Pitkin County CO Archives Biographies.....Gagnon, Thomas October 24, 1855 - ?
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net February 20, 2006, 2:40 pm

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     Although a Canadian by birth, and reared and educated to the age of

seventeen in the Dominion, Thomas Gagnon, of Pitkin county, living near Watson,

is a thorough citizen of the United States now and in full sympathy with the

institutions and the people of this country.  He was born in the province of

Quebec on October 24, 1855, and is the son of Samuel and Emma Gagnon, also

Canadians in nativity.  The parents were prosperous farmers in that country and

devoted members of the Catholic church.  The mother died in 1894 and the father

is still living.  In political matters he supports the Liberal party.  They were

the parents of ten children, of whom six are living, Thomas, August, Joseph,

Samuel, Lewis and Amanda, the wife of Theodore Leo.  The opportunities for

attending school afford to Thomas were few and irregular.  At the age of

fourteen, being obliged to make his own way in the world, and not unwilling to

do it, he went to Upper Canada, and there he worked three years in the lumber

camps at a compensation of twenty dollars a month and his board.  In 1872 he

crossed the line into the United States and located at Saginaw, Michigan.  After

a residence of several years in that city, in 1880 he came to Colorado and

engaged in saw-mill work at Denver in the interest of John Morrison, receiving a

wage of thirty-five dollars a month and his board.  At the end of the first year

of his residence here he formed a company and went to Gunnison to conduct a

saw-mill business of his own.  The venture was not very successful, and he next

turned his attention to prospecting and mining, which he followed until 1893,

then located at Aspen, where he was occupied in planing and shingle mill work

for six months.  The ensuing twelve years were passed in mining, part of the

time for wages and part on his own account.  He then bought a ranch near the one

he now owns and conducts, and after working on it five years sold his interest

to Philip Robichand, his partner in the enterprise.  In 1896 he purchased his

present ranch of one hundred and sixty acres, about half of which is under

productive cultivation and yields abundant crops of hay, grain and vegetables. 

He also raises cattle and horses of good grades for the markets, and in all

lines of his enterprise on this land he is successful and progressive.  His hay

is of exceptionally fine quality, and has a wide reputation for its excellence.

 Although independent in politics he is active and earnest in all undertakings

for the welfare of his district and county, and his breadth of view and general

intelligence are such in reference to public matters that for a number of years

he was chosen to serve as road commissioner for Pitkin county, and the excellent

roads he built while occupying this position gave abundant evidence of the

wisdom of the choice of a commissioner.  On November 17, 1891, he was married to

Miss Bertha Maurin, a native of Trumbull county, Ohio, and daughter of John and

Mary (Fontille) Maurin, natives of France, where the father served as a soldier

seven years, then engaged in coal mining.  In 1865 they came to the United

States and settled at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where he was employed in the same

industry until 1868.  They then moved to Ohio and remained twenty years, he all

the while mining coal.  In 1888 they came to Colorado and took up their ranch on

Capitol creek in Pitkin county, where the father died on March 7, 1900, and the

mother January 30, 1905, aged sixty-two years, seven months and seven days. 

Mrs. Maurin continued to reside on the home ranch after the death of her husband

until a few weeks prior to her death, which occurred at the home of Mr. Raymond,

near Aspen, where she had been some weeks taking treatment.  Mrs. Maurin was a

devoted wife and mother, highly esteemed neighbor and friend.  The father was an

independent in politics, and both parents belonged to the Catholic church.  They

had a family of eleven children, eight of whom are living, six sons and two

daughters, all at home except Mrs. Tom Gagnon. Mr. and Mrs. Gagnon have five

children, viz:  Frederick, May, Bertha, Thomas and Albert.  During the last

three years Mrs. Gagnon has been a member of the school board, and has rendered

valuable and efficient service to the cause of education in that position,

having been re-elected on May 1, 1905, for another term of three years.   

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

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/pitkin/bios/gagnon153gbs.txt

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