Mesa County CO Archives Biographies.....Osborn, Jesse W. November 26, 1852 - ?
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net March 23, 2006, 7:30 pm

Author: 

Progressive Men of Western Colorado



     Jesse W. Osborn, one of the leading merchants of Grand Junction, handling

extensively live stock, grain, feed, meats, groceries and kindred commodities,

and conducting his business with a wisdom and breadth of view acquired in an

extensive and varied experience in different places, is a native of Georgia,

born in Towns county on November 26, 1852.  He was a boy of nine when the Civil

war began and his people were active and earnest participants in the sanguinary

conflict between the sections, so that he not only witnessed many of its

horrors, but bears in his estate if not in his person the marks of its burdens.

 His parents were James M and Polly (Carter) Osborn, who were natives of Georgia

and who passed the whole of their lives as residents of that state.  The mother

died when her son Jesse was seven years of age, and two years afterward the

father joined the Confederate army as a lieutenant of cavalry, and Jesse made

his home with his grandfather Osborn, by whom he was reared to the age of

twenty-one.  The mother’s people were extensive planters and slave owners, and

both families had been prominent in their section for many generations.  There

were five children born in the immediate family, of whom three are living. 

Jesse was the next to the oldest.  He received a liberal education under the

care of his grandfather, and soon after attaining his legal majority he married

and engaged in grist and saw-milling.  His father was a prominent contractor and

builder, and worked many years in Atlanta, and also in other parts of Georgia

and in the adjoining states.  But this line of industry was not to the son’s

taste and he chose another for himself.  In 1879 he came to Colorado and,

settling in Huerfano county, engaged in the cattle industry for a period of nine

years.  He then moved to Mesa county and located at Fruita, where he continued

his cattle business two years longer.  At the end of that time he opened a

general store at Fruita which he conducted nine years.  Selling this then, and

also disposing of his cattle, ranches and other property, he moved to Pueblo,

where during the next two years he carried on a large grocery store, employing

ten persons in its various lines of work.  At the end of two years he sold out

there and returned to Mesa county, taking up his residence at Grand Junction,

where he has ever since resided.  He at once opened an emporium for the sale of

flour, feed, grain and live stock, and recently he has added an extensive line

of meats and groceries to his stock, making his store one of the most general

and extensive in this part of the sate.  In political faith he is an

uncompromising Democrat, and in the campaigns of his party he always renders

earnest and effective service.  On November 24, 1873, he was married in Georgia

to Miss Zoe H. Mauldin, who was born and reared in that state and is a daughter

of Mac and Mary (England) Maudlin, also Georgians by birth where they owned a

large plantation and numbers of slaves.  The parents are now deceased, and they

left to their children a legacy of good names and the record of useful lives. 

Mr. and Mrs. Osborn have five children, William C., Florence, wife of Chester E.

Jaynes, Ora, a partner in his father’s business, Urah and Pearl.  

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

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/mesa/bios/osborn372gbs.txt

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