Kent County MI Archives Biographies.....Skiff, Wilson A 1851 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Pat McArthur http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00025.html#0006091 February 13, 2009, 4:06 pm

Author: Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, 1899

"Portrait and Biographical Record of the State of Colorado, Containing 
Portraits and Biographies of many well know Citizens of the Past and Present"
Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, 1899
Page 1300

During the year that he arrived in Colorado, 1886, Mr.
Skiff settled in Eagle County, and took up a pre-emption claim
on Gypsum Creek.  In July, 1887, he took up a homestead, upon
which was later built a portion of the Village of Gypsum.  In
1890 he erected the first hotel in the town.  Many of the
enterprises of the infant town received his assistance and to
more than one of them he contributed his time and means.  The
village is now growing and bids fair to become an important
town at no distant day.

The Skiff family was founded in America by William Skiff, a
native of Scotland and a farmer. He was connected with people
of the same name who settled in Massachusetts from Scotland in
1637, but he was the first of his branch of the family that
crossed the ocean.  His son, William, Jr., was born in New
Hampshire, and in youth settled in Pennsylvania, where he
engaged in farming.  While he never held public office, he
took an active part in local politics and always voted the
Democratic ticket.  He died in the 1872, when fifty-nine years
of age.

The marriage of William Skiff, Jr., united him with Miss
Lucinda May, a native of New Hampshire, born in 1810.  She was
a daughter of Gilbert May, who was killed by the falling of a
tree when she was small. Her death occurred in 1888.  Of her
family, Franklin, now a lumber merchant in Pennsylvania,
served for four years as a member of the Eighteenth
Pennsylvania Cavalry; Hiram, a farmer, died in 1878; Silas G.,
a farmer in Pennsylvania, died in 1883; Mathewson is engaged
in farming in Crawford County, Pa.; Francis M. came to
Colorado in 1878 and is engaged in mining; William A., of
Denver, has been connected with the Consolidated Ice Company
of that city since 1883; Charles E. carries on a lumber
business in Warren County, Pa.; and Fidelia M. is the wife of
Russel Harvey, of Crawford County, Pa.

When twenty-one years of age our subject started out in
life for himself, and engaged in farming and later in the oil
business.  In 1876 he settled in Kent County, Mich., where he
spent ten years in farming.  He then came to Colorado and
settled in Eagle County, where he still resides.  He gives his
attention closely to his business affairs, and has little
inclination to mingle in politics, although he never fails to
vote at elections and uniformly supports Democratic candidates
for the presidency.

In 1873 Mr. Skiff married Miss Dell Alexander, who was born
in Pennsylvania, but was reared and educated in Lowell, Mich.
Her parents, Willard and Eunice (Braisted) Alexander,
continued to reside upon a farm in Michigan until they died.
They had a family of three sons and four daughters, of whom
one daughter died in Colorado in 1893. Samuel and Willard are
farmers in Michigan and Charles H. is a merchant in Lowell,
that state;  Miranda is the wife of Samuel Smith, a farmer of
Pennsylvania; and Mary married Joseph Morgan, of Pennsylvania.
Mr. and Mrs. Skiff have two sons, Guy and Harvey, both of whom
are in school.


Additional Comments:
NOTE:  There is no birth date listed for Wilson A. Skiff - it is only 
estimated at about 1851.  This is submitted primarily for biographical 
information on his ancestors and in-laws.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/kent/bios/skiff190nbs.txt

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