One of the most progressive and influential capitalists in the state is John R. Painter of Cody in Bighorn County, Wyoming. He is a mine owner a stock grower and a general developer of the natural resources of any region in which he happens to be living. He is the president and principal owner of the Sunlight Copper Mining Co., which has an immense amount of valuable mining property and he also owns other mining properties of high value being one of the largest holders of mining interest in the state. He organized the Sunlight Co. and did the first work in its mines stocking it at his own expense and building roads and other works of construction for the development of its properties. Mr. painter is a native of Maryland where he was born on October 12, 1861 a son of John W. and Elmira (Robinson) Painter the former born and reared in Pennsylvania and the latter in Maryland where both of his parents died. When he was seventeen years old he went to Philadelphia with the object of beginning life for himself. For a while his occupations were obscure and his pay small but he worked hard practiced economy and frugality kept his eyes open and his hand ready for better opportunities. In 1881 he started an enterprise in the importation and sale of Swiss musical instruments and conducted it with success and satisfaction to himself and his trade until 1896. In 1895 he came west on a hunting trip and while seeking sport stumbled upon fortune. He discovered mining outlooks of promise and selling his business in the East came to Wyoming and purchased claims from the original locators and located others. He at once set to work developing them and has given this work his personal supervision from the beginning. The mines have large bodied of copper, silver and gold-bearing ore and the yield is of a high percentage. In addition to his mines Mr. Painter owns a well-improved and highly cultivated ranch on which he raises stock and conducts a progressive farming industry on a liberal scale. He has demonstrated that the cereals can be successfully and profitably grown in this section of the state at an elevation of 7,052 feet and has found the solution of agricultural problems to the advantage of the people and the county. As one of the most progressive men in the Northwest his activity and his example have been potential for good in the advancement and improvement of the country his enterprise has pushed forward works of great utility and value and opened the way to others and his genial disposition and breadth of view has given to social and educational influences a vigor of life and an exaltation of standard. On March 5, 1885, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania he solemnized his marriage with Miss Mary E. Taylor a native of that city. They have three children, Mary E., Marguerite M. and William T. The family residence is on the ranch which has a wide celebrity for being a center of refined and gracious hospitality generous in volume and character.
