First Families of Your County

This First Families section is for ancestors that lived in your County prior to 1900. If you have ancestors that you would like to have posted, all you have to do is send me the information. You can send it to me in a .rtf, .txt, .doc, .html format. (Usually Family Tree Maker and other similar programs use .rtf files)

If you have a genealogy web site of your County Ancestors, let me know and I will add a link on "Personal Genealogy Sites" so that others may visit. You MUST let me know that you are sending a file prior to sending it. I do not open attachments from unknown sources.

If you see a picture that is very small, it is a "thumbnail" picture. Click on the picture for a larger view.

Use these family pages as a springboard for your research. I have made no attempts to verify the accuracy of the information submitted. If you find what you believe to be errors, please contact the submitter. 

Please do NOT submit any information on living people, I do not post that information. It is too dangerous to post names of living people, even if the information listed says "Private". I use 1920 as the cut-off year for births. 

Biographies

Chassell, Harry J, stockgrower; real estate operator; state senator; (Rep); b October 30, 1866, Holland Patent, NY; s of William and Frances (Jones) Chassell; educ pub schls Iowa Falls, Iowa; Iowa State Teachers' college, Cedar Falls, Iowa, 1886-79; res in NY, 1866; located in Iowa Falls, Iowa, on a farm, 1867-88; taught school, Iowa, 1885; married 1901, to Rosa Hawksley, at Aurora, Ills; located in Wyoming, spring of 1888, and taught school in Crook county, 1888-9; manager Adams Bros Merc Establishment, Gillette, 1891-2; engaged in stock business and in mercantile business in Gillette, 1893-1915; deputy county clerk, Crook county, Wyo, one year; mem Wyo H of Rep, 1909-13; introduced the legislative bill creating Campbell county, session 1911; mem Wyo State Senate, 1915-19; v-pres Senate, session 1915; mem Masons; Yeomen Address: Gillette, Wyoming. Men of Wyoming, by C S Peterson Published 1915

Daly, James H One of the Daly brothers of Gillette, leading merchants and stockmen, James H Daly, has had an interesting and varied career in this state. He has seen the flow and ebb of commercial tides, the rise and decay of business centers, the sudden expansion of trade under primitive conditions and circumstances of difficulty, and has felt the keen pangs of disappointment and adversity from sudden and complete disaster. Yet through all he has preserved the same constant spirit of fortitude and cheerfulness, has laughed at misfortune and challenged Fate herself into the lists against him with a serene and lofty courage. He was born at Walpole, Cheshire county, NH, on March 7, 1863, the son of Michael and Mary A (Hyde) Daly, natives of Ireland. The father came to the United States when he was fourteen years old and went to work on a farm in New Hampshire where he remained until 1873 and then removed to Kansas, settling in Mitchell county, he took up a homestead near Beloit and farmed it until 1899. In that year he made Beloit his residence and is now living in that city. James H Daly remained with his parents on the Kansas farm until he reached his majority and was educated in the public schools. In 1883 he engaged in farming on his own account near his father's place and later worked in a lumber yard in Beloit, remaining in that town and vicinity until 1887 when he came to Wyoming and settled at Sundance. For a few months he worked on a ranch and was then appointed jailer under Sheriff James Ryan and afterwards under John W Rogers, holding the office four years in succession. In the summer of 1891 his brother John opened a general merchandising establishment at Gillette (WY), and in December of that year James joined him in the enterprise as a partner. Their store was small and their stock was limited, but business was brisk and the increase was rapid. The railroad was then building through this section and Gillette had a population of at least 1000, all activities being on the boom. When the road passed the town James Daly followed the construction camps with a stock of goods in a tent and did a thriving trade in necessary commodities for six months or more and then returned to Gillette where his brother was conducting the main store. In November, 1895, their buildings and stock were completely destroyed by fire. They immediately put up a temporary structure and continued their business in it through the winter, beginning at once the buildings which now house their enterprise. These were finished and ready for occupancy by the next spring and spacious as they were and complete in equipment, they had not capacity sufficient to meet the demands of their expanding trade, which has grown to great proportions and is now the most extensive and carries the largest and most complete stock within a radius of many miles. In 1898 the brothers took up land eighteen miles northwest of Gillette and began a stock industry which has developed into a large and exacting business. They have improved their ranch with the necessary appurtenances, and give to its needs and its progress the same intelligent and studious attention that characterizes them in all their undertakings. They have also much real estate of value in the town. Both are members of the Catholic church. Progressive Men of the State of Wyoming, by A W Bowen & Co Published 1901

Ditlinger, Joseph, one of the representative and progressive stockmen of northern Wyoming, was born on October 5, 1862, in Jennings county, Indiana, where his parents, Adam and LaBelle Ditlinger, were prosperous farmers, having come there from their native state of Georgia, and carried on their farming industry successfully until the death of the father in 1887, and there the mother is still living on the old homestead. Joseph remained at home until he was fourteen years old, attending the public school in his vicinity as he had opportunity, and then, in 1876, he went to Nevada, where he worked on ranches and rode the range until 1881. He then came to Wyoming, locating at Cheyenne, and engaged in freighting for two years from that town to the northern part of the state for cattle outfits. In 1883 he settled in Crook county, there finding congenial employment as a rangerider and cowboy until the autumn of 1887, when he took up the ranch on which he now lives on Horse Creek, thirty-seven miles north of Gillette, where he has since remained, engaged in raising sheep and horses on a scale of increasing magnitude. His business is prosperous and progressive, because he makes it so. His energy and his diligent attention to its every detail, his readiness in action, quickness of perception and breadth of view, combined with his knowledge of men and business methods, give him full command of the situation, and would compel success, even if the conditions were unfavorable, which they are not, for his ranch is well located, substantially improved and highly cultivated. Its natural facilities for his enterprise have been concentrated, intensified and systematized by care and labor, having been by him many times multiplied in their productiveness. In politics Mr Ditlinger is an uncompromising Republican, who always takes an active interest in the affairs of his party, giving its principles and candidates loyal and serviceable support, yet seeking none of its honors for himself. He is also deeply interested in the welfare of the community in which he lives, being ready to aid in the development of every good enterprise for the advancement and improvement of the county or state. Fraternally, he is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, holding membership in the lodge at Gillette, and in church relations is a Catholic. Progressive Men of the State of Wyoming, by A W Bowen & Co Published 1901

Ditto, Samuel D Prominent as an excellent breeder of horses, a successful ranchman and a competent man of affairs, active and influential in politics, with a wealth of experience gathered in extensive travel and being long a contractor and builder in various states and cities throughout the middle and the farther West, Samuel D Ditto, of near Gillette in Crook county, stands well in the estimation of his community and is well equipped for all the duties of life he is called upon to perform. He was born on June 29, 1861, in Mercer county, Illinois, where his parents, John W and Elizabeth (Redmon) Ditto, natives of Ohio, were living at the time, the beneficiaries of an extensive mercantile business, which was carried on by the father after having passed a number of years in successful farming. He passed nearly the whole of his life in that county, having been brought there when a boy by his parents, and, after a career of usefulness and honorable living, with all men and in every relation, he died in 1885. His wife preceded him to the grave by fourteen years, passing away in 1871. Mr Ditto grew to manhood and was educated in his native county. He assisted his father on the farm and in his business until he was twenty-four years of age, after the father's death, in 1885, coming westward to Nebraska, where he began a contracting and building enterprise which called him from that state through surrounding ones and still farther to the west. He built the first house erected in Alliance, Neb, put up a number of superior building blocks and residences in Utah, Nevada and Idaho, and left the proofs of his skill and great capacity for construction wherever he halted long enough to secure a contract. He first saw Wyoming in 1889, when the now thriving and comely little city of Newcastle had just been spoken into being and was fast rising from her slumber of infancy to vigorous and progressive activity. He returned, however, for awhile to Utah and Nevada and, three years later, in 1892, after spending a few months in North Dakota, came back to Wyoming and located at Sheridan where he remained until 1895. He then started in the horse business near Gillette and has since maintained his home in that town. In the fall of 1897 he homesteaded, on Donkey Creek, six miles east of Gillette, and, from that time, has devoted himself assiduously to building up a profitable industry in the breeding of horses, giving attention to raising the standard around him, catering in a satisfactory way to an exacting market. He has scored a pronounced success in his business, enrolling his name high among the progressive men of his line and winning the good will of all classes of people with whom he has come in contact. He is active in local public affairs, being an ardent and unwavering Democrat in politics, of the kind who always labor for party success, and are never beaten until the result is announced. He is a representative citizen, esteemed wherever he is known. Progressive Men of the State of Wyoming, by A W Bowen & Co Published 1901

Fox, George A For more than sixteen years a resident of Wyoming, and during all of that time closely identified with the progress and development of the state, contributing of both brain and brawn to make her waste places glad, her mercantile interests prosperous, her civic life useful and true, and now conducting on a large and substantial basis a business of great service and importance to the community in which he lives, George A Fox, of Gillette, may well be spoken of as one of the forceful and productive factors among the civilizing influences of this section. He was born on June 26, 1851, in Floyd county, Iowa, where his parents, John and Jerusha A (Colson) Fox, were early emigrants from Illinois. There they settled when the county was on the frontier, and there they lived until it had yielded to the persuasive voice of progress and become an old and well-settled community. Then again they turned to the undeveloped West and removing to Richardson county, Neb, in 1865, they homesteaded on the unbroken prairie and redeemed their portion of it to fertility and productiveness. In 1885, renewing their love for the wilder phases of our great public domain, they took up their residence in Crook county, Wyoming, and there the mother died in 1887. The father then returned to his old home in Nebraska and passed the remainder of his days amid the scenes he had so long enjoyed, dying in 1899, after spending the sunset of a useful life in peaceful retirement from toil and care. George A Fox was educated in the schools of the place in which he lived from time to time as he grew to manhood, and worked on the farm with his father until he was eighteen. He then engaged in farming on his own account in Nebraska until 1882, when he opened a livery business in Humboldt, that state, and conducted it for two years. In 1884 he removed to Sherman county, Kan, and there took up a homestead, but after two years of occupancy of this, came to Crook county, Wyo, where his parents were at the time, and "homesteaded" six miles from Sundance. On the land thus taken up he started a cattle industry, and also engaged in freighting between Rapid City, SD, and the Black Hills country. For five years he followed this exciting and profitable life, and thereafter devoted his energies entirely to the development and improvement of his cattle interests until 1896, when he sold both ranch and stock and came to Gillette to engage in the livery business. His progress in this enterprise was safe, but slow at first, owing to a vigorous competition, but in 1899 he bought the barn he now uses for»his business and, enlarging it and his stock, he has since done an extensive work in his line, being one of the best-known men in all this part of the country. In addition to a business which necessarily brings him into contact with all classes and conditions of men, Mr Fox gained knowledge and become known through his activity in politics as a Democrat and in local public affairs as a progressive and enterprising citizen for many years. He has been serviceablv interested in all projects for the advancement of the community, and has more than contributed his share in inspiration and in more substantial ways for their successful operation. On July 1, 1877, at Forest City, Mo, occurred the first marriage of Mr. Fox, being then united with Miss Fannie Gird, who, after an unusually happy wedded life of nineteen years, was called from earth, leaving four children, Nora, Lottie, Eddie and Teddy. At Sheridan, Wyo., on May 23, 1900, Mr. Fox married with Mrs. Annie McClure, a widow, born and reared in Iowa, by whom he has had one son, Jay R Fox. In fraternal relations he is united with the lodge of Odd Fellows at Gillette, and, besides his livery business, he owns a ranch near the town, where he runs a considerable band of horses. He is as highly esteemed as he is widely known, and well merits his success in a commercial way and his hold on the regard of his fellows. Progressive Men of the State of Wyoming, by A W Bowen & Co Published 1901

Matthews, Thomas Progressive in all which the term implies and holding distinctive prestige as a business man and citizen Thomas Matthews is a splendid example of the wide-awake, enterprising class of men who in recent years have done so much to develop the wonderful resources of the Great West and advertise its manifold advantages to the world. Although a, resident of another state, he has large and important business interests in Wyoming and during the last twenty years has been very closely identified with the material development of the county of Weston. His parents, William and Nancy (King) Matthews, were among the very earliest pioneers of Southern Texas, settling in Gonzales county about 1835, where the father became one of the most extensive cattleraisers of that region, owning at one time nearly 5,000 acres of land, the greater part of which came into his possession by reason of his service as a soldier during the Mexican War. He was one of the successful and influential men of his county, accumulated valuable property and became widely known throughout Southern Texas as a farmer and stockman; he died in 1856, his widow surviving until 1892. Thomas N Matthews was born in Gonzales county, Tex, on April 14, 1849. He was a lad of six years when his father died, and to his mother's faithful care and guidance is he indebted for his early training and for much of the success with which his riper years have been crowned. At the proper age he became a pupil of the public schools and until eighteen years old remained with his mother on the home farm, looking after her interests and assisting to run the place. On April 23, 1867, when but little past eighteen years of age he was united in marriage with Miss Fannie Walker, a native of Tennessee and a daughter of Allen Walker, the ceremony being solemnized in the city of Gonzales. Upon the division of his father's estate about 1,000 acres fell to his son Thomas, who, on this, set up his first domestic establishment and began his long and successful career as a cattleraiser, building up a large and lucrative business and for a number of years ranking with the leading stockmen and successful farmers of his native county, also earning the reputation of an intelligent and public spirited man of affairs. He continued in Texas until 1881 when he sold a part of his extensive interests there and brought a large number of cattle to Wyoming, purchasing the fine ranch near Gillette which he still owns. Since transferring his interests to this state Mr Matthews has redoubled his diligence, gradually forging to the front until he became one of the most extensive stockmen in Weston county, beside holding large and valuable possessions elsewhere. His family joined him in 1889, when he disposed of the residue of his property in Texas, and in 1895 he moved to his present home in the town of Spearfish, South Dakota. Mr. Matthews owns a large amount of fine grazing land in South Dakota, which is well stocked with cattle and horses, his son Thomas being jointly interested with him and giving personal attention to the business in Wyoming. Mr Matthews has steadily increased his realty and his business continues to grow in magnitude and importance with each recurring year. His various ranches are admirably situated and with the improvements which he has added from time to time are now among the most valuable properties of the kind in the west. He owns an elegant modern residence in Spearfish, abundantly supplied with the comforts and conveniences calculated to make life desirable, and in addition thereto has nearly 1, 000 acres of land in close proximity to the city. In many respects the subject of this sketch is more than an ordinary man, for his career has been attended with financial success, such as few achieve and he has made his presence felt as a forceful factor in business circles and in the public affairs of his city and state. His methods have always been honorable and in his relations with his fellow men no shade or suspicion of a questionable transaction has ever attached to his good name. His private character is above reproach and as a neighbor, friend and citizen his record will bear the closest and most exacting scrutiny. By deeds of generosity and kindness extending through a long period of years he has won and retained strong personal attachments, and it is doubtful if a more useful or popular individual can be found in the city of his residence, or in any part of the country where he is so well and favorably known. Mr Matthews' first wife, to whom reference is made in a preceding paragraph, bore him five children and departed this life in August, 1894; her body was taken to Gonzales, Tex, where amid quiet scenes and peaceful shades, it will sleep until awakened by the angel of the resurrection. The following are the names of her children James, Thomas, Addie and Ida, twins, and Cora, all deceased except Thomas. His second marriage was solemnized on April 1, 1895, in Deadwood, SD, with Carrie Minegh, a native of Illinois and a daughter of George Minegh, Esq. Mrs Matthews is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church of Spearfish and has a large acquaintance among the best social circles of that city. While not personally identified with any religious organization, Mr Matthews believes in the church as a great moral force and is a liberal contributor to its beneficences. All other enterprises having for their object the improvement of society or the elevation of the standard of citizenship also find in him a zealous friend and liberal patron. Progressive Men of the State of Wyoming, by A W Bowen & Co Published 1901

Rooney, William D Young, energetic, ambitious, straightforward, independent and systematic, with a good store of the self-reliance and resourcefulness born of necessity and cultivated in the face of actual difficulties, William D Rooney. of the Wildcat Creek region of Crook county. Wyoming, is justly entitled to the high place he holds in the regard of his fellows as a progressive ranchman and cattlegrower, an influential citizen and a capable and successful business man. And, whatever he is as a leading man and productive force in the community, he is all the result of his own natural endowments, brought out and trained by circumstances. He was born on October 29, 1871, in Buffalo county, Neb, and when he was three years old his father died, leaving him to the care and nurture of an excellent mother, who had, however, but slender resources for rearing her family. His parents were Dennis and Margaret (O'Connor) Rooney, natives of Ireland, who came to America soon after reaching years of maturity and settled in Wisconsin. In 1865 they removed to Nebraska, and. finding an agreeable location near Fort McPherson, they there "stuck their stake" and engaged in raising cattle. They were among the first settlers in the neighborhood, where they remained until the death of the father, in 1874. Two years later the widow removed her family to Sidney, Neb, and there made her home. What opportunities for attending school her son. William, had were presented to him here and at Crawford, in the same state. At the age of eleven years he began riding the range as a cowboy, and he continued to serve a number of the large outfits in this capacity for years on the Platte River in western Nebraska and Wyoming, mastering the business in every detail, and having in his experience many thrilling adventures, narrow escapes and tests of his courage and endurance. His permanent residence in Wyoming began in 1886. Three years later he began a two years' service of range-riding in Johnson county, and, in 1891, he settled in Crook county, where for ten years he worked for the Western Union Beef Co. In November, 1901, he bought his present ranch on Wildcat Creek, thirty-three miles north of Gillette. He then determined to abandon the life of an old-time cowboy and became, as far as he could, a representative and successful cattleman. In this aspiration he has found a congenial field for his energy and capabilities, has built up a business of magnitude and high character and has enlarged and intensified his hold on the confidence and regard of the people. On February 14. 1901, at Gillette, Wyo, Mr Rooney was united in marriage with Miss Effie Brown, a native of Arkansas and a daughter of Thomas and Felicia (Taylor) Brown, natives of Indiana and Nebraska. Her father was a railroad man until 1876, when he took up a homestead in Sumner county, Kan, and there died in 1880. Mr Rooney is a Republican in politics, and, while firm in his party allegiance, is not either an officeseeker or a partisan of the kind that would forego any general good for his community for the sake of a party advantage. Progressive Men of the State of Wyoming, by A W Bowen & Co Published 1901