Entity Collection

: James Wilcoxon "J.W." Latham; He was born in Ashe County, North Carolina and came with his parents to De Beque, Colorado in June 1918, when he was 16 years old. His parents were John Rufus Latham and Annie Latham. J.W. was the nephew of J.A. Wilcoxon, an early rancher. Although J.W.'s father was also a rancher, he had four brothers and there was not enough work for all of them, so he became a cowboy for Dan Burns, and then worked for an oil shale survey gang. He attended grade school but did not graduate. In 1922, he attended the Hoel-Ross Business College for bookkeeping, a course that he finished in seven months. Before finishing business college, he established seniority on the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (on October 9, 1922). His first job on the D&RG was making the run from Grand Junction, Colorado to Minturn, which took 16 hours. He later became a locomotive fireman, working for the railroad. He married Adine "Nadine" Alice (Palmer) Latham on March 13, 1937, and moved to Grand Junction permanently that same year. He was widowed in 1945, and he later married Ethel Mary (Macdonell) Latham of Eagle. She died of a brain tumor in the 1950's. He is buried in the Sunset View Cemetery in Eagle. *Photo of James W. Latham courtesy of Eagle Valley Library District and Eagle County Historical Society.

Main menu