People

: Thomas Sherman; He came from St. Louis, Missouri and worked as a surveyor under Jay Vandemoer, who had served in the same company as Thomas in World War I. They built roads near Dallas Divide and Norwood. He also worked as a brick mason. After he married Dorothy (Nichols) Kittle, they bought land near the Highline Canal and planted a peach orchard there.

: Thomas Stewart; Early resident of Crested Butte, Colorado. Died in the Jokerville Mine Explosion on January 24, 1884.

: Thomas Virden; An early pioneer in Whitewater, Colorado. He was born in Illinois. US Census records show him living with his wife Emma and his daughter Minnie in Fremont, Colorado in 1880, when he was 49. The Census that year lists his employment as teamster. By 1900 he was living in the Whitewater area on land next to that of his daughter and son-in-law, Minnie and John Geiger. Census data for that year and years after list him as widowed and as a farmer. According to his granddaughter Gertrude Rader, he had an orchard of apples, plums, and cherries, and also grew grapes. She also said that Thomas was an avid hunter, and would clandestinely hunt deer in the area prior to the strict enforcement of hunting restrictions. Thomas claimed to have known Chief Ouray of the Utes, and told a story of once playing a trick on Ouray. Ouray had an old wagon harness. Local ranchers got together to get him a new one. When they saw Ouray, they began teasing him about his old harness and cutting the old one up. Understandably, this made Ouray angry. When they then presented the new harness to him, he was surprised and pleased. Virden died in Los Angeles and received a military burial for his service in the Third Colorado Cavalry.

: Thomas W. Benton; Thomas Whelan Benton was born in Oakland, California on 16 November 1930. He served in the Korean War. After his discharge in 1953, Benton attended the University of Southern California under the G.I. Bill and began his career in architecture in Los Angeles. Upon relocating to Aspen, Benton used local materials, including cinder blocks from Dotsero, Colorado, to build a studio and gallery. His gallery became a local center for Aspen activists, artists and various intellectual pursuits. Thomas Benton subsequently made a shift from architecture toward art. He taught himself silkscreen printmaking and began creating activist art that symbolized political messages. He created political posters for George McGovern, Gary Hart, Willie Brown, and gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. In 1971, Vail Town Manager, Terry Minger, and Mayor John Dobson asked Benton to create a Vail Symposium poster series “to create and guide a vision for the future of Vail.” There are eighteen Thomas Whelan Benton posters in the Vail Symposium 1971 to 1996 series. Author Daniel Joseph Watkins encapsulates Benton’s spirit in his work, Thomas W. Benton: Artist/Activist.

: Thomas W. Secrest; He was a National Park Service engineer in charge of the Civilian Conservation Corps, Colorado National Monument camp (1930's). He was sent out from Seattle to survey and build Rim Rock Drive over the Colorado National Monument after helping to build the Alaska Railroad. Civilian Conservation Corps commanding officer Marshall “Mike” Revelle Douglass was brought in to counter the influence that Secrest had on the CCC men under his command, and to raise the moral of the Monument CCC camp. Douglas accused Secrest of cruelty to CCC members, and even implicated him in the deaths of CCC members who were blasting a tunnel under bad working conditions. Secrest eventually left the camp, and, according to Douglass, may have been involved in the theft of CCC property.

: Thomas Wayne Beede; Wayne Beede was born to Rosanna Anna “Rosa” (Chamberlain) Beede and Elias Thomas Beede in Osceola, Iowa. His father was a farmer and his mother was a homemaker. US Census records show that the family had moved to Rio Grande County, Colorado by 1910, when Wayne was eight years old. By 1920, they had moved to Loveland. He married Marguerite Elizabeth Miller on November 14, 1925 in Greeley, where she had been a college student. They lived in Dover, Colorado, a town on the edge of the Dust Bowl, and were able to buy a home in Loma through the government’s resettlement program in 1937. There, they farmed on 180 acres on 15 Road between P and Q Roads. He was a lifelong farmer and also worked at the dump for supplementary income. He was elected state representative in 1948, but died the following year. He was the president of the Farmer’s Union and a member of the local school board.

: Thomas Wedell; A fruit farmer from Montezuma County, Colorado. He was born in Lebanon, Colorado, about ten miles north of Cortez. His father, Frank Wedell, was a farmer and had been a miner in Cripple Creek, where he was born. His mother, Clara Wedell was born in Utah, and had been a cook for a mining firm in Cripple Creek. Thomas Wedell attended a one-room school house for grade school and went to high school in Dolores, five miles by foot or horseback. Wedell and his two brothers worked for a neighbor helping to clear his land. In payment, the neighbor gave the brothers eighty acres of pinon forest, which they cleared in order to plant apple trees. He ran the ranch for his mother and brothers until World War II, when, along with all of his brothers, he enlisted in the Navy. Upon their return, they found Clara had sold the farm. Wedell bought 65 acres near Lebanon and once again grew apples, raising five varieties until 1973, when he sold out and moved to Paonia. In Paonia, he married and worked in a fruit packing plant and for the County Road Commission, until health problems made it impossible for him to work.

: Thomas William "Bill" Echternach; He was born to Ruth and Marion Echternach in Palisade, Colorado. After graduating from local schools, he moved to Rochester, New York, went to college, and worked for a place called ‘Gleason’s’. He joined the Navy during WWII and transferred to California as WWII drew to a close. He then returned to Mesa County with his wife, Sylvia. They had a daughter. He became an electrician, following in his father’s footsteps. He moved to Nucla and then to Tucson, Arizona.

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