Born in the busy and progressive province of Nova Scotia, Canada, there reared to the age of seventeen, then left an orphan and thrown on his own resources by the death of his father, well has Albert O. Banks, of Crook County, Wyoming, one of the prominent and enterprising ranchmen of his section, justified the hopes of his friends in his childhood by carving out of hard conditions a fortune of comeliness and graceful proportions. His life began on February 14, 1858, in the rural home of his parents, Joseph and Dorothy (Payson) Banks, residents of Nova Scotia and highly esteemed farmers. In 1875 his father died and was buried in his native soil, while his mother, a native of St. Johns, still resides in Nova Scotia. Albert O. Banks was educated in his native land and remained at home for a few years after the death of his father, working on farms in the neighborhood, when not engaged on that of his mother. In 1879 he left home and coming to Massachusetts worked on farms in that state for a period of five years. In 1884 he turned his face to the great and growing West, and made his way to Fort Collins, Colorado, where he remained a few months at the end of which he came to Wyoming and took up the ranch he now occupies, located about ten miles southeast of Sundance. For a few years after his settling here he worked at times in the timber at lumbering, but since getting his ranch industry well started, he has sedulously devoted his time and energies to that and has won by diligence and close attention to business, a gratifying success and he has risen to a desirable place in the regard and esteem of his fellow men. He owns 560 acres of land, has a large leased tract, and has improved his possessions with good buildings, fences, etc and brought them to a high state of cultivation by skillful farming. His principal industry is raising cattle, but he also does farming on a scale of some magnitude and by methods that embrace all that is known to the intelligent and progressive tiller of the soil. On November 15, 1894, Mr. Banks was married to Miss Jennie Hawkins at Sundance. Mrs. Banks is a native of England, but for years she has been a resident of Wyoming. They have two children, Claud R. and Earl. Mr. Banks is an active and zealous Republican, seeking always the welfare of his party and its proper guidance along the lines of safe and healthful progress, but not desiring for himself any of its honors.
