Anne Ellis (1) (1875–1938)

Anne Ellis was born in Missouri in 1875. Her family traveled by oxcart over the Great Plains to settle in Bonanza, Colorado. Life on the frontier was hard and became even harder after Anne's father deserted the family, leaving her mother to raise 7 children. Before Anne was 18 years old, her mother had died and left Anne to care for and support herself and her six siblings. Anne decided to marry George Fleming, a miner, to gain some financial stability. They moved to Chance in the Colorado Rockies, but their mining claim came to nothing. They went with their two small children to Denver, hoping to gain a grubstake for Alaska. After Fleming was killed in a mining explosion, Anne was once again penniless. To support herself and her family, she opened a bakery and then ran a boardinghouse for miners. She married as her second husband Herbert Ellis, who later died following surgery.

Anne worked as a cook in mining camps, for sheep shearers, and for telephone crews, and took in sewing and laundry. She ran for Treasurer of Saguache County in Colorado and won that election and three more terms.

Her health was chronically poor, and she was in and out of sanitariums, trying numerous remedies in New Mexico, Arizona and California. She was able to fulfil her dream of sending her children to college, but once again in need of funds, Anne wrote her memoirs in three books, The Life of an Ordinary Woman, Plain Anne Ellis, and Sunshine Preferred. She died at age 63.