MOFFAT COUNTY, COLORADO GENWEB PROJECT
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Extracted
from "Progressive
Men of Western Colorado" generously donated by the 'Museum of Northwest
Colorado', email musnwco@cmn.net
Transcribed by Shelley Barnes shellbbco@prodigy.net |
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NAME
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BIOGRAPHY
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INNMAN, Irwin I. | After receiving a good education in the common and high schools of Illinois and attending an excellent academy in that state, Irwin I. Innman, of Routt county, this state, came west and for a number of years was employed in the hazardous occupation of a fireman at Denver and Leadville, in which he gained vigor of frame and flexibility of function, combining as the result of his training in this trying field of heroic effort alertness of mind, force of nerve, suppleness of body and readiness in action. These qualities have been of great service in his subsequent career as a ranch and stock man and proprietor of a leading livery business. Mr. Innman came into the world March 26, 1868, in Union county, Illinois, the son of Murphy M. and Martha F. (McCurddy) Innman, natives of Georgia who moved to Illinois in early life. The father prospered as a carpenter and farmer in that state until advancing age obliged him to retire from active pursuits, and he is now living in St. Louis, Missouri. The mother died on November 14, 1903. Ten children were born to them, of whom five are living, Mollie J., Elizabeth F., Emma F., Zora and Georgia having died at various ages. The living children are Ira F., David H., Murphy M., Iva C. and Irwin I. The last named grew to manhood on the paternal homestead in his native state, and there learned the business of farming thoroughly under favorable circumstances. He attended the public schools in the neighborhood of his home, was graduated at a high school, and afterward passed several terms at Union Academy in his home county. In 1887 he started out to seek his fortune in the farther West, and coming to Colorado located at Denver, where he became a member of the city fire department. In this branch of the public service he did good work for a period of eight years, part of the time as a private and the rest as captain. In 1896 he was sent to Leadville to re-organize the fire department there, and when the re-organization was completed he was placed at the head of the department as chief, he having also been the purchasing agent of a new outfit for the service. He held the position of chief four years, then resigning in 1900, he moved to Routt county and, in partnership with Dr. J. H. Cole, engaged in raising cattle for two years. At the end of that period he sold his interests to his partner and bought the Thomas E. Ferguson ranch on Williams's fork, which comprised two hundred acres at that time. After greatly improving the place and bringing it to an advanced state of productiveness he traded it in May, 1904, for the livery business owned by E. B. Thompson of Craig. To this enterprise he has since given his attention with good results, building up a large and increasing trade and equipping his stables with every needed appliance for a first class business. Politically Mr. Innman is a Republican in national affairs and fraternally he is a member of the Masonic order. He was married on March 20, 1894, to Miss Maud A. Hodson, a native of Wichita, Kansas. They have had four children, of whom two died in infancy and Raynetta S. and Adella are living. Mr. Innman has made good use of his opportunities in this state and has prospered in all undertakings. He is a well esteemed and influential citizen, wise in counsel and vigorous in action for the general food of the community in which he lives. |
JARVIS, John T. |
Mr. Jarvis belongs to an old and highly respected family, and was born in Doddridge county, in what is now West Virginia, on October 8, 1849. His parents were Granville D. and Sarah M. (Chapman) Jarvis, both natives of Virginia and belonging to families long resident in that state. IN 1852 they moved to Missouri and located in Knox county, where they farmed with success and profit to the end of their lives. They had eleven children, and of these seven are living, Mrs. Louisa Brunick, John T., Mrs. Virginia Burk, Mrs. Angeline Houghtaling, Frank, Mrs. Laura Sanders and Edward. Three of the others died in infancy and Mrs. Margaret Brunick in 1898. Their son John T. received a common-school education and learned habits of useful industry and frugality on the paternal homestead, remaining with his parents until he reached his twenty-fourth year. He then turned his attention to mining, going to California and locating for the purpose on the Middle fork of the American river. He followed mining and prospecting in that state from 1880 to 1886, with the too frequent luck of the men engaged in these enticing but uncertain pursuits, securing nothing of value for his labors. In the year last named he moved to Leadville, this state, and here he met with better success both in mining for wages and working leased properties. In 1891 he determined to devote his time and energies to ranching, and with this purpose in view moved to his present location on Williams fork,, where he pre-empted one claim and homesteaded another, securing in all two hundred and eighty acres. He also owns a one- fifth interest in forty acres of bituminous coal land. His ranch yields abundantly of the usual farm products, buy his main reliance is raising cattle. He takes an active and helpful interest in public and local affairs, withholding his support from no worthy enterprise in which the general welfare of his community is involved. In political matters he supports the Democratic party with ardor and stands high in the counsels of his party. On May 8, 1902, he was joined in marriage with Mrs. John Kellogg, a widow whose maiden name was Susan Peirson, a native of Tompkins county, New York, and a daughter of Albert and Julia A. (Rhodes) Peirson, the former born in Orange county, New York, and the latter in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania. In their early married life they became residents of Illinois, locating at Harvard Junction, McHenry county. There the father, a prosperous farmer and an earnest Republican, died in 1874. At present the mother, who is past ninety-one years old, makes her home in Yellow Medicine county, Minnesota. They had thirteen children, eight of whom are living. Mrs. William H. Bowen, Schuyler J., James A., Mrs. Jarvis, Frank S., John M., William P. and Mrs. George W. Conn. Three died in infancy and Hattie E. and John in later life. Mrs. Jarvis owns three hundred and twenty acres of land on Deer creek and also has a homestead in another place--four hundred and eight acres of good land in all. Both Mr. and Mrs. Jarvis are highly respected and have wide and wholesome influence throughout all the country surrounding them. |
JOHNSON, Albert T. |
Albert T. Johnson, of near Pagoda, Routt county, is a younger brother of Louis J. Johnson, of the same neighborhood, a sketch of whom will be found on another page of this work in which the family history is told at some length. Mr. Johnson was born at Central City, this state, on October 29, 1870, and received a slender education in the public schools of that vicinity. At the age of fourteen he began to support himself by hauling ore for the Alger-Kansas Mining Company at Central City, in which his father had an interest. After something more than a year of this arduous toil, which was particularly hard for a boy of his years, he moved to Williams fork and homesteaded on his present ranch of one hundred and sixty acres, being among the earliest settlers of the region. Taking hold of the wild land with vigor and accepting the privations of the far frontier with courage and cheerfulness, he soon had a comfortable abode and began to enjoy the fruits of a few pliant acres which he was cultivating. At this time (1904) he has a large body of his ranch in abundant productiveness and a wide range of grazing land for his cattle. He has been and is very enterprising and progressive, and has commanded the land to yield its tribute to him with the voice of a master, and although the response was grudging and small at first his energy and mastery have prevailed and it is generous and of elevated quality at present. In the fraternal life of the community Mr. Johnson mingles as a member of the Woodmen of the World and in its political activities as an earnest working Democrat. He was married on May 3, 1904, to Miss Margaret Moller, a native of Denver, and at the time of her marriage a public school teacher at Pyramid, where she had been teaching four years. |
JOHNSON, Louis A. |
Inheriting from his father a love of adventure and a desire for the frontier, Louis A. Johnson, of Routt county, living near Pagoda, started out early in life to paddle his own canoe, and to this end sought the fruitful fields of Colorado, arriving in the state when he was but fourteen years old, since which time he has been a resident of the state and busily occupied in some one or another of its various industries. He was born o April 19, 1860, at Nebraska City, Nebraska, and is the son of Anton L. and Annie Johnson, who were born and reared in Germany and emigrated to the Untied States in 1846. They settled in Nebraska where they kept a hotel three years. In 1850, charmed with the golden music then thrilling the world from far away California, the father set out with ox teams for that promising eldorado, and after arriving there engaged in mining for a few years. He was very successful in his search for gold and returned East where he had property and had left his family. He remained in Nebraska until 1860 when he had a second attack of western fever and again crossed the plains from Julesburg along the Platte to Central City this state. He soon acquired an interest in the Alger-Kansas mine there and again fortune rewarded his enterprise with good returns. The mine was of both quartz and placer product and yielded rich stores of the precious metals to its early workers. Subsequently his family followed him to the state and he made his final home at Denver where he achieved a gratifying success in lending money and in the real estate business and attained prominence in the business and political circles of the city. He died in Denver on March 2, 1903, and since then the mother has made her home with her sons. Of their six children five are living, John H. and Louis J., who were born in Nebraska, and Lena N., Mrs. C. F. Ergy and Albert T., natives of Colorado. Louis J. received a meager education in the common schools, and at the age of ten became self-supporting by working for his mother on the Nebraska farm. In 1874, when he was buy fourteen, he followed his father to Central City, this state, and there he found employment hauling ore for the Alger-Kansas Mining Company, which he did until 1884. Determined then to turn his attention to ranching, he moved to Routt county and stopped on Williams fork, at that time a wholly uncultivated region, with stores of agricultural wealth in its soil waiting for the persuasive hand of the husbandman to bring them forth. Mr. Johnson was one of the first seven arrivals in the region, but he did not just then remain. After passing some time in hunting and trapping large game, in which he was very successful, he returned to Central City in the spring of 1885, and during a year thereafter he mined for wages. In the summer of 1886 he returned to Williams fork and took up his present ranch as a homestead. This comprises one hundred and sixty acres of first-class land but was then virgin in its state of nature and while offering rewards for industry and enterprise laid a heavy price of these qualities on its offering. Mr. Johnson at once began with energy to improve is property and make it productive, and he now has one of the choice tracts and most comfortable home is this section. Fifty acres of this land smile on his toil with abundant harvests and the rest affords fine pasturage for his cattle. He is independent in political action but omits no effort required of him in the development of the section in which he has cast his lot. In the local affairs of the community he has influence as a wise counselor and an energetic worker and has been potential for good in promoting the general welfare of its people by his own work and the inspiration he has given to others by his example. Routt county has no better citizen and none who is held in higher regard by her people. |
KELLOG, Joseph E. |
The parents of Joseph E. Kellog, a prosperous and enterprising ranch man of Rio Blanco county, Colorado, Joseph and Fannie Kellogg, are natives of Cattaraugus county, New York, where he also was born, coming into the world on February 17, 1852. When he was three years old the family moved to Wisconsin and four years later to Iowa, where the mother died in 1873. In 1880 the father became a resident of Colorado and now lives at Meeker. During the greater part of his mature life he has been a merchant, but he is at this time interested in ranches in Routt county and the marketing of their products. He is now, as he has been for many years, an earnest supporter of the Republican Party. Five of the seven children born in the family are deceased. After receiving a common-school education of limited scope, the son Joseph became a clerk in a mercantile establishment owned and conducted by his father, whom he accompanied to this state in 1880, at the age of twenty-eight. Here he continued to serve other parties in the same capacity for six years at Fort Collins. In 1886 he moved to his present home in Routt county which he took up as a homestead and which he has increased by purchase to one hundred and eighty-two acres. He cultivates seventy-five acres of the land with good results and raises cattle in large numbers, having interests in other ranches which aid in expanding his business in the stock industry. As an ardent Republican he takes an active part in the public life of his county. He served as county assessor in 1890 and 1891, and after the close of his term in that office passed another as deputy assessor. His ranch is well located eighteen miles southwest of Craig and is in a very advanced state of development. On October 15, 1872, Mr. Kellogg was united in marriage with Miss Alma M. Cartner, a native of Illinois, born in Cook county near Elgin. They have had one child, their son Fred, who died in infancy. Peacefully pursuing his chosen lines of usefulness, with diligence in his work, with consideration for the rights and feelings of others while protecting his own, with studious devotion to the welfare of his county and state, and a deep and serviceable interest in the larger concerns of his country, and giving the aid of his active support and the stimulus of his example in behalf of every good enterprise, the life of this good citizen and energetic business man adds materially to the wealth and prosperity of the people around him and the elevation of their moral and intellectual standard, and has secured for him return their lasting esteem and good will. |
KIMBLEY, Robert | The early life of Robert Kimbley, now one of the enterprising and successful ranch and cattle men of Routt county, with two ranches in the vicinity of Craig, was clouded over with toil and privation. He is the son of a coal miner and from his childhood was obliged to work at or in the mines. It was inevitable that there was no chance for him in the higher walks of learning, but it seemed very hard in deed that he could not get an opportunity to secure even the rudiments of an education in an enlightened and progressive country which boasts of the freedom and cultivation of its people. He was born on April 15, 1847, at Staffordshire, England, and at the age of seven was obliged to go to work as a helper outside of a coal mine in which his father worked, and two years later began to assist his father inside the mine. Here he worked with diligence until 1881, when he came to the United States, without much money but with a complete practical knowledge of coal mining. He located at Caseyville, Illinois, and for five months worked in the coal mines at that place. In the autumn of that year he moved to Colorado and took up his residence at Coal Creek, Fremont county, where he worked in the coal mines six years for wages. In 1887 he moved to the vicinity of Craig, Routt county, and took up a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres. He has since bought another ranch of the same size, and on the two he has two hundred and fifty acres under good cultivation, from which he realizes first rate returns in the ordinary farm products of the region and runs large herds of cattle. He has put up good buildings on these places and made each complete in equipment for ranching and the cattle industry and comfortable as a home. His knowledge of coal mining has been of great service in this state as he has opened well and wisely several mines of value wherein coal is found in abundance. In 1867 he was married to Miss Jane Holder, a native of England. They have nine children, five of whom survive their mother, who died on August 16, 1893. They are Nancy (Mrs. Zarzoeter). Thomas, Jennie (Mrs. Martin Early). Fannie and James. On February 3, 1902, Mr. Kimbley contracted a second marriage, being united on this occasion with Miss Patience Holder, a sister of his first wife. Starting with less than nothing in life, and having no opportunities for advancement except what he made of hewed out for himself. Mr. Kimbley enforces in his life work and success the value of self- reliance, thrift, industry and foresight in all human existence, and their especial importance in a land like ours wherein opportunity for usefulness and progress are always at hand when there are clearness of vision to see them, alertness of action to seize them and tenacity of purpose to hold on to and make the most of them. Among the progressive men of western Colorado he is entitled to a high rank, and as a worthy and serviceable American citizen he should enjoy the respect and good will of the people among whom he lives and labors. |
LYONS, John |
Owing to the death of his father when the son was but ten years old and to the fact that he was next to the oldest living child in the family, and was therefore obliged to assist in providing a living for his mother and the rest of the children, John Lyons, of Routt county, one of the esteemed citizens and successful ranch and cattle men living near Pagoda, felt at a very early age the burdens of life and found his youth clouded by the responsibility and difficulty, which, however, he bore cheerfully and with energy and courage. And it may be truthfully said that his subsequent successes and his present prosperity afford him all the greater satisfaction because of his early trials. He was born in Ireland on August 15, 1853, and instead of going to school for any length of time as most boys do, he was forced by circumstances to go to work, and so had almost no opportunity for securing even the rudiments of an education. His parents were Jeremiah and Mary (Haley) Lyons, both Irish by nativity. the father was a farmer and a connection with his farming raised dairy cattle. He died in 1863 leaving a widow and five children in very moderate circumstances. The children are Daniel, John, Nora, Margaret, wife of Patrick Sullivan, and Michael. They are all Catholics in church affiliation. John remained in his native land variously employed until 1181, then coming to America he located in New York state for some years there followed a number of different occupations. Being willing and capable he was never long without employment, and being thrifty and frugal at the same time he soon found himself making headway slowly, it is true, but steadily. His principal work during these earlier years of his American life was in the line of construction. He helped to build the long docks in New Jersey, assisted in the construction of the stock yards there and worked on the Brooklyn bridge. In 1885, deeming that he would find better opportunities for advancement in the West, he came to Colorado, and locating near Cardiff, pre-empted a claim which he sold after making some improvements on it, Charles Darrow, of Glenwood Springs, being the purchaser. For some years thereafter he ran cattle on the Grand river, and in 1889 moved to his present location, pre-empting a portion of the ranch on which he now lives. He has added to his original domain by purchase until he now owns three hundred and twenty acres. He has a considerable acreage devoted to general farm products and a large rang of grazing ground for his cattle. The cattle form his staple production and main reliance on the ranch. He has made extensive and advantageous improvements on the land and has a very comfortable and desirable home. Having been the first settler in his immediate neighborhood, he has been one of the chief factors in its development and progress, aiding by his means and labor and stimulating by his example the interest of others toward the construction of roads, bridges, churches, schoolhouses and other public improvements, and giving full sympathy and active support to all undertakings in the way of industrial and commercial enterprises in which the welfare of the community seemed to be involved. He was married on January 16, 1896, to Miss Elizabeth Hagerty, a native of Ireland, who has been of great assistance in his various undertakings and in full sympathy with his enterprise and aspirations. Mr. Lyons is a prominent and influential man, and has the respect and good will of all who know him. |
McLACHLAN, Archie | Mr. McLachlan, who is one of the prosperous and progressive ranch, cattle and business men of Routt county, is a Canadian by nativity, born in the province of Nova Scotia on February 28,1847, and the son of William and Jane McLachlan, who were born in Scotland and emigrated in early life to Canada. The father farmed in the land of his adoption until the discovery of gold in California led him to that land of promise in 1849. He made a good strike there and while on his return home in 1852 was murdered for his money. The mother came to Colorado with the subject and died near Golden, this state, on October 10, 1893. Both parents were members of the Presbyterian church. Their son Archie had almost no opportunity for schooling. From the age of eight to sixteen he worked on farms and then was put to work to learn his trade as a millwright, and he worked at this until he reached his legal majority. Then, in 1868, he moved to Boston and later to Chicago, and in these cities he did carpenter work and contracting until 1872, when he became a resident of Colorado. Locating then at Golden City, he established a saw-mill nine miles west of the town, which he conducted with varying success for a period of ten years. In 1883 he moved to Bear river, a region at that time wholly unsettled, and here he located a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, one of the first six ranches taken up in that section. He now owns also another ranch of one hundred and sixty acres in the same vicinity, and on the two has two hundred and forty acres under cultivation. He raises cattle and horses extensively, and has good crops of hay, grain, vegetables and small fruit. He has in addition valuable real estate at Craig and runs a saw-mill on a tract of fine timber land twenty-five miles northeast of the town. This engages him in an extensive and profitable lumber business which gives him prominence in commercial circles as well as in the stock industry. He is a chapter Mason in fraternal life and an ardent and active Democrat in politics. On May 26, 1895, he was married to Miss Cora E. Ranney, a native of Michigan, born in Ionia county. They have four children, Audrey, Archie H., Cora A. and Edwin. When their father came to Colorado he was without capital and wholly unacquainted with the people. He accepted with cheerfulness and alacrity the opportunities for useful labor and advancement which came to him, and by his own efforts he has risen to good financial and business standing, prominence in local public affairs and a well established position in public esteem. He has been successful in all his undertakings here and, being by his long residence in the state thoroughly imbued with the spirit, of its people and sympathy with tier interests, he is generally regarded as one of the most useful and representative citizens in his community. |
MILLER, Reinhard D. |
It is a high tribute to the citizen soldiery of our country that after the toils, privations and dangers of busy campaigns, when "grim visaged war has smoothed his wrinkled front," the armies melt at once into the ordinary currents of life and seek amid the white harvests of peaceful industry forgetfulness of the red fields of battles whereon great questions of human destiny have been settled. This inspiring fact is forcibly illustrated in the case of the interesting subject of this memoir. A valiant soldier of two countries and three wars, making therein a record for unsurpassed daring and skill as a cavalry trooper, and bearing honorable discharges from the service in which he distinguished himself and rose to official position, he is now pursuing with industry and enthusiasm the peaceful vocation of a farmer and stock-grower in one of the remote but highly favored sections of this state and is as vigorous and energetic in the management of his present business as he was daring and gallant in military life. Mr. Miller was born in Prussia on March 21, 1849, the son of John and Henrietta Miller, also natives in the fatherland, where they lived, labored and died, and were finally laid to rest in their natal soil like their ancestors for many generations before them. The father was a forester and game keeper for many years; and both parents were devoted Lutherans in religious faith. They had three children who survive them, Wilhelmina, Reinhard and Adeline. The son grew to manhood and was educated in his native land. After leaving school, like his father he became a forester for a time and then served his time in the German army. He was in the service at the time of the Franco-German war and followed the standards of his country from their first victory at Weissenberg to the time when they waved in final triumph over the palace of Versailles. In the autumn following the close of this war he emigrated to the United States and located in New Jersey where he did street construction work for a year. He then moved to Virginia and again engaged in farming. Later he became a resident and a prosperous gardener in Maryland. Turning his eyes toward the setting sun, he found himself next in Illinois, where he passed a year and a half farming near Beardstown. At the end of that period he enlisted in the Third United States Cavalry at St. Louis and served five years in Troop L, being stationed during the term at several different posts and seeing many of the dangers of Indian warfare, among his experiences of horror being the Meeker massacre in 1879. He rose to the rank of sergeant and as such was discharged at the end of his term. The years 1881 and 1882 were passed by him in hunting and trapping on White river in this state, and in 1883 he again joined the army, enlisting in Troop B at Leavenworth, Kansas. At the end of another term of five years' faithful service he was honorably discharged at San Antonio, Texas, in 1888. In the two terms he served in the regular army he made a dazzling record as a cavalry rider and won high commendations from his commanders. In 1888 he returned to Colorado and located his present ranch of one hundred and sixty acres on a homestead claim. On fifty acres of this he raises good crops of hay, grain and vegetable and the rest is used as grazing land for his cattle, which form his chief resource on the ranch. All the improvements on the land were made by him and its successful cultivation is due to his industry and skill. There ranch is located on Williams fork. On September 29, 1901, Mr. Miller was united in Marriage with Mrs. Adeheid Bar, like himself a native of Prussia, who came to this country when young. His military record and is sterling worth have brought Mr. Miller the cordial regard and high esteem of his fellow citizens in Routt county and elsewhere where he is known. In political affairs he ardently supports the principles and candidates of the Republican party. |
MISEMER, Samuel C. | The only child of his parents, and losing his mother by death at the dawn of his young manhood, his mother dying in 1882, when he was twenty years old, and his father twenty years later, Samuel C. Misemer is the last survivor of his family, and has had to make his own way in the world without the aid of fortune's favors of any kind. He was born in eastern Tennessee on January 22, 1862, the son of William B. and Mary A. Misemer, also natives of Tennessee. The mother died in Tennessee and the father in Missouri. The father was a merchant and farmer, a Democrat politically, a Freemason fraternally, and a citizen of standing and influence in his community. The son received a slender education at the district schools and made himself serviceable to his parents on the home farm until he reached the age of twenty-one years. In 1884 he came west and located at Dixon, Wyoming, where he was employed in range riding by Pottock Cattle Company and others, and after some years of service in this capacity as a stage driver between Rawlins and Meeker, Colorado, by C. F. Perkins. In 1891 he homesteaded on the ranch which is now is home, twelve miles north of Craig, and which comprises one hundred and sixty acres, one hundred of which can be cultivated. The place has been improved by him, there being nothing in this line on it when he located on it, and all its fertility and productiveness are due to his systematic and well applied labor. Hay and horses are his principal products, and in addition to his ranching he has done considerable freighting. Although now comfortably settled on a good place and with an abundant living, his early years in this state were full of hardships and dangers, the country being almost wholly unsettled and very sparsely inhabited. Since 1900 he has also done a great deal of work in engineering and carpentering. He is enterprising and progressive, always ready to accept a favorable opportunity for his profit and zealous in promoting every under taking for the benefit of the community. He is a democrat politically and a Modern Woodman fraternally. On July 1, 1891, he was married to Miss Salina Romjue, a native of Oregon. Their hearthstone has been brightened by two children, one of whom died in infancy. The other, Hazel, is living. |
MORGAN, Thomas |
Born in Madison county, Wisconsin, on April 22, 1859, and having made his own living by continued industry and thrift since he was seventeen, and, moreover, confronting may of the dangers and hardships of the Western wilds, Thomas Morgan, of Steamboat Springs, Routt county, this state, has had nearly thirty years of what is known as "the strenuous life," but he has met every trial and difficulty with a manly and determined spirit, and fought every foe to his peace and his prosperity with the courage that always wins in the end. Passing through reverses and periods of adversity, but never losing his nerve or waning in his self-reliance, he has won the fight and is now well fixed in a worldly way, and stands well in the esteem of his fellow citizens who have learned to know and admire is worth. He is the son of William A. and Mary (Prosser) Morgan, the former a native of England and the latter of Wales. They had ten children, nine of whom are living, Joseph, David, Charles, Mary, Sarah, Melcah, William, Benjamin and Thomas. The parents came to the United States in 1851 and located in Pennsylvania in 1852. Both are now deceased. Their son Thomas attended the district schools, accompanying his parents to Colorado in 1863, when he was but four years old. The first location of the family in this state was on Clear creek, where they remained until 1873, engaged in farming. In the year last named they moved to the cross mountain region on Snake river in Routt county, where they found the Indians friendly and carried on a profitable trading business with them. At an early age Mr. Morgan pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres of land at Cross mountain, and during the next ten years raised cattle. In 1889 he moved to the neighborhood of Axial, where he homesteaded on one hundred and sixty acres of promising land, which he improved and devoted to raising horses and cattle. After some years of varying success in this line, he engaged in merchandise in partnership with his brother William on Snake river until 1892, when he moved to Steamboat Springs, and there he once more turned is attention to the cattle industry, in which he is still occupied. He was the first settler on Snake and Bear rivers in the Lily Park vicinity, and when he located in the region it was full of buffalo and other wild game, and may of his experiences in his lonely and remote situation were thrilling in the extreme. His start in life was almost nothing, and his struggle for years was arduous; but he is now in comfortable circumstances, and one of the highly esteemed frontiersmen and pioneers of his section of the state. Always a stanch Democrat, he was elected sheriff of the county as the candidate of his party in 1886 and proved himself to be a capable and fearless official. On May 18, 1892, he was married to Miss Grace Vaugh, a native of New Mexico but reared in Colorado. She is a daughter of James and Eliza (Woods) Vaugh, the father born in Tennessee and the mother at Alton, Illinois. They made Farmington, New Mexico, their final earthly home, and there followed farming successfully. Both are deceased, but eight of their children are living. Mr. and Mrs. Morgan have two children, their son Thomas P. and their daughter Elsie L. |
MORIN, Julian P. | A man's life of usefulness to his fellows and success in his own affairs is the best tribute to the uprightness of his character, the loftiness of his motives, the steadfastness of his purpose and the proper employment of his time and faculties. Tried by this severe standard Julian P. Morin, of near Padoga, Routt county, one of the most representative and progressive ranchers and stock men of the Williams fork region is entitled to a high regard. Without ostentation or self-seeking, except in the domain of making his way successfully in the world and providing for is family or others who may be dependent upon him, he has gone his way through every trial, performing with fidelity and industry every daily duty, true to himself and therefore necessarily true to his fellows. Mr. Morin was born in the province of Quebec, Canada, on February 19, 1835, and is the son of Samuel and Mary Morin, the former born in France and the latter in Canada. The father came to this continent when young and settled in the province of Quebec where he was married and became and industrious and prosperous farmer. He died in 1873 and the mother in 1888. Two of their children survive them, their sons Joseph and Julian. The latter grew to the age of seventeen in his native place, was educated in the common schools, and learned practical farming on the paternal homestead, on which he remained until 1852. He then emigrated to Massachusetts, where he remained until 1858 and thoroughly learned the trade of a blacksmith. In the year last named he returned to his native land, where he lived and wrought at is trade until 1870. desiring then a further residence in "The States," he again crossed our northern boundary and located in Iowa. Here he followed his craft for one year at the end of which he became a resident of Colorado. Locating at Hutchinson Junction, he opened a blacksmith shop which he conducted four years, and he was successful in his enterprise. At the end of the period named he sold out at a good profit, and after blacksmithing for a short time at Lake City, moved to Antelope Springs, then opening to populous settlement, and during the next two years engaged in ranching in that neighborhood. From there he moved to Leadville where he burned charcoal from 1879 to 1884 and prospered in the work, it being a private enterprise conducted solely for is own profit. In 1884 he located the ranch on which he now lives, and which has since been his home, taking up first a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres which he has since increased to four hundred and eighty acres. A considerable portion of his land is devoted to the production of the ordinary form products of the neighborhood and the rest is excellent grazing ground for his large herds of cattle which form the greater part of is industry. The land was wild and unbroken when he settled on it, he being one of the first to locate in the region, and he has made all the improvements it contains, both in buildings and cultivation, himself, providing it with commodious and comfortable structures for its purposes and bringing the arable portion of the soil to a high state of productiveness. He has become thoroughly attached to the institutions of the country, and is a loyal and serviceable citizen of Colorado in whose prosperity and progress he takes an earnest and helpful interest. He is a Republican in national politics, but in local affairs seeks to subserve by his efforts an his influence the best interests of the community and its people. He is very progressive and public-spirited in his own business and in all that pertains to the lasting welfare of his county and state, and has a wide and well-founded popularity throughout the section in which he lives. Practically a self-made man, he has produced his fortunes by his own effort and his career furnishes an example worthy of emulation by young men everywhere and a substantial proof of the value of thrift and enterprise, as well as of integrity, in a land of really boundless opportunities. |
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