Gunnison County CO Archives Biographies.....Willis, Oliver E. 1868 - ?
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Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net March 24, 2006, 7:29 pm

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     Although Colorado is yet very young among the states of the Union, and her

whole history must be reckoned in decades rather than centuries, she is old

enough to have produced a generation of active workers devoted to her farther

progress and development, and the spread of her power and fame throughout the

world.  To this new birth on her prolific soil belongs Oliver E. Willis, located

near the village of Howeville, Gunnison county, on what is known as the Jack’s

Cabin ranch, one of the first tracts of land in this part of the country to fall

under the dominion of the white man and yield tribute to the skill and labor of

the husbandman.  Mr. Willis was born in Boulder county, this state, in 1868, and

is the son of William A. and Rachel (Eggleston) Willis, who reside near his home

on a valuable ranch and are engaged in farming and raising stock.  The father is

a native of Kentucky and the mother of Iowa.  They came to the state in 1864 and

settled where they now live.  Their son Oliver is wholly a product of Colorado,

born on her soil, educated in her schools, learning the duties of life in her

industries, and quickened with patriotic love of country amid her grand

inspiring mountains.  At the age of nineteen, filled with the spirit of her

enterprise which waits not for years to ripen nor time to mellow the energies of

man, but seizes with ready hand the opportunities that come, he began the

contest of life for himself by purchasing a ranch and for fourteen years

thereafter he was busily employed in developing, improving and cultivating this

property.  He then sold it to good advantage and purchased the one on which he

is now settled, which is one of the oldest and best known ranches in this part

of the state, being the old Jack’s Cabin ranch whose history is almost

co-extensive with that of the commonwealth itself, if it does not precede even

that.  Here Mr. Willis is [sic] actively conducted a flourishing and expanding

stock and general farming industry, growing in the esteem and good will of the

people around him by the enterprise and breadth of view which he displays with

reference to the general welfare and progress of the community.  He was married

in 1895 to Miss Ida Jones, and they have one child, Lloyd B.  

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

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/gunnison/bios/willis408gbs.txt

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