by Charles W. Bowman

Biographies

   To write the entire history of Mr. Sizer would be equivalent to writing a large portion of the history of Bent County. His long residence in the State of Colorado, and the interest he has taken in her welfare from an agricultural point of view, has given his name more than a local prominence among the inhabitants of the southern portion of the State. His early settlement in Bent County and the occupation he has followed has made him perfectly familiar with the possibilities of the State, and he is reasonably enthusiastic over what he sincerely believes can be accomplished with the soil by irrigation, common sense and hard work. He settled on his present farm July 10, 1865, at a time when neighbors were few and Indians were plenty. His ranch is located about six miles south of West Las Animas on the Purgatoire Creek, and is a monument of persistent toil. It is well to give a few facts and statistics at this time, as they speak louder than words. Any one walking over the 320 acres composing his farm, can count 2,500 plum trees, fifteen varieties; 4,000 raspberry plants; 2,000 grape vines; 2,000 currant bushes; 600 gooseberry bushes; 100 cherry trees; and 6,000 shade trees. He has also one-half acre set with strawberry plants, from which he sold, in 1881, $50 worth of berries. Alfalfa is a never failing topic of conversation with Mr. Sizer. He believes in it, and is yearly increasing his acreage, which now numbers forty0five acres. He cuts three crops every season, averaging from six to eight tons to the acre. At present the seed crop which is the first cutting of the year, is the most profitable one. He estimates the yield to be from 800 to 1,000 pounds to the acre, and as there is a great demand for the seed, a ready market is found. Mr. Sizer's place is the only representation on a large scale of the fruit industry in Bent County. Mr. Sizer was born in Western, Oneida County, N.Y., February 26, 1833, where he lived twenty years, working on a farm. He never attended school but four terms, and was never twenty miles away from his native place until he went to Monmouth, Ill., in 1852, where he remained a few months before going to St. Paul, Minn. At the latter place, he worked at masonry, being employed by a Mr. Seaton, who was contracting in various parts of the State. He worked at this trade four years; then he went with Lieut. William T. Sherman and party to establish Fort Abercrombe on the Red River of the North. There he remained a few months and then returned to St. Peters, Minn. In the fall of 1856, he went with Col. Knapp to survey the Transit Railroad from Winona, on the Mississippi River in Minnesota, to the mouth of the Yellow Stone River. Here they encountered a severe snow storm and were obliged to abandon the survey. Mr. Sizer returned to Winterset, Iowa. During the following winter and spring he fitted out an expedition for California, and proceeded as far as Fort Vrain on the Platte River. Here he met Col. St. Vrain and Kit Carson, who persuaded him to remain in Colorado. H went with them to a big Indian camp of Arapahoe Indians at the mouth of Cherry Creek, where they remained a few weeks, trading with the Indians. At this time word came that Gregory and Russell had discovered gold in Russell's Gulch, and he immediately started on a prospecting tour up the Cherry Creek and the Platte River, and the five years following he spent in the mountains, mining when the season would permit. H started out with the party that discovered the rich placer mines in California Gulch, and spent the spring of 1860 in the gulch. In the fall of the same year, he came down to the South Park, hunting deer, antelope and elk, and proceeded as far as where Canon City now stands, and there opened a butcher's shop, remaining during the winter and spring of 1860-61. In 1862, he started with a large party through the San Juan country, down to Arizona, visiting the old mines and many places of interest throughout that section. Dr. Crandall, of Wisconsin, was the instigator of the expedition. Mr. Sizer's experience with the Indians in New Mexico and Colorado would furnish material for a long chapter. During his stay in New Mexico he had seven fights with the Navajoes. At one time while fighting for the Government, having charge of fifteen wagons, he was attacked by the savages who drove away his oxen and burned his wagons. Immediately after this, he came to his present place, July 10, 1865. In 1867, he went with Gens. Wright and Palmer as guide and interpreter, surveying the Kansas Pacific Railroad from Fort Lyon to Las Vegas. In 1868, he had a four days siege with the Indians at his farm. He had built a fort of adobes near his home in which he, his wife and child took refuge, and there they held the attacking party at bay, Mrs. Sizer doing good execution with a gun. The Indians, numbering 165, destroyed seventy-five acres of corn, plundered his house and drove off his stock. Two of his men were killed. Mr. Sizer raised the first grain in Bent County, dug the first ditch, raised and sold the first fruit in the county. He is seeking to raise only the best stock of cattle, and is cultivating the Hereford breed, of which he has a small but promising herd. Mr. Sizer was married to Miss Mary Savage in 1867. Has five children living, and has buried two. While Mr. Sizer kept the mail station where he now resides, he entertained a present member of Parliament, the Duke of Somerset, as well as some of the biggest rascals of the country. In 1861, while with a prospecting party he found a pile of dead bodies, eleven white men and twenty-two Indians. He took from a pocket of one of the whites a Bible, in which is the name of C.S. Benedict, Mokena, Ill. The Indians were the Piutes, and the prospecting party named the place the Dead Man's Gulch. Mention ought to be made of the bravery of Mrs. Sizer during their Indian troubles. One day Mr. S. was in the field at work when the savages appeared on the opposite side of the Purgatoire Creek, near their house. Mrs. Sizer was alone with her little baby, but before Mr. S. could return from the field she had loaded twenty rifles and had them at the well curb, holding the Indians at bay. She took her stand behind a tree, and as opportunity occurred would fire at the enemy. One Indian made himself more conspicuous than the rest, and she insisted upon the privilege of shooting him if possible. At last the opportunity came and by a well directed aim she fatally wounded him.