Weld County, History of Colorado, BIOS: COBBS, John M. (published 1918)
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"History of Colorado", edited by Wilbur Fisk Stone, published by The S. J. 
Clarke Publishing Co. (1918)  Vol. II


p. 415, 418
photo of John M. Cobb, p. 416
photo of Mrs. John M. Cobb, p. 417



	JOHN M. COBBS.

	John M. Cobbs, who is engaged in cattle raising in Weld county, 
is yet active in business although he has reached the age of eighty-
seven years. He had previously retired but with the outbreak of the 
present war, feeling that he might contribute something toward 
increasing the food supply to help the government, he again took up the 
task of raising cattle and hogs. His has been an active and useful 
life. He was born in the eastern part of Virginia, January 1, 1831, a 
son of Dr. J. P. and Jane M. (Garland) Cobbs, the former a practicing 
physician.

	After leaving Virginia, John M. Cobbs became a resident of 
northern Indiana, where he attended school to a limited extent but his 
opportunities in that direction were somewhat curtailed by the 
necessity of earning his living. He early took up the occupation of 
farming, which he followed for a few years in Indiana, and in 1859 he 
arrived in Colorado when this state was an undeveloped territory and 
gave little indication of the progress that would transform it into a 
great and prosperous commonwealth. It was not until that season that 
the Indians of Colorado had ever seen a white man. All of the hardships 
and privations of pioneer life must be faced by the early settlers and 
there were many difficulties to be overcome. Mr. Cobbs made his way to 
the west owing to the excitement over the discovery of gold at Cherry 
Creek. He went into the mines and there worked for three years, while 
subsequently he settled on a farm on the Cache la Poudre river, 
purchasing one hundred and sixty acres of land. He next turned his 
attention to the cattle industry and his business affairs were 
energetically, intelligently and profitably managed. When about fifty 
years of age, however, he retired from active business life, having 
acquired a comfortable competence, believing that he was getting too 
old for further work of such vigorous character. When the present war 
broke out, however, he again started in business, turning his attention 
to the raising of cattle and hogs for the army, and in this he is 
assisted by his brother-in-law. Their business has proven very 
profitable and Mr. Cobbs displays much of the spirit of enterprise and 
determination that actuated him in previous years. He formerly took an 
interest in the Farmers State Bank and was one of its directors for 
five years. A brother of John M. Cobbs, David G., was another pioneer 
of the western frontier; he was by three years the junior of our 
subject and was foreman in the Rocky Mountain News office in 1862 or 63 
when that paper was located at Cherry Creek. This was at the time when 
the whole plant, including presses and material, was all washed away by 
a disastrous flood of the creek. David G. Cobbs was also one of the few 
intimates and "pals" of John T. Daly, Colorado's famous pioneer.

	John M. Cobbs has been married three times. His last marriage was 
in 1898, when he wedded Sarah Jordan. His children have all passed away 
and his father and mother have long since departed this life. The 
family belong to the Christian church. There is no phase of pioneer 
development in Colorado with which John M. Cobbs is not familiar. He 
has lived to see a remarkable transformation since he came to the 
state. Almost sixty years have been added to the cycle of the centuries 
since he arrived in the west, which was then dominated by the red man, 
while over the plains roamed great herds of buffalo and the white race 
had not yet made its demands for the natural resources here offered. 
Mr. Cobbs has watched the settlement as the western wilderness has been 
subdued and made to yield of its fruits for the benefits of progress 
and his memory forms a connecting link between the primitive past and 
the advancement of the present.