EDITOR’S NOTE: In preparation for the Town of Meeker’s 140th birthday in September, we are publishing the histories of the Town’s founders who’s names are listed at the White River Museum and on the plaque on the boulder in front of the courthouse. If you would like to participate in a Founders’ Day celebration (basically a giant birthday party) in September please contact [email protected] or call 970-878-4017.
Lions and tigers and bears! Oh my! Now that I have your attention, I used the old bait and switch to tell you that Rio Blanco County once had an overabundance of mountain lions and bears, just no tigers, that I am aware of. Early Meeker Herald newspapers often had stories of humorous or disastrous encounters with wildlife. Rio Blanco has had more than its fair share of lion hunters. One of our claims to national fame is John Byron Goff who guided Teddy Roosevelt on two hunts. He was later employed in Yellowstone Park to reduce the numbers of lions there, hired with a personal recommendation by Teddy. In the early 1900’s, the Federal and local governments agreed that uncontrolled lion populations were not a good idea. Local livestock associations paid large bounties on lions and wolves.
Now the switch… This story is not about big game hunter John Goff but about his older, more stable brother, Harry. William Harry Goff, known as Harry or W.H., is one of our Meeker founding fathers. He is listed on our courthouse monument but was apparently not one of the original Meeker Townsite shareholders. Harry came to Meeker in January 1884. According to one biography, Harry had an early contract for carrying the mail between the Grand River (now Colorado) and Meeker. Before coming to the wilds of Colorado, Harry married Mary Rusk Hart in Osage County, Kansas in 1881. Harry was just as effective in civilizing the White River Valley as his brother John, but in a quieter way. E.P. Wilber and Harry started the first Meeker stable. Wilber sold his half in March of 1885. In 1887 Harry was a partner with G.W. Stone and Oscar Collet in a Meeker business: Stone, Goff and Company which was operating both the Gregory and Pioneer Stables. Harry raised cattle on 160 acres southeast of Meeker originally homesteaded by George Zitman. In 1893 he relocated to a ranch west of Rangely almost to the Utah border and accumulated 389 acres. In the six years that he served Rio Blanco County as commissioner from the Rangely district, the county prospered. He had an interest in the Union Oil Company and shares in the Gilsonite mine in Utah. The ranch was close enough to attract trade with the Utes from Utah. In the 1900 Federal Census (Rangely Dist.) W.H. Goff’s stated profession was “Indian Trader.” Harry’s son, Claude, was only 15 at the time and one source claimed Claude could speak the Ute language “like a native son,” which is an odd turn of phrase. Ranching after the end of WWI was precarious. The inflated cattle prices during the war dropped. About 1919, most of Harry’s property was foreclosed on. The Goff family spent some years in Florida. I found Harry in the 1920 Garland County, Arkansas, census living in Hot Springs, Arkansas, with his wife, son Claude, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren. William Harry Goff died in Cedaredge, Delta, Colorado 1933 at the age of 77. His wife, Mary also died in Cedaredge, 1945, and their son, Claude died in Arizona in 1957.
Sources: This Is What I Remember books; Rio Blanco Historical Society; 1870, 1880, 1900; Federal Census; 1869 Wyoming Census; Ancestry.com; BLM-GLO; Ancestry.com; Newspaper archivist in Butte, MT.
