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GARFIELD
COUNTY, COGENWEB PROJECT
George Clarkson was one of Rifle's early pioneers and
became a notable businessman.
This is his brief biography.
Should first distinguish this is
not George Clark of the Winchester Hotel. The two Georges were contemporaries
with similar history and names, and it appears some newspaper accounts mixed
them up.
George E. Clarkson was born November 19, 1851 in Maryland. He
married Anna Lee Fulcher in Rifle September 16, 1895.. She was born in Iowa
January 3, 1868. When they married, she was 26 and George was 43. They had one
child during their marriage, a daughter Dora.
Did not find how George came to
Colorado. Anna came by wagon train when she was 4 years old. She was the
youngest child and her and a sister would ride their horses exploring along the
way.
George was first a rancher and bought and sold a lot of cattle. In
October 1892, he sold his ranch in south Rifle to Andy Wiseman.
In 1892, he
was a saloon keeper with a bar in the Winchester Hotel. It was in that year he
had a serious accident in Glenwood Springs. Runnimg to catch a departing train,
he fell between the platform and train and was knocked unconscious. He
fortunately avoided being run over and only broke his collarbone.
By 1893,
George was deputy road overseer for the Rifle district.
By 1896, George had
built and owned business buildings on 3rd street because he leased them out.
In May, 1899, George built a brick business building and opened a dry goods
store. Photos show his business as the second lot east of McLearn, or just east
of where the Rifle Pharmacy would be.
By March 1900, George had another
ranch, this on Beaver Creek, because he leased it to a Mr Wolf.
In November
1900, George partnered with Fred Munro who opened Munro Mercantile. A photo of
the two men and others is included here in front of that store.
In 1902,
Munro branched out opening a store in Parachute, and George owned one third of
that business.
Also in 1902, when the big Rifle fire happened, George lost
his livery stable which was about where the Sanitarium was soon built. It was
leased to JJ Claussen, and was insured.
A map of the town at that time shows
George as owner of all of the north side of 3rd in the up and coming business
district. Not sure that map was correct.
In 1908 he was a director of
Garfield County State Bank in Grand Valley.
In 1909 he was selling fine wines
and liquor. That probably did not last as Rifle wenr local option on prohibition
in 1910.
In 1914, George won contracts for mail routes to Meeker. A few years
latet, a news article reported tons of mail backed up because of bad weather.
December 1916, he won multiple oil shale mining claims, but no business was
developed.
In 1917 he was Manager of the newspaper, the Telegram Publishing
Company. The two papers had merged and had been renamed the Telegram-Reveille.
In 1920 he sold the newspaper to Jack Dinsmore who I think ran it for many
years. George's daugjter Dora had been the newspaper editor.
There is a 1918
advertisement where Clarkson and Munro have a shared company "The Rifle
Investment and Realty Company." However, the two were partners in this since
about 1900 when they bought 40 acres of the Meeney homestead and subdivided it
into the Clarkson & Munro Addition.
In 1919, George bought the Rifle Pharmacy
and became manager.
In 1920, George was President of "Rifle Ice and Storage
Company." Also in 1920, he was a member of the Rifle Board of Trustees.
George passed away May 24, 1924. Anna passed away November 11, 1959. Both are
burried at Rose Hill.
Settling his estate must had been a challenge.
The men from left to right: Fred Munro, J. Page Munro,
Jack Richards, George Clarkson, then George's dog.
At this time, George probably owned the pharmacy and had
his dry goods store next door. BTW Andy Wiseman built the pharmacy as his
restaurant years earlier.
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