William Heaton Family

William Vincent Heaton
March 28, 1852 - January 15, 1919

William was one of the first pioneers in the Rifle area arriving in July of 1883 or earlier. How early was that? August 28, 1881, was the expulsion of the Utes by the Calvary. Abram Maxfield had not settled yet as he moved his family into his cabin late September of 1883.
William's first child was born in Rifle July 29, 1883. His father came with him, but his mother had died in 1862 in Iowa.
William was born in Broad Ripple, Indiana, near Indianapolis, in 1852, to David R. and Jane (Vincent) Heaton. He grew up in Indiana moving to Iowa with his parents. He moved to Missouri and was a farmer intil coming to Colorado.
He lived at Buena Vista and Leadville then came to the western slope.
He married Emma Lucinda Reynolds December 8, 1881 in Missouri. Emma was born December 16, 1861, in Kentucky, but her parents had moved to Missouri where the farmed. Her father, James, was 39, and her mother, Lucinda, was 36 when she was born, one of ten children.
William and Emma had six children in 16 years, all born in Rifle: Earnest 1883, Jane 1885, Madge 1887, Helen 1891, Ross 1895, and Hazel 1899.
They homesteaded just a few miles north of Rifle in the lower Rifle Creek basin. Attached map shows his 160 acres, ie SW quarter of section 30..
When a school was needed, William donated the land and the school was known as the Heaton School. It was on the uphill side of the Rifle Creek road.
News clips show it being open by 1899, and that seems about right. The Heaton's themselves had a number of prospective students. An undated photo of the school shows that Janie, Earnest, Helen, and Madge were students.
Ross, born 1895, would have been their next student, but he was just 4 yrs old in 1899. Multiple news clips show the school being furnished and church and sunday school starting up, using the building in the year 1900.
A bond issue for $2000 was approved by voters in 1914 to replace the original log school. The new school opened in 1914, was on the east side of the Rifle Creek road.
News clips also called it the Heaton School, but it became known as the lower Rifle Creek School or just Rifle Creek School. The upper school would have been the Austin School just north of the Gap.
The district was consolidated into Rifle District #30 in 1920. Not sure how long it was an active school. It became a community center, is now a private residence.
The Bart Langstaff history says Bart helped William Heaton and Nate Dutton haul the first sawmill up Rifle Creek with 10 head of horses and with block and tackle. And that Jack Langstaff later bought the mill that turned out much of the lumber for building the town.
Records show William was a successful enterprising rancher and farmer, and a leading citizen.
For a number of years he was actively engaged in raising cattle, later he
devoted his attention wholly to general ranching and management of his real estate interests.
He raised hay, grain, vegetables and fruit on his 160 acres. He listed his ranch for sale like this: "160 acres, 125 acres under cultivation, on Rifle creek, four mlles from Rifle. No. 1 water right. Now
growing 2,000 peach trees, 400 apple and 25 other fruit.
William had been troubled for several years with heart trouble which finally caused his sudden demise. He passed away January 15, 1919.
Emma and her daughters Helen and Hazel then lived with her son Ross. Hazel was severely disabled.
Emma passed away February 16, 1940, in Rifle. She and William are burried at Rose Hill.

The William Heaton family at their home on lower Rifle Creek in 1902. He homesteaded in 1883, same year Abram Maxfield moved his family to his cabin in Rifle.
A guess at names L-R:
Helen, Janie, Ross, Madge, Emma holding Hazel, William, Earnest.

   Ross Heaton Obituary

  William V Heaton Obituary

 

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