Edward G. Barthel, now a prosperous and enterprising farmer and stock man of Garfield county, living in the neighborhood of the village of Parachute, has had a varied and interesting experience, in the course of which he has dwelt in a number of places and engaged in several different pursuits. He is a native of Ontario, Canada, where he was born in 1866, at the town of Stratford. His parents were Louis and Rachel (Kastner) Barthel, both natives of Ontario, where the father acquired and wrought at his trade as a machinist. In 1879 they moved to Colorado and settled in Gunnison county, remaining there until 1887. At that time they changed their residence to Garfield county, and there the father died in 1889, aged fifty-three years. His widow survived him eleven years, dying in 1900, at the age of fifty-eight. They were the parents of ten children, and their son John, the second born, was obliged to begin making his own way in the world at an early age. At the age of twelve he became an office boy at Peoria, Illinois, and three years later came to Colorado, and locating in Gunnison county, passed several years in mining. In 1890 he moved to the Parachute creek country and followed farming in that fertile region. Several years afterward he went to Prescott, Arizona, and there clerked in the store of Aitkin & Robinson four years. At the end of that time he went into mercantile business for himself in the gents’ furnishing and haberdashery line, and during the next three years carried on a flourishing trade throughout a large scope of country. Tiring of mercantile life, he returned to Parachute and again engaged in farming and raising stock, at which he has since been occupied with successful results. In 1887 he was united in marriage with Miss Jennie Wilson, a native of Chicago, Illinois. They have one child, their daughter Bessie. In the various places of his residence Mr. Barthel has won warm commendation for his advanced ideas, force of character and strong and upright citizenship. He stands high in his present community and has hosts of friends.
Source: Bowen, A. W. Progressive Men of Western Colorado. Chicago: A. W. Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1905.