This successful ranchman of Uinta County and the present public spirited postmaster of LaBarge dates his arrival in Wyoming in 1886 when he took up 160 acres in Uinta County and later added to it until he has now 440 acres of deeded land on which he raises horses and cattle. He is a descendant of old colonial stock in New York state through his father, who was James L. Bess, a son of Alfred and Laura (Richardson) Bess who immigrated to Utah in 1850. On his mother’s side he claims the distinction of relationship with Gen. Sterling Price of the Confederate army who was an uncle of his mother Joana P. Fulmer the daughter of John S. and Mary (Price) Fulmer of Tennessee who also migrated to Utah in 1850. In the family of James L. Bess there were six children but he was the only son of his parents and came to them in Salt Lake City on June 16, 1856 remaining there until his school days were over and he had later passed some time in mining and ranching. In 1882 he married with Miss Martha E. Zyderland, a daughter of Martin and Cornelia (Ages) Zyderland, native Hollanders and they also have seven children, Josie May, Laurence Z., Murel A., Coranelia, Delbert, James V., Lula I., Notwithstanding there numerous cares devolving upon him for the support and training of so large a family. Mr. Bess has been a popular postmaster for several years and also an active and intelligent worker on the school board and in every public cause, which tended to the true growth of his section of Wyoming, he has been a vigilant but wisely conservative factor. Fraternally he associates with the Maccabees and socially he and his good wife are respected and loved for the virtues and open-hearted hospitality that are their natural heritage from their ancestors, the food old Dutch families of New York and Holland and from the unfailing and far-famed courtesy of the Southern planter. They are justly ranked among the prominent pioneers of a state noted for its rapid increase in growth and importance and in the sturdy and intelligent character of its diversified population among whom this family stands in a high position and also for having some of the wildest grandest scenery on the American continent.
