ROATCAP, Joseph S., b 1849 1905 Bio, Delta County, Colorado http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/delta/bios/roatcapjs.txt --------------------------------------- Donated September 12, 2001 Transcribed by Judy Crook from the book: Progressive Men of Western Colorado Published 1905, A.W. Bowen & Co., Chicago, Ill. --------------------------------------- Joseph S. Roatcap Among the early arrivals in the North Fork valley, Delta county, was Joseph S. Roatcap, of the vicinity of Paonia, who located there in 1883, and has been a resident of Colorado since 1878, during the whole of his life here actively engaged in useful pursuits tending the development and improvement of the country and forming a volunteer in the great industrial army who are making the possibilities of this mighty empire known to the world and its resources ministrants to the comfort of millions of people. Mr. Roatcap was born on January 25, 1849, in Illinois, and is the son of John and Rachel (Kaufman) Roatcap, natives of Page county, Virginia, the former born in 1812 and the latter in 1817. They were farmers and moved to Illinois in 1843, remaining there until March, 1854, then making another flight in the wake of the setting sun, arriving in Cooper county, Missouri, on the 5th day of March of that year and remaining there until 1869, when they moved to Wilson county, Kansas. Finding the conditions of frontier life promising and not disagreeable overmuch, in 1878 they came still farther west and took up their residence at Lake City, this state. Five years later the father and his youngest son came into the North Fork valley and pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres of land, on which the parents lived until death, the father passing away on September 12, 1889, and the mother on September 26, 1898. They had a family of ten children, six of whom are living, four of them in Colorado. Their son Joseph remained with them until 1880, then started in life for himself, running a saw-mill for another man, which he did until a few years later, when he engaged in a similar enterprise for himself. In 1883 he returned to Missouri, and after a residence of six years in that state, returned to Colorado and settled in Delta county with a modern saw-mill which he brought with him and operated for a number of years, sawing lumber and making fruit boxes for the fruit-growers in this section. He then sold the outfit and turned his attention to ranching, in 1898 buying the land on which he now lives, securing forty acres in the first purchase and seventeen later from a neighbor adjoining him. On this seventeen acres he at once built a large dwelling and began the cultivation of his land. He has about three acres and a half of his land in fruit and the rest in alfalfa and grain. Hay and fruit are his principal crops and he finds them profitably and steadily increasing in their returns. His land also has greatly increased in value, being worth fifteen dollars an acre when he bought it and now worth at least one hundred dollars an acre. On November 24, 1880, he was united in marriage with Miss Gertrude Miller, who was born in Cooper county, Missouri, on October 29, 1862, and is the daughter of Daniel and Mary (Moore) Miller, the former a native of Germany and the latter of Kentucky. The father died in 1874 and the mother is now living in Kansas. Mr. and Mrs. Roatcap have had five children, Joseph, who died when only three days old, Constance M., Ina, Ora and Selma. The oldest is sixteen and the youngest five, and all are living at home. The parents are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and the father is a Republican in political affairs. =================================================== Contributed for use by the USGenWeb Archive Project (http://www.usgenweb.org) and by the COGenWeb Archive Project USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access.