People

: Verne Lewis Judson; He was born in Barre, Vermont to Orin Judson and Carrie Amelia (Smith) Judson. His father worked as a stone polisher in Vermont. His mother was a homemaker. The family lived briefly in Iowa and then, due to hopes that the climate might improve his mother’s help, moved to Mesa County, Colorado in 1904, when Verne was about five years old. They settled in the Pomona area, where they farmed and he attended school. He began irrigating at the age of eight years old. In order to find better farm land, Verne and his parents moved to Loma, Colorado on March 1, 1919. There, they leased land from Loma Securities, owned by Verner Z. Reed, and eventually purchased 80 acres, with 13 added later on. The 1950 US Census record shows him as single, never married, and living with his mother in Loma. He retired from farming on October 22, 1965, when 25 acres of corn he had planted did not mature. Bill Grey bought the Judson’s land, followed by Ray Filer and then Alex Reed. Verne Judson was allowed to live in the same house on his former land, where he had resided since 1922. He played snare drums in an orchestra and was paid anywhere from $2 to $10 a night for his efforts. He was a member and sometimes board member of the Farmer's Union, the Fruita Coop, the Potato Growers Association of Mesa County, the Bean Growers Coop, and the Mesa County Union Oil Company.

: Verner Zevola Reed; He was a Mesa County real estate developer and landowner who built Grand Junction's Reed Building. He owned land in the Loma area and elsewhere. Census and city directory records would seem to indicate that he was an absentee landlord who lived in Colorado Springs, though he may have lived in Grand Junction at one time. According to Howard Shults, whose father worked as the auctioneer that sold off Reed’s land holdings, Reed was an Englishman involved in mining. He became wealthy and had a mansion near Denver. He owned some 2,000 acres of land near Loma, including the Golden Hills Ranch. His land development projects included planting hard woods and installing water systems. His estate was auctioned after his passing, and the land brought in about $3,000 per acre. According to Cora (Brumbaugh) Henry, whose parents ran the Brumbaugh hotel in Loma, Reed was a frequent visitor to the hotel, most probably while in town checking on his land holdings. He was also an historian of sorts who wrote the short book, Southern Ute Indians of Early Colorado, in 1893.

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