Saguache County CO Archives Biographies.....Wales, Otis A. May 9, 1840 - ?
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Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net March 8, 2006, 1:55 pm

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     Wales Brothers.  This firm of leading ranch and stock men, which is widely

known and highly esteemed all over Saguache and the surrounding counties of

Colorado, and occupies a place of commanding prominence and influence in the

lines of business in which it is engaged, is composed of Otis A. and Edwin

Wales, sons of Harrison G. and Elizabeth (Snell) Wales, the father born at

Newton, Massachusetts, on March 3, 1812, and the mother in Ohio on January 10,

1822.  In 1847 they moved from Illinois to Newton, Massachusetts, where they

remained until 1853, then returned to the former state.  Here they lived until

1867, when the mother died, and three years later the father joined his sons in

Colorado, and became interested with them in the ranch and stock industry in

which they were engaged, forming a partnership with them which lasted until his

death, on Christmas day, 1889.  Prior to this, however, in August, 1862,

although then fifty years of age, he enlisted in Company G, Eighty-ninth

Illinois Infantry, serving in that command to the close of the Civil war.  He

was an earnest and active Republican in political affairs, and serviceable in

local interests.  Five of the children in the family are living, Henry H., Otis

A., Edwin M., Mrs. A. Shellabarger and Mrs. William Shellabarger.  The senior

member of the present firm, and the older of the two sons who compose it, Otis

A. Wales, was born in Knox county, Illinois, on May 9, 1840.  he was educated at

the district schools, and remained at home until his enlistment in defense of

the Union at the beginning of the Civil war, entering Company D, Seventeenth

Illinois Infantry, as a private, and coming out at the end of his term as a

corporal.  He was discharged on May 24, 1864, after seeing considerable hard and

dangerous service and participating in numerous important engagements.  After

his discharge he located at Altona, Illinois, where he remained until 1866,

then, in company with Gordon Edgerton, he started overland to Colorado, the

route of the party being by way of Hannibal, St. Joseph and Atchison.  At the

last named place they procured mule teams and with that outfit pursued their

weary way to Denver, sixty days being required to make the trip.  From Denver

Mr. Wales went on foot to Park county, and without money to buy provisions along

the way, the fifty dollars with which he left home having been exhausted.  He

reached the old Buckskin Joe mine, and there he secured work in helping to build

the plant for the Philadelphia Gold Mining Company, the construction taking

three weeks.  After that he was occupied in hauling supplies until January 1,

1867, then until April chopped wood for Thomas Laughlin, who had a contract for

supplying the wood needed in the mines.  From April to August he worked in the

mines owned by Berg & Parks, and the ensuing winter he passed at Cheyenne,

Wyoming, where he did carpenter work for good wages.  In April, 1868, he

returned to the Buckskin Joe mine and found employment there until August. Soon

afterward the mine froze up, and an outbreak of the nearby Indians drove all the

people to Breckenridge for safety. Mr. Wales went to Breckenridge, but soon

afterward procured an ox team and a pony, and with this outfit moved into

Saguache county, looking for a location as a permanent residence and business. 

He was pleased with the region in which he now lives and took a squatter’s right

to a tract of land there, which he after the government survey, pre-empted and

homesteaded, and which is a part of the ranch he and his brother now occupy. 

Since then he and his brother, Edwin Wales, have been among the enterprising and

progressive ranchmen and stock-growers of the county, and their success in these

lines has been continuous and steadily increasing in magnitude.  Their business

was small at the start, but they had the real fiber of energetic men and good

business capacity, and using all the means available for their benefit, and the

shrewdness and breadth of view which they so largely possess by natural

endowment and experience, they have expanded their operations, enlarged their

ranch and improved their methods, until they are in the front rank of the

business in both the extent of their dealings and the quality of their products.

 They have been especially energetic and far-seeing in their efforts to improve

the standards of stock in their own and the surrounding counties, raising

full-blooded Shorthorn bulls for sale to cattle breeders, and keeping their own

herds unmixed in this breed and all their cattle in prime condition at all

times.  They raise cattle on an extensive scale, and produce more thoroughbred

Shorthorns than any one else in the county.  Their ranch comprises twelve

hundred acres, of which one hundred acres are devoted to grain, four hundred to

hay and the remainder to grazing.  The ranch is all enclosed with good fences,

several beautiful streams flow through it, from each of which they have water by

the first right, the dwelling is a fine modern house of large proportions and

attractive architecture, and the barns and other structures are as good as can

be found in this part of the state.  The place is nine miles northeast of the

town of Moffat, and it is known far and wide as one of the most hospitable and

comfortable country homes in Colorado. Mr. Wales has always taken a good

citizen’s active and serviceable interest in politics and local affairs.  He is

a pronounced Republican, of unwavering loyalty to his party, but in local

matters his first and chief concern is the general welfare of the community, and

for the promotion of this he is always ready to give time, effort and material

assistance.  When their father was associated in the business with them the firm

controlled two thousand one hundred acres of land, all of which belonged to it.  

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

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