JOHN ALFRED MELBURN.
Mardos Collection
JOHN ALFRED MELBURN.
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 939
rival in Boulder County. The one hundred and sixty acres lay on the creek bottom, and was valuable, fertile land. In the summer he worked in the mines at Blackhawk, but soon returned to his farm and began its improvement. In 1875 he sold his farm to W. H. Dickens and for four years afterward operated rented land. In 1879 he bought his present place, two miles east of Longmont. The place then consisted of one hundred and sixty acres, but in 1892 he sold eighty acres to the canning factory owners, who planted the land to currants, making the largest currant field in the world.
Six children were born to the union of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew, but only two of these survive. They are Luella and William. Those deceased were: Sarah, Rebecca, Fannie and one that died unnamed. Mrs. Andrew is a devoted member of the Episcopal Church, to which Mr. Andrew, though not a member, contributes generously and which he attends regularly. Both he and his wife exert a personal influence for good among those with whom they associate. They are charitable, ever ready to assist the poor and needy. In disposition both are domestic, quiet and unassuming, and have a host of warm personal friends.
OHN ALFRED MELBURN. No better example of the fruits to be derived from thrift and industry can be found in the history of Elbert County than in the life of the gentleman named above, who is proprietor of the Native hay and stock farm, which consists of one thousand and eight hundred acres on section 20, township 10 south, range 64 west, and one of the most progressive and influential citizens of the community. From a humble start in life, when he did not possess a cent, he has gradually ascended the ladder of life until he occupies his present enviable standing among Elbert County's leading and most prominent men. He is a son of William H. and Mary (Pearson) Melburn, and was born in Newburgh, Upper Canada, October 25, 1847.
William H. Melburn was born in England, and was brought to this country by his parents when a mere child, locating in Canada, where he was engaged in agricultural pursuits through life. He closed his eyes in final sleep May 8, 1894. He married Mary Pearson, who was also born in England, and emigrated to America with her parents during childhood. She is now enjoying life at an advanced age, residing with a daughter in Napanee, Canada.
John Alfred Melburn's boyhood days were spent in the same manner as most other farmer boys, performing chores while not in attendance at school. He obtained a fair schooling, and at the age of eighteen years became apprenticed to the trade of a blacksmith, at which he continued for a period of four years; for the first year his services brought $30 and board, the second $40 and board, the third $50 and board, and during the remainder of the time he received the regular wages of a journeyman. Being ambitious by nature, he desired to better his condition, and realizing the advantages offered in the western states, he started across the plains to San Francisco. Upon reaching Denver in midwinter, he was without any means whatever, and all efforts to secure employment proved futile for a time, but perseverance finally conquered, and he received a position which paid $4 per day, through the kindness of William Childs, who generously took him to his home about six miles from Denver for a month. He faithfully retained that position until his health became poor, when he went to work upon a milk ranch and continued for about two years. During that time he acquired one hundred and sixty acres where his estate now lies. Upon the expiration of that time he returned to Canada for a visit, and upon going back to Colorado located on his homestead. He was still in poor circumstances. Upon his property he built a small log hut, a crude affair, in which he lived alone and did his own housework. However, Dame Fortune was kind and smiled upon his every effort. He added many improvements to the place, erected a blacksmith shop, and plied his trade with good results. he also raised cattle, and by successful management accumulated considerable wealth and added to his estate, until he now owns nearly eighteen hundred acres of valuable land, known as the Native hay and stock farm, located four miles south of the town of Elbert. He has a fine herd of high-grade Shorthorns, which are the admiration of all. The success which has attended our subject's efforts is richly deserved, and by his
940
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. honest and straightforward dealings he has won the respect and esteem of a large circle of acquaintances.
August 20, 1879, Mr. Melburn married Miss Maggie Hughes, who was born in England March 30, 1853. Her parents died when she was quite young, and she came to America and lived with her uncle and aunt, when the latter located in Philadelphia, Pa. Owing to ill health, she moved to Colorado at the age of sixteen years with Mr. and Mrs. Newkirk, a wealthy family of Philadelphia. Subsequently she met our subject, to whom she was married. They became the parents of four children, namely: Anna May, Charles Allen, Bessie Maude and Roy Henry. Our subject was bereaved of his beloved wife's companionship by death June 6, 1892, when she was thirty-nine years of age. Politically Mr. Melburn has always been a member of the Republican party, but in local issues he is independent, supporting the man best qualified for office.
ONORÉ LOUSTALET. No state in the Union can boast of a more heroic band of pioneers than Colorado. Their privations, hardships and earnest labors have resulted in the establishing of one of the foremost commonwealths of America, the possibilities of which are far greater than many of her sister states. Their work is nearly completed, and every year sees more new graves filled by those who helped to build an empire, and soon, too soon, will the last of those sturdy pioneers be laid away; but their memory will forever remain green among those who have lived after them and appreciated their efforts. Among those who have already been called to the world beyond is Honoré Loustalet, an honored and highly respected citizen of Kersey, who died December 28, 1878.
He was born in Basses Pyrenees, France, in 1820, and was well educated, having made his home with a priest in early life. Before coming to America he was principally engaged in teaching, but also engaged in agricultural pursuits on the farm of his father, who was a landed proprietor. He was married in France in 1849, to Miss Marie Canton, daughter of Joseph and Martha (Berger) Canton. She was alone in the world, as her only sister had died in childhood, her father when she was three and her mother when she was about thirteen years old. They left a nice little property which she retained until after her husband's death.
With a view to bettering his financial condition, Mr. Loustalet came to the United States in 1855, and for two years was engaged in clerical work in New Orleans. He then went to Leavenworth, Kan., near which city he entered a tract of land, and there established a milk route. He soon afterward sent for his wife and they remained in that state for four years. In 1862 they concluded to go farther west and started across the plains with an ox-team and a small herd of cattle, stopping, in July, one mile north of Denver, where they remained in camp for two or three weeks. Near that city they made their home for about a year, and there Mr. Loustalet also engaged in the milk business. With his ox team he brought a load of apples from Leavenworth to Denver, being only eighteen days on the return trip. The following fall he started for Montana, but on account of inclement weather, as it was late in the year, he camped during the winter of 1863-64 on the Thompson River at the foot of the mountains. As the Indians grew troublesome in the spring he feared to remain there longer, and went to Brighton, where he took up land. While camping he engaged in hauling hay from a hay ranch near by, owned by a Frenchman, to Denver, a distance of fifty miles, leaving his wife and two little children all alone. In the spring he located on land which is now within the corporate limits of Brighton, and there he engaged in raising both cattle and horses, and also conducted a dairy, remaining there for about ten years. In 1870 he entered eighty acres of land on the present site of Kersey, but his wife did not come to this place until two years later. He also bought one hundred and sixty acres of railroad land west of that place, and there made his home until his death. In 1891 Mrs. Loustalet removed to Greeley, but two years later returned to Kersey, where she erected her present comfortable residence in 1896.
The family is one of the oldest in this section of the state, and in his new home Mr. Loustalet prospered, becoming an extensive stockman, owning from five to six hundred head. During the later years of his life he gave the cattle business his entire attention, and so successful was he that he was able to leave to his family one hun-
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 941
dred and sixty acres of valuable land at Brighton and two hundred and forty acres near Icersey. In his political affiliations he was a Republican, and he was a true and loyal citizen of his adopted country.
Mr. and Mrs. Loustalet became the parents of five children, two of whom were born in France. Sophia M., the eldest, is now the wife of John Smith, a retired stockman of Greeley; Anna is the wife of Asa Sterling, president of the First National Bank of Greeley; Adaline is the wife of Lathan Green, of Greeley; Frank occupies the old homestead and is engaged in farming and stockraising; and Jerome is a stock-raiser and farmer near Kersey. Mrs. Loustalet is a bright, intelligent lady, who was well educated in France, and has shown remarkable executive ability in the management of her property and in rearing and educating her children, all of whom are now occupying honorable positions in life. Both she and her husband belonged to highly respected and well-to-do families in France, and in their adopted country won the esteem and friendship of all with whom they came in contact.
OUIS NELSON, secretary of the board of education in his home neighborhood, is an industrious and progressive farmer of Boulder County. His homestead is situated about five miles west of Longmont, and is a very desirable piece of property. He has devoted many years to the improvement of the place and has developed it from a tract of almost barren land to its present condition of fertility and beauty. In the Lutheran Church he takes an active part, and in all matters affecting the welfare of the public he may always be found aggressive and energetic.
Born in Sweden, January 20, 1845, Louis Nelson is a son of Nels and Pernilla (Johnson) Larson, and, according to the custom of his country, he takes his surname from his father's Christian name instead of his last name. A history of his father may be found in the sketch of the elder brother of our subject, August Nelson. (See his biography, which appears elsewhere in this volume.) Louis Nelson was a pupil in the schools of his fatherland until he was in his sixteenth year, when he took the initial step toward earning his own living, by hiring out as a farm hand. Thus he was employed some four years, at the end of which time he went to the city of Halmstad and for two years was engaged in teaming there. In March, 1867, following in his elder brother's footsteps, he sailed from Gothenburg for Hull, England, thence went to Liverpool, and from there steamed away for America, the land of promise. He first set foot on the soil of the land thenceforth to be his own, April 10, 1867, in New York. From that metropolis he went to Chicago and Batavia, Ill. In the last-mentioned town his brother was then employed in the stone quarries, and our subject also found work there. He remained at this point for nearly four years, or until he received word from his brother, who had gone on to Colorado, that he had broken his leg, and would like to have him come out and take care of him.
When our subject's brother had recovered the former obtained a position in the Blackhawk smelter and worked there for almost a year. Becoming dissatisfied, he returned then to Illinois and resumed his old work in the quarries. He was so unfortunate as to place his spare funds, which he was carefully saving, in a bank which failed, and he lost all that he possessed. The young man concluded to try his fortunes again in Colorado, and once more became an employe of the smelting company. In 1874 he came to Boulder Valley and pre-empted eighty acres of land, about five miles from Longmont. With / zeal and great ambition he started in to develop and carry on his farm, but at first fortune seemed against him, for the grasshoppers and drouth spoiled his crops during two or three seasons, and thus, being out of money and without resources, he was forced to resume his old place in the Blackhawk smelter. Four years more of steady work in the null, with his funds carefully laid aside, enabled him to go back to his farm. He was the more ready to do this, owing to the fact that the smelter was removed to Denver about this time. Soon after coming back to an agricultural life Mr. Nelson traded his eighty-acre tract for another of like dimensions. This land, his present homestead, he added to later another eighty-acre piece of property adjoining. In addition to this he owns a one-third interest in a farm of three hundred and twenty acres of unincumbered (sic) land, his partners being his brothers, John and August. His many sincere friends rejoice in the success which he now enjoys, as
942
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. the result of his persistent, unwavering faith and efforts. From his life many valuable lessons may be learned by the young man who is anxious to succeed, and his children can do no better than to follow his worthy example.
In 1874 Mr. Nelson married Miss Anna Benson, who has been a faithful friend, adviser and companion to him along the rugged pathway of life. Joy and sorrow have come into their lives, and they have lost a son and daughter, but six children have been spared to them, and their home has always been a happy, peaceful one, where their friends love to come. In order of birth their children are as follows: Nellie, Amanda (deceased), Vendla, Emma, Herman (deceased), Herbert, Albert and Carl.
The father of our subject, George Washington Weir (our subject is the only member of the family who spells his name Wier), was born in Washington County, Pa. Thence he settled on the Whitewater River in Indiana, to which locality his father, William, had removed in an early day and engaged in "grubbing" land and improving a farm. Later the family removed to Trumbull County, Ohio. William was a soldier in the war of 1812, showing the same patriotic spirit which his father had displayed during the Revolution.
In Ohio and Pennsylvania George W. Weir engaged as a millwright in the erection of mills. He was foreman in the rebuilding of the locks that had been burned in the Pittsburg fire. At the opening of the war he and his son, George W., enlisted in a Pennsylvania corps known as the Roundhead Regiment, and he died in 1861, while on a forced march to Washington. His son continued in the army until the close of the war and won much praise for his bravery in battle; he now resides in Trumbull County, Ohio. The mother of our subject was Margaret Thompson, a native of what is now Lawrence County, Pa., and the daughter of William M. Thompson, who was born in Lancaster County, Pa., and engaged in farming in Lawrence County until his death. The Thompsons came from the north of Ireland and were of the Scotch-Presbyterian faith. Mrs. Weir died in Pennsylvania when sixty-four years of age. Of her nine children, all but four attained years of maturity. James W. is the eldest; Hannah, who is married, resides in Pennsylvania; Nancy and Elizabeth died in that state, where now lives the youngest sister, Mrs. Margaret Black.
When a boy our subject attended a subscription school in New Wilmington, Pa. It was like all primitive schools, held in a log building, with slab benches and puncheon floors, and the instruction was almost as crude as the building. For eight years he worked with his father learning the carpenter's trade and following it in the employ of others. Then for fourteen years he was successfully engaged in the livery business at New Wilmington, and also, during part of the time, had a livery stable in New Castle, carrying on both enterprises and running hacks to Youngstown, Ohio. From 1857 to 1859 he was engaged in taking horses to Illinois, and in 1860 he, with his wife and two children, took passage at Leavenworth in a coach for Denver, where he arrived June 28. At once he settled on his present homestead, the family occupying a log house on the banks of the Platte River. In the fall of the same year he embarked in the dairy business on Eleventh street, but afterward had his headquarters on his farm, which he proved up in 1864. He owned about one hundred milch cows and engaged in dairying on an extensive scale until 1890, when he retired.
All but fifty-five acres of his place had previously been disposed of, and the remaining acres he platted into an addition, that is within the city limits. Here he owns and occupies a commodious residence. He gave the site for the sulphide pulp mill and is interested in the Sulphide Pulp Mill Company, that used in manufacturing the white spruce timber from the Rocky Mountains. During the early days he engaged in coal mining in Boulder for two years and assisted his brother-in-law in opening the first mine there.
Mr. Wier was the first man to make a call for
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