Bios (A-C), Moffat County, Colorado

Progressive Men of Western Colorado- Copyright 1905

Bio copies from "Progressive Men of Western Colorado" generously donated 
by the 'Museum of Northwest Colorado', email musnwco@cmn.net

Transcribed by Shelley Barnes  shellbbco@prodigy.net


BAKER, Charles E.

Born with a love of adventure, whether by inheritance from his 
ancestors or from the harmonious union of his own individual 
characteristics, Charles E. Baker, a prominent and successful ranch 
man of Routt county, and proprietor of the Baker House at Craig, one 
of the best known and most appreciated hosteleries of the Western 
slope of this state, has through life followed his bent, and in doing 
so has found abundant gratification for is taste in rambling in many 
parts of our country and meeting various phases of frontier life, 
with its attendant dangers and privations, and at the same time has 
used the opportunities thus afforded him to his own advantage and 
greatly to the benefit of the sections where he has lived.  He was 
born on September 10, 1862, at Lancaster, Erie county, New York, 
twelve miles east of the city of Buffalo, on a farm which became the 
home of his parents, Horace S. and Susan E. Baker, when but five 
acres of it were cleared for cultivation, and on which the father 
died in 1894, and the mother is still living.  His father grew to 
maturity and on reaching his legal majority he could have bought land 
which is now well within the city limits of Buffalo and covered with 
buildings of great value at two dollars and a half an acre, but he 
did not invest, because it was all swampy and the chance of its 
growing into value was remote, and at that time seemed highly 
improbable in his lifetime.  Mr. Baker received a good academic 
education at Clarence Academy near his home, and followed it with a 
special course of thorough training in penmanship in Michigan, having 
mastered in his academic career the ordinary English branches, 
science and bookkeeping, as far as they were then taught in the 
school he attended.  His mind is eminently practical and combines 
good business faculties with the power of scholastic attainments, and 
the imagination that has impelled him to seek adventures and a wide 
knowledge of the country, and the qualities of self-reliance and 
resourcefulness which make him equal to any emergency and ready to 
get the most out of any opportunity that presents itself in the way 
of business or enjoyment.  At an early age he developed a great 
fondness for hunting and when he was but fifteen years of age he 
bought a shot gun for two dollars and a half, without the knowledge 
of his parents and much to the alarm of is mother, who said when she 
found out about his purchase, that it would be the cause of his 
death.  He was in that period of his life a very venturesome youth, 
and after visiting Forpaugh's circus on one occasion he tried some of 
the trick riding he witnessed in the show, succeeding in standing on 
a horse's back and riding it for a distance of two hundred or three 
hundred yards, to a point where the animal jumped from the grassy 
roadside to the middle of the road and threw the rider on his head.  
From boyhood he had a burning desire to come west to follow his 
favorite occupation of hunting and trapping, believing he could make 
a fortune at the business.  His parents opposed his desire 
vigorously, and at the age of sixteen he determined to run away from 
home to gratify it; and by way of preparation he rolled up a bundle 
of clothes and supplies for is journey.  But when night approached, 
and he realized the difficulty of  finding a safe and suitable place 
at which to pass the night, and impelled also by filial regard for 
his parents and their wishes, he quietly unrolled his bundle and 
determined to remain at home a while longer.  Lest fear should be 
accounted his chief cause for giving up his design, it should be 
recorded that he was a very conscientious youth, with a sense of 
obedience to the commands of his parents as his ruling impulse.  One 
evening at this period of his life at home, he told his mother an 
untruth which so worried him that he was unable to sleep the greater 
part of the night, and hung like a pall on his spirits all next 
morning.  At dinner he burst out crying and confessed his error, and 
then his sky cleared and became bright with sunshine once more.  
After leaving school he became a clerk in a large store; but not 
liking the business, at the end of six months he took charge of a 
school of eighty-six pupils, which he taught to the end of the term 
for that year.  He then put in two summers gardening for the Buffalo 
markets, but finding one of the seasons too dry and the other too wet 
for profitable gardening, he determined to seek a more certain and 
remunerative employment, and went to Tuscola county, Michigan, and in 
less than a month was again clerking in a store, and soon afterward 
was teaching school in his new location.  He had as a pupil in his 
school a young lady named Miss Cora A. Miller, with whom he fell in 
love, and at the end of the second term they were engaged to be 
married.  Being troubled with catarrh and learning of the beneficial 
effects of the climate of Colorado to sufferers from that and kindred 
complaints, he came to this state, promising to return for his bride 
in five years. His first winter in Colorado, that of 1884-5, he 
passes as principal of the public school of Castle Rock, and at the 
close of the school year located in Routt county, where he took up a 
body of ranch land.  A number of subsequent winters were spent in 
teaching school and the summers in improving and developing his 
ranch.  In the spring of 1889 he returned to Michigan, and on March 
14th of that year he was married at Kintner, that state, to Miss 
Miller, who came with him to Colorado soon afterward and has ever 
since been a resident of the land of incalculable mineral wealth, 
boundless plains, varied industries, unprofitable sage brush and 
almost perennial sunshine.  There was only one white woman besides 
Mrs. Baker within a radius of ten miles of her home when she came 
hither and the nearest doctor was twenty miles distant.  But she was 
inured to frontier life and met its hazards and hardships with a 
resolute and cheerful spirit.  Her grandfather cut a trail fourteen 
miles through the forest to his Michigan land when he located on it, 
and there she was reared amid the scenes and experiences of the 
wilderness, acquiring therefrom the courage and self dependence 
characteristic of and requisite of the frontier.  Since the marriage 
she has in all respects done her part faithfully and diligently to 
advance the common interests of herself and her husband, proving 
herself a helpmeet in worked and deed in his every trial and 
difficulty.  They have one daughter, Maud S., who was born at Hahn's 
Peak on April 25, 1890, twenty-five miles from a doctor and snow 
shoeing being necessary for fifteen miles of that distance.  In the 
fall of 1889 Mr. Baker was elected county clerk and recorder, and at 
the end of his term in 1891 declined a second nomination because the 
last preceding legislature had passed a salary and fee law of which 
he did not approve.  He has always adhered to the republican party, 
but it has been his invariable custom to vote for the men he 
considered best for the offices for which they were nominated without 
regard to party claims.  While not a believer in fraternal societies, 
regarding them as more detrimental than beneficial to men in the 
main, he belongs to the Woodmen of the World because of the 
beneficial features of the organization.  He was reared in the faith 
of the Church of the Disciples, but has broadened his views to the 
belief that men should be judged by their daily walk and conversation 
rather than by their church affiliations and professions.  After 
leaving the office of county clerk and recorder, Mr. Baker settled on 
his ranch on Fortification creek, and found he had an expensive 
property to develop, as a long ditch and large reservoir were 
required to irrigate the land to productiveness.  These he built at 
considerable expense of labor and money, but his enterprise has been 
rewarded by securing to him one of the best range properties in the 
county.  In addition to this ranch and the extensive horse business 
which it supports, Mr. Baker operates two mail lines, and conducts 
the Baker House at Craig.  This hotel has an excellent reputation and 
is especially favored by those modern knights errant, the commercial 
tourists, who find in it a comfortable home for such time as they can 
spend there, with a table unsurpassed in range and excellence of 
provision, good rooms well furnished and a genial and obliging 
landlord and landlady, who are always solicitous for the substantial 
comfort and best interests of their guests.  Their own experience in 
privation and danger, in toil and perseverance, have given them an 
impressive knowledge of the wants of the traveling public, and they 
lay all tier resources under tribute to provide for those wants in 
ample measure and the best style attainable under the circumstances.  
In working out the past progress of Routt county they have done well 
their utmost in several lines of active usefulness, and in the new 
day of increased railroad facilities and other advantages now opening 
of this region it is not to be doubted that they will reap the reward 
of their fidelity.



BARNARD, Hiram H.

From the time when he was but fifteen years old Hiram H. Barnard, now 
a resident of Craig, Routt county, has been actively, closely and 
continuously connected with the cattle industry, and in his long and 
varied experience in this connection he has visited every part of the 
West, northern, central and southern, and has encountered many 
dangers, suffered many hardships and endured many privations.  He has 
met all classes of people, white, black and red, has had numerous 
thrilling adventures and some very narrow escapes, and has been 
through every phase of life incident to his enticing but hazardous 
occupation.  Mr. Barnard was born in Lavaca county, Texas, at the 
town of Hallettsville, on November 1, 1857.  His educational 
advantages were few and of short duration.  He lived in a country 
where work was essential from every capable hand to provide the 
necessaries of life, and at the age of fifteen he began making his 
own living by riding the range in the cattle industry in his native 
state.  He remained there so occupied until 1878, when he journeyed 
over the trail to Cheyenne, Wyoming.  During that year and a part of 
the next he was associated with the Swann Land and Cattle Company.  
On March 4, 1879, he began an engagement with G. A. Searight and in 
his interests he went from Cheyenne to Kelton, Utah, over the stage 
to Umatilla Landing.  There he received sixteen thousand cattle for 
Wyoming, which he brought safely to their destination.  He remained 
with this outfit until May 1, 1882, when he became associated with 
the Powder River Cattle Company on Powder river.  In the spring of 
1883 he entered the employ of Tomson & E. C. Johnson, of Sweetwater, 
at a point called Devil's Gate, and in the spring of 1888, leaving 
that firm, he became connected with the Ora Haley Cattle Company.  
During 1889 and 1890 he furnished timber for the mines owned by the 
Colorado Fuel and Iron Company at Newcastle under contract, and in 
1891, again turning to the cattle industry, he entered the employ of 
the White River Cattle company, with which he remained until 1894.  
He then once more became associated with Ora Haley and passed that 
year and the next buying cattle in Utah, Idaho and Oregon for eastern 
markets.  Since then he has continued in the employ of Mr. Haley, 
with headquarters at Craig.  He is manager for the company and is 
considered on all sides one of the best qualified and most capable 
cattle men in the West.  Politically Mr. Barnard is a Democrat and 
fraternally an Odd Fellow.  He was married on April 13, 1904, to Miss 
Anna Bassett, a native of Colorado, the first white girl born in 
Routt county.  Mr. Barnard is the son of Alexander and Amanda 
(Cathevins) Barnard, natives of Tennessee who made Oregon their final 
home.  The father followed ranching and raising cattle with success.  
He died in 1893 and the mother in 1895.  Four children survive them, 
William M., Benjamin P., May, wife of Jesse Smotherman, and Hiram H.



BOONE, George W.

A self made an very successful and prosperous man, George W. Boone, 
of near Craig, Routt county, furnishes in his career a stirring 
tribute to the value of self-reliance and persevering industry, and 
illustrates forcibly what it is possible for these qualities to 
accomplish in such a fruitful field for effort as Colorado.  He is a 
native of McMinn county, Tennessee, born on July 10, 1861.  The Civil 
war, which was then already in progress, left that portion of the 
country with all its industries paralyzed, its commercial forces 
stagnant and its people without the means to resuscitate and 
revitalize its creative and productive energies at once.  It was not 
possible therefore for him to secure much of an education, as family 
necessities demanded the utmost work on every able hand, and he had 
therefore only a few terms of short duration at the district schools, 
and these were irregular.  Until he reached his nineteenth year he 
remained at home and assisted his father on the farm.  Then, seeking 
a better outlook for himself, he made several trips to different 
parts of the west, in the hope of finding a suitable location for the 
employment of his energies to his own advantage.  In 1885 he took up 
his residence near Rawlings, Wyoming, where he found employment as 
stock tender for the Overland Stage Company.  The next year he came 
to Colorado and homesteaded a portion of his present ranch, 
purchasing since one hundred and eighty acres additional, so that his 
ranch now comprises three hundred and forty acres.  While the land at 
the time was wholly wild and unimproved, he was not deterred from the 
expectations of securing good results from continued effort, and he 
went to work with a will to make his property habitable by erecting a 
dwelling and other necessary buildings, and by reducing the land to 
productiveness and increasing fertility.  He has so far succeeded 
that a considerable acreage brings him good annual crops of hay, 
grain, vegetables and small fruits, and he has a main reliance in a 
large cattle industry which thrives on the place.  While taking an 
active and helpful interest in public local affairs, and withholding 
no effort on his needed to promote good enterprises for the welfare 
of his community, he is independent in politics.  On June 6, 1889, he 
united in marriage with Miss Margaret Walker, a native of Georgia.  
Mr. Boone's parents were Allen and Anna (Hardy) Boone, natives of 
North Carolina, who became early residents of Tennessee and passed 
the remainder of their lives there, the father dying in that state in 
1885, and the mother being still a resident thereof.  Fourteen 
children were born to them, five of whom died.  The nine living are 
Thomas, James, John, Robert, George W., Susan, Martha, Mary and 
Julia.  The father was an extensive farmer and stood well in his  
community.



BREEZE, Lemuel L.

Lemuel L. Breeze, scholar, school teacher, lawyer, and now a 
progressive and successful ranch and cattle man of Routt county, 
living near Craig, who has tried his hand at several vocations and 
won success in greater or less degree in all, was born in Jefferson 
county, Illinois, on June 18, 1852.  He received a good scholastic 
and professional education, attending the public schools, the 
Southern Illinois Agricultural College.  Butler University in 
Indiana.  Hanover College in the same state, and the State University 
of Iowa, being graduated from the law department of the last named.  
In order to get this full measure of collegiate education he taught 
school in Illinois and the state of Washington, and after completing 
the law course at the Iowa University he practiced his profession in 
Illinois.  In 1881 he became a resident of Colorado, and here he 
practiced law in Summit county three years.  In 1883 he located his 
present ranch, three miles southeast of Craig.  The water supply is 
sufficient to make a large acreage tillable, and he raises good crops 
of the usual farm products in the neighborhood.  He takes an active 
interest in the fraternal life of the country as a Freemason and an 
Odd Fellow, and in its political life as an earnest working 
Republican.  On May 18, 1891, he untied in marriage with Miss Rosella 
Teagarden.  They have one child, Willard L..  Mr. Breeze is the son 
of Robert and Martha J. (Downs) Breeze, who were born in Indiana and 
were among the earliest settlers in Jefferson county, Illinois, 
locating there when almost the whole county was wilderness.  There 
the mother died on April 14, 1882, and soon afterward the father 
moved to Colorado, taking up his residence in the vicinity of Craig, 
Routt county.  He was an ardent Democrat until the beginning of the 
Civil war.  He then became a Republican and followed the fortunes of 
that party to the end of his life, which came on February 19, 1897.  
He was a man of prominence and influence in Illinois and also in this 
state.  Both parents were members of the Christian church.  They had 
nine children of whom Charles, Nancy, Robert and Mrs. W. W. Wayman 
are dead, and Lemuel L., John M., Lewis H., Mrs. Henry Lucas and Mrs. 
Sallie C. Jackson are living.



BRYAN, Robert V.

Robert V. Bryan, now a valued public official of Routt county, where 
he has also been connected with the ranching and stock industries and 
worked at his trade as a carpenter, has had a varied and interesting 
career, having been engaged in a number of occupations at many 
different places.  He is not one of the men who abandon one plan and 
go earnestly to work on another, which is fresh from the forge of his 
imagination, or had at some former time been cast aside half 
finished, but one who has clearness of vision to see and alertness of 
energy to seize his opportunities and made the most of them, and so 
has never been long without profitable employment, and has made a 
substantial success of his chances.  He was born on February 8, 1855, 
near Hillsboro, Montgomery county, Illinois, and is the son of Daries 
and Elizabeth (Hamilton) Bryan, the former a native of Virginia and 
the latter of Illinois.  The father moved to the Prairie state in 
early life, and there he was married and carried on farming 
successfully until 1867, when the family moved to Arkansas, where the 
parents passed the remainder of their lives.  The father was a 
faithful Republican in political life and fraternally belonged to the 
Masonic order.  The children in the family numbered ten, eight of 
whom are living, Roxie, Lorenzo Dow, Amputus, Algeernon, Alonzo N., 
Robert V., Belle Z. and William E.  Robert received a common high 
school education and also attended a commercial college as 
preparation for business.  In 1867, when he was twelve years old, he 
accompanied his parents to Arkansas, and there finished his 
scholastic education and took the commercial course already 
mentioned, the college being located at Little Rock, that state.  He 
also assisted his father on the farm here until 1877 and in the hotel 
at Russellville, which was also owned by his father.  He then 
returned to Illinois and began to learn his trade as a carpenter.  In 
this he made such progress that at the end of a year he came to 
Colorado to prepare to do journey work.  Settling at Silver Cliff, he 
helped to build some of the  first houses erected in the town.  In 
1879 and 1880 he freighted between Colorado Springs, Canon City and 
Leadville.  This occupation was beset with hardships but was 
profitable.  Moving to Pueblo in 1881, he there became agent for 
Pueblo & Silver Cliff Stage Line Company, and after a time changed 
his residence to Wetmore, where he engaged in getting out props and 
ties under contract for the coal mines at Coal Creek.  In 1882 he 
rented a ranch near Wetmore, on which he passed two years, then 
rented one on Doby creek which he farmed for a year.  In July, 1885, 
he became a resident of Routt county.  After wintering at Maybell he 
moved in the spring of 1886 to Newcastle, Garfield county, and there 
he worked at his trade for some time, helping to build the first 
house in the town and many other structures.  Returning to Routt 
county, he took a contract to build the fence around Lily park, being 
engaged in the work two years.  The next two were passed in 
freighting between various points, and at the end of that period he 
moved to Boise, Idaho, and in the spring of 1891 he located his home 
at Craig, where he has since resided.  He has been much occupied in 
range riding and is considered a typical cowboy.  He has also done 
considerable contracting and building at Craig.  In 1900 and 1901 he 
was deputy county assessor, having been elected to the office on the 
Republican ticket.  Fraternally he is connected with the Freemasons, 
the Odd Fellows, the Daughters of Rebekah and the Woodmen of the 
World.  On November 27, 1882, he united in marriage with Miss Lucy A. 
Goodwin, who was born in Iowa, and who died on August 26, 1886, 
leaving two daughters, Nellie M. and Maud E.  These are living and 
have been carefully reared by their father.



CASTER, Charles

Born to a destiny of privation and toil, and for many years employed 
in humble capacities of various kinds, Charles Caster, now a 
prosperous and progressive ranch and cattle man of Routt county, this 
state, living on his own ranch of one hundred and twenty acres of 
good land near Hamilton, has met the requirements of his position 
with a brave and manly spirit, a productive enterprise and a cheerful  
willingness for every duty that has brought him success and secured 
for him, even in his boyhood, the confidence and esteem of all who 
knew him.  His life began in St. Clair county, Missouri, on October 
11, 1872.  In 1880, when he was eight years of age, he moved with his 
parents to Colorado and, locating with them in Denver, he became a 
cash boy in the employ of the McNamara Dry Goods Company.  Here he 
was also a news boy and a messenger for the Western Union Telegraph 
Company.  His opportunities for attending school were very limited, 
but he was able to get one year's  good instruction after moving to 
Morrison in 1883.  The next year he became a resident of  Routt 
county, and from then until 1897 worked on the ranch with his 
parents.  During a portion of this interval, however, he did cooking 
at ranches and for cowboys.  In the year last named he bought the 
ranch he now occupies, of which he has sixty acres under first-rate 
cultivation and on this part of is ranch he raises good crops of the 
usual farm products common in the neighborhood.  He also carries on a 
stock industry of a size suitable to the extent of his land.  
Throughout his early struggles an his later life he has been cheered 
and inspired by music, of which he is an ardent devotee and a 
cultivated practitioner, being considered one of the best performers 
on the violin in Routt county and being in frequent requisition on 
short notice to furnish the music for all sorts of entertainments.  
Thus he has also been able to contribute greatly to the enjoyment of 
others, while pleasing himself.  The lessons of his early life have 
not been lost upon him.  He conducts his business with enterprise and 
vigor, by his industry, frugality and capacity making it profitable 
and winning a substantial estate from hard and unpromising 
conditions.  In political affiliation he is an earnest working 
Republican.  On June 19, 1898, he was united in marriage with Miss 
Bridgie Kelley, a native of Leadville, this state.  They have one 
child, John Harold.  Mr. Caster's parents are Benjamin F. and Amelia 
(Stevens) Caster, the father born in Iowa and the mother in Indiana.  
The father is a shoe and harnessmaker, and, being well educated, 
having been graduated at a good college in Keosauqua, Iowa, has 
devoted some years to teaching school.  He has also been engaged in 
ranching at times in this state.  In politics he was a Republican in 
his earlier manhood, but for some years has belonged to the 
Democratic party.  Both parents belong to the United Brethren church.  
Two children were born to them, of whom one, a daughter named Lutie, 
died a number of years ago.



COLLOM, Arthur

Although now a prominent ranchman of the Western slope of Colorado, 
and devoting his energies with well applied industry to the expansion 
and proper management of his business.  Arthur Collom began life's 
duties as a miller and miner and followed those pursuits form his 
boyhood to maturity.  He is a native of the province of Ontario, 
Canada, born on May 17, 1862, and the son of Charles and Jeannette 
Collom, aged sixty-seven years and sixty years respectively, the 
former born in England and the latter in Canada.  The parents came to 
Colorado in 1871, and here the father has become prominent in the 
industrial life of the state and made many valuable contributions in 
useful labor and mechanical inventions to its growth and development.  
The grater part of his life so far has  been passed in mining and 
milling, and he is thoroughly familiar with all the details of these 
industries from practical experience in every phase of their work.  
With the attention of a true devotee to his chosen calling, he has 
been ever on the outlook for whatever might lessen its labors and 
expand its profits, and as he has an inventive mind, he has found 
abundant opportunity for the exercise of his study and ingenuity.  
Among the appliances with which he has enriched the mining industry 
is the concentrator gig of which he is the inventor.  He gives his 
support to the Republican party in political matters, and with 
earnest devotion to his allegiance he works for its cause on all 
occasions with zeal and wisdom.  During the last few years he has 
been engaged in the real estate business with special attention to 
handling mining properties.  His wife died in 1869, and he now lives 
at Idaho Springs.  Their offspring numbered four, of whom only two 
are living, Arthur and his sister Bessie.  The former, owing to the 
circumstances of his early life, received but little schooling, and 
at the age of sixteen began working in the mines and stamp mills.  He 
wrought at these vocations in his native land until 1871, when he 
accompanied his parents to Colorado and, locating at Blackhawk, 
passed a number of years working in the mines there, then moved to 
Idaho Springs.  In 1880 he and his father installed a twenty-stamp 
mill at Independence, near Aspen, the first one set up in that part 
of the state, and they conducted its operation three years.  Then 
quitting the mill, he helped to build the road between Twin Lakes and 
Aspen.  In 1884 he turned his attention to another of the great 
industries of the state and became a ranch and cattle man.  In this 
occupation he has since been continuously and actively engaged, and 
in it he has built up a large and profitable business.  After 
locating his home ranch and giving some time to its improvement and 
cultivation with gratifying success, he bought additional land to be 
the extent of two hundred and forty acres, and of the whole tract of 
four hundred  acres one-half is in an advanced state of tillage and 
productiveness.  he carries on an extensive cattle industry and farms 
his land with vigor and good judgment, realizing excellent returns 
for his labor in both lines of enterprise.  When he located in the 
neighborhood there were but few settlers in that portion of the 
state, and all the conditions of frontier life confronted him.  He 
has aided greatly in opening the region to settlement and bringing it 
to its present condition.  On October 5, 1890, he was married to Miss 
Mary S. Herrick, who was born in Michigan.  They have three 
interesting children, Verda, Ethel and Clifford.


COOPER, Byron B.

The Subject of this brief review who is one of the successful and 
progressive ranchers and cattle men of Routt county, was born at Des 
Moines, Iowa, on April 14, 1857, and is the son of Peter and Amanda 
Cooper, the former a native of Delaware and the latter of Ohio.  They 
lived for awhile in Indiana, then moved to Iowa when it was still a 
territory.  Here the father was engaged in running a stage line for a 
time and afterward devoted his attention to farming.  He was a member 
of the Masonic order and belonged to the Democratic party.  He died 
in 1858, leaving two children to be reared and supported by his 
widow.  The children are Eugene E. and Byron B..  At the time of his 
father's death the latter was but one year old.  The circumstances of 
the family and the struggle of the mother in rearing her young family 
made it impossible for the son to receive educational advantages of 
any magnitude or duration.  When he was twelve years old he began to 
work in his mother's interest and he is still doing so.  He left Iowa 
in 1880 and came to Leadville, this state, where he prospected 
without success until the fall of 1885.  He then moved to the Bear 
river country, in Routt county, and took up a homestead which is part 
of his present ranch.  To this he has added forty acres by purchase 
and now has two hundred acres.  In connection with working  this he 
farms his mother's ranch of one hundred and sixty acres, which 
adjoins his.  They have one hundred acres under cultivation and use 
the rest for grazing purposes, carrying on an extensive cattle 
business.  Mr. Cooper is very enterprising and progressive, and 
manages his affairs with vigor and close attention, seeking by all 
means that are proper to secure the best returns for his labor.  To 
the affairs of the community in which the welfare of its citizens is 
involved he gives the same energetic and broad-minded attention.  He 
is a Democrat in politics and for four years served as deputy under 
Sheriff Dug Lee.  On September 25, 1902, he was untied in marriage 
with Miss Ossa L. Haughey, who was born in Iowa.  They have one 
child, Maud R..



CROWELL, David C.
 
Born in Pulaski county, Virginia, on March 1, 1841, at a time when 
the differences between the North and the South were taking definite 
form and an inevitable tendency toward the arbitrament of the sword, 
by which they were afterward settled.  David C. Crowell, of Craig, 
one of the enterprising and progressive merchants of that community, 
grew to the age of nineteen years in his native county amid 
indications of approaching turbulence which overshadowed every other 
consideration and left him but slender opportunities for attending  
high school or preparing himself for business.  He secured a limited 
education at the district schools and remained at home with his 
parents, Joseph and Mary (McLaughlin) Crowell, like himself native 
Virginians, and assisted in the work on the farm until the war cloud 
burst on our unhappy country.  Then, joining his fortunes with those 
of his section, he enlisted in he Confederate army as a member of the 
Fourth Virginia Infantry.  Stonewall Brigade, in which he served 
until April 9, 1865, when he was mustered out as a first lieutenant.  
During his army experience he was in almost constant active field 
service, participating in many of the leading engagements of the war 
and many  of its most trying marches, taking food when he could get 
it and snatching often at long intervals a few hours of repose from 
the exacting duties in which his command was continually occupied.  
He saw all forms of hardship incident to the war except wounds and 
imprisonment, and was called on to perform all kinds of hazardous 
service.  Prior to entering the army he passed a year as fireman on 
the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad, a service also oftentimes, at that 
period and in that section, fraught with peril and privation.  After 
the war he returned to his home and went to work as a carpenter, 
continuing until 1870, when he moved to Denver, this state.  Here he 
spent nine years contracting and building, then moved to Leadville 
and soon afterward located at Ten Mile, where he opened a general 
store which he conducted with good success until the fall of 1881.  
He then sold out his interests there and took up his residence at 
Frisco in Summit county, where he carried on a hotel and livery 
business and also served as a clerk and recorder until 1883.  In that 
year he moved to Bear River and located the Ranch now owned by Cary 
Brothers, and which they purchased from him in 1888.  After the sale 
of this he changed his base of operations to Steamboat Springs.  
There he ranched and devoted his time to contracting and building 
with good returns until 1894, then sold out and moved to a ranch on 
Fortification creek, which he purchased in 1893 and which he occupied 
until 1903, when he sold it to Charles Ranney.  Since then he has 
been in active personal charge of his confectionery store at Craig, 
which is one of the leading mercantile enterprises of the place.  He 
was married on June 6, 1865, to Miss Mary J. Hawthorn.  They had 
three children, of whom Mary E. wife of William Gerrish, and Walter 
W. are living, and Mrs. J. D. Ashley has died.  Mr. Crowell is an Odd 
Fellow, a Republican in politics and belongs to the Christian church.  
His parents died in Virginia some years ago.



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