Progressive Men of Western Colorado

For nearly fourteen years a resident of Colorado, and during the whole of that time connected with the press of the Western slope in a prominent and influential way, Isaac N. Bunting, manager and editor of the Daily Sentinel of Grand Junction, has been effective in promoting the best interests of the section and making known to the world its resources and wealth of opportunity to home seekers and men of activity and enterprise. He was born in 1862, at Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and is the son of S.M. Bunting, then living there, who established the S.M. Bunting Hat and Fur … Read more

Frederick S. Bruner, since 1900 the postmaster at Fruita, Mesa county, was born near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on March 26, 1847, and is the son of George and Maria C. (Smiley) Bruner, also natives of Pennsylvania, though of German ancestry. The father was a farmer throughout his life, and was killed by accident by a railroad train while crossing the tracks when he was seventy-nine years old. He was well known and highly respected in his section of the country, and held a number of local offices from time to time in his county. The children in the family numbered six, … Read more

R. A. Blair, one of the successful merchants of Mesa county, conducting an extensive trade at his large and well-equipped store eleven miles south of Grand Junction, near the village of Whitewater, is a native of Pennsylvania, born in Beaver county in 1829. His parents, Joseph and Mary (Henry) Blair, were also natives of that state and of Scotch ancestry. The father died at Centerville, Michigan, in 1885, at the age of eighty-five, and the mother in 1891 at the same age. At nine years old the subject moved to Delaware county, Ohio, and there he grew to manhood and … Read more

The inspiring story of the conquest, occupation, development and cultivation of the great West of the United States never loses its interest oft told though it be. It is the account of an unebbing tide of progress over difficulties almost inconceivable to those who have not experienced them, and its true and full recital would glow with heroism, be tinged with sentiment and romance, deeply shadowed with tragedy, melting in its pathos and glorious in triumph for civilization and the good of mankind. This majestic march has never halted or considered defeat. As soon as one part of the country … Read more

After years of toil and effort, and having seen many ups and downs in business in various parts of the country, the subject of this brief review is at last comfortably settled on a tract of excellent land which he redeemed from the waste and has made fruitful with all the products of advanced husbandry and cultivated life. His farm is located three miles northwest of Fruita, Mesa county, and is one of the best of its size in that prolific region. And moreover, what it is in the way of productiveness and profitable returns for labor, it is the … Read more

One of the original pioneers of Mesa county, coming to seek his fortune amid its prolific resources and abundant opportunities in the early days of its history, and impelled to the move by the hope of thereby benefiting his wife’s health, Zachariah Bertholf, of the Plateau valley, who lived one mile south of Collbran on a good ranch which he had made comfortable with all the appointments of modern husbandry and fertile through careful industry and persistent effort, succeeded in both aspirations, finding his wife restored to vigor and good spirits by the healing air of the section and his … Read more

John M. Bertholf, of Plateau valley, Mesa county, is one of the very early pioneers of the section, arriving in it when there were no conveniences of life available, and every foot of ground that was occupied and made productive had to be literally wrested from the wilderness and its savage denizens. He helped to lay out and construct the first county road in the county, and to begin many other of its works of public utility. He brought the first cooking stove into the county, packing it in on the back of a bull. Thus starting with the very … Read more

William J. Armstrong, one of the prosperous and progressive ranchmen of Mesa county, living on a well improved and highly productive ranch two miles northeast of Grand Junction, is a native of Ontario, Canada, born on December 28, 1855, and reared and educated in Jackson, Michigan. In 1880 he came to Colorado, and for a number of years worked at mining and on ranches. In the spring of 1901 he moved to Mesa county and soon afterward settled on the ranch he now occupies, being married on Christmas day, 1902, to Mrs. Amanda (Bowers) Wellington, the widow of John A. … Read more

A native of Scotland, where he was born March 10, 1846, and growing to manhood in that country and thereafter for a number of years working at his trade in its principal cities, David Anderson, of Plateau Valley, Mesa county, came to this country in the full maturity of his powers and with his perceptions sharpened by practical experience with men so that his naturally strong mind had additional preparation for the emergencies he was likely to meet with in a new country. He is the son of Peter and Betsy (Henry) Anderson, both natives of Scotland, where the whole … Read more

Robert L. Adams, president of the Fruita Mercantile Company, which is fully described in a sketch of its general manager, W. C. Osborn, on another page of this work, has had a varied and interesting career, trying his hand at a number of occupations and winning a substantial success at each. He is a native of Montgomery county, Missouri, born on September 14, 1865, and the son of William and Nancy (Oden) Adams, the former born in Missouri and the latter in Pennsylvania. Mrs. Adams accompanied her parents to Missouri in her girlhood, and in that state she was reared, … Read more