People

: Joseph Fletcher; Joseph Fletcher, who went by the nickname Cotton, was a coal miner who lived in Lafayette, Colorado.

: Joseph Hahn; A gold prospector who in 1862, along with William Doyle and Captain George Wray, found gold near the foot of Hahn’s Peak (named after him in 1865) in Routt County. He died when Wray, who had promised to return with provisions after a trip to Empire, never returned.

: Joseph Henry Smith Cary; He was born in Saskatchewan, Canada to American citizens Frank Oscar Cary and Louise Pamela Cary. His father was a farmer and his mother was a homemaker. US Census records show that the family had moved to Grand Junction, Colorado by 1920, when Joseph was seven years old. The family lived with extended family at 626 North 7th Street, with his father Frank working as a vulcanizer in his own shop. By 1930, the family had moved to Fruitvale, where they farmed. His draft notice in 1940 lists his employer as the State Home for Mental Defectives. He served during World War II, enlisting in the US Army on April 3, 1982. He was discharged on November 8, 1945. He received his US Naturalization papers on February 6, 1943 in San Diego. He married Hilda Ann Walther on February 12, 1944 in San Diego. They moved to Mesa County, where they had two sons, one of whom died of leukemia in 1957. They lived in Grand Junction from 1945 to 1949, Fruita from 1949 to 1951, and Loma after 1951. The 1950 US Census shows them living near Highway 50. In 1983, at the time his wife’s oral history interview, they were living at 1206 R Road, five miles northwest of Loma, and hoping to farm there for as long as possible. He is buried in Fruita’s Elmwood Cemetery.

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