Most of my ancestors were farmers, and many did other things as well. I've mentioned my great-grandfather William Elton Gardner, who was a sheep rancher in Saguache, Colorado. He also served on the state legislature, was the county superintendent of schools, was county commissioner, and vice president of the wool growers' assn.
I've also mentioned my great-great grandfather, W. K. Eggleston, who had a farm and dairy along Oak Creek, near Cotopaxi, Colorado. He'd run the cattle up to Bonanza during the summers, where the price was better for milk and butter. He was also a dentist.
I know I've mentioned his wife, Esther Mosher, who adopted his first child, and bore him many more, and ran the farm while he made trips to town for supplies, when he took a job in the mining camp when the crops failed, and probably when he went away to dental school. She also taught school for a time.
I visited the area about 5 years ago, and looked up some Egglestons still in the area. I was given a tour by a 3rd cousin, once removed, who showed me the housesite where W. K. and his wife Esther had lived, along the banks of Oak Creek. There was no sign of the habitation remaining, except for a walnut tree. I also stopped and visited the town of Bonanza, where they camped in the summers. I found a grave there of one of their children. I also visited where they had lived along a creek near Salida, which now has a fish hatchery.
I've also mentioned my great-great-grandfather Rev. Peter Winebrenner. He was a circuit-riding preacher for the Christian church in Noble county, Indiana. He also had a farm, of course. His sons did most of the work, when they were old enough.
I mentioned my great-great grandfather Henry Forrey, who had a farm in Marshall co., Iowa, for the non-population census entry. I found his farm on a plat map. He was also a postmaster, in Timber Creek, when he got older. My cousin has a copy of the land grant to his son, Henry Bascom Forrey, for his homestead in Jewell co., Kansas, dated 1890. It was a program "To encourage the growth of timber on the western prairies". There is a photo of this document attached to his profile page. Here is a photo of the homestead taken probably between 1905 and 1908.
Then of course there is my great grandfather C. C. Stoner, whom I have used many times. He had a farm in Cloud county, Kansas, where he was also a lawyer, probate judge and justice of the peace, and served on the state legislature, and as purchasing agent for the county. I visited this farm around 1994, and it is still owned by the family he sold it to back in 1907. The original house was still standing, but was just being used as a storeroom.
Here is the house C. C. built in the 1870's. When he bought the place, there were 4 walls of a one-room house, and no roof. I imagine that the left side of the house was the original. He added another wing for bedrooms. You can see the line in the masonry, where he added on. This photo was taken around 1884. C. C. and his wife are on the right, his mother in the rocking chair, daughter Ella to the left of grandma. The two people on the far left with the team and buggy are neighbors.
C. C. also taught school for a time. He was elected chaplain for the Cloud County Alliance of the People's Party (the original populists--anti corporations, pro small family farms).
He moved to Lincoln, Kansas, around 1903, where he bought a smaller farm, and bought the paper, which he edited and published.
He moved to Orange, California, in 1907, where he and his son bought an Orange ranch, expanding the acreage planted. He also served as mayor of Orange.
When I was in my teens and twenties, we would occasionally visit my mother's double cousin Alice, who lived in a house in Orange that was on the last remaining bit of that orange ranch, from my understanding. She had a number of orange trees in her yard, which looked very old.
