The representative citizen, of whom we now write occupies a position in the front rank of Wyoming’s successful stockmen, and as a citizen, he has long enjoyed distinctive precedence in the various localities where his lot has been cast. His business qualifications, of a high order, have won him recognition among his fellow men and all with whom he has had relations, business, fraternal or otherwise, have been quick to recognize his merit and to appreciate his true worth as an enterprising, energetic man of affairs. D. Elmer Ankeny is a native of Ohio, the son of Alexander and Nancy Ankeny, the father born in Pennsylvania and the mother in the Buckeye State. By occupation Alexander Ankeny was a blacksmith. He was married in Randolph County, Ohio and lived there until 1856, when he migrated to Iowa, locating at the town of Marietta, where he worked at his trade until his death in 1861. His son D. Elmer, was born in the county of Randolph on July 20, 1855, but spent his childhood and youth in Iowa, whither he was taken when about one year old. He was a lad of only about eleven years when his father died, and being the eldest of the children, was early obliged to contribute to the support of the family. He worked at any kind of honorable employment that his hands found to do and turned over his earnings to his mother, thus proving a valuable help to her while she was rearing her younger children. Meanwhile and later pursued his studies as opportunities afforded at Marshalltown, devoting the spring and summer seasons to farm labor until his nineteenth year, when in the spring of 1873, he went to Colorado and for some months thereafter worked on a ranch near Fort Collins. Believing that money could be made in the stock business and not caring longer to remain an employee, he purchased a few cattle and branched out as a stockman upon his own responsibility. Beginning in a modest way he soon succeeded in greatly increasing his business and in due time found himself on the high road to success. He located a ranch in Laramie County, about forty miles west of fort Collins, and remained there until 1895, when he sold and came to Wyoming, purchasing his present ranch on Sybylle Creek, eighteen miles southwest of Wheatland, in the county of Laramie. Since the latter year Mr. Ankeny has been busily engaged in raising cattle and horses, building up a large and lucrative business and as already states, he has won a conspicuous place among the leading ranchmen of this section of the state. He owns a valuable tract of grazing land, embracing several hundred acres, which is well watered and covered with a dense growth of the nutritious grasses for which the rich valleys of Laramie County are especially noted. On this range he keeps large herds of cattle which like the fine horses in his possession are in prime condition, his live stock representing a fortune of no small magnitude. He is widely known among the enterprising catteraisers of Laramie County, and is one of the leaders of the rich industry in his section of the country. Mr. Ankeny was married at Fort Collins, Colorado on March 11, 1877, to Myra Harris, a daughter of Joseph and Sarah (Adams) Harris, the parents moving to Colorado from Iowa about 1871. Mr. Harris farmed near Greeley for a number of years, subsequently moving to Wyoming, where he did not long remain returning to Colorado where his death occurred in 1893. Mrs. Harris preceded her husband to the “Silent Land,’ departing this life on March 19, 1892. Mr. and Mrs. Ankeny have five children, Carroll, John, Aubrey, Iva and Floyd. Mr. Ankeny takes a deep interest in everything pertaining to the industrial development and general welfare of the county and state of his adoption, and is deservedly classed with its most progressive men. Practical industry, wisely and vigorously pursued and sound judgement in matters of business, have brought their reward in the liberal amount of this world’s goods which he now possesses. He is a creditable representative of a class of men to whom, more than to any other, is due the continued growth and prosperity of the West. In every relation of life he has lived up to his conception of right proving himself an honorable, upright and progressive member of the commonwealth in which he exercises citizenship.
