People

: Elam Underhill; U.S. Fish and game board representative in Colorado. He was born in Canon City to William Underhill and Nannie (Blaine) Underhill (Grand Junction's first teacher). The 1900 US Census record shows him living with his family in Fremont, Colorado at the age of twelve. The 1909 Grand Junction High School yearbook shows that he was a sophomore at that school, which would indicate that he was about fifteen or sixteen years of age at that time and living in Grand Junction (or, if the 1900 Census is correct, he was about 22 years old as a sophomore). He graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder and became a lawyer. He married Gladys (Gimple) Underhill. *Photograph from the University of Colorado annual.

: Elbert Brown Rood; He was born in Rockford, Illinois. He married Edith Florine Turner in 1913, in Monterey, California. He earned his dental degree at Northwestern University and practiced as a dentist in Hayden, Arizona and Bisbee, Arizona before coming to Grand Junction, Colorado. He was an alcoholic. His wife divorced him in 1917 or ‘18. He drifted, did not continue to practice dentistry, and died in El Paso, Texas.

: Elbert L. Bacon; He was born in Crawford County, Missouri to farmers James and Hulda Bacon. He had a twin sister named Edith. The 1910 US Census record shows the family having moved to Rock, Oklahoma, where Elbert was a teacher in a public school at the age of 17. In 1912 he married Ruby J. Mccubbin. By 1920, they were living in Benton, Oklahoma, where the Census lists Bacon as an Ellis County treasurer. He later became a bank cashier and then bank president in Benton. After moving to Grand Junction, Colorado, he was the President and Chairman of the United States Bank of Grand Junction for many years. He and Ruby had one child, Herbert Bacon.

: Elbert Odell "Digger" Miracle; He was born on a farm in Cubage, Kentucky to David and Rachel China Miracle. The family moved to a homestead on Glade Park in 1921, when David was about 11 years old. During the early 1930’s, he worked with Civilian Conservation Corps crews in building Rim Rock Drive over the Colorado National Monument. While working on an “open-faced tunnel,” he witnessed a blasting accident that killed nine men, including his brother-in-law. He also helped with the construction of the Land’s End Observatory on the Grand Mesa. He later worked for the C.D. Smith Company, a drugstore, for 33 years. He married Rosie M. Boatright of Clifton in 1934. They had two daughters and two sons. He belonged to the Bible Missionary Church of Grand Junction. His hobbies included hunting, raising horses, and horseshoe pitching.

: Elberta J. (Soule) Francis; She was born in Grand Junction, Colorado to Hugh E. Soule and Anna (Olston) Soule. Her father was a salesman in a general store. Her mother was a homemaker. Elberta was a distant relation of Silas Stillman Soule, an abolitionist on the underground railroad and the commander of Company D in the 1st Colorado Cavalry (in this capacity, he refused to allow his troops to fire on defenseless Cheyenne people during the Sand Creek Massacre, and later testified against Colonel John Chivington for leading the massacre). She attended local schools and graduated from Grand Junction High School, where she was an acquaintance of fellow student Dalton Trumbo (who went on to win Academy Awards as a screenwriter). She married Murl Francis on August 17, 1931. She worked as a library assistant at Mesa College (now Colorado Mesa University). She was a long-time volunteer for the Mesa County Oral History Project. *Photograph from 1928 Grand Junction High School yearbook.

: Elda (Feighner) Craig; She was born in Kansas. She married Paul Craig in Salt Lake City in 1919, and they settled on a ranch in the Mesa Creek area, near Uravan, Colorado.

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