Estes, James R; 1905 Bio, Gunnison County, Colorado http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/gunnison/bios/estesjr.txt --------------------------------------- Donated May 2001 Transcribed by Judy Crook from the book: Progressive Men of Western Colorado Published 1905, A.W. Bowen & Co., Chicago, Ill. --------------------------------------- James R. Estes With his childhood darkened and all his early prospects blighted by the awful shadow of our Civil war, which had for him a portentous meaning as during four years of the struggle his father was a soldier in the Union army and at the front in the midst of the hottest fighting, James R. Estes was born in Wright county, Missouri, on April 15, 1857, and when he was nine years old the family moved to Jasper county in the same state. His parents, Richard and Caroline (Tatum) Estes, were native, respectively, in West Virginia and Tennessee. They were married in the latter state and soon afterward moved to Wright county, Missouri, where they were pioneers. The father was a farmer, and lived a number of years in Jasper county, Missouri. In 1878 the family moved to Colorado and settled in Delta county, where he was extensively engaged in business as a merchant, farmer and miner. The father died in February, 1903, and the mother is now living, making her home on the farm which they located there. James R. was reared in his native state, and in 1878 came to Colorado with his parents, and during the next two years freighted between Canon City and Leadville and other points, and also did some prospecting and mining. In the spring of 1880 he moved to Gunnison county and located the Lee Taylor mine, at what was then Ruby camp in the Elk mountains, but is now the town of Irwin. He worked this mine vigorously and developed it into a good property, remaining at Irwin until the spring of 1882, when he took up one hundred and sixty acres of land on the Gunnison river, northeast of the county seat. On this land he lived about fifteen years, developing and improving the property and making it productive and valuable. At the end of that period he sold this ranch and bought the one on which he, with his family consisting of wife and daughter, now lives on the Gunnison, four miles and a half west of the city. Here he owns three hundred and twenty acres, which is all well irrigated and highly productive, yielding annually three hundred to four hundred tons of good hay and producing ample sustenance for his herd of cattle, he having started his stock industry soon after he began ranching. In politics he is a Republican and fraternally belongs to the order of Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of the World, being a charter member of the camp of the latter at Gunnison. =================================================== 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.