(Articles 114 - 120)
Transcribed by Lee Zion <mdmonk2@tx.rr.com>, October 2001.
Among those who have taken a very prominent part in developing the resources of Yuma county the gentleman whose name heads this article has been an active, progressive factor. He has carried on his ranch operations with an intelligence and energy that have been rewarded with a generous measure of financial success and he is conceded to be one of the most prosperous ranchmen in Yuma county.
Mr. Boggs is a native of Clarinda, Page county, Iowa, where he was born forty-two years ago. He received his education at Clarinda and after his boyhood days he devoted his attention to acquiring a knowledge of engineering. For eight years he was employed as a locomotive engineer in Iowa and spent a short time on the Rio Grande road in this state. In 1888 he settled on a pre-emption claim of 160 acres in Kiowa county, Colorado, where he engaged in farming and stock-raising. After two successful years he moved to Yuma county in 1890 and bought 480 acres of excellent land thirteen miles west of Wray, on which he is located. Again he engaged in the stock industry and farming with his well known energy and perseverance, his efforts being rewarded by the most gratifying success. In addition to his deeded land, he has the use of a vast area of free range on the east, which makes his ranch an ideal one for extensive stock operations. He cultivates 100 acres of land, on which he grows crops of corn, cane, millet and vegetables. As he makes cattle and horses his chief source of revenue, he confines his farming operations to raising sufficient feed for his stock during the months when more or less hand feeding is not only prudent, but profitable. He owns 100 cattle, as well as a herd of fine horses, all of which he handles to the very best advantage. His cattle are of a superior grade and he cares for them in such a manner as to assure for him the very highest prices on the market.
Mr. Boggs has erected a beautiful home on his ranch, and he has ample barns, sheds, etc., for his stock.
The gentleman has always been a conscientious, loyal Republican, with the courage of his convictions and ever ready to give sound reasons for the faith he entertains. Since coming to the county, his intelligent comprehension of public men and measures, combined with his active and genial personality, has been a potent factor in the councils and contests of his party, which received public recognition when the Republican convention nominated him for assessor in the campaign of 1899. A determined effort was made to defeat him, but in addition to winning his own election, his candidacy added strength to the entire Republican ticket. Mr. Boggs discharged his official duties so satisfactorily and with such fidelity to the trust reposed in him, that he was nominated to be his own successor in 1901. In this contest his majority was more than 300, illustrating his growing popularity in the county. It is generally conceded that Yuma county never had an assessor who discharged his duties with more gentlemanly courtesy and rectitude than Mr. Boggs, and he is making a record as a faithful and efficient county officer of which he may well feel proud. The gentleman takes a deep interest in educational advancement and he has been school director of his district for several terms. Fraternally he is a member of the Woodmen of the World. In his capacity as a useful and enterprising citizen, the generosity with which Mr. Boggs aids every movement calculated to promote the best interests of the county is well known and appreciated.
In April 1882 Mr. Boggs married Miss May Quinn, an estimable Iowa lady whose pleasing personality and musical accomplishments add such charms to their happy home. The congenial union has been blessed by three interesting children, all boys. Mr. and Mrs. Boggs are noted for the sunny hospitality they dispense at the cozy home, as well as for their admirable qualities as kind-hearted neighbors, and they well merit the general and cordial esteem in which they are held by all that know them.
(Photo - Residence of Dr. Thos. Barr)
Among those who are contributing generously towards the material progress and prosperity of Wray, the above gentleman occupies a most prominent position.
Dr. Barr is a native of Virginia, where he studied for the medical profession. He began the practice of medicine in West Virginia in 1871 and after thirteen successful years he moved to Nebraska, where he engaged in his profession for many years. Having concluded to abandon the active practice of medicine, the gentleman moved to Wray in 1902 and bought an interest in the business then conducted by Dr. McGill. A few months later he purchased the interest of Dr. McGill and has been sole proprietor of the store since then. He keeps everything in the line of toilet articles, stationary, paints, oils, wall paper, etc., and he has one of the most attractive stores in Eastern Colorado.
In 1867 Dr. Barr married Miss Allie F. Kincaid, an accomplished West Virginia lady, and six children - four sons and two daughters - have blessed the happy union. The four sons are now successful business men. A few months ago Dr. Barr completed the erection of one of the most beautiful residences in Wray, furnished with every modern convenience and comfort requisite in a charming home.
Dr. Barr is a genial dignified gentleman of the old school, with a keen sense of honor underlying his nature, and his well stored mind renders him a most companionable gentleman. In public matters he is enterprising and progressive, contributing generously to every movement calculated to enhance the material and moral welfare of the city. His admirable qualities have won for the gentleman the cordial regard of the community.
Among those pioneers who have taken a prominent part in developing the resources of Yuma county and promoting its prosperity, the subject of this brief sketch occupies a prominent position.
Mr. McGinnis is a native of Fayette county, Pennsylvania, where he spent his boyhood days on a farm. In June 1867, he married Miss Sarah J. McLaughlin, an estimable lady who has made his home one of sunshine and happiness. On the following month the young couple left for Iowa, in which new state they decided to commence the battle of life. They engaged in farming pursuits in the Hawkeye State with gratifying success until 1885, when they sold their farm and moved to Nebraska, where they remained for three years. In 1888 Mr. McGinnis and family came to Colorado and located in Yuma county, where he filed on a homestead eleven miles from Wray. The land was good and under the energetic management of Mr. McGinnis it produced abundant crops of wheat, corn and other farm produce, yielding generous returns for the labor invested. After twelve years of unvarying success, reaping rich harvests year after year, the gentleman rented his farm and moved to Wray, having purchased twenty acres of valuable land immediately adjoining the eastern limits of the city. On this property he erected a most comfortable home, where he is enjoying the well earned rewards of an industrious and well spent life.
But the active disposition of Mr. McGinnis would not brook idleness, and as a result of this industrious spirit he purchased the Valley Barn on Chief street, shortly after his arrival in Wray, three years ago. He conducted the livery business with marked success until last spring, when he sold the stock and leased the barn to Mr. Aten. Last year he sold his farm and it is intention to plat his land adjacent to Wray, as an addition to the city.
Mr. McGinnis has two sons - W.D. and B.M. McGinnis - who, yet in the morning of manhood, are generously endowed with those industrious and energetic qualities which distinguish their respected father. W.D. McGinnis the elder of the sons, is now the efficient and popular clerk of Yuma county.
Mr. McGinnis has great faith in the future of Wray and Yuma county and he contributes generously towards every movement calculated to promote their prosperity. The gentleman is well known in the county and he and his estimable wife and family well merit the general esteem in which they are held. Fraternally, the gentleman is an Odd Fellow, of which excellent order he has been a worthy member for fourteen years.
(Photo - L.C. Blust's Emigrant Barn)
One of the best livery barns in Yuma county, and indeed, in Eastern Colorado, is the one conducted by L.C. Blust on Kiowa street, in Wray. The barn is 60x80 feet in size and it is well stocked with fine horses and elegant conveyances. If you want to make a trip into the country on business, or take a drive for pleasure, Mr. Blust will fit you out to suit the occasion, furnishing you a team on which you can depend in the former case and a most stylish turnout in the latter. His barn is characterized by promptness and efficiency, his charges being reasonable and his treatment of patrons honorable in every respect.
Mr. Blust is a native of Winnebago county, Wisconsin, where he was born about forty-three years ago. In 1870 he moved with his parents to Nebraska, and after his boyhood days engaged in the livery business and mercantile pursuits for several years at Schuyler, in that state. In 1887 he came to Colorado and located at Wray, then a little hamlet of half-a-dozen houses, where he clerked for his father, who engaged in mercantile pursuits here. Mr. Blust devoted his attention to merchandise and kindred business until about eight months ago, when he purchased the Emigrant Barn, in which he is meeting with generous success. He gives his business his untiring personal attention and leaves nothing undone to meet the reasonable expectations of patrons. He is a genial, unassuming gentleman, who brings a keen sense of integrity to bear on his business pursuits. Mr. Blust is an enterprising, public-spirited gentleman, who contributes generously towards every movement calculated to promote the welfare of Wray and Yuma county. He and his estimable wife and interesting children own a cozy home in the city, and they well merit the general esteem in which they are held.
Among the Yuma county physicians who have acquired a wide measure of genuine popularity purely on their merits, the above gentleman occupies a front rank.
Dr. Johnston is a native of Terre Haute, Ind., where he was born in 1872. He received a classical education at Park College, Parksville, Mo., and studied for the medical profession and graduated at Barnes Medical College at St. Louis, Mo., in 1897, after which he was appointed associate surgeon and, later, surgeon in charge of the Illinois Steel Company's hospital, where he obtained an extensive experience in treating nearly all the diseases and physical misfortunes to which humanity is heir. His health declining owing to close application to his profession, in 1902 he started for the West, and after a short stay at La Grange, Ill., he came to Colorado and located in Wray.
Since he commenced practicing medicine in this city Dr. Johnston's career has been characterized by remarkable success. The gentleman has displayed more than ordinary skill in his profession, and his, in connection with his genial and magnetic personal qualities, enabled him to secure a most lucrative practice in a very short time. In his office he has all the best medical and surgical appliances known to science, including a Morton-Winishurst-Holtz Influence Machine for therapeutical and X-ray purposes. This machine gives transparency to any part of the human system and is simply invaluable in cases of fractured bones and many other ailments of the body, and in the application of electricity, which is now conceded by medical science to be a most efficacious factor in the treatment of many diseases. It is claimed to be superior to any other machine.
In addition to his growing practice throughout the county, Dr. Johnston is assistant surgeon of the Burlington railway, and his professional future seems indeed promising.
Dr. Johnston is a member of the National Auxiliary congressional and legislative committee of the American Medical Association and a member of the Colorado Medical Legislative League.
In 1900 the gentleman married Miss Laura B. Briggs, a charming La Grange, Ill., lady, and they have two interesting children.
As a useful private citizen, as well as a skilled physician, Dr. Johnston has won a pronounced degree of popularity in this county, and he and his estimable wife well merit the general esteem in which they are held.
(Photo - Cattle Scene on Fred D. Johnson's Ranch)
The above gentleman, who is a native of New Hampshire, came to Yuma county eighteen years ago, and since then he has been a most prominent and potent factor in developing the resources of both city and county.
In the city Mr. Johnson owns a very extensive lumber yard, which is well stocked with lumber and other building materials of all kinds, posts, barbed wire, etc. He keeps also, a full stock of all kinds of agricultural implements which he offers at very low prices. He supplies coal in any quantities desired, delivered promptly on the most reasonable terms.
In addition to his business in the city, the gentleman is one of the most extensive and successful ranchmen in the county. He owns 1,500 acres of choice grazing and farming lands, which are peculiarly well adapted for the cattle industry. In addition to this he controls many thousands of acres of free range, on which buffalo, gramma and other nutritious native grasses grow luxuriantly. On an average Mr. Johnson keeps about 800 cattle, a large herd, each, of horses and hogs. As the accompanying engraving indicates, his cattle are well bred and unusually valuable, and he has become noted for the excellence of his horses. His ranch situated adjacent to the northern boundary of Wray, is very valuable, as much of it is situated in the valley of the Republican river, the stream flowing through it. Mr. Johnson is untiring in his industry and his energy is unceasing. The vigilant and vigorous personal attention he bestows on his business is one of the chief secrets of his remarkable success and the reputation he has acquired as a shrewd and progressive business man.
The gentleman owns one of the most beautiful homes in Wray, where he is recognized as an honorable business man and a most useful citizen.
It is conceded by all who are conversant with the facts, that in every trait that conduces to the moral welfare and material prosperity of a community, the citizenship of Yuma county occupies a front rank, and among those who have contributed generously to the advancement of this favored portion of Colorado there are few, if any, who are entitled to a more marked degree of credit than that genial gentleman and prince of "good fellows," Hon. John S. Gardner.
Mr. Gardner is a native of Ohio, where he was born on a farm in March, 1856. When of age he went to Wisconsin for a few years and engaged in farming. After three years in the latter occupation he moved to Iowa, where he remained one year. Then he went to Seward county, Nebraska, where he devoted his attention to farming, cattle and hogs, in which he continued for thirteen years with marked success. In 1887 he sold his Nebraska property and came to Colorado, locating within five miles of Yuma, at that time the chief town of what is now Yuma county. He bought 160 acres of fine land and again engaged in the stock business, as well as general farming. Of course, to a gentleman of Mr. Gardner's energy and progressive ideas 160 acres of land constituted only a "garden patch," and soon he commenced adding to his possessions from time to time, as the opportunity presented. Now he owns 2,000 acres of as desirable land as can be founding his section of the country, and like Oliver Twist, he is yet "crying for more." Mr. Gardner understands his business thoroughly, and, with the gentleman's untiring energy and persevering industry, it may be needless to say that his seventeen years in Yuma county have been crowned with the most gratifying success in the best sense of the term. He has had as high as 450 cattle, but his intelligent comprehension of the "eternal fitness of things" impelled him to sell freely when prices were high, and now, when the market is much depressed, he owns only 250, but a herd of fine graded animals they are. He cultivates 250 acres of land, for which purpose he owns twelve horses. Almost invariably he has garnered good crops, the yield running as high as 25 bushels and acre for wheat, 20 bushels for corn and three tons for cane and millet per acre. While many others in that section of the county insist that general farming will not pay, it has been the foundation, in a great measure of Mr. Gardner's remarkable success. He has unlimited faith in stirring the soil in connection with large herds of well bred cattle and his gratifying career justifies his confidence.
In public matters Mr. Gardner has taken a leading part since his arrival in the county. He organized the school district in which he lives, and has been its treasurer since its organization. In 1901, he was nominated county commissioner on the Republican ticket, and although the general result was decidedly "mixed" he was elected by a handsome majority. As county commissioner he has discharged his official duties with an honesty of purpose and fidelity to the trust imposed in him, that challenge the admiration of even his political opponents. He has displayed no partiality or sectionalism, and we feel assured that in the coming campaign of 1904 he will receive that renomination for a second term, which his eminent services so richly merit, and while his election may not be quite unanimous, it ought to be nearly so.
Mr. Gardner owns a cozy home on his ranch, which is supplied generously with the luxuries, as well as the comforts of life, in addition to which he owns a desirable house and lot in the town of Yuma.
In 1878 Mr. Gardner married Miss Clara Penn an accomplished Wisconsin lady, whose estimable qualities of mind and heart have surrounded their home with the sunshine of happiness. The grandfather of Mrs. Gardner was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and she is a worthy scion of a noble stock. Her father was a veteran of the civil war. The union of this couple has been blessed by four children - one son and three daughters. Burr, now in the morning of manhood, is aiding his father to manage the ranch, and the future of the genial young man is certainly promising. Miss Pearl Gardner, the eldest daughter, who is a charming young lady, is a popular school teacher in the county. Miss Ada is attending the state normal school at Greeley, and Miss Myrtle is at home with her mother. Mr. and Mrs. Gardner have bestowed a liberal education on all their children. The hospitality dispensed in this happy home is widely known because of its generous and genuine character.
While Mr. Gardner is modest and unassuming, he is one of the most genial and companionable of gentleman. In public matters he is enterprising and progressive, and in every movement calculated to advance the moral and material interests of the county he takes a generous part. He and his admirable wife and family well merit the popularity and prosperity they are enjoying.