Saguache County CO Archives Biographies.....Proffitt, John Washington January 17, 1834 - ? ************************************************ 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 8, 2006, 10:34 am Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado The manly part for each of us, in the great industry and economy of human life, is to do with might and main what he can do and what fate lays before him to be done. We may have our several desires and aspirations not altogether in consonance with our surroundings, but this does not excuse us from fidelity in working toward the best results in whatever is at hand and plainly within the sphere of our duty. And those of us who accept destiny in this spirit are never without profitable occupation and the means to desirable ends. The world is our tool-chest, and we are successful just so far as we take up things into ourselves and absorb the genius of our environment. Tried by this severe but logical standard, the subject of this memoir is a very wise and useful man, in touch with his destiny and cheerful acceptance of it. He sought in his young manhood a new field for enterprise and endeavor, and although it brought him hardships and privations, arduous toil without immediate recompense, and long delay for the full fruition of his hopes, he patiently toiled on, seeing with lofty faith the end of his efforts in substantial prosperity and enduring welfare even amid the clouds and difficulties of his early struggles. Mr. Proffitt is a native of Richmond, Ray county, Missouri, born on January 17, 1834. His parents, John and Katherine (Linville) Proffitt, who were born in Tennessee, settled in Missouri in 1818, and remained there until 1865. They then, in company with his wife’s parents and their family, came over the plains to Colorado, passing three months on the journey, and traveling with mule and ox teams, and locating land near Fort Garland, in the San Luis valley. The long jaunt to this region was not without adventure. The train in which the Proffitts traveled numbered seven hundred men and three hundred and sixty-five wagons. Yet, notwithstanding its size, hostile Indians attacked it, determined to massacre the company and take their scalps. There would doubtless have been considerable disaster but for fortifications which were near at hand, and behind which the threatened pioneers took refuge and escaped the tragical fate intended for them. The elder Proffitt’s ranch comprised one hundred and sixty acres, and on it he carried on a flourishing ranch and cattle business until his death. He rose to prominence in the section, and had much to do with establishing its early government and conducting its affairs. In politics he was a pronounced Democrat, and in church affiliation he and his wife were Baptists. His wife died in 1837 and he in 1878. Four of their children survive them. John W. received a meager common-school education, the wants of the body in his day and circumstances necessarily taking precedence over those of the mind in the way of school training. In 1867 he located a ranch which is now a part of the property owned by the Curtis brothers. This he improved and lived on until 1888, when he sold it. He then pre-empted his present tract of forty acres, which he has made the best ranch of its size in the county. Thirty-two acres of it are in a high state of cultivation and it yields excellent crops of hay and grain. The special products for which it is widely known, however, are pears and apples of superior quality, which are raised in large quantities. Mr. Proffitt handles some cattle also and finds profit in so doing. He is a very progressive man and has the courage of his faith. He has always been among the first and most active in support of public interests, helping to build the first school house in the county and endeavoring to multiply the industries and products of its people by introducing the culture of bees and the production of honey among them. He is, moreover, a proverbially hospitable man, a very entertaining companion, and a citizen who exemplifies the finest spirit of the section in his daily walk in life. In political affairs he is devotedly attached to the principles of the Democratic party and gives it his continual and hearty support. On March 12, 1861, he was married to Miss Margaret Rebecca Ashley, a native of Crittenden county, Kentucky, and a daughter of Samuel and Mary B. (Swansey) Ashley, the former a native of Tennessee and the latter of Kentucky, who moved to Missouri in 1860 and to Colorado in 1865, in the same train with Mr. Proffitt and his parents. The two families settled on adjoining ranches near Fort Garland, where the parents of Mr. Proffitt died. Mrs. Proffitt’s father died in 1900 and her mother in 1890, near Saguache. They were Baptists in religious faith, and the father was an honored pioneer and successful rancher and stock-grower. Of the children in the Ashley family seven are living: Mrs. Proffitt, William T. (see sketch of him on another page), Mrs. Oscar Wilkins, Mrs. William Spencer, Mrs. George Taylor, Samuel and Lee. Mr. and Mrs. Proffitt have had six children. Of these four have died, John and Thomas, who were born and died in Missouri, Clara I. and Katherine. The two living children are Mrs. Robert J. Allen and Samuel Oscar, who was the first white child born in Saguache county. The attractive and hospitable home of the family is one mile east of the town of Saguache. Additional Comments: From Progressive Men of Western Colorado. Chicago: A.W. Bowen & Co., 1905 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/saguache/bios/proffitt229gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cofiles/ File size: 5.9 Kb