The life of this prosperous and enterprising ranchman has been for the most part uneventful, but has given a good illustration of fidelity to duty and the capacity for self advancement without the aid of outside help. John H. Frahm was born on August 11, 1868, at Stafstedt, Germany, where his ancestors lived many generations before him, his parents, Henry and Wipca Frahm, having also been born there, and having passed their industrious and creditable lives there. The father was a well-to-do farmer, and both were members of the Lutheran church. They had a family of ten children, eight of whom are still living. They are George, Katharine, John, Dedlef, Henry, Lena, Elizabeth and Anna. The father died in 1874 and the mother in 1886. The advantages of schooling available to their son John were neither numerous nor continued, so that he is practically a self-made man. After leaving the common schools, which he attended for short periods at intervals, he entered the German army for a term of three years, going in as a private and being mustered out as a corporal. At the age of twenty-one and the close of his term for military service he emigrated to the United States and came to Colorado. On arriving here he secured employment as a ranch hand in the service of George Sievers, an extensive cattle man, and he remained in his employ three years. By saving his money he had enough at the end of that period to open a meat market at Glenwood Springs, which he did in the summer of 1893, and in connection with that carried on a cattle trade. These enterprises he kept going until September, 1898, with profitable returns, then sold them and moved to the ranch which has since been his home and the seat of his useful industry, and which he acquired by purchase. It comprises three hundred and twenty acres, one-half being added since his first occupation of it, and is located twenty-three miles southwest of Meeker. He can cultivate two hundred acres of the tract and does it in the thorough and vigorous way characteristic of the German people, producing good crops of hay, grain, vegetables and small fruit. He also raises cattle in numbers commensurate with the capacity of the place, and finds agreeable and profitable occupation in both lines of his industry. The land is sufficiently supplied with water for the acreage under cultivation, and Mr. Frahm supplements the generosity of nature by faithful attention to his part of the engagement. He is a member of the order of Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of the World, and in political affiliation belongs to the Democratic party. Since 1903 his brother Dedlef has been associated with him in carrying on the ranch and its various interests. Mr. Frahm is recognized as a good and useful citizen, and a valuable addition to the productive energies of the state, and especially of the county and community in which he lives.
Source: Bowen, A. W. Progressive Men of Western Colorado. Chicago: A. W. Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1905.