Newton Major or “ole Maj” to his friends in Meeker was a very early resident of southwest Wyoming and Northwest Colorado. The first record of him in the West was his marriage to Nellie Reed in December of 1877. In the 1880 Carbon County Wyoming census near the Snake River, he was listed as general merchant, married. I could not locate his wife on the census. Everyone else on the page was an army officer or soldier of 9th Infantry company K or F , so he may have been the post trader at Camp on the Snake River at the time.
There were about 85 enlisted men and three officers encamped in June 1880. They were tasked with bridge building over the Snake River, preparing logs for the Bear River (Yampa River) bridge, and repairing other bridges along the wagon road to White River It was not a vacation spot. The commanding officer recorded three days of below 26 degrees and heavy snows in January of 1880.
By December, Newton Major was in Baggs, Wyoming. He was appointed postmaster Dec. 14, 1880 to May 11, 1882. Ed Wilbur is quoted as moving Newton Major, his wife and two children from Saratoga, Wyoming to Meeker, arriving on Christmas Day 1882. From my research, I believe that Newton and Nellie had no children of their own. They did raise two children as their own: Maud and George Williams, who used the last name Major while they lived here in Meeker. They were the first two children baptized in the St. James Church in Meeker 1889. They were also among the first students taught in the school held in the 1883 military hospital building.
Major took over management of the Adams and Hugus trading post in Powell Park. It became Hugus & Major and soon moved back to Meeker. On Aug. 13, 1883, the Army auctioned off the buildings at the Camp on The White River. Major bought the long adobe barrack at Sixth and Main for $50. Major moved all the goods from Powell Park to Meeker. Both Major was a shareholder in the 1883 Meeker Townsite Company, and was influential in incorporating Meeker in 1885 and “proving up” titles in 1887.
There is a story in which a manager of Hugus & Co. had an overstock of straw hats. The enterprising manager gave one hat to a Ute Indian who frequented his shop. The Ute proudly donned his chapeau and sparked a run on the store to buy the rest of his straw hat stock.
Newton Major remained the manager of Hugus & Major until his retirement in Fall of 1889. A. C. Moulton replaced him as manager and the store became Hugus and Company, Meeker branch.
Newton and Nellie moved their family to Winters, Yolo, California and bought a fruit farm. Nellie died in 1895. Newton Major, born Dec. 24, 1839 Florence township, Michigan, died Oct. 26, 1915, in California. He was reported to be a Union Civil War veteran. His estate was left to his surviving sisters Mary Jane Major and Caroline Van Buren back in Michigan.
Sources: Rio Blanco Historical Society; This Is What I Remember books; Coloradohistoricalnewpapers.org; Ellen Reichert; Ancestry.com; U.S. Military Post Returns for the Camp on the Snake River; St. James Episcopal Church, Meeker.