Saguache County CO Archives Biographies.....Neidhardt, George February 17, 1837 - ? ************************************************ 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 3, 2006, 9:30 pm Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado George Neidhardt, the first settler in the Cottonwood district of Saguache county, came to his present estate through many difficulties and vicissitudes, and even after he located on the fine ranch of three hundred and twenty acres on which he now lives, and which was secured by homestead and pre-emption claims in 1868, he found that the battle of life for him was not yet over, and much of its most strenuous work remained to be done. His land was wild and unbroken, virgin to the plow and given up to the untamed growths of centuries, beasts of prey still had their lairs on it, and antelope still bounded freely through the region. There were no near neighbors for community of effort with him, and, dependent almost wholly on his own resources, he was obliged to begin at the very beginning and build up a farm from the wilderness. But he had been prepared for difficulty and danger by his previous experience, and having his mind and body hardened to meet them he rather welcomed than avoided them. He devoted his time and energies to the improvement and cultivation of his place and to building up thereon a stock industry of good proportions and profitable in its returns, and by persistent and well applied industry he has made his place into one of the most desirable and best improved in that portion of the county. Mr. Neidhardt is a native of Germany, born in the historic old city of Wittenberg, where the religious thunders of Luther and Melancthon shook the world and started the mighty church reformation of the sixteenth century, his life beginning there on February 17, 1837. His parents were Xavier and Mary Ann Neidhardt, like himself natives of Germany and belonging to families resident in that country from immemorial times. His father passed his life in the service of the government as a trusted official, and died in 1855, the mother following him to the other world in 1861. Their son George is their only surviving child. He received a common-school education and learned his trade as a cooper in his native land, working also in breweries there, and remaining until 1854, when he emigrated to the United States, arriving in New York on September 18th. The next May he moved to Pennsylvania and located in Westmoreland county, and after a residence of two years there, came west to Iowa City, Iowa. There he became a cook and baker and remained until 1859,the greater part of the time in Iowa City and Des Moines. In November, 1859, he moved to Lecompton, Kansas, where he worked as a baker until April, 1860, then with bull teams crossed the plains to Colorado in company with a few other men. The party reached Denver without mishap, not meeting an Indian on the way, and having an almost continuous stretch of good weather while making the journey. Denver at the time was a crude and straggling village of rude cabins and tents, yet withal a pleasant place of residence to men worn and wasted by a long jaunt from the edge of civilization on the Mississippi, and Mr. Neidhardt remained there until September 4, 1861, working at his trade as a baker. On the date last mentioned he became a Union soldier in the Civil war, enlisting in the First Colorado Infantry, from which he was soon afterward transferred to a cavalry regiment, and in this he served until November 17, 1864, when he was mustered out at Denver. In his military campaigns he cooked for the officers and baked for the army at the various stopping places. After leaving the army he moved on to the vicinity of Fort Garland and engaged in ranching. But the grasshoppers were so destructive that he spent his strength for naught and in 1865 gave up the enterprise and changed his residence to the Kerber creek district, in which he laid the foundation of the first dwelling on September 27th and remained more than two years, or until February, 1868, when he changed his location to the Cottonwood country and became the first settler in that region. Here his land is all fit for cultivation, well improved with good buildings, provided with an independent saw-mill, a threshing outfit, a grain chopper and a wind mill for motive power, and supplied plentifully with water from a number of artesian wells, these improvements all being the result of his enterprise and good management, and returning to him a large profit on the outlay of time and money necessary to secure them. He also has the first water right from Cottonwood creek for additional irrigation. The ranch is twelve miles southeast of Villagrove, and is one of Saguache county’s choice pieces of property and rural homes. In the earlier years of his residence here he raised large numbers of first-rate horses for market; but his stock industry is now confined to cattle and sheep, and his chief agricultural product is hay. Mr. Neidhardt is an ardent Republican in politics, and as such served as county commissioner from 1872 to 1881, three terms. In 1891 and 1892 he was water superintendent of his division, and during the last eight years he has served as water commissioner. For many years he has been connected with the cause of public education in a leading and helpful way, occupying several school offices and giving their claims on him close and careful attention, his service in this connection covering already a period of twenty-seven years. He is prominent in the fraternal life of the county as a member of the order of Odd Fellows. On August 11, 1877, he was married to Miss Laura Hammaka, a native of Germany. They have two children, their son John and their daughter, Mrs. Dr. John Kiger. As this excellent citizen was a pioneer in opening this region to settlement, so he has been a leader in thought and action in all the elements of its progress, development and enduring welfare. No interest in which the substantial good of the section or its people has appealed to him in vain, and in most he has not waited for an appeal, but has himself started the beneficent movement. And in consequence no man in the county stands higher in the estimation of its citizens, and no one deserves a larger share of the public regard and esteem than does he. Additional Comments: From Progressive Men of Western Colorado. Chicago: A.W. Bowen & Co., 1905 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/saguache/bios/neidhard217gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cofiles/ File size: 6.8 Kb