Ouray County CO Archives Biographies.....Ornis, Lewis V. 1855 - ? ************************************************ 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 February 25, 2006, 8:43 pm Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado Lewis V. Ornis, of Ouray county, is one of the progressive farmers, stock men and dairy men of this part of the state who has done much to develop its resources and push forward its progress with rapid but wholesome activity. He is also proprietor of the celebrated hot springs of this region which experts claim are equal in curative powers to those in Arkansas. Mr. Ornis was born in Wisconsin in 1855, the son of Harrison F. and Johanna (Corbin) Ornis, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Iowa. When he was five years old the family moved to Nebraska and a month or two later came on to Colorado, settling at Central City where the father engaged in mining. A short time afterward they moved into Boulder county, and there he carried on a farming and stock industry. Here the mother died in 1865, when her son was ten years old, and here he grew to manhood and received his education. The father now resides in Oklahoma. In 1878 the son came to Ouray county and in the locality of his present residence began mining, and also engaged in farming and raising stock. In 1882 he was united in marriage with Mrs. Sarah E. Jarvis, a native of Illinois, who came to this neighborhood in 1886, and was established on the farm they now occupy when they were married. They have four children, Lewis F., Jr., Della, Edith A. and Edna, and Mrs. Ornis has a daughter by her former marriage, Lucy Jarvis. Their farm comprises eighty acres and is devoted to general farming and raising stock which are carried on vigorously and attentively, and it also supports a flourishing dairy industry to which Mr. Ornis gives his close personal attention. On the land the noted hot springs of this county are found, as has been stated, and they seem destined in time to become as celebrated as their prototypes in Arkansas, the curative powers of the waters being equal in the judgment of competent experts to those of the Arkansas product, and the surrounding fully as attractive. No systematic effort has been made as yet to make a resort of the place, but such a movement is under contemplation, and it promises abundant success. Additional Comments: From Progressive Men of Western Colorado. Chicago: A.W. Bowen & Co., 1905 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/ouray/bios/ornis194gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cofiles/ File size: 2.8 Kb