Gunnison County CO Archives Biographies.....Lightley, Frank E.  June 7, 1857 - ?
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net March 24, 2006, 5:14 pm

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     Frank E. Lightley, whose beautiful ranch on Ohio creek, nine miles north of

Gunnison, is one of the choice ones of the valley in which it is located, and

has been his home during the last five years, was born near Beaver Dam, Dodge

county, Wisconsin, on June 7, 1857.  His parents, John and Louie Ann (Matlby)

Lightley, are more specifically mentioned in a sketch of his brother George W.

Lightley, elsewhere in this work.  When Frank was three years old the family

moved to Freeborn county, Minnesota, and there he grew to the age of twenty on

his father’s farm and received a common-school education in the district schools

of the neighborhood.  At the age mentioned he went to the pine woods in the

northern part of Wisconsin, where he worked at lumbering until the spring of

1881.  At that time he came to Colorado, arriving at Gunnison on April 23d. 

Here he worked with his brother George for seven years, then engaged in ranching

a few years on land which he rented. In 1889 he bought the ranch on which he now

lives on Ohio creek, nine miles north of Gunnison, which comprises three hundred

and sixty acres of excellent land, nearly all under irrigation and equipped with

good buildings and all the necessary outfit for an enterprising and successful

ranching and stock industry.  His principal crop is hay, of which he raises

about four hundred tons a year.  In 1890 he began raising stock and has

gradually increased his operations in this line until he now has a herd of some

four hundred good cattle and a number of superior horses.  While he was not

among the earliest settlers in his neighborhood, he has been among the most

active and helpful in building up the section and developing its resources,

omitting no effort of his own and no stimulus to others of which he has been

capable in promoting the advancement and comfort of its people and an increasing

volume of wealth from the bounty with which Providence has blessed it.  In

political affairs he supports the Republican party, and in fraternal circles

belongs to the Woodmen of the World.  On July 20, 1890, he united in marriage

with Miss Maggie Lehman, a native of Kansas, the daughter of Joseph and Sarah

(Combs) Lehman, the father born in New York and the mother in Iowa.  The father

was among the early settlers in Gunnison county, locating many years ago the

ranch on which his son Lee now lives on Ohio creek about eleven miles north of

the county seat.  The mother died in Kansas in 1876 and the father in Pueblo,

Colorado, in 1889.  Mr. and Mrs. Lightley have one son, Charley H.   

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

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/gunnison/bios/lightley399gbs.txt

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