Rio Blanco County CO Archives Biographies.....Gentry, James C. March 19, 1873 - ?
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net February 20, 2006, 3:17 pm

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

Note:  book has photo; not uploaded.

     Although only ten years a resident of Colorado, James C. Gentry, of Meeker,

has risen to consequence among her people and won a substantial business success

amid her various interests and conditions of promise.  He was born in Ashe

county, North Carolina, on March 19, 1873, and is the son of John and Mary

(Reeves) Gentry, also born and reared in North Carolina, who are successfully

engaged in farming.  They are the parents of six children, all living:  James

C., of Meeker; Callie, wife of R.E. Plummer, of North Carolina; Thomas, William,

Jessie and Letcher.  The father is an ardent Democrat and an enterprising

business man.  Always a man of great activity and energy, and daunted by no

danger, he became an early tourist to the Pacific coast, starting many years ago

overland to California with a drove of cattle, and on the way he passed through

Steamboat Springs in this state in 1859.  The son James received a good

education in the district schools and at Fairview College, in his native state.

 He also studied law in the professional schools at Denver and Boulder after

coming to Colorado, paying the necessary fees and his living expenses out of his

earnings.  From the age of eighteen he was a school teacher for a number of

years, part of the time in North Carolina and the rest at Fremont and Canon

City, this state, having come hither in 1894.  He was associated with the J.R.

Witcher Lumber Company in the capacity of general manager until the business was

sold in 1898.  He then took a review course in law until 1900, when he began the

practice of the profession at Denver.  In 1901 he moved to Meeker where he has

since been in active practice and also engaged in ranching and raising cattle

and horses, having purchased on his arrival in this portion of the state the

improvements on a ranch of one hundred and sixty acres on Miller creek.  To this

tract he has added another of equal size which adjoins the town of Meeker.  He

can cultivate two hundred acres of his land and has an excellent supply of water

for irrigation.  He raises large crops of hay and grain and many cattle and

horses.  He is, however, wedded to his profession and makes it his chief

employment, being regarded as one of the rising and successful attorneys of the

western slope.  In 1903, on January 1st, he was appointed county attorney and is

making a good record in the office.  In political faith he is an unyielding

Democrat and is one of the influential workers of the party.  In the fall of

1904 he was nominated as a candidate for district attorney, comprising the

counties of Pitkin, Garfield, Rio Blanco and Routt and was elected by a handsome

plurality.  Fraternally, he is connected with the Knights of Pythias and the Odd

Fellows.  On August 8, 1899, he was united in marriage with Miss Henrietta

Witcher, a native of Fremont county, Colorado, and the daughter of John R. and

Salina (Foster) Witcher, the former born in Georgia and the latter in Iowa.  The

mother died in 1891, and the father is still profitably occupied in farming and

raising cattle on an extensive scale.  Of the six children born in the family,

four are living, William J., Mrs. Gentry, John T. and Walter E.  In the Gentry

household the offspring number three. Of these John W. and Eva are living, and

Mary V. has died.  Mr. Gentry has found Colorado a pleasant place to live and a

good field for enterprise.  He has been successful in all his undertakings and

won high standing among the people of his county and other portions of the state.

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

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