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BIOGRAPHIES
ROBERT A. HARPER.
Young, energetic, progressive and successful, Robert A. Harper, one of the prominent ranchmen of Weston county, who never shirked a duty or turned his back upon a foe, is a credit to the community in which he lives and one of its forceful and productive activities.
In the province of Ontario, Canada, on April 20, 1857, he came into being, the son of Irish parents who had settled in the Dominion some years before. They were George and Ann J. (Spears) Harper, who left the hard and cramped conditions of the Emerald Isle for the ampler opportunities of the New World, and after a life of usefulness as farmers were laid to rest beneath the soil of their adopted land, the mother in 1886 and the father in 1893. Their son Robert remained at home until he was twenty-three, attending the public schools and assisting on the farm, thereafter in the spring of 1880 coming to Wyoming and locating at Cheyenne, he went to work for Sturgess & Goodell, who in the fall sent him to the Stockade Beaver Creek section in their interest, they having ranches and cattle there. He remained with them, riding the range and looking after their interests until 1886, then went to work for J. C. Spencer on his nearby ranch and was his capable foreman until 1889. He then entered the employ of W. H. Fawcett, whose ranch adjoins the one now owned by himself, and had charge of his property until August, 1900.
In 1897 he purchased the ranch on which he now resides on Stockade Beaver Creek, eight miles east of Newcastle, and gradually stocked it while in the service of Mr. Fawcett. In 1900 he settled on his own ranch and has since devoted his entire time to its development and cultivation and to his cattle interests. With steady progress he has added to the improvement of his property and the size and quality of his herd, making them more and more worthy of regard and more in keeping with his ideas of a comfortable homestead, his last addition being a good new residence, which was erected in the summer of 1902.
In politics Mr. Harper is a Democrat and, although earnestly interested in the success of his party, believing in its principles and the wisdom of its policies, he does not seek official preferment, being content to exercise his force as a citizen in advancing the general welfare of his community without regard to personal honors. On November 11, 1899, at Philadelphia, Pa., he was united in marriage with Miss Sallie Swahn, a native of the Keystone state, where her parents, Joseph and Angeline Swalm, were also born and reared. Until his death in 1898 her father was a prosperous merchant in Philadelphia, Pa. Her mother is still living in Tioga, a suburb of that city.
Progressive Men of the State of Wyoming, 1903
Submitted By: Cathy Danielson
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FRANK L. NIHART.
On a well-improved and highly cultivated farm of 320 acres in the midst of that Goshen of America, Canyon Springs Prairie, twenty- two miles northeast of Newcastle in Weston county, Frank L. Nihart resides and carries on his farming operations on a large scale and mingles with them a profitable stockraising.
He was born in Owen county, Indiana, on May 4, 1867, a son of Amos and Malinda (Johnson) Nihart, prosperous farmers in the Hoosier state where most of their lives were passed. He remained at home until he was ten years old, attending school as he had opportunity and being employed at work on farms near his home and in the adjoining county of Clay until he was seventeen. At that time he went over into Mercer county, ILL., and there continued farm work for two years, in 1886 coming west to Colorado and being employed on the construction of the Rock Island Railroad through that state and afterwards working on the Union Pacific in Kansas.
In the autumn of 1888 he removed to Nebraska and purchasing a threshing outfit was kept busy threshing grain for the farmers in that state, mostly in Buffalo county. He remained there until the fall of 1890, when he came to Cambria, Wyo., and after working in the mines until 1893 he took up his present ranch on Canyon Springs Prairie, and has since resided there engaged in farming and stockraising, conducting a much appreciated convenience to the neighborhood in the form of a sawmill, which turns out large quantities of lumber eight miles south of the ranch.
Mr. Nihart's farming operations are conducted with skill and enterprise, and are rewarded by crops of unusual volume and high quality. At this writing (1902) he has the finest looking and most promising field of wheat on the prairie. His stockraising also, although only a secondary consideration with him, is governed by true business principles and no reasonable outlay is withheld that seems necessary to secure the best results, while the sawmill is an up-to-date equipment, run with every consideration for the welfare of its patrons as well as the profits of its owner.
On June 27, 1891, Mr. Nihart was united in marriage with Miss Minnie DeVall, a native of Nebraska and daughter of William DeVall. The marriage was solemnized at Newcastle. They have one child, Hallie Nihart.
In politics Mr. Nihart affiliates with the Democratic party and while active in its service and firm in his faith in its principles he seeks neither its honors nor its emoluments, being content with his private estate in life and fully occupied with its duties.
Progressive Men of the State of Wyoming, 1903
Submitted By: Cathy Danielson
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JOSIAH E. STRONG.
Orphaned at the age of four years by the death of his mother, and reared thereafter until he was nineteen under the careful supervision of his father, Josiah E. Strong, of Boyd, Weston county, Wyoming, has displayed in his creditable career the sterling qualities of manliness and self-reliance for which his father and his family were distinguished. He was born on June 2, 1853, in Delaware county, N. Y., the son of L. and Rachel A. (Bradley) Strong, natives of New York, where the father prospered as a butcher in Otsego county until his death in September, 1874, the mother having passed away in 1857. He attended the schools of Otsego county, N. Y., and aided his father in his business until he was nineteen years old, then in the autumn of 1872 he joined the march of empire westward, coming to Nebraska and near Nebraska City engaged in farming for four years, from there going to Kansas and taking up land in Rooks county, where he remained nine years, struggling against adverse circumstances, dry seasons and other discouragements to make his venture successful, but sold his place in the fall of 1888 and the next April was led by a favoring fortune to Canyon Springs Prairie in what is now Weston county, Wyo., and in that fertile region, when as yet but few had knowledge of its possibilities and it was almost unoccupied, he took up his present ranch about twenty miles northeast of the site of the present town of Newcastle, for which at that time not a stake had been driven. Here bountiful harvests have rewarded his skillful labor and his farm of 320 acres is now one of the best on the prairie, well improved and equipped with the necessary appliances for its cultivation and the proper care of the superior stock which finds a home on its verdant expanse.
Mr. Strong is one of the successful fanners of the state, his care, skill, industry and progressive ideas entitling him to the good results he achieves in his work, while his public spirit and enterprise in every element of improvement in the community secure for him a high regard in the estimation of his fellow citizens.
On December 6, 1885, he was married with Miss Nancy Jane Allen, a native of Iowa, and a daughter of William and Charlotte (Sams) Allen, the marriage being consummated in Rooks county, Kan. Mrs. Strong's parents settled in Iowa when they were young and were married there, the father becoming a prosperous millman and a citizen of influence. In 1871 they removed to Rooks county, Kan., and engaged in farming and now live at Montrose, Colo. The Strongs have six children, Sarah E., William E., Charlotte M., Russell F., R. Maria and Claud F. In politics Mr. Strong gives his allegiance to the Republican party.
Progressive Men of the State of Wyoming, 1903
Submitted By: Cathy Danielson
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FRANK SMITH.
The third of the daring pioneers who first invaded the primeval wilderness of what is now Weston county, Wyoming, by his labors and his influence aiding largely in reducing the solitude to civilization and systematic productiveness, holding in his own right 480 acres of its fruitful soil and having under lease a large additional acreage, on which he conducts a leading cattle industry, Frank Smith, of the Stockade Beaver Creek region, has well earned the honorable mention among the builders and makers of this state which it is our pleasure to here give him. He inherited from a long line of progressive ancestors a true pioneer spirit and enthusiasm, his parents, Anthony and Rachel (Freel) Smith, having been among the first settlers in Warren county, Iowa, where he was born on April 6, 1853, both his father and his mother having been brought there by their parents in early life, and having been reared in that county when it was a part of the very far West. There the father, although a mechanic, followed farming successfully until his death in 1861, and there the mother is passing the evening of her days, rich in recollections of what seems a remote past because measured by conditions rather than years, and realizing as none but actual observers with experience can, the all-conquering spirit of American colonization. Mr. Smith remained with his mother, attending school and assisting on the farm until he was twenty years old. He then rented a farm in his native county and farmed it for four years.
In 1877 he sold out and removed to Nebraska, taking up a pre-emption in Buffalo county in that state. After three years of varying success as a farmer there, he again parted company with his land and came to his present location on Stockade Beaver Creek, making his home for a while with J. H. Freel on the ranch adjoining the one which he now occupies himself. He at once went to freighting and put his energies to work in the line of enterprise incident thereto, hauling supplies to various towns in the hills for two years.
In the spring of 1882 he located on his present ranch, ten miles northeast of Newcastle, and since then has devoted his entire time to ranching, and improving his property, increasing its boundaries, developing its resources, making it comfortable and complete as a home, and placing its products, both animal and vegetable, on the market in a way that has brought them high appreciation and him gratifying returns. He saw almost the beginning of civilized man's estate in the section, being the third to settle there and he is the only survivor of these who began its inspiring history. When he "stuck his stake" on the banks of the creek, Laramie county extended along the entire eastern boundary of the territory from Colorado to Montana.
On March 3, 1874, Mr. Smith was united in marriage with Miss Josephine Freel, a native of Warren county, Iowa, where the nuptials were solemnized, and where her parents, J. B. and Margaret (Portez) Freel, were prosperous farmers and pioneers. Mrs. Smith did not hesitate to walk life's dangerous way with him into the wilderness and has contributed her share to the growth and improvement of the section in which they live. He is a republican in politics, serving his people as county commissioner in 1892 and 1896. Fraternally he belongs to the Knights of Pythias and the Woodmen of the World, holding membership in lodges of these orders at Newcastle. In addition to his ranching and cattle interests he has valuable holdings in oil properties with the Rattler and the Custer City oil companies.
Progressive Men of the State of Wyoming, 1903
Submitted By: Cathy Danielson
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