USA > Wyoming > History of Wyoming, Volume II > Part 6
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living in Livingston, Montana; Nellie, the wife of Charles E. Ulrich, of Los Angeles, California; Mrs. Edward Krause, whose home is in Appleton, Wiscon- sin ; and Harold W., living at Torrington, Wyoming.
Arthur J. Rosier, the other member of the family, was the third in order of birth and in his boyhood attended the public schools of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, while later he became a student in the State University at Vermilion, South Dakota, where he spent three years. He next entered the night school of the University of Minnesota as a law student, pursuing a special course in law, cover- ing three years, at the end of which time he was admitted to the bar upon exam- ination before the supreme court of Montana on the 6th of June, 1906. In July of that year he began practice at Butte, Montana, where he remained until Sep- tember, 1911. On the 30th of October of that year he was admitted to practice in the courts of Wyoming and opened an office in Rawlins, where he has since re- mained, devoting his time and attention to his professional duties. He belongs to both the Montana and to the Wyoming State Bar Associations. He is now serv- ing for the second term as prosecuting attorney of Carbon county, having been re- elected to that office in November, 1916. He always prepares his cases with great thoroughness and care, is clear in his reasoning, logical in his deductions and his arguments are characterized by great strength. He has also served as court com- missioner of Carbon county and in addition to his professional duties he has enjoyed a growing private practice and is now attorney for the First State Bank at Baggs, Wyoming, and for the Stock Growers Bank of Saratoga, Wyoming, as well as for a number of private concerns.
On the 15th of June, 1914, Mr. Rosier was married in Denver, Colorado, to Miss Grace G. Arthaud, of Burwell, Nebraska, who comes from one of the old families of Garfield county, that state. They have one child, Jean Helen, born in Rawlins, September 3, 1917.
Fraternally Mr. Rosier is a Mason of high rank, having become a member of the Mystic Shrine. He is also connected with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and with the Improved Order of Red Men. His political endorsement is given to the republican party, but he has never sought office outside the strict path of his profession, preferring to concentrate his energies upon law practice, recog- nizing the fact that the law is a jealous mistress and would have the undivided attention of her followers if she crowns them with success. He prepares his cases with great thoroughness and he possesses a law library of rare value. His office equipment is most comprehensive and in preparing a case for the court he looks up every authority bearing upon the question and therefore enters the court well qualified for defense as well as for attack.
FRANCIS S. KING.
The name of Francis S. King is synonymous with the development and improvement of the sheep industry in America. There is no resident of Wyo- ming who has done as much to improve the grade of sheep raised and the methods followed as he. His work, therefore, has been of untold value as a factor in promoting the material prosperity and upbuilding of the state, and the story of his life is a most interesting one. He was born on the Isle of Man in 1867, a son of the Rev. William and Elizabeth (Stocker) King, the former an eminent minister of the Methodist church and the founder of the Jersey Ladies' College on the island of Jersey. He died in Kent in 1882, leaving a widow and ten children, eight sons and two daughters, all of whom yet survive and who are mentioned in connection with the sketch of Joseph Hall King on another page of this work.
Francis S. King, the eldest of the brothers, came to America in 1884, when a youth of seventeen years. He had previously attended school at Victoria College on the island of Jersey. On reaching American shores he went to
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Nemaha county, Nebraska, where lived his uncle, and later he started for Wyoming, arriving in Laramie in 1884. He was employed for a time in con- nection with the sheep business and soon purchased a half interest, thus enter- ing into partnership with Paul Pascoe. The next November he took a band of over three thousand wethers to Nebraska for wintering. At Hillside, Wyoming, they were caught in a four days' blizzard and two of his assistants were frozen to death. The sheep, however, escaped, and Mr. King and his other assistants continued on to Nebraska. From that point he has made steady progress in the sheep industry and there is no man who has done more for its development in Wyoming and in fact in the entire country. The following spring he pur- chased a large flock of sheep on credit. These he herded himself. The price of mutton was at that time very low-less than anything else produced, so Mr. King would rise before day and take his mutton to town by daylight. His business methods resulted in forcing the butchers to pay a fair price. The first sheep which he raised were Merinos. His brother, Herbert J. King, usually known as Bert, joined him when a youth of seventeen years, F. S. King per- suading his brother to come to the new world, and a few years later they were joined by another brother, Joseph H. King, who had at that time just completed college. F. S. and J. H. King cut logs and with the help of F. A. Blake, father of Judge Blake, built the old King homestead, the brother mixing the plaster, while Mr. King of this review put it on. Through this period in his life Mr. King felt the beneficial influence and assistance of Mrs. Blake, who was a fine specimen of womanhood and did more for the young men of the country than almost anyone else. She lived to be more than ninety years of age. She took the place of a mother to Mr. King and in fact devoted practically all of her time to aiding others. She was the head of the church movement in her locality and of the Woman's Relief Corps, and she was everywhere known throughout the district as Mother Blake, which was a term of endearment, indicating the filial affection felt for her by the young men whom she had mothered. The first land which F. S. King took up was east of the range, and to his original holdings he added from time to time until he secured one hundred and twenty thousand acres by deed and lease, this not including the government range. The brothers in their early business relations maintained their interests as a copart- nership with equal shares. Later the business was reorganized under the name of King Brothers Company. They were continually studying new methods to improve their flocks, and F. S. King went to California for ewes, shipping a number of ewes to Wyoming. They had always the best stock, using thorough- breds only for the upbuilding of their flocks. They left no stone unturned which would promote their knowledge and advance the interests of the sheep industry, and F. S. King frequently attended conventions in order to gather information concerning his chosen life work. He visited the principal flocks of the United States every year, usually purchasing a few of the best sheep of each flock visited and thus building up a herd of great merit and individual superiority.
Having determined to gradually work into nothing but registered sheep, the herd was started by purchasing a son of the Champion Merino ewe and ram of the Chicago World's Fair, and numerous other noted rams and ewes. With these as a foundation, and by careful selection each year from the best flocks in America, a stud flock of noted sheep was gathered together, and soon this flock was taking most of the prizes at all of the prominent state fairs. Bv careful mating and selection, the size of carcass as well as fleece was increased. Realizing that the Rambouillet family was the coming sheep for the west, Mr. King turned his attention to the exclusive breeding of this family of Merinos, and in a few years it was generally conceded that his flock was the leading Rambouillet stud in America. The development of the Rambouillet by Mr. King had been so extensive that it created much comment, and its result in the upbuilding of the western flocks was so apparent that the department of agri- culture of the United States, through the help of Senator Warren of Wyoming,
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obtained the passage of a law appropriating a sum of money to carry on experi- ments in conjunction with the University of Wyoming on the King ranch to develop the Rambouillet for the benefit of the western sheepmen. Mr. King was selected by the department to travel in company with a department man and select the ewes and rams to be used for the experiment, and for many years Mr. King selected the sheep that were bought by this government. After two years of work in conjunction with the University of Wyoming, the depart- ment of agriculture decided to carry on the work by itself with the cooperation of King Brothers. The department was given free use of the barns, feeding sheds, as well as lambing pens, of this ranch and Mr. King devoted much time to help the department in this work. At this time, it having become evident to thinking sheepmen that a half-blood type of sheep was necessary to obtain the best results from much of the western range, Mr. King undertook the task of crossing the several types of English long-wooled sheep on pure-bred Rambouil- lets, and checking up the results. It was soon found that a cross of either the Leister or Lincoln on the Rambouillet would produce more per head than any other cross, also they were hardy and most suited for the range. The depart- ment of agriculture became interested in this work of Mr. King and began a like experiment, and in a few years came to the same conclusion.
This matter having become a prominent part of discussion at the sheep con- ventions throughout the western country, and as it was known that in New Zealand a similar experiment had been conducted by noted breeders there many years previous, with like results, and as in New Zealand there had been bred up through fifty years' hard work a breed of sheep founded on this cross, meas- ures were taken to pass a bill through congress to send over a commission to look into the capabilities of this breed and if found of value to import some for the use of the department of agriculture in its experiment work on the King ranch. Mr. King was selected by the National Wool Growers Association to represent the sheepmen of the country on this commission, and on it being decided that the bill was faulty as passed by congress, Mr. King. on the request of the national association and the government, paid his own expenses and donated his time for this trip. Having been furnished with letters of introduction from the government and the different sheep associations of the country, Mr. King, in company with Mr. Marshall, head of the sheep and goat investigation depart- ment of the United States, sailed to New Zealand and Australia, and were made the guests of the governments over there. Six months was devoted to the study of the Corriedale, as the new breed was named. also to the visiting of the several Merino studs over there. as well as close investigation into the manner of putting up wool under the Australian system, and its adaptability to this country.
About one hundred Corriedales were purchased for the department of agri- culture and Mr. King was so deeply impressed with the value of the Corriedale that when in New Zealand he made arrangements to import several hundred for himself.
Upon his return he took up this question with his brothers, and upon their deciding that they would not care to enter upon this line of breeding but would devote themselves to the Rambouillet, Mr. King decided to sell his interest to his brothers and devote his time to breeding Corriedales for the benefit of the western range men, and also to importing some Wanganella Merinos to cross on the Rambouillet. Whilst visiting the principal studs of Rambouillets in Australia and viewing sheep valued in some cases at ten thousand dollars a head. Mr. King decided that they could be crossed with advantage on the American Rambouillet, which is larger but does not have the length of staple or quality of fleece of the Australian Rambouillet. Mr. King has on the way a son of Perfection, a ten thousand dollar ram, as well as a flock of ewes from the same stud. These sheep are valued at from five hundred to five thousand per head. If the experiment is as successful as Mr. King believes it will be, he will donate many of them to the Rambouillet Association, of which he is president.
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In founding his Corriedale flock, Mr. King obtained only the best; and the first sheep imported by him took the championship for both ram and ewe at the San Francisco exposition. The stud rams were the best rams of the grand champions of New Zealand, and the ewes the best obtainable.
There are now some three hundred registered Corriedales on the ranch that have been imported, as well as many that have been raised on the ranch from these imported sheep. Mr. King also has brought over the first South Devons that have been exported from England, and is building up a very fine, pure-bred stud of these sheep and also a cross on the Rambouillet that will make its effect on the western flocks. They are very large, early maturing sheep, with a long staple fleece of light shrink, with a good saw-tooth crimp. The ranch selected by Mr. King for this work is located close to Cheyenne, consists of about ten thousand acres of deeded land, whilst feed lots have been obtained around Monte Vista in Colorado and Wheatland, Wyoming, for wintering the lambs, and suitable summer range has been rented close to the home ranch, as well as pasture on the national forests. The home ranch has been equipped with modern sheds, all facing south, fronted with glass and divided into suitable pens for lambing and breeding. New bunk houses have been built, and water has been laid through the buildings, every pen having its own hydrant as well as feed troughs and hay racks. Electric light is used throughout and every modern invention has been utilized. The house is a modern, up-to-date bunga- low with every convenience that can be obtained in a town house, it as well as the garage being heated by vapor, and electric light, cooking and other uses being installed.
For shelter from storm and sun, over five thousand trees have been planted on this ranch since Mr. King parted with his brothers in 1915, and every effort has been made to make the ranch both valuable as a breeding farm as well as attractive as a home. There are three stations of the Union Pacific on the land, whilst the Colorado & Southern has a station only three miles from the north- west corner, and as the ranch reaches within three miles of Cheyenne, the risk of loss is reduced to a minimum, and its accessibility for inspection of the stock is ideal.
Wyoming produces over eight pounds of wool per sheep, more than any other state in the Union, and much of this is no doubt owing to the work of the King Brothers. Francis S. King is the principal owner of the business conducted under the name of the Wyoming Corriedale Sheep Company, being the president, with Wallace C. Bond of Cheyenne as secretary. If one may judge of the future by the past and by the wonderful development of his flocks up to date, it will not be unreasonable to prophesy that this sheep ranch will become the greatest in the United States.
Mr. King has seven children, having been twice married. His eldest son, Francis W., when war was declared, joined the Oregon Coast Artillery and won a medal for shooting. He became a member of the Fifteenth Company of Wyoming Troops and was made sergeant at Fort Stevens, Oregon. Arthur is the second son of the family and is with his father in business. When he was twelve years of age, at Ogden, Utah, his father gave him the best ram, ewe and ram that he raised and sheared, and at the National Wool Growers' Asso- ciation he won first prize against his father, having picked out the ewe him- self. The other children are still in school. For his second wife Mr. King chose Mrs. M. E. Fisher, of Cheyenne, who had two sons and a daughter by a previous marriage. The latter, Dorothy, is with her mother and is a high school student.
While the name of King has undisputed possession of the field as the synonym for the most progressive sheep raising in the country, Francis S. King is also known in other connections outside of business. He has done much to further the interests of the state. He was for twelve years a member of the general assembly of Wyoming as the representative of Albany county and was chairman of the public buildings committee and also chairman of the ways and means
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committee. He is one of the distinguished Masons of Wyoming and was at one time grand master of the state. He has also taken the degrees of the chapter, the commandery and the Mystic Shrine and the honorary thirty-third degree has been conferred upon him. He is likewise connected with the Knights of Pythias, while Mrs. King has represented the state of Wyoming in the supreme lodge of the Pythian Sisters and is also a member of the Eastern Star. He is widely known all over the world among sheep growers and has probably done more for the sheep industry of Wyoming than any other man, but there are other qualities which have made for his personal popularity. He is widely known and has the sterling traits which in every land and clime awaken confidence and regard, and as a legislator he has left the impress of his individuality upon the history of the commonwealth.
ALBERT D. CHAMBERLIN.
Albert D. Chamberlin is now living retired at Douglas. He came to Converse county before the town was laid out and through the intervening period has been closely associated with the development and conduct of several of its impor- tant business interests-interests which have contributed in substantial measure to the upbuilding of the district. At the present time he is enjoying a rest which he has truly earned and richly deserves, for his success in former years now supplies him with all of the comforts and some of the luxuries of life.
Massachusetts claims Mr. Chamberlin as a native son. He was born in Dalton on the 25th of June, 1841, a son of Albert S. and Martha ( Mitchell) Chamberlin. The father was a paper manufacturer, conducting business along that line for many years. He reached the advanced age of eighty-four, as did his wife, and they reared a family of two sons and one daughter.
Albert D. Chamberlin, after mastering the branches of learning taught in the elementary grades of the public schools, continued his studies in the Hinsdale Academy of Massachusetts, the same school from which Senator F. E. Warren was graduated. He also attended a Methodist school located at Jonesville, New York. When his textbooks were put aside Albert D. Chamberlin began work in his father's paper mill and was thus employed until after the outbreak of the Civil war, when he became a sailor, joining the navy. He served for about one year and was honorably discharged in 1865. While in the service he was engaged in looking for blockade runners along the coast.
After leaving the navy Mr. Chamberlin returned home and embarked in business on his own account in the manufacture of paper, operating a mill from 1869 until 1881 and conducting a profitable and growing business. He then removed to the west, settling first at Goshen Hole, and in 1886 he came to what was then Albany county, now Converse county. Douglas had not been founded at that time but the town was laid out on the Ist of August of that year and Mr. Chamberlin established a lumber yard, carrying on the business successfully for about five years. He then turned his attention to coal mining at Inez, Wyo- ming, with DeForest Richards, afterwards governor of Wyoming, but during the three years in which he operated in the coal field he lost all that he had previously saved. He next turned his attention to the sheep industry, in which he was engaged from 1895 until 1912, or for a period of seventeen years, when he sold out. In the meantime he had been appointed to office and had served as register of the land office from 1896 until 1909. He is still the owner of a valuable ranch property on which he is raising cattle, but the active work of carrying on the ranch is left to others, while Mr. Chamberlin is enjoying well merited rest.
In 1889 Mr. Chamberlin was united in marriage to Miss Jennie McReynolds, of Nebraska, and they occupy an enviable position in social circles in Douglas and have a large number of warm friends throughout Converse county. Mr.
albert & Cham Berlin
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Chamberlin is a Mason of the highest rank, the honorary thirty-third degree having been conferred upon him in recognition of the important service which he has rendered to the craft. In politics he is a republican and was the first state senator elected from his district. He has thus been closely associated with public interests as well as with the establishment of business enterprises in Converse county and at all times his efforts have been an effective force in bringing about modern-day progress and improvement. His influence has always been felt as a strong, steady, moving force in the social, moral and industrial life of the com- munity. However, he prefers a quiet place in the background to the glamour of publicity. There is no doubt, however, as to his worth as a citizen and his con- tribution to the development of the city and county, and the name of no man is more closely associated with the welfare and interests of Douglas than that of Albert D. Chamberlin.
JOHN W. HAY.
John W. Hay is one of the best known and most substantial citizens of the state of Wyoming. His rise from a modest position to a place among the lead- ing bankers and stock raisers of the west might seem to be phenomenal and yet a careful analysis of his career shows that his progress has been the result of close application, indefatigable energy and persistency of purpose guided by a laudable ambition.
A native of Illinois, he was born in Fairfield, September 11, 1864, a son of Lawrence P. and James ( Borah) Hay, the former a native of Kentucky, while the latter was born in Illinois. The father removed to Illinois in early life and there he spent his remaining days. He was one of the pioneer settlers of Fair- field, and although he had been educated for the profession of the law in Louis- ville, Kentucky, he turned his attention to agricultural pursuits after becoming a resident of Illinois, taking up his abode upon a farm near Fairfield. His atten- tion was successfully given to the work of tilling the soil until after the outbreak of the Civil war, when feeling that his first duty was to his country, he enlisted in 1861 and was mustered out at Washington, D. C., in 1865, after four years' military service in defense of the Union cause. He participated in many hotly contested engagements, in which he proved his valor and his loyalty and, winning promotion from time to time, he held the rank of lieutenant colonel at the time of his discharge. His wife died in Fairfield, Illinois, in 1905, after which Mr. Hay became a resident of Ohio, where he passed away in 1907. In their family were ten children.
John W. Hay, who was the seventh in order of birth, spent his youthful days upon the old homestead farm in Illinois, dividing his time between the duties of the schoolroom, the pleasures of the playground and the work of the fields. He early became familiar with the best methods of tilling the soil and caring for the crops, but at length he determined to follow some other line of business than agriculture and upon leaving home he took up the study of telegraphy and later was emploved at various points in California and in Arizona. Eventually he became telegraph operator for the Union Pacific Railroad Company at Medicine Bow, Wyoming, and subsequently was made train dispatcher, chief dispatcher and train master. which position he filled for a number of years, his record being most creditable by reason of his systematic efforts. He was next made assistant superintendent for the Union Pacific at Chevenne. Wyoming, with jurisdiction over the district from Chevenne to Ogden, Utah. In 1900 Mr. Hay left the rail- road service and removed to Rock Springs, where he took up the live stock busi- ness, having a large ranch in Sweetwater county. In the intervening years he has become one of Wyoming's most prominent and successful live stock men, his interests in that direction increasing rapidly owing to his careful management and his wise investments in stock. A man of forceful and resourceful ability, he has
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ministry, he was made a deacon in 1891 and ordained to the priesthood of the Protestant Episcopal church in 1893. He served as rector of Grace church at Ottawa, Kansas, in 1891 and 1892 and through the succeeding year was pro- fessor of ethics and also chaplain of Bethany College at Topeka, Kansas. From 1893 until 1895 he was professor of New Testament Exegesis in the Kansas Theological School and was then called to the position of rector of St. Paul's church of Leavenworth, Kansas, where he remained until 1897, also acting during that period as chaplain at the United States penitentiary. He was rector of St. Matthew's church at Wheeling, West Virginia, from 1897 until 1899 and in the latter year accepted a call from the Holy Apostle's church of Philadelphia, with which he was identified for a decade. In 1902 he was elected to the bish- opric of Salina, Kansas, but declined. He was consecrated bishop of Wyoming on the 6th of May, 1909, and has since been a resident of Cheyenne.
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