RIO BLANCO COLORADO - BIO: GOFF, William Harry (published 1905)

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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by

Brad Goff 

bggoff@prinetime.net

April 10, 1999

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William Harry Goff 



Posted by Brad Goff <bggoff@prinetime.net> on Sat, 10 Apr 1999



Surnames: Goff, Hart, Gross



Submitted by Harry B. Goff, great grandson of William Harry Goff. If you 

have any information about this family please contact, Brad Goff, 605 

Rimrock Road, Prineville OR 97754 or email Brad. This article was copied 

from the book "Progressive Men of Western Colorado" published in 1905 by 

A.W. Bowen & Co. Page 787.



William Harry Goff



One of the most popular citizens and successful ranchers and cattle-growers 

of Rio Blanco county is William H. Goff, who is comfortably established on a 

ranch of four hundred and eighty acres, fifteen miles west of the village of 

Rangley, and is an older brother of John B. Goff, of Meeker.



He was born in Montgomery county, Indiana, on November 30, 1855, and there 

received a meager education in the public schools. He assisted his parents 

on the home farm until he reached the age of twenty-one, then secured land 

in Kansas, where they were living at the time, in Osage county, and farmed 

it, conducting a meat market and livery business in addition, until 1882. In 

November of that year he sold all his interests in Kansas and moved to 

Colorado, where he at once secured employment as a range rider for Ora Haley, 

an extensive cattle-grower, with whom he remained thirteen months.



In January, 1884, he moved to Meeker and secured a contract for carrying the 

mail between that town and Grand River, meeting the dangers of the business 

with courage and self-reliance and enduring its hardships of weather and 

privation with fortitude and cheerfulness. At the termination of this 

contract he began raising and trading in stock which he continued to do to 

1893.



At that time he moved to the western portion of Rio Blanco county on the 

state line, where he took up a desert claim which is a portion of the ranch 

on which he now lives. He has added to its extent until he has four hundred 

and eighty acres, of which one hundred acres are under cultivation. His crops 

are hay, grain, hardy vegetables and fruit and the yield is good. In addition 

to his ranching industry Mr. Goff has for some years conducted one supplying 

the neighboring Indians with needed provisions paying particular attention to 

raising cattle and horses for this purpose. He is also interested in the 

Union Oil Company, and formally had some shares of ownership in the Gilsonite 

mine, but disposed of the latter to good advantage.



In the public and fraternal life of the community Mr. Goff has ever been 

earnestly interested, being a strong Democrat in political faith and 

belonging to the Woodmen of the World.



He was married on March 9, 1881, to Miss Mary R. Hart, a native of Morgan 

county, Ohio, and a daughter of John and Mary A. Hart, also born in that 

state. Her father is a prosperous farmer and busy saw-mill owner and manager. 

The family comprises five children, Sarah, Ella, Mary, Sherman and Emily, all 

of whom are living.



Mr. and Mrs. Goff have had four children, two of whom died in infancy and a 

son named Leroy on July 12, 1883. The living child is their son Clude L.. Mr. 

Goff is practically a self-made man and has made his own way in the world. 

His progress has been steady and continual, through effort and trial, not 

showy or spectacular, but along the line of quiet and peaceful industry. He 

is an example to others in the manliness with which he has performed every 

duty and the courage whit which he has assumed every proper responsibility, 

and he is held in the highest esteem by all classes of his community because 

of his sterling worth and elevate citizenship.