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Johann Adam Michael Meyer Family
Pioneer Cattle King of Southern Colorado
The Pioneer Cattle King of Southern Colorado, Johann Adam Michael Meyer, John Meyer, was born and raised at 19 Bernhardswinden, Ansbach, Germany: a small picturesque village. According to St. Johannis Church records in Ansbach, Germany, John was born on September 8, 1845 to Georg Michael Meyer and Anna Barbara Burket. He was the oldest of five children:
Margarete Barbara was born January 24, 1848 at 19 Bernhardswinden, Germany. No more information has been located on her.
Johann Friedrich was born December 31, 1848...
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Johann Adam Michael Meyer Family
Pioneer Cattle King of Southern Colorado
The Pioneer Cattle King of Southern Colorado, Johann Adam Michael Meyer, John Meyer, was born and raised at 19 Bernhardswinden, Ansbach, Germany: a small picturesque village. According to St. Johannis Church records in Ansbach, Germany, John was born on September 8, 1845 to Georg Michael Meyer and Anna Barbara Burket. He was the oldest of five children:
Margarete Barbara was born January 24, 1848 at 19 Bernhardswinden, Germany. No more information has been located on her.
Johann Friedrich was born December 31, 1848 at 19 Bernhardswinden, Germany. He married Eva Barbara Zippolt in Eyb, Germany on June 6, 1875
He died January 28, 1937 at 12 Untereichenbach, Germany.
Maria Barbara was born May 29, 1851 at 19 Bernhardswinden, Germany. She married Georg Tobias Kernstock on June 6, 1881 in Debmannsdorf, Germany. She died June 27, 1934 Triesdorfer Str. Ansbach, Germany.
Johann Caspar was born July 24, 1854 at 19 Bernhardswinden, Germany. He married Margareta Barbara Wagner March 21, 1882 in Vestenberg, Germany. He died June 27, 1922 at 44 Eyb, Germany.
From reading history, you can summarize what Johann's youth would have been like in Bernhardswinden, Germany. The barn and living quarter's was under one roof. Hay was often stored above on the upper levels. Houses were located together for protection. The fields were outlying. During planting, growing and harvest season everyone was usually employed, but during winter, not all had work. Because of this, day laborers, or "Tagelöhners" would go the neighboring towns to work - as shoemakers or blacksmiths etc. In winter, houses had heat only in the main living room in the form of the tile Kachelofen. Noodles, kraut, potatoes, and in good times, smoked meats were diet staples. Bread flour was considered a luxury. Bread flour was made from Dinkel - wheat did not appear until about 1850. Dinkel usually did not give a full harvest, so the flour was stretched with barley meal or grated potatoes. If the family was somewhat prosperous, usually the parents had a bedroom with hand carved furniture, a matter of local pride. Young children slept in the parents' room, but older children and servants, if any, usually slept in drafty additions to the farmhouse. All slept on straw pallets for mattresses with quilts on top. If prosperous, a feather bed was put over the straw mattress. Hot bricks were used to warm beds, but in the morning, folks would awake with ice crystals on the quilts. If a farmhouse had a stone floor, sand was used to clean it.
Even though these things may seem basic to us, they were the foundation of their lives. Even with these simple things in their lives, there was a drive to leave the familiar for the unknown, to venture to a possible new world and new life.
Thus, Johann Meyer made the decision to come to America. There were the farewells to be said and the leave-taking of friends, near and dear. The knowledge that they would never see them again must have been an ordeal in itself. In Johann's case, a huge farewell party was held at his brother, Johann Friedrich's restaurant at 12 Untereichenbach, Ansbach, Germany, which is still in the family after 141 years. Johann Schwab, his grandnephew, told us in 2001 about stories of people coming in horse drawn cabs from far and wide to wish Johann Meyer good luck on his adventure. Saying goodbye to relatives and friends, turning, as it were, your back on the old and facing the new and unknown world, not knowing what joys and sorrows are in store--took great courage! Through documents located, we know that John arrived in America in June of 1865. After further research, the likely ship he arrived on was the Bark Argonaut, which departed from Bremen, Germany and arrived in New York on June 24, 1965. Typically, the journey across the Atlantic Ocean took three to four months.
The tendency of German immigrants was to settle in close proximity to each other so as to encourage the continuation of familiar lifestyles. Significant problems of assimilation and adjustment were more easily solved when at least some familiar patterns of everyday life could be retained, such as, shopping at a German baker or butcher, and enjoying a beer in a German tavern or beer garden.
We do not know how long John stayed in New York or where he traveled from June 1865 until 1868. In articles that were written about the early years of Westcliffe and the Wet Mountain Valley area, mention was made that John Meyer was an early settler in this area. These early settlers were called the Independents as these individuals were reported to have arrived in 1868 and 1869 before organized groups such as the German Colony came to the area. We know that John filed his declarations, or first papers, to become citizen while at Central City on April 5, 1869. During their time in Central City and before making the move to the Rosita area, John Meyer, the butcher, worked side by side with his father-in-law Adam Schwab and Henry Gebbart, who owned the market and later was the owner of a Denver packinghouse. He became an American citizen on May 27, 1878 in the town of Rosita, Colorado.
The wedding certificate of John Meyer's documents that on October 2, 1869 he married Anna Maria Katherina Schwab, most often called ‘Maria', in Central City, Colorado. Leonhard Schwab, Maria's brother, witnessed the wedding. Maria was born on February 1, 1850 at 4a Untereichenbach, Germany.
John and Maria left Central City on October 6, 1870 for the Wet Mountain Valley. When this young, newlywed couple arrived just a few days more than a year after they had been married in Central City, they brought with them their two little daughters, Eva Bertha just past three years who had come with her mother to America and Anna Louise who had been born at Central City on May 21, 1870.
This was another move and more changes. Coming into this unsettled land meant starting from scratch again, with land to be cleared and a home to be built. But with their strength and fortitude, it seems, only another day in the lives of this adventurous twosome. Leaving their homeland, family and friends had been their scary past. Now, their future was ahead beckoning them to make the most of their new homeland.
Since John had worked as a butcher in a market at Central City, he soon set up his own meat market-butcher shop on Quartz Street in Rosita, Colorado after arriving in the Rosita area. He later sold the business to Lessing and Company on September 2, 1886.
Agriculture and cattle raising appealed to John and Maria. So before long they located land to homestead where they could raise cattle and their growing family. In the Antelope Creek area, the land with its lush grassland for cattle grazing seemed appropriate for homesteading. They selected land, which was about five miles east of Rosita that backed up against the foothills and forestland. Added incentive to settle there was the fact Maria's brother, John Schwab, had already started the process of claiming his homestead land just below the land they had chosen. No doubt this land reminded them of the homeland they had forever left behind.
At this point, John and Maria never thought about nor realized that they had just laid the foundation for a very large cattle empire that over the succeeding years was to gain in prominence and name recognition. At this time in the early 1870s, their only thought must have been that they had found an ideal place to fulfill their hopes for a happy and permanent home
John Meyer and his brother-in-law, Leonhard Schwab were the first to file homesteads on Antelope Creek in November, 1870. Maria and John lived in their first home: a 2 room, 18' X 26' log house with a door, windows, a roof and floor, that they built early on in their homesteading days on land near Antelope Creek. As their family increased in size, another home, much larger, was built close to their first home to accommodate their growing family. Their first home was later used as the schoolhouse for all of the neighborhood children as well as their own. John and Maria provided room and board for the teacher. The children gained their basic educational needs and also were trained in the Lutheran faith.
Antelope Creek Ranch
L to R: John A., Ella, Henry, Gus (in wagon), Frank, Maria, Albert, Mary, Fritz, Louisa and Charlie 1894
In the subsequently years while living at their Antelope Creek home, ten more children were born to John and Maria from 1872 to 1892. All were baptized in the Hope Lutheran Church of Westcliffe, Colorado.
Hope Lutheran Church Westcliffe, Colorado
John and Maria had twelve (12) children:
Eva Bertha 'Aunt Betty' was born April 1, 1867 in Untereichenbach, Ansbach, Germany. She married Emil Schmidt on April 9, 1887 in Rosita, Colorado. Betty died September 8, 1954 in Pueblo, Colorado.
Anna Louise Alwine was born May 21, 1870 in Center City, Colorado. She married Friedrich Heinrich on November 29, 1894 in the Hope Lutheran Church in Westcliffe, Colorado. She died January 13, 1955 in Oregon.
Johann Adam was born January 10, 1872 on Antelope Creek, Colorado. He married Lida A. Kepley on December 25, 1901. John died on August 19, 1956 in Gardner, Colorado.
Maria Lydia was born August 24, 1873 on Antelope Creek, Colorado. She married Wilhelm Millsap December 25, 1892 in Custer County. Later on, she married Mr. Howard. No additional information has been located. Maria died on July 31, 1950.
Karl (Charley) Ernst was born July 12, 1875 on Antelope Creek, Colorado. He married Nellie Milsap on September 13, 1905 at the Methodist Church in Gardner, Colorado. Charley died on September 19, 1942.
Friedrich ‘Fred or Fritz' Christoph was born February 27, 1877 on Antelope Creek, Colorado. He married Lula Elmo Moss. Fritz died July 12, 1968 in Pueblo, Colorado.
Anna Eleanore ‘Ella' was born September 8, 1879 on Antelope Creek, Colorado. She married Clifton Weaver on June 24, 1901 in Custer County, Colorado. Ella died July 2, 1964 in Oregon.
Heinrich ‘Henry' Thomas was born November 15, 1882 on Antelope Creek, Colorado He married Ethel Thorne on December 12, 1911 in Huerfano County, Colorado. Henry died August 10, 1954 in Walsenburg, Colorado.
Friedrich ‘Frank' Ernst was born August 4, 1885 on Antelope Creek, Colorado. Frank died May 10, 1910.
Earnst Albert was born March 26, 1888 on Antelope Creek, Colorado. He married Tressa Elizabeth Whatley on October 14, 1911 in Larimer County, Colorado. Albert died October 7, 1971 in Denver, Colorado.
Gustavus ‘Gus' Adolphus was born December 25, 1889 on Antelope Creek, Colorado. He married Zula Rebecca Harlan on June 12, 1913. Gus died May 26, 1967 in Walsenburg, Colorado.
Edward M. was born April 26, 1892 on Antelope Creek, Colorado. Edward died August 30, 1892 at Antelope Creek, Colorado.
John was well known as a shrewd trader but as an honest, cattle king and businessman. John raised mules for use in the mines of the area, ran sheep using Mexican herders and he ran large herds of cattle on the open range. He was active in the Custer County Cattle Growers Protective Association. In November of 1890, John Meyer was elected to serve as a Custer County Commissioner. He acted in this capacity for two terms. He was appointed by the Commissioners to represent Custer County at the National Livestock Convention January 27-28, 1899 in Denver.
Early on John bought property from other homesteaders at they prepared to leave the area. So by the time he decided to expand his ranching interests into Huerfano County, he already had a large land holding in Custer County. The start up of the JM Ranching operation was already well in progress before John and his family actually moved to the JM Ranch near Gardner where they built another large family home. John's cattle, wearing his JM brand issued November 9, 1875, grazed and roamed the open range in Custer, Pueblo, Fremont and Huerfano counties. At their peak, the Meyer family owned 5,600 acres of land, leased 8,000 acre of rangeland and ran nearly 5,000 head of cattle. The JM Ranch supplied the beef for the state penitentiary in Canon City during the early days. The Meyer family continued to operate the Antelope Creek land with the help of hired men as well as the land of the JM Ranch for a number of years after the family moved to their JM home. John Meyer sold the Antelope Creek place about 1911 and then the JM Ranch was sold in 1918.
Warren Schmidt, great grandchild of John Meyer, recalls many stories and memories that Charlie Schmidt, his father, told about his time working for John Meyer. One such story is of when John Meyer's son, Gus Meyer and grandson, Charlie Schmidt, were the riders for J.M. Meyer. They rode to check fences that another crew would later fix and to daily check on the cattle scattered throughout the mountain ranges. Crews with horse-drawn wagons loaded with hay, worked to spread the hay for the cattle to eat. Each day before dusk, Charlie and Gus checked on the calves to be sure that they were not left behind, lost or had bedded down on the frozen ground in the feeding areas. If so, they had to roust them up and see that they made it into the stand of pinion trees with the other calves for protection from the cold and storms. Also in the early morning hours, they had to check on them to be sure every calf made it to the feeding area again. Keeping cattle alive and healthy was an around the clock job.
J.M. Meyer used his barometer to determine what the weather conditions would be for the cattle and saddle horses. Around 1910 with a winter storm brewing and wind and snow coming in fast, cattle started drifting east traveling with their backs to the storm. When J.M. noticed this happening, he called Mr. McClain, who had a ranch halfway between Badito and the Huerfano Butte. Working in blizzard conditions, McClain's men were able to stop the cattle from drifting further until all of the J.M. riders arrived and then with the help of McClain's crew were able to get the cattle turned around and headed back home to the JM Ranch. Without friends and neighbors, hard to tell where the cattle would have ended up.
In the spring of each year, JM riders took at least 25 saddle horses to Westcliffe to be shod by the local blacksmith. Then the horses were used all spring, summer and fall on the ranch. After the fall round up each year, the horses were turned loose on the Divide, where they were able to paw through the snow to find grass to eat.
Another story is when Herman Oelrich was sent to check on the Medano ditch as spring water was being brought in. Herman, being a simple, hard working man who had no sense of smell, seeing a pretty animal, a skunk, he killed it, tied it on behind his saddle to bring back to the JM Ranch. Naomi Baker, head cook, met him at the kitchen door with a broom and wouldn't let him in. He had to sleep in the grainery, as the other men wouldn't let him near the bunkhouse either. Since poor old Herman couldn't smell, he only wanted the cooks to see the pretty animal. Other cooks were Martha Piltz and Maggie Vigil.
One morning, J.M. put out extra hay wagon crews to spread hay for the cattle. To break the monotony of the work, they fed in the design of the JM brand and a photographer took a picture from an overlooking knoll, which ended up being published in The Denver Post.
Throughout John's life, he continued to send money back to his sister, Maria and his brothers, Caspar and Friedrich, in the Ansbach area of Germany. Receipts show he was still sending money in 1919. The stories of John's generosity and love for his family continued and in 2001 in Germany, the descendants of John Meyer's sister and brothers, his grandnephews and grandniece, told of remembering their families talking about the money and letters they received from him. Times were very difficult in Germany and the money was greatly appreciated. When the German relatives were asked if John Meyer ever returned to Germany, they said he never did return to Germany, but his homeland of Germany was always in his thoughts. The grandnephews, Georg Kernstock and Johann Georg Schwab, and his grandniece, Gertraud Stumpf Haspel, said they know it would have been a big event and celebration if he had returned.
In February 1927 at the age of 82, John Meyer sponsored his niece, Maria Barbara Meyer Hambrecht, Caspar Meyer's daughter, and her husband, William Oscar Hambrecht, who were residing in Duren, Rhineland, Germany to come to the United State. Again, another testament to his care and concern for the family he left. They settled in California to live.
After 1918 due to failing health, John moved to Westcliffe to live at the Scheible Hotel and died in his hotel room on Thursday morning, January 16, 1930. The funeral service was held in the parlor of the hotel on that Saturday. Sunday, January 19th, there was a simple service at which six former Gardner neighbors acted as pallbearers marking his burial in the Gardner Cemetery. His wife, Maria, and two sons, Frank and Edward Meyer, preceded John Meyer in death.
John Meyer was a pioneer, an adventurer, an entrepreneur, a risk taker, but above all, he was a man with a huge heart, embracing the great rewards that the new county had offered him, while still in his heart, never leaving Germany and his family.
Through the research on Meyer family, we have developed a strong sense of heritage, pride and a renewed appreciation of who we are and from where we have come. Through our efforts, the Meyer family is honored and has established their place in Colorado's history as designated as a Territory Family though the Colorado State Genealogical Society.
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