Biography of Sylvester Wilmoth

Sylvester Wilmoth, of Garfield county, a prosperous and successful ranchman who is settled on a good ranch of eighty acres not far from Newcastle, was born in Randolph county, in that part of Virginia which is now West Virginia, on July 23, 1851. His parents Arnold and Rachel (Triplett) Wilmoth, were also born and reared there and followed in the wake of long lines of ancestors who were prominent in the history of that part of the Old Dominion. The father was a prosperous farmer and tanner, a zealous Democrat in politics, and an energetic man in matters involving the improvement and development of his county and state. He held a number of local offices and was accounted one of the leading men of his vicinity. He died in June, 1892, leaving two children who are yet living, Rebecca, wife of George A. Dick, of Elkins, West Virginia, and her brother Sylvester. The latter attended good schools in his boyhood and youth and also pursued a course of study at West Virginia College. He remained at home until he was twenty-one years old, then began to make his own living by teaching school in his native state and farming in connection therewith. After teaching fifteen terms there, he sold his farming interests in 1885 and moved to Nebraska, a year later changing his residence to Kansas, where he remained three years, teaching and working in each place. His success was not flattering in Kansas, and so in 1889 he came to Colorado and located at Breckenridge. There he followed mining for wages until he moved to his present location or vicinity and took up a pre-emption claim and a desert claim, two hundred and eighty acres in all, which he improved with a ditch and some buildings and then sold them at a good profit. He next purchased the ranch of eighty acres which he now owns and on which he lives. He intends to build a ditch to this and seventy acres will then be fit for cultivation. At present he raises good crops of hay and all kinds of vegetables from the ground that is productive and fruit of excellent quality. The ranch is two miles west of Newcastle, is a good farming region with markets within easy access. Mr. Wilmoth is a member of the Masonic order and in political activity supports the principles and candidates of the Democratic party. In September, 1872, he was married to Miss Emma Chenoweth, a native of the same country as himself and daughter of Hickman and Julia C. (Meek) Chenoweth, also Randolph county West Virginians. The father is deceased and the mother is still living in Randolph county, past ninety-two years old. Two of their children are living, Mrs. Wilmoth and George W. Chenoweth, of Randolph county, West Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Wilmoth have had four children. Two died in infancy and Cora A. (Mrs. James Heatherly), on Divide creek, and Doyle R., at home, are living.


Source: Bowen, A. W. Progressive Men of Western Colorado. Chicago: A. W. Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1905.


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