Montrose County CO Archives Biographies.....Sampson, Robert 1858 - ?
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net March 26, 2006, 9:24 am

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     Reared to rural life in the Emerald Isle, where a snug cottage and a few

pliant acres are all the ordinary farmer can hope for, it is characteristic of

the flexibility and scope of the mental outfit of his people that Robert

Sampson, of Montrose, was able to easily embrace and properly use the

opportunities for agricultural pursuits offered in the western part of the

United States, where miles rather than acres form the unit of measure and

nothing is small or cramped, the spirit of our institutions being in due

proportion to the spread of our territory.  He was born in county Down, north of

Ireland, in 1858, the son of William and Mary (McCoule) Sampson, whose

forefathers were for many generations tillers of the generous soil of that

bright little island, the home of gallant men and winsome ladies, the land of

poetry and song.  His father, following the family vocation, was a farmer there,

and died in 1877, aged sixty years.  The mother was the daughter of Robert and

______ (Allen) McCoule, also farmers and the descendants of long lines of

farmers in the northern part of the country.  She died, leaving as her offspring

five daughters and three sons, Robert being the oldest of the sons.  He was

reared and educated in his native county, and looked forward, doubtless, to

settling down there to the occupation of his people, and with little prospect of

fame or fortune beyond their own.  And in fact, after reaching years of maturity

he did engage in farming for a year or two near his home.  At the age of

twenty-three, however, he heard the voice of nature within him calling him to

larger opportunities in a foreign land, and turned with eager longing and high

hopes to the land across the sea wherein so many of his countrymen have won

distinction and wealth, and have rendered signal service to the cause of human

progress.  Accordingly, on the last day of April, 1870, he set sail for the

United States, and on the 23d day of May following he landed at New York.  Soon

after he went to the state of Delaware where he remained three months, then

transferred his energies to the vicinity of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, where for

twenty-two months he was employed on a farm.  He then entered the employ of the

Pennsylvania Railroad as a fireman, and in that capacity and as an engineer he

served that great corporation until February, 1884.  On the 22d of that month he

reached Montrose, this state, and purchasing one hundred and sixty acres of sage

brush land, all unimproved and virgin to the plow, he turned his attention to

general farming and raising stock.  His first work was, however, one of toil and

faith.  It was necessary to get a portion of the land into condition for

cultivation and await results, and to this he addressed himself with ardor and

confidence.  After making considerable progress in this direction with his first

tract, he purchased an addition of one hundred and twenty acres of similar land

and began to improve and fertilize that.  He has been constant and assiduous in

his industry, while wide-awake and intelligent in the application of his labor,

and far-seeing enough to build and work for results of magnitude and permanency

rather than for immediate returns of small value; and time has demonstrated the

wisdom of his course.  He now has a body of the finest grain land in the county,

and his stock, principally trotting horses of the Hambeltonian and Messenger

strains, is worthy of the pride he feels in it.  He was married in 1876 to Miss

Maggie Westbrook, a native of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, whose parents were also

natives of that state and lived there all their lives, the father being a train

dispatcher for the Pennsylvania Railroad.  They have five children living,

Sarah, George, Morgan, Thomas and Katie, and one, William, deceased.  While

improving his own fortunes with diligence and judgment, Mr. Sampson has not

neglected the claims of the community, but has been a forceful factor in its

proper development and progress.  

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

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