Yuma County, Colorado Photographs

Yuma County Pioneer Photographs:

"Arikaree Cowhands" c1905, Idalia.
Photograph from the Charles Zion family donated by Lee Zion.

This photograph was taken about 1905 at one of the Beecher Island Battle reunions. The young men in the photograph worked together on ranches west of Beecher on the Arikaree River. Details below the photograph.

Ralph Elliott - Ralph was born in 1883 in Iowa and came to the Idalia area in 1886 with his parents Henry and Hannah (Foidel) Elliott. They homesteaded four miles north of Idalia where Ralph grew up. In 1904 Ralph homesteaded a quarter of his own near his parents and in 1906 married Martha Armknecht. They had seven children.

The Fox brothers; John, Emmett and Bud - The Fox brothers came to the Idalia area in 1893 with their parents. The family settled on an Arikaree ranch just west of today's Road U which later became known as the Fox Brothers Ranch. See the Thomas Fox page.

John C Hughey - John was born in 1882 in Missouri and came to the Idalia area in 1888 with his mother, Elizabeth Hughey, and uncle, George Hirons. They homesteaded five miles southwest of Idalia near Friend. In 1905 John married Minnie Brinkhoff. They had three sons.

Charles Lamb - (I don't have anything on Mr. Lamb and neither did Jerry Wilcoxen. Can you provide details?)

Claude E McCoy - Claude was born in 1878 in Illinois and felt the call to cowboy in the west. After trying Missouri and Nebraska he arrived in Idalia in 1900 where he worked for the Shields, Davisson and Fox ranches as well as for Bill Pyle, the C12 ranch and others. In 1903 he married Rosetta Gerber and started the McCoy Ranch on the Arikaree north of Idalia.They had eight children.

Clark D Smith - Clark was born in 1881 in Missouri and came to the Wray area in 1887 with his parents John J and Anna (Glaze) Smith. The family homesteaded eight miles southwest of Wray. Clark grew up herding the family livestock on the open range north of Wray, spring to fall, and attending the Wray school in the winter. After graduating, and trying high school for six months, he went to work for the Bar 11 ranch west of Wray. He later worked for the C12 ranch, which ran about 1000 head on open range 30 miles southwest of Vernon. In 1905 he married Emma Alma Donovan and they homesteaded and started a ranch of their own west of Vernon. When Alma died in 1910 leaving Clark with two young children to raise, he leased his ranch and moved into Wray where he purchased the Wray Hotel and later traded it for the Buzick Mercantile. In 1911 he married a young widow, Belle (Weaver) Walkup, who had three children of her own. In the course of his business career, he operated the Wray Hotel, the general store, the Ford Garage, a loan company and owned the McCloud Hotel in Denver as well continuing to own extensive farm and ranch land.

Charles A Zion - Charlie was born in 1879 in Iowa and after a stop in Nebraska from 1882-1893, came to the Vernon area with his parents, Joseph and Anna (Sterrett) Zion. Joseph homesteaded eight miles southwest of Vernon. Charlie attended the Mt. Hope school and after he graduated went to work for the Yount family digging wells and tending livestock on the Landsman and Arikaree. He later worked as a cowboy for William Pyle and Henry Vogel. In 1903 Charlie homesteaded a quarter of his own on the Copper Kettle near the McCoy Ranch. In 1912 he married Mary K "Mae" Willoughby, they had ten children, eight of whom survived. In the late 1920s the family moved two miles north to the Johnson place to be closer to the Mt Pleasant school.

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This page is maintained and copyrighted by Lee Zion.