Pueblo County, Colorado
James R. Dressor

Contributed by Jean Griesan.

James R. Dressor was born in 1858 at Greenville, Bond County, Ill., a town situated on the St. Louis & Vandalia Railroad. His father, Francis Dressor, was a native of Maine, but at an early age removed to Illinois, where he became an extensive and prosperous farmer. During the Civil war he enlisted with the one-hundred-day men, and would have taken an active part at the front, had it not been that the people in his section of the state insisted that a sufficient number of men be kept there for home protection. For years he has taken a prominent part in local affairs. He is now living retired from farm cares, although he still retains the management of his extensive business interests. By his marriage to Mary Ellen Rankin, a native of Illinois, he had three sons and one daughter. Of these, John C. is a prominent lumber merchant in Illinois; William Francis succeeded his father in the management of the home farm; and Lucy J. is a teacher of elocution at Butler, Mo.

In the public schools of his native state our subject obtained his primary education. He afterward completed the farmers' course in the Illinois State University at Champaign, where he received his diploma in 1882. Later he entered the Bryant & Stratton Business College, from which he graduated in 1884. Soon after he completed his studies in college he purchased a farm at Newton, Kan., and spent five years in the cultivation and improvement of the same. By the expiration of that time he had decided that another occupation would be more congenial, and he entered the employ of the Newton Buggy Company, with whom he remained for three years as bookkeeper. From that place he came to Colorado, settling in Pueblo in March, 1891. He embarked in the carriage business under the firm name of the Pueblo Carriage Company, with K. G. Conkling and H. L. Johnston, who have since retired from the firm. Their trade was small and unimportant at first, but it has gradually grown into a very satisfactory business. The firm was incorporated in 1896 and in 1897 Mr. Dressor became president of the company. At the plant, which is located at No. 313 Court street, quite a number of men are employed, and fine buggies, wagons and vehicles of all kinds are manufactured and sold.

In 1885 Mr. Dressor married Miss Leona Boyd Conkling, of Tecumseh, Mich., and the union was blessed by two daughters, Edith Amie and Margaret. He takes an interest in political affairs and supports Republican principles. Fraternally he is connected with the Woodmen of the World. With his wife he holds membership in the First Presbyterian Church of Pueblo. For several years he officiated as an elder of the church; and served as superintendent of the Sunday-school.

Extracted from "Portrait and Biographical Record of the State of Colorado," published by Chapman Publishing Company in Chicago in 1899.



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