Donated January 2002
Transcribed by Judy Crook from the book:
Progressive Men of Western Colorado
Published 1905, A.W. Bowen & Co., Chicago, Ill.
Zachariah Bertholf
One of the original pioneers of Mesa county, 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
modern husbandry and fertile through careful industry and persistent effort,
succeeded in both aspirations, finding his wife restored to vigor and good
spirits by the healing air of the section and his own condition in life well
provided for in a worldly way and secure in public esteem. He was a native of
Indiana, born in 1837, and the son of Andrew H. and Electra (Macumber) Bertholf,
whose history is given at some length in the sketch of his brother, John M.
Bertholf, to be found elsewhere in this work. Mr. Bertholf remained at home
until he attained his legal majority, receiving a district 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 county 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-applied 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 privation and hazard,
and he met and overcame them with a manly and self-reliant spirit, as his
ancestors had done elsewhere in this country from time to time where they were
pioneers. He was married, in 1858, to Miss Melissa Carrothers, of Indiana, where
the marriage occurred, and their union was blessed with 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 another 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 he 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 occasion 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, but alone and with no guards but themselves; thus showing the
true spirit of the pioneers, which is ever undaunted 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.
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 and Mary (Henry) Blair, were also
natives of that state and of Scotch ancestry. The father died at Centerville,
Michigan, in 1885, at the age of eighty-five, and the mother in 1891 at the same
age. At nine years old the 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, owning 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
discharged, 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 railroads. 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 occupied in raising stock. In 1895 he sold out this business and bought
the store which he now conducts and which is carried on with enterprise and
vigor, having a large stock of general 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 Republican, 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.
Joseph Bogue [includes his photograph]
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 commercial
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 thoroughly 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, 1860, in Warren county, Iowa, and is the son of Josiah and Parmelia
(Cox) Bogue, natives of Terre Haute, Indiana. After their marriage they moved to
Iowa, and the father died in Colorado in 1897, at the age of sixty-four. The
mother is now living in Pitkin 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 residence 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 handled 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 1884 Mr. Bogue was
married to Miss Lucinda Pritchett, and they are the parents of five children,
Jasper, Alva, Velma, Pearl and Venie. He is a leading and representative 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 member of Rhone Creek Lodge, No.
125, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Debeque, while he also belongs to the
Woodmen of the World at Debeque and the Masonic lodge at Mesa.
William Briggs
Although now a prosperous and progressive 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 his early training was somewhat in a similar line, he
having been born and reared on a farm in Chautauqua county, New York. His life
began on November 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
farmers 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
during 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 conductor 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 superior fruit from the place, and each year the
product of his orchard increases. On February 13, 1889, he was united in
marriage with Miss Bertha Blaser, a native of Switzerland born on August 27,
1865. She is the daughter 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
children 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 Workmen and is a
zealous follower of the political fortunes of the Republican party. He is
prosperous 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.
Isaac Canfield
It will stand forever to the credit of Isaac Canfield, of the Plateau valley,
Mesa county, that 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 country, beneath the soil of Colorado, to whose people he thereby gave a new
industry of incalculable value ready for their enterprise in development. Mr.
Canfield was born in Livingston county, New York, on October 11, 1839, and is
the son of Ira and Elizabeth (Consolus) 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 1860, 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 successful. In 1871 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 distinguished man. There father and son engaged 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 suspend. Their operations were extensive and profitable, the output of the mine being sufficient to require the employment of over one hundred men. The coal was shipped to Denver, and from there to other places as required. The father died in Florence, this state. Having 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 comprises 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, Ione, died in infancy. All of the living children are at home and they have practical charge of the ranch and its interests. Politically Mr. Canfield is a Republican, and while living in Boulder county he was elected to the lower house of the first state legislature in 1876. He has always been a native 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.
Harry M. Cannon
Harry M. Cannon, one of the most extensive and successful fruit-growers of
western Colorado, whose fine farm of forty-five acres, with about thirty-six in
choice fruit trees, 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 been foreman of a planing mill there throughout his mature
life. His wife died in 1865, when her son Harry was but two months old. They had
a family of six children, all of whom are dead but Harry and one of his
brothers. After the former left school he worked at cigar making for some time,
then ran a dairy and farmed for eight years in Indiana. In September, 1901, he
came to Colorado and settled in Mesa county. Here for a year 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 trees 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 year (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 reading have indicated as necessary for
the best results in his work. Among these is a two-and-a-half-horsepower
gasoline engine for spraying. On May 28, 1888, he united in marriage with Miss
Katie Pefferkorne, a native of Ohio, born on August 2, 1867, the daughter of
Chriss [sic] and Helen (Bruner) Pefferkorne. Three children have blessed and
brightened his household, Walter T., Harry F. and Ruth E., all of whom are
living at home. Mr. Cannon always finds a ready market for his fruit as it is
always first class and has a high reputation where it is known. He takes an
earnest interest in the development of the county and every undertaking for the
lasting good of its people. In politics he is a Republican.
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 industries 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 1860 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 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 energies to Grand valley and there took up a
pre-emption claim of one hundred and sixty acres, on 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 children,
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 influential voice in reference to all local
matters of importance. He is generally respected and has many warm friends.
William S. Cook
The childhood of William S. Cook, a prosperous ranchman of the Plateau valley,
Mesa county, this state, living about two miles north of the village of
Collbran, was darkened by the shadow of bereavement in the death of his mother
when he was but nine years old; and portions of his later life were oppressed by
poverty and apparently unremunerative toil, with their incident hardships and
privations. But now, through his unconquerable energy and his unvarying
frugality and thrift, he is well fixed in a worldly way, and can look back with
composure over the storms and trials through which he has passed. He was born in
Benton county, Missouri, March 25, 1852, and is the son of George E. and Mary A.
(Matthews) Cook, the former a native of Rhode Island and the latter of England.
The father migrated to Iowa in his youth, and later to Missouri. In 1857 he
moved his family to Kansas, where his wife died in 1861, aged about 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 of by his son. William S.
Cook remained at his home in Kansas until he reached the age of nineteen,
securing a meager education in the public schools and earning his own living for
some years at various occupations. At the age of nineteen he came to this state
and located in Douglas county, having at the time, as the sum of his earthly
possessions, the clothing he wore and ten cents in money. He remained in Douglas
county ten years employed in riding the range and herding cattle. On October 2,
1882, he landed in Grand valley, Mesa county, and two years later took up his
residence in Plateau valley on the ranch which is his present home. Since that
time he has been a resident of this section and has been actively engaged in
developing a profitable farming and stock business and in his way promoting the
general growth and progress of the community in which he lives. He was married
in 1879 to Miss Ida Jones, a native of Douglas county, Colorado. Eight children
have blessed their union, of whom six are living, Madge, Lena, Flora, William
S., Jr., James and Albert B. Those deceased are Maud, who died in 1881, and John
who died in 1898.
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, pleasantly located on an excellent ranch four miles
northeast of Grand Junction, is well qualified for his business and is making a
gratifying success 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,
leaving 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 the age of sixty-four years. George began his education in
the public schools of Pennsylvania and completed 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 married 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 exhausting. 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 independence and
self-reliance it engendered and developed in him.
William Ditman
William Ditman, of near Mesa, Mesa county, one of the commissioners of the
county who is rendering to the people valuable and appreciated service in the
office to which they chose him, and whose past life has been a succession of
trials and triumphs in which he has made his way by his own pluck and capacity,
is a native of Erie county, Pennsylvania, born 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 children, 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, whereupon
young Ditman enlisted in the regular United States army as a member of the
Nineteenth Infantry, for a term of three years, serving till the close of the
Civil war and afterward 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 1869 he went to California, 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 saw milling and continued his work in
this line for eight years. He then turned his attention to ranching and raising
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 and 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. Ditman 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 he 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, No. 55, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Grand Junction, now
retaining his Masonic membership 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.
Robert Eaton
Robert Eaton, one of the leading businessmen 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 his 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 his 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 together. 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 he
grew to the age of twenty and received a fair district-school education. In 1870
he came to Colorado, and 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 he 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, and was engaged in mining in that prolific
region until 1885. At that time he returned to the creek and went into the
cattle business for awhile, then moved again to Leadville, and 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 always
ready to meet the demands of an exacting 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.
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 zealous in the development
of the section and the promotion of the general welfare of its inhabitants. He
is a native of Canada, born in 1840 in Glengarry county, province of Ontario,
and is the son of Hugh and Margaret (Ross) Fitzpatrick, also natives of the
Dominion, 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 majority he came to the
United States and settled in Wisconsin where he was employed in lumbering 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 and located at Denver. In 1880 he removed to Buena Vista, where
he kept a hotel for two years. In 1882 he settled on his present ranch, and some
time later started the livery and feed business he is now conducting at
Collbran. He has business capacity and enterprise, and has prospered in all his
undertakings. 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 T., Nellie, Lloyd, Milton, Lillie and
Ruby. In business circles, in social life and in the public affairs of the
community Mr. Fitzpatrick is an important and influential man, and he is worthy
of his place.
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, and is the son of
William and 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
circumstances permitted. At the age of twenty-two, their son who is the
immediate subject of this writing, having learned his trade at Elizabethtown,
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
Junction, where he was engaged in the hotel business over 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, inaugurating it in 1899. The venture has been more successful
than they expected, and they entered on it with good hopes of profit; but 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
married 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
deserved to be, being one of the leading men of his section.
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 father 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 Arkansas, 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 triumphs in
their behalf. John T. passed his boyhood 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 Confederate 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 an
uncompromising Democrat. He was the chief inspiration in the construction of the
Independent Ranchmen's Ditch through this section.
George Gibson
In the veins of George Gibson, of Mesa county, who constructed and now owns and
operates a saw-mill near Plateau City, the blood of the southern cavalier of
this country mingles with that of the sturdy Scotch Highlander, 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 became acquainted and were married, and there their son George, who was the
fourth of their eight children, was born in 1864. In 1882 the family moved to
Kansas, where both parents died in 1898. George was eighteen years old when he
became a resident of Kansas, and although before that event for about two years
he had been shifting for himself, he accompanied 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 prepared
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 resided, prominently connected with its
development and deeply interested in a practical and leading way in its enduring
welfare. In this part of the state he first located near the village of Vega,
and there for some years carried on a flourishing business as a rancher and
stock-grower. Later he moved to that vicinity of Plateau City and built a
saw-mill which he has since been operating greatly to the advantage of the
community and his own profit, through it furnishing a much-needed commodity for
multitudinous uses in the surrounding country, and reaping the rewards of his
enterprise in a large and expanding patronage. While neither ostentatious nor
self-asserting, he bears an important part in the public life of his section,
and is highly esteemed as a citizen of lofty tone, breadth of view and
progressive ideas.
Cornelius M. Guiney
Cornelius M. Guiney, of Debeque, Mesa county, foreman of the water service there
for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, is a native of Canada, born in 1859, 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 he died in 1900. The son was reared from childhood
to the age of twenty-one in Pennsylvania, and received a district school
education 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 years was engaged in mining at Leadville. From there he changed his
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 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 Colorado and went into the service of the Denver & Rio Grande
Railroad at Pueblo, and following his engagement with the company at that point
he became its foreman of the water service at Debeque, Mesa county. Since
locating here he has acquired some property in the neighborhood, one piece of
especial value being a prolific orchard not far from the village. One of his
brothers was in active service during the Spanish-American war, and was shot in
the knee at the battle of San Juan Hill. He is now in the Philippines in the
military service of the United States government. Mr. Guiney was married in 18??
to Miss Mary 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 Mr. Guiney
has risen to consequence and public esteem, and is regarded as a worthy man in
every way.
D.C. Hawthorne
D.C. Hawthorne, of Mesa county, this state, living on a fine and fruitful ranch
located about half a mile west of Palisades, who has contributed materially to
the development and improvement of the fruit industry in western Colorado, is a
New Englander by nativity, born in Windsor county, Vermont, on March 22, 1826.
His parents were Collins and Rosamond (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 1848, 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 his arrival at Oregon City in the fall of 1852 he joined a
government surveying party, but soon after began surveying for himself and
continued 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 employment 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 business for 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 bearing
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, but 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 born two
children, A. Hapgood, who died in Kansas in 1881, and Rosamond F., a resident of
Boston, Massachusetts. In August, 1882, Mr. Hawthorne married a second wife,
Mrs. Celia C. Short, who still abides with him. In political faith he is an
active and zealous Republican, and in fraternal life was for a number 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.
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, without roads, ditches, dwellings or other
conveniences 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, 1839, 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 Hendersons,
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 opportunities 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
York, 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 Cavalry, and was assigned soon
afterward to the Army of the Potomac, joining General Burnside'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 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 advantage 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 regular 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. Henderson went with him and served two years longer as his
clerk. In the spring of 1876, in company with two other men, he left Wichita,
Kansas, in a spring wagon, for Colorado, 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 12, 1882. What is now
that thriving and busy little city then consisted 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 resident of
Grand valley, was the proprietor of one. The same year he pre-empted a claim of
one 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 neighborhood. On
November 24, 1891, he was married 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 1860. 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.
Edward Henry
Almost every clime and tongue on the face of the globe has contributed to the
growth and development of this country, all in fact except the benighted savages
of several parts of the world which are still under the dominion of absolute
barbarism. Edward Henry, a prosperous and enterprising stock-grower and farmer
of Mesa county, living seven miles northwest of Grand Junction, is a
contribution from Persia, where he was born in 1843. He is the son of Frederick
and Eliza Henry, of that country, who were occupied there in tilling the soil.
In 1851 they emigrated to the United States and settled at Sheboygan, Wisconsin,
where the father was engaged in farming until his death, in 1891, at the age of
seventy-four. The mother died three years before 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 Wisconsin. 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, remaining 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 interests of his adopted land.
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
Carolina, born 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 he was connected had a great deal of trouble with them, a number of men in
the outfit being killed and wounded. He remained in Lassen county, California,
until 1860 engaged 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 country 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 more 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 cattle. This forced him to move again and he purchased the place he
now occupies, comprising about fifteen acres of land
and devoted to raising apples. He has been successful in this enterprise, the
soil and other conditions being well adapted to the business, and has secured a
good rank among the producers of choice fruit in this part of the country. He
has also been active and serviceable in aiding the development 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 dispensing the
generous hospitality for which it is widely known.
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 January 15, 1859, and the son of James and Sarah (Lee) Howard, also
natives of that state. The father was a gunsmith, and in 1860 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 household, 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
short sojourn in Texas, he came to Colorado in the spring of 1874 and located at
Georgetown, where he followed prospecting and mining 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 industriously with varying success, after which he
prospected and leased in that vicinity and the adjoining county until the slump
in silver came in 1893. 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 improvements 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 1903, 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 bearing 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 Catherine (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
Fulton county, Ohio, where the father was a merchant for a number of years. In
1875 they 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. Vernier, 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 fives
miles northeast of Grand Junction, Fred C. Jaquette has many monuments to his
skill and enterprise, and has been able to contribute most essentially and
valuably to the growth and development of the state and the comfort and
enjoyment of its people. He is a native of Jackson county, Michigan, born on
September 19, 1858, and the son of Samuel and Abigail (King) Jaquette, the
former born in Pennsylvania and the latter in the state of New York. They were
both reared in New York and they were married there. Soon afterward they moved
to Jackson county, Michigan, where the father followed farming. In 1859 he
started for Pike'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 prospecting, 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 fruits of 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 disability
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, Michigan, where he was
graduated in 1879, after which he took a full course at he Albion Business
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 of 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 dollars 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 hundred and twenty acres one mile north of his present
residence, and this tract will be valuable 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 thousand five hundred boxes of apples, and in
1904, two thousand boxes of apples and seven thousand boxes of peaches. In
January, 1882, he was married to Miss Clara L. Manning, a native of Auburn, New
York, and three children have blessed 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.
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 contest and receiving a number of wounds,
Ezra E. Jaynes has performed with fidelity and zeal most of the duties of
citizenship which ordinarily 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 township, Franklin county, Vermont, on June
25, 1834, 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 country in early
colonial times, and have been conspicuous 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
born 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 that age at once
moved to Delaware county, Ohio, where he taught school two years. He was then
clerk for Williams, Andrews & Company, of that county, part of the time working
in a bank and part in the paper mills belonging to the company. Early in 1854 he
moved to Chicago, 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 assistant 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, 1861, enlisted in the Union army as a member of Company F, First
Wisconsin Infantry. Prior to this he had belonged to the Home Guards. The
company took a vote on joining the Federal army on April 18th, and the next day
went to Madison and were mustered into the service in a body. Mr. 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 General Butler's brigade and sent
to Ship island, off the coast of Mississippi. The command was embarked at New
York city on January 17, 1862, with three thousand five hundred men on board,
one thousand of them cavalry. They were on the water thirty-one days, which Mr.
Jaynes says was the longest period of that length he ever experienced. During
the trip six deaths occurred on the steamer, the bodies being thrown overboard.
The passage was rough and stormy all the way through. Later the regiment was
transferred 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 office in the New Orleans custom house. He was then assigned to
recruiting service and recruited some eight hundred men for the service. After
that he returned to his regiment and did service in the field. During this
period he was on the Opelousas Railroad and aided in fighting for every foot of
the advance from Algiers to Alexandra. He marched with his command to Alexandra
although he had been slightly wounded just before reaching the salt works,
having a portion of his right knee cap shot away. During this march they drove
General Dick Taylor's army before them. They went down the river to Baton Rouge
and marched up the country to Port Hudson, having considerable fighting on the
way. Port Hudson was invested on May 27, 1863, and the fighting continued about
a month. On June 14th, Mr. Jaynes was short through the right shoulder, the ball
coming out at the side. This occurred early on Sunday morning, and he was left
in the field as dead until Sunday night, when he received assistance, having in
the meantime nearly bled to death. He was then taken fourteen miles over a
corduroy road and sent on a boat to New Orleans, reaching a hospital there on
June 24th, ten days after being wounded without having his wound dressed. This
was in a frightful condition, very sore and full of maggots, and it was wholly
due to his remarkable vitality that he lived and had a wonderful recovery. He
left the hospital on November 24th on a furlough to Vermont, and without money
or sufficient clothing. At the end of ninety days thereafter, although his
wounds were not entirely healed, he took a boat at New York and rejoined his
regiment at New Orleans. About four weeks later in a skirmish of the Opelousas
Railroad he was shot through the right thigh, receiving a flesh wounded. [sic]
Soon afterward he was detailed as hospital steward and a little while later was
transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps. In May, 1864, he went with his
regiment to New York and from there was sent to Virginia, where he had his last
engagement in front of Petersburg. Here he was again shot through the right
thigh about two inches above his former wound in that limb. He was then again
transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps, from which he was mustered out of the
service at Brattleboro, Vermont, on March 24, 1865. After making a short visit
to his old Vermont home he moved to Will county, Illinois, where he rented two
hundred and forty acres of land and engaged in farming. Four years later he
bought one hundred and sixty acres of unbroken prairie in that county, and
proceeded to improve it, making a fine farm out of it and enriching it with good
buildings. In 1891 he rented this to a tenant, and having twelve thousand
dollars in cash, came to Colorado and purchased ten acres of land on Fruit Ridge
in Mesa county. This was fenced and had one acre of orchard trees. He planted
more and made other improvements until the place is now one of the finest and
most productive in the valley. It belongs to his son, who bought it some years
ago at one thousand dollars per acre. He also sold his Illinois farm in 1896.
Since 1902 Mr. Jaynes the elder has lived retired at Grand Junction, making
judicious investments of his savings in real estate in the valley, where he owns
more than one thousand acres of excellent land. He was married on March 12,
1870, to Miss Mary A. Klingler, a native of Pennsylvania, daughter of Elias and
Sarah (Moyer) Klingler, also natives of that state, who settled in Will county,
Illinois, in 1867. The Klinglers are of German descent but have been in the
United States several generations. Mr. Jaynes' father died in Will county,
Illinois, in 1902, at the age of eighty-two, leaving an estate worth over fifty
thousand dollars. The mother is still living there and is now past eighty. Mr.
and Mrs. Jaynes have five children, Lester E., Oscar W., Chester E., Edith E.
(wife of W.H. Borschell), and Alfred T. Oscar W. is principal of the schools at
Monee, Illinois. The other children are all residents of Mesa county, this
state. Mr. Jaynes is an ardent Republican in politics, and an active and
esteemed member of the Grand Army of the Republic.
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-conquering energy of the German people, who wherever 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, and 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 1860 to 1864, and fought in the
war between 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
seventeen, 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. They 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 unimproved except by a
rude sod house. Here he lived and labored, bringing his land to productiveness
and otherwise improving the property 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, leaving his Nebraska farm in
charge of a tenant. In 1902 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, he was married to Miss Lena Schoening, like himself a native of
Germany. She came to the United States with her parents when she was nine years
old, and they soon afterward became residents of Sherman 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
pronounced Populist, and in fraternal circles he belongs to the Modern Woodmen
of America at Grand Junction. He and his wife are members of the Lutheran
church.
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 energies to the development and
improvement of the country, aiding in its growth, helping to multiply and expand
its agricultural and commercial wealth, increase its population and bring its
resources to fruitfulness and the knowledge of the active markets of the
country. He is the son of H.H. 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, this state, and they are still highly respected
citizens of that growing and promising city. Their son John was seven years old
when they moved to Colorado, and his life has been wholly passed in the state
since that time. He remained 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 counties for a number of years. Their enterprise
has greatly extended the acreage devoted to cereals and thereby largely
increased their production in this region. They have also been diligent and
energetic in helping to provide the means of irrigation for the community,
together 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.
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 born at Quebec, Canada, on June 10, 1849, and is the son of
Raney and Kate (Younger) Libbey, 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 extended his education in the rugged but thorough school of
experience. By proving himself 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, Kennebec and Augusta, that state, then came
west to Alpena, Michigan, where for five years he worked as a teamster, hauling
supplies to lumber 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 he went to 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 adventure still possessing
him, he then made a prospecting tour into the Stinking River country 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 elsewhere in this work), but in the meantime he 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 himself 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
industry and with earnestness and breadth of view helping to build up and
develop the country around him. In politics he is a stanch Republican and in
fraternal circles a member of the Odd Fellows' lodge at Collbran. On December
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 J. Lumsden
The oldest, most extensive and most prominent builder and contractor at Grand
Junction now and for a number of years, and having erected many of the most
notable structures in the city and county, John J. Lumsden may be said to have
an enduring monument 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 which his lot
has been cast. He is a native of New York city, born on December 25, 1858, 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 afterwards he and his family moved to Canada where he engaged in farming.
He died in that country in 1903, and his widow now lives in New 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
sixteen 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 and building on a large scale.
In 1883 they moved to Grand Junction and made that place the seat of their
extensive operations. This partnership 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 purposes, the
business of the town being nearly all on Colorado avenue. Among the large and
imposing structures he has erected under contract may be mentioned the beet
sugar factory, which cost one hundred and twenty-five thousand 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
business 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 Hinsdale county. He was married on October 9, 1883, to Miss
Cinderella C. Orth, who was born 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. Lumsden have three children, Della 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 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 faithful, zealous and serviceable. Among the builders
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.
January 2002
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