The Lock Family

Matthias Lock, originally from the Rhine Valley, left the environs of Quincy, Illinois in 1859 with a wagon train bound for Denver.  He brought his young family to Fountain in 1860.  As this Gazette Telegraph (May 1, 1938) article relates, one building on the Lock homestead still stands. It was built in 1876 of thickly sawn boards, produced at the Fountain Valley’s first saw mill, and was being used as a garage.  Lock’s 880 acre estate included the 160-acre parcel on Fountain Creek, which was preempted, another 160-acre parcel four miles east that was homesteaded, and lands purchased from other homesteaders.  Lock had brought two black lava millstones with him from Illinois, and in 1864 set up a mill about ½ mile south of the Lock ranch headquarters, on the east bank of the creek near the head of Ditch 14.  The mill was destroyed by the Memorial Day flood of 1885, but the millstones were said to be prized relics at the ranch.  Lock was the sole owner of Ditch 15. [Lava from Illinois?]