Gunnison County CO Archives Biographies.....Heiner, Joseph F. November 24, 1862 - ?
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Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net March 24, 2006, 4:21 pm

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     Joseph F. Heiner, the efficient and obliging county surveyor of Gunnison

county, whose administration of his office has been so satisfactory to the

people that he has been repeatedly elected to it, was born in Chicago, Illinois,

on November 24, 1862, and is the son of Nicholas and Margaret (Schultz) Heiner,

natives of Germany who emigrated to this country when young and were married in

the city of New York.  Soon afterward they moved to Chicago, and there the

father was a prosperous shoe merchant until his death in 1898.  He was active in

politics and became well known and prominent in the local government of the

city, serving a number of terms as alderman.  The mother died in 1900.  They

were the parents of eleven children, of whom six are living and their son Joseph

was the tenth born.  He was reared in Chicago and there received a common and

high-school education.  At the age of fifteen he began to learn the trade of a

printer, and after completing his apprenticeship worked as a journeyman several

years in his native city and St. Louis, Missouri.  In 1880 he became a resident

of Colorado, locating at Gunnison, where he found employment in the office of

the News-Democrat, which he soon afterward took entire charge of and then

conducted it for a number of years.  In the spring of 1894 he sold the paper and

was soon after appointed register of the United States land office at Gunnison

by President Cleveland, holding the position until 1898.  In the meantime he

studied civil engineering and on retiring from his office took up surveying.  In

1899 he was appointed county surveyor to fill an unexpired term, and since its

expiration he has been twice elected to the office, of which he is still the

incumbent.  In political affairs he supports the Democratic party with ardor and

efficiency, giving every campaign his earnest and helpful attention, and while

he had charge of the newspaper he made it an effective advocate of the

principles of his party.  He was married on November 28, 1884, to Miss Ella B.

Smith, a native of West Virginia, the daughter of David and Maggie (Atkins)

Smith, who were born in that state and became early pioneers in western

Colorado, taking up land in that part of it in 1875, locating about three miles

west of Gunnison before the county was organized.  When this event occurred in

1879 Mr. Smith was appointed the first county judge, and after the expiration of

his term was twice elected to this office for a term of three years each time. 

He and his wife are now living at Hotchkiss, Delta county.  Mr. and Mrs. Heiner

are the parents of four children, of whom Eugene died at the age of nine, and

Iris at the age of fourteen, and Bonita and Reva are living.  Well equipped by

nature and study for public life, ardently devoted to the welfare of his

country, and free, fervent and impressive in speech and writing, Mr. Heiner has

been one of the most useful advocates of the political principles in which he

believes and one of the most capable and popular public officials the county has

had from the date of its organization to the present time.  

Additional Comments:
From Progressive Men of Western Colorado.  Chicago:  A.W. Bowen & Co., 1905

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/gunnison/bios/heiner390gbs.txt

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