Routt County CO Archives Biographies.....Neiman, Charles Willis  
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Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net March 25, 2006, 6:41 pm

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     This prominent and enterprising ranch and cattle man of Routt county, whose
fine ranch of five hundred and twenty acres, located three miles and a half
southwest of Yampa, is a standing testimonial to his foresight, industry and
skill as a farmer and his taste and good judgment in the erection and
arrangement of improvements, is a native of Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, born on
March 24, 1861, and the son of Edgar M. and Harriet (Laird) Neiman, also natives
of that state, where they lived until 1870, then moved to Kansas, and there
engaged in successful farming until the end of their lives, the mother dying
there in 1887 and the father on December 31, 1903.  With the father farming was
only a side issue, as he was a prominent physician and surgeon in active
practice, both in Pennsylvania and in Kansas.  He was also a man of prominence
and influence in each state, and was held in high regard by his fellow citizens
wherever he lived.  They had a family of eight children, three of whom, Stella,
Frank and an infant, died, and five, Charles W., Mrs. E.D. Eaton, Edith M., Mrs.
John Eaton and Fay, are living.  Charles was educated in the public schools and
at the State Agricultural College of Kansas.  He remained at home until he
reached the age of eighteen years, and then started out to make his own way in
the world, which he has done ever since.  In 1880 he came to Colorado and
located at Denver, where for a few months he clerked in a grocery.  But not
being satisfied with the outlook in this state, he returned to Kansas in the
fall of the same year, and from that time until late in the spring of 1883 he
farmed in Kansas.  His success was poor owing to repeated droughts.  In the
spring of 1883 he moved to Rawlins, Wyoming, and became a range rider for the
L.7 Cattle Company, in whose employ he remained a year, working hard and
suffering many hardships.  In 1884 he again came to Colorado and, locating in
Routt county, he entered the employ of the Leavenworth Cattle Company,
continuing to ride the range until 1895 for these and other outfits, with
headquarters part of the time at Craig and part at Steamboat Springs.  In the
fall of 1895 he was elected sheriff of Routt county as the candidate of the
Democratic party, and was re-elected in 1897, serving until 1899.  In the
meantime, in 1896, he took up a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, which
is a part of his present ranch.  To this he has added by purchase until he now
owns five hundred and twenty acres of good land with water enough to cultivate
five hundred.  His crops, which are large and of good quality, comprise the
ordinary products of the region, but cattle form his chief reliance.  He gives
his business his close personal attention in all its details and makes every
effort to secure results commensurate with his outlay of time, capital and
labor, and he is one of the most successful, progressive and prosperous men in
the industry in his portion of the county.  In politics he is an uncompromising
Democrat and to the interests of his party he devotes his continuous and most
effective energies.  He is also deeply and actively interested in all forms of
public improvement and always at the front with counsel and material aid in
every commendable enterprise for the good of his county.  Fraternally he is
connected with the order of Odd Fellows, and in the proceedings of the order he
takes an earnest and serviceable interest.  On December 31, 1900, he united in
marriage with Miss Ruby Carle, a native of Big Rapids, Michigan, and a daughter
of Judge Carle, of that state, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work.
 They have had three children.  Edgar W. died in July, 1904, and Leslie M. and
Willis C. are living.  Mr. Neiman has passed twenty-one years, nearly half of
his life so far, continuously in this state, during all of which he has been a
resident of Routt county.  He has here been employed in arduous and important
work for others, and has pushed his own interests with vigor and success.  He
has also occupied an exalted and responsible official position for a number of
years and performed its trying duties with fidelity and skill.  In addition he
has added in every proper way in the progress and development of the county.  In
all lines of useful activity in which he has been engaged he has won and held
the confidence and good will of the people, and is now justly considered one of
its representative and influential men in reference to all the elements of good
citizenship and upright, straightforward and helpful manhood. 

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

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