Rio Blanco County CO Archives Biographies.....Wilbur, Eddie P. September 22, 1862 - ?
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net March 14, 2006, 11:44 am

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     When the active, enterprising and public-spirited citizen who is the

subject of this sketch settled in Rio Blanco county in September, 1882, only two

stock men lived in the White river valley.  There were few roads and almost no

bridges in the region.  The land was in its state of primitive nature,

productive of its wild growth of little use for civilized life and yielding

grudgingly to the hand of the husbandman.  There were no ditches for irrigation

and large acreages were too arid for cultivation.  Indians and wild animals

still roamed about at will insulting the lone majesty of night with their

hideous deeds, and white men, not yet present in sufficient numbers to provide

the community of effort necessary for self-defense, were practically at the

mercy of nature’s untamed children who jealously resisted the intrusion and

encroachments of the strangers.  Mr. Wilbur has therefore the distinction of

being one of the patriarchs of the section and can look around him and see in

almost every evidence of progress and improvement a tribute to his daring,

endurance, constructive enterprise and breadth of view.  He helped to build the

first ditch in the county and also the Old Agency, Miller and Oakridge ditches,

and the Meeker townsite as well.  He took an active part in the inevitable

Indian troubles, especially those occurring at the time when warrants were

issued for the arrest of troublesome Utes in 1887.  Then he, Mr. Gilley, James

Van Cleve, and Frank Clark buried Jack Benner, Mart Holden and Edward Archie,

victims of savage fury.  He was the guide of the troop that made the arrests and

quelled the consequent uprising, and one of its leaders in action.  He was the

first juror summoned to service in the county, Breckenridge then being the

county seat.  He served as marshal of Meeker from 1890 to 1894, sheriff of the

county from 1893 to 1897, member of the county high school board for many years,

and since 1897 has been secretary of the Coal Creek school board.  His life

began in Schenectady county, New York, on September 22, 1862, and he is the son

of David V. and Norine Wilbur, natives of New York state.  In his early manhood

the father was a farmer, but his later years were devoted to work at his trade

as a carpenter.  He was a Republican in politics and both parents were

Methodists.  Of their nine children six are living, Charles E. H., Julius R.,

Bradford B., Eddie P., Aggie, wife of William Showers, and Ella, wife of Frank

E. Watson.  The father died in August, 1900, and the mother is living at Meeker.

 Mr. Wilbur attended the public schools and worked on the home farm until he was

seventeen.  He then moved to Chicago and for a number of years worked at

different employments, among them driving piles at the docks, and boating

between that city and Buffalo.  In 1881 he came to Colorado and located at

Denver where he worked at hard labor for several months.  In March, 1882, he

moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and there continued working as a laborer, finally

shipping out on the Oregon Short Line for labor in the employment of that road;

but being dissatisfied with the boss in charge, he left the train and went

forward on foot, his blankets packed on his back, the snow deep and troublesome,

and his provision along the hard and difficult way being one meal a day, and

that often a scant one.  After some considerable effort and through hardships he

will never forget, he reached Idaho and secured employment with the Union

Pacific Railroad. A short time afterward he went to freighting for the

government and in the spring of 1882 for Hughes & Adams, at the same time

furnishing hay and wood for the government under contract.  In September

following he located the ranch on which he now lives, one hundred and sixty

acres of it, adding eighty acres afterward by purchase.  Of this tract two

hundred acres are under cultivation and yield good crops, while cattle and

horses furnish his chief resource.  Fraternally he belongs to the Woodmen of the

World and politically he is independent.  On Christmas day, 1888, he was married

to Miss Mollie E. Watson, a daughter of John A. Watson (see sketch elsewhere in

this work).  Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur have had five children, of whom Ella P., Arthur

E., George D. and Mary B. are living, and Frankie died in August, 1890.  

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

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