R. E. Fletcher, head of the firm of Fletcher & Peugh, owners and operators of one of the leading flour-mills in Mesa county, this state, and a man of influence and prominence in the commercial, industrial and public life of the community in which he lives, was born in Pennsylvania in 1844, and is the son of William and Sarah (Hague) Fletcher, who were also born and reared in the Keystone state. The father was a skillful blacksmith there, and wrought at his craft until late in life, laying down his trust at the age of eighty-four years. The mother died in 1880, aged about sixty years. They were the parents of eight children, and did the best they could to prepare their offspring for the battle of life, giving them all a good district-school education as far as circumstances permitted. At the age of twenty-two, their son who is the immediate subject of this writing, having learned his trade at Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, started a business of his own as a blacksmith in Illinois, where he remained and prosecuted his work successfully for a period of three years. He then moved to Kansas, and after eleven years of successful and profitable blacksmithing in that state, came to Colorado, locating in 1883 in Grand Junction, where he was engaged in the hotel business over a year, being among the pioneers of the place. Later he engaged in the agricultural implement business and in 1899 came to the Plateau valley, where he has ever since resided. In partnership with Mr. Peugh, he started the enterprise in which they are now engaged, inaugurating it in 1899. The venture has been more successful than they expected, and they entered on it with good hopes of profit; but it has been conducted with skill and vigor, laying all means of vitality under tribute and using every force at the command of the proprietors to meet the demands of its resources. Mr. Fletcher has been active and forceful in public affairs, and served the county with ability and fidelity four years as treasurer. He was married in 1867 to Miss Ellen Peltman, of Salem, Illinois. They are the parents of five children, George, Ollie, Archie, Alvin and Nonie. Mr. Fletcher is widely known throughout the county and is everywhere highly respected, as he well deserved to be, being one of the leading men of his section.
Source: Bowen, A. W. Progressive Men of Western Colorado. Chicago: A. W. Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1905.