Laramie County WY Archives Biographies.....Cameron, John 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 June 9, 2009, 8:54 pm

Author: Bowen & Co. (1903)

JOHN CAMERON.

   Enjoying distinctive prestige as one of the representative farmers and
stockraisers of Laramie county, Wyoming, and standing as a leading citizen of
the community in which he resides, Mr. John Cameron owes his success entirely to
his own efforts and is clearly entitled to the proud American appellation of
self-made man. The story of his life is easily told, for into his career have
entered no thrilling experiences, his every action standing open to the closest
scrutiny and most critical judgment of men, not an eventful life, but one that
has not been denied a goodly harvest. John Cameron hails from far-away Scotland,
and is a notable example of the wholesome' influence which the sturdy Scotch
element has exercised upon our industrial and national life. His father, James
Cameron, was a forester of Perthshire, dying in Scotland in 18S84. The maiden
name of the mother was Elizabeth McAntish;: she also lived and died in
Perthshire, where her son John was born, on May 14, 1856, and he received his
early educational discipline in such schools as his neighborhood afforded,
growing up amid the bracing air of outdoor life, strong of body and independent
of spirit and until his eighteenth year he remained under the parental roof,
contributing his share to the family's support. In 1874 he was enabled to carry
out a desire of long standing and bidding farewell to the romantic scenes of his
childhood he turned his face to the new world and entered upon a new destiny.
Reaching the United States after an uneventful voyage, young Cameron proceeded
at once to San Francisco, Cal., thence to Los Angeles, near which city he soon
secured employment on a cattle ranch. After remaining on the Pacific coast until
1880, he went to Larimer county, Colo., where he followed agricultural pursuits
about six years, thence removing to Wyoming, of which state he has since been an
honored resident. On coming to Wyoming Mr. Cameron made a judicious selection of
land on the North Platte River, twenty miles cast of Fort Laramie, taking up and
buying 564 acres, admirably situated for agricultural and grazing purposes. He
has reduced a part of his ranch to successful cultivation, besides making a
number of valuable improvements, his place and the buildings in general
comparing favorably with the leading properties of the kind in this part of the
state. He has made commendable progress in the stock industry, and from the
beginning his career presents a series of continued successes until he stands
to-day among the leading cattle men in the county of Laramie, being a practical
man of progressive ideas and supervising with the greatest of care his large
interests. He bears the highest reputation for enterprising methods and is
widely esteemed by the stockmen of this section and all other classes of people
with whom he has relations. He manages his affairs on strictly business
principles, is systematic and methodical and close attention to details,
capability and fair dealing have brought to him not only a high degree of
success, but the confidence of the public. Mr. Cameron has read much and is a
close student of current and political questions, especially those bearing on
state and national legislation. He is the recognized Democratic leader of the
precinct in which he lives and has long been in close touch with the management
of the party throughout the county. His deep interest in local and state
politics has brought him to the front as a successful party worker and in a
number of campaigns he has done much to promote the success of the ticket. From
1896 to 1898 inclusive he served as a justice of the peace while for four and
one-half years he was the popular postmaster at Torrington, holding the office
until the railroad was completed, when it was located in a station bearing the
same name. In promoting and carrying to successful completion public
enterprises. especially those affecting the material development of the country.
Mr. Cameron has been a leading spirit. He helped organize the Torrington Ditch
Co., which has proved such a benefit in irrigating and reclaiming a large part
of Laramie county, and for ten years has been the secretary of the corporation
and one of its largest stockholders. He has assisted to the limit of his ability
other measures for the general good, and his influence is invariably exerted in
behalf of any enterprise calculated to improve the moral and social conduct of
the people and advance the standard of citizenship. While on a visit to his
native land in 1878, Mr. Cameron was initiated in the Ancient Order of Free and
Accepted Masonry and has been an active worker of the mystic tie ever since,
belonging to Scotts Bluff Lodge, No. 201. He was reared rather rigidly in the
strict faith of the Scotch Presbyterian church and has always been loyal to its
teachings and precepts. He and wife were members of the church and active in the
good work of the congregation with which they are identified. Mr. Cameron
entered marriage relations at Fort Collins, Colo., on June 2, 1883, with Miss
Mary Watson, also a native of Scotland and daughter of John and Jane (McKenzie)
Watson, both her parents living and dying in that country. Two children came to
their marriage, Paul and Jane McKenzie Cameron. Mrs. Cameron died of consumption
after a lingering illness, on June 7, 1902, and she was interred in West Lawn
cemetery at Gering, Scott's Bluff county, Neb., passing over to those activities
which have no weariness with the cordial love and blessings of an unusually
large number of personal friends, who highly prized her many excellent traits of
character.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

PROGRESSIVE MEN OF THE STATE OF WYOMING

ILLUSTRATED

A people who take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors, will
never achieve anything worthy to he remembered with pride by remote
generations.—.MACAULAY.

CHICAGO, ILL.
A. W. BOWEN & CO.
PUBLISHERS AND ENGRAVERS
1903


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