HAWTHORNE, D. C., b 1826: 1905 Bio, Mesa County, Colorado http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/mesa/bios/hawthornedc.txt --------------------------------------- Donated September 29, 2001 Transcribed by Judy Crook from the book: Progressive Men of Western Colorado Published 1905, A.W. Bowen & Co., Chicago, Ill. --------------------------------------- D.C. Hawthorne D.C. Hawthorne, of Mesa county, this state, living on a fine and fruitful ranch located about half a mile west of Palisades, who has contributed materially to the development and improvement of the fruit industry in western Colorado, is a New Englander by nativity, born in Windsor county, Vermont, on March 22, 1826. His parents were Collins and Rosamond (Ransom) Hawthorne, also born and reared in New England. They moved from Vermont to Erie county, New York, in the spring of 1842, and there they passed the rest of their lives, the father dying in 1883 and the mother in 1895. They were farmers and their son D.C. lived with them and aided in their labors until 1850, teaching school in the winter months from 1842, when he was but sixteen years old, to 1848, six years in all. In 1850 he went to work in the interest of an insurance company, with whom he remained two years. In the spring of 1852 he went to Independence, Missouri, and from there journeyed with ox teams to Oregon, crossing the Sierra Nevadas at the Cascades near Mt. Hood, and on his arrival at Oregon City in the fall of 1852 he joined a government surveying party, but soon after began surveying for himself and continued until the spring of 1858. He then went to San Francisco, and from there made a visit to his old home in Erie county, New York. Coming west again soon afterward, he stopped in Leavenworth county, Kansas, and engaged in the nursery business, remaining there so occupied until 1886, at which time he moved to the western part of the state, where he lived until 1890. In that year he came to Colorado and located in Mesa county, securing employment in the orchards of George Crawford, for whom he set out sixty acres in peaches, apples, pears, plums and grapes. He remained with Mr. Crawford until the spring of 1894. He then determined to start in the fruit business for himself, and moving to Palisades, he bought the twenty-acre farm on which he now lives and planted ten acres of it in fruit trees of various kinds. He has recently planted the other ten acres in fruit and will in a few years have one of the best and most productive orchards on the Western slope. From the ten acres already in bearing order he harvested in 1902 and sold twenty-three hundred dollars worth of fruit, and he did as well if not better in 1903. On October 4, 1859, he was married to Miss Sarah M. Hapgood, one of the four children born in the household of her parents, but one of whom are now living. She was born in Windsor county, Vermont, and died in Kansas in the fall of 1880. To this union were born two children, A. Hapgood, who died in Kansas in 1881, and Rosamond F., a resident of Boston, Massachusetts. In August, 1882, Mr. Hawthorne married a second wife, Mrs. Celia C. Short, who still abides with him. In political faith he is an active and zealous Republican, and in fraternal life was for a number of years an active member of the order of Odd Fellows. He and his wife belong to the Methodist church and take a serviceable part in its works of benevolence and other activities, earnestly supporting all worthy and beneficent movements. =================================================== Contributed for use by the USGenWeb Archive Project (http://www.usgenweb.org) and by the COGenWeb Archive Project USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access.