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| Young, William J. Mr. Young was born in Hendricks County, Ind., January 22, 1838. When he was four years of age, his parents removed to Putnam County, of the same State, and remained until 1853, going from there to Iowa. Mr. Young worked at the carpenter trade in Iowa, and when he was nineteen years of age went back to Putnam County, Ind. He remained there two years, during which time he was married to Miss Ellen Scott, who died in Iow in 1862. He was married a second time, in 1863, soon after which he came to Colorado, locating at Central. After changing his residence from Colorado to Iowa twice, and as many times returning to this State, he finally located twelve miles north of Denver, where he engged in stock-raising. He has recently purchased a farm near the Platte, in the north part of the county, where he is preparing to engage in the raising of small fruit. Besides farming, he indulges in stock-raising, in which he has been quite successful. History of the City of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado, O. L. Baskin & Co., Historical Publishers, c. 1880, p. 651 |
| Younker, Jason T. Prominent among the few men who endured the trials and hardship of life in Colorado in the year 1858, and who have been intimately connected with the upbuilding of Arapahoe County from its first settlement in that year to the present time, is Jason T. Younker. He was born in Coshocton County, Ohio, August 28, 1833. Reared on a farm, he served out his minority in assisting to clear up and cultivate a farm in the Red Brush Hills of Ohio, with occasional short intervals allowed in the winter months for gaiining an education at the district log schoolhouse. On becoming of age, he commenced life for himself by school teaching. Next, he engaged in telegraphing, which occupation he followed for two years, being employed on various lines in Ohio and Illinois, and lastly at Dubuque, Iowa. Thence he emigrated, in the summer of 1856, to Lawrence, Kan. The border warefare then raging in that Territory, Mr. Younker found himself compelled to take sides, which he did by choosing the Free State cause, and the second night after his arrival there found him marching in the ranks of the Free State army, in pursuit of the enemy, the so-called border ruffians. On returning from the battle of Hickory Point, the Free State forces, consisting of 101 men, including the subject of this sketch, were overtaken and captured by United States troops, turned over to the opposing party, and held as prisoners of war for ten weeks, and then released. He then returned to Lawrence; and the troubles between the factions being settled, he engaged in civil pursuits until the following winter, when he sustained a loss by fire of his entire earnings. He then made a visit to his native home in Ohio, and the following spring returned to Lawrence, and, with about fifty others, fitted out with ox teams; and, on the 16th day of May, the party started for Pike's Peak to test the truth of the rumor -- chiefly among the Delaware Indians -- of gold deposits in that vicinity. Arriving on the Fountaine qui Boille, near Pike's Peak, on the 4th of July, 1858 -- on the journey across the Plains the stock of the party was stolen several times by Indians, but recovered each time -- no serious accident occurred during the six weeks' journey. At Cow Creek, the party decided to lay in a supply of buffalo meat, and a general hunt was inaugurated for the purpose, during which Mr. Younker became separated from the party and was lost four days; and, being without food or sufficient raiment, and the weather being rainy and cold, he suffered greatly. After six weeks spent in fruitless prospecting in the vicinity of Pike's Peak, the entire party went to Old Fort Massachusetts, in New Mexico, to replenish their store of provisions, prospecting en route. They had been there but a short time when news of gold discoveries at Cherry Creek and South Platte reached them, and they at once started on their return, arriving near the present site of Denver in October. The following winter was spent in prospecting, killing game to subsist upon, and in locating the town of Montana, the first town site located in the Territory. The summer of 1859 was spent in prospecting in the mountains, without success on the part of Mr. Younker or his party; and, on his return to the valley in the fall, he located a ranche on the Platte five miles from Denver, where he has lived and been engaged in farming and stock-raising until May, 1879. He then sold his ranche, and has since made his home in Denver, where he sustains a reputation for unblemished character, against which no word of censure has ever been uttered. Mr. Younker was married in his native State and county, in 1867, to Miss Annie R. Thompson, to which union four children have been born, three of whom are now living. History of the City of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado, O. L. Baskin & Co., Historical Publishers, c. 1880, p. 650-651 |