People

: Benedict Franklin "Ben" Kiefer; He was born in Brookville, Indiana to Caroline Kiefer and Dominick Kiefer, German Catholic immigrants. The 1870 US Census shows him living on a farm in Brookville with his eight siblings at the age of twelve. He moved to Fruita, Colorado with his mother in 1883, following his brothers Frank and Joseph. He assisted the brothers in their land speculation in 1889, and helped to plat and sell the lots on 160 acres that become the town of Cleveland (now absorbed into the town of Fruita). With his brothers, he also started the Fruita Canal and Land Company, which constructed the Kiefer Extension Ditch of the Grand Valley Canal between 1894 and 1898, bringing land between Mack and Fruita under irrigation and cultivation. He served as the secretary and treasurer of the company. With his brother Frank, he bought a printing press from Denver and started the Mesa County Mail, a weekly newspaper, in 1892 (it later became the Fruita Times). With Frank, he started the Redlands Water and Power Company in 1905, responsible for the development of a power plant and irrigation for the Redlands area. He was a founder of the Mesa Federal Savings bank in Fruita. He owned a jewelry store in Fruita for a time. He died at the age of sixty-five and is buried in Fruita’s Sacred Heart Cemetery.

: Benerita Dolores (Velazquez) Urruty; Twentieth century resident of Mesa County. Wife of Jean Urruty.

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