Saguache County CO Archives Biographies.....Fox, Charles Brooks February 8, 1846 - ?
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net February 19, 2006, 11:12 pm

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     For thirty years after reaching man’s estate a printer, lumberman, ranch

hand, freighter, prospector, miner and saw-mill operator, and before then from

the age of sixteen for four years a soldier in the Civil war, Charles Brooks

Fox, of Saguache county, who since 1895 has been comfortably settled on his

ranch of three hundred and twenty acres eleven miles west of the town of

Saguache, has seen every phase of frontier life, and under trying circumstances,

and some of bustling activity in the midst of an advanced civilization, besides

facing death in all forms of horror on bloody fields where American valor

contended for mastery in the most determined sectional strife.  He is a native

of New York state, born in Genesee county on February 8, 1846.  His parents were

Jonathan and Sarah K. (Joshlin) Fox, who were born and reared in New York and

made Michigan their final earthly home.  The father was a tailor and worked at

his trade many years, but devoted the latter part of his life to farming.  He

was a stanch Republican in political faith, and took an earnest interest in the

success of his party.  Six children blessed their union, four of whom died,

Ella, Joseph, and Lucy and Louisa, twins.  Charles and his brother Alvin J. are

now the only living members of the family.  The parents were devout and

attentive members of the Baptist church.  Their son Charles received a good

common and high school education, being graduated from the high school at

Batavia in his native state.  On August 4, 1862, when he was but sixteen years

and six months old, he enlisted in Company C, One Hundred and Fifty-first New

York Infantry, in defense of the Union, and in that command he served to the end

of the Civil war, being mustered out of the service on June 26, 1865.  He was a

musician and his service as such was highly valued by the regiment, and as it

was almost constantly at the front, he was in continual requisition to sound the

movements of the troops, and therefore in the very midst of the greatest danger.

 After the close of the war he returned to his New York home and there learned

his trade as a painter.  Of this craft he is a thorough master, and at it he

worked several years as a journeyman in Batavia, New York, and he also served

one year as editor of The Spirit of the Times in that town.  From there he moved

to Tuscola, Michigan, and secured employment with Murphy, Avery & Eddy, lumber

merchants, until the early part of 1869, when he came to Colorado and located

near Trinidad, where he served as a ranch hand until fall. He then crossed the

range into New Mexico, and after passing the winter there quietly, began

freighting in the spring of 1870 between La Masia and Silver City, continuing

this occupation until the summer of 1871.  Removing then to Saguache county, in

this state, he passed the next two years working for Charles Hartman on the

Indiana reservation, and early in the winter returned to Saguache county, where

he took up a ranch, which he improved, then in 1874 sold it.  He next helped to

build the toll road between Saguache and Lake City.  He returned to the county

of Saguache in the fall and engaged in saw-mill work until the spring of 1875,

then bought a freighting outfit, and from that time until the fall of 1876

devoted his time and energies to hauling, logging and mill work at Lake City. 

Returning once more to Saguache county, he got his teams together and journeyed

overland to the lead mines at Joplin, Missouri, where he remained until the

spring of 1877, then moved to Kansas and found employment that fall in helping

to gather the corn crop.  The next spring he moved to DeKalb county, Missouri,

and there was variously employed for three years.  In the spring of 1881 he came

overland to Colorado, by way of St. Joseph, Atchison, and the Platte to Pueblo,

and from there to Saguache, where he arrived on October 7th.  During the ensuing

ten years he wrought at a number of different occupations, always finding

something useful and profitable to do, and doing it with all his energy however

difficult it might be.  In the summer of 1891 he made a tour of observation to

Green River, Wyoming, but returned to his old Colorado haunts in the fall, and

after four more years of varied employment, in 1895 bought his present ranch. 

This comprises three hundred and twenty acres of good land, one-half of which is

at this time under cultivation in hay and vegetables, and on which he raises

large numbers of cattle and Angora goats, his flock of the latter being the only

one in his part of the county.  Throughout his long nomadic residence in this

state and others, and his wide wanderings from place to place, he experienced

all the forms of hardships, privation and danger incident to pioneer life,

dependent for long periods at many times on wild game for his meat and obliged

to secure it at whatever hazard, incurring [t]he risk of hostility from

predatory Indians, and sometimes sharing their hospitality, encountering often

the fury of the elements without shelter, and not wholly escaping from the

avarice of marauding highwaymen.  But he maintained a spirit of lofty courage

and endurance, and now has reward for his constancy of purpose and persistency

of effort in a comfortable estate and freedom from seeking a precarious

livelihood.  From his early manhood he has loyally supported the Republican

party in political affairs, and wherever he has lived he has been an earnest

promoter of the improvement and advancement of the community of his residence. 

On April 10, 1873, he united in marriage with Miss Emma T. Church, who died in

1877, leaving one child, their son Bryan B., who died on May 4, 1901.  In 1879

he married a second wife, Miss Mary J. Tophan, a native of Page county, Iowa. 

They have two daughters, Mrs. Frank Burns and Jennie E., the latter living at home.

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



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