People

: George Washington Gordon; A rancher from a pioneering Mormon family in Mesa County, Colorado. He was born in Adin, California to Patrick Henry Gordon and Caroline Elizabeth (Vanover) Gordon. According to John Gordon’s daughter, Dorothy (Gordon) Mahoney, Patrick Mahoney, his two wives, and their children first came to Grand Junction, Colorado while driving cattle from California to Texas in early 1881. They came through Moab and decided to stay in Colorado, remaining on the other side of the Grand River until the forced removal of the Ute Indians from the Western Slope. Patrick Gordon died in a boating accident on April 1, 1882, leaving George and his family to fend for themselves (Patrick Gordon was buried in a pauper’s grave in the Orchard Mesa Cemetery). The 1885 Colorado State Census shows George living with his older half-brother (born to his father’s first wife), John S. Gordon, and their younger sibling, Edwin Gordon. In 1882-1883, John Gordon established the first ferry in town, which crossed the Grand and Gunnison Rivers at the confluence. It’s possible that George assisted in the operation of the ferry. George and Edwin were cowboys by trade, worked in Arizona in this capacity and in Glade Park, where they worked for the S-Cross Ranch. They later went into the ranching business for themselves, near Gateway. George married May Alveretta Foy of Gateway, on September 29, 1905 in Grand Junction. They had four children. They owned a home at 535 N. 5th Street (now the location of an apartment complex on the corner of Chipeta Avenue). They also owned the 2-V Ranch on Glade Park, which had been owned by the Ela family, from 1910. The Gordons and Elas were apparently friends. According to William McHarg Ela, his grandfather William Phillips Ela and family would summer on the Gordon place. Ela recalled the Gordons owning land that overlooked Unaweep Canyon, and land along the Dolores River. The Gordons purchased the Picture Gallery Ranch on Glade Park in 1916. According to livestock auctioneer Howard Shults, Gordon owned about 12,800 acres of grazing land on the Utah border. He had a permit to winter his cows in the Sand Flats, in Utah, and also owned land near Cisco. Though a cattle rancher at first, George Gordon began running sheep in 1916, after realizing their benefits. According to his daughter, he was one of the first ranchers to switch to sheep on Glade Park. At one time, after he had transitioned to sheep ranching, he purchased 200 head of cattle from Shults, solely so he could set them loose on the land of ranchers who had been putting their own cattle on Gordon’s land. He sold the sheep and purchased the Waring homestead sometime around 1950. Along with Louise (Sieber) Sleeper, he was instrumental in bringing telephone service to Glade Park. He also built the road from Sand Flats to the Dolores River.

: George Washington Harper Jr.; He was born in Kansas to George Washington Harper Sr. and Mary J. (Pearson) Harper. His father was a physician and his mother was a homemaker. Marriage records show that he was living in Kiowa County, Colorado by 1905, when he married Henrietta Rhoades. The 1910 US Census shows them living in the town of Towner, Colorado with their first three children. George Washington was working as a farmer. According to George Cecil Harper, George Washington’s son, the family moved to Loma, Colorado later that year, where George Washington took work as a surveyor for the Highline Canal. The family homesteaded land near Loma. They moved to Horsethief Canyon Ranch in 1913, which was being rented by a relative, and lived there for three years. They returned to Loma around 1916. Census records indicate that he remained a farmer for the rest of his life. His wife died around 1925 and he kept his children and the family together (not always a common practice for widowers at that time). He is buried in Fruita’s Elmwood Cemetery.

: George Washington Messersmith

: George Washington Peugh; Owner of the Whitewater general store in the early Twentieth century. He also maintained a telephone switchboard operated by Effie (Johnson) Silzell and others. He was later the office manager for the Colorado Telephone Company in Grand Junction, Colorado.

: George Watson

: George Watts; He was born in Hayden, Colorado to Oliver Ellsworth Watts and Lena Mae (Squire) Watts. His grandfather had homesteaded near the town in 1884. His father was a farmer and jockey who helped to build the reservoir south of Hayden. He died of an abcess in 1920, when George was less than a year old. His mother was a homemaker and farmer who learned how to shoot a pistol. She passed many stories onto her son. The family sang hymns together as a family and Watts wrote songs. They also sang in the Hayden Congregational Church of Christ. The 1930 US Census shows him living with his four older siblings and his mother in Hayden, with his mother and oldest brother Albert working on the farm, and his brother Oliver working as a teacher. He attended a country school near Hayden (possibly the Elkhead School) from 1923 to 1933. He won first place in the school talent show for his singing. He quit high school at the age of fourteen to work in the hay fields on the family’s 200 acre farm. The 1940 census shows him still living with his mother in Hayden and working on the family farm at the age of twenty. He married Enid Elaine Reynolds on June 29, 1947 in Steamboat Springs. They had three children. The family enjoyed singing songs together. In 1962, after selling their land in Hayden to a steam plant developer, he and Enid moved to Steamboat Springs. They moved to Hotchkiss in January 1972. During his life he worked as a farmer, trucker, coal miner, oil driller, carpenter, rancher and school custodian. He attended the Church of Christ. He and his family knew many traditional songs, tall tales, poems, and made up others. They were interviewed by the Mesa County Oral History Project in connection with local folklore. He died at the age of 83 and is buried in Hayden.