Armstrong, William J, 1905 Bio, Mesa County, Colorado
http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/mesa/bios/armstgwj.txt

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Donated March 2001
Transcribed by Judy Crook <jlcrook@rof.net> from the book:
Progressive Men of Western Colorado 
Published 1905, A.W. Bowen & Co., Chicago, Ill.

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William J. Armstrong

     William J. Armstrong, one of the prosperous and progressive 
ranchmen of Mesa county, living on a well improved and highly 
productive ranch two miles northeast of Grand Junction, is a native of 
Ontario, Canada, born on December 28, 1855, and reared and educated in 
Jackson, Michigan.  In 1880 he came to Colorado, and for a number of 
years worked at mining and on ranches.  In the spring of 1901 he moved 
to Mesa county and soon afterward settled on the ranch he now occupies, 
being married on Christmas day, 1902, to Mrs. Amanda (Bowers) 
Wellington, the widow of John A. Wellington, who owned the place.  Mr. 
Wellington was a native of Massachusetts who came to Colorado in 1882 
among the early settlers of the western part of the state, and took up 
one hundred and sixty acres of land in Mesa county not far from Grand 
Junction, which he afterward sold.  In 1894 he located on a tract of 
wild land and by industry and skill transformed it into a good home and 
a productive farm, it being the one on which the Armstrongs now live.  
The land is above the level of the irrigating ditch and Mr. Wellington 
put in a private plant in the form of a huge water wheel to lift the 
water forty feet which furnishes enough to irrigate his land and that 
of two or three neighbors.  He also owned town property and other 
ranches.  In March, 1902, he died on this land, and after that his 
widow carried on the ranch until her marriage with Mr. Armstrong.  She 
is a native of Toledo, Ohio, and the daughter of Eleazer and Polly 
(Woodbury) Bowers, the former a native of New York and the latter of 
Vermont.  They were married at Ravenna, Ohio, and died in Lenawee 
county, Michigan, the mother in 1877 and the father in 1882.  They 
moved there when Mrs. Armstrong was two years old, and there she was 
reared and educated.  There also she was married to James N. McKay, by 
whom she had four children, John R., James H. and a pair of twins, now 
all deceased.  In 1892 James H. came to Mesa county, this state, where 
he died the next year, leaving a widow and three daughters, the oldest 
of the latter, Amanda, who is now fourteen years old, living with Mrs. 
Armstrong.  Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong are prosperous in business, active 
in social life and the general affairs of the community, and are highly 
esteemed on all sides as leading and representative citizens.

Note:  Right after William J. Armstrong's essay on page 64 is a page of 
photographs of the farm of John A. Wellington with a photograph of 
John.  According to the essay, William Armstong married John A. 
Wellington's widow.  

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