Routt County CO Archives Biographies.....Wilhelm, Isaac A. March 17, 1866 - ?
************************************************

Copyright.  All rights reserved.

http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm

http://www.usgwarchives.net/co/cofiles.htm

************************************************



File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net March 25, 2006, 11:31 am

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     Sprung from an old Pennsylvania family, long resident in the historic

county of Berks, and for several generations carrying on extensive farming

operations there, Isaac A. Wilhelm, of Routt county, this state, with one of the

largest, most highly improved and successfully cultivated ranches in the

neighborhood of Steamboat Springs, has brought to Colorado an excellent

inheritance of qualities as a man and citizen and of well developed faculties

for labor and business, which he has put into successful and productive

operation here, thereby fully justifying the promise of his childhood and youth

and vindicating the sterling character of his ancestry.  He was born in Berks

county, Pennsylvania, on March 17, 1866, and was educated at the district

schools. From the age of seventeen he has paddled his own canoe in life, and has

made steady progress in the work.  Being practically a self-made man, he has

from his early manhood been well aware of the strength and fiber of his make-up,

and has also known the value of self-reliance and personal efforts in others. 

His parents, Jacob and Mary Wilhelm, were also natives of Pennsylvania, and in

that state they passed their lives.  The father was an extensive farmer and

dealer in live stock, and both parents were members of the German Reformed

church.  The mother died in 1875 and the father is also dead.  They had eleven

children, all of whom are living, Mrs. Henry Snyder, Mrs. Theresa Miller, James,

George, Amelia, Jacob, Jared, Isaac A., Mrs. Frank Troutman, Mrs. Frank Stout

and Mrs. M. Sheet.  When their son Isaac left home to work for himself, he still

devoted a portion of his earnings for four years, or until he reached his legal

majority, to the assistance of his parents, during that period working on farms

in Iowa and Kansas.  In 1883 he became a resident of Colorado, locating at Lake

City where he engaged in mining, working for wages and also operating leased

properties on his own account.  In 1889 he moved to Cripple Creek, where he

leased mining properties and worked them with great success and profit,

remaining there until 1902, when he took up his residence in Routt county,

purchasing his present ranch of five hundred and sixty acres, seven miles south

of Steamboat Springs. The land is all capable of easy cultivation and is well

supplied with water.  Since buying the property he has made extensive and

valuable improvements, and pushed the development of his land’s fertility and

productiveness to an advanced stage, having all his energy and all his business

capacity always in play and making every day count to his advantage.  Hay and

cattle are his principal products, and these are excellent in quality and

abundant in quantity.  As he was one of the most successful miners in the state

so he is one of the most progressive and broad-minded ranch and cattle men in

his portion of it.  In political faith and devotion he is an ardent Democrat in

national affairs, but in local matters he gives the first consideration to the

substantial and enduring welfare of his community and county.  No citizen of his

section stands higher in the public regard, and none has earned his position on

more substantial merit.  

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

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/routt/bios/wilhelm421gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cofiles/

File size: 3.9 Kb