One of the wide-awake and progressive business men of Laramie is E. J. Travis, who is engaged in dealing in lumber and building materials and in general contracting. He is a native son of New England, his birth having occurred in Boston, Massachusetts, July 8, 1878. His father, the late Lewis Travis, was a native of the Old Bay state and a representative of one of the prominent colonial families of English descent founded in America during the early part of the seventeenth century. Representatives of the name fought for independence in the Revolutionary war and again defended American interests in the War of 1812. Representatives of the family in the present generation hold membership with the Colonial Dames and with the Sons of the American Revolution. Lewis Travis, the father, became a prominent lawyer of Boston and continued to make his home in that city until called to his final rest in 1886, when but thirty-eight years of age. His wife bore the maiden name of Florence Vose Kennedy and was born in Waldoboro, Maine, being a descendant of an old Maine family, tracing her ancestry back in direct line to the Winslow family of Connecticut, who were of Mayflower descent. She died in the year 1914, at the age of fifty-nine years.
    E. J. Travis, their only son, was educated in the public schools of Boston until about ten years old. In 1888, in company with his maternal grandmother, he came to Wyoming, where his grandfather, Justus R. Kennedy, was then residing on a ranch in Albany county. Here E. J. Travis made his home and acquired a practical knowledge of ranching, until about 1903. In the meantime, or about 1898, he purchased the ranch and conducted it successfully during the remainder of his residence thereon, while yet living on the ranch he also engaged in carpentering and contracting work, to which he gave his entire attention after 1903. In 1910 Mr. Travis established his home in Laramie and entered into his present line of business, in which he has since been actively and successfully engaged. He handles lumber and building materials and also conducts a general contracting business, and at the same time he still manages his ranch. His is a busy and useful life in which activity, intelligently directed, is being crowned with substantial and well merited success.
    Mr. Travis was married in Laramie on the 18^th of October, 1899, to Miss Vesta I. Mansfield, a native of Ohio and a daughter of Oliver and Sarah J. (Gamble) Mansfield, representatives of one of the old families of that state. Mr. and Mrs. Travis have become the parents of four children: Florence M., who was born in Laramie, July 23, 1900; Ethel A., born March 16, 1902; Ruth, born May 18, 1904; and Ernest M., December 7, 1907.
    Mr. Travis votes with the republican party and is active in politics and civic affairs, standing at all times for those interests and measures which he believes will be of greatest benefit to his community and will most rapidly advance its civic standards. He holds membership with the Loyal Order of Moose and has been one of its vice dictators. His religious faith is evidenced in his membership in the First Methodist church. His life has ever been guided by high and manly principles and the wise direction of his interests and activities has brought him to a prominent position as a business man and as a citizen. He started out in life anxious to improve his condition, and the success which he has achieved is attributable to his persistency of purpose and his individual worth. His record is proof of the fact that opportunities slip away from the sluggard, tauntingly play before the dreamer but yield their prizes to the man of resolute and determined spirit.