SMITH, Jay F., b 1845; 1905 Bio, Mesa County, Colorado http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/delta/bios/smithjf.txt --------------------------------------- Donated September 4, 2001 Transcribed by Judy Crook from the book: Progressive Men of Western Colorado Published 1905, A.W. Bowen & Co., Chicago, Ill. --------------------------------------- Jay F. Smith Jay F. Smith, who is one of the prosperous and progressive ranch and cattle men of Delta county, Colorado, where he has also given some attention to fruit culture, is a native of Rock county, Wisconsin, where he was born on December 29, 1845, and the son of Isaac T. and Nancy A. (DeJanes) Smith, New Yorkers by nativity. The father was a farmer and dealt considerably in agricultural machinery. The family moved to Wisconsin in 1836, and there the mother died in 1859. Three years afterward the father moved to Iowa and in 1874 to Colorado. He remained in this state until 1898, having his home near Fort Collins a part of the time and a part at Lake City, and being engaged most of the period in mining and prospecting. In 1898 he went back to his old Wisconsin home, where he died in 1901. There were nine children in the family and five of them are living, two in this state. Jay F. Smith remained at home until he reached the age of nineteen, receiving in the neighborhood schools a common-school education. In 1864 he began the battle of life for himself as a laborer, working in his native state until the fall of 1865, and in Iowa from that time until the spring of 1866. At the period last named he came to Colorado, making the journey overland with Captain Tyler to Boulder. He arrived at his destination with nothing in money, but soon secured a position as a hand on a ranch, and from then until 1881 he worked for wages. In that year he took up residence in Delta county, pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres of land for a home, which he improved and brought into vigorous cultivation in hay, grain and vegetables as rapidly as possible. He also set out forty apple trees, which is all he ever did in the way of fruit culture. He has given the most of his attention to raising stock and hay, and has prospered at the enterprise. When he took up his ranch he had but little more capital than when he arrived in Colorado. He now owns sixty acres of good land in a high state of cultivation and well improved with good buildings, the place being worth over ten thousand dollars. In 1892 he was married to Miss Nettie Morrow, who was born in Franklin county, Missouri, and is the daughter of John W. and Delilah (Funk) Morrow, the former a native of Tennessee and the latter of Franklin county, Missouri. The father was a farmer. He went to California in one of the argonautic expeditions of 1849, but never lived in Colorado. His wife died on May 13, 1887, in Franklin county, Missouri, and he at the same place on May 18, 1894. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have had two children. One died in infancy, and the other, their daughter Fairy D., is living, aged eleven. Mr. Smith supports the Republican party in politics. During the Civil war he served one hundred days in the Union army as a member of Company G, Forty-fourth Iowa Infantry. =================================================== 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.