Routt County CO Archives Biographies.....Koll, John December 6, 1847 - ?
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Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net March 25, 2006, 7:43 pm

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     Coming to Colorado twenty-four years ago, in the full vigor and hopefulness

of his young manhood, and bringing with him the native thrift and persistent

industry which is characteristic of his race and the habits of useful labor and

self-reliance which he had acquired at his paternal fireside, John Koll, of

Routt county, who carries on an extensive and profitable ranching and cattle

industry on his ranch of one hundred and sixty acres twenty miles southwest of

Steamboat Springs, has been of very material assistance in developing the

resources of the state and building up its interests in many ways.  He was born

at Tyrol, Austria, on December 6, 1847, and is the son of Peter and Elizabeth

Koll, also born and reared in the fatherland, where they passed their lives

farming, the father dying in 1850 and the mother in 1859.  Both were members of

the Catholic church.  Their son John was educated at the state schools and

remained at home assisting his parents on the farm until 1869.  He then engaged

in mining and followed this pursuit eleven years in his native land.  In 1880 he

emigrated to the United States and located at Golden, this state, seeking the

best field for the exercise of the craft with which he was familiar.  There he

mined for wages for a time, then moved to Louisville, Boulder county, and

continued mining three years.  At the end of that period he changed his

residence to Central City, where he kept on mining under contract until he came

to Routt county and located a ranch on Fish creek, getting it through a

pre-emption claim.  He improved this ranch and worked it four years, then sold

it at a considerable profit, after which he homesteaded on his present ranch of

one hundred and sixty acres on Trout creek.  He can cultivate with profit one

hundred and thirty acres of his tract and gets good crops of hay and grain.  His

cattle industry is his chief reliance, however, and this he pushes to the

highest development both in the number and the grade of his product. 

Politically he is a pronounced Republican, but he seeks no recognition in the

way of public office at the hands of his party although his services to its

cause are constant and diligent.  On August 6, 1875, he was united in marriage

with Miss Josephine Bitsker, like himself a native of Germany.  They have had

seven children, six of whom are living, John, Mary, Josephine, Joseph, Arthur

and Clara.  A son named Adolph died some years ago.  Having come from a land

teeming with industries and crowded with population, where all the conveniences

and enjoyments of cultivated life were abundant, it would have not been

surprising if Mr. Koll had found the wilderness of this country intolerable to

him, and he had gone back to the scenes and conditions to which he was long

accustomed.  He was made of sterner stuff, however, and having made his choice

he not only abode by it, but entered into the spirit of his new surroundings and

duties with zest and energy, and by so doing aided in creating around him the

comforts he had deserted and at the same time found his reward in his own

growing consequence, wealth and influence.  He is well pleased with Colorado,

and omits no effort to push forward its industrial, commercial and moral

greatness.  

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

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/routt/bios/koll445gbs.txt

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