Gunnison County CO Archives Biographies.....Stone, Columbus L.  1857 - ?
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Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net March 24, 2006, 4:52 pm

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     Made an orphan by the death of his father when he was but nine years old,

Columbus L. Stone, of Gunnison county, a prosperous and enterprising farmer and

stock-grower whose life in the county has been a source of advantage to the

people in the commercial influence and improvement it has helped to bring about,

and in the example of productive industry and business energy it has given,

early began to rely on himself for advancement in life, and to acquire the

spirit of resoluteness and determination for which he is well known.  He is a

native of that great hive of varied and all-conquering industry, Pennsylvania,

born at Waverly, Lacakawanna county, in 1857.  His parents were Hannibal and

Clara (Parker) Stone, Pennsylvanians by birth and residents of that state until

after the Civil war, when they moved to Illinois and were prosperously engaged

in farming on the virgin prairie of that state until death struck down the

father in 1866 at the age of thirty-one.  The mother took up the burden of

carrying on the business and rearing her five children, and steadily persevered

in her heroic work until death ended her labors also, passing away in 1889, at

the age of fifty-one.  Columbus was the first born of their children, and it

fell to his lot to aid his mother in providing for the family while he was yet

very young, so that his opportunities for securing an education were very

limited, except what were offered in the hard but effective school of experience

and practical work.  At the age of twenty-one he started in life for himself as

a farmer in Illinois.  A year later, in 1879, he came to Colorado and located at

Seboya [Cebolla?] where he did as well as he could whatever his hands found to

do, but was principally engaged in farm work during the next three years.  At

the end of that time he took up one hundred and sixty acres of land on the

Indian reservation, near which he had been employed, and there began ranching

and raising stock.  He was capable and industrious, attentive to his work and

skillful in doing it, and had at his command a ready and resourceful business

capacity.  He throve in his venture from the beginning, notwithstanding there

were many delays and disappointments, and he encountered frequent events and

circumstances of a very discouraging nature.  He persevered in spite of all

adversities, improving his ranch with diligence and judgment, and rising by his

qualities of elevated citizenship and breadth of view in the public esteem and

becoming an influential factor in the general life of the community, serving as

postmaster at Seboya and afterward as justice of the peace, and in many other

ways contributing to the general weal.  For eighteen years he lived and labored

in that section, and steadily won his way in every line of activity in which he

took a hand.  He then desired a larger field for his enterprise and bought the

ranch of four hundred acres which is now his home and four and one-half miles

from Gunnison.  Here he has continued his stock and farming business, and the

place has been greatly increased in value by judicious improvements.  He was

married in 1887 to Miss Mary Andrews, a native of Iowa, the daughter of E.H.

Andrews and his family consists of five children who are living, Clifford, Earl,

Lawrence, Ralph and Helen.  A twin sister of Helen named Gladys died when she

was four months old.  

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

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/gunnison/bios/stone396gbs.txt

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