Routt County CO Archives Biographies.....Elmer, Mathias     April 18, 1851 - ?
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Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net February 18, 2006, 11:53 pm

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     Although born and reared in Switzerland, where he was educated and learned

his trade as a butcher, and having tried his hand at the craft in Paris, France,

Mathias Elmer, of Routt county, pleasantly located and established on a good

three-hundred-and-twenty-acres ranch of his own in Bear river valley, has found

in this country and state the proper field for his enterprise and the most

congenial surroundings and beneficent institutions for a poor man struggling

forward in the race for supremacy among his fellows.  His life began in the land

of William Tell on April 18, 1851, and he is the son of Oswald and Thoroth

Elmer, also Swiss by nativity.  The father, who is still living in his native

land, farms and raises stock with success.  He is a member of the Lutheran

church, as was his wife, who died on February 12, 1902.  They had a family of

eight children.  Of these Anna and Oswald died, and Henry, Mathias, Anna, Maria

and Nicholas and Dorothy (twins) are living.  Mathias had such educational

advantages as are furnished by the state common schools.  At an early age he

learned his trade as a butcher, and at this he wrought in his native country

until 1873, then went to Paris, where he was variously employed during his short

residence in that gay capital.  In 1874 he came to the United States and located

at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where he remained two years, in 1876 becoming a

resident of Colorado.   After living a short time at Denver he moved to Central

City and there worked at his trade until 1883, a part of the time for wages and

the rest in a meat market of his own.  In the meantime, however, he went to the

Black Hills and endeavored to open a meat market, but found the Indians so

troublesome that he was unable to proceed with the enterprise and returned to

Central City.  In 1883 he determined to turn his attention to ranching and with

this end in view moved into the Bear river valley and took up a homestead and a

pre-emption claim, each comprising one hundred and sixty acres of wild land, all

virgin to the plow and without the suggestion of any improvement.   This tract

of three hundred and twenty acres he has redeemed from the waste and made

productive with the fruits of systematic cultivation, having one hundred and

fifty acres now in good annual crops of hay, grain and vegetables.  He has made

the improvements on the land himself, so that the place as it is, one of the

best and most desirable in the valley, is wholly the result of his industry,

thrift and skill.  It is plentifully adorned with fine trees of his planting and

well supplied with comfortable buildings and other structures for its proper

purposes.  Moreover, such has been Mr. Elmer’s interest in and services to the

public welfare of the region that he is generally recognized as one of its

influential and representative citizens.  On September 29, 1881, he united in

marriage with Miss Mary Geisel, a native of Wurtemberg, Germany, born on March

16, 1863.  They have four children, Mrs. David Sellers, Ida M., Mattie M. and

Emma L.  Mrs. Elmer is the daughter of John J. and Maria R. (Stoll) Geisel, also

natives of Wurtemberg.  The father was a baker and sometimes a farmer, and both

were Lutherans.  They had twelve children, of whom four are living, Louisa,

Bertha, Maria and Alvina.  The mother died on September 16, 1863, and the father

on January 23, 1889.  

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

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/routt/bios/elmer136gbs.txt

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