People

Collection for person entities.


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Thomas Jefferson Campbell Jr.
He was born in Clifton, Colorado to Thomas Jefferson Campbell Sr. and Eliza (Warrington) Campbell. He attended the Mt. Garfield School from 1913 to 1920, took his first two years of high school at the Clifton School from 1920 to 1922, and went to Grand Junction High School from 1923 to 1925. He went to Ross Business College in 1925-1926. The 1930 US Census shows him as single and living with his parents, with his occupation listed as farm laborer at the age of twenty-one. During this time, he made fruit boxes for orchards. He also helped to build the Dotsero cutoff for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, which was completed in 1934. He married Virginia Rucker in Grand Junction on May 23, 1937. The 1940 census shows him as living with his parents, working on the family farm, and lists him as married, though his wife is not shown as living with him. They appear to have separated and then divorced. He was drafted into the US Army on December 16, 1942 and served as a Private 1st Class. He received a marksmanship medal. He married Ilo Roxie Cash Wright sometime before 1950, when the census shows them living with her four children from a previous marriage on the north bank of the Grand Valley Canal. She died in 1974. He remarried to Helen Land Campbell, who operated the American Beauty College, on February 2, 1976. He worked as a bookkeeper for the Western Slope Auto Company, now Western Slope Ford, in the parts department. He also worked as construction worker, as a fireman and engineer for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, and was a fruit farmer. He was a member of the Clifton Lions Club and was the 1st Vice President. *Photograph from the 1925 Grand Junction High School yearbook
Thomas Jefferson Charles
He was born in Ohio. Military pension records indicate that he was a Civil War veteran who served in the 191st Ohio Infantry. US Census records show Thomas living in Georgetown, Colorado with his brother James by 1870, when Thomas was 28. He married Mary Catherine Kavanaugh sometime before 1880 and they are shown living together in Nebraska by the 1880 census. He was listed by the census as a quartz miner. The US Census record shows the family living again in Georgetown by 1900. He and his wife Mary Catherine moved to the Fruitvale area of Mesa County, Colorado in 1905. There, they planted 40 acres in apples, pears and peaches. Their land was located near the present Memorial Gardens cemetery.
Thomas Jefferson Hampson
T.J. Hampson was a miner in the Monarch Mining District in Chaffee County, Colorado in the 1880s.
Thomas Laffey
Early resident of Crested Butte, Colorado. Died in the Jokerville Mine Explosion on January 24, 1884.
Thomas M. Wilson
Resident of Gunnison County, Colorado.
Thomas Matthew Todd
Lumber company owner, socialist, and mayor of Grand Junction. Thomas Todd was born in Illinois to Andrew Calvin Todd, a farmer and clergyman from South Carolina, and Margaret Louisa (Willson) Todd. Todd's mother most likely died when he was young, as the 1870 US Census shows him living with his grandmother and siblings in Illinois at the age of 12, and the 1880 US Census shows Todd and his siblings living in Weld County, Colorado with his father (listed as a widower). Todd married Alice Victoria Selfsidge in Weld County in 1879 (Colorado marriage records). According to researcher David Sundal, she and Todd were living in Grand Junction, Colorado at least by 1896, when they built a prominent Victorian home at 929 Main Street. The 1900 US Census lists his occupation as "Dec Inspector." He was an early resident of Grand Junction, Colorado and owner of a lumber dealership that later became Mesa Lumber. He was wealthy but described himself as a socialist. He was elected mayor of Grand Junction on November 2, 1909 by a ranked voting system (also called preferential voting). He was not the clear first place winner, but was declared winner after second and third place votes were calculated. This stirred the opposition of The Daily Sentinel newspaper editor Walter Walker, who came out against ranked voting. Walker actively opposed Thomas and his policies throughout Thomas's mayoral term. Thomas succeeded in setting up a municipal woodpile, staffed by homeless men in return for meals and shelter, but many of his other ideas did not come to fruition. He proposed the construction of a municipal ice house, but was unable to bring it about. He brought a referendum before the voters to make the city's utilities publicly owned, but it did not pass. Walker led an effort to recall both Thomas and socialist sheriff Shiperd B. Hutchinson. While the recall failed, it led to Hutchinson's resignation. *Some information for this entry was taken from the article "Walter Walker and His Fight Against Socialism" by Jeanette Smith, Journal of the Western Slope, V. 12, N. 4, Fall 1997.

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