Mesa County CO Archives Biographies.....Mounson, Nels C. September 9, 1848 - ?
************************************************

Copyright.  All rights reserved.

http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm

http://www.usgwarchives.net/co/cofiles.htm

************************************************



File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net March 23, 2006, 1:34 pm

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     Born, reared and educated in Sweden, and well trained in agriculture by a

long and extensive practical experience there, Nels C. Mounson, of Mesa county,

Colorado, living on a fine little fruit ranch of seventeen acres lying four

miles northeast of the village of Fruita, has transferred to the land of his

adoption his spirit of progress and enterprise, and with the dogged and

persistent industry, and the intelligence and breadth of view characteristic of

his people, has built up in this western wilderness a comfortable home and a

profitable business.  He was born on September 9, 1848, in Sweden, where his

ancestors lived for many generations, and where his parents, Christopher and Eva

(Ingeburg) Mounson, were native and lived and labored until death, that of the

mother occurring when her son was yet an infant and the father’s in 1875.  The

father was a farmer and the son was reared on the paternal homestead, where he

remained until he reached the age of twenty-one.  He was well educated in the

state schools, and after he attained his legal majority, being desirous of

devoting his life to agriculture, he attended a school devoted to that branch of

industry, remaining there two years.  After leaving that institution he became

superintendent of a farm of over two thousand acres, holding the position seven

years.  In 1881 he came to the United States, and making his way direct to

Colorado, turned his attention to prospecting for a year in the vicinity of

Silver Cliff.  The next year was passed working in a smelter at Pueblo, and he

then went to Montana and Idaho, where he was engaged in mining about a year. 

After that he spent several years mining at Leadville, and while there served

two years as county jailor.  In March, 1896, he moved to Mesa county, and in

partnership with Gavin Leslie bought a fruit ranch.  The next year the

partnership was dissolved and Mr. Mounson bought the ranch of seventeen acres on

which he now lives, paying one thousand nine hundred dollars for it.  Much of it

had previously been set out to fruit and he has since extended this area and

made good improvements in the way of buildings and other necessary equipment. 

Here he has a comfortable home with sixteen acres of orchard which produces

bountifully, his net returns in 1903 being in excess of two thousand dollars. 

On November 1, 1876, he was married to Miss Mary Pearson, a native of Sweden and

daughter of Peter Pearson, a farmer and carpenter there.  Mr. and Mrs. Mounson

have had one child, their son Nels Otto Mounson, who was drowned in Sweden at

the age of four years.  In politics Mr. Mounson is a Republican, and fraternally

he is connected with the Order of Washington.  He and his wife are members of

the Lutheran church.  For some years Mr. Mounson has been a cripple, the result

of a cave-in on him while working in the mines at Leadville which crushed and

mangled his left side badly, laying him up for a year and leaving him with one

leg about two inches shorter than the other.  Yet he has been energetic and

progressive in conducting his business, and has taken a genuine and serviceable

interest in the local affairs of his community in every line of useful activity

and enterprise. 

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

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/mesa/bios/mounson355gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cofiles/

File size: 3.9 Kb