belonging to the
Baptist church and the mother to the "Method-
ist. In political matters the father was in-
dependent, but he was ardently devoted to his
section of the country, and took an active part
in promoting its best interests, approaching all
public questions with fearless courage and an
intelligent breadth of view. His wife died in
June. 1878. and he on January 16. 1898. They
had a family of eight children of whom Powell,
Sarah J., Jesse M. and Mary A. have died and
William R.. Jonathan S., Absolom and James
W. are living. William R. had but few edu-
cational advantages except those provided in
the thorough though harsh school of ex-,
perience. He remained with bis parents until
1855, purchasing a plantation in Georgia in
1849 an d remaining in that state until 1874.
He then sold his Georgia property and changed
his residence to North Carolina, where he re-
mained until 188 1, when he came to Colorado
and located in Routt county in the vicinity of
Hayden. Through a pre-emption claim he took
up the ranch which is now owned by Charles
Temple, and which he sold to that gentleman
in the summer of 1882. After selling this
ranch he homesteaded on the one he now owns
and occupies, and which comprises one hun-
dred and sixty acres, three-fourths of it being
tillable land and under excellent cultivation.
Hay, grain, vegetables and small fruits are
produced in abundance, and cattle also are ex-
tensively raised, while the place is well im-
proved with good buildings and other neces-
sary structures. Mr. Walker is an unwavering
Democrat and as such served as county com-
missioner of Routt county in 1882. 18S3 and
1884. He is one of the earliest settlers in his
locality and one of its best known and most re-
spected citizens. In 1855 he united, in mar-
riage with Miss Nancy Reid, a native of North
Carolina, who died in 1862. They had four
children. Of these James D. died and Martin
P., Clara C, wife of James Kitchens, and
Samuel J. are living. On February 28, [864,
Mr. Walker married a second wife. Miss
Angeline Birch, who was born in Georgia.
They have one child, their daughter Mattie L.
Samuel J. Walker, a son of William R.
by his first wife, was educated in the common.
schools and at Hayesville Academy in North
Carolina, being graduated from the academy in
1886. When a young man of nineteen, seeing
no great opportunity for advancement in his
own section, particularly in securing a large
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
811
tract of land and carrying on the cattle in-
dustry, on which his heart was set. he decided
to come west and grow up with the newer
country, and chose Colorado as his future
home. In 1881 he became a resident of Routt
county, making his home near Hahn's Peak
and working in the placer mines for a short
time, after which he located in the Hayden
valley and soon became a leading ranch and
stock man there, residing in that valley and
conducting a prosperous live stock business
twenty-three years. In 1902 he disposed oi
his cattle and two years later moved to the town
of Yampa, where he turned his attention to
merchandising, connecting himself with the H.
J. Hernage Mercantile Company, being im-
pelled to this change of occupation partially by
a panic in the cattle market and partially by
consideration for the health of his wife. Mr.
Walker has always been a man of great in-
dustry and high character. 1 [e has in a marked
degree the confidence and esteem of his fellow
citizens of Routt county, and has been twice
elected county assessor as the candidate of the
Democratic party to which he has ever given
a firm and loyal support. He is a stanch be-
liever in God and Christianity, and belongs to
the Missionary Baptist church, but as there is
no organization of that denomination in his
neighborhood, he at present affiliates with the
Congregational church at Yampa. He was
made a Master Mason at Craig. Colorado, in
Yampa Lodge, No. 88, in 1898, and joined the
order of Odd Fellows at Hayden, Colorado, in
1897. Both he and his wife became members
of the Order of the Eastern Star at Yampa in
May, 1904. On October 15, 1884. he was mar-
ried, at Rawlins. Wyoming, to Miss Laura
Elizabeth Green, oldest daughter of Rev.
Charles M. Green, a Baptist minister of La
Yeta, this state, who came to Colorado as a
missionary in 1883, and located at La Veta,
where he was for a number of years at dif-
ferent times pastor of the Baptist church. He
was also a missionary to the Indians in Indian
Territory eight years of the twenty-two he
has lived in the West. Mr. and Mrs. Walker
have three children, their daughters Edna Reba
and Wilma Arva, and their son Charles Law-
rence.
WILLIAM F. HOOPER.
Born and reared to the age of eighteen in
the sunny Southland, and then impelled by
love of adventure and conquest, roaming
abroad through many parts of the West, con-
fronting every form of danger on the frontier
and in the untrodden wilderness, and trying his
hand at various occupations with alternating
success and failure, William F. Hooper, who is
now comfortably seated on a good ranch in the
vicinity of Toponas, is well pleased with
his location and the rapidly developing promise
of the section. He was born on October 23,
1833, near Madisonville, Monroe county,
Tennessee, and is the son of Enos C. and Mar-
garet (Hopkins) Hooper, natives and life-long
residents of that state. The father was a
physician and farmer and a prominent and in-
fluential politician in his county, chosen to
many local offices as a Democrat and filling
them with credit to himself and advantage to
his people. He was a member of the Masonic
order and both he and his wife were members
of the Baptist church. The father died in 1873
and the mother in 1885. They had six chil-
dren, four of whom are living, Mrs. George
Pain, Riley S.. Mrs. Theodore Miller and Wil-
liam F. The last named received a common-
school education and worked on the paternal
homestead until he was eighteen years old. He
then turned his longing eyes toward the setting
sun and took up his march in its wake over
the plains and mountains to California, jour-
neying by way of the Platte river, through the
Black Hills, over the Continental Divide at
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Pacific Springs, along the Bear river in Utah
and down Snake river to Oregon, consuming
six months and four days in the trip, and mak-
ing it with four yoke of oxen. On the way the
Sioux Indians stole the cattle belonging to the
train but afterward returned them for a barrel
i if crackers, which the chief divided among the
braves. From Oregon Mr. Hooper moved on
to California and established his headquarter?
at Oroville in Butte county. From here as a
base of operations he followed mining with
fair success until 1873. He then returned to
Tennessee and engaged in raising tobacco two
years but. without profit. In 1875 he came to
Colorado and located at Breckenridge. where
he mined and prospected without success until
1883. In that year he moved to Eagle county
and took up a homestead of one hundred and
sixty acres, becoming the first settler in the
Burns Hole district. He has increased his
ranch to three hundred and sixty acres and has
two hundred under good cultivation. His
water supply is furnished from independent
ditches belonging to the place, and is sufficient
for his present purposes, with enough for a
considerable expansion of his tillable acreage.
The land was all in wild sage when he took it
up, and the development of it into its present
productive and attractive condition is the work
of his own hands almost wholly. Hay and
cattle are his chief productions, and these are
raised on an extensive basis. In politics Mr.
Hooper is an ardent Democrat. He was mar-
ried on November 18, 1858. to Miss Nancy
Rogen. a native of Bloomfield, Iowa. They
have had six children. Louis died in 1864, and
William \V., Mrs. Louis W. Woods, Mrs.
Thomas J. Parker, Charles E. and Mrs. Oscar
( r. Allen are living. Their mother died in
1884, Mr. Hooper applies to his business
with intelligence and vigor the results of a wide
and general experience, and a progressive spirit,
and in it he is very successful. He is a leading
and highly esteemed citizen in his community.
HON. JOHN HUGH WILLIAMS.
This honored citizen of Saguache county,
who in the fall of 1904 was elected to the
office of county judge, which he had previously
filled one term with great credit to himself
and satisfaction to the people, and who has
well administered the affairs of several other
offices in the county and town of his residence,
is a native of Belmont county, Ohio, born on
August 16, 1842. His parents, John H. and
Eleanor Williams, lived for a number of years
in Ohio, then moved to Iowa in 1856, and
there they passed the remainder of their lives.
The father was of Irish and Welsh ancestry
and the mother born in Philadelphia, Pennsyl-
vania. After passing many years of his life
at his trade as a jeweler, the father turned his
attention to farming and raising live stock, in
which he was measurably successful. He was
a Whig in politics until the death of that
party, and after that supported its successor,
the Republican organization. The family com-
prised six children. Of these Mrs. G. W.
Beckley, Mrs. Hillhouse, the Judge and his
brother George are living, and Parker and
James M., who was a colonel of the Twenty-
first Alabama Infantry in the Civil war, are
dead. Judge Williams received only a com-
mon-school education, the circumstances of the
family requiring his services on the farm as
soon as he was able to work. At the age of
eighteen he left home and learned the trade
of a miller. He wrought at this and followed
merchandising in Iowa, whither he ac-
companied his parents in 1856, until after the
beginning of the Civil war. In 1861 he made
his first trip to Colorado, traveling overland
by the River Platte route, and crossing the river
at Shinn's Ferry. Sixty days were consumed
in the journey, and while it was fraught with
difficulty no hostile Indians were encountered,
although the train, which was loaded with sup-
plies, was a tempting prize for marauders.
PROGRESS! VE MEN Of WESTERN COLORADO.
813
While returning to Iowa he heard on the plains
of the fall of Fort Sumter, and hastening home,
he enlisted in defense of the Union as a mem-
ber of Company G. First Iowa Cavalry. He
served to the end of the momentous conflict
and was mustered out at Memphis, Tennessee,
bearing the scars of two slight wounds received
in battle. During the next three years he was
engaged in milling, merchandising and farm-
ing in Iowa, and in 1868 again came to this
state, this time in search of an improvement of
his health. He made the trip by the same route
that he had formerly followed except that he
crossed the Platte at Grand Island, Nebraska.
The grass was so high and heavy at many
places along the way that the road was hidden
by it. The Judge reached Saguache in July,
1868, and determined to make that place his
permanent residence. In the course of a little
time he was appointed deputy county clerk and
this office he held until 1S80, then by reason
of the death of T. J. Ellis he was appointed
county commissioner. He also served one
term as county judge and two as county o im-
missioner by election. From September, 1896,
to the time of his second qualification as county
judge he was postmaster at Saguache, having
previously been assistant, and from the same
time has been a half partner in the Lawrence
Hardware Company there. During his long-
residence in the county lie has been closely
identified with and deeply interested in even-
phase of its progress and development, and his
devotion to its agricultural interests induced
him to become a landholder. He owns a ranch
of one hundred and sixty acres three miles east
of the town, which he took up as wild land and
has improved with all the requisites for ranch-
ing and stock-growing, and made one of the
valuable and attractive rural homes of the re-
gion. His political allegiance is given freely,
fully and zealously to the Republican party,
and in its councils in this state he has long
been influential and highly regarded. On Oc-
tober 14, 1869, he united in marriage with
Miss Elizabeth Shoults. and they have had
eleven children. One son. Henry P.. has died.
The other ten are living. They are, Eugene.
John I\, Elizabeth, Hope, Hugh, Roy, Glenn.
Wilson P., James R. and John II. It is
much to say of any man that a residence of
thirty-six years in a community has steadily
advanced him in the confidence, good will and
regard of its people, and left no just cause
of complaint in either his private or his public
life. But this can be truly said of Judge Wil-
liams, who has all elements of the community
as his friends and fully deserves their esteem.
JOHN CHRISTIAN SCHUTTE.
This estimable citizen, enterprising and pro-
gressive business man, and influential civic and
social force, although a resident of Glenwood
Springs, is one of the leading ranchmen and
stock-growers of Rio" Blanco county. He has
had a wide and valuable experience in life, and
has learned in it the lessons of every-day
worldly wisdom which are taught in no other
school. From his ancestry he inherits a natural
force of character and business capacity — a
knowledge of how to make money and what to
do with it for the best results, and his train-
ing has made him a man of unusual executive
ability and breadth of view. He was born in
the old and historic free city of Bremen. Ger-
many, on September 10, 1847. the son of John
F. D. and Louisa (Kolbur) Schutte, who were
also native there. The father was a member
of the renowned "Black Corps" of Brunswick,
that neither asked nor gave quarter in the wars
with Napoleon Bonaparte, and followed the
standards of that command during many of
the best years of his life. Seventeen other years
were passed by him in active merchandising.
In civil life also he was prominent and in-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
fluential, being for a long time a member of
the local house of representatives. He died on
December 10, 1871, and his wife in 1884.
Their son John is their only surviving child.
He received a common and high school edu-
cation in his native land, and from the age of
fifteen to that of nineteen was employed in his
father's store. In 1866 he came to this conti-
nent with the intention of going to South
America to live. But he located in Pennsyl-
vania, where he served as a clerk and book-
keeper until 187 1. He then moved to St.
Louis, Missouri, but after clerking in a store
a few months, returned to Pennsylvania and
located in Philadelphia. There he was en-
gaged from 1872 to 1877 in transacting busi-
ness in foreign countries for residents of the
city, and during this period he made many
trips across the Atlantic. At the end of that
period he came west to Cheyenne, Wyoming,
and opened a store. But his health failed and
he was unable to give his personal attention to
the business, and it did not succeed, he losing
his all in the venture. About that time he re-
ceived a call from Webster, Colorado, to take
charge of the freight forwarding business at
that point, and four months later was moved
to Leadville in the same interest and capacity.
He made his headquarters at that booming
camp until the railroad was completed to it and
greatly diminished the business of the outfit
for which he was working. The next six
months he passed as manager of the Elgin
Smelter there, owing to the illness of Colonel
Sherwin, the regular manager. From the
termination of this engagement until 1884 he
was manager for C. Conrad & Company, of
Leadville. and built up their business to colossal
proportions, making a reputation for executive
ability second to none in the whole Northwest.
In the meantime, in 1882, he located several
ranches on Grand river and Piceance creek,
being the first settler on the latter stream.
Along its banks he still has his home ranch of
three hundred and twenty acres, one hundred
and forty acres of it being under advanced and
vigorous cultivation, and yielding abundant
stores of hay, grain and vegetables. It is well
equipped with good buildings and other im-
provements, and is favorably located thirteen
miles west of Rio Blanco postoffke. On this
ranch he conducts a flourishing industry in
raising horses and cattle of steadily increasing
magnitude and profit. At the head of his stud
there he has the celebrated Belgium stallion
"Rustic," which is well known and much
sought for breeding thoroughout a large extent
of the surrounding country. This is an im-
ported horse of excellent pedigree and record,
and has many foals in the region of pronounced
and demonstrated merit. In political affairs
Air. Schutte supports the Republican party, but
without persona] ambition for political honors.
On January 12, 1882, he was united in mar-
riage with Miss Eliza Villager, a native of
Switzerland. They have one child, their son
John B. Although proud of the city of his
birth, with its eleven hundred years of interest-
ing and impressive history, and its commanding
commercial importance for centuries, Mr.
Schutte is fervently loyal to the land and state
of his adoption, showing his interest in the en-
during welfare of each by a strict and cheerful
performance of every duty of exalted and
serviceable citizenship.
EUGENE WILLIAMS.
Eugene Williams, who is now serving his
second term as sheriff of Saguache county with
great satisfaction to the people, and is in ad-
dition a prosperous and progressive ranchman,
is practically a self-made man and one of the
leading ami most popular citizens of the county.
He was born on February [9, 1871. at Homer,
Hamilton county, Iowa, and came to Colorado
PROGRESS!}' E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
in his boyhood. He received only a common-
school education, and at the age of fourteen
began to make his own living and started the
career which is so greatly to his credit. His
first employment was ranch work and labor in
mines, and he learned both the ranching and
the mining industry from the ground up by
actual experience in all the details of each. As
a miner he ranks among the most knowing
and skillful in the state, but his own ventures
have not been as yet largely successful. In the
fall of 1899 he was elected sheriff of the county,
and at the end of his term in 1902 he was re-
elected as a Republican. In the same year he
bought a ranch of forty acres, all of which can
be cultivated, and on which he produces good
hay, grain and vegetables at a large yield to
the acre. He also raises cattle and horses for
market, the former being all full-blooded
Shorthorns and the latter well-bred and of su-
perior strains. His mining claims, which are
numerous, are promising, but have nut up to
this time been very productive, as he has not
worked them with the vigor they require owing
to his absorbing interest in other matters, as
he takes an active part in whatever shows
benefit for the county, in whose welfare he is
deeply and intelligently interested. In fra-
ternal life he is connected with the Masonic
order, the Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of
the World. He was married on September 25,
1900, to Miss Clara M. Ellis, a native of Iowa,
who was reared in Colorado, coming with her
parents to this state in 1873, when she was
an infant. They have two children, their
daughter Mina C. and their son John H. Mrs.
Williams is the daughter of John M. and Ruth
A. Ellis, both born in Pennsylvania, the father
in Wyoming and the mother in Clarion county.
They moved to Fort Dodge, Iowa, in 1855,
where they farmed successfully until 1867,
then crossed the plains to Denver by the North
Platte route. Two vears later thev returned to
Iowa, and not long afterward moved to
Kansas. But they did not find the change
beneficial and soon went back to Iowa. There
they remained until the spring of 1872, when
they once more set sail, in a "prairie schooner"
for Colorado, their course being through
Omaha and up the South Platte to Greeley,
then on to Denver and through South Park
into the San Luis valley. The father located
a ranch and after improving it he sold it in
1894. Since then he has been engaged in
freighting and various other occupations.
From 1894 to 1S97 he conducted the Cali-
fornia Livery Barn. At this writing (1904)
he is occupied in mining. At the time of his
arrival here there were but few settlers in the
valley, and he was therefore warmly welcomed
as an addition to the developing force of the
region, and he has not disappointed the hopes
which his coming hither inspired. Politically
he is an ardent working Democrat. He and
his wife are the parents of three children. Mrs.
Williams, Mrs. . Herbert Ellis and Mrs.
1 lalcyon Ward. The Sheriff owns real estate
in the town of Saguache in addition to his
other possessions, and has a special interest in
the town as well as a g-eneral one in that of the
county. He is an influential and represent-
ative citizen, and stands high in the regard
of every section and class of the territory he
is serving so efficiently.
JOHN W. TRITES.
Men who make themselves felt in the world
avail themselves of a certain fate in their con-
stitution, which they know how to use. In the
case of John W. Trites, of Saguache count}-,
whose fine ranch of one thousand and forty
acres is located about eight miles southwest
of the town of Saguache, a section of the
county in which he and John Davey were the
first settlers, this fate or native force is the
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
readiness to see and the ability to seize and
make the most of even* opportunity that pre-
sents itself, and the willingness to do what-
ever that opportunity demands as the price of
success. He has foresight, resourcefulness and
energy, with a determined self-reliance that
shrinks from no difficulty and cowers before no
danger. And these are qualities which are not
only at high premium but are essential to any
success of magnitude in the ordinary con-
ditions of life in this western world,
where nature is provident, but will not
unmask her treasures to the timid, the halting
or the doubtful. Mr. Trites was born on No-
vember 30, 1842, in Pennsylvania, that great
field of labor wherein every line of human ac-
tivity is worked and all are profitable. He is
the son of John and Jane (Robinson) Trites, na-
tives of Germany who emigrated to this coun-
try and located in Pennsylvania in early life.
They afterward moved to Maine, and still later
to New Brunswick, Canada, where they ended
their days. The father was a successful
farmer and also conducted a profitable butch-
ering business in New Brunswick. He was a
Freemason of high degree, and both parents
were Baptists in church connection. Three
children survive them, John, Amelia and
James. The first named received a common-
school education, and impelled by the irrepres-
sible spirit of energy inherited from long lines
of thrifty ancestors, started out at the age of
sixteen to make his own way in the world, ask-
ing no favors of fortune, and relying on his
own capabilities in the effort. He served an
apprenticeship of three years in a carriage
manufactory in New Brunswick, and then an-
other as a joiner in the shipyards. In 1866 he
moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and during
the summer of that year worked as a joiner in
a carpenter shop, also helping to build the
first bridge over the Missouri from the Wyan-
dotte Bottoms to Kansas City, in 1867 ne
took the western fever, and he started to v. < irk
his way to the goal of his desires on what is
now the Union Pacific Railroad, helping to
build the bridges on the line between Fort
Wallace and Denver. After reaching the city
last named, he rested there four months, then
took a position to aid in building the bridges on
the narrow gauge road between there and
Canon City, devoting two years to this work.
Afterward he made a visit of inspection into
the San Luis valley, but not being pleased with
the outlook, went to Colorado Springs in 1872.
He soon moved back into the valley, however,
and bought a ranch which after improving it
to some extent he sold in 1874. He then pur-
chased a portion of his present ranch, and by
subsequent purchases he has increased this to
one thousand and forty acres, four hundred of
which are devoted to grain and the rest to hay
and pasturage. He is extensively engaged in
raising cattle and horses, being one of the
leading men in the business in his county, and
his ranching operations are also large and
profitable. The place is well watered from
nine artesian wells bored on it by his own en-
terprise, and the greater part of it is under
good fencing. It is much to his credit, that
having settled here when there was no other
family in the neighborhood, by his influence
and example the region is now filling up with
thrifty and enterprising citizens and its unde-
veloped wealth is gradually flowing into the
channels of commerce and adding to the im-
portance and consequence of the county. His
only neighbor at first was John Davey, who
settled here about the same time as he did.
and the opening of the country by these two
progressive and hardy men has resulted in its
present state of advancement and develop-
ment. Mr. Trites's ranch is well improved with
a good dwelling and other buildings, and
every interest on it or growing out of its op-
eration has the benefit of bis close attention
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
817
and skillful management. He is earnest in the
public life of the county as a Democrat, zeal-
ous in its fraternal life as an Odd Fellow and
serviceable to all its local interests as a pro-
gressive, far-seeing and energetic citizen.
CHARLES BROOKS FOX.
For thirty years after reaching man's es-
tate a printer, lumberman, ranch hand, freigh-
ter, prospector, miner and saw-mill operator,
and before then from the age of sixteen for
four years a soldier in the Civil war, Charles
Brooks Fox, of Saguache county, who since
1895 has been comfortably settled on his ranch
of three hundred and twenty acres eleven miles
west of the town of Saguache, has seen even-
phase of frontier life, and under trying cir-
cumstances, and some of bustling activity in
the midst of an advanced civilization, besides
facing death in all forms of horror on bloody
fields where American valor contended for
mastery in the most determined sectional strife.
He is a native of New York state, born in
Genesee county on February 8, 1846. His par-
ents were Jonathan and Sarah K. (Joshlin)
Fox, who were born and reared in New York
and made Michigan their final earthly home.
The father was a tailor and worked at his
trade many years, but devoted the latter part
of his life to farming. He was a stanch Re-
publican in political faith, and took an earn-
est interest in the success of his party. Six
children blessed their union, four of whom
died, Ella, Joseph, and Lucy and Louisa, twins.
Charles and his brother Alvin J. are now the
only living members of the family- The par-
ents were devout and attentive members of
the Baptist church. Their son Charles re-
ceived a good common and high school educa-
tion, being graduated from the high school at
Batavia in his native state. On August 4.
1862, when he was but sixteen vears and six
months old. he enlisted in Company C, One
Hundred and Fifty-first New York Infantry.
in defense of the Union, and in that command
he served to the end of the Civil war, being
mustered out of the service on June 26, 1805.
He was a musician and his service as such was
highly valued by the regiment, and as it was
almost constantly at the front, he was in con-
tinual requisition to sound the movements of
the troops, and therefore in the very midst of
the greatest danger. After the close of the
war he returned to his New York home and
there learned his trade as a printer. Of this
craft he is a thorough master, and at it he
worked several years as a journeyman in Ba-
tavia, New York, and he also served one year
as editor of The Spirit of the Times in that
town. From there he moved to Tuscola, Mich-
igan, and secured employment with Murphy,
Avery & Eddy, lumber merchants, until the
early part of 1869, when he came to Colorado
and located near Trinidad, where he served as
a ranch band until fall. He then crossed the
range into New Mexico, and after passing the
winter there quietly, began freighting in the
spring of 1870 between La Masia and Silver
City, continuing this occupation until the sum-
mer of 187 1. Removing then to Saguache
county, in this state, he passed the next two
years working for Charles Hartman on the In-
dian reservation, and early in the winter re-
turned to Saguache county, where he took up
a ranch, which he improved, then in 1874 sold
it. He next helped to build the toll road be-
tween Saguache and Lake City. He returned
to the county of Saguache in the fall and en-
gaged in saw-mill work until the spring of
1875, then bought a freighting outfit, and
from that time until the fall of 1876 devoted
his time and energies to hauling, logging and
mill work at Lake City. Returning once more
to Saguache county, he got his teams together
and journeyed overland to the lead mines at
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Joplin, Missouri, where he remained until the
spring of 1877, then moved to Kansas and
found employment that fall in helping- to
gather the corn crop. The next spring he
moved to DeKalb count}. Missouri, and there
was variously employed for three years. In the
spring of 1881 he came overland to * Colorado,
by way of St. Joseph, Atchison, and the Platte
to Pueblo, and from there to Saguache, where
he arrived on October 7th. During the en-
suing ten years he wrought at a number of dif-
ferent occupations, always finding something
useful and profitable to do. and doing it with
all his energy however difficult it might he. In
the summer of 1891 he made a tour of obser-
vation to Green River. Wyoming, but re-
turned to his old Colorado haunts in the fall.
and after four more years of varied employ-
ment, in 1805 bought his present ranch. This
comprises three hundred and twenty acres of
good land, one-half of which is at this time
under cultivation in hay and vegetables, and on
which he raises large numbers of cattle and
Angora goats, his flock of the latter being the
only one in his part of the county. Through-
out his long nomadic residence in this state
and others, and his wide wanderings from
place to place, he experienced all the forms of
hardships, privation and danger incident to
pioneer life, dependent for long periods at
many times on wild game for his meat and
obliged to secure it at whatever hazard, in-
curring he risk of hosility from predatory
Indians, and sometimes sharing their hospital-
ity, encountering often the fury of the ele-
ments without shelter, and not wholly escap
ing from the avarice of marauding highway-
men. But he maintained a spirit of lofty cour-
age and endurance, and now lias reward for
his constancy of purpose and persistency of
effort in a comfortable estate and freedom
from seeking a precarious livelihood. From
his early manhood he has loyally supported the
Republican party in political affairs, and
wherever he has lived he has been an earnest
promoter of the improvement and advance-
ment of the community of his residence. On
April 10, 1S73, he united in marriage with
.Miss Emma T. Church, who died in [877,
leaving one child, their son Bryan Ik. who died
on May 4. 1901. In 187c; he married a second
wife. Miss Mary J. Tophan, a native of Page
ci iunty, Iowa. They have two daughters, Mrs.
Frank Burns and Jennie E., the latter living
at home.
PHILIP STAHL.
The great German empire, which in recent
times has risen to a position of such command-
ing influence among the powers of the world
and which has in every crisis of its modern
history, gloriously maintained itself, is strong
because of the strength of its people in their
individual character, resources and determined,
patient, plodding industry. And as one of the
ambitions of that empire is extensive coloniza-
tion, it has opened the doors freely to its sturdy
men and women to go forth into every corner
<>f the world and make the German name and
the German type as great and respected abroad
as it is at home. Multitudes of the empire's
teeming populations have sought homes and
fortunes in other lands, and in none have they
been more successful in their quest, or done
more for the land of their adoption than in the
United States. In our country their mark is
plainly visible in every walk of life, and it is
always to their credit. Wherever a worthy
member of the race has pitched his tent
among us his influence has been felt in bene-
ficial ways, and his work lias been productive
of good to the locality. The subject of this
brief review is a native of Germany, born in
Bavaria near Hesse Darmstadt, on May 3,
1S45, wlio came to the United States at the age
of twenty, and in his career in this country
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
819
he has well maintained the traditions and good
name of his race. He is the son of Frank and
Margaret Stahl. who were also Bavarians, and
passed their lives in their native land. The
father was a thrifty stone mason, and made a
good living at his trade. lie died in 1863 and
his wife in 1S77. They were devout and
faithful members of the Catholic church and
enjoyed the respect of all who knew them.
Two of their children survive them, Philip and
his sister Theresa. The son attended the com-
mon schools in Bavaria until he was thirteen
years old, then worked on the farm belonging
to the family until 1865. On June 16th of
that year he set sail for what seemed to him
the land of promise, and landed in New York-
after an uneventful voyage. After his arrival
he worked for two weeks in an iron manufac-
tory, then came to Colorado, making the jour-
ney from St. Joseph, Missouri, with three mule
teams. One month was spent in the journey,
the route being by way of Fort Kearney to
Julesburg. then up the South Platte to Denver
A band of one thousand, three hundred hos-
tile Indians who bad been burning buildings
and wagon trains, menaced the little party but
did not molest it. Mr. Stahl remained in Den-
ver from 1865 to 1873. doing cellar work in
the Rocky Mountain Brewery of that day sev-
enteen months, mining one month, ranch work
two months and serving as clerk and helper in
a hardware store the rest of the time. Denver
was then a straggling and uncanny town of
few inhabitants, but it already had the life and
movement which gave promise of its future
greatness. In 1873, determined to turn his
attention to rural pursuits, Mr. Stahl left the
capital city and moved to the Cottonwood sec-
tion of Saguache county, where he purchased
the improvements on his present ranch on
which he in due time proved and has since re-
sided. It comprises two tracts which adjoin
and which together contain four hundred and
forty acres. Nearly all of the land is under
vigorous cultivation and yielding first-rate
crops of hay. grain and hardy vegetables. Cat-
tle and horses of superior grades are also
raised in numbers. A special feature of the
industry on this ranch is the culture of fruit,
quantities of apples of fine quality being pro-
duced annually, and this being one of the few-
ranches in the count} whereon fruit is grown.
Having been among the very early settlers of
the county, it goes without the saying that .Mr.
Stahl has been closely and actively connected
with its progress and development from the
time of his arrival here. Nature gave an em-
pire in the territory and its people have been
diligent, energetic, far-seeing and constant in
making the most of it, and among them lie has
borne an honorable part in every phase and
element of the work. He is practically a self-
made man, and by that fact has the greater
resourcefulness and adaptability, and is there-
fore all the more useful as a citizen, and inde-
pendent and self-reliant as a man. He is
widely known and highly respected, and gives
earnest and helpful attention to the political
campaigns as a devoted Republican, and to lo-
cal affairs as a man interested in the enduring
welfare of the locality of his home. He was
married in 1866 to Miss Magdalena Ktach-
laugher. a German by birth like himself. They
have had six children. Of these August, Ther-
esa and Margaret have died, and Joseph,
Frank and Robert are living. Their mother
died on February 11. 1883.
GEORGE NEIDHARDT.
George Neidhardt, the first settler in the
Cottonwood district of Saguache county, came
to his present estate through many difficulties
and vicissitudes, and even after he located on
the fine ranch of three hundred and twenty
acres on which he now lives, and which was
820
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
secured by homestead and pre-emption claims
in 1868, he found that the battle of life for
him was not yet over, and much of its most
strenuous work remained to be done. His land
was wild and unbroken, virgin to the plow and
given up to the untamed growths of centuries,
beasts of prey still had their lairs on it, and
antelope still bounded freely through the re-
gion. There were no near neighbors for com-
munity of effort with him, and, dependent al-
most wholly on his own resources, he was
obliged to begin at the very beginning and
build up a farm from the wilderness. But he
had been prepared for difficulty and danger
by his previous experience, and having his
mind and body hardened to meet them he
rather welcomed than avoided them. He de-
voted his time and energies to the improve-
ment and cultivation of his place and to build-
ing up thereon a stock industry of good pro-
portions and profitable in its returns, and by
persistent and well applied industry he has
made his place into one of the most desirable
and best improved in that portion of the
county. Mr. Neidhardt is a native of Ger-
many, born in the historic old city of Witten-
berg, where the religious thunders of Luther
and Melancthon shook the world and started
the mighty church reformation of the six-
teenth century, his life beginning there on Feb-
ruary 17, 1837. His parents were Xavier and
Mary Ann Neidhardt, like himself natives of
Germany and belonging to families resident in
that country from immemorial times. His
father passed his life in the service of the gov-
ernment as a trusted official, and died in 1855.
the mother following him to the other world in
1861. Their son George is their only surviv-
ing child. He received a common-school edu-
cation and learned his trade as a cooper in his
native land, working also in breweries there,
and remaining until 1854, when he emigrated
to the United States, arriving in New York on
September iSth. The next May he moved to
Pennsylvania and located in Westmoreland
county, and after a residence of two years
there, came west to Iowa City, Iowa. There
he became a cook and baker and remained until
1859, the greater part of the time in Iowa City
and Des Moines. In November, 1859, he
moved to Lecompton, Kansas, where he
worked as a baker until April, i860, then with
bull teams crossed the plains to Colorado in
company with a few other men. The party
reached Denver without mishap, not meeting
an Indian on the way, and having an almost
continuous stretch of good weather while mak-
ing the journey. Denver at the time was a
crude and straggling village of rude cabins
and tents, yet withal a pleasant place of resi-
dence to men worn and wasted by a long jaunt
from the edge of civilization on the Missis-
sippi, and Mr. Neidhardt remained there until
September 4, 1861, working at his trade as a
baker. On the date last mentioned he became
a Union soldier in the Civil war, enlisting in
the First Colorado Infantry, from which he
was soon afterward transferred to a cavalry
regiment, and in this he served until Novem-
ber 17, 1864, when he was mustered out at
Denver. In his military campaigns he cooked
for the officers and baked for the arm}- at the
various stopping places. After leaving the
army he moved on to the vicinity of Fort Gar-
land and engaged in ranching. But the grass-
hoppers were so destructive that he spent his
strength for naught and in 1865 gave up the
enterprise and changed his residence to the
Kerber creek district, in which he laid the
foundation of the first dwelling on September
27th and remained more than two years, or
until February. 1868, when he changed his lo-
cation to the Cottonwood country and be-
came the first settler in that region. Here his
land is all fit for cultivation, well improved
with good buildings, provided with an inde-
pendent saw-mill, a threshing outfit, a grain
chopper and a wind mill for motive power.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
82]
and supplied plentiful!}' with water from a
number of artesian wells, these improvements
all being the result of his enterprise and good
management, and returning to him a large
profit on the outlay of time and money neces-
sary to secure them. He also has the first
water right from Cottonwood creek for addi-
tional irrigation. The ranch is twelve miles
southeast of Villagrove, and is one of Sag-
uache county's choice pieces of property and
rural homes. In the earlier years of his resi-
dence here he raised large numbers of first-
rate horses for market; but his stock industry
is now confined to cattle and sheep, and his
chief agricultural product is hay. Mr. Neid-
hardt is an ardent Republican in politics, and
as such served as county commissioner from
1872 to i88t. three terms. In 1891 and 1892
he was water superintendent of his division,
and during the last eight years he has served
as water commissioner. For many years he
has been connected with the cause of public
education in a leading and helpful way. oc-
cupying several school offices and giving their
claims on him close and careful attention, his
service in this connection covering already a
period of twenty-seven years. He is promin-
ent in the fraternal life ,of the county as a
member of the order of Odd Fellows. On
August II, 1877. he was married to Miss
Laura Hammaka, a native of Germany. They
have two children, their son John and their
daughter. Mrs. Dr. John Kiger. As this ex-
cellent citizen was a pioneer in opening this
region to settlement, so he has been a leader in
thought and action in all the elements of its
pn gresss development ami enduring welfare.
Xo interest in which the substantial good of
the section or its people has appealed to him in
vain, and in most he has not waited for an ap-
peal, but has himself started the beneficent
movement. And in consequence no man in the
county stands higher in the estimation of its
citizens, and none deserves a larger share of
the public regard and esteem than does he.
WILLIAM THOMAS ASHLEY.
A native of Kentucky, and inheriting the
hardihood, courage, love of adventure and re-
sourcefulness of the people of that state. Wil-"
liam Thomas Ashley, of 'Saguache county, was
well fitted by nature and training for the pio-
neer life in which he was obliged to take a
part on his arrival in this state in 1865. and his
career in the midst of hardships and dangers
here, and the success he has achieved from try-
ing and for a time unresponsive conditions,
give proof that he did not choose unwisely
either in the place or the line of his activity.
His life began in Crittenden county, of the
Blue Grass state, on May n, 1846. and he
remained there until i860, attending the pub-
lic schools and working on" his father's farm.
In 1869 he accompanied his parents, Samuel
and Mary P.. Ashley, the former a native of
Tennessee and the latter of Kentucky, to Mis-
souri, and he lived at home in that state until
1865, completing his education in the common
schools and learning new features 1 >f the agri-
cultural life begotten of the changed condi-
tions around him. In 1865 the family crossed
the plains to Colorado, making the trip with
mule and ox teams and being three months on
the way. There were seven hundred men and
three hundred and sixty-five wagons in the
train, and although it was savagely attacked
by Indians, the whole party escaped without
serious mishap. After his arrival in this state
Mr. Ashley took up what is now known as the
Marold ranch in Saguache county, and from
that time to this he has been extensively en-
gaged in ranching and raising cattle in that
county. He owns at present four thousand
acres of good land, one-half of which is fully
irrigated and under cultivation, the rest at this
PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
time is devoted to grazing, and supports gener-
ously the large herds of cattle which form one
of the staple products of the place. Hay is
raised extensively and grain and other farm
products in good quantities. Cattle have,
however, been from the first the main reliance
of this enterprising grower, and he has often
had as many as four thousand head at one
time, in fact, being considered the most exten-
sive cattle owner in the San Luis valley. He
has. with characteristic enterprise, kept pace
with the spirit of modern progress in his busi-
ness, and also in the matter of improvements
on his ranch. His dwelling is a modern brick
house of good proportions and attractive ap-
pearance, and his barns are commodious, well-
built, conveniently arranged and furnished
with everything needed for carrying on the
work of the place according to the most ap-
proved methods and with a view to the best re-
sults. The whole place is well fenced, and
every feature of its various interests is looked
after with care and good judgment of an ex-
cellent farmer and a progressive and far-see-
ing i iwner. In the public affairs of the o lunty
Mr. Ashley has always taken an active inter-
est and a leading part. He served as a counts-
commissioner from 1SS4 to 1890, and 'again
from 1893 to 1895. H e > s prominent and in-
fluential in the councils of the Democratic
party, following its fortunes from strong con-
viction and without desire for the honors of
official life. The ranch is six miles southeast
of the county seat in a region of great present
productiveness and future possibilities. On
January J-i'. 1880. Mr. Ashley was joined in
wedlock with Miss Emma Scandrett, a native
of Greene count)-. Illinois, and a daughter of
William T. and Malinda Scandrett, an account
of whose lives will he found on another page,
in the sketch of their son, Charles A. Scan-
drett. Mr. and Mrs. \shle\ have had three
children, of whom one died in infancy and Mrs.
Ralph Shellal larger and Thomas C. are living.
Mr. Ashley is a self-made man, and has been
largely the architect of his own fortune,
and that too has been erected on a solid basis
of strong character, upright motives and gen-
erous aspirations, and built by persistent ef-
fort, good judgment and excellent business ca-
pacity. He is widely known throughout Sag-
uache and the surrounding counties, and is
everywhere held in the highest esteem as a
representative man and a very useful and pro-
gressive citizen.
RILEY M. EDWARDS.
Born in Dade count), Missouri, on July
n>. 1^40, and reared there to the age of seven-
teen, then moving to Cooper county in the
same state, and living in that county until
1872, when he came to Colorado, Riley M. Ed-
wards, of Saguache county, has passed the
whole of his life practically on the frontier. He
is familiar with every phase of its wild life of
incident and adventure, of danger and diffi-
cult)-, of hardships and privations, and also
with the exaltation and broadening spirit
which come from close and uninterrupted com-
munion with nature in her "populous soli-
tude." His success in dealing with its condi-
tions and making them over into a comfortable
estate, satisfying' to both mind and body,
shows that he was well fitted to be a pioneer,
and that wherever he might have gone in the
wilderness, settlement, civilization and prog-
ress would have followed in bis wake. That
his energies and breadth of view were em-
ployed here instead of elsewhere is a fortun-
ate circumstance for the count)- in which he
lues, and for the state in general. Mr. Ed-
wards is a son of James and Juliana Edwards,
the former a native of England and the latter
of Pennsylvania. They moved to Missouri
so, ,11 after their marriage and passed the re
PROGRESSIVE MEN UF WESTERN COLORADO.
S23
mainder of their lives in that state successfully
engaged in fanning and raising stock. They
were Presbyterians in church alliance and the
father was a firm supporter of the Republican
party in politics. lie died in 1S49 and the
mother in 1896. Six children were born to
them. Of these Mary and James died, and
John J.. William P., George M. and Riley M.
are living. Three of the sons served in the
Civil war. and all escaped the terrible ordeal
without injury. Riley was left at home to as-
sist his parents in the farm work, and from an
early age he did a man's share of it. lie was
educated at the common schools and a high
school in his native county, devoting all his
spare time to the aid of bis parents, and the
devotion to their interests then shown contin-
ued until deatb ended their labors. In 1863,
when he was in bis seventeenth year, be went
to Cooper county in the same state and there
engaged in various lines of useful work. In
[872 be came to Colorado and took up his resi-
dence at Denver, and in and around that city
he was employed at different occupations until
the spring of 1873. when be rented a ranch
which he worked till fall. He then moved to
Colorado Springs, and during the next seven
years was occupied in hauling ami freighting
between that city and Leadville and other
points. He next made a trip with his teams to
Alamosa, and afterward made many freight-
ing trips between that place and Pitkin. His
life in this work was full of hazard and hard
work, but the profits were large and there was
additional compensation in the spirit of inde-
pendence and self-reliance which it engen-
dered. In June, 1880, he traded the freighting
outfit for a ranch of two hundred and eighty
acres, which was the nucleus which subsequent
purchases have increased to one thousand, one
hundred and twenty acres. Of this tract fully
three-fourths are under cultivation and the re-
mainder furnishes excellent pasture for bis
cattle. The ranch is well located five miles
and three-quarters east of the town of Sag-
uache, and he has improved it with g 1
buildings, including a commodious and com-
fortable modem brick dwelling, first-rate
fences and other needed structures. The water
supply is plentiful and constant, and the hus-
bandry is vigorous and up-to-date in every
way. Every year of bis life here has witnessed
increased prosperity and progress, and he is
now well established in personal comfort, an
active and profitable industry and the public
regard. He raises bay. grain and rattle ex-
tensively, and conducts all the operations of bis
ranch and all phases of bis business with com-
mendable vigor and judgment. His prosper-
ity is the result of bis own efforts, and is all
the mure gratifying on that account. The
favors of fortune are not to be despised, but
they are not necessary to the success of a man
"f proper spirit who has eyes to see and en-
ergy tn properly use his opportunities for ad-
vancement. Politically Mr. Edwards is a
stanch Republican, and fraternally be is con-
nected prominently with the order of I kid
Fellows. On March 28. 1880. he was married
to Miss Mary E. Long, a native of Barton
county, Missouri. They have four children.
Finis H., Clarence. Ada and Edna. The father
is a leading and representative citizen of the
county, zealous in the promotion of its wel-
fare and warmly devoted to its best interests
with good judgment as to what is best and
earnest diligence in promoting it.
CURTIS BROTHERS.
Among the leading - citizens and most en-
terprising and prosperous ranchmen and stock-
growers of Saguache county are the Curtis
Brothers. Wilbur E. and George H.. win
cellent ranch of six hundred acres, located not
far from the county seat, was one of the first
82 4
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
opened up in the county and is now one of the
best. Wilbur L. was born at Independence.
Iowa, on December 14, 1870, and George H.
in Saguache county, Colorado, on November
25, 1874. They are sons of Lora D. and Eliza
1 Martin) Curtis, the former born in Geneva
county, New York, on February 25, 1838, and
the latter in Trumbull county. Ohio, on June
26, 1858. The father was the son of Newman
and Maria Curtis, who were natives of New
York state, the former of Scotch and the lat-
ter of Holland ancestry. They moved to In-
dependence, Iowa, early in their married life,
and there they passed the remainder of their
lives engaged in farming and raising live
stock. The father was a Whig in politics until
the death of that party, and after that an
ardent Republican. Both died in Iowa. Their
sun, I.ora D. Curtis, received a common-school
education, and remained with his parents until
fitly 1. 1876. when, in order to restore his fail-
ing health, he came overland with a small train
to Colorado, and located in Saguache county.
Here he pre-empted a ranch ten miles south-
east of the county seat, which he improved and
sold. He then moved near the town of Sag-
uache, which was at the time a hamlet of
rude dwellings and few inhabitants, and de-
voted his remaining years to ranching and
raising cattle in that neighborhood. He always
took an earnest interest in the progress of the
county, and was largely instrumental in having
good roads and other improvements of a kin-
dred character made. He became one of the
most prominent and influential citizens of the
county and one of its leading business men. In
political affairs he supported the Republican
party with ardor and effectiveness. He died
on April 22, 1898, and his widow now makes
her home at Saguache. Like their father. Re-
publicans in politics, and like him alert, enter-
prising and far-seeing in business, the sons are
highly esteemed citizens, and very helpful
forces in carrying on the general interests of
the county, in which they have a constant and
earnest concern. Wilbur, who was four years
old when the family moved to this state, has
passed all his subsequent years in Saguache
county except the period from 1891 to 1896,
inclusive, when he was superintendent of con-
struction for the Chicago Gas Light and
Coke Company. His education was ob-
tained in the common schools, and a1
the Western University and Powers Busi-
ness College at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, and
his courses of study, at these has been
supplemented by a wide and varied experience,
which has made him a broad-minded and well-
informed man. George L., who is wholly a
product of Colorado, attended only the com-
mon schools, the necessities of the work on the
ranch and the other interests in which his
father was engaged, requiring his presence at
home from an early age. Both are valued
members of the Masonic order in their local-
ity, and both are actuated by a lofty and pro-
ductive public-spirit in all their citizenship
Since their father's death they have managed
the business affairs of the family with increas-
ing success and profit, and looking after every
phase of its multiform activities with close at-
tention and excellent judgment. Eighty acres
of the tract are in grain and three hundred and
seventy-five in hay, and the rest is devoted to
pasturing the large herds of well bred cattle
which form one of the staple products of the
place, which is known as the Andy Settle
Ranch, and was one of the first located in the
county. Tt is improved with good dwellings
and other buildings, plentifully watered and
near a good and active market at Saguache.
The sons, while inheriting the business, inher-
ited also the spirit of their father, and thev
have exemplified in their career all the manli-
ness, energy, elevated citizenship and local pa-
triotism that were conspicuous in his. And as
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
525
the country has improved, they have kept pace
with the spirit of progress, continuing in the
front rank of its business men and among the
leaders of its thought and action in every use-
ful line of improvement.
WALLACE ABIJAH JOHNSON.
A resident of Colorado since 1889, Wallace
A. Johnson, of Saguache county, has during
the last fifteen years been actively engaged in
the various industries carried on in the locality
j if his residence, and has shown himself to be
a far-seeing and resourceful man, never with-
out employment of importance, and always ar
the front in projects for the improvement of
the region and the advantage of its people. He
has capacity for carrying on affairs of magni-
tude, and in a sparsely settled region, as this
was when he came here, such men are of es-
pecial value. Mr. Johnson was born near Van
Wert, Ohio, on September 13, 1859, ar >d is the
son of Joseph H. and Mary A. (Goodwin)
Johnson, who were born and reared in Ohio
and lived in Iowa from 1861 to 1889, part of
the time in Polk count}' and the remainder at
Garden Grove in Decatur county. In April.
1889, they came to Colorado, and until [892
lived in Saguache county, then moved to Rio
Grande county, where they resided eight years,
returning to Saguache in 1900. The father
was a farmer and school teacher in Ohio, but
in Iowa and Colorado he gave his whole at-
tention to ranching and raising stock. He is
an unwavering Republican in politics, and a
progressive man in all matters of local im-
provement. Of the nine children in the family
Alice and Frederick have died, and Wallace
A., Mrs. Charles S. Dick, Frank. Flora. Mrs.
Andrew Gemmill, Davis B. and Nerva are liv-
ing. Wallace obtained his education in the
public schools and in two terms at the graded
schools of Iowa Center. The necessity for his
labor on the homestead limited his opportuni-
ties, but enabled him to form early in life
habits of industry and self-reliance. In 1879
he formed a partnership with his father to
carry on the farming interests of the family,
and this continued until 1890. For a year
thereafter he was engaged in saw-mill work,
and during this period he aided in building the
Gotihelf store at Saguache. From 1891 to
1893 he was associated with the Gotthelf Mer-
cantile Company, and in the latter year he
bought the stage line between Saguache and
Yillagrove, and operated it in partnership) with
his brother Frank. In the spring of 1894 he
sold his interest in this to his brother and re-
turned to his former connection with the Gott-
helf Mercantile Company, with which he con-
tinued in the same capacity until April, 1898,
when he became a full partner with Isaac Gott-
helf in the cattle industry, and to this he has
since given his exclusive attention, together
with the ranching interests connected with it.
Their ranch comprises twelve hundred acres
and is located near the town of Saguache.
The business is carried on extensively, Mr.
Johnson being an exceptionally fine judge of
cattle, and a manager of a high order of ca-
pacity and vigor. In political matters he loy-
ally supports the Republican party from earn-
est conviction, and never withholds his efficient
services when the party needs them. He has
served many years as chairman of its local
committees. After the nomination of the late
President McKinley in 1896, he remained true
to his faith, and was the only firm and unyield-
ing Republican in 'the county. He is a third-
degree Freemason, a self-made and prosperous
man. and a prominent citizen, everywhere
known and very popular in all portions of the
county. On November 22. 1881, he united in
marriage with Miss Hannah Quayle. a native
of the Isle of Man. They have had six chil-
dren, three of whom died in infancy, and a son
826
PROGRESSIVE MEM OF WESTERN COLORADO.
named Frank L. was killed by lightning on
June 21, 1900. The living children are their
sons Curt and Charles.
WILLIAM ROBERT MONTEITH.
From his childhood to a recent period the
life of this subject was one of toil and tempest,
difficulty and danger, arduous effort and thril-
ling adventure. The death of his father when
the son was but five years old left the family in
very moderate circumstances, and laid each of
its members under tribute for aid in making
the living for the household as soon as strength
and ability were available for the purpose, and
so from the age of nine he has been working
for himself and others. The destiny seemed a
hard one as he passed through it, but he can
now realize its beneficial features in the prep-
aration it gave for the more stirring and ex-
acting duties ahead of him. when the cold
blasts of poverty and adversity assailed him in
youth, and can contemplate with satisfaction
the impediments then in his way. which he
converted into instruments of service, and the
enemies of circumstance which he fashioned
into power for his advance. Mature life
brought him face to face with duties of a stern
and unrelenting character, in the performance
of which the element of personal danger was
ever present, but his early training had armed
him to meet them. It brought him trials ami
privations of unexpected magnitude, but his
long habit of self-denial and self-reliance
robbed them of terrors and shrunk them into
littleness in the presence of his resolute ami
determined spirit. Meanwhile, he made steady
progress in bettering his condition, using
every advantage gained as a stepping stone to
higher results. He is now one of the most gen-
erally relied on and esteemed 'citizens of Sag
uache county, as well as one of the most sub-
stantial in the way of worldly possessions, llis
fellow citizens gave a striking proof of their
confidence in him and their regard for him on
November 8. 1904, by electing him sheriff of
his county on the Democratic ticket, at a time
when almost every other candidate on that
ticket there was overwhelmingly defeated, and
his party was awfully beaten in more than two-
thirds of the country. Mr. Monteith is a na-
tive of Illinois, born in Pike county, at the
town of Xew Canton, on February C2, 185 1.
His parents were James and Man- J. (Gal-
lagher) Monteith, the former born in Scotland
and the latter in Ireland. After their marriage
they emigrated to the United States and lo-
cated in Illinois. There the father was en-
gaged in farming and raising live stock until
his death in November, 1856. Of the three
children in the family James died in 1899, and
Mrs. John Lewis and William R. are living.
Some time after the husband's death the
mother brought her children to Colorado and
.located in Denver, where she is now living.
Here she married a second husband, Thomas
Campbell, who died in 1899. By the early
death of his father William R. Monteith was
deprived almost wholly of school advantages.
At the age of nine he went to work to earn a
little money for the aid of his mother in sup-
porting the family, going to Iowa in i860 and
passing two years in that state in different em-
ployments. His next engagement was driving
hull teams across the plains, and in this he four
times made the long and perilous trip
through the wilderness, in 1862, 1863, [865
and 1807, starting from Nebraska City, Atch-
inson and Leavenworth, Kansas, in turn. Each
trip was fraught with danger and had its share
of hardship and adventure. On the last one.
111 [867, the number of person- in the train
was thirteen, and when they reached the little
Blue river in Kansas, they encountered hostile
Indians, and were 111 great danger as they had
only three guns in the party. But they sue-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
827
ceeded in defeating the attack and killing the
Indian chief, although the savages stole nine
of their horses. Moving on, they reached Fort
Kearney in safely, and here they were de-
tained three days for re-enforcements. In this
they were fortunate, for when they reached
Plumb creek a band of rive hundred Indians
attacked them, tinny three volleys into the
train. Two of the party were killed and Mr.
Monteith received an arrow wound in the
thigh. Along their further progress they found
the remains of man)' white men who had keen
slain by Indians, but they reached Denver with-
out additional mishap. Here Mr. Monteith re
mained from July 3, 1867, just one year, and
was employed in ranch work and range-riding.
In [868 he went to New Mexico in the service
of Andy Slain, and later made another trip
there for the same gentleman. In 1869
he was sent to Texas by John Hitson, the cat-
tle king of that day, and in the fail of the same
year moved into the San Luis valley of this
state, where he managed the interests of the
Gilpin-Grant Stock Company from 1S70 until
[872. He next entered the employ of Samuel
Kelley and took one thousand, five hundred
cattle to Nevada for him. Returning to Colo-
rado in 1873. he located near Salida, and until
November, 1874, made ties under contract for
the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. On the
completion of his contract he moved into Sag-
uache county, and here he has since had his
home except at intervals when his duty or in-
terest called him elsewhere. In 1875 and [876
he served as deputy sheriff and town marshal
at Lake City, and also engaged in mining there.
On August 18, 1879, he joined the police force
at Leadville on which he served through the
troublous times to 1881, then left with the
credit of having been the only man on the force
who was fearless in the discharge of his duty.
In this service he had a hazardous encounter
with the noted desperado, George Connors,
who had the whole town stood off until ar-
rested by Mr. Monteith, and in effecting the
an\st he received an ugly wound in his breast.
From 1876 to 1879 he freighted out of Colo-
rado Springs, but since 188 1 he has given his
attention almost wholly to his ranch and stock
interests in Saguache county, carrying them on
extensively and vigorously, improving his
property and cultivating it to the best advan-
tage. He owns six hundred and forty acres of
good land in three ranches three miles easl of
the county seat, and it is all under cultivation,
being well watered from independent ditches,
and produces enormous crops of excellent hay.
His cattle industry is also large and profitable.
Since he came to Colorado he has not been
wholly immune from the fever universally epi-
demic among its people, but has taken his turn
al prospecting now and then. He is a third-
degree Mason, and a highly respected, pro-
gressive and prominent citizen. For the office
nf sheriff, to which he was elected in 1904, as
noted above, he has special fitness by nature
and experience, and he discharged the duties
of the position with unusual credit and benefit
to the county. He was married on November
24, 1876, to Miss Julinette Joy, a native of
Ohio. Morgan county. They had two chil-
dren, both deceased, Mary J. and Hattie.
THOMAS C. CLARK.
After passing his childhood, youth and
young manhood in Missouri, and having ex-
perience in life there in various lines of ac-
tivity and amid different classes of people,
Thomas C. Clark, of the vicinity of Center.
Saguache county, came to this state in 1885,
at the age of thirty-two, and located at the
Jasper mining camp in Rio Grande county. His
life began in Nodaway county. Missouri, near
the town of Quitman, on September 9, 1853
and he is the son of John and Catherine Clark.
PROGRESSIVE MEN' OF WESTERN COLOR. I Do.
who were born and reared in Ohio, and moved
to .Missouri in 1844. The father was a farmer
and also owned and operated a saw-mill. He
prospered in his work, supported the Republi-
can party in political affairs with ardor and
earnestness, and with his wife gave good and
effective service to the cause of religion ac-
cording to the tenets of the Methodist Episco-
pal church, of which they were members. He
was a man of local prominence in his section
and held in good regard by its people. Occa-
sionally he allowed the use of his name f< ir a
local office in order to promote the general
weal, and in all respects he discharged with
uprightness and fidelity the duties of citizen-
ship. Three of their children are living, Wesley,
Thomas and Edward. Thomas had no educa-
tional advantages except such as were to be
had in the common country schools of his day
and locality, but was obliged from an early
age to work hard and continuously on the
home farm. Here, however, he learned a use-
ful vocation and acquired independence and
self-reliance of spirit as well as strength and
suppleness of body. He learned the trade of
blacksmithing, remaining at home until he was
twenty-one years old. He then worked at his
trade, in connection with saw-milling in his
native county, and also engaged in farming
and raising stock there with success. In 1885
he came to Colorado, and locating at the
Jasper mining camp in Rio Grande county,
turned his attention to prospecting and mining
fi r wages. The conditions of life were all new
to him and the face of the country was differ-
ent in large degree from what he had been
accustomed to. Hut he had acquired in his
previous experience that readiness of adapta
tion and resourcefulness in the use of his fac-
ulties, that he would not long have felt strange
or embarrassed anywhere, ami was soon as
much at home in the mountains and mining re
gions of Colorado, and amid the wild adven
turers who then made up the population of a
mining camp as he had been among his own
people on the plains of Missouri. A mind at
peace with itself and in full possession and
control of its own attributes is not easily over-
thrown or disturbed by circumstances, and
this was his case. He took his place among
the fortune seekers at the camp with as much
ease and self-possession as any of them, and
wrought his portion with the rest. So well
pleased was he with Colorado, in fact, that he
determined to remain in the state permanently,
and to this end, he located a part of his present
ranch four miles northeast of Center on pre-
emption and timber-culture claims, and to this
he has since added by purchase until he now
owns one thousand, four hundred and forty-
acres in all, but in three distinct bodies. All
his land can be cultivated, and the spirit of im-
provement has so possessed him that it is all
fenced, provided with comfortable modern
buildings and other necessary structures, and
in an advanced state of productiveness. His
principal crops are peas, potatoes and grain,
and his live stock, which he raises extensively,
includes cattle, sheep and hogs. The whole
of his enterprise here is a gain from the waste,
as there was nothing of husbandry or the sem-
blance of a human habitation on the land when,
he acquired it. and there were only three set-
tlers in the neighborhood when he pitched his
tent in this region. He is not only a self-made
man, but his estate is also his own creation.
In political action he is a loyal and unyielding
Republican, and in local improvements he is a
wide-awake, far-seeing and earnest man of
positive force and an inspiring influence. On
November 18, 1875, he was married to Miss
Julia E. Noffsinger. who was horn in Missouri
and in the same county as himself. They have
had seven children. Of these Ferry E., Cad-
die and Goldie E. have died, and Jennie M..
Emma. Katie and Roy E. are living. It is
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
829
from such sturdy and resolute stock as Mr.
Clark, men who know how to do, what to do,
when to do, and who stand always ready to do,
whatever may be required of them in the line of
duty, that the population of Colorado has been
largely recruited, and to such good purpose
that within one generation of human life, or
but little more than this, the state has grown
to colossal greatness and power in industrial
and commercial development, and achieved
distinction all over the world by the multitude
of her products, the magnitude of her enter-
prises, and the promise of a far more might)
future which even in her infancy is plainly
manifest. While nature has been bountiful
here beyond the wildest dreams of her pio-
neers, the men and women who have sought
a share in her bounty have been worthy of it
and have accepted it in the lofty spirit of true
craftsmen entitled to the best raw material at-
tainable to work upon.
DANIEL SHERMAN JONES.
Born in the state of Maine, near the city of
Eastport, on January 11, 1859, and reared in
that locality to the age of seventeen, then
learning a useful trade in Massachusetts, and
afterward following a variety of occupations
in different parts of the West, the subject of
this brief review has seen American life under
many stars and amid circumstances widely dif-
fering in character, all of which, however,
have served to strengthen the fiber and broaden
the scope of his mind and manhood, and pre-
pare him for any emergency that might con-
front him. He is the son of Lewis and Mary
(Sherman) Jones, natives and life-long resi-
dents of Maine. The father was a surveyor
and carpenter, prosperous in his work and use-
ful to an unusual extent to his community and
county. He followed with ardor the fortunes
of the Republican party from the first cam-
paign to his death, yet while doing this, he
never allowed his party spirit to overbear his
genuine interest in the improvement and gen-
eral welfare of his local surroundings. He was
born in 1814 and died in 1898. The mother's
life began in 1818 and ended in her native
state in 1901. They were the parents of ten
children, of whom Eliza, Mary and Hannah
are dead, and Mrs. Edgar Nash, Mira, Mrs.
Edith Wilson, Mrs. Frederick Thompson,
Daniel S., Enmuel G. and Benjamin are liv-
ing. Daniel was liberally educated in the com-
mon and high schools, and at the state univers-
ity at Dennysville and Orona in his native
state. When he reached the age of seventeen
years he left the parental roof and went to
Massachusetts, where he learned the jeweler's
trade and watch making. In 1879, when he
was twenty, he came to Colorado to do sur-
veying, which he had mastered in theory and
practice, and selected Leadville, which was
then in the height of its first booming activity,
as the field of his operations. But owing to the
fact that there were many surveyors at that
point, and the competition rendered the work
unprofitable, he changed his mind and sought
the benefit of an outdoor life as a ranch hand
on Bear creek. In 1880 he moved to Fort Col-
lins, where he leased a ranch and bought some
cattle, and there he carried on a ranching and
stock business until some time in 1881. He
then went back East and locating at Fort Fair-
field in Aroostook county, Maine, opened a
jewelry store, remaining there until 1885. In
the winters of 1882 and 1883 he also taught
school in the woods for the benefit of his
health, which was uncertain. After serving
three years as county surveyor of Aroostook
county, he was chosen in 1884 by its people as
one of their representatives in the state legis-
lature. In 1885 he moved to Kansas and de-
voted the summer to surveying and laying out
townsites there, then in the fall came again to
8.30
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Colorado, and locating in Rio Grande county,
homesteaded a ranch there on which he lived
until 1889. His life in that county was one of
loneliness and privation. Montevista was the
nearest town, and the business of ranching and
raising stock, in which he engaged, was
fraught with difficulties owing to the unde-
veloped condition of the country and the
scarcity of conveniences and even necessary ap-
pliances for the work. But he accepted the
situation and conditions with cheerfulness and
resolutely determined to make the most of
them. The life gave him strength and sup-
pleness of body, and his close attention and
skillful management of his business brought
him good returns. In 1889 he sold his ranch
in Rio Grande and bought a portion of the
one he now owns and occupies in Saguache
county, the remainder of which he has acquired
by subsequent purchases. This consists of
one thousand seven hundred and sixty acres,
tour hundred of which can now be cultivated.
The whole tract is enclosed with good fences
and the buildings are many and of good
quality and proportions. Here he is ex-
tensively engaged in ranching and raising cat-
tle, and his business is steadily increasing in
volume and profits, with a sure promise of still
greater results as time passes and a more
plentiful supply of water is secured. But his
time has not been given up wholly to his own
interests. He is a citizen of strong patriotism,
local and general, and has taken an earnest and
productive interest in the affairs of the county.
He helped to build and managed the construc-
tion of the Alamosa Creek Canal Ditch, which
cost twenty-five thousand dollars, ami from
1896 to 1800. inclusive, served the county well
and wisely as the superintendent of its public
schools. lie has also taken a leading part in
the cause of high school education, serving on
ilu board which managed that branch of the
ind mainly by his efforts effecting the
organization in 1899, becoming its first secre-
tary and filling his position for a number of
years. In June. 1903, he was appointed by
the Governor chief engineer of the Rio Grande
irrigation division, a position for which he
has special fitness ami in which he has ren-
dered service of great magnitude and value. In
political faith he is an unwavering Republican,
and in the cause of his party he is interested
effectively every day in the year. Fraternally
he is connected with the Masonic order and the
( )dd Fellows. In June. 1883. he was married
to Miss Ella H. Bubar, a native of Aroostook,
Maine. They have six children. Hope. Jay,
Frank, Neal, Mary and Daniel. In three
states Mr. Jones has tried his hand at different
kinds of private enterprise and public work,
and in each he has an excellent record to his
credit. He is a cultivated man. and has been
wise t" know and bold to perform whatever
came before him at the call of duty, and always
working with might and main toward the tie-
sired end. He has many trials and disappoint-
ments, lint his buoyancy and resistance have
always prevailed to preoccupy him with the
call to a new interest, and the wounds he
suffered have cicatrized, and his fiber lis be-
come tougher for the hurt in every case. His
is the sort of citizenship that has made our
country great and powerful, and laid its
treasures at the feet of the world for service.
And he has the good fortune to realize, even
while living, that his work is appreciated at
some measure of its full value, and that lie is
correspondingly esteemed. .
JAMES WATSON.
When the high and often extravagant
hopes inspired by the general discoveries of
gold in the Rocky Mountain regions of this
country brought thousands of eager seekers
for the precious metals to Colorado, and thus
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
831
led to populating and developing the territory,
men of all classes and conditions in life, and
from every section of this and other countries,
became its citizens and put in motion here their
various kinds and degrees of enterprise and
skill. Although led in the first instance by the
promise of great gains from the mining - in-
dustry, they soon found other lines of activity
full of fruitfulness and gain, and remained to
cultivate the soil .and build up substantial ami
enduring business interests where they had
come to levy a quick and bounteous tribute for
use in enterprises of magnitude elsewhere.
Among the eager seekers for fortune in the
glittering store which lay hidden in the
mountains waiting for the voice of masterful
energy to call it forth and make it serviceable
to mankind, was James Watson, the scion of
old Virginia and Pennsylvania families, who
although young in years, was a fully developed
man in determined spirit, unyielding enterprise
and resourcefulness in emergencies, ready to
dare any fate and make the most of any cir-
cumstances. The faith which brought him
through hard-hips over the plains into the wil-
derness, and which sustained him in the ardu-
ous toils and trial- of his early years in this
country has been amply justified by his suc-
cess in his undertakings and the position .if
respectability and general esteem to which bis
merit has raised him. Mr. Watson was born
in the picturesque and historic valley of the
Shenandoah, near the town of Woodstock in
Virginia, in 1850, and is the son of Joseph and
Jemima Watson, the former a native of Vir-
ginia and the latter of Pennsylvania. They
were prosperous planters in the Old Dominion,
and the father was a man of local prominence
and influence, holding many county offices in
tlie gift of his people, serving in one continu-
ously from 1842 to 1858. He was a pro-
nounced Democrat in political faith, and was
ever active in the service of his party In re-
ligion- belief both parents were ardent mem-
bers of the Baptist church, and the Eath
one of the pillars of the congregation to which
they belonged. He died in his native state in
[859 and his widow at the same place in 1804.
Six of their children have died, leaving their
-on James the only surviving member of the
family. Me received a meager scholastic train-
ing in the common schools of bis day and lo-
cality, which were rendered less serviceable
than usual because of the disturbed conditions
preceding- and during the Civil war. At the
age of fourteen, after the death of his parent-.
Ik had the wide world and its battle of life be-
fore him. and was armed for the contest with
nothing but his native powers of mind and
body, and the limited education he had ac-
quired. In 1878 he journeyed to Kansas City,
Missouri, by rail, and from there with mule
teams up the Arkansas river to Silverton, this
state, then a young but promising mining
camp, lie was six weeks making the trip and
arrived with two teams and a few- dollars as
his only capital. But he found a ready demand
.or the use of his teams and his own energies
in teaming, ami made good profits at the busi-
ness, at the same time prospecting, as every-
body else did, and acquiring by bis effort- a
number of valuable mining claims. In the fall
of 1879 he moved to Lake City and continued
bis freighting operations, running between
Lake City and Alamosa, until 1884. meanwhile
1 ecoming possessed of additional mining prop-
erties. Since the year last named be has
been engaged in handling local freight and
mining in San Juan and Hinsdale counties.
He holds interests of value in the Index, the
Mountain, the King and the Excelsior mines
in San Juan county, and in others elsewhere.
Since [889 he has also been occupied vigor-
ously and extensively in the feed and coal
trade, handling all kinds of feed and standard
varieties of coal, such as the Baldwin, the
8 3 2
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Crested Butte, the Anthracite and the Somer-
set outputs. In the public affairs of his county
and section he has taken an active and promi-
nent part, serving as county commissioner of
Hinsdale county in 1903 and 1904, and on the
town board of Lake City for a number of
years. Politically he is a firm and loyal Demo-
crat, ' and fraternally belongs to the order of
Odd Fellows. He was married on January
17, 1870, to Miss Mary E. Mowry, of the same
nativity as himself, who still abides with him.
He has been a bold and far-seeing operator in
many lines, and while often taking great risks,
has generally been successful ; and his useful-
ness in the development of his section and in-
telligence and force in caring for its best in-
terests, have made him a leading and
universally esteemed citizen, while his genial
and generous disposition has gained him great
popularity, and his readiness to assist in the
promotion of every valuable enterprise has
won him commanding influence in commercial
and industrial circles throughout his portion of
the state. His is the kind of citizenship that
has made Colorado great and her name re-
spected throughout the world as a land of won-
derful possibilities and gigantic undertakings,
and he is correspondingly respected by all
classes of her people.
SAMUEL WATSON.
The late Samuel Watson, of Lake City, a
brother of James Watson, whose useful life in
this state is briefly outlined elsewhere in this
work, was like his brother a native of Shenan-
doah county -in what is now West Virginia,
and was born in 1845. He became a resident
m|" Lake City, Colorado, in 187(1. ami here he
died in 1876. His life in this community was
an example of humility and fidelity, of genuine
charih to his fellows and helpfulness in their
needs, an example of the truest and loftiest
ideal as a citizen, neighbor and friend; and his
memory is enshrined in the hearts of his fel-
low citizens as one of their best and brightest
possessions. Proving himself in every trial
and difficulty a man of lofty faith, great re-
sourcefulness and unyielding self-reliance, and
performing well and skillfully, without ^osten-
tation or self praise, even- duty, however
arduous or seemingly impossible, he was one
of the real heroes of civilization in a field
whereon its highest and best efforts were in
constant requisition. For a period of twenty
yearsdie wrought as a pioneer of the most ad-
vanced type, accomplishing results of magni-
tude, not offering excuses for not doing things.
He and his brothers did all the heavy teaming
of the Lake City section at a time when the
highest engineering skill was required to over-
come obstacles, and the best generalship in the
disposition of their forces. When heavy
machinery was to be moved to mountain tops,
over rugged and almost impassable ground,
they always did it, sometimes effecting results
that would have reflected credit on large trans-
portation facilities of the most modern and
complete character. They cut trails and built
roads through and over well nigh insurmount-
able obstructions, commanding all the opposing
forces of nature to "stand ruled" at their de-
sire, and even to pay tribute to their needs.
They braved the fun,' of the elements and con-
quered it. Storm and flood did not deter them.
rain, and hail and snow did not daunt them,
the winter's cold and the summer's heat did
not stop or stay them in the accomplishing an
end once definitely in view. And the ruling
spirit of their enterprise was Samuel. And
even when most beset with difficulties and con-
fronted with obstacles themselves, they were
generous and open-handed in helping others,
and promoting the general weal, aiding a
friend or neighbor in need or assistance with
substantial bounty of even- required kind, ami
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
833
meeting' all county and town necessities with
wise counsel, foreseeing sweep, of vision and
strong hands of material service. Samuel
Watson was a valiant soldier in the Confeder-
ate army during the Civil war, and carried
through life the terrible scenes of the Wilder-
ness, Cedar Creek and other renowned battles
of the momentous struggle. When the war was
ended he accepted the results in a manly spirit
of generosity, harboring no ill feeling toward
the conquerors of his cause, but with de-
light in promoting the welfare of his re-united
country, in whatever section of it he happened
to be. Through life he was generous in the
true spirit of generosity, which keeps no books
of account and exacts no usury for benefac-
tions ; and always he dealt with his fellows
along lines of unwavering and unhesitating
integrity. When he was laid to rest among
the fruitful enterprises he had aided so ma-
terially in creating, "Nature might stand up
and say to all the world 'This was a man !' "
HARRY LINTON.
Harry Linton, an enterprising farmer and
stock-grower of Gunnison county, with a fine
ranch of two hundred and eighty acres located
seven miles northeast of the county seat, was
born in Pennsylvania in 1845, an d was reared
to the age of nine years amid the seething and
intense activities of that great commonwealth.
At that age he moved with his parents, George
and Susan (Folk) Linton, to Iowa, where he
grew to manhood and received a common-
school education. His parents were both
natives of Pennsylvania, born just when the
eighteenth century, glorious in its achieve-
ments for the elevation of mankind, was sur-
rendering the scepter of power to its young and
ambitious successor, and they passed their lives
in that state, until 1854, prosperously engaged
in lumber pursuits, then moved to Iowa where
53
they ended their days, the father dying in 1863.
aged sixty-one, and the mother in 1895, aged
ninety-two. They were of old colonial stock
of Revolutionary fame, the father of English
and the mother of Welch ancestry. At the age
of eighteen their son Harry began life for him-
self, learning the carpenter trade and working
at that and farming until 1883, when he emi-
grated to Colorado and settled at Mount Car-
lii >n. ( iunnison county. There for five years he
worked at his trade, finding great demand for
his mechanical skill amid the growing energies
of the place, and prospering in the use of it.
In 1890 he moved to Denver and started a
real estate business, which he carried on suc-
cessfully for two years. He then returned to
Iowa and settled at Des Moines, where he re-
mained five or six years. Then coming back to
Colorado, he settled on the beautiful and fertile
ranch of two hundred and eighty acres which
he now occupies on Gunnison river. This has
since been his home, and here he has conducted
an up-to-date and progressive ranching and
stock industry, of good proportions and ele-
vated character. Mr. Linton was married in
1889 to Miss Louisa Pennington, a native of
Pennsylvania and at the time of her marriage a
resident of Gunnison, where the marriage was
solemnized. They have three children, George
C, Helen H. and Edith Elnoria, who died on
April 16, 1905. Mr. Linton is a Republican
in politics, and is active in the service of his
party at all times. He is also devotedly attached
to the section in which he lives and zealous in
promoting its welfare and advancement bv all
means at his command.
FREDERICK WILLIAM SWANSON.
Ignoring the advantages of an advanced
education that were open to him. ami because
of the independence and self-reliance of his
spirit beginning to make his own way in the
834
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
world at the age of fourteen, Frederick W.
Swanson, of Alamosa, has had an interesting
career, has tried his hand at several pursuits
and has become familiar with American in-
stitutions and the aspirations and tendencies
of the people by contact with them in a num-
ber of different places and lines of activity.
He was born at Gottenborg, Sweden, on May
6, 1847, anf l ' s tne son of Andrew and Sophia
Swanson. also natives of that country. The
father, who was a wholesale grocer, died on
December 22, 1850, and the mother in 1889.
Two of their children are living, Mrs. John
Hillberg, now living in Rhode Island, and
Frederick. A daughter named Virginia, who
was born on May 9, 1849, died in 1854. The
parents were members of the Lutheran church.
Mr. Swanson learned his trade as a lithographer
in his native land, and worked at it there for a
time, then went to sea, and while on the water
learned ship carpentering. In 1866 he came to
the United States, and until the fall of 1868
he worked at carpentering in Chicago. He
then moved to Topeka, Kansas, where he
worked as a carpenter in the service of the gov-
ernment for a time, and afterward passed eight
months hunting buffalo to supply meat to the
forts and military posts on the frontier. Dur-
ing this time he had considerable trouble with
predatorv Indians who stole his meat, horses
and other belongings. In 1870 he returned to
Topeka, and after a short stay there, came to
Colorado, locating at Denver. After devoting
six months to carpenter work in that city, he
moved into the San Juan country, which at
that time had no white settlers, and devoted a
considerable time to prospecting and mining,
making some good finds but never realizing
much from them. He did. however, have a
rich harvest of privations and hardships in this
wilderness, but he was nerved to meet them
and enduring them as a necessary pari of bis
discipline and experience. In 1872 he helped
to survey the Del Norte townsite, and in the
spring of 1873 moved to Pueblo, where he
worked at his trade as a carpenter and builder
until the spring of 1877, also conducting a
daily during the greater part of the time. His
next locations were at Lake City and Capital
City, where he remained until November, 1877.
freighting, mining and carpentering at those
places and at Garland, where he helped to
build the smelter in the fall of 1877. In
February, 1878, he located at Alamosa, one of
the six first men in the town, and he is now the
only one of the six remaining there. There
were no buildings in the town when he came,
and the mechanical forces were few and in
great demand. Mr. Swanson made by hand
the first sash and flooring used there and helped
to build the first hotel at the place, which was
used for the postofhce. for a saloon and for
various other purposes as well as a hostelry
for the accommodation of the public. He
clerked in this hotel and also carried on a gen-
eral store until the spring of 1880, then moved
to Cornwall, where he opened another store
and devoted some of his time to mining. Fie
built a toll road through Summitville which
proved a disastrous venture, and his mining
schemes also all failed, so he went broke and
was obliged to begin life again. From 1880
to 1885 he also operated stage and freighting
lines between Cornwall. Alamosa and Summit-
ville, and in the year last named returned to
Alamosa to live. From then until 1898 he was
variously employed, then opened a store which
he conducted until 1901, at the same time run-
ning an extensive real estate business. The
latter proved to lie a line well suited to bis
capacities and fruitful in good opportunities
for profit, ami since 1 ( >o i he has devoted his
energies almost exclusively to it, the fire in-
surance industry and ranching. In his insur-
ance work he represents the Connecticut, the
Home, the Seva, the New- Zealand and the
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
83;
Alliance companies, and does an excellent busi-
ness for each. He is also interested in the
Costilla & Excelsior Dutch Company's enter-
prise and owns thirty acres of the Alamosa
townsite. His ranch property consists of one
ranch of three hundred and twenty acres and
one of one hundred and sixty. Both are well
supplied with water and improved with good
buildings and fences, and they yield him g 1
returns for his labor in general ranching and
ihe stock industry. But it is in real estate
transactions that he finds the most congenial
occupation and his best field for industry. In
this he has built up an extensive business and
been very successful. He is known as a man
of excellent judgment in this line, and of great
energy and resourcefulness. Serving as the
president of the Building & Loan Association,
he has abundant opportunity to push his own
business and help his fellows to good chances
for securing homes and making profitable in-
vestments. In the public life of the community
he takes an active and serviceable interest. He
has been one of the town trustees since i8aij
and his administration of the office has been
highly beneficial to the town. He is at this
time also county coroner. In Freemasonry he
has taken the thirty-second degree and filled all
the chairs in his lodge, chapter and auxiliary
organization of the Order of the Eastern Star.
On August 22, 1872, he was married to Miss
Clara Olesen, of Sweden. They have one liv-
ing child, their daughter Hilda, now Mrs. Glen
Griffin, of Alamosa. Their son William, who
was born in 1878 and died in 1887. was the
first white boy born in Alamosa.
JOHN H. FULLENWIDER, Sr.
This fine specimen of the winter green, who
is familiarly known as "Uncle Johnnie." is
without doubt one of the liveliest and most
active men of bis age to be found in Colorado.
He is closely approaching the age of seventy-
four, and yet his energy is still abounding, his
faculties are in full vigor, and time seems to
have written no wrinkles on his essential being
in an}- way. One of the most prominent citi-
zens of the San Luis valley, he has earned his
distinction by his enterprise and public-spirit,
which are great, and the general and high es-
teem in which he is held by his geniality and
generosity, which are open to every demand
and fully responsive on all occasions. His
home is at Monte Vista, and he has helped to
make that section of Colorado what it is by
his unflagging energy and his far-seeing pro-
gressiveness. In personal appearance he bears
a striking resemblance to United States Sen-
ator Chauncey Depew. whom he also resembles
in his cordiality of manner and radiant good
humor. Mr. Fullenwider was born in Shelby
county. Kentucky, on September 17, 1831. on
the verge of a season of very unusual severity,
nine feet of snow falling that winter in many
parts of the United States. He is the son of
Henry and Henrietta 1 Neal) Fullenwider. the
former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter
of Virginia. After the marriage of the parents
they lived in block houses, in a new country
full of hostile Indians. They followed fann-
ing and the communities in which they dwelt
kept watchers out continually for savage at-
tacks. One da}' when the brother of our sub-
ject's father was creeping under a block house
to escape Indians they reached him before he
got all the way in and chopped his head off.
In 1834 the family moved to Illinois, and there
before the end of the year the father died.
leaving his widow with nine children to pro-
vide for and rear amid the inhospitable wilds
of an unsettled new country. She assumed her
heavy burden with fortitude and bore it with
endurance and cheerfulness, although at times
she suffered great privations, and was obliged
to boil and grate corn for food for the family.
g 3 6
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
Of the thirteen children born to the family
four died before their father and were buried
in Kentucky, and five others at short periods
afterward, and they were buried in Illinois.
Another, Solomon, died in service during the
Civil war. The other three, Simon P., who
lives in Iowa, Marcus L., a resident of Butler
county, Kansas, and John H., are living. The
last named had but limited educational advant-
ages. He always took an active interest in the
work of the home farm, and aided his mother
in supporting the rest of the family. For
forty-six years he lived near Springfield. Il-
linois, and was well acquainted with Abraham
Lincoln, under whose persuasive oratory on
the hustings he became a Republican. In 1880
he moved to Kansas and located at Eldora in
Butler county, and in less than two years was
elected to the legislature. In that body he
voted for the late United States Senator Plumb
for the position he so signally adorned, and in
return for the favor Senator Plumb had him
appointed on the United States bureau of
animal industry, on which he served a year,
and was then appointed a regent of the Man-
hattan Agricultural College, a position he filled
acceptably three years. Governor Martin also
appointed him a delegate at large to the Louisi-
ana Cotton Exposition from the state of
Kansas. In 1888 he came to Colorado and lo-
cated a ranch in the Monte Vista section of
the San Luis valley, which he still owns and
has brought to a state of advanced improve-
ment, one thousand five hundred acres of the
land being under high cultivation. There were
but few settlers in the valley at the time, and
the conditions of life were hard and its con
veniences few. His is now considered one of
the best ranches in the region, and one of the
most judiciously improved. On this tract be has
been, from time to time, engaged in all the dif-
ferent elements of a general ranching industry,
raising f, ne ]j ve stock of various kinds, and
all the crops suited to the section. He has in-
terests in Magita and Northeastern ditches.
His home is at Monte Vista, and in this beau-
tiful little city he secured the needed subscrip-
tions for laying out and adorning the city park,
which, in 1904, was named in his honor the
Fullenwider Park. On September 20, 1855, he
was married at Mechanicsburg, Illinois, to Miss
Isabella Hall, of Sangamon county, Illinois.
They have had five children, of whom two died
in infancy and three are living, Mrs. William
Machem, of Denver, Colorado, John G., a pros-
perous San Luis valley rancher and sheep
raiser, and Henry A., of Center, who was
elected county assessor of Saguache county in
7904.
GRAVES & AHRENS.
This enterprising and far-seeing real estate
firm, the leading one in the San Luis valley,
which has sold more land and other real estate
than any other agency for the same purpose in
the region in which it operates, is composed
(if Arthur Graves and John M. Ahrens, two of
the most active, energetic and progressive busi-
ness men in the Rocky Mountain region.
Arthur Graves, the senior member of the
firm, was born on August 29, 1862. at McFall,
now Gentry, then Harrison county. Missouri.
He is the son of William and Jane (Jones)
Graves, prosperous farmers of that state. The
son was educated in the public schools and as-
sisted his parents on the farm until he reached
the age of fifteen, then during the next five
years worked for wages on his own account.
In 1882 he moved to Clark county, Kansas, and
pre-empted land which he improved and after
fanning it two years sold it. In 1884 he came
to Colorado and located at Canon City, and for
two years farmed for wages. In 1886 he made
a visit of several months to his old Missouri
home, returning to this state in T887. During
the next three vears he worked at various oc-
PROGRESS! 1 'E MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
837
cupations in different places, and saved his
earnings. In 1890 he moved into the San
Lnis valley and located a ranch which he still
owns and which he has increased to three
hundred and twenty acres. It is ten miles
northeast of Monte Vista and yields excellent
crops of wheat, oats and pears. The improve-
ments on it are modern and complete for its
needs. Since 1903 he has heen engaged in the
real estate business in partnership with Mr.
Ahrens, and has been unusually successful. He
is a Republican in politics, and in fraternal life
a Woodman of the World and a Knight of
Pythias. On June 9, 1894. he was married to
Miss Reno Brewer, a native of the same
county as himself. They have had four chil-
dren. Of these Walter has died and Eldon C.
Charles and Ethel M. are living. Mr. Graves
is one of the most popular, wide-awake and en-
terprising men in the valley of his home, and
one of its most popular citizens.
John W. Ahrens, the junior member of the
firm to which these paragraphs are dedicated,
was born on October 11, i860, at Attica, Foun-
tain county, Indiana, and is the son of TIein
and Augusta (Kemper) Ahrens. both natives
of Germany. The father was a stone-cutter
and contractor. The son obtained his edu-
cation at the high school in his native town,
but grew weary of school life and did not com-
plete the course. He was a lover of nature
and preferred hunting, fishing and outdoor oc-
cupations to confinement in the school room,
and as he lived on the "banks of the Wabash
far away" from his present abode, he had
abundant opportunity for the gratification of
his taste. At the same time, he lived no idle,
loafing life, and was not devoid of teachers in
the great school of Nature : and besides, be
was fond of reading, and by these means be-
came a well-informed man. After leaving
school he entered mercantile life at Hedrick in
his native state, being then twenty years of age.
He began his mercantile career in 1880 and
through the dishonesty of his partner failed in
1884. The year before he began manufactur-
ing tiles at Hedrick, but this enterprise was
swept away with the mercantile business. He
then returned to Attica, Indiana, and there
went into the milling business in partnership
with his brothers. This industry was sold in
1888, and Mr. Ahrens turned his attention to
farming. Not finding this pursuit congenial,
he quit at the end of a year and started a fire
insurance business at Attica, afterward adding
dealing in chattel mortgages, farm loans and
real estate to his line, and carrying on the busi-
ness fourteen years in partnership with J.
Shannon Vave. During this period Mr.
Ahrens took on as side lines dealing in fast
horses and backing a friend who had a patent
right, which he still thinks has merit, but
neither venture was profitable. In August,
11)03. ne came to Colorado and located at
Monte Vista, and first engaged in the real es-
tate business in partnership with Mr. Graves
and Richard Blakey. After nine months Mr.
Blakey retired from the firm and it has since
been known as Graves & Ahrens. Having a
great many friends in bis native home, many
of whom had their eyes turned toward the set-
ting sun for better prospects, it was not dif-
ficult for Mr. Ahrens to induce them to come ti
the favored location in which he was operating,
and the business of the firm has been excellent
in volume and value. Since he entered the firm
it has sold 21,319 acres of land for $395,500.
and the prospects for trade in future are ex-
ceptionally bright. In political faith Mr.
Ahrens is a stanch and active Democrat, and
in fraternal life a Mason, an Odd Fellow, a
Modern Woodman and a Knight of Pythias.
He is as yet a bachelor, but if indications can
be credited the flowery yoke of Eros is not far
before him. He is one of the brightest men
and best citizens of the valley.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
CHARLES W. CAIN.
The most extensive grower of potatoes in
.Mesa county, this state, and a pioneer in bee
culture in this section, Charles W. Cain, living-
two miles and a half northeast of Fruita, has
added two new industries to the extensive and
almost universal productiveness of that section
of the state, and thereby greatly increased the
commercial wealth and activity thereof. And
it should be said that his present comfort, pros-
perity and success are all the more gratifying
because of the hardships and privations of his
childhood, youth ami earlier manhood, the
shadows of adverse fortune having hung i
him from the cradle and for years after he
reached maturity. He was horn at Marietta,
Ohio, on August 8, 1855, the son of John and
Caroline (Benedict) Cain,- the former a native
of Pennsylvania. They were the parents of
two children, both boys, of whom Charles was
the younger. He was orphaned at an early age
and until he reached eleven was reared by
relatives. He then lived in and near Toledo
several years, doing chores and odd jobs for
his board, working at whatever he could find
to do in summer and securing now and then for
a few months in the winter a coveted oppor-
tunity to attend the public schools. Being-
alone in the world, with no capital but his clear
head, ready hand and stout heart, he had a dif-
ficult struggle to get along. But he saved some
money by great economy and when he was
eighteen attended the Delta, Ohio, high school
for a year. Afterward he worked in lumber
yards and wholesale houses at Toledo for a few
years, and in the winter of 1879-80 came to
( !olorado. During the next two or three years
he prospected and mined near Leadville, but
with no permanent success, accumulating a
little money at times, then spending it all on
prospects. In 1882 he went to California and
he remained mostly in that state until [893,
when he returned to Colorado and located in
Mesa county. In the meantime he made trips
through various parts of the Western, South-
ern and Eastern states. On his return to this
state in the spring of 1893 ne to °^ U P a desert
claim of one hundred and sixty acres five miles
below Fruita, which has since come under the
Kiefer extension ditch. Of this he still owns
one hundred and forty acres, having donated
twenty acres to the sugar beet industry. In
1894 he bought twenty acres of his present
home ranch, to which he has by subsequent
purchases added sixty acres, making it eighty
in all. On these tracts of land he devotes his
attention to general farming and the develop-
ment of his fruit industry. He has an orchard
of six acres which yields abundantly, but in his
farming he makes a specialty of potatoes, and
in addition has a thriving and growing in-
dustry in bees, he being the pioneer in this
branch of enterprise in this part of the country.
His apiary covers one hundred hives and is
verv productive. He raises more potatoes than
any other man in Mesa county. His crop in
1903 was one hundred and seventy-five tons,
and in the last three years has aggregated over
five hundred tons. On February 23. 1898,
he was married to Miss Eva Lane, a native of
Xew York, daughter of Squire G. Lane, a
sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work.
They have two children. Winnie and Ethel.
In politics Mr. Cain is an independent Re-
publican, but he is not an active partisan. He
is highly esteemed throughout the country, and
accounted one of its best citizens.
FRANK F. KNOWLES.
One of the prominent and successful con-
tractors and builders of Mesa county, with
headquarters at Fruita, and as well a leading
ranchman and stock-grower. Frank F.
Knowles has risen to his present consequence
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN . COLOR.! I h ,.
839
and high place in public esteem through his
own unaided efforts, having heen substantially
the architect of his own fortune and his own
main reliance in building it. He is a native
nf Waldo county, Maine, born on March 2$.
1856, and the son of Robert S. and Grace A.
(Philbrook) Knowles, both born and reared
in Maine, where their families lived for gener-
ations. In youth and early manhood the father
was a sailor, and during the Civil war served
one year in the United States navy. For some
years before the war and after it until his
death, in 1900 at the age of seventy-seven, he
was a prosperous farmer. His widow is still
living on the old Maine homestead at an ad-
vanced age. The son Frank was reared on the
farm and received a common and high-school
education in his native state. He remained at
home until twenty years of age, then began
work as a carpenter, following the trade in
Maine six years. In 1881 he started west and
passed three months at St. Paul. Minnesota,
working at his trade, then went to Kansas City
where he wrought at the same occupation until
the spring of 1882. At that time he came to
Colorado and located at Colorado Springs,
where he again worked at his trade, remaining
until* June, when he moved to Trinidad and
there enlarged his operations, becoming some-
what prominent as a contractor and builder. In
October, 1883, he -took up his residence in
Grand valley where he found immediate and
growing demand for his skill as a mechanic,
building the first house erected within the pres-
ent town of Fruita. He continued his oper-
ations as a contractor and builder in this neigh-
borhood for something over a year, then moved
to Las Animas, where he remained ten years
occupied in the same pursuits. In 1895 ne re_
turned to Fruita, and here he has since resided
and carried on extensively in contracting and
building. In the spring of 1896 he bought a
ranch of one hundred and forty-four acres five
miles below Fruita on the Grand river, to
which he has since devoted a considerable por-
tion of his time and energy, turning it from a
desert into a fruitful farm, and improving it
with a fine dwelling and other necessary build-
ing-, for the proper conduct of his large stock
industry which he has developed there. He put
in a water wheel thirty-two feet in diameter
to raise water for irrigation and has an abund-
ance for all his needs. His residence is a
tw< h-story stone house, heated with hot water
and furnished with all modern appliances for
comfortable living, it being the finest ranch
home in the county. A coal mine on the ranch
provides him with the greatest abundance of
fuel for his own needs and more than he can
use. while an immense deposit of fire clav
yields handsome returns for the labor expended
in working it and getting it to market. Near
the ranch he has a range of two thousand acres
fenced with a natural wall of rocks and cliffs.
Dividing his time between his ranching and
his business as a contractor and builder, he
is a very busy man, but he still has time to give
due attention to the public affairs of the county
and contribute to its development and general
welfare in many ways. On April 17. 1888.
he was married at Kansas City to Miss Jennie
O. Hickman, a native of Fort Leavenworth.
Kansas, and daughter of James and Monica
(Gates) Hickman, natives of Missouri. Her
father was for many years a bookkeeper at the
fort in the employ of the government. He died
at Independence, Missouri, and since his death
his widow has made her home with her
daughter, Mrs. Knowles. Mr. and Mrs.
Knowles have four children, Anna G., Frank
R., George H. and Ethel. In political faith Mr.
Knowdes is a stanch Republican, earnestly de-
voted to the welfare of his party. He is a
member of the United Workmen and the
Woodmen of the World, taking a deep interest
in the welfare of these orders.
840
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERS COLORADO.
11 EM AN R. BULL, B. S., M. D.
The subject of the present sketch located
in Grand Junction, Colorado, in May, 1887,
and has been a' serviceable and valued con-
tributor to the growth and development of
western Colorado and the promotion of the
best interests of its people. He was born near
Warwick, Orange count}'. New York, on Oc-
tober 26, 1862, and is the son of Sidney and
Ruth (Cooley) Bull, the former a native of
< >range comity. New York, and the latter of
New Jersey. The father, who is now living
retired from active pursuits at Cameron. Mis-
souri, passed the whole of his life of fruitful
energy as a farmer, moving from New York
tn Missouri in 1868 and living until 1897 at
\mity, in that state. The Doctor is the first
horn of six children in the family and his edu-
cation was begun in the public schools of
Amity. When he was sixteen years old he
entered the preparatory department of Wash-
burn University at Topeka, Kansas. Complet-
ing the preparatory course in 1880, he entered
the collegiate department and there pursued the
scientific course, graduating in 1884 as the
valedictorian of his class. He then began his
professional training at Jefferson Medical Col-
lege, Philadelphia, and in 1887 received his
degree of Doctor of Medicine from that in-
stitution. Before the end of that year he came
to Colorado and located at Grand Junction,
where he at once opened up an office and began
the practice of medicine and surgery. In 1891
he returned East and took post-graduate work
at' the Polyclinic in New York city. Again in
H)02 he spent the winter in post-graduate
work at the New York Post-Graduate Medical
School, and during his whole professional life
he has been an industrious and thoughtful
student of medical literature, and is one of the
must widely known physicians of the state.
Since 1893 he has been a member of the state
board of health. He belongs to the State
Medical Society and to the American Medical
Association, in both of which he has taken an
active interest, being vice-president of the
State Medical Society in 1896 and 1897.
Since T889 he has been the attending physician
and surgeon to the United States Indian School
at l '.rand Junction, and during the same period
has been surgeon for the Denver & Rio Grande
and Rio Grande Western Railroads. In the
local affairs of his community he has been
active and serviceable, especially in efforts to
improve the sanitary condition of his home
city. He has been a member of the board of
school directors for several years and takes a
deep interest in the educational affairs of the
city. He assisted in the erection of the Canon
[dock and in the organization of the Mesa
County Building and Loan Association, and
lias for some years been a director in the Mesa
County State Bank. The Doctor is a member
of the Masonic fraternity and of the Congre-
gational church, being the chairman of the
board of trustees of the latter. On September
4. 1880. he was married to Miss Maud W.
Price, daughter of George B. Price, a promi-
nent editor of Carrollton, Illinois. The Doc-
tor and Mrs. Bull have two children, Sidney
Price and Leland Rowlee.
HON. HORACE TOOL DeLONG.
Our discreet and discriminating philoso-
pher-poet, Oliver Wendell Holmes, has said
that the most important act of a man's life is
the selection of his grandfather. In this re-
spect Hon. Horace Tool DeLong, state senator
for the sixteenth district of this state, seems to
have been unusually wise before his day and
generation, for he chose as judiciously in his
maternal as in his paternal ancestry, being a
scion of distinguished and forceful families on
both sides of his house. He is the grandson.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
841
on his mother's side, of the Adam Tool whq
founded Tool's Point, now Monroe, in Jasper
county. Iowa, where lie secured a considerable
body of land at an early day and built an inn
that became a famous hostelry at which all
travelers of the time through that region found
comfortable entertainment "for man and
beast." He rose to consequence there and his
family were the leaders of thought and action
in all that section of the country. His two
sons, James and John, were both members of
the legislature and otherwise prominent in
public affairs, and his daughters were among
the leaders and ornaments of society there and
in domestic life were excellent wives and
mothers. One of these, Susan Adaline. was
the Senator's mother.
In the paternal line are several men who
have won renown in our day, among them
Lieutenant George DeLong, of the Jeannette
arctic exploration fame, who is a relative of the
Senator, and another of the name and family
who was conspicuous in connection with the
recent Boxer uprising in China. His grand-
father, George DeLong, was a good tailor and
a man of sterling character; his father. Wil-
liam DeLong, a farmer, successful and pros-
perous.
Of these progenitors Mr. DeLong sprang,
and was born on April 20, i860, at the Tool's
Point or Monroe, above mentioned, or rather
on the family farm not far from the town.
There he grew to manhood and started his
scholastic training in the Monroe public
schools. When be was about sixteen he en-
tered for a course of instruction in the pre-
paratory school of Simpson College at Indian-
ola in the adjacent county of Warren. After
finishing this he returned to his native town of
Monroe and completed the course at the high
school there, receiving the first diploma issued
by the institution and being the valedictorian
of his class. He then taught winter schools
and boarded himself at twenty dollars a month,
even at that salary saving money for a further
development of his ambitions. Later he lie-
came principal of the Monroe high school,
from which he had recently graduated, and
afterward was superintendent of schools at
Victor. Iowa. Between times he went to col-
lege, passing a year or two at the Central
University, Pella, Iowa; but while pursuing his
studies there with zeal and distinction, his eye-
sight failed in a measure and he was obliged to
abandon his books. He came to Denver, Colo-
rado, in 1885. and after making short trips
to neighboring towns wintered at Aspen.
where his parents dwelt and where his sister,
Mrs. Annie Shelledy, still resides. While
there he arranged by correspondence with a
college chum. Newton R. Beck, then living at
Colorado Springs, to go into the real estate,
loan and insurance business with him at Grand
Junction. On his way to that town he passed
through Glenwood Springs, whence there was
a stage line to the Junction, the stage making
the trip in three days. Instead of taking the
stage Mr. DeLong determined to make the
journey on foot, which he did in three days
and a half. The business enterprise was be-
gun and for a time was conducted under the
firm name of Beck & DeLong. Soon Mr.
Beck returned to Iowa and Prof. Ira M. De-
Long, now of the Colorado State University at
Boulder, became a member of the new firm or-
ganized under the name of DeLong Brothers
& Marsh. Since the dissolution of this firm
Mr. DeLong has conducted the business alone.
He is prominent and successful in the com-
mercial, social, fraternal and church life of the
state, and has a commanding influence in its
politics. In religious work he is active and
serviceable, being a member of the First
Methodist Episcopal church of Grand Junction
and the teacher of its young folks' Bible class.
He was a delegate with Governor Evans to the
842
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
general conference at Omaha in 1892. In Ma-
sonic circles he has the highest rank. He was
made a Mason on the twenty-first anniversary
of his birth in his native town of Monroe, but
for years has been a member of the lodge of
the order at Grand Junction, and in it he has
held every office of prominence, becoming
thereby a member of the grand lodge. In this
body his interest was so active and his services
were so signal that he rose to the position of
grand master of the state, which he filled with
conspicuous ability, giving general satisfaction
to the craft throughout the jurisdiction. He is
also a valued member of the Woodmen. In
politics he has through life been an unwaver-
ing Republican, although not active in party
work until after his arrival at Grand Junction.
He never desired office, or consented to accept
a nomination until his party named him as
its candidate for state senator in 1902. The
senatorial district has for some years been giv-
ing a Democratic and Populist fusion majority
of eight hundred to nine hundred, but he car-
ried it by two hundred and ninety-three as a
straight party man. which was a phenomenal
gain and an impressive evidence of his popu-
larity and his ability as a campaigner.
The ensuing session of the legislature is
memorable for its storms and party dissensions,
but through them all he followed the habit of
his life in business and other relations by pur-
suing a straight-forward and manly course,
always acting and voting in accordance with
his convictions. In fact, so wholly free from
any desire to conceal an act or a motive in his
legislative course was he, that his bill file con-
tained memoranda in his own hand of the fate
of every bill, his vote on it and his reasons
therefor. He was a strong man in the senate.
and although one of the most rapid. was one
of the clearest and most logical speakers that
ever sat in the body.
In March, 1887, Air. DeLong began the
organization of the Grand Junction Building.
Loan and Savings Association, being ably as-
sisted therein by the late Dr. F. P. Brown and
E. E. Emrick. The Senator was the vitalizing
and hustling spirit in the enterprise and se-
cured the necessary subscriptions to the stock.
His efforts were soon crowned with success,
the association being incorporated on May _\
1887, with a capital stock of one hundred thou-
sand dollars, divided into one thousand shares
of one hundred dollars each. This has since
been increased to three hundred thousand dol-
lars and there is about two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars of it issued and outstanding.
This association has done more to develop the
city of Grand Junction than any one other
enterprise, and to Senator DeLong belongs a
large share of the credit. He has aided greatly
through this channel in making it a city of
homes.
On Christmas day, 18X7, Mr. DeLong
married Miss Kate Weston, then one of his
Sunday school class. Their children are Bessie,
William Weston, Gladys and Gretchen (twin-)
and Ira Mitchell.
R. N. ROGERS.
R. N. Rogers, mayor of Telluride, elected
in 1903, brought to the discharge of his of-
ficial duties a fund of worldly wisdom gathered
in a wide experience among different classes of
men engaged in various occupations, and has
justified the confidence shown in his selection
for the position by a careful and judicious
management of the affairs of the town and act-
ive and intelligent efforts for its advancement
and progress along lines of safe and healthy
development. He has long- been one of the
leading men of the community, and has con
ducted enterprises of magnitude and great
public convenience for the benefit of its peo-
ple, running an extensive livery and feed barn,
PROGRESSIFE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
843
with complete equipment for the business, and
also operating the stage lines to the Tomboy
and Alta mines, and owning and developing the
townsite of Dunton, where the hot springs are
located. He is a pioneer of 1889 in the state,
and was born and reared on Prince Edward
Island, Canada, where his life began on Febru-
ary 28, 1863. He is the son of Griffith J. and
Margaret (Neil) Rogers, who were also born
and grew to maturity on that island. Mr.
Rogers was educated in the schools of his na-
tive place, and reached the age of nineteen
years without incident worthy of notice dif-
ferent from what occurs usually in the life of
boys in his class and locality. In 1882 he
came to Dakota and during the next four
years was engaged in farming in that territory.
At the end of that time he changed his base of
operations to Wisconsin and his business to
butchering and conducting a meat market, in
which he was also occupied four years. In
1889 he came to this state and turned his at-
tention to mining, which he followed until
1895, when he started the livery business which
he is now conducting, and which he has ex-
panded into one of considerable magnitude and
conducts with vigor and enterprise, and with
every consideration for the wants of his pa-
trons. His outfit is one of the most complete in
this part of the country, nothing being omitted
either in the extent and variety of his rigs or
the quality of his teams that is required for the
most active and up-to-date establishment of
the kind. In addition to this business he also
owns and conducts the stage lines between the
town and the Tomboy and Alta mines, with
which he does a flourishing business, and finds
room for his surplus capital and enterprise in
developing the townsite of Dunton which he
owns, and which he is pushing forward with
as rapid progress as the circumstances allow.
It is at this place, as has been stated, that the
hot springs of southwestern Colorado are lo-
cated, the curative powers of which have al-
ready attracted attention throughout a large
extent of country, and which promise in time
to rival in patronage and beneficial effects simi-
lar natural waters at the older resorts. In fra-
ternal relations Mr. Rogers is connected with
the Odd Fellows and the Elks. From the time
of his arrival at Telluride he has been active
and zealous in helping to promote the welfare
of the community, serving for a number of
years as a member of the city council, and since
1903 as mayor of the town, and rendering ef-
ficient and appreciated service to the people in
both positions. He was married here on
August 10, [899, to Miss Clara J. Chapman, a
native of this state. They have one daughter.
Thelma, the only survivor of their family. No
citizen of the county stands higher in the re-
spect and good will of the people, and none is
more entitled to their regard.
J. L. CRISWELL.
The pioneer merchant of Ridgeway, whose
arrival in this section antedated the birth of
the promising little town, ami one of the lead-
ing and most public-spirited citizens of Ouray
county. J. L. Criswell is a native of Missouri,
born in 1857, and the son of AVesley and
Martha (Hudson) Criswell, also natives of
that state. He was reared on his father's farm
in Missouri and educated in the neighboring
district schools. In the exacting but manly
labors of the farm he acquired habits
of industry and thrift and also a spirit
of self-reliance and independence, learn-
ing to depend on his own acumen and energy
in even- emergency and use his faculties to
good advantage under any circumstances. After
reaching the estate of manhood he was en-
gaged near his home for a period. in farming.
and afterward followed the same occupation in
Nebraska and Wyoming for a time. In 1880
844
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
he came to Colorado, and for a year was em-
ployed as bookkeeper for the railroad com-
pany. In 18S1 he settled where Ridgeway has
since been built and engaged in mining, and
also helped to survey the southwestern counties
of the state in the employ of the United States
government. He continued his mining and
prospecting operations until 1886. making a
number of important discoveries which he sold.
In the year last named he opened a general
store at Dallas which he conducted for a short
time, after which he returned to the site of
Ridgeway and started the merchandising busi-
ness here which he still carries on, and which
was the first of the kind in this neighborhood.
His establishment is a large and complete one
for its Ideality and carries a stock of merchan-
dise well selected to suit the wants of the peo-
ple who patronize it, at the same time satisfy-
ing and cultivating the taste of the community,
and laying under tribute to its trade a large
extent of the surrounding country. He also
owns a ranch on which he conducts a thriving
stock industry, pushing his business in that
line with the same energy and capacity that he
exhibits in his merchandising. As a pioneer
in this locality be has had much to do with the
development of the section, and has been con-
spicuous in every line of useful activity that has
been put in motion among its people. He was
one of the founders of the town, and to its in-
terests and the spread of its influence and the
growth of its vitality he has sedulously de-
voted himself. For six years he served as its
postmaster, and while in the office greatly en-
larged its postal conveniences. In many other
ways he has stimulated its forces for progress,
and subserved the convenience and lasting
good of its inhabitants. In T892 he was mar-
ried here to Miss Edith King, a native of
Michigan but reared in Colorado, and a Mster
of Cassio King, the gifted poel of San Juan
whose muse has embalmed the natural beauties
and social features of the region in the amber
of their inspiring lines. Mr. and Mrs. Cris-
well have four children, their sons Walter and
Robert, and their daughters Ruth and Lillian.
M r. Criswell is a valued member of the Wood-
men of the World and has given the order a
due share of his stimulating and serviceable at-
tention. Successful in business, esteemed as
a citizen, potential as a civic force, and inspir-
ing as an example in all the relations of life,
Mr. Criswell is living a useful and commend-
able career in which all the best elements of
American manhood are worthily exemplified.
L. S. WHEELER.
Born and reared on a farm in Pennsyl-
vania, and exchanging the highly cultivated
and well developed agricultural industry of
that great state in the full flush of his young
and vigorous manhood for the hard conditions
and unsettled state but more promising oppor-
tunities of the industry in the farther west, and
accepting the lot he found here with a man-
liness and self-reliance which has made the
most of them, L. S. Wheeler, of Ridgeway.
has not been a loser by the change and the
state of Colorado has been largely the gainer.
His life began in 1843, an< l ne ' s the son of
S. A. and Clarissa (Hale) Wheeler, who were
also natives of Pennsylvania. He grew to
manhood on his father's farm and expected to
devote his energies through life to the vocation
of his ancestors for many generations. But
the West called him to her open fields and
more inspiring chances before he reached the
prime of life and became too well established
in his early surroundings to leave them with-
out too keen a pang. In 1880, when he was
about thirty-seven years of age, he came to
Colorado and. locating at Gunnison, engaged
in mining. Three years later he moved to Sil-
verton, where he discovered some of the valu-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
84:
able properties which have been yielding hand-
somely since then, and in some of which he is
still interested. He also has holdings of great
worth at Eureka which he still works, although
he maintains his residence at Ridgeway, and
takes an interest in farming and raising stock
as a side issue. He was married at Ouray in
1889, to Mrs. Jennie Masenia, who is, like him-
self, a native of Pennsylvania but has been
for many years a resident of this state. Mr.
Wheeler has been an industrious developer of
his mining properties, and given a stimulus to
the business wherever he has worked. He has
also shown a good citizen's active and intelli-
gent interest in the general welfare of his home
locality, and zealously supported every under-
taking for its advancement. For years he has
been an earnest and loyal member of the Ma-
sonic fraternity, entering into the spirit of its
teachings and living its principles in his daily
life. No citizen of Ouray county is more
worthy of public esteem or has it in larger
measure.
ALEC GOULD.
With a fine valley farm of one hundred
and fifty-four acres and a flourishing stock
business, located in a good section of the
country, a mile and a half south of the town
of Ridgeway, Ouray county. Alec Gould has
won out of the difficult conditions of the far
western life a good estate and a substantial
comfort which expands with the flight of time
through his own efforts and becomes more
firmly established as the application of his sys-
tematic industry and fruitful labors continue,
lie is a pioneer of 1881 in this state, but a
native of Canada, where he was born on Febru-
ary 23, 1852. His parents were John and
Margaret Gould, also native in the dominion,
where he was reared and received a district
school education. In 1870 he came to Nevada,
and six years later moved to Cheyenne, Wyo-
ming, where he remained a short time, then
went to the Black Hills and engaged in mining.
In 1881 he came to Colorado and, settling at
Ouray, again went to mining, and a short time
afterward bought the place on which he now
lives and turned his attention to farming and
raising stock. To this business he has since
devoted himself with regular and close appli-
cation, studying its development with care and
thoughtfulness, and applying the results of his
study and observation with judgment and dis-
crimination. His ranch is one of the best and
most promising in his neighborhood and his
business is growing with gratification, steadi-
ness and healthy progress. Mr. Gould is not
married, but he is none the less deeply and in-
telligently interested in the welfare of his com-
munity and none the less active in promoting
it by substantial aid to every good enterprise.
He is a man of breadth of view and experience,
having seen much of the country and his native
land, and has been taught by association with
men in various pursuits and under a wide
range of circumstances that the real prosperity
of a country depends upon the prosperity and
intelligence of the great body of its people, and
not on the showy acquisitions of any particular
class. He is well esteemed throughout his dis-
trict as a useful citizen, an industrious and far-
seeing man, and a force for good in the section
of the country where he lives.
JOHN MERLING.
John Merling, a prominent farmer, stock-
grower and dairyman of Ouray count}-, is a
native of Germany, where he was born > >n Janu-
ary 29, 1839, and is the son of Daniel and
Margaret Merling, who were also born in Ger-
many and belonged to families that hail lived
in that country for many generations. When
he was seven years old his parents emigrated
to America, bringing their children with them.
8 4 6
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
They located in Vermont, there he lived at
home and went to school until he reached the
age of seventeen. He then came west to Iowa,
and in 1859 drove an ox team across the plains
to Camp Floyd in Utah; and from there he
went on to California, where he engaged in
mining until 1861. At that time he enlisted in
the Union army for the Civil war as a mem-
ber of Company B, First California Infantry.
He served three years and three months, and
was then discharged in New Mexico, his regi-
ment having been engaged principally in fight-
ing the Indians who took advantage of the op-
portunity furnished by the war to rise and seek
to regain their lost prestige and drive the
whites out of the country. After his discharge
he returned to Vermont, and after remaining
there a year came to Omaha, Nebraska, and
was employed in railroad work on the Union
Pacific. He continued in the employ of this
company until the road was completed into
Wyoming. In 1869 he came to Colorado and,
locating at Las Animas, engaged in raising
stock and dairying, and also ran a meat
market. In 1876 he moved to Ouray county
and settled on his present ranch, which com-
prises one hundred and sixty acres of excellent
fanning and grazing land. When he took pos-
session of it the Indians claimed the ownership
and he had difficulty in defending his rights.
But he succeeded after a struggle in establish-
ing himself firmly on the land, and at once
began to raise stock and sometime later started
a dairy which he has since, been actively and
profitably conducting. He has always taken
an active interest in the affairs of the county
and has served it well as county commissioner
and county school superintendent. He was
married in Vermont in 1866 to Miss Vary F.
Pepler, also a native of Germany. She died
in Ouray county in iqoi. leaving five children
surviving her, George, John D., Charles,
Frederick and Lillie. In his business ventures
Mr. Merling has prospered, and in his as-
sociation with his fellow men he has won their
high and lasting esteem, being now considered
one of the leading men of the county m a com-
mercial way and in public affairs. His life has
been useful and upright, and his influence for
good in the development and progress of the
county has been considerable and has always
been wisely and judiciously exercised.
GEORGE W. COBB.
George W. Cobb, a prosperous Ouray
county farmer and stock-grower, living three
miles east of Ridgeway, is a pioneer of [862
in Colorado, and a native of Michigan born
in 1N42. He is the son of Septimus and Caro-
line i Brook) Cobb, who were born and reared
in New York state. Their son George was
reared on the farm which they made their
home in Michigan soon after their marriage,
and when he was seventeen years of age went
to Missouri and located at Springfield, where
he remained three years. In i86j with four
yoke of oxen he crossed the plains to Denver,
Colorado, and from there moved to Fairplay
and engaged in merchandising, remaining until
the Granite excitement broke out, when he went
to that place, but after a short residence there
transferred his base of operations to Canon
City and was one year with the Colorado Im-
provement Company. He then began merchan-
dising again and continued it until 1876, when
he sold out and made a trip East. In 1877 he
came to Ouray county and merchandised for
a while at Portland, later moving to Dallas
and in 1885 taking up his residence at Ridge-
way, where he carried on a store for two
years. In 1901 he moved to the farm which
he now occupies, which comprises one hundred
and twenty acres of excellent bottom land and
yields abundant crops of hay and some grain
and generously supports his band of high-grade
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
847
cattle. He takes an active interest in public
affairs, giving earnest attention to even- com-
mendable enterprise for the improvement of
the county, and inspiring others to a similar
activity by his example. He belongs to the
Masonic order. At Portland, in May, 1879,
he was married to Miss Blanche Jacknick. a
native of Iowa, whose father was for eleven
years chief clerk in the interior department
at Washington, D. C. They have four chil-
dren, Chester G., Etta R., Ethel V. and Clar-
ence M. In addition to his farming industry
Mr. Colli) is also interested in mining and owns
a number of valuable claims. He has been a
man of great industry and energy, and has won
the reward of his efforts in a substantial com-
petency in worldly wealth and the lasting
esteem and good will of his fellow men.
GEORGE R. COUCHMAN.
Born and reared on an Indiana farm and
learning the science and the practical work of
agriculture in that region where they are
highly developed and vigorously followed.
George R. Couchman, of Ouray county, with
a fine ranch and comfortable residence about
four miles and a half northeast of Ridgeway,
came to this country when it was new and un-
developed well prepared for his part in start-
ing its agricultural interests forward on a
career of gratifying and almost unexampled
success. He was born in 1846, the son of
Andrew and Margaret (Evans) Couchman, na-
tives of Indiana, and prosperous farmers in
that state, and on the paternal homestead he
grew to manhood and in the neighboring dis-
trict schools received his education. His father
died when he was quite young and the burden
of helping to conduct the farm and the affairs
of the household fell heavily on his shoulders
early in his life. He remained at home until
the breaking out of the Civil war. then enlisted
in Company G, Thirty-third Indiana Infantry.
After a service of one hundred days in this
command he was discharged, and he then enlist-
ed in Company H, One Hundred and Thirty-
eighth Indiana Infantry, in which he served
to tlie end of the war, and although his regi-
ment was in active field work and confronted
the enemy on many a bloody field, he escaped
unhurt, and at the close of the contest returned
to his Indiana home, later he moved to
southwestern Missouri, and the next year to
Kansas. Here he was engaged in farming
five years, and in 1873 came to Colorado,
locating at Colorado Springs. During the next
five years he was farming and carrying on a
lumber business at this point, and in 1879
moved to Leadville and turned his attention to
mining. In 1884 he came to Ouray county
and located his present ranch, which consists
of two hundred and eighty acres of superior
hay land that yields abundant crops and
furnishes a plentiful supply of provender for
his stock. He was also engaged in merchandis-
ing for four years at Ridgeway, and is now
conducting, in addition to his farming and
stock operations, a large flouring mill that has
an appreciative body of patrons and supplies an
extensive district with its high-grade products.
Mr. Couchman has been a wide-awake and pro-
gressive citizen, deeply interested in the wel-
fare of the county. He served a number of
years as county commissioner, and in nnnv
other ways has aided in the development and
proper growth of his section of the state and
the improvement and increased comfort of its
people. In fraternal relations he is a zealous
and energetic member of the Knights of
Pythias. In 1870, while living in Kansas, he
was married to Miss Sarah Holbrook, a native
of Michigan. They have four children, Mary.
Jessie. Lulu V. and Mabel. The family oc-
cupies an attractive residence at Ridgeway,
which is maintained there in order that the
848
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
children may have the best school facilities
available. Among the enterprising, far-seeing
and progressive citizens of Ouray county none
stand higher than Air. Couchman in the public
esteem, and none has done more to deserve the
cordial good will and confidence of his fellow-
men.
LEWIS V. ORNIS.
Lewis V. Ornis, of Ouray county, is one
of the progressive farmers, stock men and
dairy men of this part of the state who has
done much to develop its resources and push
forward its progress with rapid but whole-
some activity. He is also proprietor of the
celebrated hot springs of this region which
experts claim are equal in curative powers to
those in Arkansas. Mr. Ornis was born in
Wisconsin in 1855, the son of Harrison F.
and Johanna (Corbin) Ornis, the former a
native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Iowa.
When lie was five years old the family moved
to Nebraska and a month or two later came on
to Colorado, settling at Central City where the
father engaged in mining. A short time after-
ward they moved into Boulder county, and
there he carried on a farming and stock in-
dustry. Here the mother died in 1865, when
her son was ten years old, and here he grew to
manhood and received his education. The
father now resides in Oklahoma. In 1878 the
son came to Ouray county and in the locality
of his present residence began mining, and
also engaged in farming and raising stock. In
1882 he was united in marriage with Mrs.
Sarah E. Jarvis, a native of Illinois, who came
to this neighborhood in 1886, and was es-
tablished on the farm they now occupy when
they were married. They have four children,
Lewis E. Jr., Delia, Edith A. and Edna, and
Mi < Muis has a daughter by her former mar-
riage. Lucy Jarvis. Their farm comprises
eighty acres and is devoted to general farming
and raising stock which are carried on vigor-
ously and attentively, and it also supports a
flourishing dairy industry to which Mr. Ornis
gives his close personal attention. On the land
the noted hot springs of this county are found,
as has been stated, and they seem destined in
time to become as celebrated as their prototypes
in Arkansas, the curative powers of the waters
being equal in the judgment of competent ex-
perts to those of the Arkansas product, and the
surrounding fully as attractive. No systematic
effort has been made as yet to make a resort
of the place, but such a movement is under
contemplation, and it promises abundant suc-
cess.
ARTHUR B. HYDE.
It was in Canada, the province of Ontario.
that the active and serviceable life of Arthur
B. Hyde, of Ouray county, a prosperous farmer
ami stock-grower, living about one mile south
of Ridgeway, began, and in 1840 that he was
born. His parents were George and Eunice
Hyde, and his father was a captain in the royal
navy. The son grew to man's estate in his
native land, and in its excellent schools he re-
ceived his education. After leaving school he
was employed in various avocations until 1876.
He then determined to emigrate to the United
State-, and came direct to Denver, this state.
In March, 1877. ' le moved to Ouray county,
and after mining for a year and a half with
varying success, he settled on the land which
is now covered by the town of Ridgeway,
where he lived until he sold his farm to the
townsite company and moved to the place of
his present comfortable and fruitful establish-
ment. His farm comprises one hundred and
twenty acres of land of a very superior grade
and he has a herd of line cattle. To these he
gives every care necessary to keep them in g k "1
condition and is zealous in holding his breeds
ii]] to a high standard of excellence and purity.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
849
He was married in 1867, before leaving
Ontario, to Miss Susan M. Jones, a native, like
himself, of that province. They have five chil-
dren living, Arthur J.. Letitia, Harris, Naterly
and Richard. Since living in this section Mr.
Hyde, while industriously pushing- his own
business and endeavoring to get the best re-
sults from it, has also been sedulously and
eagerly interested in the development and im-
provement of his part of the county along the
lines of the most approved and desirable prog-
ress, giving his influence and his substantial
aid to every commendable undertaking look-
ing to that end and inspiring others by bis ex-
ample and his force to the same activity. He is
loyal to the land of his adoption and is deeply
concerned for its enduring welfare in county,
state and national affairs. And while not seek-
ing to be prominent or potential, he is energetic
and intelligent in the use of his citizenship, dis-
playing breadth of view as well as devotion to
lofty ideals.
ROSWELL A. HOTCHKISS.
Roswell A. Hotchkiss, one of the pioneer
merchants and stock men of Ouray county,
and a leading citizen and business man of
Ridgeway, is a native of New York state,
born on November 21, 1829, and is the son of
Samuel and Medosa (Ackley) Hotchkiss, of
■the same nativity as himself. While he was
yet an infant they moved to Pennsylvania,
and in that state he was reared and educated,
and after he grew to manhood he followed lum-
bering there until he was twenty-three years
of age, then came west. On June 22. 1857. he
crossed the Missouri river into Nebraska, and.
locating in Dixon county, in company with his
brother he built the first flouring mill in the
territory. They prospered in the enterprise
and acquired valuable interests in that state
and Dakota. Some years afterward they sold
the mill and engaged in farming and raising
54
stock. In 1876 Mr. Hotchkiss came to Colo
rado, and after living nearly a year at Lake
City, his family joined him and they moved to
Ouray. In 1880 he opened a general merchan-
dising establishment at Portland in what is
now Fremont county, which he conducted for
some time and then moved to Dallas. From
there he moved to Ridgeway and built the store
he now occupies, and since then he has been
carrying on an extensive general trade in one
of the large and well appointed emporiums of
this part of the country, displaying to the choice
of his numerous patrons a large, varied and
judiciously selected stock of general merchan-
dise, and offering it for purchase with every
regard to fair dealing and the most obliging
attention to the wishes and desires of his cus-
tomers. It has been the aim of this establish-
ment to meet the requirements of the most ex-
acting taste and at the same time to supply the
widest range of demands for such commodities
as the people in the locality can make, keeping
his stock up to date in every respect, both as
to variety and quality. He is also interested
in the general business of the section, owning
and operating two large ranches with a flour-
ishing stock industry on each, wisely managed
and vigorously conducted. He was one of the
first postmasters in the county, and served the
people in .this important capacity for a number
of years. In 1853, before leaving New York,
he was united in marriage with Miss Jane
Cobb, a native of that state, and they have twi 1
children living, their sons Charles R. and
Virgil, both of whom are stockmen in Mont-
rose county, and men of consequence and in-
fluence in their localities. Mr. Hotchkiss has
done well in business wherever he has been,
and has always taken an active interest in the
local affairs of his community, giving judicious
aid to good enterprises and using his influence
for the general welfare. He is well esteemed
by all who knew him and stands high in the
public regard of the whole people.
850
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
JUDGE WILLIAM RATHNELL.
The jurisprudence of the western states,
and the propriety and learning of their courts,
notwithstanding the wild conditions of their
early life, have challenged the favorable criti-
cism and admiration of the English speaking
world, and emphasized the fact that the Amer-
ican people, under all circumstances, look to
judicial tribunals as the last bulwark of liberty
and the ultimate protection of life and property.
Among the men who have adorned the bench
in this part of the world Judge William Rath-
nell, of Ouray county, county judge since
[889, is entitled to a high regard. He is the
son of William and Mary A. (Stimmel) Rath-
nell, the former a native of Pennsylvania and
the latter of Ohio. The father emigrated from
his native state in his young manhood to Ohio,
where he was married, and soon afterward be-
came a farmer in Illinois. He lived there until
the breaking out of the Civil war, when he en-
listed in the Union army and was in active
service throughout the momentous contest in
which this country was then engaged. After
the war he moved to Douglas county, Kansas,
and located land on which he lived for a few
years, then moved to Johnson county in the
same state. Judge Ratline! 1 was born on
January 26, 1862, and received a district-
school education and when near the estate of
manhood began life as a school teacher. In
1 880 he came to Colorado, and for a number of
years engaged in the same occupation, and also
in mining and teaching. In the meantime he
prepared himself for a professional career by
studying law. In 1899 he was elected county
judge of Ouray county, and was re-elected in
ro.02. He has filled the office with credit and
won high commendation from the people of
tin/ county, without regard to party or station,
for his legal learning, his judicial bearing and
his fearless independence in the administration
of his official duties. He has not. however.
lost his interest in the general run of business,
being a partner in the abstract office and still
holding and having worked vigorously several
valuable mining claims. In the general wel-
fare of the community in which he lives he also
displays an active and admirable interest, giv-
ing his cordial support to every good enter-
prise and aiding in directing public opinion
along lines of healthy and proper development.
On April 1, 1894, he was married to Miss
Lottie Smith, a native of this state. She died
in August, 1895, leaving one child, their daugh-
ter Ella. In March, 1902, the Judge married
a second wife, Miss Minnie Halady, a native
of Kansas, and a cultivated and public-spirited
lady, who is now giving the county excellent
and highly appreciated service as superintend-
ent of the public schools. She and her husband
are among the social and intellectual leaders of
the countw and are recognized as factors of
influence and potency in all the public life of
this people. They are well esteemed and have
the confidence, good will and earnest admir-
ation of the whole people and the cordial regard
of a host of warm and loyal friends.
EDWARD WARRINGTON ROBINSON.
While it may be a source of regret to
right-thinking and w-ell-behaved people that the
necessity still exists in all civil society for
officers of the law- and conservators of the
peace in great numbers, it is also a fact w< irthy
of high commendation that such officials are in
most cases men of character and capability.
who have the interests of the community they
serve zealously at heart and are worthy of the
public confidence they usually enjoy. This is
particularly the case witli the officials of Tcllu-
ride, and of the number none stands higher or
is more justly esteemed than was Edward War-
rington Robinson, the late police judge of that
town. He was born May 4, 1859, at Maiden,
a suburb of Boston. Massachusetts, where bis
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
father, William S. Robinson, a native of Con-
cord, that state, lived and had a long and bright
career as a newspaper man and writer of note,
under the pen-name of "Warrington." He
was also prominent in helping to organize the
Republican party and in conducting its affairs in
Massachusetts. The mother, whose maiden
name was Harriet J. Henson, was born and
reared in Boston, and she is also well-known as
an author of several valuable books. Mr. Robin-
son grew to manhood in his native city and re-
ceived his education in its public schools. After
leaving school he was employed for nine years
in the Old Corner Bookstore in Boston, then
was with Dodd, Mead & Company two years
in New York. At the end of that time he came
to Colorado, and during the next seven years
was with Lawrence in the book and stationery
business in Denver. His next berth was with
the Rio Grande Express Company, in whose
employ he came to Telluride in 1896. He re-
mained with this company some time, then was
appointed deputy county clerk and at the end
of 'his employer's term he succeeded to the
office of clerk. He was next elected a justice
of the peace, and served in that- office until
1903, when he was made police magistrate of
San Miguel county, and this position he held
until his death, in Telluride, on January 8,
10114. In each of the offices he held he made
an excellent record for close attention to duty
and wisdom and breadth of view in its adminis-
tration. He was married at Denver in 1893,
to Miss Mary E. Robinson, a native of York-
shire, England. They have two children, their
daughters Harriet H. and Lucy W.
GEORGE S. MOTT.
George S. Mott, the postmaster of Tellu-
ride, became a resident of San Miguel county
in 1890 and of Colorado in 1884, and since
that time has been diligent and serviceable in
helping to build up and develop this portion
of the county. He was born in the state of
New York in 1857, and is the son of D. D. and
Elmira (Sylvester) Mott, of that state. He
was reared and educated in his native place,
and after leaving school engaged in the gro-
cery business there until 1881, when he moved
to Chicago where he again turned his attention
to merchandising. Three years later he settled
at Montrose, this state, and carried on a busi-
ness in general merchandising until 1890. He
then moved to Telluride and was employed as
state agent until the railroad was completed
through this part of the state. At the same
time he conducted one of the leading groceries
of the section, continuing his operations in this
line until 1898, when he was appointed post-
master. He was re-appointed to this office in
1 901, and is now filling it capably and to the
general satisfaction of the people. In all
phases of the public life of his county he is
earnestly and actively interested, giving his aid
effectively to every undertaking for its im-
provement and the welfare of its people, and
is recognized as one of the representative and
progressive men of the portion of the state in
which he lives. He is a prominent member of
the Knights of Pythias and the Woodmen of
the World, and to the affairs of his lodges gives
a close, intelligent and serviceable attention.
At Lake City, Colorado, in 1887, he was mar-
ried to Miss Mary Kirker, a native of Ohio.
They have two sons, George C. and Thomas.
Popular in all sections of the county, and fer-
vently- patriotic wherever the welfare of his
people is involved, and, moreover, approaching
ever}- public question and every public and
private duty with breadth of view and a lofty
ideal of citizenship, he well deserves the esteem
in which he is held, and uses wisely and for
good the strong influence he undoubtedly
wields, being considered one of the leading
citizens of his community.
852
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
J. C. RUTAN.
J. C. Rutan, the obliging and capable
sheriff of San Miguel county, this state, who
is now serving his third term in this important
office, and enjoys in a marked degree the con-
fidence and esteem of the people, is a native of
Ohio, where he was bom in 1854 and where
he was reared on a farm. His life in youth
was but little different from those of other
country boys, as it was passed on a farm and
in attending school in the neighborhood of his
home during the winter months. His parents
were Henry and Mary (Guy) Rutan, who were
natives of Virginia and moved to Ohio early
in life. When he was twenty-two years old,
their son moved to Dakota where he was en-
gaged in farming until 1 881. He then came
to Colorado and, locating at Telluride, en-
gaged in mining, and with this industry he has
ever since been connected. He has been an
industrious and observing prospector and has
located some valuable mining properties which
he still owns and operates, among them the
mines at Pandora, where he is also interested in
the townsite. He has always taken an active
interest in the affairs of the count}- and for
vears has been one of its leading and most
progressive citizens. In 1891 he was elected
sheriff and at the end of his term was re-
elected. In 1901 he was again the choice of the
people of the county for this office, and is now
filling it with great credit to himself and
many advantages to those who set the seal of
their approval on his character and official con-
duct by electing him a third time. Being a
single man and having therefore no family
claims, he is able to devote the whole of his
time and energy to his business, private and
official, and pushes both with great vigor and
success. During the first few years of his resi-
dence here be was associated with a brother in
his mining operations, but has since been eon-
ducting them wholly on his own account. He
is a gentleman of high standing and influence,
and his force has been wisely exhibited in
promoting the development and general im-
provement of the county, and throughout its
borders he is well known and highly esteemed.
JOHN C. CLARE.
John C. Clare, of Placerville, San Miguel
county, is one of the fast fading body of real
pioneers who helped to settle the great West
of the United States and braved all the perils
and endured all the hardships of frontier life
in doing it. He came to the county in 1875
after having served his country valiantly in
the Civil war and engaged in various occupa-
tions in his Eastern home. He was born in
Baltimore, Maryland, on October 18. 1X4;,.
and is the son of John C. and Louisa Clare,
by whom he was reared and educated in his
native state. In 1861, soon after the beginning
of the Civil war, he enlisted for three months
in Company C. First Maryland Infantry, in
defense of the Union, and at the end of his
term he re-enlisted as a member of the Sec-
ond Delaware Infantry, in which he served
to the close of the war. His regiment was in
active service and he took part in many of the
most noted engagements of the momentous
contest, but escaped without injury. After his
discharge he returned to his Maryland home,
and in 1866 came west to Kansas, where he
remained until 1875. tnen moved to Colorado
and settled for awhile at Del Norte, where he
engaged in mining, an occupation be has fol-
lowed almost continuously since that time in
various localities. He has discovered many
valuable mines and still owns a number of
them. In 1877 he' took up his residence in
what is now San Miguel county and here he
has since lived and taken a zealous and helpful
interest in the development of the section, giv-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
853
ing good and intelligent attention to every
phase of public life and assisting in the pro-
motion of every commendable enterprise for
the benefit of the county and the surrounding
country, although he could never be persuaded
to accept public office of any kind. From his
early manhood he has been an enthusiastic
member of the Masonic fraternity, belonging
to lodge, chapter and commandery and being
diligent and serviceable in each. He is one of
the leading citizens of the county and is held
in the highest esteem by all classes of its pen-
pie for the uprightness of his life, his pro-
gressive views and the lofty and broad-minded
citizenship for which he is widely known.
JOHN R. GALLOWAY.
John R. Galloway, a member of the mer-
cantile'firm of Galloway Brothers, of Norwood,
San Miguel county, cue of the largest and
most successful establishments of its kind in
this part of the state, was born in Hancock
county. Illinois, 1 >n March 16. 1805, and is the
son of the late Hon. James P. and Minerva C.
(Wade) Galloway, the former a native of St.
Louis, Missouri, and the latter of Hancock
county, Illinois. The father was reared in
Iowa, and after he grew to manhood engaged
in business in Illinois and Missouri until 1873,
when he moved with his family to Colorado,
and turned his attention to raising stock on an
expansive scale. Later he moved to Hinsdale
count}', and in 1883 came to Paradox valley,
where he remained until bis death, in Febru-
ary. 1897. He was one of the pioneer stock
men in this part of the country, and one of
the leaders of thought and action in public af-
fairs, being always at the front of every good
enterprise for the improvement of the county,
and serving its people with fidelity and ability
in the state senate for a time. His widow now
resides at Pueblo. Their offspring number
seven : L. Wood Galloway, the other member
of the firm of Galloway Brothers; John R.,
die subject of this sketch; Gordon, a promi-
nent stock man living one mile west of Nor-
wood; Nino, the wife of Albert Neal, of Mont-
rose; Jessie, the wife of A. Herendon, two
miles from Norwood; and James P. and
Eugene, residents of Norwood. John R. Gal-
loway came with his parents and the rest of
the family as it was then to Colorado in 1873,
when he was eight years old. Here he grew
to man's estate and received the greater part
of his education. After leaving school he en-
gaged in the stock industry until 1899, when
he came to Norwood and, in partnership with
his brother, L. Wood Galloway, started the
business which they are now conducting.
They have a fine two-story business block
equipped with every modern device for the
convenient and successful management of their
business, and carry a large and varied stock of
general merchandise which is selected with
special reference to the needs of the com-
munity and kept up-to-date in every particular.
It includes all kinds of farm machinery, along
with other commodities, and the establishment
is one of the leading ones in the county, laying
under tribute to its trade a large extent of
the surrounding country. Mr. Galloway is
active and progressive in public affairs, and is
now rendering the county excellent service as
a member of the board of county commission-
ers. Fie is a valued and energetic member of
the Masonic fraternity, the Odd Fellows and
the order of Elks. At Centralia, Illinois, on
May 8, 1888, he married with Miss Hettie
Warren, a native of that place. The}' have
four children, John W.. Minerva, James B. and
Enon. Accurate and successful in all the ele-
ments of his extensive business operations,
elevated in the character of his citizenship,
stern and unyielding in his integrity, and en-
dowed with rare social qualities. Mr. Galloway
854
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
is well worthy of the esteem in which he is
held and the place he has won by his merit as
one of the most prominent and representative
men in the county.
JOHN M. WATKINS.
John M. Watkins, a prosperous and skillful
blacksmith of Norwood, San Miguel county.
and deputy sheriff of the county, has been
something of a wanderer in the western coun-
try, but. unlike the proverbial rolling stone, he
hag not failed to gather a goodly store of
worldly wealth and lay it up for whatever
emergencies may come to him. He is a native
of Georgia, where he was born on. May i_\
1855. and the son of \V. S. and C. L. Watkins.
also natives of that state. He remained at
home until he reached the age of eighteen, and
received a district school education in the
vicinity of his father's plantation. In .1873 the
family moved to this state and settled in Huer-
fano county. Here he learned his trade as a
blacksmith, and then yielding to an ardent de-
sire to see more of the country, he started on
his travels, which perhaps proved to be more
extensive than he at first intended, but which
nevertheless gave him opportunity to know
men and their works in many places and under
a great variety of circumstances. In 1875 he
went to La Plata county where he worked at
his trade and handled horses until 1879. He
then migrated to the pan-handle of Texas, and
after a short residence there returned to Colo-
rado. He lived for a time at Trinidad and
then at Rosita. In 1S81 he moved to Ouray.
anl from there to Red Cliff, and later to Lead-
ville. In 1882 he settled at Telluride, and the
next year moved to Saguache county. In t8K;
turned to Leadville, and in [888 went to
Manhattan, Kansas. He continued his wander-
ings from there to the Osage nation, in Indian
Territory. In 1S89 he changed his base "i
operations to Pawnee. Nebraska, and later to
Fort Crawford, that state. Here he wrought
at his trade for the Union Pacific Railroad
Company and followed the construction of the
line into the Black Hills. Then quitting the
employ of this company, he went to Custer
City, South Dakota, and worked for the Etta
Tin Alining Company for a short time, after
which he moved to Red Lodge, Montana, from
where he made a trip into the Couer d'Alene
country and thence on into the Potlatch coun-
try. His next location for a short time was
Cracker Creek, Oregon, and the next Express.
He then made a trip through parts of Wyo-
ming, winding up at Winnemucca, Nevada,
where he remained until 1896, when he re-
turned to Colorado, locating in Routt county.
In 1898 he once more took up his residence at
Ouray, and the next year returned to San
Miguel county. In 1900 he settled at Norw ood,
where he has since resided. Here he at once
opened a blacksmith shop, and since then has
vigorously wrought at his craft, carrying on
an extensive business in both iron and wood
work. Pie has also acquired an attractive home
in the town and become one of its prosperous
and progressive citizens. In December, 1902,
his worth and capability were recognized by
his appointment to the office of deputy sheriff,
which he is still filling. He was married at
Ouray in T899 to Miss Alice M. Mannon, a
native of Ouray county. They have two chil-
dren, Harry Leo and S. L. After all his jour-
neyings Air. Watkins seems to have found a
permanent residence which pleases him. and
here he is growing into consequence and in-
fluence, and winning his way steadily into the
lasting reg"ard of the people among whom he
lives.
CHARLES R. PIOTCPIKISS.
Charles R. Hotchkiss, one of the prominent
and successful stock-growers and farmers of
southwestern Colorado, whose postofl
Colona, Ouray county, near (he Montrose
PROGRESSIVE MEN OE WESTERN COLORADO.
85"
counl\' line, is a native of Michigan, born in
i S 5 7 , and came to this state as a pioneer in
1878. He is one of the two sons of Roswell
and Jane (Cobb) Hotchkiss, a sketch of whom
will be found elsewhere in this work. While
be was yet quite young his parents moved to
Nebraska and soon afterward to Dakota,
where they lived until 1S7S, when they settled
in this state. He was twenty-one at the time.
and had been reared to a life of useful industry
on the farm, and received his education in the
district schools in the various localities where
the family lived. On his arrival in Colorado
he settled near the town of Montrose, and there
he was engaged in freighting until 1889. He
then moved to the Norwood mesa, where he
took up a homestead and engaged in farming
and raising stock. In 1901 he sold this prop-
erty and moved to his present location, purchas-
ing one hundred and twenty acres of superior
land, and continuing thereon his industry as a
stock man from that time until the present.
He b.'is a large herd of fine cattle and a good-
sized band of horses of excellent grades and de-
sirable breeds. He is one of the prosp
and progressive men of the section, conducting
his business with vigor and skill, and giving
his active aid to every commendable enterprise
in the community. Fraternally he is connected
with the order of Odd Fellows. In Nebraska,
on June 22, 1877, he was united in marriage
with Miss Mary J. Manley, a native of Texas.
They have five children, all sons, Fred. Frank,
Roy, Eugene and Clyde. The father of Mr,
Hotchkiss, who is one of the leading men of
Ouray county, is a prominent merchant at
Ridgeway, and bis brother Virgil, the only
other son and child, is like himself, an enter-
prising and successful farmer and stock-grower
in Montrose county. Father and sons have
done much for the development of this section,
and are held in the highest esteem. They are
men of enterprise and high character with
breadth of view and public-spirit.
STEPHEN MORGAN.
This prosperous and successful farmer and
stock man of San Miguel county, who is com-
fortably settled on a fine ranch of one hundred
and sixty acres one mile northeast of Norwood,
is one of the progressive and enterprising citi-
zens of his section of the state, developing
and building up his own business with" com-
ible energy and skill, and aiding in push-
ing forward the community and county in
which he lives t< < their highest and best develi >p-
ment. He was born in 1858 in Texas, whither
his parents, Seth and Martha Morgan, moved
soon after their marriage from their native
Tennessee. He remained at home until he
reached the age of seventeen, assisting in the
farming and stock industry in which his father
was engaged, then in 1875 began life for him-
self in the same business, locating for the pur-
pose near Las Vegas in Xew Mexico, where
he remained until 1880. In that year he went
to Wyoming where he continued his operations
in the same line until 1885. He then came to
Colorado and located the land on which he now
lives and of which be has made a beautiful
home. Here he has conducted a thriving stock
industry on an expanding scale of volume and
profits, and has become well established in the
respect and good will of his fellow citizens.
He has a herd of two hundred and fifty well-
bred cattle of high grades and all kept in prime
condition. In the social and fraternal life of
the community he is active and influential,
being a prominent member of the order of
Odd Fellows, and occupying a leading place in
the general public life around him. In 1886.
in the county of his present residence, he was
married to Miss Laura Southard, a native of
England. His pleasant home is a center of
generous and considerate hospitality, where the
numerous friends of himself and his wife are
always cordially welcomed and bountifully
entertained. It is high praise to say of a man
8 5 6
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
that he has met every duty in life with a proper
spirit and conducted all his operations on a high
plane of regard for the rights and feelings of
others, but it is due to Mr. Morgan to state that
this is his record by the voluntary and cheerful
testimony of all who know him well.
JOHN W. WINKELMAN.
John \V. Winkelman, of San Miguel
county, living on a valuable and attractive
ranch one mile and a quarter east of Norwood,
and there conducting a flourishing stock in-
dustry which is one of the leading enterprises
of its kind in this portion of the county, is a
native of the good old state of Maryland,
which has given many an inspiring theme to
the pen of the historian, the song of the poet
and the forensic power of the statesman. He
was born in that state in 1858, and lived there
until he was seventeen years of age. He then,
in 1875, migrated to the Black Hills, but passed
the first two winters of his western life at
Laramie and Cheyenne. Wyoming. In T878
he came to Colorado and took up his residence
in Custer county. Two years later he moved
to the site of the present town of Telluride, and
for two years thereafter conducted a pack train.
He then engaged in mining for a time until he
located on the place which is now his residence
and the seat of his prosperous business, and
which by industry and good taste and enter-
prise he has transformed from a veritable wil-
derness into a beautiful and comfortable home.
He owns an additional ranch in the mountains.
and si 1 has ample range for his herd of superii <v
cattle which has grown from a small beginning
to very respectable proportions and has been
kept by judicious care and proper treatment in
first-class condition until it has become known
far and wide as one of the best in this portion
of the state. Air. Winkelman also is earnestlv
devoted to the welfare of his section and has
for years been one of its most progressive and
influential citizens, although not seeking or
desiring public office for himself. No enter-
prise of value to his community goes without
his active, intelligent and substantial support;
and no question of public interest is determined
without his advice and cordial interest. He
was married here in 1897 to Miss Marian
Southard, a native of England, wdio came to
the United States and this part of the country
with her parents in eary life. Both she and
her husband stand well in social circles and are
widely known and highly esteemed.
EDWIN JOSEPH.
Leaving his parental home at the age of
seventeen, and beginning the battle of life for
himself amid the hard conditions but boundless
opportunities of the frontier, Edwin Joseph, of
San Miguel county, one of the most successful
and progressive ranchmen and stock-breeders
of the Norwood mesa and located about three
miles southwest of the town, has been true to
the example and the spirit of his parents and
111 close touch with the on-flowing tide of
American life which has overspread the coun-
try and redeemed its waste places to civiliza-
tion and useful productiveness. He was born
in Michigan in 1852. and is the son of John
and Dollie Joseph, who in early life left their
native state of New York and sought a new-
home wherein their hopes might expand and
flourish in the wilds of Michigan, at that time
as undeveloped, as wild, as full of privation and
danger to the hardy pioneer as this section was
when he came into it. He was taught the
value of thrift and industry on his father's
farm, and in the common schools of his native
place secured a limited knowledge of books and
imbibed the spirit of independence and self-
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
857
reliance that has characterized the pioneers of
our country from its earliest history. In 1869
he became a resident of Colorado, settling at
Denver, then a city of about five thousand in-
habitants. Here he was engaged in handling
stock until 1871, when he moved into the Del
Norte region, where he continued the enter-
prise he had begun at Denver. In 1875 he went
to the San Luis valley where he again followed
the stock industry, and from a year prior to
this time he was occupied also in prospecting
until 1S78. The next year he came to the
Norwood mesa and located the ranch he now
occupies and which has since been his home.
This ranch was the first piece of patented agri-
cultural land within the limits of San Miguel
county, and its beautiful and productive ap-
pearance and character fully justify his wis-
dom in the choice of it as the base of his
operations in a permanent employment of his
faculties, tastes and skillful industry. He has
converted.it into one of the attractive and valu-
able rural homes in this portion of the country.
The stock industry, to which he has sedulously
devoted himself since settling here, has gn >\vn
extensive and prosperous around him and
through his judicious management he now has
a fine herd of some two hundred cattle, all well
bred and worthy of the best markets. Besides
being energetic and constant in attention to his
private business, he is earnest and full of force
in attention to the public interests of his com-
munity, being one of the leaders of the Re-
publican party in this section, and giving the
people admirable service as a county commis-
sioner. In every line of public life and enter-
prise he is active, vigilant and influential, and
is easily accorded a position as one of the lead-
ers of thought and activity in the county. He
was married at Del Norte in 1S75 to Miss
Jennie Herendon, a native of Missouri. Thev
have one son, Horace, who was the first white
child born within the limits of the present
county.
WILLIAM II. NELSON.
It is to prominent families of Virginia
who lost heavily through the Civil war that
William Nelson, of Norwood, San Miguel
county, owes his origin, he having been born in
that state in 1856. the son of J. K. and Sarah
Nelson, who were also native there and de-
scended from an ancestry long resident in the
commonwealth. In 1868 the family moved to
Kansas and they were among the first settlers
on the Osage reservation. Their son received
only such education as their time and circum-
stances allowed, owing to their migratory life,
and when he was fourteen began life for him-
self on the plains where he passed two years.
In 1872 he came to Colorado and located in
Park county where he drove an overlain! stage
for two years. He was then eighteen years
old. and. desiring a more settled and less haz-
ardous occupation, moved to Lake county ami
went to work at his trade as a carpenter of
which he had previously acquired some knowl-
edge, and also engaged in the stock industry.
In 1877 he crossed the range into the Gunni-
son country with stock, making the first trail
into Pitkin Park and locating a ranch around
the site of the present town of Parlin. On
this ranch he lived until the railroad was con-
structed through this region when he sold it to
the company, and in 1880 he moved to San
Miguel county, locating first in Gupsum valley
on the Dolores river, where he took up a In >me-
stead which he still owns. He has also ac-
quired a large amount of other property and
has a considerable herd of fine cattle and a
large band of superior horses. In 1898 he
took up residence permanently at Norwood
and there he built a beautiful residence which
he is now living in. In 1903 he was appointed
postmaster at Norwood, thus keeping up his
interest in the public life of the community
which began with his advent into this section.
He was one of the county commissioners in
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
the county, serving two terms of three years
each. He was also a delegate to the first con-
vention held in Gunnison county. In fraternal
relations he is an interesting member of the
Masonic fraternity, and has for many years
taken an active part in the proceedings of his
lodge. At Chillicothe, Missouri, in Decem-
ber, 1885, he was married to Miss Susie Minor,
a daughter of P. H. Minor, a prominent farmer
and stock-grower of that section of the coun-
try, where she was born and reared. They
have three children, John M., Preston H. and
Wesley R. Air. Nelson is one of the real
pioneers of this state and saw the beginning of
civilization where he has lived and contributed
substantially to its progress and development,
being an important factor in helping to settle
the country and bring its resources into the
channels of trade and make them known to the
commercial and industrial world. The people
around him value his efforts in this behalf and
hold him in the highest esteem on every hand.
THOMAS R. McCALL.
Thomas R. McCall, of near Norwood, one
of the enterprising and progressive ranchmen
and stock-growers of San Miguel county, is a
native of Ouincy, Illinois, where he was born on
St. Patrick's day in 1843. He is the son of
William and Rachel (Heyworth) McCall, na-
tives of Tennessee, who moved to Illinois in
early life. There the son lived with them until
1862, aiding his father in the farm work and
attending the district schools in the winter
months. In the year last named he left the
parental homestead and crossed the plains to
Fort Laramie with ox teams, being in charge
of the freighting business of Gillman, Carter
& • Company, of Omaha. He remained in their
employ six years freighting over the plains and
helping to build government forts and military
posts under contract. Fort McPherson was
one of the structures in whose erection he was
concerned, and while living in that neighbor-
hood he took a prominent part in public affairs,
serving as a member of county and state con-
ventions from time to time. In one of the
former he was the man who placed Colonel
Cody ("Buffalo Bill") in nomination for the
legislature. In 1868 he quit the employment
of this company and for a time engaged in
trading with the Indians. He then bought a
freighting outfit of his own and followed
freighting until 1882, when he located at Den-
ver in this state, and for eleven years there-
after he was occupied in an extensive whole-
sale commission business. In 1893 he moved
to San Miguel county, and locating one hun-
dred and sixty acres of good land in the park,
began the industry of farming and raising
stock in which he is still engaged. Fie has
an excellent ranch and a large band of first-
rate cattle and prosecutes a vigorous business.
Fraternally he is connected with the order of
Odd Fellows. In 1872 he was married at
Greeley to Miss Ella Fisk. a native of Vermont
and a niece of the celebrated Wall street broker,
the late James Fisk. They have six children
living: Dr. Floyd H. ; Stella, wife of William
Ray; Kate, wife of G. Galloway; Thomas R. ;
Earl; and one other. Mr. McCall was in many
Indian fights in the earlier days, and a few
years ago he buried the bodies of ten of his
men near Plum creek who had been killed by
the savages.
SI I VDRAv'K T. TALBERT.
The Paradox valley in Montrose count]
a land of promise to its early settlers, whose
imagination saw it redeemed from its wild and
uncomely condition and blossoming with the
fragrance and fruitful with the products of
cultivated life after the contest with wild
men, wild beasts and the wild growth of
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
859
centuries should he won; and with lofty faith in
the vision they camped upon its fertile soil and
began the battle for supremacy. It responded
readily to the persuasive hand of systematic in-
dustry, and before the march of civilization its
savage denizens slowly and sullenly but steadily
retired. The promise has been realized, hope
has ended in fruition, faith in sight, and now
the region brings forth in abundance every-
thing good and beautiful and nourishing.
Among the men of lofty spirit and daring con-
fidence who first invaded its unbroken solitudes
and essayed to plant therein the beneficent
activities of modern culture, Shadrack T. Tal-
bert, living near the village of Paradox, and
now one of the enterprising and progressive
stock men and farmers of the valley, was the
fourth to arrive, twenty-three years ago. He
was born in Warren county, Kentucky, on De-
cember 4, 1833, and is the son of Thomas and
Lottie Talbert, themselves native in the Blue
Grass state. When he was about nine years
old they moved to Missouri, and locating in
Pulaski county, continued there the fanning
industry they hail been carrying on at their
former home. Here he grew to manhood and
completed the common-school education which
had scarcely more than begun in his native state.
When the Civil war began he joined Price's
army in defense of the Confederacy, and at
the close of the sanguinary conflict returned to
his home and for a number of years thereafter
engaged in farming and other pursuits. In
1874 he moved to Arkansas, and a few years
later crossed the plains to Nevada, where he
was occupied in mining until 1880. He then
came to Colorado and located on the land where
be now lives. There were but three settlers in
the valley at the time of his arrival, and all the
work of reducing the land and its savage
occupants to subjection was yet to do. But he
and the others, and, tin ise who have come hither
since, have persevered in their purpose, and
now Mr. Talbert has a fine farm of three hun-
dred and twenty acres, well improved and in an
advanced state of cultivation, and an excellent
orchard of choice fruit of his own planting
His herd comprises about fifty cattle of good
breeds and is kept in prime condition. He is
also interested in .mining with favorable re-
sults. In 1854, in Dent county. Missouri, he
was married to Miss Catherine Lamb, a native
of that state. She died on the farm on July 27,
1881, leaving four children, George, Thomas.
Andrew and Frank, who are all living. Mr.
Talbert is one of the patriarchs of this region
and one of its leading citizens. Tie si
fruits of his labors plentiful and beneficent
about him. and time has set on his career the
approval which is seldom accorded e>.
the departed. He lives in comfort and peace,
and crowned with the general esteem of his
fellow citizens of the section and the surround-
ing country.
EUGENE C. HAMILTON.
A -native of Michigan, born at Mount
Clemens in 1845, an, l the son °f pioneers in
that state, Eugene S. Hamilton, of Paradox
valley, living not far from the village 01
dox. Montrose county, came honestly by his
tendency to frontier life, and by the traditions
and experiences of his family and his own early
training was well prepared for its strenuous re-
quirements. His parents were Hiram S. and
Jeannette Hamilton, natives of Massachusetts,
who settled in Michigan at an early period of
it^ history. When he was yet young they
moved to Minnesota and located the first
claim of government land near the site of the
present city of Winona, where they remained
ten years, then moved to Chicago. The father
was a man of great activity and enterprise, and
engaged in various pursuits, always finding
work at his hand to be done, and always doing
86o
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
it with might and productive results. He was
a noted Congregational minister of his day. but
was also a worker in industrial lines, engaging
in building railroads in Missouri and other
works of public improvement. His sun
Eugene reached manhood in Chicago and
finished his education there. After leaving
school he was employed in the collection busi-
ness for several years, and in 1875 came west.
Two years later he settled at Lost Trail in tins
state and found ready and remunerative em-
ployment in transferring freight from wagons
to pack trains, and also ran a large warehouse
business. He and a Mr. Carson discovered the
Carson mine and continued to work it until
1883, when he sold his interests and moved to
the land which he now occupies, which he then
bought and has ever since owned and farmed.
He has a fine valley ranch and is actively en-
gaged in farming and raising stock on a large
scale and with cumulative profits. He has,
however, never lost his interest in the mining
industry, and still owns several valuable
properties in this department of human enter-
prise, among them the well known Sunrise
copper mine. He is also part owner of the
Copper Prince, which has a large vein of cop-
per and the largest known vein of uranium,
this mine being in fact the only one in the
United States that is developed and actively
worked for this metal. From it more than
two hundred tons of its rare product have been
shipped to the old country. In 1871) Mr. Ham-
ilton was married in Chicago to Miss Mollie
( )linger, a native of Carlisle, Ohio. They have
no children. In 1895 Mrs. Hamilton was ap-
pointed postmistress at Paradox, and she is
still in charge of the office. When they settled
here there were but three or four families in
the valley, and they have seen all its progress
and contributed essentially to its development
■•Mid growth. They have a competency for life
wen L\ their own efforts, are well es-
tablished in the public regard of their
community, and are yet in the full flush
of their vigor and energy. Behind them
in a path of rugged and difficult progress over
which they have come to their present estate,
and before them, with health, strength and en-
terprise on their side, and with a so much bet-
ter armament for the trials they may yet come
there would seem to be a career of still
greater triumph and usefulness.
L. G. DENNISON.
Well known throughout San Miguel
county and the surrounding country for his
beautiful home and his generous and consider-
ate hospitality, prominent in the cattle industry
and well established in the best social circles,
L. G. Dennison, living about twenty miles
south of Norwood, has won his way in the
world over adverse circumstances and his pres-
ent estate is wholly the product of his own
efforts and capacity. He was born at Chicago.
Illinois, on March II, 1856, and is the son of
William and Ruth (Thomas) Dennison, and
the last born of their five children. His father
died in Chicago in 1859. and the mother soon
afterward moved her family to Michigan,
where she died in i860. Thus orphaned at
the age of four, their son grew to manhood
under the care of strangers, and although his
father left a large amount of property in Chi-
cago, he found himself on the threshold of life's
duties with nothing but his natural abilities, bis
courage and his determined industry as the
capital for his coming struggle, for the estate
had been practically expended by the guard-
ians. His boyhood and youth were passed at
Xiles, Michigan, where he received a good
common-school education and attended Vvalon
College. In 1X70. at the age of fourteen, he
came west for his health, located at Cheyenne,
Wyoming, where he remained until 1S7S. He
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
then settled at Denver, Colorado, and secured
a position in the offices of the Denver & Rio
Grande Railroad Company, which he held until
1880. In that year he moved to Telluride,
making the trip with teams in company with
Oris Thomas and two other persons. The
country was wholly unsettled then, or almost
SO, and full of Indians. Provisions were very
high, flour being forty dollars a hundred
weight, and other things in proportion. [n
1882 he and Mr. Thomas engaged together in
merchandise at Telluride, and continued their
operations until 1886. He then sold his in-
terest in the establishment and settled on the
ranch which he now occupies and which has
ever since been his home. It comprises six
hundred and forty-eight acres, is beautifully lo-
cated, highly fertile and well improved, making
it one of the most attractive homes in the coun-
ty, renowned alike for its natural and artistic
beauties and its wealth of hospitality, as un-
ostentatious as it is unstinted, and as genuine
as it is generous. The cattle bred and handled
here are thoroughbreds of high grade and every
care is taken to keep them up to a high standard
of excellence and in first-class condition. Mr.
Dennison is a prominent member of the Ma-
sonic order, belonging to lodge, chapter and
commandery, and taking an active interest in
the welfare of all. He also belongs to the
Woodmen of the World, and is influential in
the proceedings of his lodge in this order. On
August 30. 1882, at Denver, he was married
to Miss Nellie Thomas, a native of Flint,
Michigan, who became a resident of Denver
not long before her marriage. She is the
daughter of Charles A. and Amoretta (Knapp)
Thomas, natives of Albion, New York, but n< >w
residents of Telluride. Mrs. Dennison is a
highly cultivated lady, with musical talent of an
elevated order which has been carefully culti-
vated, and she and her husband are among
the leading people in this portion of the state.
FRANK M. STOCKDALE.
The stock industry of Colorado is one of
large proportions and it requires an enormous
quantity of provender to keep it going. The
men who produce this in quantities of magni-
tude are among the important factors in keep-
ing the industry up to its normal activity and
extending its operations. Especially is this
true of those who raise big crops of hay for
winter feeding: and among these scarcely any
one is better known or more highly appreciated
in this section than Frank M. Stockdale, of
San Miguel county, whose fine ranch of one
hundred and "sixty acres, lying sixteen miles
south of Norwood, is one of the widely known
hay producers of the county. Mr. Stockdale
is a native of Illinois, and the son of John and
Cinderella (Davis) Stockdale, who were na-
tives of Ohio. When he was two years old
the family moved to Indiana, and fourteen
wars later to Kansas, where they engaged in
farming and raising stock. He has therefore
been connected with the industry in which he
is now engaged from an early period, and has
had opportunity to learn it from the ground
up. Having made good use of his oppor-
tunities, and given careful attention to the
business from his youth, he may safely be
classed among the most energetic and success-
ful men who follow it. His education was se-
cured in the district schools of Indiana and
Kansas, and after leaving school he lived four
years in Iowa, where he was employed in the
same vocation. In 1879 he came to Colorado,
and locating at Rico, engag'ed in mining for
lour years, then in 1882 settled on his .present
ranch which has been his home continuously
since that time. The place is, as has been indi-
cated, well adapted to raising hay. and its
product in this commodity is both large in
quantity and excellent in quality. In fraternal
circles he is connected with the Masonic order.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
and is prominent and active in the affairs of
his lodge. In 1894 he was united in marriage
with Miss Laura Booth, a native of Kansas.
They have three children, their daughters
Hazel, Celia and Doris. Air. Stockdale's life
of more than twenty years in this section has
been fruitful of benefit to his community and
won him high esteem.
JOHN DUNHAM.
Wholly a product of the farther West,
and indebted directly in no wise to the culture
and high civilization of the East, unfavored
too by the smiles of fortune dr adventitious
circumstances, but having won his way in life
altogether by his own efforts. John Dunham,
of Dolores county, living and carrying on a
flourishing farming and stock industry on
Disappointment creek near the village of
Lavender, is one of the leading men and most
representative citizens of this section of the
country. He was born in California on
February 26, 1:861, and is the son of John B.
and Susan Dunham, natives of Pennsylvania
and early settlers on the Pacific slope. In 1873
the faniilv moved to Colorado and settled on
Pine river, where they engaged in the stock
business. Here their son John reached man's
estate and received the greater part of the dis-
trict-school training he was able to get. In
[882, just after passing his majority, he set up
in life for himself, coming to Dolores county
and locating on his present ranch. Since then
he has been busily engaged in improving his
I md, making a comfortable home for himself
and his own family, and developing the stock
industry which he conducts and which he has
expanded into one of the leading enterprises in
its line in this part of the state. His ranch is
one of the best for stock in the country, and
he ha in addition an extensive and productive
range for his herd of one hundred and fifty
well-bred, high-grade cattle, and his band of
superior horses. He was married in January,
1888, to Miss Lena Estes, a native of Arkansas,
but reared in Colorado. They have two chil-
dren, their son Irving and their daughter May.
Coming to this part of the county when it was
practically unsettled and undeveloped, Mr.
I )unham has been potential and active in the
improvement of the section, and in bringing its
resources to the knowledge of the world. He
has also borne an active part in its public life,
and in developing and guiding the thought and
activity of its people in channels of wholesome
and beneficial progress. Among the citizens of
the section none is more highly or more justly
respected and esteemed.
JAMES HALL.
Inured from his youth to the wild life of
the plains and engaged in the inspiring al-
th< 'Ugh dangerous occupation of a range rider,
and living thereafter on the verge of civiliza-
tion for a number of years, James Hall, of
Rico, is a typical pioneer and well versed in all
the lore of the craft. He is a pioneer of [878
in Colorado, and was born in Alabama on
December 28, 1853. His parents, James M.
and Sarah T. (Goble) Hall, were natives of
Ireland and Pennsylvania, respectively, and
when their son James was quite young moved
to Pennsylvania from their southern home.
When he was sixteen he left the paternal roof
tree and made his way to Texas. There he
was employed in riding the range and hunting-
buffalo until 1878, when he came to Colorado
and turning his attention to mining. The next
year lie moved to Rico and started an industrv
in the liquor business in which he has since
been actively engaged, building up a large trade
and catering to a high class of patrons, lie
experienced all the dangers and suffered all the
hardships of frontier life, seeing every phase
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
863
of it from time to time, living now and then
on the fat of the land and anon eking out a
seamy subsistence on the gingerly provision of
nature in her more ungenerous localities and
moods. He was often confronted with savage
fury and treachery too, and was obliged to put
all his self-reliance and woodcraft in play at
times to outwit them and escape their venom.
He was a member of the party that pursued and
exterminated the band that killed Dick May
and at Thurman, this state, at Castle valley they
had a hot fight with a superior force, and of
their nineteen men ten were killed and three
wounded, while thirty-two of the Indians bit
the dust. Here they were surrounded and in
momentary danger of violent deaths. But they
managed to escape in the night. In this con-
test Mr. Hall was wounded in three places. In
addition to his mercantile establishment he has
interests in a number of valuable mines. He
belongs to the Odd Fellows and the Elks. He
was married in Pennsylvania on January 20,
1893, to Miss Ida M. Thompson, a native of
that state. They are the parents of two chil-
dren, Warden and Rae.
PENDLETON HUNTER.
From the mountains of West Virginia to
the mountains of Colorado is a long leap in
climatic and social conditions, although both
localities involve much of personal daring and
self-reliance, and require of those subjected to
them stern endurance and a readiness for
emergencies that are likely to be met with at
any time. It is one of the characteristics of
American manhood that individuals and classes
are adaptable to all conditions and superior to
every environment. This leap has been taken
by Pendleton Hunter, of Rico, Dolores county,
and this adaptability has been shown in a
marked degree by him. Wholly unacquainted
with western life, except in a general way.
when he came here, he yet met its require-
ments and overcame its exactions in a master-
ful way. and in the course of his life in this
section of the county has shown that he would
have done well under any circumstances ami
won his way to success and consequence over
any difficulties. He was born in West Virginia
on August 12, 1846, and is the son of Moses
H. and Catherine (Hammond) Hunter. His
father was a native of Virginia and his mother
of Ohio, she being the daughter of Charles
Hammond, the founder of the Cincinnati
Gazette. While he was yet very young his
parents moved to Michigan, where he reached
man's estate and was educated. After leaving
school he served as paymaster's clerk in the
United States navy and was in the service dur-
ing the Civil war. In 1868 he received a com-
mission in the Eighth United States Cavalry,
and as such served until February. 1871, when
he was discharged. He was with General
Crook in Oregon in the campaign against the
Indians in [867-8, and in that campaign was
wounded while in pursuit of the savages, and
was honorably mentioned for bravery. He was
also in Indian wars in Nevada. In 1871 he
came to Colorado and first located at Kit Car-
son, in what is now Cheyenne county. Soon
afterward he moved to Las Animas, in the
present county of Bent. Here he engaged in
surveying government land and hunting buf-
falo. In 1878 he moved to the San Juan
country and occupied himself in mining, milling
and surveying. He was one of the first arrivals
at the Rico camp, and in all the stirring scenes
of its earlier history he bore an important and
prominent part. In 1901 he was elected sur-
veyor for Dolores county, and since then he
has been discharging his official duties with
capacity and skill, and with a conscientious de-
votii hi to the general welfare of the comm-
and ilue consideration for the rights of in-
dividual citizens. Among the officials of the
864
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
county he has a high rank for fidelity and fair-
ness, and as a citizen and man of progressive
and public spirit he is universally esteemed.
His work in his office has been of great benefit
to all concerned, and by its correctness and ex-
cellence many causes of controversy have been
removed and the public good has been greatly
promoted and advanced.
WILLIAM MAY.
William May, of Dolores, late county sur-
veyor of Montezuma county, was the offspring
of pioneers on both sides of the family line,
and in his career well exemplified the char-
acteristics of his ancestors. He came to Colo-
rado in 1869 and located in Huerfano county
at a time when the country was just waking
up to its possibilities as a home for civilization
and its possible place in the onward march of
American enterprise; and taking fast hold of
the opportunities it presented for energy and
systematic industry and thrift, did his best to
make them available for his own advancement
and use them for the general welfare. He was
born in 1835, an( l > s the son of John B. and
Delia (Boone) May, the latter a native of Ken-
tucky. His grandfather, Henry May, settled
in Missouri in 1K10. and his mother was a
grand niece of Daniel Boone. His parents
dwelt on the frontier at different places during
the whole of their lives, dying in Oregon,
whither they moved in the early days of the
section in which they settled. His boyhood
and youth were passed in his native state, amid
its scenes of uncultivated life and strenuous
effort for supremacy made by the forces of
civilization with those of barbarism. In 1858,
when he was twenty-three years old, he moved
to Kansas, and he lived there during the
troublous times just preceding the war, when
human safety, and often human life was the
cost of 1 union, and peace and security were
matters of only momentary continuance. In
i860 he drove an ox team across the plains and
over the mountains to California, where he en-
gaged in farming for two years and then moved
to Nevada. He was in that state during the
excitement over the Comstock lodge. In 1866
he, in company with two other persons, drove
a band of horses to Iowa and sold them there.
In 1869 he came to Colorado, and locating in
Huerfano county, engaged in farming and
the stock industry, and also did surveying for
the government. Six years later he moved to
La Platte county, and in 1877 changed his base
of operations to Montezuma county, taking his
cattle with him. He located on the Dolores
river one mile and a half below the village of
the same name, making the first settlement in
the township for the government, and while
doing so he was also busily occupied in improv-
ing his ranch and getting it into condition for
cultivation. It comprises three hundred and
forty acres of good land, and on it he raised
fine horses and high grade cattle. He also
owned town property of value at Dolores. He
was an enterprising man and active all along
the line of public improvements and private
conveniences. He built the flour mill at
Dolores which was burned down after a few
y r ears of usefulness to the community. He
served six years as county commissioner, and
was nearly that long in the office of county sur-
veyor. Fraternally he was prominent in the
order of Freemasonry and the Knights of
Pythias, and in civil life was energetic and
zealous in behalf of every good enterprise for
the lasting welfare of the community. Coming
here in the early days, he had many sharp
contests with the Indians, and was called upon
to 1111 Him the death of a brother killed by them.
He was generally regarded as one of the lead-
ing men of the county, and was widely re-
spected as a most useful and representative
citizen, dee]) and sincere regret being expressed
on every side upon the occasion of his death,
which occurred on January 5. 1005.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OP WESTERN COLORADO.
86 <5
J. B. McGREW.
J. B. McGrew, of Dolores, the genial and
accommodating host of the Southern Hotel,
who is a native of Lexington, Missouri, born
on October 25, 1864, is a pioneer of 1880 in
Colorado, and the son of Calvin L. and Martha
(Ward) McGrew, natives of Kentucky, in
1873 the family moved to New Mexico and
there followed the stock business until [879.
They then moved their stock to Colorado, and
in 1880 settled in La Plata county, where they
continued the business until 1900. it being car-
ried on under the supervision of the mother
after the death of the father in 1895. She is
now living at Durango, this state. There are
three children in the family: Irving W.. a resi-
dent of Maple Creek. Canada, and engaged in
the stock business; J. B., the immediate sub-
ject of this review; and Christina B.. the wife
of John G. Huggins, proprietor of the Durango
Telegraph. Mr. McGrew sold his stock in
1900 and bought the Southern Hotel at
Dolores, and this he has elevated to a high rank
among houses of entertainment in the West.
making it one of the best of its kind to he
found m this section of the country. He is
well fitted by nature and experience for the
exacting duties of a boniface. and discharges
them in a way that makes his house popular and
retains the friendship of all who once become
his guests. The hotel is up-to-date in its ap-
pointments and is conducted on a broad and
modern style of enterprise that meets the re-
quirements of the traveling public, and makes
it a home for its permanent residents. Ni 'thing
is wanting to its completeness for houses of its
class, and no effort on the part of the host to
make it satisfactory to its patrons is omitted.
Mr. McGrew is a prominent member of the
Masonic order, belonging to Durango Lodge.
No. 40. He was married in 1899 to Mrs.
Emma Reed, a native of Illinois. Their fam-
55
ily consists of themselves and two children of
Mrs. McGrew by her former marriage, her son
John and her daughter Kate. Aside from his
business Mr. McGrew is held in the highest
esteem as a public-spirited and broad-minded
citizen, and is a welcome addition to the best
social circles.
WILLIAM KEXXEY.
Not among those whom poverty restrains,
but rather of the number whom untoward ob-
struction stimulates, the late William Kenney.
of Plateau City, in Mesa county, whose un-
timely death on February 19. 1000. at the early
age of thirty-eight, when all his powers were
in full maturity and his aspirations were work-
ing out a career of benefit to his fellow men
while advancing his own fortunes in the sane
and healthful atmosphere of utilitarian service.
was universally lamented and left a void in
industrial and commercial circles as well as in
the influence of good citizenship in his com-
munity which it is difficult to fill, gave to the
world immediately around him an example of
worth and high endeavor which will be full of
incitement to those who contemplate it rightly.
He was a native of Millard county, Utah, born
at Holden on March 22. r866. the son of John '
and Phoebe (Alden) Kenney, the father a na-
tive of Dublin. Ireland, and the mother of
Bristol, England: The father was reared in
his native land and early 111 life became a sailor.
While yet a young man he was converted to
Mormonism and then determined to join the
great body of his church in Utah, There he
met with and married his wife, who was also
a member of the Mormon church and had emi-
grated to Utah from England in 1855. They
are still living near the sacred altars of their
faith, and of their six children four are now
out in the world engaged in its stirring activi-
ties, while two have passed over to the activities
86b
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
which know no weariness, one dying at the age
of eleven months. William was the second
horn in the family, and remained at home until
he reached the ag'e of fifteen, receiving a
limited scholastic training in the common
schools and a thorough discipline in useful
labor on his father's farm. Then going to
Nevada, he was employed for a time in driv-
ing freight teams, and on his return to Utah
became a range rider in the service of cattle
outfits. In 1884, when eighteen years old, he
entered the employ of the Alta Land and Live
Stock Company in western Colorado and east-
ern Utah, having his headquarters most of the
time in the Plateau valley. He was industrious
and economical, and with commendable and
characteristic enterprise soon started' a cattle
industry of his own on a small scale, being one
of the first to engage in that business in the
valley, and also kept on working for the cattle
men of the section a few years longer. He
advanced rapidly and soon became a leader in
his business in this fruitful valley, buying one
hundred and sixty acres of wild land two miles
southwest of Plateau City in 1893. B . v im-
proving this he transformed his uncanny waste
into a fine ranch and built on it a commodious
and attractive modern dwelling, a view of
which is presented on the opposite page. In
time he increased his land there to three hun-
dred and sixty acres, and also bought and im-
proved another tract of one hundred and sixty
acres four miles south of Plateau City and ac-
quired the ownership of several hundred acres
of grazing lands. He was extensively engaged
in the cattle industry, buying, feeding and sell-
ing stock on a large scale, and became widely
known as one of the leading live-stock men
of the Western slope. He died on February
tq. 1900, from injuries received a year before
in having his horse fall on him while he was
riding after stock. He had hosts of friends in
many parts of the Rocky Mountain region, and
was held in the highest esteem everywhere
throughout the range of his acquaintance. He
was a great lover and an excellent judge of
horses and always owned a number of good
ones. While an ardent Republican in political
faith, he never held or aspired to public office,
holding an elevated and influential position in
the councils of his party, but ever averse to the
honors and emoluments of official station, find-
ing full satisfaction for his ambitions in his
business. Some eight or nine years before his
death the golden thread of sentiment began to
run permanently through the woof and warp
of his life, and on Christmas day, 1893. he
was married to Miss Grace Anderson, a daugh-
ter of David and Jessie (Scrimgeour) Ander-
son, a sketch of whom will be found on another
page. Mr. and Mrs. Kenney became the par-
ents of one child, their daughter Grace Edna.
who was born on June 1, 1896. Since Mr.
Kenney's death Mrs. Kenney has married with
Orville L. Dawson, a native of Kansas and for
several years a resident of Plateau valley.
ROBERT BROWN".
Robert Brown, senior member of the firm
of Brown, Berquin & Company, prominent
business men of Dolores and Dunton. and
active in the general public life of Montezuma
county, is a native of Georgia, born in 1854,
on September 16. and a pioneer of Colorado of
r8~9. He is the son of James W. and
Catherine (Baumgartner) Brown, the father a
native of South Carolina and the mother of
Georgia. He grew to manhood in his native
state, remaining at home until he was nineteen.
In 1873 he migrated to Texas and there became
.1 range rider and later served as deputy
sheriff. In 1870 he came to Colorado and lo-
cated on the Las Animas river, removing from
there to Rico in 1880. Here he engaged in
mining and continued his operations in this
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
867
line for four years, then occupied himself in
mercantile business until 1897. In that year
he bought the place (in which he now lives, ten
miles west of the village of Dolores. This
ranch comprises three hundred and twenty
acres and is in a well improved and highly
cultivated condition. He also owns a leading
interest in a first-class liquor establishment at
Dolores and in one at Dunton. All his busi-
ness operations are conducted on a high plane
and with a good citizen's interest in the wel-
fare of the community in which he lives. Air.
Brown is one of the leading men of the county,
active in all good works for the improvement
of his section and zealous in stimulating others
to the same energy and public-spirit. He was
married at Rico on December 19. 1891, to
Miss Katie Lincoln, a native of Colorado
Springs, this state. They have two children,
their sons Robert Boyce and Miller. Although
a native of the South, and reared amid the tra-
ditions and customs of its older civilization. Mr.
Brown is fully in touch with the spirit of the
West and in close sympathy with the aspir-
ations and impulses of its people. This he has
shown by his active interest in every commend-
able undertaking for the advantage of his lo-
cality and every element of progress and great-
ness in his section of the country. With laud-
able breadth of view he sees in the West great
possibilities of good for the whole country,
and is doing his part to make them operative
and effective.
JAMES TOTTEN.
Eor a period of nearly eighteen years the
interesting subject of this brief review has
been a resident of Colorado and a factor of
force and influence in the growth and develop-
ment of the part of the state in which he cast
his lot. He is one of the leading citizens of
Montezuma count}, and conducts a thriving
stock and farming industry on an excellent
ranch of two hundred and forty acres lying
three miles east of Cortez in Montezuma
county, which he took up as a homestead in
[886, and which he has redeemed from the
wilds and transformed into a comfortable home
and a fruitful farm. He was born in Canada
in 1840 and is the son of William and Agnes
Totten, the former a native of Glasgow, Scot-
land, of Irish parentage, and the latter born
and reared in Canada. Mr. Totten grew to
maturity in his native place and received a
common-school education there. In 1864 he
crossed the line to the United States and
settled in Michigan, and the next year moved
to St. Louis. Missouri, where he remained
until 1882. He then came to Colorado and
located at Rico. In 1886 he settled in the
Montezuma valley, taking up a homestead
which is a part of his present ranch, and at once
entered on a vigorous prosecution of the stock-
industry with a special view to the production
of high standards and good qualities of stock.
At the same time he entered actively into the
spirit of his locality and gave his energies in
a forceful and intelligent way to its develop-
ment and advancement, lending his aid to every
line of industrial, commercial and educational
activity. The influence of his enterprise and
the force of his example have been widely felt
and of great benefit to the community, and
he is universally esteemed as among the lead-
ing men of the county. He belongs to the In-
dependent Order of Odd Fellows, and has been
one of the enthusiastic promoters of the wel-
fare of the order. He is a gentleman of great
breadth of view and public-spirit and may be
counted on at all times to support any good
undertaking for the benefit of his section, and
for a daily exemplification of the best attributes
of American citizenship.
868
PROGRESSIVE MEN Ol- WESTERN COLORADO.
RICHARD KERMODE.
Although yet a comparatively young man.
and for only ten years a resident of Montezuma
county, so forcibly has Richard Kermode, of
Cortez, impressed his sterling manhood and
far-seeing and resourceful business capacity on
the people of the county, that he has risen to
consequence and power among them, and lias
also achieved a substantial success in business.
I [e is a native of the Isle of Man. England, and
is the son of John and Mary Kermode. also
English bv nativity. He was reared and edu-
cated in his native land, and in 1886, at the age
i if twenty-four, emigrated to the United States,
taking up his residence at once in Colorado.
He located in San Juan county and engaged in
farming, the pursuit of his ancestors for many
generations. In 1893 he moved to Montezuma
county, and located land two miles north of
Cortez, where he passed three years in success-
ful farming. He also served two years as
county road overseer, and gave the people such
excellent service in this capacity that in 1901 he
was elected sheriff. Removing then to the
county seat, he started the livery business which
he is now conducting there, and has built it up
to large proportions, and managed it with great
enterprise and close attention to its every want.
1 le has one of the best equipped barns and most
active trades in this line in his portion of the
country. In \qo2 he also took a contract to
carry the mails between Cortez and Dolores,
and is prosecuting this enterprise with the same
vigor and generally good results that character-
ize all his other undertakings, hi addition to
his home place he owns a ranch of one hun-
dred and sixty acres eight miles from Dolores;
and on the two he has line herds of well-bred
i;u lie Fraternally he is a member of the
Knights of Pythias and the Woodmen of the
World. At Telluride in [887 he was married
lo Miss Mary Calhoun, a native of Minnesota.
They have two children. Gentle and Alfred. In
the discharge of his official duties he is wise.
firm and fearless; in his citizenship elevated,
patriotic and devoted to the best interests of
the county; and in social life genial, com-
panionable and entertaining. He is everywhere
popular and highly respected.
DAVIS H. SAYLOR.
In 1720 the American progenitors of the
Savior family settled in Pennsylvania, and
from that day to this its members have been
prominent and active in their section, illustrat-
ing the pages of local history with elevated
citizenship and manly deeds in all departments
of activity. One branch of the family moved
over into Maryland in the early days, and its
descendants have been among the best citizens
of the portion of that state 111 which they live.
It is from this branch that Davis H. Savior, of
Cortez, in Montezuma, one of the represent-
ative men of Montezuma county and post-
master of the town, is derived. He was horn
111 Maryland on December 20. 1842, and is
the son of Jacob and Susan (Renner) Savior,
who were also native in that state. He was
reared and educated in his native place, and
bred to habits of industry on his father's farm.
In [861, at the beginning of the Civil war lie
enlisted in Company B. Seventh Maryland In-
fantry, in defense of the Union, and there-
after saw three years of active and arduous
service, being discharged on August 20. 1864.
on account of wounds received in battle, s. >me
of them at the contest over the Weldon Rail-
road in North Carolina. After his discharge
lie settled in Ohio, where he remained until
1870, then came to the Osage Indian reser-
vation in Kansas. Three years later he located
in Boulder count)'. Colorado, and engaged in
merchandising, also serving as postmaster.
From [879 to [886 he was mining in the San
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
869
Juan country, and at the end of this period he
moved to the Montezuma valley and located
land three miles northeast of Cortez, where he
has since been busily occupied in farming. He
has one hundred and sixty acres of good land,
well improved and under advanced cultivation,
and a large herd of superior cattle. He also has
a large apiary and is one of the leading produc-
ers of tine honey in this part of the country. In
1 goo he was appointed postmaster at Cortez
and moved to the town, and he is yet filling the
office. With active membership in the Grand
Arm)- of the Republic and the Red Men, he has
all the fraternal relations he has sought. On
October 5, 1880, he married with Miss Alice
M. Markley, a native of Illinois. They have
^i\ children, Robert A.. Reunice I.. Louise. Jes-
sie. Daniel and Olive.
CYRUS F. NEWCOMB.
Through the thrilling and exciting scenes of
American life in many places and under a
great variety of circumstances, and yielding his
'lue tribute of service and good citizenship to
his country in all. Cyrus F. Newcomb, of
Durango, La T'lata county, came to his estate
of worldly comfort and public esteem. He was
a pioneer of 1868 in this state and a native of
Boston, Massachusetts, born on August 13.
[831. His parents. Ilarley and Roxanna D.
(Hartwell) Newcomb, were natives of Massa-
chusetts and descended from some of the
founders of the state. Their son Cyrus grew to
manhood in his native state and was educated
there. In 1852 he came west to Iowa, and a
few months later went to Chicago where he
clerked in a hotel for three years. He then
went to Rock Island and engaged in business
as a traveling salesman, following this occu-
pation three years. In 1859 he crossed the
plains to Pike's Peak, and after a short stop
there went on to California. In 18(30 he moved
to New Mexico, and soon afterward to Virginia
< u\. Nevada, where he built and operated the
Mound House and the Half-Way House,
hotels, for a period, then passed some time in
the Reese river and White Pine country. From
there he went to Salt Lake City, and from
there to Virginia City, Montana, then to Ore-
gon and back to South Pass. Wyoming, where
he remained until 1868. when he came to Colo-
rado and was employed in treating ore at the
first mill at Georgetown. He helped to -tut
the first mill at Gilpin gulch, and worked there
until 1872. At that time he moved to Del
Norte. He became the first mayor of this
town and read the Declaration of Independence
in public for the first time it was so read in this
part of the country. From 1881 to 1886 he
was deputy revenue collector. In 1SS7 he
came to Durango to live. Here he served a
number of years as justice of the peace, and
United States commissioner and as police
judge. He was also interested in mining, and
was also the author of a number of well-known
1 looks concerning the ancient races of history.
Mr. Newcomb was a valued member of the
San Juan Pioneer Association and made sub-
stantial contributions t<> the interest and profits
of its proceedings. I lis first marriage oc-
curred in Chicago in [852 and was with Miss
Elizabeth Huddleston. She died a few years
later in Chicago, leaving two children. Dr. W.
K. Newcomb, of Champaign, Illinois, and
Harley Newcomb. of Durango, this state. Mr.
Newcomb' s second marriage took place in 1871.
and was with Miss Jane Wells. In 1SS1 lie
married a third wife. Mrs. Hattie E. Allen, a
widow with five children by a former mar-
riage. Mr. Newcomb was a prominent and in-
fluential citizen and was universally respected
throughout his portion of the state, his death,
which occurred on January 3, 1005. being
deeply regretted.
8;o
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
HEMMERLEE BROTHERS.
This firm of extensive, enterprising and
progressive ranch and cattle men. who are
prominent in every line of life in Routt county
and looked upon as among its most represent-
ative and useful citizens, is composed of Louis
and William Hemmerlee, natives of Mil-
waukee, Wisconsin, the former born on Oc-
tober 2, 1857, and the latter on February 7,
1868. They are sons of Francis P. and
Theresa Hemmerlee. who were born and reared
in Germany, and who located at Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, on coming to this country, and
there the father died on August 11. 188 1. He
was a prosperous butcher and meat merchant
in that city, a Democrat in politics and a man
of earnest and valued activity in the business
and political life of the community. The
mother is now living at Canon City, this state.
Of their family, seven are living, William.
Louis, Andrew, Mollie, Tillie, Sophie and
Theresa. Louis and William were educated in
the public schools and came to Colorado in the
spring of 1874, locating at Canon City, where
they remained until 1897. William was for
many years engaged in riding the range in the
service of the Reynolds and the Boston Land
Cattle companies, and afterward had charge
of the interests of the Pucha Park Land and
Cattle Company. In 1897 ne an ^ ms brother
purchased their present ranch of six hundred
and forty acres, the greater part of which is
under vigorous cultivation, in the Yampa
valley. Here they carry on an extensive ranch-
ing and stock industry, their cattle being prin-
cipally well-bred Herefords. They raise large
quantities of first-class hay with some grain.
Their land is well watered and has a profitable
variety of soil. It is pleasantly located, and
the valuable improvements they have made on
it aid in making it one of the most valuable
and attractive ranches in this part of the
o tunty. William was married on June 7. 1 N< 19,
to Miss Mabel Laughlin, a native of Colorado
Springs, this state. In politics he is a stanch
Democrat, and in fraternal life a member of
the order of Elks, holding his membership in
Lodge No. 610 at Canon City.
On his arrival in Colorado Louis became
connected with the butchering trade and for
some time supplied meat under contract to the
state penitentiary at Canon City. He is also a
Democrat and a member of the Elks' lodge at
Canon City. On December 17. 1885, he united
in marriage with Miss Anna Grant, a native of
Peoria, Illinois. They have two sons. Andrew
G. and Francis. The name of this firm is as
familiar as a household word throughout Routt
county, and the brothers are everywhere well
esteemed for the uprightness of their lives,
their uniform fair dealing with all men. their
business capacity and enterprise and their
active serviceable interest in the public affairs
of their section of the state.
MARK CHOATE.
Coming to Colorado in 1883, when he was
hut twenty-two years of age, and without
capital except his natural endowment of pluck
and enterprise, his clearness of vision and
alertness in seizing opportunities and turning
them to his advantage, Mark Choate has es-
tablished himself well and firmly in this state,
and is carrying on an extensive business in
ranching and raising stock in Routt county on
a good ranch of five hundred and forty acres,
a part of which he acquired as a homestead and
the rest by purchase. His ranch is one of the
best fenced and most highly improved and
cultivated in his portion of the county. It is
six miles north of Yampa, and is well supplied
with water from ditches belonging to it. It was
covered with wild sage when he located on it.
and all that it is now in the way of improve
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
871
ment and productiveness is the result of his
continued and wisely applied industry and taste.
Two hundred acres of the tract are tillable and
in an advanced state of cultivation. Here .Mr.
Choate raises large quantities of hay, grain
and vegetables, and numbers of well-bred and
valuable cattle and horses. The draft stallion
Prince, of the Percheron strain, which is cele-
brated throughout all this section, belongs to
him. Air. Choate is altogether a self-made
man, and one of the leading citizens of the
county. He was born in Dade county, Mis-
souri, on December 28, 1861, and secured a
very limited education in the common schools
near his home. Until he reached the age of
twenty-three years he assisted his parents on
the homestead, taking his place as a full hand
on the farm at an early age and maintaining
his place among the men until he left the place.
His parents, Huston and Nancy (Parala)
Choate, were born and reared in Tennessee, and
after farming in that state a number of years,
moved to Dade county, Missouri, where the
mother died in July. 1894, and the father is
still living. The father is a farmer there as he
was in his native state, and he also raises stock
in large numbers. He is a Democrat politically.
He was a soldier in the Civil war and saw much
service in that memorable contest wherein
American valor was put to its severest test and
gloriously justified all the encomiums that have
been passed upon it. Three children survive
the mother, Alexander, Mrs. Amelia Faulx
and Mark. The last named was married on
May 0. 1800. to Miss Anna Brown, a native of
Illinois-, and has three children, Ella R., Lewis
M. and Anna D.
WILLIAM M. PdRIA
Coming to Colorado in 1875 as a young
man of twenty-nine years, and passing
all of bis subsequent life in this state.
nearl) twenty-five years oi it on his
present ranch in Ri >utt county, William
M. Bird has been a factor of potency and great
helpfulness in the development and pi
of his section and enjoys in an unusual de-
gree the rewards of his efforts in the general
regard and good will oi the people of his
county. He was born near Huntingdon. Car-
roll county, Tennessee, in 1836, the son of
Robert and Annie Bird, natives of that state.
who moved to Dade county. Missouri, later in
life and there ended their days. The father u as
a blacksmith and also conducted large farm-
ing operations and an extensive saw-mill busi-
ness. He was a Democrat in political faith and
a man of prominence and influence in the local
councils of his party. Ten children were born
in the household, three of whom are living.
William. Mrs. Thomas B. Gibbs and Mrs.
Charity Washum. William had few and
meager educational opportunities. He assisted
his parents until he reached his majority, and
under the direction of his father learned the
trade of a blacksmith. In T875 ' le ^ e ^* -^' |v ~
souri for the farther west, and located near
Florissant, in Teller county, of this state,
where he homesteaded on a ranch and
while developing it freighted between
Fairplay. Leadville and Alma, continu-
ing his operations in this line, although sub-
ject to many hardships and dangers, until
1880. He then, with a part of his freighting
outfit which he had retained for the purpose,
moved overland to the vicinity of Yampa 111
Routt county, where he took up another hi >me-
stead. This comprises one hundred and twenty
acres, one hundred of which are tillable. The
ranch is pleasantly and favorably located and
responds to Mr. Bird*s systematic husbandry
with good crops of hay. grain and vegetables
His chief industry is raising an excellent quality
of hay and large numbers of first-rate cattle.
When it is remembered that his land was given
8 7 2
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
up to wild sage brush when he took hold of
it. and had not even the suggestion of a human
habitation on it. a fair idea can be had of the
enterprise and industry which he has applied
to its development from its present attractive.
comfortable and fruitful condition, and the
credit that is accorded to him as one of the
leading farmers of his neighborhood can be
easily understood. Having the distinction of
being the first blacksmith in the Yampa valley,
he has also contributed a large measure of
mechanical skill and diligence to the develop-
ment of the section and the welfare of its peo-
ple. While not particularly active in political
matters, he loyally supports the principles and
candidates of the Republican part}'. On De-
cember 22, 1854. he was united in marriage
with Miss Alary E. Wilson. ; t native of Fayette
ci >unty, Ohio. They have had ten children, and
eig'ht of them are living, Albert. Samantha.
Louis, Frank. Ulysses. Robert, Loren and Mrs.
Frederick McCoy.
A. R. MOLLFTTF.
Among the progressive law vers of tlii-- state
none is more universally esteemed than A. R.
Mollette. of Alamosa, the county attorney of
Archuleta county, who was born on March 31.
1 SoS. in Wisconsin, the son of Jacob S. and
Annie (Grandaw) Mollette. who lived for a
time in Misouri but made their home finally
in Denver, Colorado, coming to this state in
1871). Their- marriage occurred on May t.
[867, m Wisconsin. The father was a native
of Pennsylvania, and by trade a wagonmake'r
and millwright. In his younger manhood he
was a Democrat, but the Civil war made him
.1 Republican. For that memorable contest
lie enlisted in Company F, Thirty-second Wis
consin Infantry, and served to the close of the
war. lie was the father of six children, five
of whom are living. V R., George, Edward,
Mrs. F. C. Schutt and Emily, the last named
living in Nebraska, the others in this state.
A. R. Mollette is a self-educated man, earn-
ing by hard labor in the mines the money
wherewith to pay his expenses at school and
through the law department of the Denver
University, from which he was graduated with
honors and the degree of Bachelor of Laws.
For a time after his admission to the bar he
practiced in Denver, and later was associated
in practice with Ben Wade Ritter. of Durango,
the foremost lawyer in southwestern Colorado.
then moved to Pagosa Springs. Archuleta
county, where he resided until June 1, 1904.
when he removed to Alamosa. He has a large
general practice and has been connected with
some of the most important mining cases in the
state, among them the late suit of Sadie C.
Smith against the Commodore Mining Com-
pany, of Creede, involving seventy-five thou-
sand dollars damages, and in which he was
counsel with Wolcott, Vaile & Waterman, of
Denver. Fie is local attornej For the Denver &
Rio Grande Railroad and also for the Pagosa
Lumber Company in Archuleta county. For
two years he was connected with the office of
deorge D. Johnstone, district attorney for the
ninth judicial district, at Aspen, and made a
good reputation in all his official transactions.
He has one of the largest law libraries and best
appointed offices in the San Luis valley, and
in all his forensic efforts shows that he has it
for use and uses it. In [902 he was appointed
count)- attorney for Archuleta county, and to
this office he has been twice appointed since.
the last time after his removal from that county,
which speaks well for his administration of that
office. He was also city attorney of Pagosa
Springs for two years. Fraternally he is a
Mason of the Knight- Templar degree and a
Shriner. and politically an ardent Republican.
On May 13. [891, in Denver, he was married
to Mis- Ruse M. Graham, a native of Illinois
A. R. MOLLETTE
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO
873
reared in Kansas. They have two children,
their daughter Netta M. and their son Wal-
lace G.
CHARLES M. SHARPE.
In the death of this highly respected citizen
of Chaffee county, after an illness of short
duration, central Colorado lost one of its best
friends and the mining industry of the state
one of its most capable and active promoters
From the spot where his remains were buried
can be seen the three great mountain peaks,
Harvard, Yale and Princeton, whose liases he
pierced in order that their hidden wealth might
come forth to bless and brighten mankind, and
there are in the portion of the state wherein
they stand a number of other mining proper-
ties which he helped to develop with equally
beneficent results. Mr. Sharpe was horn on
Reach Hill at Sackville, New Brunswick.
Canada, on February 23, 1845. and was thrown
on his own resources at the age of twelve. At
that age he made his way to Chicago and went
to work in the wholesale hardware establish-
ment of Miller Brothers, in which he remained
eight years, working himself up from one posi
tion to another, until when he reached his legal
majority he was deemed worthy and capable
of being sent out as a traveling salesman for
the house, in which capacity he served it an-
1 >ther term of eight years. Later he started a
shears factory for himself at Belleville. Illinois,
which he conducted for a number of years. In
[879 he sold this enterprise and the next year
became a resident of Colorado, locating at
Buena Vista, where he opened the first assav
office in the town, having previously studied
chemistry and assaying. Soon after his arrival
he located "The Dandy," a mineral claim which
now forms a part of the property of the
Latchaw Mining. Tunnel & Milling Company.
on Mt. Princeton. In the fall of tSSo Mr.
Sharpe discovered here a rich vein of ore that
seemed to run downwards, and he took up the
claim and organized several companies to work
the property. In T900 the Latchaw .Mining.
Tunnel & Milling Company was organized,
with him as superintendent, and it took in all
the seventy -Mt. Princeton claims. The work of
tunneling the mountain was at once begun, and
in the superintendency of this work Mr. Sharpe
was occupied until his death. In this position
his eldest son, Charles I. N. Sharpe, has suc-
ceeded him. The property promises to lie one
of the richest in the state. In 1897 the elder
Sharpe organized the Mercur-Mercury Gold
Mining Company, buying and bonding twenty-
two claims on Mt. Yale, and served as its vice-
president and manager until death ended all his
labors. This property also holds out the
promise of a great future with large returns for
the faith and enterprise of its promoters. Mr.
Sharpe was one of the best mining men in his
section and one of its leading and most es-
teemed citizens. His sterling qualities of head
and heart, and his manhood of unbending up-
rightness, won him the respect and high re-
gard of all who knew him. It was .almost
wholly due to his persistent energy that the
mineral possibilities of the eastern slope of the
Collegiate Group have been made apparent. He
was never an active partisan in political mat-
ters, all his time being devoted to the mining
interests he had in charge. On. October 6, r868,
he was married at Belleville, Illinois, to Miss ( '..
Fredonia Lemen, a native of that state and be-
longing to one of its oldest and most prominent
families. They had five children, two of whom
died in infancy. The other three, Charles I.
X .. Edna F. L. and Grant A., are living. The
Family dwelt most of the time in the Fast and
in that section of the country the children were
educated.
Charles I. X. Sharpe was horn on March
4. 1S74. at Belleville. Illinois, and educated in
Boston, Philadelphia and St. Louis, being
8 7 4
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
graduated from a high school in the city last
named and afterward attending college. He
studied chemistry and assaying under the di-
rection of his father, and worked in the office
with him many years, occasionally going out
and doing assaying in a number of mining
camps on his own account. He located many
of the claims which form the holdings of the
two mining companies of which he is now
superintendent. Having often and abundantly
demonstrated his knowledge of the business
and his capacity to carry it on. at the death
of this father he was chosen to succeed him
and placed in charge of both the Latchaw and
the Mercur-Mercury companies. He has
filled the positions with great credit to himself
and advantage to the companies. The work of
both has progressed rapidly and successfully
under his management. Politically, like his
father, he is not an active partisan. Fraternally
he belongs to the order of Elks, holding his
membership in the lodge of the order at Lead-
ville.
JAMES J. McKENNA.
James J. McKenna, proprietor of the Mc-
Kenna Mercantile Company, one of the most
active and extensive wholesale and retail gro-
cery establishments in central Colorado, is a
native of county Cavan, Ireland, where he was
born on February 3, i860, and where he re-
mained until 1877, working at various occupa-
tions and attending the common schools as he
had opportunity. In that year, when he was
about seventeen years of age, he determined
to come to the United States, and on his ar-
rival in this country proceeded at once to Mil-
waukee, Wisconsin, where he passed a short
time as a clerk in the office of a machine shop,
and then worked a few months in the same ca-
pacity for the Western Transportation Com-
pany. In the fall of the same year he accepted
a position m the construction department of the
( ity Railway Company of Chicago, and during
the next four years was employed in building
the first cable street car lines in that city. In
October, 1881, he became a resident of Salida.
this state, and passed the next four years as
manager of the large mercantile business of
Peter Mulvaney here. In 1885 he moved to
Denver and opened a retail grocery- at Twenty-
first and Champa streets in that city, which he
conducted some seven months, then sold it and
returned to Salida, entering the employ of
Webb & Corvin, wholesale grocers, with whom
he remained about eighteen months, until they
closed out their business. In 1888 he bought
into a grocery business with W. R. Boy-d, the
firm being known as Boyd & McKenna. A feu-
months afterward they sold out and Mr. Mc-
Kenna organized the firm of Harrington & Mc-
Kenna in the same trade. This was in business
about two years, and then Moritz J. Kerndt
bought the interest of Mr. Harrington and the
firm became McKenna & Kerndt. which con-
tinued until 1895, when Mr. McKenna bought
Mr. Kerndt out and organized the McKenna
Mercantile Company, of which he is still the
active head. In 1902 the business was moved
into a new building which he had erected, which
is known as the McKenna building and is one
of the finest business houses in the city. The
upper story was specially arranged for the use
of the lodge of Elks, of which Mr. McKenna is
an enthusiastic member, and is one of the most
complete and attractive lodge homes in the
state. Mr. McKenna also belongs to the Wood-
men of the World. Politically he is an earnest
Democrat and always an active worker for his
partv, wise in direction, vigilant in observation
and effective in action.
EDWARD KREUGER.
Edward Kreuger, who is the only exclu-
sively hardware merchant of Buena Vista, and
one of its leading business men. is a native of
Germany, born in Prussia on December jo.
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
i860. He received a slender education in his
native land, and on leaving school worked
about one year in a machine shop. He then be-
gan to learn the trade of a tinner, and after
completing his apprenticeship, in 1879, at the
age of between nineteen and twenty years, de-
termined to seek a better opportunity for ad-
vancement than he had at home in the new
world. Accordingly he came to the United
States, and after working at his trade a few
months in the city of New York, came west to
Omaha. There and in other towns along the
Missouri he followed his trade for a few
months, then made a trip to old Mexico, but
not liking the country, he did not remain long.
From there he moved into southern California,
where he passed a short time, being away on his
travels about one year in all. In 1880 he came
to Colorado, and located first at Leadville, then
at the height of its boom. Not succeeding to
his wishes here, he concluded to return to
Omaha. But when he reached Buena Vista and
found it a live and busy town, he determined to
remain, and went to work here at his trade.
He was steady and industrious and saved his
earnings, wisely investing them and making
continued progress. He worked as a journey-
man tinner three years, then went into business
for himself. He has gradually increased his
trade and the volume and variety of his stock
until he now carries a complete line of hard-
ware and farming implements, and also car-
riages, crockery, wall paper and paints. By
close attention to his business and strict in-
tegrity in the management of it he has risen
to the first rank among the merchants of the
town and county and firmly established himself
in the confidence and good will of the people.
He has also been interested in real estate to a
considerable extent, and owns a large business
block in the city with stores on the ground
floor and a hall above. Fraternally he is con-
nected with the order of Odd Fellows and its
adjunct, the Daughters of Rebekah, and the
Woodmen of the World, holding membership
in lodges of these orders at Buena Vista. On
May 2, 1889, he was married at Buena Vista
to Miss Sophia Hilsinger, a native of Ger-
many. They have one child, their son Edward.
CHARLES NACHTRIEB.
The late Charles Xachtrieb. of Chaffee
county, whose home was in the neighborhood
of the village of Nathrop, where his business
career in this state mainly developed, and whose
untimely death on October 3, 1881, at the early
age of forty-eight, was a native of Germany
and came to this country in boyhood with his
brother and sister. He was born in 1833.
After his arrival in the United States he lived
for a time in Boston, then moved to Chicago,
in both places working in butcher shops. In
i860 he became a resident of California gulch
in Chaffee county, this state, and there he mined
and kept a store, it being prior to the birth of
Leadville. In 1865 he took up the ranch on
which his widow now lives and secured a right
to water from Chalk creek. This was one of
the first ranches started in that valley, and now
it is one of the best and most productive. The
next year he built a mill on the land, and from
that time to his death made the place his home,
carrying on a good ranching and cattle busi-
ness, operating the mill and keeping a store.
He also had saw mills in other places, and was
extensively engaged in business. He was a
prominent man in the community, but he never
took an active part in political contentions.
He was successful in his ventures after many
reverses and hardships, and at his death left a
considerable estate to his family. He was mar-
ried on August 20. 1871. on Brown's creek in
Lake county, to Mrs. Margaret (Tull) Ander-
son, a native of Iowa, born and reared near the
city of Burlington. She was educated in the
8 7
PROGRESSIVE MEN OF WESTERN COLORADO.
schools of that city, and remained in her native
region until she was nineteen years old, when
she was married to a Air. Anderson and with
him moved to Fort Scott, Kansas. This was
in the region wasted by the border warfare just
before the Civil war. and everybody's life was
in perpetual danger. The dwellings were built
without windows and no one opened a door
after dark through fear of being shot. While
living there Mrs. Nachtrieb saw old John
Brown and his gang in their raid through the
section, his followers camping within a mile
of her home. She endured the horrors of this
life of hazard and apprehension a year and a
half, and then the family moved to California
gulch, this state, where Mr. Anderson engaged
in mining. When they arrived in the gulch
it had a floating population of about ten thou-
sand and, like all wild mining camps, laid upon
its inhabitants heavy burdens of hardship, pri-
vation and danger. In time its boom was over
and the population shrunk to its normal size of
about five hundred, among them only nine
women. Mrs. Nachtrieb and a Mrs. Catlin, of
South Cannon, are the only ladies living who
were in the gulch in i860. From 1865 to 1871
when she was married to Mr. Nachtrieb, this
resolute and heroic woman, whose life has been
full of adventure and exciting incident, lived on
a ranch in the Arkansas valley. Since her last
husband's death she has continued to make her
home on his old ranch. She settled up his es-
tate as administratrix and became guardian of
their three children, serving as such until they
became of age. They are Charles, who is now
in Mexico, but who was for some years a
stock man in this state, his mother buying him
out in 1003 ; Josephine, a graduate of the medi-
cal department at the Michigan State Univers-
ity, and during the last four years a practicing
physician at Pueblo; and Chris, who is living
at home with his mother and looks after her
stock. She owns nearly one thousand acres of
land and is extensively engaged in raising cat-
tle. Since her husband's death she has always
leased out the mill on her place. The ranch is
located eight miles from Buena Vista, thus giv-
ing her a good market of easy access for the
products of her ranch. She is an excellent busi-
ness woman and manages her affairs with great
vigor and success, making the most of her
opportunities, and maintaining the high posi-
tion she has won in the confidence and respect
of the community.
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