People
Collection for person entities.
Pages
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- Walt Carmichael
- Early Twentieth century Garfield County cowboy.
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- Walt Goslin
- According to oral history interviewee James Brouse, Goslin was spoken of by old timers on Glade Park as the first rancher to bring sheep into the area. Charles Sieber and the cowhands of the S-Cross ranch reputedly drove many of his sheep over a cliff and did “everything to get [Goslin] out of there.”
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- Walter "Walt" Anderson
- Husband of Elizabeth Anderson. Early 20th Century Mesa County, Colorado rancher who lived in the Whitewater, Kannah Creek area.
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- Walter "Walt" Clough
- A Danish immigrant to Colorado. He bought the garbage contract for the city of Grand Junction from Howard Shults in the late 1930s.
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- Walter August Flasche
- He was born in Stratton, Nebraska to Freidrich Wilhelm “William” Flasche and Marie Katherine “Mary” (Vatz) Flasche. Census records indicate that his father was an immigrant from Germany, and that his mother immigrated from a German settlement in Russia. They were farmers. According to Walter, his father had two wives and families, with one in Germany. The 1900 US Census shows Walter living with his parents and siblings in Burntwood, Kansas at the age of seven. According to Walter, his father visited Grand Junction, Colorado in 1904-1905 and the family moved to Mesa County a few years later, after purchasing a place on Roan Creek, near De Beque. They moved by covered wagon and brought their livestock with them. His father soon had a stroke, and his mother took care of him for many years. The 1910 census shows Walter living back in Nebraska with his older brother Albert, sister-in-law Mabel, and younger brother William. All of the males in the household are listed as working odd jobs. Walter also talks about how he worked as a logger and hauled logs to a sawmill in De Beque. By his own estimation, he was one of the first people to ship oil shale to New York for examination and evaluation. He also helped build the road up to the the first oil shale mine in the area, helped to haul shale with a wagon team, and helped construct the retort. Walter married Ella Myrtle Robinson of Colorado in De Beque on November 27, 1913, Thanksgiving Day. The two of them lived in Washington, farmed wheat in Nebraska, and returned to De Beque in 1916. The 1920 census shows them living and farming on Roan Creek in Garfield County with their two sons. Ella left Walter in the 1940’s because their life was hard and she wanted to live in town. Their sons stayed with Walter. She later remarried. He purchased two ranches and raised turkeys, milk cows, beef cattle, and hay. He also continued to work in oil shale as a driller in the mine. His oil shale wages supported him, and others worked on his farms in return for half of the crops. The oil shale venture eventually failed and he lost money. He owned a ranch north of Loma, but sold it in 1949. He learned the carpenter trade in De Beque during World War II. He also lived and worked in Washington during the war. The 1950 Census shows Walter living in the town of De Beque with his son Vernon and working as a carpenter at the age of 57. He died at the age of 91 and is buried in the De Beque Cemetery.
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- Walter Bigelow Cross
- He was the one-time owner, along with his sister, of Cross Orchards in Mesa County, Colorado. Cross Orchards was the largest fruit growing operation in the county for many years. He was born in Vermont. His father was Timothy Cross, who is listed in U.S. Census records from 1850-1870 as a tavern keeper, merchant, and retail grocer with a net worth in real estate equivalent to what would be around $100,000 today. His older sister Isabel Cross (shown living with Walter as children in Vermont in the 1860 U.S. Census), apparently bought the land on which Cross Orchards sits in 1896 along with her half-brother Daniel (shown living with Isabel as children in Vermont in the 1850 U.S. Census). She shortly consolidated holdings on the land by purchasing the acreage owned by Daniel. She offered public stock on Cross Orchards in 1899, but had no takers, and so incorporated the Red Cross Land and Fruit Company in 1909. Meanwhile, Walter Cross was living in Colorado by 1880. An 1880 U.S. Census Record shows a Walter B. Cross, born in Vermont, living alone in Denver, where he was listed as a boot and shoe wholesaler. He returned to New England in 1882, and married Carrie Ricker in Boston. The marriage apparently ended in divorce, as Ricker remarried in 1888. The 1882 Denver City Directory shows a Walter B. Cross in a business partnership called Noyes, Stark & Cross. The 1885 Denver City Directory shows him in a partnership with C.F. Sanborn in a boot and shoe company called Cross, Sanborn and Cross, located at 390 Larimer Street. The July 4, 1906 edition of the trade journal “Boot and Shoe Recorder” mentions a Walter Cross, owner of the Walk-Over shoe store, returning to Denver “after two months’ stay at his extensive fruit ranch at Grand Junction, Colo.” Josephine Biggs, who met Walter Cross while they were both staying in Grand Junction’s LaCourt Hotel in 1920, describes Cross as someone proud of his New England heritage. He also loved horses, and allowed Biggs to ride his Arabian horse on a regular basis. She recalls going with her fiancé to a dinner at Cross Orchards, where Cross prepared a salad and seemed like something of a gourmet to her. According to Biggs and other Mesa County Oral History Project interviewees, Cross did not live in Grand Junction. Rather, he stayed for a couple months at a time at the LaCourt Hotel in order to oversee the Cross Orchards’ business. Biggs and possibly others assumed that Cross was associated with the Red Cross Shoes brand and its fortune. Although he was a shoe merchant, it does not seem he had any connection with the company that manufactured Red Cross Shoes. Walter Cross died in Los Angeles in 1933, and is buried in Vermont.
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- Walter Cameron
- A volunteer with the Mesa County Oral History Project.