Pagosa pioneers: Where were they from?

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Photo courtesy John M. Motter This schoolhouse, known as the Born School, was located along the West Fork of the San Juan River. In the picture are Mabel Born, later after marriage known as Mabel Bennett; Mabel’s brother Donald, some of the Chapson kids, and teacher Mrs. Darling. Photo courtesy John M. Motter
This schoolhouse, known as the Born School, was located along the West Fork of the San Juan River. In the picture are Mabel Born, later after marriage known as Mabel Bennett; Mabel’s brother Donald, some of the Chapson kids, and teacher Mrs. Darling.[/caption]

Ora Sewell was born Dec. 28, 1877, in Gunnison, Colo. She married George Hallett in 1897 in Pagosa Springs. He died in 1923. In 1926, she married John Garvin and, in 1942, she married Ralph Rose. She died in July of 1964 at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Ottaway.

Buryl O. Roush was born March 12, 1900, at Salida, Colo., to Sanford B. and Lillian I. (Arnold) Roush. He spent his early life in Pagosa Springs. He married Jennie M. Kortes March 17, 1925. He passed away Jan. 29, 1972.

One of the last oldtime cowboys, Cecil James Roush, passed away in Fruita, Colo., Dec. 10, 1970. Born in Durango in 1904, he spent his boyhood in Pagosa Springs.

Sanford B. Roush was born in Uniontown, Kans., Dec. 30, 1873, one of the several children of James G. and Carolyn B. Roush. He first came to Colorado in 1891, settling near Platoro in the South San Juan Mountains near his brother, John. On Jan. 10, 1899, he married Lillian Arnold at Pagosa Springs. She died in November of 1938 at Cortez. He passed away April 4, 1941.

Charles F. Rumbaugh was born April 21, 1878, at Mt. Pleasant, Penn. He died Feb. 18, 1967. He was a graduate of Lafayette College in Easton, Penn. After moving to Pagosa Springs in 1920, he was twice elected to the Colorado Legislature. At various times at Pagosa Springs he operated a hotel (known as the Sullenburger Hotel), a motion picture theater, and a telephone company. He died Feb. 23, 1967

Albert N. Salabar was born April 21, 1878, at the Salabar place north of today’s Bayfield. After spending his entire life ranching in the area, he died Nov. 23, 1967. In August of 1913, he married Bessie Springer in Bayfield. He was the father of Genelle Macht, the wife of Ray Macht of Pagosa Springs.

Mrs. Effie Hammond Salabar was born May 11, 1862, in Denver, Colo. She came to what was later to become Bayfield in a covered wagon in 1877. The route was over Cumbres Pass. Her husband, Y.C. Salabar, died in 1918. She died in June of 1938.

Manuel Samora was born in August of 1868 at Abiquiu, N.M. He moved to Pagosa Springs in 1902 where he died in January of 1925.

Roy B. Sanderson was born Sept. 10, 1871, in Kingston, Ariz., moving to Arizona with his parents in 1878. He witnessed the gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone between the Earps and the Clantons. He moved to Pagosa Springs in 1896. Here he met Bessie Chambers and they married. That same year, he was elected Archuleta County Sheriff. Four years later, he returned to Arizona, where he died in 1953.