People

: James Baggs Davis; According to oral history interviewee Gertrude Rader, Davis was a minister affiliated with the YMCA in Grand Junction. He often substituted for the minister at the Methodist Church in Loma. He was popular in that community because he focused more on music and singing than on his sermon. Services were apparently held in someone’s home at that time, and according to Rader, the house would be full of people. Young people especially looked forward to his visits.

: James Beltz; Contributor to "Out of the Blue and Into the Sun," (source: Out of the Blue and Into the Sun: A Gunnison Valley Journal)

: James Bennett "Shorty" Johnson; According to his ex-wife and oral history interviewee Helen Lucile Johnson, the date of his birth is in question as he had a suspect birth certificate and was known to adjust his age downwards when filling out insurance forms. He worked as a skilled mechanic in several places: Waunita Hot Springs, Austin Laycock Garage, Central Chevrolet, and a garage run by Clarence Nelson in Grand Junction, Colorado. He married Helen Lucile Young in 1923 in Delta, Colorado. After their honeymoon, they moved to Grand Junction, where he could find employment as a mechanic. He worked in a garage run by Clarence Nelson. They lived first on First Street, and then at 120 Hill Avenue, where they raised their children, twp sons and a daughter. He and his wife divorced and he moved to Rifle, where he remarried and fathered two daughters with his second wife. He belonged to the Odd Fellows and was active in community charity through them. He and his wife, who was a Rebekah, also attended many dances and other social events at the Odd Fellows Lodge.

: James Bradford "Jim" Franklin; A cowboy who worked near Roan Creek, Colorado and elsewhere on the Western Slope, breaking and riding wild horses. His parents, Jim and Sarah Franklin, came from Belfount, Arkansas in 1887 in a covered wagon and traveled through Gunnison. They were early settlers and farmers of Roan Creek in Garfield County. Jim grew up in a log cabin and slept in one of the outbuildings with his brothers. They also spent time living on a cattle ranch, where their farm and livestock were destroyed by the flood from a broken dam. He began working with his first ranching outfit when he was seventeen, riding behind the round-up cook wagon. In subsequent jobs, he was recognized for his horse breaking abilities, and was hired to break and transport wild horses. He often dealt with inclement weather on the range, and developed blood clots that he believed may have been related to exposure. He worked as a cowpuncher until he was 87 years old. U.S. Census documents from 1910-1940 list Franklin as a farmer living in Garfield County. On August 23, 1911, he married Emma M. Longseth in Mesa County. She died of pneumonia in 1926. The 1930 U.S. Census shows Jim Franklin as widowed and living with his two children, Beulah and Curtis Franklin. On July 28, 1930, Jim Franklin married Helen Fay Reeve in Glenwood Springs. With Helen, he had another son, named James. She passed away in 1962.

: James Bristol; He was born in Pennsylvania, and, according to his daughter Laura (Bristol) Foster, moved with his wife and children from Pennsylvania to Telluride, Colorado around 1890. There, she says, he was a miner who worked the night shift. However, U.S. Census records for 1900 show him still living with his wife and children in Pennsylvania, where he worked as an auto mechanic. He later lived in Paradox Valley, Colorado, where he was a farmer and early homesteader. When his daughter's second husband, John Keski, was taken into custody for murder, Bristol went to Bull Canyon and filled in on the job where Keski had been working.