Mesa County CO Archives Biographies.....Lane, Squire G. January 1, 1831 - ?
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net March 18, 2006, 10:45 pm

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

[photo in book; not submitted]

     During the last twenty years the interesting subject of this sketch has

been a resident of Fruita, Mesa county, this state, and he has seen all the

growth and development of this section from a barren waste to its present

advanced state of fruitfulness and prosperity.  He was born on January 1, 1831,

in Putnam county, New York, and is the son of George and Esther (Drake) Lane,

who were also natives of Putnam county.  His father was a farmer for a time, but

passed the later years of his life in the milling and grain business, moving to

Niagara county in his native state when his son Squire was eighteen months old,

and settling on a farm there.  He died at Rochester at a good old age, as did

the mother.  There were twelve children in the family, of whom two daughters and

four sons are living.  Squire was the third born, and was reared on the paternal

homestead, receiving a public-school education, which was supplemented with one

term at an academy.  He remained at home until he was twenty-one, then engaged

in the lumber and shingle business, all shingles at that time being made by

hand.  The seat of his operations was in Orleans county, New York, and he

continued them two or three years.  At the end of that period he moved to

Coldwater, Michigan, and bought a farm near the town.  Two years later he sold

this and returned to Niagara county, New York, where he was married and settled

on the old homestead.  After farming this three years he sold it and moved to

his native county of Putnam where he again engaged in farming.  In 1874 he sold

this farm also and came to Colorado.  Making Denver his headquarters, he

prospected and mined for four years in various places with all the varying

successes and reverses characteristic of these alluring but delusive

occupations.  He had plenty of hard work and experience, but did not lay up much

gold as the result of his efforts.  In 1883 he moved to Mesa county and took up

a ranch of one hundred and sixty acres in Grand valley, about one mile below

Fruita.  This was prior to the birth of that thriving little town, and he was

one of the pioneers in this section, there being but few settlers in it then,

and they almost all bachelors, only one woman living between his ranch and Grand

Junction.  The region was almost wholly devoid of vegetation of value, producing

naturally nothing for human food or commerce, and there was not a tree between

his ranch and Grand Junction except along the river banks.  No irrigation

ditches had been constructed, and the natural aridness of the region forbade any

attempt at systematic husbandry on a scale of magnitude.  In 1885, when the

first ditch for irrigation was completed, Fruita was founded.  He then sold his

ranch and built the second house in that town, and there he has ever since made

his home.  During the last five years he has been engaged in the lumber business

in partnership with Mr. Merriell, under the firm name of Lane & Merriell, and

has prospered.  In politics he is a stanch Republican, and as such has served

two terms as county commissioner, besides filling several minor local offices at

various times.  He was married in Michigan in 1856 to Miss Ann E. Hayne, a

native of New Jersey.  They have had four children, George H., deceased; Ernest

H., deceased; Winnie A., deceased, and Eva B., who is living and the wife of

C.W. Cain, a prominent Mesa county ranchman (see sketch elsewhere).  Mr. Lane

has been an earnest blue-lodge Mason during nearly fifty years. Having wrought

his full day of labor, he is now enjoying the evening of life in peace and

comfort, respected by all his neighbors and friends and a host of admiring

acquaintances.  

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

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/mesa/bios/lane313gbs.txt

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