Saguache County CO Archives Biographies.....Barsch, Jacob December 1, 1865 - ?
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Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net November 7, 2005, 6:35 pm

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

Jacob Barsch

     The institutions of America have been devoted to the production of a vast

army of industrial conquest and elevated citizenship for the administration of

governmental affairs, rather than advanced scholarship or speculative

disquisition, although the latter are by no means wanting.  But the every

circumstances of the case have made it necessary for our people to conquer and

plant the wilderness before the higher walks of intellectual activity could

receive due attention, and accordingly the most general and substantial element

of our educational system has been the “people’s university,” the common

schools, which have been forcibly said to form the sheet anchor of the ship of

state and one on which it may rely with confidence and hope.  It is supplemented

by the lessons of experience in useful labor in every department of energy and

zeal, and the result of the training is a race of men and women who defy all

danger and shrink from no difficulty in material accomplishment or civil

management, and whose achievements are the wonder and admiration of the world. 

In these educational institutions, the common schools and practical experience

in life, the subject of this brief review obtained his education, and the

lessons therein learned he has applied with such wisdom and common sense that he

is one of the leading and most substantial citizens of Saguache county, this

state, and one of the most esteemed forces in its development.  Mr. Barsch was

born on December 1, 1865, near Columbus, Indiana, and is the son of Adam and

Margaret A. Barsch, natives of Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, who emigrated to this

county April 11, 1854, and located in Indiana, where they remained until 1868,

then moved to Linn county and afterward to  Montgomery county, Kansas, where

they are now living.  The father has devoted all his years to farming, and since

becoming a citizen of this country has supported the Republican party in

political affairs.  He and his wife became the parents of twelve children, one

of whom died in infancy and the others are living.  They are Jacob, Harvey E.,

Hattie E., Ida B., Barbara, Amelia, Alice, Catherine, Benjamin, William and

Mary.  Jacob, the first born of these, began to make his own living at the age

of seventeen, coming to Colorado in 1883 and locating near Alder, where he

followed mining and saw-milling two years with small returns.  In 1885 he went

to work as a ranch hand in the vicinity of Villagrove, and by saving his

earnings was soon able to purchase a ranch in the neighborhood and start a

cattle industry on a small scale.  This ranch he has, in company with his

partner, C.N. Miller, increased by subsequent purchases to one thousand and

forty acres, and the cattle business has been expanded to large proportions. 

Mr. Miller has been associated with him in the enterprise since 1896, the firm

name being Barsch & Miller, and both being energetic, far-seeing and progressive

men, they fit well together and work in harmony for their mutual interest. 

Their ranch is located four miles northeast of Villagrove, and is improved with

the best sheds and corrals in the county.  They have conducted their business

with vigor and good judgment, and the success they have won is large and the

place they occupy among the ranch and cattle men of the county is in the first

rank.  Mr. Barsch has always taken an active and serviceable part in politics as

an earnest and loyal Democrat.  In the fall of 1904 he was his party’s candidate

for county commissioner, but owing to the large adverse majority in the county

he was not elected.  He did, however, reduce the majority against his party to

almost nothing, and this by reason of his personal popularity.  He is prominent

and zealous in the fraternal life of the county as a Freemason and a Modern

Woodman of America.  Having come to this state with nothing but his own native

capacity and determined spirit, he took the conditions that fate flung before

him, and out of them he has molded a shapely destiny and acquired an estate

well-worthy of high consideration, and at the same time has been of material

service to the county in general in aiding by intelligent and consistent work in

the development of its resources and elevating the tone of its citizenship,

meanwhile stimulating others by his influence and example to the same spirit and

similar efforts.

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

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