1880-1899
HOMESTEADERS J - M
| JONES David J b. 1839 d. 1905 Year Arrived: 1876 Patent Year: 1891 Rng & Twn: 33,34N 99W Sections: 2, 35 Acres: SCE-185 Map # 8 | David Jones was born in Wales, United Kingdom, in March 1839. He came to the Lander Valley in 1876 and filed a Desert Land Entry for 160 acres. He married Martha M. Boyd in 1885. She was the sister of William Henry Harrison Boyd, one of the earliest settlers and homesteader in the valley. In the 1900 census Jones was noted as a naturalized citizen who immigrated in 1855. He owned his home and was a stock raiser. Martha passed away in 1902 and David died in 1910. Both are buried in the Mount Hope Cemetery at Lander. | |
| JONES William A b. 1836 d. 1902 Year Arrived: 1867 Patent Year: 1891 Rng & Twn: 33N 100W Sections: 9 Acres: HE-160 Map # 9 | William "Billy"Jones was born in Birmingham, England, on July 30, 1836, to William and Elizabeth Parry Jones. He was in the Sweetwater mining district in 1869 with a residence in Hamilton City. He married Martha Ann Marshall in October 1870 in South Pass City. Their first child, Theopholius, was born in South Pass City and soon thereafter they moved to the Wind River Valley where William made a pre-emption claim on some farmland in 1871. Because his acreage belonged to the Shoshone tribe, the Indian agent made several attempts to have him and his non-Indian neighbors removed. Although the effort was unsuccessful, and because of newly levied county taxes on his cattle in addition to a required reservation lease fee, William moved to the Lander Valley in 1885. He filed on a homestead near the reservation boundary. He obtained a contract to deliver potatoes and other vegetables to the reservation. He continued in the cattle business and received the patent for his homestead in 1891. He and Martha had seven more children, six girls and one boy. They had eight children who lived throughout the area. He died in Lander on August 7, 1902, and is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery at Lander. | |
| KIME Caroline b. 1828 d. 1903 Year Arrived: Not Available Patent Year: 1895 Rng & Twn: 30N 99W Sections: 12 Acres: SCE-162 Map # 2 | Caroline Chapin was already 45 years of age when she married James Kime who was seven years younger. Hers was a shaded history to that time, very little being known about her life before she arrived in South Pass City and of her life with Charles D. Chapin. Christopher Stageman, a well-known prospector in the Sweetwater mines, was well acquainted with her. He remarked in his memoirs that in the household of Senator Kime was his wife, his wife's son, Joe Miller, and a perennial hired girl. Mrs. Kime, who liked to be called Mrs. Senator Kime, was quite a character. In earlier days, she had run what was known as a "hook shop" at South Pass City and the money she made she invested wisely. Caroline purchased a homestead in the Twin Creek area and managed the Kime's City Hotel in South Pass City while James acquired and managed mining interests in Miners Delight (Hamilton City). Perhaps, due to the somewhat notorious nature of the Kime family's history, the Lander paper did not carry an obituary of Mrs. Kime when she died in 1903, nor was there a notice of Senator Kime's death in 1907. | |
| KIME James b. 1836 d. 1907 Year Arrived: 1869 Patent Year: 1888 Rng & Twn: 32N 99W Sections: 23, 26 Acres: SCE-320 Map # 5 | James Kime was born in Pennsylvania in 1836 and came west to Nebraska in 1857 and to Colorado in 1858. He went into freighting in Cheyenne in 1859. He arrived in Atlantic City in 1869, once more entering into freighting by team and wagon. He married Caroline Chapin, then a resident of South Pass City in 1874. In 1886 he was elected to the lower house of the Territorial Legislature. In 1892 he was elected as a State Senator from Fremont County but his service in that capacity remains dubious to this day. Kime served as the first president of the Fremont County Pioneer Association shortly after its revival in 1904. James died in July 1907 and is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery at Lander. (see story). |  |
| KIMPEL John b. unknown d. unknown Year Arrived: Not Available Patent Year: 1892 Rng & Twn: 34N 100W Sections: 34 Acres: HE-160 Map # 13 | In 1889, two German settlers, John Kimpel and William Schneider, homesteaded in the small settlement of Milford, Wyoming. They built a house which was uniquely located on the dividing (township) line of their homestead lands, a practice no longer allowed. The house was constructed out of sandstone and had separate entrances. The sandstone was acquired from a nearby deposit now known as Kimpel Quarry. Kimpel and Schneider had a joint business together in Lander, but John spent his winters visiting family in Virginia and attending to other business interests there. Eventually the partnership was dissolved and John returned to Virginia - nothing further is known. | |
| KNOTT John E. b. 1834 d. 1924 Year Arrived: 1868 Patent Year: 1887 Rng & Twn: 33N 99W Sections: 8, 17 Acres: HE-160 Map # 8 | John Knott was born in Ohio in 1834. He was a veteran of the Civil War serving four years in the 4th Iowa. Coming to Wyoming in 1866, he was married to Sarah Davis in February 1868. Sarah was 14 years of age. They came to Lander in 1872. In the 1880 census John was listed as a farmer. There were five children born to this family. John died of a paralytic stroke in 1924 at the age of 89. He is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Lander. |  |
| LAIRD James b. 1844 d. 1917 Year Arrived: 1869 Patent Year: 1888 Rng & Twn: 34N 99W Sections: 30, 31 Acres: SCE-143 Map #12 | James Laird was born near Springfield, Illinois., July 9, 1844. He served in the navy during the Civil War from 1861 to 1865. After his discharge, James engaged in freighting, working his way west as the frontier advanced with the building of the Union Pacific Railroad. When he arrived in Cheyenne, Wyoming in 1868 he joined up with future residents of the Lander Valley, Mart and Ernest Hornecker, Jake Frey, and Tom Cosgrove. They made their way to Miners Delight near South Pass; attracted there by gold excitement that begun the year before. James failed to strike it rich but cutting wood for the mining camps added to some freighting opportunities got him through the tough winters. Following a near-death freighting accident in 1879 James moved to the Lander Valley where he took up a homestead on North Fork, receiving the patent in 1888. In 1883 he met and married Matilda "Tillie" Rogers. Fourteen children were born to this union. James died in 1917 and Tillie died in 1936. Both are buried in Lander. |  |
| LAMON Joseph F b. 1863 d. C. 1897 Year Arrived: Not Available Patent Year: 1891 Rng & Twn: 32N 99W Sections: 34 Acres: HE-160 Map # 5 | Joseph Lamon was born in London, Kentucky, to unknown parents in 1863. He enlisted in the Union Army in 1863 and served as a Private, First Battalion, Light Artillery A.S. He farmed a homestead of 160 acres on the Little Popo Agie which was then in Sweetwater County around 1878. He received a patent for it in 1890. On September 21, 1879 Joseph married Euphemia Sartain. She had lost her husband that spring on April 13, 1869. Euphemia had four children by that marriage, her daughter Mable Sartain married Mr. Goodrich of Lander. Euphemia died in Lander October 29, 1890 at the age of 76. Joseph died in Lander sometime before June 14, 1897 at which time his estate was settled by executor M. N. Baldwin, a friend and local businessman. | |
| LAMOUREUX Jules b. 1836 d. 1914 Year Arrived: 1868 Patent Year: 1887 Rng & Twn: 33N 99W Sections: 17 Acres: HE-160 Map # 8 | Jules Lamoreaux was born on October 28, 1836, near St. Hyacinth, Quebec. He ran away from home at age 12 and evidently learned the freighting business while at Fort Laramie in the 1860s. In 1864 he married a Sioux Indian girl, Woman Dress. In the spring of 1868, he was drawn to the gold excitement at South Pass. In 1874 he moved to the Popo Agie Valley and took up a homestead. He was one of the pioneer cattlemen of the area. By the time the blizzards of the late 1880s hit him hard, he was said to have had 6,000 head of cattle and a large herd of horses. He sold his remaining 800 head of cattle in 1898. He continued his meat market in the 200 block of Main Street of Lander. He and Woman Dress had four sons and four daughters. She died in 1908 and he in 1914. |  |
| LANIGAN Edward b. ca. 1823 d. 1903 Year Arrived: Not Available Patent Year: 1890 Rng & Twn: 34N 100W Sections: 29, 30 Acres: SCE-153 Map# 13 | Edward Lanigan was born in Ireland around 1823. He married Ann Jane O'Reilly, born 1827, in County Westmeath, Ireland, in 1850. They had eight children in 18 years. In the 1870 census he was listed as a retail liquor dealer at Fort Bridger, Wyoming Territory. The 1880 census showed Edward and family living on the North Fork of the Popo Agie River. His occupation was listed as a stockgrower. The family had settled on a homestead there, receiving a patent in 1890. Edward's sons, Edward Jr., Joseph, William, and James H., became prominent residents of the Lander Valley. Edward died September 23, 1903, and Ann died May 29, 1904. They both are buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Lander. |  |
| LESEBERG Frederick H. b. 1873 d. 1945 Year Arrived: 1879 Patent Year: 1892 Rng & Twn: 34N 100W Sections: 28, 29 Acres: HE-105 Map# | Henry, as he was better known, was born in Oregon, Missouri on May 7, 1873. By 1880, at the age of 7, he had moved with his family to Wyoming. He grew up on the family homestead on North Fork. He married Alice Lucinda Avery in Lander on October 27, 1897. After marrying Alice, they made their home on the Aaron Vetter homestead on the North Fork of the Popo Agie River. Aaron was the brother of his mother, Anna. Henry died on September 15, 1945 and is buried in the Alton-Leseberg Cemetery at Milford, Wyoming. | |
| LESEBERG Henry August b. 1843 d. 1924 Year Arrived: 1877 Patent Year: 1891 Rng & Twn: 33N 100W Sections: 2, 11 Acres: SCE-160 Map # 9 | Henry Leseberg was born in Lippe, Germany, on December 11, 1843. He arrived in Fremont County, Wyoming, in 1879. In the 1880 census, at age 37, he was a single sheepherder who lived in Red Canyon, Wyoming. In 1891 he received a homestead patent for cash entry homestead near Lander. His marriage to Kate Chambers in 1882 did not last and he was divorced sometime before 1900. In 1900 he herded sheep for the Scarlett brothers with his son, Oscar. He was single at the time of his death on February 26, 1924. He is buried at Milton-Freewater, Oregon. |  |
| LOWE Benjamin Frank b. 1840 d. 1908 Year Arrived: 1870 Patent Year: 1880 Rng & Twn: 33N 99W Sections: 18 Acres: SCE-160 Map #8 | Frank Lowe was born in Crawford County, Indiana, June 25, 1840. His parents, Benjamin W. and Mahala Cotton Lowe made their permanent home in Shawnee, Johnson County, KansasS , and it was from there that Frank Lowe came west in 1858. According to reports he took charge of a wagon train carrying supplies for General A. S. Johnson who was on his way with federal troops to Utah to settle differences between the government and the Mormons. While remaining in Utah, Frank participated in the Bear River Massacre in which Colonel Patrick O'Connor's troops killed over 400 Shoshone men, women, and children in their village while only two dozen soldiers died. Mr. Lowe began an independent career as a trader with the Indian tribes at both Fort Bridger and Burnt Ranch near the site of South Pass City. While there he scouted for Colonel Lander's survey party tasked with locating and building a shorter route from South Pass to the Oregon settlements. In 1863, in partnership with Bil Hickman, notorious Danite chief and outlaw, Mr. Lowe established the Eagle Rock Ferry at the Taylor's Bridge site, now Idaho Falls. It was a great financial success, the receipts sometimes amounting to $1000 a day from the toll paid by emigrants, gold-seekers and freighters crossing the Snake River. In 1869 he took charge of a lumber business at Atlantic City, the products of which were used in the construction of Camp Stambaugh. The camp was built by the government to protect inhabitants of the South Pass Mining District from marauding Indian tribes. In 1874, Mr. Lowe and Mr. Peter Dickinson located homesteads in Lander Valley on land that belonged to the Shoshone tribe. However, through delayed ratification of the Brunot Treaty of 1873, the land entered the public domain. Both homesteads were then divided into lots under ownership of the Lander Townsite Company with Mr. Lowe as president. When title to the land was cleared by Congress in 1875, a post office was established and named "Lander" at the suggestion of Mr. Lowe who desired to honor his former employer. In 1877, the same year in which Mr. Lowe married Sarah Ann Wright, he was elected to the Territorial House of Representatives and in 1884 he was appointed to the commission charged with the task of organizing Fremont County. Mr. Lowe's wife, Sarah died in 1897 and in that same year, he married Mrs. Laura Francis Cleveland living at that time at the Shoshone agency. In failing health, he and his wife traveled to Chicago where he received treatment. A year later on October 24, 1908, Mr. Lowe died, at the age of 68. |  |
| LYNCH James T b. unknown d. unknown Year Arrived: Not Available Patent Year: 1898 Rng & Twn: 33N 100W Sections: 21 Acres: HE-160 Map #9 | James Lynch was married when he applied for a 160-acre homestead. He and his wife lived in Lander in 1890 and it was in August of that year that his niece Gertrude Barry drowned in the Big Popo Agie River. His haystacks burned in the winter of 1891 for which he fortunately had fire insurance. He received a homestead patent in March of 1898. No other information was found. | |
| LYON Frank W. b. unknown d. unknown Year Arrived: Not Available Patent Year: 1890 Rng & Twn: 33N 98W Sections: 5 Acres: HE-160 Map # 7 | Frank W. Lyon homesteaded on the lower Little Popo Agie River in the vicinity of Hudson and adjacent the homestead of Robert and Amelia Lyon Hall. Very little can be found regarding his history and only a few facts are known. Frank and his wife (unknown) are mentioned in a newspaper as being present in the Lander Valley as early as 1887. The 1890 Veteran's Schedule listed a Frank W. Lyon as living in Embar, Wyoming, in the Big Horn Basin. According to Fremont County land records, the homestead patent for his ranch was issued October 21, 1890. On September 27, 1892, a mortgage deed was made by Frank Lyon to Amelia Lyon Hall, followed by a deed of trust for his ranch. Therefore, it is possible that Frank Lyon was in some way related to the Lyon sisters Amelia and Alice of Lyons Valley, but that connection has not been established. | |
| MASON Nathan G. b. 1843 d.1920 Year Arrived: Not Available Patent Year: 1892 Rng & Twn: 34N 101W Sections: 36 Acres: HE-213 Map # 14 | Nathan Mason was born at Akron, Ohio, in 1843. He enlisted in 1861 and was discharged as a private in 1863. After Nathan's marriage to Mary Annette Radley in 1869, they lived in Akron. Around 1876 they moved to Wyoming and by the time the 1880 census was taken they had moved to the Lander Valley where he homesteaded in 1892. Mary was for many years Fremont County Superintendent of Schools. The Masons had five children and moved to Oregon in hopes of making a better life for their daughter who was in failing health. Nathan Mason died in January 1920 at Milton-Freewater, Oregon. |  |
| MCLAUGHLIN John M b. 1849 d. 1926 Year Arrived: Not Available Patent Year: 1890 Rng & Twn: 33N 99W Sections: 7 Acres: HE-160 Map # 8 | John McLaughlin was born January 27, 1849 in New York state to unknown parents from Ireland and Scotland. In 1876 he married Edith Arminta Noble in Hounsfield, New York, when he was age 27 and she was 23. They first appear in this area in 1880 when John was employed at the Shoshone and Bannock Indian Agency at Fort Washakie. Edith was the daughter of Worden Payne Noble, a wealthy freighter who had contracts with the military at Camp Stambaugh, Camp Brown (later to become the town of Lander), and Fort Washakie in the early 1870's. John and Edith's son, born in 1883, was named Worden Payne MvLaughlin. It was probably in 1883 that the McLaughlins took up a Desert Land homestead on the outskirts of Lander City. The patent was received in 1890. They retired to Long Beach, California, where John died August 22, 1926 and Edith passed away on February 5, 1931 in Lander. They are buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Lander. | |
| MEALMAN Hyrum b. ca.1843 d. 1896 Year Arrived: Not Available Patent Year: 1888 Rng & Twn: 34N 100W Sections: 27, 34, 35 Acres: SCE-227 Map # 13 | Hyram "Hi" Mealman was born in Pennsylvania and came to Wyoming prior to 1878, as it is noted that Ed and Sariah Alton bought land from him at North Fork in that year. It was also in that year that he married Mrs. Sarah Rogers and was appointed postmaster at North Fork. Mr. Mealman had homesteaded on the North Fork of the Popo Agie River at the site of the stage and freight crossing on the way to Fort Washakie. Here, he had built a stage stop on the Rawlins to Fort Washakie stage line. Ed and Saria homesteaded just above Mealman and Peter Dickinson just above them. Sometime after 1880 he moved to Dubois and established quite a ranch on the Big Wind River. Mealman contracted pneumonia and succumbed in June of 1896. | |
| MEIGS Guy b. 1817 d. 1885 Year Arrived: 1867 Patent Year: 1880 Rng & Twn: 33N 99W Sections: 18 Acres: SCE-120 Map # 8 | Guy Meigs was the first child of seven born on May 29, 1817, in Vermont. He married Lavinia Wallbridge of Canada in 1842, but in 1856 abandoned her and her four daughters and a son. He came to Wyoming and appeared in the 1870 census for Rock Creek Gulch mining district. He took up a homestead on which he received the patent in 1880. As the property was located within the boundary of Lander City, he sold it in 1880 for the lucrative price of $1,000 and took up farming elsewhere in the county. He was unmarried and died in Lander in 1885. | |
| MEYER Carrie Blum Year Arrived: 1881 Patent Year: 1890 Rng & Twn: 32N 100W Sections: 28, 29, 32, 33 Acres: SCE-200 Map # 6 | See Meyer, Jacob |  |
| MEYER Jacob S b. 1866 d. 1898 Year Arrived: 1878 Patent Year: 1888 Rng & Twn: 33N 100W Sections: 25, 26, 35 Acres: SCE-240 Map # 9 | Jacob Meyer was born in Missouri on March 10, 1866. He came to the Lander Valley in 1878 to purchase the improvements of J.J. Frey's ranch. With the addition of two well placed homestead entries along the Big Popo Agie River he was able to carry out a very successful farming and livestock business. In 1880 Jacob traveled back east and married Miss Carrie Blum in Williamsburg, Missouri. Following the wedding they returned to Wyoming and established a comfortable and happy home. He was the first superintendent of the State Experimental Farm located next to his farm. In about 1895 he became ill and despite the best medical aid of that time died on July 30, 1898. Carrie continued to operate the farm adding a homestead property to it in 1890. Carrie died in May of 1926. Both are buried in Lander. |  |
| MILLS Gardner S. b. 1862 d. 1939 Year Arrived: Not Available Patent Year: 1893 Rng & Twn: 31N 98W Sections: 24 Acres: HE-160 Map # 3 | Sanford "Sandy" Mills was born June 3, 1862, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He married Mary Webb Batchelor on April 8, 1887, at Lake Mills, Wisconsin. They came to the Lander Valley in 1888 and homesteaded 160 acres receiving their patent in 1893. Their daughter, Margaret Esther, was born in Lander on December 29, 1889. Mills was a member of the Fremont Horticultural Society and was a Forest Ranger on the Washakie Lander District in 1914-1916. His wife died on January 11, 1921, in Lander and he died October 4, 1939, in Lander. Both are buried in the Mount Hope Cemetery in Lander. | |
| MORTIMORE Thomas J b. 1849 d. 1920 Year Arrived: Not Available Patent Year: 1891 Rng & Twn: 33N 100W Sections: 25 Acres: SCE-79 Map # 9 | Thomas Mortimore was born on May 5, 1849, in Des Moines, Iowa. He married Eliza Jane Van Horn on November 8, 1868, in Quincy, Illinois. By the 1880 census they were living in Neosho, Kansas, and had five children. He arrived in Wyoming in 1885 and received his first patent in 1891. In 1910 he was farming in the Borners Garden area. His homestead was south of Lander on what is now known as Mortimore Lane. Thomas Mortimore died on January 24, 1920, and is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Lander. |  |
| MYERS Orren O. Year Arrived: 1878 Patent Year: 1890 Rng & Twn: 33N 100W Sections: 11, 12 Acres: SCE-120 Map # 9 | See Other Entry |  |
| MYERS Orren O. b. ca. 1857 d. 1931 Year Arrived: Not Available Patent Year: 1892 Rng & Twn: 33N 100W Sections: 10, 11 Acres: HE-160 Map # 9 | Orren Myers was born in Iowa in 1857 or 1858. He came to Wyoming on the train. He purchased a ticket for as far as his money would take him which was Rawlins, Wyoming. He worked helping to load wagons and look after the horses and mules. After about a year he wanted to find some land to homestead. A driver suggested he go to Fort Augur (Lander) where the country was beautiful. He went to work for a man named Davis and worked until 1888. He then filed on 160 acres two miles northwest of Lander. In 1885 he married Sophia Goodrich. They worked very hard building fences and ditches. They had seven children, two boys, the second who died in infancy, and five girls. Orren was a good man who used no tobacco and his children did not know of him to take a drink of alcohol. The homestead became a beautiful ranch after all the hard work. There was a two-story house for four bedrooms upstairs and a large living room and kitchen downstairs. They had lots of parties and dances in that home. Orren planted lots of trees for shade and apple trees and all kinds of fruit trees. He raised horses, chickens, pigs and turkeys. It was a very busy place. In 1930, his health failed after a hospital stay. He died on June 30, 1931, and is buried at the Mount Hope Cemetery in Lander. | |