Rio Blanco-Garfield County CO Archives Biographies.....Schutte, John Christian September 10, 1847 - ?
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Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net March 13, 2006, 9:18 am

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     This estimable citizen, enterprising and progressive business man, and

influential civic and social force, although a resident of Glenwood Springs, is

one of the leading ranchmen and stock-growers of Rio Blanco county.  He has had

a wide and valuable experience in life, and has learned in it the lessons of

every-day worldly wisdom which are taught in no other school.  From his ancestry

he inherits a natural force of character and business capacity—a knowledge of

how to make money and what to do with it for the best results, and his training

has made him a man of unusual executive ability and breadth of view.  He was

born in the old and historic free city of Bremen, Germany, on September 10,

1847, the son of John F.D. and Louisa (Kolbur) Schutte, who were also native

there.  The father was a member of the renowned “Black Corps” of Brunswick, that

neither asked nor gave quarter in the wars with Napoleon Bonaparte, and followed

the standards of that command during many of the best years of his life.

Seventeen other years were passed by him in active merchandising.  In civil life

also he was prominent and influential, being for a long time a member of the

local house of representatives.  He died on December 10, 1871, and his wife in

1884.  Their son John is their only surviving child.  He received a common and

high school education in his native land, and from the age of fifteen to that of

nineteen was employed in his father’s store.  In 1866 he came to this continent

with the intention of going to South America to live.  But he located in

Pennsylvania, where he served as a clerk and bookkeeper until 1871.  He then

moved to St. Louis, Missouri, but after clerking in a store a few months,

returned to Pennsylvania and located in Philadelphia.  There he was engaged from

1872 to 1877 in transacting business in foreign countries for residents of the

city, and during this period he made many trips across the Atlantic.  At the end

of that period he came west to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and opened a store.  But his

health failed and he was unable to give his personal attention to the business,

and it did not succeed, he losing his all in the venture. About that time he

received a call from Webster, Colorado, to take charge of the freight forwarding

business at that point, and four months later was moved to Leadville in the same

interest and capacity.  He made his headquarters at that booming camp until the

railroad was completed to it and greatly diminished the business of the outfit

for which he was working.  The next six months he passed as manager of the Elgin

Smelter there, owing to the illness of Colonel Sherwin, the regular manager. 

From the termination of this engagement until 1884 he was manager for C. Conrad

& Company, of Leadville, and built up their business to colossal proportions,

making a reputation for executive ability second to none in the whole Northwest.

 In the meantime, in 1882, he located several ranches on Grand river and

Piceance creek, being the first settler on the latter stream.  Along its banks

he still has his home ranch of three hundred and twenty acres, one hundred and

forty acres of it being under advanced and vigorous cultivation, and yielding

abundant stores of hay, grain and vegetables.  It is well equipped with good

buildings and other improvements, and is favorably located thirteen miles west

of Rio Blanco postoffice.  On this ranch he conducts a flourishing industry in

raising horses and cattle of steadily increasing magnitude and profit.  At the

head of his stud there he has the celebrated Belgium stallion “Rustic,” which is

well known and much sought for breeding throughout a large extent of the

surrounding country.  This is an imported horse of excellent pedigree and

record, and has many foals in the region of pronounced and demonstrated merit. 

In political affairs Mr. Schutte supports the Republican party, but without

personal ambition for political honors. On January 12, 1882, he was united in

marriage with Miss Eliza Villager, a native of Switzerland.  They have one

child, their son John B.  Although proud of the city of his birth, with its

eleven hundred years of interesting and impressive history, and its commanding

commercial importance for centuries, Mr. Schutte is fervently loyal to the land

and state of his adoption, showing his interest in the enduring welfare of each

by a strict and cheerful performance of every duty of exalted and serviceable

citizenship.   

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

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/rioblanco/bios/schutte277gbs.txt

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